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@crazy-food-lady
Pasta Pizelle
I've had amazing success with every one of the recipes I've tried from Liam The Plant Slant. He's not some uneducated influencer - he actually has training to provide science-backed information on healthy eating. While not a vegetarian, he does minimize his meat footprint, and he focuses on balanced non-disordered eating. He's a huge fan of people getting more fiber.
Haven't tried this recipe yet, but it's on the agenda for this week.
making the radical claim "11 year old children should be taught how to make extremely simple food" has resulted in people making arguments like "I wasnt allowed to plug in electronics until I was 16 and I think this is super normal actually" and "children dont know what ratios are so its unfair to expect them to be able to comprehend the idea of adding equal amounts rice and water to a rice cooker" and I gotta say originally I thought maybe I was being too judgy but now I feel very secure in my opinion because what the fuck
I start making muffins with kids at age 4 or 5 (I put them in the oven and take them out, and they will often need help cracking eggs until they've had a lot of practice. They will also make a huge mess). Seven year olds, standing on an appropriate child stepstool, should be able to do most of the process of cooking noodles on the stove if an adult is in the kitchen supervising. (An adult should turn on the stove and drain the noodles but the child can stir the noodles under supervision.) They should be fully proficient at basic microwave cooking and reheating if they live in a house that has a microwave.
An eleven year old (assuming no serious disabilities) not being able to use a rice cooker is ridiculous. When I was eleven I was cooking roast dinners for my family because they didn't get home from work until seven, and baking packet mix cakes to share with the farm workers on weekends. The average eleven year old shouldn't be put in charge of the family's cooking but they should be able to do it. They should have the capabilities to cook, just not the regular responsibility. Teach your children basic life skills it's like the main job of a parent after keeping them safe and healthy.
I had college roommates who couldn't boil water. As a parent, I was not going to let my kids grow up without the skills they need. My kids started "helping" in the kitchen around age two. They had a tall step stool and they each got a "tasting plate" that we put a pinch of various ingredients on for them to get the idea of how flavors worked (only the safe ones to eat raw, obvi). They helped taste-test and name experimental jams.
Early things they could do included:
Pouring in things I'd measured
Mix by hand or turn on/off the mixer (under direct supervision)
Knead and shape bread
"Decorate" their own personal pizzas
Fetch equipment and ingredients
Smash berries with a potato masher for jam
Choosing cookie cutters and cutting biscuits or cookies
Rolling cookies in sugar
This list quickly expanded to:
Scooping flour (with some help leveling the top)
Measuring spices
Decorating cookies and cupcakes (frosting and sprinkles)
Cutting butter into dry ingredients with a pastry blender
Rolling out easy doughs like baking powder biscuits
Cracking open peach pits
Docking pizza crust with a fork
It's true that early on it was significantly more work to have them "helping" me, but that quickly changed. By age three it was the same amount of work or effort to have them helping as it was for me to make things myself. By four they were more help than work in the kitchen. By kindergarten both of them could read a basic recipe and could shape baguettes or make pizza from scratch with help on the oven.
We had rules for safety, I'm not an idiot.
If they couldn't see into a pot standing on the floor, they weren't allowed to cook at the stove. No falling into or onto hot surfaces!
Paring knives and peelers were used by only one child at a time to start and under close supervision.
At this point my kids are 20 and 17 and they each make dinner one night a week. They make everything from dumplings to quiche to curry to mac and cheese from scratch. On Sunday the oldest made dal by herself for the first time with only a little over-the-phone guidance while I was out of the house.
Kids love to learn. If they have the ability to listen and understand, they have the ability to learn how to make food. This requires patience and supervision early on, but results in teens and adults who are capable in the kitchen.
In a dietary era where all anyone can talk about is protein, it is important to remember that balance is essential and so is fiber.
How different states of butter impact the outcome
This team up brings me great joy.
Last Scheduled Canning for the Season
Today is my last planned canning session for the year, the post-harvest soup stock! I made soup stock in July to free up space in the freezer for the garden's excess. Between July and now, I have ended up with another 15 gallon-bags of vegetable clippings, and they are hogging freezer space (which I need for squash, soup, and other homemade convenience foods).
