Cooking Post: Making your own pasta

My stepfather is a big fan of pasta; however, he’s been watching his food intake for the last year for health reasons. But, like any gourmet foodaholic, he’ll sneak in little indulgences here and there! His most famous way seems to be to wait until I come over for a visit, and then we end…

Tips for Better Baking: Dairy Products and Other Liquids

In Part 2 of my continuing saga series of tips for better baking, today I’m going to focus on dairy products and other liquids in your baking; how to substitute, when to substitute, and most importantly, when NOT to!  And with this post and forwards, I’ve decided that, as a “prize” for my readers making…

Commission Tales: United Way Rocks!

Just finished up a large-ish commission last week for one of my corporate clients, making 225 hand-decorated sugar cookies for their 2013 United Way campaign kick-off. Considering the original order request was for 1500 cookies, a “mere” 20 dozen was far easier! This much, doubled….ay yay yay….! I made a classic rolled sugar cookie recipe…

Recipe and Tutorial: Apple Sauce

Segments reposted from my previous blog, Chronic Masterbakers: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Commercial apple sauce is usually chock full of sugar and preservatives; I don’t like the taste, and I’m not overly excited about the possibility that I’m ingesting a Health Canada-approved “legally allowed amount” of bug parts and worms in every spoonful.  As a vegetarian city girl,…

Recipe and Tutorial: Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

The hubster’s side of the family hosted our Canadian Thanksgiving celebration this past weekend, which means tons of traditions!  As we do every year that we celebrate Thanksgiving with them (which admittedly is most of them), we swanned up to his hometown to enjoy a day of dawdling through a county fair with the whole…

Recipe and Tutorial: Apple Butter

Reposted from my previous blog, Chronic Masterbakers: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   One of the best things about autumn in Southern Ontario is the harvest of so many different varieties of fruits and vegetables; it’s so much fun getting all “pioneer-y” and canning and preserving and freezing and pickling nature’s bounty, knowing how much people will appreciate having…