Usually, for breakfast and for BLTs we just make it in the oven, the long way. It always turns out crispy, flat and delicious....but it takes forever.

My four year old doesn't have the patience to wait 45 minutes for perfect bacon, and frankly, he doesn't care if it's gloriously flat.... So we usually make it for him in the air fryer.

With bacon in such high demand around here, we decided to figure out what is THE best way to make it?

Putting Bacon Cooking Methods To The Test.

We made bacon three different ways to see what produces the very best bacon. We had a clear winner, but we'll get to that...

We made bacon in the oven, the air fryer and the microwave. I've never done a proper comparison of bacon methods side by side, so I didn't actually realize how different the results were. This was an enlightening exercise for sure.

A Few Notes About Bacon - Size Matters

We have tasted all sorts of bacon, and we have come to the conclusion that not all bacons are created equal. We are purists. Only proper pork bacon for us. If you use turkey or some other version of bacon, you likely will have really different results.

Also, we definitely favor thick cut bacon. Thin bacon gets really curly and shriveled. It's fine if you are into that, but be sure to adjust your cooking times accordingly.

A Note About Cured Bacon:

Uncured bacon just doesn't taste or cook up the same. "Uncured bacon" is actually still cured, but it's cured in a mixture of salt and celery juice. This process still produces the same amount of nitrates as traditionally cured bacon, but they are just naturally occurring. Therefore, you're not really saving yourself from the nitrates, but you are sacrificing flavor and texture.

Our Favorite Bacon:

Our favorite is the thick cut bacon they sell at Business Costco, but I don't always have a reason to shop there. Costco's thick cut Kirkland bacon is our second favorite. The Kirkland bacon is quite uniform, and has a great flavor. Well balanced salt-wise, and the thickness is just right. That's what we used for this bacon fest extravaganza.

The Methods:

As I said before, we made bacon using three different methods.

1. Baked on a cooling rack over a baking sheet in the oven - low and slow.

2. Cooked in the air fryer.

3. Microwaved on a plate, covered with a paper towel.

Baked In The Oven

45 - 60 minutes at 325º

Mostly, we just eat bacon on the weekends for breakfast, so this is the method we typically do for breakfast bacon.

We are renting an older house, and our oven is ancient. It's a conventional oven from the early 1980's. It's not at all even, and likely not all that accurate temperature-wise. However, for this it's not really an issue. If you have a newer, or convection oven, you should adjust your cooking time, and maybe your temperature so you don't over-do it.

The key to nice, even, flat, crispy bacon is to cook it on a lower temperature for a longer amount of time. We cooked this bacon for 45 minutes at 350º. It could have gone for an hour if needed, but we had a nice crispy result with a great color at 45 minutes.

Air Fryer

15 minutes at 375º

This is the way we usually cook bacon for our four-year-old. He does not have the patience to wait an hour for his bacon, and he doesn't really care if it's perfectly flat. This process is so much faster, less dishes, and produces an excellent result that satisfies our picky kid. If you don't mind some shriveling, this might be the way to go for busy, or impatient bacon-eaters.

Microwave

5 minutes on High (2 1/2 minutes per piece)

This is a super quick way to make bacon, and because of the paper towels, generally it's less greasy. This is how I made bacon when I was a kid, since it didn't require any pans, cook top, oven or anything complicated. This is a way to make bacon if you are in a dorm or a single apartment without a proper kitchen. This is the fastest way to make bacon. If you're in a rush, this might be the way to go.

The Results!

The hands-down winner, across the board was the oven bacon. The texture, flavor and presentation were all perfect. Pork really does benefit from a longer, cooler cook.

Oven Bacon:

The crispiest, flattest and best chew. The bacon was perfectly crispy, perfectly evenly cooked with no irregularities. There was still some life left in it, even though it was crisp and snappy. The cooling rack over the cookie sheet let quite a bit if the greasy drain out of the bacon, so had just the right amount of fat, but not too much. This is everything you want in a bacon strip!

Air Fryer:

This was our second choice. Since we didn't turn the bacon, the underside was chewier than the top side. The bacon rumpled slightly (with thinner bacon this would have been much more pronounced) and the ends were cooked more than the center. This bacon had the most residual grease of all the methods. This is really being nit-picky. Honestly, I would have been perfectly happy with this bacon if it hadn't been on the same plate as the oven bacon when I tasted it.

