Calamity in the Kitchen

My life has had many chapters, in which I waxed poetic about many a deep subject. But two particular subjects have always been closest to my heart, and I have woven their threads throughout every chapter: Food, and relatedly, plants. Start to finish, dirt to plate, food is my favorite subject and I can blather on about it for ages. Plants are my second favorite subject, and first favorite kingdom of life. I hope in my next life to be one.

As you may notice from my more personal writing, I find life as a human being quite challenging. I have a lot of tangles in my heart of hearts. Tending, harvesting and cooking are very grounding for me, so relatively straightforward, and so intensely tactile. I never feel more meditative than when doing simple repetitive tasks in the kitchen or garden.

So here is a directory of posts on the wide subject of food, and to a lesser degree, plants and gardening. These are all posts with a more practical edge, those that you might reference. There’s an equal number of my more journal-style posts which I have left out, particularly on the subject of gardening.

Practical Home Cooking:

Kitchen Efficiency

Real Life Kitchens: Part One

Part Two: The Sink

Part Three: Work Zones

Part Four: Microzones

Cooking Efficiency

Not Menu Planners — solace for the rest of us

Dinner in Real Life

If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen — summer cooking

Caution: Martyr in the Kitchen

Tools

Cast Iron Cookery

Rescuing and Seasoning Cast Iron

Cast Iron for the Rest of Us — taking care of your pans

What and How to Cook in Cast Iron

Ingredients

Responsible Consumerism: How to Make it Work

Whole Wheat Pasta Rises from the Grave

Punk Housewife Tip: Oil and Wine


Recipes:

Bread

Bread Evangelizing — the perfect cherry-popper bread recipe

Bread Every Day, Part One: Ingredients

Part Two: Techniques

Sprouted Wheat Bread: an exploration

Mastering Sprouted Wheat Bread!

Perfect Whole Grain Biscuits

Breakfast

Bouquet of Choice: A Recipe for Swiss Chard Muffins

Homemade Grape-Nuts — they’re just caramelized bread crumbs!

Grrr-nola: Make Your Own Breakfast Cereal and Stick it to Kellog Corp (from the old blog)

34 Times Round and a Recipe for German Pancakes

If You Can’t Beet ‘Em — pink pancakes win major mama points

Dinner

Leftover Queen — savory vegetable pie

Stop Buying Salad Dressing NOW

It’s What’s Fer Dinner — favorite quick meals

Good News For Half Beer Lovers — meat and/or mushroom carbonade

Green Tomato and Turkey Enchiladas

Swiss Chard Ravioli

Dinner Deconstructed: Ground Meat Patties, Brown Rice and Glazed Carrots — thorough instructions for beginner cooks

What to Feed Kids When You Really Need Them to Eat — at our house it’s macaroni and cheese’n’fish’n’peas

Sunday Dinner Any Day of the Week — pot roast your local grass fed carbon-neutral meat to melt-in-your-mouth perfection

Value Menu: Whole Chicken — get the most out of your $4/lb farmer’s market bird

Chicken an’ Bisket — my favorite roast chicken and what to do with the leftovers

Of Stock and Bullion (from the old blog)

Making Your Own “Canned” Soups (also the old blog)

Empanadas: A Confession

Dinner Every Night: Pasta with Lentils

Sweet Tooth

Holiday Baking Party — German Christmas bread and super easy truffles

Chocolate: Cures What Ails Ya — the easiest way to stretch $9+/lb fair trade chocolate chips

The Best F***ing Brownies Ever

HOT Hot Chocolate — turn your thermostat down 5 degrees and whip up a batch!

Food Recycling: Lickety Split Leftover Apple Pie — with the easiest ever pie crust

Flaky Whole Wheat Pie Crust — not the easiest, but so good


Backyard Homestead:

Gardening

Harvest First, Cook Second

Gardening for the Table

Planning an Efficient Garden — it’s all about follow-through

Self Irrigating Planters Made Easy

Chickens

Just Wing It — build a half-assed coop and get by, if you need to

DIY Chicken Waterers

Egg Shells to Egg Shells

Preserving

Bringing Home the Basil — how to make, store and use pesto

Monastery Marmalade — scavenged fruit and citrus pectin

Marmalade Redooo — note to self: it is entirely possible to make too much marmalade

Truly No-Nonsense Tomato Sauce

Ghee: Frying Local



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Comments

14 responses to “Calamity in the Kitchen”

  1. Amazing timing again, CJ- I’ve just figured out the chicken coop I want to buy, and have been saying to myself, must go back thru Apron Stringz and reread all her wisdom! Thanks again!

    1. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      check out harvey Ussary’s fantastic website, The Modern Homestead. he is a wealth of chook knowledge. the link takes you to his poultry page, which starts out with a plug for his new book, but scroll down for an index to his extensive and very useful online articles. i’ve been meaning to put him in my sidebar since i discovered him, oh some 3 years ago! whoops. better late than never.

  2. Love this! Thanks. I can happily stalk your old posts now. :)
    D
    x

  3. Meadow, you really need to think about a book. You have a lot to offer, and now, oddly enough, even appear organized. I also think you need to apply to the Smithsonian to be listed as a national treasure. When I read your blog, it just makes me feel good.

    1. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      national treasure? oh bob, you are a piece of work.
      as always, i do appreciate the outrageous encouragement!

  4. Christina Avatar

    If you haven’t already, you might look into using the category feature/ tool. This would allow you to assign a tag or category to every post (like, efficient kitchens or good groceries or recipes, etc). WordPress has widgets for your side bar that can list out all your categories, and the system should automatically create pages of posts in a specific category when a user/reader clicks on a specific category. It won’t save you from having to go back through old posts and assign categories, but it will save you the future work or having to update indices.

    And if you know all this already, please forgive the unsolicited advice!

    1. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      thanks, i do already do this. but when you click on a category it just takes you to a list of every post i’ve ever written in that category, with the first paragraph of each, which adds up to pages of listings. extremely awkward for perusing i think.

  5. This is very helpful. If you have time to maintain it, or do another one in 2 years or something, listing the new stuff, that would be awesome. But no pressure.

  6. CJ, I just have to tell you. I have used this post so many times already! Making chicken stock today from a whole chicken, leftover granola muffins tomorrow, tried the mac n cheese nfishnpeas the other day… I even moved some stuff around in my kitchen based on your oh-so-thorough Real Life Kitchens posts. Thanks!!!

    1. Calamity Jane Avatar
      Calamity Jane

      oh daniela, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to tell me! i’m so glad it has been useful.

  7. Coming so late to the party, but I love your blog!