Monthly Archives: February 2011

Experimental Sunday – Oat and Apple Fritters

By Sharon | Recipes , Tips , Tools

I’m trying to get more oats in my diet and working on creating recipes that will add pizazz to my morning breakfast.  I will admit that I am a fan of donuts.  I like those little fried puffs of flour filled with lemon and raspberry.  I’d hate to read the actual ingredients.  Of course, with everything I eat these days I try to find a way to eat the foods I have a weakness for and still be nutritious.

I was thinking about making donuts using oat flour and how that would work.  My daughter said perhaps I could make them like an apple fritter instead.  For a person that doesn’t bake she has good ideas.  These are good and you may be able to get your kids to eat them if they think they’re like a donut.  My 8 year-old grandson liked them but he eats foods a lot of kids won’t.  He wants to grow up to be a chef and is learning now alongside me.Continue reading

Lamington’s – Prepare to Get Messy

By Sharon | Recipes , Tips

Lamington's

This was fun for me to make and in my little tiny kitchen I had the biggest disaster zone! But, big messes can create delicious treats so it’s worth it.

A Lamington is a traditional Australian cake served for tea or dessert. I saw these little squares of cake coated in chocolate and coconut on a TV show from Australia. I love those cooking shows. And I’m all for afternoon tea with some cakes and sandwiches to tide me over until dinner.Continue reading

Seasoned Black Beans for Canning

By Sharon | Recipes , Tips

We have a largely vegetarian diet and one of the easiest and quickest meals to put together is Black Bean Burritos.  When we lived in Hawai’i a can of black beans, or anything canned, was quite expensive compared to the mainland.  Plus, all the trash on the islands has to be hauled away somewhere and the tin cans are not good for the environment.  So, I decided I would just can my own and save a lot of money and the environment.  It is also much quicker to put the burritos together when the beans are mostly prepared.Continue reading

Experimental Sunday – The Day I Tried to Save My Pâte à Choux

By Sharon | Tips

I must be a blessed person in the kitchen because I have hardly ever had a failure when making something.  I can understand why people get discouraged and say they can’t bake when a first try doesn’t come out right.  It’s discouraging.  And I hate to throw ingredients away!

Tonight I am so cranky about it that I’m exhausted and not sure I want to finish my Valentine’s Cream Puffs.  But I will, they’re a treat for my veterinarian’s office. The picture you see here is a result of completely throwing away a batch of Pâte à Choux and starting over.Continue reading

The Benefits of an All Natural Unprocessed Diet

By Sharon | Tips

Hilo Farmers Market

I suffer from migraines.  Not just those headaches that won’t seem to go away for a few days.  I get the full-blown eye splitting, ear shattering, head over the toilet migraine.  I got a few as a child, my mother had them and went to bed for days.  As I got older they got worse, everything seemed to cause them.  I’ve worn doctors out trying to figure out the cause and treat them.  It’s not an occasional migraine, it’s 15 days a month.  Not only are they painful, they destroy your life.  Making plans to do anything is impossible, buying tickets for shows, committing to anything at all.Continue reading