Microwave:

Definitely not as good as the other two methods. This bacon was noticeably drier that the other methods. It was not only 'less greasy', it was actually quite dry. Also, the texture had an odd chew. It was almost like stale bread....if stale bread was bacon... Don't get me wrong, this wasn't bad, and if it wasn't next to text-book bacon it would have been fine. It just didn't compare to the other bacons on the plate.

The thing about this bacon though, it was a great texture for crumbling. If you like bacon bits on top of salads and soups, this is a good way to make it. You will save a few calories since most of the grease ends up in the paper towel. The dryness made it the easiest to crumble up. Once crumbled, the texture was significantly less important, and it still had all the flavor.

There's many many ways to make bacon, and this is just a few of them. What's your favorite way to make and eat bacon?

My go-to recipe for cookies is a bit fancy for kids (Inspired by THE recipe by David Leite for NY Times). Also, he wanted the cookies right away, and I find that my recipe benefits from a few days in the refrigerator. However, I didn't have a better recipe, so we adapted this one for the kiddos.

In the recipe for really really good chocolate chip cookies, I use dark chocolate chips, I age the dough in the refrigerator for a week before baking, and I sprinkle fancy salt on top for that finishing touch. It's a show-stopper cookie. (I'll post those instructions next time I make them).

For the kids we made a few tweaks:

We used peanut butter and milk chocolate chips. We didn't age the dough, or even chill it before baking (we got flatter, crispier cookies, not a bad thing, but not what I'm used to from this recipe). Also, my regular recipe uses 1/2 cake flour, and 1/2 all purpose. I had only high-gluten white flour on hand, so we just used that. No finishing salt for the kids either.

Here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 482g white flour (I used high-gluten, but all purpose would work too)

• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (You can just do 2 tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp cream of tartar if you don't have baking powder on hand)

• 1 1/2 tsp course salt (I use kosher salt, if you're using table salt use 1/2 as much)

• 1 1/4 cup butter (I used salted, and we got a nice salty dough. if you prefer your cookies less salty, or you are going to add the finishing salt on top, use unsalted butter)

• 284 g brown sugar

• 227 g granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 2 teaspoons Mexican vanilla extract

• 1 bag peanut butter chips

• 1 bag chocolate chips of choice

Method:

1. Whisk together flour, salt, soda, baking powder in a bowl and set aside.

2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter (softened but not melted) vanillq and sugars.

3. Once your mixture is very light in color and well combined, add in your eggs one at a time. mixing well in between.

4. Add your dry ingredients and mix until the powders are well incorporated

5. Add in your chips and mix carefully until they are evenly distributed.

6. At this point I usually form the dough into balls, place them in a plastic bag and refrigerate for several days. This time we wanted cookies right away so we skipped this step.

7. Preheat oven to 350º

8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (NOT waxed paper)

9. Scoop 6 large balls of dough onto the baking sheet. They should be a bit larger than a golf ball.

10. Bake until golden brown - 18-20 minutes.

11. Cool on a rack but serve warm.

12. Cookies will be crispy around the edges, but soft in the middle.

13. If you are not going to eat all the cookies the same day, you can refrigerate or freeze the remaining dough. I like to pre-shape it into balls so that you don't have to try to shape cold (or frozen) dough. Frozen dough can be thawed, but still cold and baked.

14. Enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Recipe yield is approximately 20 large cookies

404 Calories each

Total Fat 19.2g

Sat Fat 12.2g

Cholesterol 47.9mg

Sodium 266mg

Total Carbs 55.1g

Fiber 0.9g

Sugars 36g

Protein 6.8g

Peach bellinis are an Italian drink, so it's made with Prosecco instead of Champagne. You can make them with any sparkling white wine, but I find the flavor profile of Italian Prosecco works the best.

Peach Bellinis are a little sweeter than the typical Champagne Mimosa (Champagne and orange juice). They work reaqlly well with Brunch foods.

I wanted the Bellinis to be really refreshing, so I used frozen peaches instead of fresh. Fresh peaches are even better for this. Since I was using frozen peaches I had to add some grape juice to get them moving in the blender.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of Italian Prosecco (or any sparkling white wine)

• 2-4 Champagne flutes

• 1 cup peaches (frozen or fresh)

• 1/3 cup white grape or apple juice (if using frozen peaches)

• Mint for garnish

Method

1. Blend the peaches and optional fruit juice in the blender until it's a smooth puree.

2. Fill 2 - 4 champagne flutes 2/3 - 3/4 full.

3. Add peach puree and ganish with mint sprigs.

4. Serve immediately! Cheers!

5. I was able to get 6 total Bellinis out of the amount of puree that I made. It was just me and mom drinking them, so I only made 2 at a time...

