This is a recipe my mom made over and over every summer when we were kids (and still does). It’s been so long I have no idea where the recipe is originally from. This is a lot better than the old frozen juice, staying tasty to the last chunk.

Ingredients (for 2 racks of 8 popsicle)

1 packet (85g) of Jello (or generic brand)
1/2 cup of sugar
2 cups of boiling water
2 cups of cold water

Preparation

• Put the jello powder and the sugar in a large bowl.
• Add the boiling water and stir until the powder and sugar are completed dissolved. Mix in the cold water.
• Pour the jello mix in the ice pop molds, leaving a bit of room at the top. Put the sticks in and freeze overnight.
• To unmold, run hot water over the mold, twisting and pulling the stick gently until it gets out.

 

Ingredients (Yield : about 20 bars)

40 oatmeal squares cereals
2 cups of quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup of wheat germ
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoon of cardamon pods, ground
4 teaspoons of flax seeds, ground
2 teaspoons of chia seeds, ground
1 teaspoon of sesame seeds, ground
A pinch of salt

1 egg
1 1/2 cup of soy milk or cow’s milk
1 cup of fresh okara
2 tablespoons of canola oil

1/2 cup of raisins
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation

• Put the oatmeal squares in a large bowl and smash them a few times with a potato masher to break them in small pieces.
• Add the oatmeal, wheat germ, baking powder, spices, grounds seeds and salt in the bowl and mix well.
• In another bowl, mix together the egg, milk, okara and oil. Pour it in the big bowl with the dry ingredients and stir well.
• Add the chocolate and the raisins and mix again.
• Pour the batter in a pan, spreading it evenly. I used two pans, one 8″ X 8″ and one 8″ X 4″.
• Cook at 350 F for 35 to 40 minutes. When the mix has cooled enough, cut in bars. This recipe freeze well if the bars don’t disappear within 3 days…

I ate one of them as a late breakfast, but for a weekday morning half a pancake it with some fruits was more than enough. It does keep for about a week in the fridge though so you don’t need to eat everything right away.

 

Ingredients (Yield : 3 big pancakes)

1/3 cup of flour
1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup of frozen cranberries, chopped

Preparation

• In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Stir in the eggs,ricotta and chopped cranberries.
• Pour 1/2 cup of batter in a hot pan and cook, turning the pancake when the top starts to bubble and the bottom is brown. It will brown pretty fast but don’t worry, it won’t taste burnt.

Unfortunately, the bags sold at the grocery store are pretty expensive if you take into account that they only contain a few popcorn kernels, not to mention the salt and/or the artificial flavours they add for the taste. Also, it produces a lot of waste : you have to to throw away the greasy bag, the plastic wrapper and the box. That’s a lot for three or four bags of popcorn!

The best option I’ve found is to make my own popcorn bags. The only things needed are a brown paper bag (I use lunch-style bags) and 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels. Put the kernels at the bottom of the bag and fold it a few times. Cook for about 2 or 3 minutes in the microwave like you would for a store-brought bag, stopping when the pops are more than a few seconds appart. You don’t need to add grease or oil : it works fine without anything. The only time I ever used oil, it was all absorbed by the bag, with none left for the popcorn.

When it’s done, you can add your seasonings of choice. I usually just eat it plain, or with some nutritional yeast. Any other good ideas? I’ve got a lot of pop-corn grains left…

Cretons are usually eaten on toasts (sometime with a dash of mustard) or on crackers. This makes a pretty big batch for one person but it can be frozen and it will be as good when thawed.

Ingredients

1 lb (454 g) of ground pork
2 slices of white bread
1 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

• Remove the crust from the bread and tear in small cubes. Put in a pan with the milk and stir together.
• Add the pork,the spices, the salt and the pepper to the pan and mix. Cook over low heat for about an hour, stiring from time to time.
• Once the cretons are well cooked, you can eat them as is or put them in the blender and chop a few seconds for a smoother texture. They can be stored in the fridge for a week, or in the freezer for a long time.

 

Ingredients (Yield : 2 plates)

Around 140g of homemade paneer , cut in small cubes

85g of dry whole wheat spaghetti

1 carrot, diced
1 zucchini, sliced thin
3/4 cup of green beans
Half a red pepper, diced

4 dried tomatoes (or 8 dried tomato halves)
10 black olives, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of oregano
1 tablespoon of basil

Preparation

• Put the dried tomatoes in a bowl of hot water to soften them up a bit.
• Cook the pasta following the instructions on the package.
• Arrange the prepared vegetables on a baking sheet and cook in the oven at 350 F for about 15 minutes.
• Drain the cooked spaghetti, put it back in the pot and mix in the olive oil, the oregano and the basil. Arrange the pasta in the plates or bowls.
• Top the pasta with the vegetables, the olives and the paneer cubes. Chop the softened dried tomatoes and add them on top.

 

I usually use it like tofu in a variety of dishes, since it’s a bit bland on its own. Paneer can also be found in some grocery stores if you’re lucky : I’ve bought some once and it was firmer and less creamy than the one I make with this recipe. With more weight, my homemade paneer would probably be as firm, but it hold together well enough for my needs.

Ingredients (Yield : about 140g)

1 liter (4 cups) of whole milk (I used milk with 3,25% fat)
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Preparation

Warm the milk slowly over low/medium heat until it boils gently, stirring often so it won’t burn. Remove the pot from the fire as soon as the milk boils to prevent spills, especially if you have a small cooking pot.

