Parchment paper

Go out right now to your local restaurant supply store and get some parchment paper. This stuff is magic. Use it to line your cookie sheets, for sweet and savoury recipes. It keeps the goo from sticking, making clean up easy. Plus, cookies just slide right off (and no worries about possible toxins from Teflon).

Buy your bread at the local bakery outlet

Most cities have at least one bakery outlet. My local is an Orowheat one. They have bread that's fine, but sometimes a little squished or close to the expiry date. Still good! Freeze it!

Hug your cat

Hug your cat daily. It is good for you and for the cat.

On Envy

I love this quote.

"[E]nvy is the gift that helps us know what we want for ourselves."
Rosemary Daniell, author of The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself

A must read book

Anyone who wants to lose weight, improve their health or who has been told to use drugs or diet to lower their cholesterol should read this book. I warn you, it's a fairly academic tome. The author spent five years researching and writing this book. It's an eye-opener!

How to cook killer bacon

Use the oven. I know she didn't invent the idea, but I always thank Martha Stewart, God love her, for that tip. In her great cookbook, the The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, she has a recipe for brown sugar bacon. I usually leave off the brown sugar, and just cook the bacon in the oven at 425 for about twenty minutes. You might need to drain the bacon fat off partway through, depending on how lean the bacon is. Save it! It's great for seasoning roasts, or sauting onions/garlic for soups.

Put a sheet of parchment paper down before putting down the bacon, it'll make clean-up a snap.

Keep It Simple

I have some rhubarb. It's lovely, bought it at the farmer's market. I wanted to make Rhubarb Crunch with it. I have a great recipe for it, given to me by a college classmate MANY years ago. Thing is, I can't find the recipe. It's not in my recipe box, and since I'm finishing up a kitchen remodel, if it's anywhere else, it's as good as in Siberia.

So, since I'm not in touch currently with this classmate, I decided to try to search for her. At first, I couldn't remember her last name, so I went to our college's alumni page (where I had to create an account and then log in so I could search alums). I found her pretty quickly. But, she doesn't have an email address listed. I then googled her and found her name associated with a couple of different schools in another state. I then tried to look for her on the websites of those schools. No luck.

Want to know what I did next? I googled frakkin' Rhubarb Crunch. Found the right recipe on the first click.

Lesson learned? Keep it simple. Try the easy solution first.