My husband said I can't announce this as "the last canning session of the year" because we never know what I'll get up to. Which is... fair. ;) But this is the last one I have planned.
2 new food recalls and they are serious
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a recall of three tomato sauces sold at Big Y and Stop & Shop stores over a possible
Here is every pasta affected.
America is a functional country.....
6 people have died. There have also been 25 hospitalizations and 27 illnesses across 18 US states.
items recalled for being infected with listeria as of 11-04-25:
Albertsons Store-Made Deli Pasta Salads with sell-by dates from September 8, 2025, to October 4, 2025
Giant Eagle Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad with expiration dates between September 30, 2025, and October 7, 2025
Home Chef Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with best by dates on or before June 19, 2025
Kroger Deli Bowtie and Penne Pasta Salads sold between August 29, 202,5 and October 2, 2025
Marketside Grilled Chicken Alfredo with Fettuccine with best by dates before June 2025
Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs with best by dates between September 22, 2025, and October 1, 2025
Scott & Jon's Shrimp Scamp with Linguini Bowls with best if used by dates in March 2027
Sprouts Farmers Market Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad with use-by dates between October 10, 2025, and October 29, 2025
Trader Joe's Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettuccine Alfredo with best by dates between September 20, 2025, and October 10, 2025
Food recalls of note! Make sure neither of these are in your pantry or refrigerator!
It's Apple Sauce and Apple Butter Day!
Most Sundays in October have been canning days. This is due to multiple factors.
I have helpers on the weekend! Kids, hubby, sometimes friends.
I have been off dance class on Sundays, which makes the long process canning easier. Jams don't need this time (unless I'm making 26 pints worth), but spaghetti sauce, apple butter, and soup stock do!
I'm out of freezer space! Nothing can be frozen unless I get stuff out.
Just had to take a break from cutting up apples to strip my camera, but it's time to get back to it!
With some changes to techniques, a careful selection of kitchen tools, and tips from fellow bakers, the joy of baking can live on.
I luckily haven't had to deal with much chronic pain or hand pain yet, especially with regards to baking (crochet is another story). That said, these look like some pretty solid tips! There's also some in the comments section.
As this link nears five hundred notes, I'm just... very quietly touched at how many people are sharing it. Whether they need it themselves (or think they will someday), or know someone else who might need it, the fact that all of them are sharing the sentiment of "I want the people who love doing this thing to be able to keep doing the thing that they love" is... yeah. It makes me happy.
This is an amazing article. I have a connective tissue disorder, currently only referred to as hypermobility not otherwise specified and widespread tendonosis (not tendonitis, which is what it was thought to be for years). I have driving limitations and working limitations to keep the pain down and function up.
I love cooking and baking, but it's so easy to overdo it. My biggest takeaways (some of which are mentioned in the article):
Machines are not cheating. I have a Bosch mixer that does the cutting of fat into dry ingredients and all my kneading. It has made homemade bread possible. That same Bosch does so much cutting and chopping for me. Incidentally, I chose the Bosch because I needed something I could move, and Kitchen Aid mixers exceed my lifting restrictions.
Tools with wide/fat handles (and a little grippiness) can be so helpful. You don't have to hold as tight, which can ease everything a bit.
Help is encouraged. My family and friends will help me, taking the repetition or pressure off. The hubby just helped me strip the stems off a fuck ton of greens so we could blanch and freeze them. A friend came and stirred my spaghetti sauce pots. My kids love to help with bread and cookies. It makes the process social.
Fuck unnecessary steps. I don't peel potatoes... like ever. I've learned that blanching beets can make them shuck their skins with no effort. Apples are not peeled or cored when I make apple sauce and apple butter (a food mill extracts them at the end). A lot of modern recipes and processes include steps that are wasteful of food and/or energy.
If you're struggling with your baking and cooking because of physical issues, do check out the article and the comments. There may be something in there to help you.
Spaghetti Sauce Update - New Record
Yesterday I made and canned 106 pints worth of spaghetti sauce. This was 92 times my base recipe. This is all evidence that I am the Crazy Food Lady, not the Moderate Food Lady. My prior record was 76 times the base recipe back in 2020. As best as I can tell, that yielded roughly 64 pints worth of sauce.