We were talking about what to make for lunch the other day, and we settled on egg salad sandwiches....but we were low on eggs. We did have some left-over tofu and garbanzo beans, so we decided to experiment with it a bit.

We were both surprised by how well it turned out, and how delicious it was for a completely plant-based meal. When I plugged the recipe in for nutritional info, I was impressed with the protein content too! This is definitely a recipe to try if you're plant-based, or just want a new spin on an old classic.

And now for the recipe!

Ingredients

• 8oz Medium firm tofu (firm would also work, but medium was just right)

• 1 can garbanzo beans

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 pickle

• 1 green onion

• 1/4 cup vegan mayo

• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard of your choice

• Salt and pepper to taste (we used 3 grinder twists of pepper and 2 pinches of salt)

• 8 Slices of toasted sourdough bread

• 8 butter lettuce leaves

• optional sprouts

Method:

1. Chop the tofu into small cubes and set aside. Tyson liked the 1/2" cubes in this recipe, but I would have liked it a little finer. So, the size will be dependent on your preference.

2. Finely chop the pickle and green onion then set aside.

3. In the Food processor (you could also use a blender if you don;t have a food processor). Combine garbanzo beans, mayo, mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Blend or process until smooth.

4. Transfer garbanzo mixture to a bowl and fold in the pickle, green onion and tofu until evenly coated.

5. Toast some bread, lay down a couple leaves of lettuce on the bottom piece, spread some 'egg' salad over it, top with sprouts and a top bread. Serve with pickles and enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Salad only - Serving size: 1/4 recipe

Calories: 286 per serving (salad only)

Total Fat 14.5g

Sat Fat 1.9g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 713.2mg

Total Carbs 27.3g

Fiber 5.5g

Sugars 0.7g

Protein 10.6g

I'm a whiskey girl through and through. I like it just straight on the rocks, but on Sundays my mom comes over for family dinner. She prefers a mixed drink, and she likes them a little sweet. My go to on Sundays is an old fashioned, but I wanted to do something a little more Summery.

I had a bottle of grocery store bourbon on hand, and some big, beautiful blackberries....so here's what I came up with.

Blackberry Old Fashioned!

It's a pretty simple drink to make. Maybe even simpler than a regular old fashioned, since I didn't have to make a new batch of simple syrup. I just muddled some blackberries with a little sugar and a dash of bitters. Voilá!

Equipment needed:

• Muddler - I couldn't find mine, so I just used the bottom of my cocktail strainer.

• Cocktail shaker and strainer

• Jigger

• Rocks glasses

• And if you like the big ice cubes, you'll need a mold for those and make them ahead of time.

Ingredients:

(Makes 2 cocktails)

• 4 shots Rye whiskey or bourbon (I generally have bourbon on hand)

• +/-10 blackberries

• 1 Tablespoon sugar (I've made this with Allulose for a lower carb version. and it was just as good!)

• 2-4 dashes Angostura bitters

• 1/4 cup water

• Ice for shaking

• Optional basil leaves for garnish

• Optional 2 big ice cubes

Method

• Muddle 6-8 blackberries with the sugar in the bottom of your cocktail shaker.

• Add your regular ice, whiskey shots, bitters and water.

• Shake together until the shaker feels cold.

• Place a large ice cube in each rocks glass.

• Strain the drink into the rocks glasses over the big ice cubes.

• Garnish with leftover blackberries and basil leaves (mint works too!)

This post contains some affiliate links. If you follow them and make a purchase, we get a small commission (that we greatly appreciate!) and it costs you nothing. We will never promote anything we don’t truly believe in, and use ourselves.

Hootenanny, also known as a Dutch baby or German pancake, is a baked, egg-based concoction that puffs up like a soufflé. It's much less fussy than a traditional soufflé, and really eggy and delicious.

When I was a little kid, I used to love it when we had house guests, because my mom would always make Hootenanny for breakfast when we had company. It was so fancy and extravagant! I always assumed it was really complicated, because it was reserved, mostly, for holidays and guests.

When I was a bit older, I asked my mom to teach me how to make it, and it turns out, it's extremely easy to make. It's also made of basic ingredients, most of us already have in our kitchen.

