About
Thanks for your curiosity. My name is Karen, and it’s true, I’m addicted to soup.
I’d get help, but ya know, I just don’t wanna. I mean, it’s soup. Who wants to be saved from soup?
10 Responses
leave one →
Thanks for your curiosity. My name is Karen, and it’s true, I’m addicted to soup.
I’d get help, but ya know, I just don’t wanna. I mean, it’s soup. Who wants to be saved from soup?
This is such a great blog! I am making pretzels today! I can’t wait for my children to get up so we can start!
Thanks, Stacey! I love homemade pretzels – they’re so fun to make (and forgiving – not the perfect pretzel shape? Who cares, it’ll still be great!), and there’s nothing else quite like a fresh one out of the oven.
Great blog! I found you through the “Smitten Kitchen” site. I cannot wait to finish reading through all of your recipes. You have me sold on your grilled cheese sandwiches though.
Thanks for your support re: the food coloring. What do you use?
Hi Katie – I know, I about fell over when I saw the recipe called for a total of 50 drops of food coloring for the batch. 50! I’m going to make them anyway, and if my gels can only make pink and pale green, that’s okay. I have this exact pack: http://www.amazon.com/Icing-Coloring-Kit-8-count/dp/B0000CFMU7/ref=pd_sbs_k_1 . It’s available at Michael’s (and, apparently, Jo-Ann Fabrics). They work great in icings; hopefully they’ll do the same thing for batter.
Hi Karen,
Had to stop and say Hello when I saw your tags included Findlay Market. I’m a Cincinnati transplant now in Santa Clara CA, in Zone 9b, working on a seed-to-table project for my homeschool coop. Come see us at http://fromdirttodinner.wordpress.com/ I wish you were here to help! Loved your container gardening info and can totally relate about the seed catalogs. Thanks for the blog. It’s fun to find you here.
Juli
Hi Juli,
Thanks so much for your comments, and for visiting someone from your old turf! I loved your winter carrots (and I’m really envious of your CA last frost date!). The seeds in a jar is a totally cool experiment – your students are lucky to have such a teacher!
Karen
Hi julie, since we do not have bees, do we need to polinate our squash plants. If we do need to do this how do we do it. Fran
Hi Fran,
If you have no insects whatsoever that will hop from flower to flower, then your best bet is to hand pollinate your squash. Fortunately, it’s really easy, as long as there are both male and female flowers in bloom simultaneously. They’re easy to tell apart: the male flower sits atop a very slender stalk, while the female flower will sit atop a baby squash fruit.
Use an artist’s paintbrush or a Qtip to gently swab some of the pollen from the male’s stamen in the center of the flower (pollen will be visible, orange or yellow) and transfer it gently to the female’s stigma. Female flowers are often open only in the morning, so it’s best to check your plants before that first cup of coffee. Don’t worry if you see mostly male flowers – they almost always outnumber the females, and begin blooming earlier in the season than the females.
You’ll know if you were successful if the squash fruit suddenly takes off in growth with a healthy green color. Unsuccessful pollinations will cause the fruit to rot and drop off in a few days. Good luck!
Karen
The inspiration:
“Cheese is the soul of the soil. It is the purest and most romantic link between humans and the earth.” Pierre Androuet.
The challenge:
GK Chesterton: “The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
Voila: Tasting to Eternity (google)
This book is a poetic view of 30 of the best loved French cheeses with an additional two odes to cheese. Recipes, wine pairing, three short stories and an educational section complete the book.
A unique and amusing Christmas present for all food lovers
Enjoy