It's worth noting that within days of making sauce in 2020, my foot imploded (bunion anyone?) and then a week or so later, my husband developed COVID, so record keeping was not strong at this time and that total is based on photos and printed labels.
Apologies for the crappy photo - it's the best I can seem to get in the garage right now. Here's all 14 quarts and 78 pints of sauce.
It took about 14 hours. My husband supervised the canners in the summer kitchen (aka: garage). A friend of ours cut up the onions and garlic, and also stirred pots while I was putting sauce in jars. The kids each took two shifts of washing jars and pots. I was in charge of measurements, spices, and details.
We've identified areas for improvement for next time (and recorded them!).
All in all, a successful event, and accomplished in pretty good time. Not sure how we're going to fit all these into the cupboard. But we now have room in the freezer and I can start thinking about apple sauce and apple butter, to be followed by soup stock, again. I hope I have enough jars for all this.
It's Spaghetti Sauce Day!
Last time I made spaghetti sauce was on October 18, 2020 (so five years and one day ago. I have no record of how much sauce was made and I never got the video edited because my husband came down with the initial strain of COVID-19 the following week, and my kids and I had to live in the basement like trolls.
We are nearly out of that sauce, with only a couple of jars left, so we are due. Yes, I do use home canned goods more than a year out. Yes I know that the US Department of Agriculture doesn't like this. But other countries don't use a "toss at 1 year" model for properly canned goods, and neither do I. Do what works for you.
I am thawing tomatoes for 92 times my base recipe. Please pray for my kitchen math.
Freezer Space at a Premium
As previously noted, I have been harvesting, blanching, and freezing in a continuous cycle since sometime in August. The chest freezer is at a critical state.
I had previously removed any fruits that could be made into jam, placing them in the smaller freezer of our refrigerator (which is also equally packed).
It's like I'm playing one of those games with the sliding squares, and you can only move one at a time.
The tomatoes are being frozen until the harvest is over, so we can make one batch of spaghetti sauce.
The veggie clippings are being frozen until the garden is pulled out, so we can spend one day on soup stock.
The frozen harvest must stay.
I still want to stock up on things from the farmers market that I was unable to grow (corn, rutabaga, etc) much of which will also need to be frozen.
Today, I miraculously don't have dance class, so I am taking all the jam fruits and processing them today. Or else. This will allow me to put harvests in the upstairs freezer until the tomatoes are done later this week. Ideally next week, I'll make spaghetti sauce. That will buy a large amount of space for continued harvests.
Once all the canning is done (soup stock), we'll be able to make our own prepared and frozen convenience foods (lasagna, pasty pies, and eggrolls are popular). In the meantime, there will be no ice cream or other frozen goods brought into the house, because there is simply no room.
I ended up making six different jams, one of which was technically new (though it feels like cheating since it was so easy to engineer).
I split the day into phase one and two, so I didn't have EVERYTHING thawing and dripping all over my counter.
Have added 26.75 pints to the collection. The very tasty collection.
Freezer Space at a Premium
As previously noted, I have been harvesting, blanching, and freezing in a continuous cycle since sometime in August. The chest freezer is at a critical state.
I had previously removed any fruits that could be made into jam, placing them in the smaller freezer of our refrigerator (which is also equally packed).
It's like I'm playing one of those games with the sliding squares, and you can only move one at a time.
The tomatoes are being frozen until the harvest is over, so we can make one batch of spaghetti sauce.
The veggie clippings are being frozen until the garden is pulled out, so we can spend one day on soup stock.
The frozen harvest must stay.
I still want to stock up on things from the farmers market that I was unable to grow (corn, rutabaga, etc) much of which will also need to be frozen.
Today, I miraculously don't have dance class, so I am taking all the jam fruits and processing them today. Or else. This will allow me to put harvests in the upstairs freezer until the tomatoes are done later this week. Ideally next week, I'll make spaghetti sauce. That will buy a large amount of space for continued harvests.
Once all the canning is done (soup stock), we'll be able to make our own prepared and frozen convenience foods (lasagna, pasty pies, and eggrolls are popular). In the meantime, there will be no ice cream or other frozen goods brought into the house, because there is simply no room.