My mom always made this sweet, and most of the time I do too (my kids like the sugar....go figure), but you can also make it savory. I have added cream cheese and spinach to make a savory brunch dish. Of course served with syrup and fruit is the fan favorite, but you have options. Lemon and powdered sugar is also a classic.

I will give the base recipe below, and then add a few notes about variations you can do. Feel free to make this recipe your own, and adjust as you like.

I've never made this with gluten free flour, but I have made it with non-dairy milks. All of them will work, but I find coconut milk to work the best.

The recipe below is for a full batch which will fill a 9" x 13" baking pan and serves approximately 6 people. I normally do a 1/2 batch for my kids, and I've made a 1/3 batch for just myself before. It always turns out.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 cup of milk

1 cup of flour

salt to taste (+/- 1/2 teaspoon)

1 stick of butter

optional:

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg

brown sugar

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put the butter in the 9" x 13" baking pan into the heating oven to melt.

• Blend all the remaining ingredients in the blender (including any optional ingredients, except the brown sugar).

• Once the butter in your pan has melted thoroughly, out it out and if you like, sprinkle brown sugar and some cinnamon into the butter.

• Pour in your ingredients and bake for 30-40 minutes, depending how crispy you like it.

Nutrition information

Per serving (1/6 of entire recipe)

249 calories

Total fat 14.4g

Sat fat 7.2g

Cholesterol 210.4mg

Sodium 90.3mg

Total Carbs 19.1g

Fiber 0.7g

Sugars 2.4g

Protein 10.3g

Some variations:

1. Do the brown sugar method, and serve with bananas foster on top

2. Leave out the cinnamon and brown sugar. squeeze the juice of a lemon on top and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

3. Serve with chocolate chips and sliced bananas.

4. Do a savory version. Serve with creamed spinach.

Come up with your own variations!

The parsely and lime base can be mixed with pretty much any liquor. I've enjoyed it with silver rum and vodka before, but I think it works best with gin. Tyson prefers his with vodka, so try a few variations until you find your own favorite.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup filtered, cold water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup lime juice

1 bunch (approximately 1 cup rough chopped) parsley

zest of 1 lime

1 bottle seltzer or club soda

12 shots liquor of choice

ice as needed

yield approx. 6 cocktails

Method:

1. Rough chop the parsley so it blend easily.

2. Place the parsley, lime juice, zest, sugar and water into the blender, and blend until liquefied.

3. Strain mixture through a fine mesh seive

4. Place ice into 6 glasses

5. Pour 2 shots of your favorite clear liquor into each glass

6. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of your parsley mixture into each glass

7. top with seltzer or club soda.

8. stir and serve!

My soda siphon (in the photo) is not currently available on Amazon, but here is a link to a classic style siphon that is available now:

This post contains some affiliate links. If you follow them and make a purchase, we get a small commission (that we greatly appreciate!) and it costs you nothing. We will never promote anything we don’t truly believe in, and use ourselves.

But What Is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented sweet tea. The tea is fermented with a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria And Yeast) That is basically a gelatinous mass of good bacteria and yeast. It's what gives Kombucha its probiotic properties, and guards against bad bacteria by overwhelming the brew with good stuff. The end result is a sweet, sour and fizzy elixir.

Kombucha is often double fermented with fruit juice or fruit puree for flavor and a little extra fizzy boost.

This all may seem complicated, but it's actually really easy to make at home. It just takes a few minutes to assemble, and about a week of waiting. The benefits of brewing your own 'buch are many. You can control the intensity and sweetness of the final product. You can pick your own flavors. I like to mix a few like mango, cherry and lime, watermelon and cherry, raspberry and beet, etc. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

The cost savings are significant. The cost of making your own gallon of kombucha is significantly less than buying it from the store. Just a few bags of tea, some water and 1 cup of sugar. Your first batch will require you to get a SCOBY from someone who brews at home (I got mine from my local Buy Nothing Group on Facebook), or you can order one on Amazon here. You will also need about 1 cup of previously brewed kombucha or some Apple Cider Vinegar.

I use this drink container to make 1 gallon at a time, but you can find any 1+ gallon container that is glass and has a wide opening at the top. I then cover it with a flour sack towel and rubber band to keep any bugs and dust out, but allows it to breathe.

