While it’s more of a guide than a recipe I’ve written up my garden bouillon process below. I highly recommend experimenting with the meats and veggies you add to the stock pot for an interesting flavor combination! Continue reading The Best Homemade Bouillon – Recipe
Making your own chicken stock (or any kind of broth, really) is amazingly effortless, especially if you own a pressure cooker! I threw this recipe together after butchering a naughty hen from our egg layers – you can see more about that experience in my Homestead Kitchen Diary – but you can use any whole, raw chicken you pick up locally or from the supermarket. Continue reading Whole Chicken Soup Stock – Recipe
The beauty of this method is that you only need a small amount of the starter to reactivate for each round of baking you do while it’s in the fridge. As long as it’s not moldy it will be safe and ready to use until you only have a small amount left; this remaining starter is used to mix another batch of dry starter to refill your container. Continue reading How to Turn Your Wet Sourdough Starter into a Dry Starter
If you’ve never made scones consider this a sign! They’re amazingly delicious and so simple to make. Every time I make scones I think of Mrs. McCarthy of the TV series Father Brown, who for much of the show’s duration offers her famous “award-winning scones” to passerby at every opportunity. These aren’t quite as fancy but they’re remarkable nonetheless! Any berry can be substituted for the huckleberries; but if you live in the Pacific Northwest I highly encourage you to go on a huckleberrying lark! Continue reading Huckleberry Buttermilk Scones – Recipe
It’s been a tradition of ours even before we moved to Idaho to make regular outings to the regal stands of cedar in the mountains snaking across the Panhandle region; we spend countless hours working tirelessly throughout the season to pick huckleberries by the quart until we have a few gallons put up for later use. While they improve anything they’re added to, huck-shakes are a treat on the unforgettable level, and they’re surprisingly easy to make. Continue reading Huckleberry Milkshakes – Recipe
it or leaving it in the fridge over vacation until a thick layer of blackish alcohol forms on the top. With the assistance of a calendar reminder I’ve got a jar of levain just waiting for the weekend baking rush. Continue reading How to Make and Maintain a Sourdough Starter
Since our very first trip to Idaho back in 2017 I have been absolutely hooked on hucks. I’m convinced there’s nothing that can’t be made better with huckleberries! Ice cream, milk shakes, turnovers, scones, pancakes, jams and jellies, you name it! My husband even had chicken and waffles with huckleberry syrup at a restaurant downtown. Continue reading Huckleberries: Purple Gold of the Northwest
I love a good piece of artisan harvest grains bread. A dear friend of mine, my fiddle instructor and my knitting buddy for many years, showed me her favorite snack when I was a teenager spending my summers weekending at her tiny cabin: a thick-sliced piece of whole grain bread, crusty and hearty, with a piece of cheese melted over the top. I look forward to that gooey snack every time I buy a bakery loaf like this, which is not very often. In an effort to make and eat more whole foods I’ve added bread to my weekly baking … Continue reading Harvest Grains Artisan Bread – Recipes
One of my favorite winter cookies, these will dazzle friends and family! They make a great addition to a gift basket or potluck. Feel free to substitute other types of dried fruit or even add chopped nuts. Continue reading Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies – Recipe
I was inspired a few years ago by a gift from my mother-in-law to put together a recipe scrapbook with my most-used and precious family recipes. She is an avid scrapbooker, and while my version is much simpler in design it brings me no less joy to use it! Many of my fondest memories can be traced back to making or sharing great food with friends and family, so this project is very special to me. It contains numerous dishes that my parents and grandparents made for me growing up and they hold countless stories in their many flavors. I … Continue reading Create an Heirloom Recipe Scrapbook
This a very basic pancake recipe that has the special addition of some heart-healthy whole grains, namely oat bran, which makes for a rib-sticking hot breakfast. The oats magically disappear in the voluminous batter and give a delightfully complex flavor and texture. This is my new favorite breakfast recipe and I hope it’ll be yours too! Continue reading Hearty Whole-Grain Pancakes – Recipe
Looking for a quick and easy comfort meal? This hearty, soul-warming soup takes less than 30 minutes to throw together and tastes like it’s made from scratch. It was a lifesaver for me on a day when our whole family was sick and I needed a quick meal to soothe our sniffles! If you don’t have (or don’t like to use) cheesecloth, I encourage you to check out the GIANT tea ball I ordered and CAN’T get enough of! I have two, one I use for diffusing bath tea (score!) and one in my kitchen for applications such as this. Continue reading Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup – Recipe
After much trial and error I have finally recreated the best cake I’ve ever had – inspired by my sister’s wedding cake (the recipe for which is closely guarded and wasn’t available to a lowly home baker such as myself), a luxurious huckleberry-infused white cake that tastes like it’s straight from heaven. Moist and fluffy, decadent and refreshing, this has quickly become a family favorite and has converted even a self-proclaimed cake-hater. The secret ingredient that elevated this cake from its plain, dry predecessor is sour cream, one of my favorite secret weapons in baking. I use it in biscuits, … Continue reading Mixed Berry Cupcakes – Recipe
Cream cheese frosting is my favorite for any occasion! I don’t do a lot of fancy piping on my cakes and cupcakes so it holds up just fine for birthdays and family parties. This is a quick and easy recipe that takes a classic flavor to the next level with creamy melted white chocolate. Continue reading White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting – Recipe
Our family is a dessert family. That’s why when I say these turned out amazing, I am not afraid to toot my own horn! Pastry dough has always intimidated me because in order to get that perfect, flaky golden crust, the directions must be followed exactly: knead this many times, roll that many times, fold just so… And I’m just not that precise of a cook. But after a hankering for a fresh turnover and nowhere to get one during this pandemic nonsense I busted out the beloved Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and gave it a try. My husband … Continue reading Huckleberry Cream Cheese Turnovers – Recipe