The recipe:
PUMPKIN PUDDING PIE w/ ORANGE ZEST & CARDAMOM WHIPPED CREAM
(makes ~3 pies)
2½ cups sugar
15oz can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
½ tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2½ cups milk
4 TBSP butter (melted)
1 orange
1 tsp powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 TBSP powdered sugar
1 tsp cardamom
pinch nutmeg
pumpkin pudding pie w/ orange zest
preheat the oven to 325°F
prepare the pie crust (that's another recipe's job—either find a scratch recipe or buy a pre-made dough or graham cracker crust)
blend 2 ½ cups sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl (if using a mixer, blend with a paddle attachment)
add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt; blend until well mixed
add the milk and melted butter, whisk until well mixed (if using a mixer, blend with the whisk attachment)
pour your batter into the crust, filling right up to the edge (the mix will be more liquid than solid, but it will rise/solidify in the oven)
bake at 325°F for 55 minutes
remove from the oven and let it cool
top with sifted powdered sugar
zest an orange over the top of the pie (microplane if possible but regular zester is fine; have found that the most aesthetically pleasing version is to peel the orange and then finely dice the peel but that's a hassle!)
whipped cream
put your metal mixing bowl and whisk in the freezer for at least 15 minutes
whisk powdered sugar, cardamom, and nutmeg together in bowl
add heavy cream; whisk until stiff peaks start forming
serve on a cooled pie :)
We are notoriously picky about our pumpkin pies, and this looks worthy of trying.
Another Day, Another Harvest - Gardening is Work
Here's yesterday's harvest. About 2 pounds of green beans, two each of kohlrabi, summer squash, and cucumbers, a few loose broccolis, a heap of thyme, and a mess of broccoli and kale greens.
It took me about an hour and a half to do my morning maintenance (checking to see if things need water, monitoring where seeds were recently planted, and harvesting), which is an improvement on the two to two-and-a-half hours I was spending almost daily on the garden in late spring and early summer. I then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon (except for food and stretch breaks) processing the produce. I chopped up 24 cups of tomatoes for turning into sauce later. I blanched and flash froze four pounds of green beans, 6 ounces broccoli greens, 4 ounces kale, and 4 ounces of kohlrabi greens. All said and done this was 7 hours of my day.
While rewarding, gardening is work and requires time. I'm as much a barbarian in the garden as I am in the kitchen, so I cut corners where I can. I don't weed as often as many people would say I should. My gardens aren't exactly pretty, but they're functional, and it's still a massive time investment. Other than berries and a few lovely rutabaga greens, I didn't really get produce from my garden until August. I started planting in April. That's roughly four months of work with nothing to show for it on a daily basis, which is a bit of an exhausting grind. Gardening is a long game after all. Right now, I can make this investment because I'm grossly under-employed (fuck you generative AI) and unable to find other work.
How often do we tell the poorest members of society to grow their own food? It's only cheaper when it comes to money, and you still need a plot and gardening implements as well as seeds and/or starts. Being able to grow my own produce to bank in case of food distribution collapse is a privilege. Yes, it's work, but I am in a place of privilege where I have time to invest in it. If I were working like I had in past years, I would be banking food purchased from the farmers market instead.
Gardening is rewarding. Growing your own food is a humbling and rewarding process. I've had all sorts of things fail. My nearly 100 page garden plan is full of revisions and amendments, and I went into this with a lifetime of gardening experience. Some people can cut household expenses by growing their own food. Some people can only manage a single container plant. Some people don't have the time, emotional energy, or physical ability to grow anything. Society underplays the time cost involved in gardening, and it's okay for you to do what works for you.
Harvest, Blanch, Freeze, Repeat
That's my life right now. It alternates with harvest, dehydrate, condition, jar, repeat.
Given the decidedly fall vibes here in Minnesota, I feel some pretty intense pressure to keep the dehydrator in constant action. I want to be sure I get everything harvested and dried before we reach a point that it's too late. Parsley today, to be followed by Genovese basil, then thyme, and finally Red Rubin basil. Then we repeat the cycle. I'll need to fit lavender in, too, I've got plans for it.