Ingredients:

64oz (8 cups) hot filtered water for tea

64oz (8 cups) cold filtered water

4-6 bags of black or green tea (I ran out and had to use loose tea in the video)

1 cup organic sugar

1 cup kombucha or apple cider vinegar

1 SCOBY

Method:

1. Place the tea bags and sugar in the 64oz of hot water and brew a strong, sweet tea. 2. 2. Once you've steeped the tea for several minutes, remove the tea bags and pour it into your brewing container.

3. Pour the cold water into the brewing container and check the temperature. It should be slightly warm, but not hot. If it's above 100 degrees you need to let it cool.

4. Once your tea is at the right temperature, place your SCOBY in the container, and pour in the kombucha or ACV.

5. Cover the container with your towel and rubber band.

6. Let sit somewhere it will be undisturbed for about a week (shorter brew times result in sweeter Kombucha, longer brew times result in a more sour brew. 1 week is a good balance, but brew to taste)

Optional Flavoring:

If you want to add flavor to your Kombucha, you will need to do so after you make the plain brew. here's the instructions

1. Remove the SCOBY and 1 cup of Kombucha and set aside covered.

2. Pour the remaining Kombucha into one or multiple containers with screw on lids

3. Add in any fruit or juice you like. Try combinations of fruits. I like the sweetness and color that beets add, so I buy frozen, sliced beets and toss a few into almost every batch.

4. Screw the lids on tight and

5. Set aside. It usually takes a few days for the fizz to properly develop. Keep an eye on the jars or bottles as the air builds up and the lids can pop off if they go too long.

6. Make a new batch of Kombucha with the SCOBY and do it all again!

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This is a quick dress-up of a basic fruit salad that I made when we had guests in for the weekend. I wanted a little something nice to go with breakfast. I had a cantaloupe, peaches, raspberries and mint.

I cut up all the larger fruits and put them in a bowl with the raspberries. It still needed something....

I decided a little green would be pretty, so I finely chopped up some mint from the yard.

I mixed the juice of one lime with a teaspoon of honey and whisked it until it was all blended. It's so simple, but it makes any fruit salad almost fancy! The mint & lime together are amazing over fresh fruit!

Photo by Kawshar Ahmed on Unsplash

Here's what you need:

1 onion sliced into rings

3 carrots

6 smallish potatoes

2 lime leaves

6 slices ginger

6 cloves of garlic

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons bamboo shoots

1 small can coconut cream (not sweetened)

3 tablespoons yellow Thai curry

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

3 Thai chilis

1/2 bunch of chopped cilantro

1 fish (we used a pomano - our favorite dinner fish)

First get your pan hot over medium high heat. put in your curry, ginger and garlic. Fry them all together until fragrant.

Place the sliced onions in the pan to make a bed for the fish.

Place the fish on top of the onions.

Add 2 cups of water and coconut cream. Stir around to mix with the curry. Add lime leaves, fish sauce, sugar and chilis. Turn heat to medium low & cover the fish. Cook until it's almost done but not completely. About 15 minutes.

Add your chopped up potatoes, carrots and bamboo shoots. Cook until your veggies are tender.

When everything is done cover with chopped up cilantro.

Serve over rice. YUM!

Here's a recipe for vegan gyoza filling. And here is a recipe for deep fried cheese steak won tons.

It's pretty simple, You just put about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of a round wrapper. Fold it in half and pinch it at the top. Then you pleat each side 2-4 times. The easiest way to pleat is a pinch and fold. Hopefully you can see that clearly in the video.

Comment below if you have any questions.

Here is what we did:

3 large pinches black fungus (optional - avail. at Asian mkt.)

1 big pinch lily buds (optional - avail. at Asian mkt.)

1 cup hot water for soaking

2 lbs mussels (or clams)

1 package Cantonese noodles

1 bulb garlic (or any obscene amount)

2 Tbsp. fresh ginger

1 jalapeno (or thai chili or serrano pepper...etc)

2 Tbsp oyster sauce

1/4 cup (approx 1/2 jar) black bean sauce

3 Japanese eggplants

3 green onions

pinch salt

dash white pepper

First soak the black fungus & lilly buds in hot water (approx 15 min.) and set aside

Cube eggplant for cooking (small pieces, about 1" sq)

Cook the noodles for about 2 min & set aside.

Sauteé garlic and ginger in a large pan or wok until slightly golden on high.