Pour the lemon juice over the milk, stir slowly until large curds form and let them set for about 10 minutes.

Ladle the curds gently in a mold or a colander lined with cotton cloth or cheese cloth (I used my tofu mold). Hold the corners of the cloth together and rince the curds under a light stream of water to wash off the lemon juice.

Put the curds back in the mold, close the cloth over them and cover with a weight. Leave the cheese to press for about two hours. After this, the cheese can be used right away or stored in the refrigerator for two weeks at most.

Ingredients

The only things you really need for this recipe is olive oil and lye. I usually use cheap olive pomace oil for soap. Pomace oil is obtained from the last pressing of the olives and is poor quality for food, but is great for soap. Since there are more impurities, you won’t need to stir as much. You could always try with the best quality extra-virgin oil, but you will have to stir alot before your soap is ready. Also, make sure that what you buy is 100% olive oil by checking the label carefully : some cheap brands sells olive oil mixed with canola oil and the results are unpredictable in that case.

The maths

Now, we need to figure out how much lye you need to use. Soap recipes are always in weight of oil. We’re going to do a small 1 lb (16 oz) batch, so we already know that we’ll need 16oz of olive oil.

Then we’re going to use a ratio called SAP that express the amount of lye needed to make the oil react completely. This ratio is different for each oil, but since we’re going to use only oil this is going to be easier. The ratio for the olive oil is 0,134 and is expressed in oz, so :

With this amount of lye, 100% of the olive oil will react, and we don’t really want to do that. You need to add a little safety margin to make sure all the lye has reacted with oil, with some extra in the soap so it will be milder. You don’t want too much though, or the soap will be soft and mushy. A 5% superfat, or 5% extra oil, is calculated this way :

It’s not a huge change since the batch is small, so you’ll have to measure as precisely as you can. The only thing left is to calculate how much water will be used. This is not as important since the water will evaporate, but too little will make it hard to dissolve the lye and too much will increase the time the soap takes to harden. A 40% solution is a nice compromise for most soaps. So, to calculate it :

The final recipe

To sum it up, the recipe will be :

1 lb (543,6 g) of olive oil
2,0368 oz (57,74 g) of lye
3,0552 oz (86,61 g) of water

You can double-check those calculations with the MMS Lye Calculator. The default values are fines, just write the amount of olive oil (in oz by default) and press “Calculate Lye”. The amount will not be identical, since SAP is a approximation and I don’t know which numbers they use. Next time, we’re actually going to make this soap.

• Oils : Oil is the basis of you soap : if you don’t choose well, you won’t get nice soap. Fortunately, there are many good soap recipes available online to help you choose. You can use both animal and vegetable oils to make your soap. I usually make soap with vegetables oils : olive oil is nice for bulk, along with other oils like palm and coconut oils.
   
• Lye : Nothing to choose here, just make sure that what is you get is 100% lye if you buy it from the hardware store. A little lye will go a long way if you only make small batches, so don’t buy too much. This should be clearly labelled and stored in a safe and dry places so children and pets won’t find it.
   
• Scents : The two main ways to scent your soap are with essential oils and with fragrance oils. Essential oils are made for the real plants, while fragrance oils mimic the scent of real thing with chemicals. Fragrance oil are available in a lot more scents though and the price is the same for all of them, while the price of essential oils varies depending on the ingredients used.
   
• Colors : Colors can be added to soap with many additives : micas, clays, oxides and cosmetics colourants. Every other ingredient you add to your soap will also affect the final color, so you may be just fine with the natural color of the soap. Also, you should be careful when you use herbs and plant extracts since most of them turn will brown over time once they are mixed with the lye.
   


Pink and green clays

• Other additives : There are many other things you can add like milk power, herbs, flowers, coffee grounds and pumice sand. Each of them will add their own little thing to your soap.
   


From top left, going clockwise : goat milk powder, lavender flowers and pumice sand

A good soapmaking store will have those supplies available. I buy my oils locally since those can be expensive to ship and order my scents, colors and additives online from the Voyageur Soap & Candle Company in Canada.

In any case, you don’t need to add all those things make a great soap. One of my favourite soap is a simple 100% olive oil soap with clay : it hardens nicely and is wonderfully soft and mild on the skin. In the next post, I’ll teach you how to calculate the olive oil and lye you need, and give you the recipe.

The measurement she gave me were mostly approximations, so I did my best to get more precise numbers as I did the pies. It worked out pretty well, so here is the recipe.

Ingredients (Yield : 2 pies)

About 650g (2 crusts) of homemade pie dough, fresh or thawed. The pie pans I used are 19 cm (7 1/2 inch) wide and 3 cm (1 inch) deep.

5 cups of frozen blueberries
2/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of water
3 1/2 tablespoon of corn starch

Preparation

Mix the water and corn starch together in a small bowl. Put the blueberries, the sugar and the water/corn starch mix in a pot and stir well.

Heat over low heat, stirring from time to time until the juice thickens. It can take more that 10 minutes, so don’t worry if it takes a while. If your pie crusts are not ready, you can roll them while the blueberries are cooking.

When it’s done, pour the blueberry mixture in the crusts and cover them with crust tops. Using a small brush, wet the border of the crust and press well with a fork to seal the tops. With a knife, cut a slit on top of the crust and put the pies in the oven at 350 F for about 30 minutes, until the crust is golden.