Tip of the Month: Substituting Ingredients when cooking

I am finally able to sit down and post my November tip, though it's a bit late when I usually post at the beginning of the month.  Since Thanksgiving is just days away, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about cooking and substituting ingredients.  The Fall and Winter are always times of year that I bake more, partly because I don't like to have the oven on when it's hot outside.  On cooler days, the oven can warm the house and I don't mind that.

There are many reasons why you might want to substitute ingredients in a recipe, here are the one's I find to be more common, but by-no-means all of them:
       1.  Cannot find the specific ingredient
       2.  Do not have the ingredient in your pantry (and do not want to go to the store)
       3.  Want to include a healthier ingredient
       4.  Do not like a specific ingredient
       5.  Allergic or food-sensitive to a specific ingredient


No matter what your reasoning is, let's figure out how to substitute and not drastically alter a recipe or the flavor.  For baking you can easily substitute ingredients like butter and oil and you do not need to change measurements.  If you have a cup of butter or oil, substitute 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce or cooked pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix).  I've used applesauce in place of butter and oil in many baking recipes, and just recently tried substituting pumpkin for butter in a whoopee pie recipe.  The pumpkin was a great substitute, especially since I was making the whoopee pie's for Halloween.   Applesauce and pumpkin make cookies, muffins, breads and the like moist and are great choices for vegans.  I haven't come up with a great alternative to eggs, if you are looking for a truly  vegan substitution.

Creamed Pumpkin and sugar

Whoopee pie with pumpkin substituted for butter

Now I wouldn't recommend substituting applesauce or pumpkin if you are making any pie crusts or pastry dough.  For those I still use butter and I might try coconut oil, but that will be for another day.

For cooking, I substitute or exclude ingredients depending on the what the recipe is.  For instance, I recently tried Giada's Orecchiette with Roasted Fennel recipe, but did not have any sun-dried tomatoes.  I could have substituted purely sun-dried tomatoes that were not in oil, however I did not have those either.  So to make sure I still had a tomato flavor in the dish, I simply added about a cup or so (to taste) of marinara sauce.  The result was fantastic and I think I might always make this recipe with the substitution.   In other cases you can substitute different cuts of meats or even types of meat.  I often substitute chicken breast for recipes that call for chicken thighs or drumsticks.  Other times, when I cannot find an ingredient, for instance harissa paste, I found a recipe to make my own and used that as a substitute.  Sometimes if can be a simple substitution baby bella mushrooms for button mushrooms or vegetable stock for chicken stock.

Substituting ingredients should not be difficult and remember it is possible to substitute, just make sure you like what you are replacing.  You can find some of my "experiments" with substituting Hemp Seed Here and Here.

Uses for Coffee Grounds

I always have leftover coffee grounds, but I never throw them out.  Instead I usually add them to the garden dirt since it helps with adding nitrogen to plants and brings earthworms too.  And the coffee grounds always disappear after a few days, so I know the earthworms are doing their job in my garden.  Recently I found a photo on pinterest that had a link to a great article on This Old House.  I love the 10 other uses for coffee grounds, and not all of them are for the garden either.  Definitely have to give the cleaning ideas a try.

Check out the article here

How to control pests in your yard & garden

Since I do not use a pest control company or use toxic chemicals around my house I have been looking for alternatives, besides vinegar.  Vinegar does work for killing weeds, but what about insects, like aphids or snails.  Here's some of my tricks and other resources:

1. Snails/slugs
Beer (any cheap beer works) in a clay or ceramic dish.  Make sure that dirt is around it, otherwise snails/slugs may not crawl into as easily.  I also pick any snails I find on plants and kill them., especially after watering or rain at night.

2.  Aphids
Neem oil works great, it does requires several applications if you have a bad infestation.  Most directions recommend spraying infected plants in the early morning or evening hours.  There are some plants that you should not use neem oil on, just read the directions.

3. Spiders
I find that spider infestations depend on what you live in the US.  Usually I don't have problems with spiders, there are only a few that do live in this area, the Black Widow, being the poisonous/dangerous one.  At the moment I don't have to spray anything, I just try to knock down webs around the house and yard with an outdoor duster.  You should be able to find one at most home improvement stores and they are inexpensive.

Other resources:

Recently I found a new product, EcoSmart (click here), that appears to be useful if you want to protect your house from insects.  Currently I am trying the Garden Insect Killer product for white flies, aphids and other insects in my garden.  If you are looking for alternatives this may prove to be a useful product.  I might have to try the wasp product too.

And finally I found a great post at Green Living, which has many other resources too.  Click here to read the article.

Tip of the Month: More cleaning tips and ideas

I blogged about using vinegar to clean HERE, discussed cleaning products HERE, checked out the tips from Jacqueline on using tea tree oil, and did some more reading.  Finally I found some other very handy tips for cleaning around the house.  Each of these tips are easy and you will probably have these items in your cupboards.

More uses of vinegar:

Windows and glass:

One ounce of white vinegar added to a quart of warm water.  Mix well and pour into a pump/spray bottle.  Lightly mist windows and rub to a shine with a clean cloth (not a paper towel).

Maintain stainless steel:

Apply white vinegar with a soft cloth and rub.  Dry thoroughly to prevent a film from forming and never soak stainless steel.

From In this Crazy Life blog:
Clean paint brushes:
Soak old paint brushes in HOT vinegar for 30 minutes and then wash. The old paint will come out and they will be as good as new.

From  Tales and Tips from A Real Life Housewife:
Clean hard water residue from shower heads:
Tie a baggy of vinegar around a shower head. Leave it there over night, and it will clean everything off with no work!


Other Tips:

Air Freshener: 

Add a dozen or so lemon slices with a small handful of cloves (it's not an exact amount) to a pan of water and simmer for at least 10 minutes.  This should rid the air in your house and kitchen of strong cooking odors and such.

Clean your Teapot:

(I wish I knew about this when I was living in the UK). Rinse the teapot with hot water, use a small amount of baking soda on a damp cloth and rub.  Rinse the teapot with hot water when finished and dry.

Stains on Marble:

Cover the spill with table salt and wipe clean. Or pour milk on set stains then add salt and leave for a few days.  Then wipe clean with a damp cloth.  Should restore the glossy surface of marble.

Hope these cleaning tips help you.   I know that I do not have to shop for a bunch of cleaning products and I am not using harsh/toxic chemicals in my house.

Celebrate Earth Day and other links

Wow, it's been a busy week and with the warm (and sometimes rather unseasonably hot) weather, I have been working in my garden. Which is a great way to celebrate Earth Day.  Some other tips I found are also very easy things we can each do, like stop buying bottled water and line dry our clothes.  Check out my list of links to find out your carbon footprint, join Earthbound Farms' "Take an Organic Step Forward", and other Earth Day tips.

Earthbound Farm here
Earth Day  here
15 Earth Day Tips here
Great list of other links (and source for my image) here