Food is Cheap

101 Things Every Cook Should Cook posted a great Ham Hock and Stock recipe a couple of weeks ago.

What the heck do you do with all of that Halloween candy? Well, there’s snickers pie. There’s also goblin bars, which are brownies with all kinds of goodies baked inside. And here’s more ideas from a news article.

Yum: Tangerine Beef Stir Fry from A La Carte.

Confections of a Foodie Bride made these Halloween cupcakes that look so good, I’d bring them to Thanksgiving and Christmas potlucks, despite what other people say!

Sweet potatoes. Sausage. Both of these things separately are gifts from heaven. Put ‘em together like the Smitten Kitchen has done for Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup? Now we’re talkin’.

What’s not to love about pot roast? It’s cheap, easy, and delicious!

This is my version of the family favorite.

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A seeded tomato is necessary for a proper salsa, among other things. The common method of removing seeds from a tomato is by slicing it into “petals” — curved cuts from the sides that facilitate the easy scooping of seeds and liquids.

This video from YouTube shows the process:

What’s not to love about muffins? They can be sweet or savory, they’re wonderful on-the-way-to-work breakfast foods, kids love ‘em, they’re great with a cup of coffee or milk, they can be healthy or heart-clogging — there’s too much to muffins to say.

This is an easy recipe for peanut butter muffins. It’s so simple, small children can do it! In fact, I recommend you teach your small children how to bake these morsels, then force them to bake muffins all day, raking in the profits as you sell delicious peanut butter muffins to your co-workers and neighbors. Would that be so wrong?

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Who woulda known that the best pan you’d ever own would cost less than twenty bucks? Cast iron skillets do it all — their heat retention and weight make them ideal surfaces for searing chicken or beef, they’re safe on a fiery hot range or in the depths of your trusty oven, they’re great for frying/baking/broiling eggs and braising pork, in a pinch they’ll do for saucing, they work great at camp-outs, and they last a pretty darned long time if cared for correctly!

FrugalFun has a good guide on caring for your cast iron skillet.

I use Lodge Logic’s Pre-Seasoned 12-Inch Skillet, because Lodge Logic has taken care of the biggest hurdle facing any would-be (cast) iron chef — the seasoning. Out the box, it has a slick sheen that other cast iron skillets would require a long seasoning process to obtain, saving time and effort. They also make wonderful Dutch ovens, but that’s for another post and another day!

Buy Lodge Logic’s Pre-Seasoned 12-Inch Skillet at Amazon.com.

CityMama of FamilyFood recently wrote a great post on Jessica Seinfeld’s book, a book titled Deceptively Delicious, that teaches parents how to trick their children into eating vegetables and other healthy staples — and now, there is even a “Hide-the-Vegetables” Kit, which reeks of silliness.

FamilyFood has always been one of my favorite foodie blogs to read. The wonderful food posts combined with endearing insights into the author’s family life is very fun to read.

CityMama excels in making kid-friendly dishes, such as a simple Yogurt Parfait or Cheesy Tortilla Roll-Ups – however, there are many recipes that are more themed to adults, like her Boeuf Bourguignon, Korean Beef Stew, or her Cox “Faux” Vin.

All in all, FamilyFood is an excellent blog that everyone should read.

Cook’s Illustrated has been an invaluable resource for me — not for it’s excellent recipes and guides, but for the equipment reviews that are posted in every issue. It’s a bi-monthly magazine, but there are more than enough recipes in every issue to last for the two months you’ll wait for the next issue.

Cook’s Illustrated is by the same people who do the excellent America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and its corresponding PBS television series. Each issue is a wonderful addendum to the cookbook’s recipes and kitchenware guides. There is also an exhaustive website that posts charts and equipment reviews in an archive.

A subscription to Cook’s Illustrated is not cheap by any magazine standards, but this is a resource that I really can’t live without.

Buy a Cook’s Illustrated subscription from Amazon.com.