Toss in eggplant and stir. Reduce heat to med. high & cover for about 8 min. (until soft)

Deglaze pan with water from fungus & lilly buds

Add in mussels, fungus, lilly buds, cover and cook on med. for about 8 min (or until mussels start to open)

Add sauces and jalapeno. stir for 1 min or so

Stir in noodles & garnish with chopped green onions

Serve hot & enjoy!!

Here is what we did:

2 medium potatoes washed and sliced

1/2 medium celery root washed and sliced

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 pint heavy cream

2 oz each sharp cheddar and gruyere cheese grated

6 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon herbs de provence

salt and pepper to taste

First slice up your root veggies and set aside.

Then grate your cheeses.

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan and add course chopped garlic.

Once your pan is hot, toss in your sliced veggies and cook on medium until they are almost soft.

Rub a sliced clove of garlic on the bottom of your baking dish.

When your veggies are tender, add your cream, cheeses (we tossed in a little extra goat cheese too!) and seasonings.

Cook until it's all melted together - stirring occasionally.

We didn't have any bread crumbs so we toasted a few slices of bread and ran them through the blender.

When your mixture is ready, pour it into your baking pan.

Then top with shredded cheese and bread crumbs.

Bake on 425 for 30 minutes until the top is browned and you see bubbles at the bottom of your pan.

Serve and enjoy!

Here is what we did:

we got 2 racks from Costco. each was about 1.5lbs.

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1/4 cup white wine

1 sprig fresh rosemary chopped

2 slices old bread or 1/2 cup bread crumbs

salt & pepper to taste

First season your meat on all sides with salt, pepper and chopped rosemary.

We were at the end of our mustard, so we used the wine to clean out the jar. (Yes that's a box of wine...it's great for cooking, and some of them are actually decent for drinking.)

Place the racks in a big bowl & pour your mixture over all your meat so it is well coated.

Let your meat hang out in your wine / mustard mixture for as long or as little as you wish. Then coat thoroughly with bread crumbs.

Lay out your racks on a baking sheet and bake at 450 for 1 hour.

We served ours with roasted potato / celery root au gratin and an arugula salad with beets, tangerines, candied walnuts and goat cheese. Recipe here. Make sure you have a good bottle of wine for this meal. We had a Zinfandel, and it was great!

If you don't want to do the deep dive that I did, you can follow along on this week's bread making adventure below.

First you will need an active, but hungry sourdough starter. I feed mine the night before I want to make bread. You can find instructions here. If you've let your starter sit in the fridge more that a week (like I usually do....) you may want to allow enough time to feed it twice before you dig into making bread.

Once your starter is good to go, you will be ready to assemble your dough. I always make 2 loaves. As long as I am spending a whole day attending to a dough, I might as well get 2 loaves out of it. If I don't think I will use two, my neighbor or my mother are always happy to take a loaf.

You will want to mix your dough by weight. If you need a scale, this is the one I use.

Here's the recipe I follow for two loaves:

200g active but hungry starter

900g flour (I use a high gluten, unbleached, white flour, but you could mix it up with some whole wheat or rye flour for some texture)

620g water at room temp

20g kosher or sea salt

Combine all ingredients into a mixing bowl that is big enough to allow for your dough to raise. Mix it until it forms a shaggy dough. You will then let it rest 30-60 minutes for the hydration phase. This is the time your dough rests, and the water permeates all of the flour.

You will do a 'stretch and fold' 4 times throughout the day. I space them apart approximately 2 hours. If I need to do a couple closer together or further apart it's fine. And if you need to be away for a long time, you can pop the bowl into the refrigerator to sort of press the pause button.

After you've done your 4 stretch and folds, you will remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface for your pre-shaping. You'll divide the dough into however many loaves you want to make (I get 2 full size loaves, or two smaller loaves and a baguette or two - depends on what you want.) This time, I'm just making two big loaves.

You will shape your dough into round balls by folding the corners into the middle, then flip it over and tuck and spin it until you've got some nice tension going. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Once you've rested your dough, you will shape into loaves and pop them into floured bread baskets

...or baguette trays.

Let them raise again for another 30 minutes or so, while you pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. I stick a water pan on the bottom shelf of the over to create steam and make a crustier crust. This is optional, but I like a well-developed crust.

When your oven and dough are ready, you can turn them out onto a pizza peel, score them so they can expand while baking, and pop them into the oven. I have an old conventional oven that is pretty uneven, so I turn the loaves after about 20 minutes, and then bake for an additional 10-20 minutes until deep, golden brown.

