September 19, 2011 - Making Homemade Side & Seasoning Mixes
I get a lot of emails like this one: I’ve been using your Homemade Hamburger Helper recipes for about a year now. They are awesome. So easy, so cheap, and I know what’s in them. I’m getting ready to make another batch of mixes right now. My husband loves those Lipton or Knorr brand sidekicks....
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April 5, 2011 - Homemade White Cake Mix
Some time back I posted a homemade yellow cake mix. I promised I’d post a white cake mix (and someone reminded me in a comment just the other day), so here it is! Any cake is better from scratch, and if you like to keep homemade mixes on-hand to make life easier on busy days,...
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March 25, 2011 - Make Your Own Herbes de Provence
In an herb rut? You might be, and not even know it! I’m here to help! Herbes de Provence is a gorgeous little concoction of herbs that grow on the sunny hills of southern France, known for its beautiful Mediterranean coastline, castles, churches, medieval villages–and food. When tourists wanted to bottle up that food and...
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March 10, 2011 - Making Your Own Cereal Mixes
I’ve been on a homemade granola kick lately, and because one thing leads to another, one day when I didn’t have enough yogurt, I just poured milk over it. Hello, I have invented cereal! Okay, not really, I think someone else invented it, but I’m not sure who. They were a genius because cereal is...
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November 9, 2010 - White Sauce Butter Balls
This recipe was passed to me by a friend who knew it was exactly the type of thing I love, a homemade quick fix for those too-busy mealtimes. She didn’t know where it came from, so I did a little Google research and found it everywhere, including Cooks.com. You may have seen it already somewhere,...
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May 16, 2010 - Homemade Long Grain & Wild Rice Mix
Homemade long grain and wild rice mix, cooked. Back when I posted about Homemade Hamburger Helper, I had some requests to look at boxed rice and pasta mixes, too. I’m here first with my homemade mix for long grain and wild rice, which is my very favorite of all the boxed rice mixes. (I’ll have...
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February 21, 2010 - On the Trail of Homemade Yeast
When I posted this photograph from my Treasure Trove cookbook of a recipe for homemade yeast, I got a number of requests for the recipe. I was interested in the recipe, too, but sharing it wasn’t that simple. I had to decipher its meaning, track down its origins, and uncover its mysteries first. Way back...
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February 6, 2010 - Beer Bread
Beer bread is so easy, you can make it in five minutes! You can make it even easier if you use my homemade baking mix, Quick Mix (or a store-bought baking mix). I’m going to tell you how to make it from scratch two ways, too, if you aren’t a baking mix user at all....
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January 3, 2010 - How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper
As an avid cook, this is almost embarrassing, but my kids love Hamburger Helper. I don’t love Hamburger Helper. It tastes like cardboard and the ingredients list on the side of the box is enough to make you run away screaming. Who knows what that stuff is. A lot of preservatives, for one thing. There’s...
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April 29, 2009 - Homemade Yellow Cake Mix
Any recipe that calls for a yellow cake mix can be made better with a scratch cake! It’s easy, so why not? This homemade mix (my own creation and tested to perfection, inspired by my frustration with recipes that call for a yellow cake mix but don’t tell you how to make the recipe with...
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November 7, 2008 - Homemade Vanilla: The Big Bottle Method
I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet and Christmas is too scary to think about, but I want to post about Homemade Vanilla Extract while you still have time to make it! Since I started making my own vanilla in the past year, I never use anything else. I love it! How many...
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June 27, 2008 - Quick Mix: Biscuits, Muffins, and Pancakes
Make Quick Mix! Have an endless array of biscuits, muffins, and pancakes at your fingertips, as fast and easy as with a store-bought baking mix (like Bisquick, for example), only better because it’s homemade. I love one recipe that can do a thousand things, like my Grandmother Bread. Quick Mix is the quick bread solution....
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May 6, 2008 - How to Make Homemade Dough Enhancer
Dough enhancer is just what you need to make whole grain homemade bread light and wonderful, just like white bread, only better. You can buy dough enhancer, but it’s more frugal–and fun–to mix it yourself! What goes into a dough enhancer? I use a combination of wheat gluten, lecithin, ascorbic acid crystals, pectin, gelatin, nonfat...
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February 23, 2008 - My Cornbread
In West Virginia, cornbread is practically an art. For my cousin, who grinds his own cornmeal, it’s almost a religion. And I’m a convert. Fresh, stone-ground cornmeal. Try it. You’ll never go back to cornmeal off the shelf again. At the very least, throw out your Jiffy boxes. That is cardboard cornbread. You need the...
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