Heather says: Have you ever noticed when you’re just plowing along trying to keep up with life that some things start to slip? For me I’ve gotten into a bad habit of simply heading to the store, grabbing sale items, and planning the menu from that. Our grocery spending isn’t too terribly out of control, …
Dear Home Ec 101, I love having my home grown bacon or sausage on the weekend, but how do I get rid of the horrible grease smell after I have enjoyed breakfast? Signed, Bacon Bits Heather says: The aroma of cooking food is a mixed blessing at best. The odors drift throughout the house as …
Heather says: Unless this is your first visit to this site, it should be quite clear that there are a few things I love in life: to eat, to cook, and to read. Sometimes publishers pick up on this and send me a cookbook to review. If the concept strikes my fancy, I accept. This …
Don’t worry, with the handy print feature, you can delete all of the pictures and chatter with no trouble at all. Heather says: Welcome to the first monthly installment of Fearless Friday here on Home Ec 101. What have you tried in the past month? It doesn’t matter if your experiment was a complete success …
Heather says: Frequent commenter Mrs. Jen B left this in Monday’s post on meal planning: I am absolutely stuck in a rut when it comes to side dishes – heck, even main dishes! My father in law is the pickiest, pickiest eater I’ve ever met in my life. Seriously. We need for him to eat, …
For a full breakdown on exactly how to fry chicken, I invite you to check out Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Heather says: We don’t fry chicken often, but sometimes when chicken thighs are well under $1 per pound the temptation is overwhelming. Recently we had a long conversation on the hidden sources of high fructose corn …
Dear Home Ec 101, I need to get our food budget under control, we spend a ton of money eating out. It’s starting to cause fights. I can’t cook or plan; even if I could, I wouldn’t know where to start. Signed, Hopeless in Hopeswell I began this series as a response to Hopeless back …
Dear Home Ec 101: Help! I have ants milling around my cats’ water bowl. We can’t figure out where they are coming from, but a few more appear each day. They seem to be mostly interested in the water dish, since we tend to keep the rest of the food put away except for meal …
Heather says: Yesterday’s conversation on high fructose corn syrup is a nice segue today’s look at food labeling and MSG. While I understand that cost and profits are the bottom line for many companies, I refuse to take the cynical view that all companies are out to hurt people. I believe there may be some misguided motives …
Heather says: I live under a rock. Well, that’s not true at all let me rephrase it. When we moved from Minnesota to my home state of South Carolina, we decided to not pay for cable or satellite TV to save a little money after the expense of moving and buying a home. We live …