Pull the bread out and let cool on a rack, completely, before slicing and serving.

Enjoy~

While the impossible patties do make pretty good burgers, we decided to do something a little more creative.

We made pork dumplings last week, and we had some left-over wrappers, so here we are. Vegan gyoza for the win!

Here's what you will need:

4 patties / 1lb impossible

4 - 6 cloves garlic minced

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 cups Napa cabbage finely chopped

1/4 tsp wht. Pepper

1 tsp. Salt kosher

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 tsp msg

1 tsp mushroom powder

basically you will just combine everything in a big bowl. Then you spoon it into wrappers, fold them and then cook the up!

There's a few options for cooking dumplings.

You can steam them in bamboo steamers. You can pan fry and steam them in the traditional way (This is what we usually do.) Or you can cook them in the air fryer.

For the air fryer, first we sprayed them with some avocado oil and then cooked them for 13 minutes at 350 degrees. They were cooked through and crispy!

To cook them how we usually do, you will heat up some high-heat oil in a frying pan. We used avocado oil, but peanut oil is the traditional choice.

Once your oil and pan are hot, place your dumplings in the pan and bring the heat down to medium / simmer. Let the dumplings cook a few minutes until the bottoms are browned. We usually turn them over to be sure the middles are cooked all the way.

Once you've got the bottoms browned, add a little water into the pan and cover it. The water will likely splash a bit as it hits the hot oil, so be prepared for that. Let the dumplings steam until the wrappers are white and translucent.

Remove from heat, and eat!

Gyoza dipping sauce is really easy to make too. You combine soy sauce, a splash of sesame oil, a few dashes of worchestershire sauce - but if you want to keep it completely vegan, use rice vinegar instead.

The nice thing about sourdough starter is that you can kind of forget about it. I go weeks at a time without even thinking about it. Then when I ne3ed it, a couple of feedings, and it's good to go!

You can also save the discard, and use it in other recipes. We made waffles with the discard this time. Usually, I just add some salt and green onions to it, and fry it up. It tastes like fried cheese, and is a lovely afternoon snack! (I'll take pictures next time and post prop4er instructions.)

I keep 2 separate starters, since I had one get contaminated with pink mold and I had to completely start over. I got this starter from my Sister-in-law in San Francisco. Generally, I just feed it organic white flour, since I buy it in bulk for baking. Occasionally I will feed it with some rye flour if I want it to be super active, and have a stronger flavor.

I feed by weight, which is recommended. I do 90 grams of each, flour and water for regular feedings. As you can see, I did one of them at 90g, and one at 100g, since I am going to be making sourdough bread tomorrow, and a double batch of dough needs 200g of starter.

If you need a kitchen scale, this is the one I use. It's small, inexpensive and works really well. Happy baking!

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I soaked a huge bag of black beans for soup - it made a LOT of soup! (I forgot to take notes, so I will do this recipe later. Seriously slacking in the blog department lately! I promise to do better!)

Since beans are so loaded with fiber & protein, and not to mention CHEAP! I got to thinking, what other foods can I make with them? It didn't hurt I was dying for something sweet, but after the holidays, I thought perhaps I should reel in the junk foods...

I experimented a bit and found a recipe that works. These are gluten free, low-sugar, high fiber, and delicious! The texture is similar to typical brownies when they come out of the oven - a little soft & chewy, though you don't get the crispy corners as much as flour based brownies.... As they cool, they become more like a fudge....amazing!

So, here is my recipe for healthier black bean brownies!

Ingredients

1 (15 oz.) can reduced-sodium black beans, rinsed & drained (or soak 1 cup of dry beans & then boil them until they are tender)

3 TBSP peanut butter

1 small carton (15ml) coconut cream (optional - I am a sucker for all things coconut, and I always have this on hand for whipped coconut cream! If you don't have it, you can use any kind of milk - approx. 1/4 cup - ooh or mayo would be good!)

1/4 cup honey

2 TBSP coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 TBSP ground flax meal

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

Instructions

1. Put black beans, peanut butter, cream, honey, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until completely smooth.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together almond flour, cocoa powder, flax meal, baking powder and salt (I did this in the bowl of my Kitchenaid mixer)

3. Add the black bean mixture to the flour mixture. Add in the egg, and mix well until completely combined.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a brownie pan for baking. (I used my 9 x 9 Pyrex pan, and they were fairly thick - you could use a larger, shallower pan for more typical brownies but watch your cooking time)

5. Pour brownie mixture into pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Check with a toothpick - mine took an additional 10ish minutes, but I kept checking it every few minutes.