I've put out pleas for canning jars (holy crap they've gotten expensive) and people have delivered, thank goodness. Might still need to hunt down some pints because I'll be doing spaghetti sauce, some apple sauce, and another batch of soup stock before the cold truly sets in.
I'm about to go sort through the freezer to identify any fruits I need to convert to jam this week to make way for the temporary holding of vegetable clippings (for soup stock) and tomatoes (for spaghetti sauce) along with all the greens, beans, and other veggies that are getting freezer time for their long term storage.
Home agriculture is time intensive. Don't get me wrong, I love doing this, but there's a reason it doesn't work for everyone. I guess it's a good thing I'm mostly unemployed right now.
why are so many canners so determined to get botulism 😭
"our great grandmas fed their entire families with their knowledge. they didn't need the government telling them how to do it."
great grandma also lost babies for want of vitamin k shots and antibiotics and would have had fewer babies to start with if she'd had the option to access birth control.
great grandma did the best with what she had and knew.
why can't we do the same 😭😭
edit after
@princessxombie an excellent point!
the reason for a preference of bottled lemon juice over fresh squeezed for canning (as reported through the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach): "It is a USDA recommendation that bottled lemon juice be used. And consistent with the recommendation, reputable canning sources will agree that the best source of lemon juice for canning is commercially bottled lemon juice, as opposed to the juice of a fresh lemon. The reason for the recommendation is that bottled lemon juice has been uniformly acidified or standardized per FDA regulations: “lemon juice prepared from concentrate must have a titratable acidity content of not less than 4.5 percent, by weight, calculated as anhydrous citrus acid.” With a guaranteed pH...there is a consistent and known acid level which is essential for the critical safety margin in canning low-acid foods and for making jams gel properly. "
as for resources:
the usda guide to canning (revised in 2015). you used to be able to find it on the usda website but for SOME reason (two guesses as to why 🙄) that website is now routing to a broken error 404 page not found. fortunately, it's available other places! here it is hosted on the internet archive! if you want it printed in color and spiral-bound, you can also purchase it for $25 from perdue university.
if you want more resources, the university of utah has a whole section of their preserve the harvest extension website dedicated to safe food storage practices including freeze drying, fermenting, drying, etc.
ball (the mason jar company) also has a section of their website dedicated to canning 101, including the basic process, recipes, a glossary of terms, and videos for their tutorials if you're a visual learner. they also offer free online recipes broken down in a way that's meant to be easy even for new canners.
go forth and enjoy canning without giving yourself and others botulism, friends.
yes! an excellent thing to point out!
as reported through michigan state university: "The acidity of a tomato is considered borderline between a high- and low-acid food. Tomato varieties have been changed through the years and as a result, many now have milder flavor and lower acidity than in the past. Testing has shown that some current tomato varieties have pH values at or above pH 4.6; a few have values of pH 5 or even higher."
for reference (thank you, university of georgia): "The bacteria that cause botulism poisoning can grow and produce toxin in sealed jars of moist food at room temperature if the pH (measure of acidity) is above 4.6."
so great grandma's recipe might have been perfectly safe with the ingredients she had access to! but you may or may not still have those same ingredients.
It's also important to note that if your recipe relies on vinegar for acidification (some recipes do), you need to need to need to check that your vinegar is 4% or greater vinegar. Many vinegars now are 3% or lower and they WILL NOT get you to the necessary ph. Companies have lowered the percentage slightly, and for someone who's, like, making salad dressing, it doesn't really matter, but for canning? It really really matters.
Some excellent points in here.
Times have changed
Tomatoes were once pretty uniformly all high acid, but due to hybridization (necessary to protect the crop from tomato and tobacco mosaic viruses) many are now borderline - adding a guaranteed acid keeps them safe.
Processing times for jams, jellies, and other things have been revised over time as a result of research. My Ball Jar Blue Book from the mid 1990s has half pints of jam processed at 10 minutes, but these are all 15 now.
You can still use your old recipes, but make sure the acid level and processing times are up to date.
In the Midwest, I get my 5% acid white vinegar at Costco and my 5% acid apple cider vinegar at Cub Foods.
University extension services often have a lot of great information on canning. Home canning can definitely be safe, you just need to follow proper protocols.