Let them cool, and enjoy!

(Note, since these are almond flour PLUS beans, they are surprisingly filling! Be prepared to have them around for a while - they last a long time in the refrigerator)

The whole recipe is about 2,122 calories. I got 18 servings out of it, making each brownie approx. 118 calories each - not bad!

Besides the seafood, here is what you need:

mixed seafood (we used about 1/3 package from Costco)

1 bulb garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt

2 lemons

1/2 cup white wine (chardonnay works well)

1/2 bunch parsley

capers

parmesan cheese

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1 fennel root (optional)

1 box of pasta or home made pasta

First you want to bloom some garlic.

Take most of your bulb of garlic & chop it up fine or push it through your garlic press.

Sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon (or one pinch) of kosher salt. Cover with olive oil (1 - 2 tablespoons) add chopped parsley, stir it all together and set aside.

At this point, get your pasta water going - you will cook your pasta to al dente (usually about 10 minutes from when you toss the pasta into your boiling water). If your cooktop is as inefficient as mine, you will need lots of time to get your water boiling.

If you have your fennel, start cooking it while you are waiting for the water to boil.

Place some olive oil in a pan over medium heat.

Chop up your fennel and add it to the pan.

Cook over medium heat until caramelized.

Next you will get your pan hot to cook your seafood.

Add about 3 cloves of chopped garlic, your butter and a little olive oil to raise the smoking point of the butter.

Once your butter is melted and your garlic is starting to sweat, toss in your seafood mix, lightly salt and pepper, add wine and cook until it's almost done.

About 5 minutes. (Any clams or mussels should be opening, and your shrimps should be just pink)

At this point, toss in the capers and remove from heat.Strain your pasta & return it to the pot. Pour seafood mixture over it and add your bloomed garlic and fennel. Stir everything together and top with fresh lemon juice and parmesan cheese.

Here it is served. Delicious!

Beef and broccoli, like most Chinese dishes, is a lot of prep work up front, and then very quick to actually cook.

Here is what you will need:

1 large sirloin or chuck steak (about 1lb)

1-2 bunches of broccoli

1/2 medium onion

sliced ginger (we like a lot - experiment with this)

6ish cloves of garlic

Beef Marinade

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbs cornstarch

1/4 tsp wht pepper (black pepper works, but it looks weird)

1 Tbs mirin

2 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs shao xing wine (you can use sake if you have it)

1/8 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 tsp tahini (optional)

1/4 tsp MSG

Slurry

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup shao xing wine (again - or sake)

1 Tbs Oyster sauce

1/4 cup water

1/8 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbs corn starch

1 Tbs mirin

First slice up your meat. It helps to freeze it for about 25 minutes before you are ready to slice to firm it up. Makes it easier to slice thin.

place your meat in a bowl big enough to stir it around in.

Sprinkle your baking soda over the meat.

Then add your other marinade ingredients, and stir. You will let your meat sit in this mixture while you prepare everything else. (about 20 minutes. Be careful...you don't want your meat to sit too long in the baking soda as it will break down into mush....not what we are after!)

While your meat is marinating, prepare your slurry. This is the sauce you will pour over everything to make the brown yummy sauce you recognize.

Thinly slice your garlic & ginger.

And your onion.

Once you have everything prepared and ready to go (make sure you have everything you need done, because there is very little time once you start cooking.)

Heat up your pan with a little high-temp oil (vegetable, peanut, canola, etc)

Add your marinated meat with the marinade into your hot pan and stir it around.

You just want to brown your meat, not cook it too much. Remove and set it aside.

Add in your garlic & ginger and give it a stir (make sure you keep your pan nice & hot!)

After a few stirs, toss in all your broccoli and stir it a bit. You want to just barely cook your broccoli...just barely.

Add your sauce to the broccoli and keep stirring.

Keep it moving while your sauce thickens up a bit.

Add your beef and sliced onions.

Give it a stir to distribute / warm up your onions.

Serve over rice!

If you are adventurous (like Tyson) you can add a little Chinese BBQ sauce to your rice. I think it tastes like what we feed the guppies (read: shrimpy / fishy) not bad, but I don't love it like Tyson does.

I prefer Chinese pickled daikon radish. Recipe coming soon.