This week's in-season recipe theme was supposed to be beets! But, due to being sick and in bed for a good portion of the week, I was eating chicken soup and toast and stuff like that instead of experimenting with beets. :P

So I have never gotten very creative with red beets. Pickled beets (which my mom makes) aren't a favorite, by far. ;)

I do love cooked beets, drained and tossed with butter and salt. So yummy!!

How do you like to eat red beets??

To participate in this week's In-Season Recipe Swap:

Post your on-theme recipe, including your own photo of the food. Link to this post, and then come over here and let us know where to find YOU! Just leave your link in a comment and I will manually add them to this post throughout the day. :) Next week's recipe theme (November 11, 2009) is cranberries!

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The past week has seemed a blur. On the verge of fully recovering from colds, we caught the flu last Friday. It seems that "catching up" on anything, blog or email included, just hasn't been visible on the radar these past few weeks... or months!

In all, we're really doing just fine. :) As much as I haven't been available to do as much blogging as I'd like, I have been making myself available to my family. :) We're getting into a good groove with homeschooling. Dinner is on the table (usually 20 minutes late! heehee) every night, and by 9pm we're all snuggly tucked into our beds (usually). :)

I'm still waiting for that second-trimester burst of energy to kick in. I haven't posted any pregnancy updates this time (though I really should get a picture!) but if I had, they'd all be along the lines of "Just plugging along... not feeling the greatest... I was planning to do x, y, and z, but I'm falling into bed instead!" :) Joshua has stepped up to the challenge and helped with lots of meals and after-meal clean-up, and given me plenty of naps while he watched the children. Such a blessing!

This honey ginger chicken stir fry was beautiful and I liked it, though it didn't get rave reviews from the rest of the family. ;) I did save my notes and maybe eventually I'll try again with some tweaks!

I love fresh ginger, but don't have enough recipes that use it. What are your favorite ways to use fresh ginger root?

Grilled Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

This week's kitchen tip is for thin-sliced meats.

For a hot sandwich, fajitas, or a stir fry, it's best to use meat that's sliced really thin, making it tender, quick to prepare, and easy to blend with the other ingredients.

But if you've ever tried to thinly slice an uncooked roast or a chicken breast, you'll know how difficult it can be! The meat just doesn't want to lay there and be sliced thin. ;)

However, it's much easier to get paper-thin slices when the meat is partially frozen! You can even toss partially-frozen sliced meat into your pan when stir-frying. Since it's so thin, it'll still cook quickly.

Spicy Grilled Steak Stir Fry recipe

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Washing cast iron (Donna)
2. Cinnamon roll tips (Amy)
3. Converting metric recipes to english (Alea)
4. Cleaning garbage disposal (Annie)
5. Kitchen cleaning (Kolfinna)
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I love onions! I do lots of cooking with onions, but usually as a flavoring/seasoning rather than a vegetable. For today's recipe swap, however, I added my recipe for French Onion Soup!

This soup is actually very easy to make, and is fun to serve as an appetizer for a nice dinner! :)

The flavorful beef broth is loaded with tender onion slices. Garlic and thyme provide the perfect flavor for the soup. Yum!!

To participate in this week's In-Season Recipe Swap:

Post your on-theme recipe, including your own photo of the food. Link to this post, and then come over here and let us know where to find YOU! Just leave your link in a comment and I will manually add them to this post throughout the day. :) Recipe theme for next week (November 4, 2009) is beets!

1. Dried onions/onion powder (Angie)
2. Sweet Vidalia Pie (Chaya)
3. One-Pan Sage-and-Onion Chicken and Sausage (Chaya)
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I know of a couple great ways for thickening soups, sauces, etc.

One method is to make a roux, which is melted fat (butter) stirred with flour and then added to a sauce/soup. This is easy and makes a delicious start for a soup or sauce, especially when onions, garlic, or celery is added as the butter sizzles! Yum!

Another method is to whisk (or shake in a sealed cup) flour and cold milk or water together until there are no lumps, and then pour that mixture into a hot soup or sauce and bring to a boil, stirring until thick.

However, neither of these methods are extremely convenient for when you have a soup or sauce that is basically finished, but you want to thicken it just a little more. Here are a couple ways to thicken soup last-minute without lumps:

Sprinkle in some instant potato flakes and stir.

Use a sifter to gently disperse a few sprinkles of flour over the hot soup, and stir or whisk rapidly to incorporate. Using a sifter (or fine mesh strainer) helps prevent lumps by spreading the flour very finely.

Anyone else have last-minute thickening tips?? :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Keeping track of freezer stock (Becky)
2. Measuring cups (Kolfinna)
3. Kitchen toothbrush (Donna)
4. Help in the kitchen (Linda)
5. Speeding up spices (Rachel)
6. Easy egg cleanup (Tara)
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I've been busy baking! I've made these Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Icing 3 times this week. Don't worry, we didn't eat all of them! Some were for a breakfast potluck. :)

I love cooking and baking with pumpkin. I've tried lots of different pumpkin creations and wanted to try making scones with pumpkin. Since I've only made scones a handful of times, I'm certainly no expert... so I went to Nicole's blog Pinch My Salt and used her Pumpkin Spice Scone recipe to guide me. I made a few changes (when don't I?!) and the end result was AWESOME! Especially warm. Totally amazing!!

If you love pumpkin and hot tea, you must try these scones! Or come over to my house and I'll make some for both of us. :)

By the way, if you've never been to Pinch My Salt, you're missing out on some great food photography and seriously, everything she bakes makes me hungry just looking at it! :)

I love potatoes! They're affordable, easy to prepare, and so warm and comforting in the winter months! :)

Last week I created a new potato casserole recipe which we all loved, and I've already made it twice! Salmon Potato Casserole is easy (only 8 ingredients -- including salt and pepper -- which is probably a record for me!) and we love the flavor of onions, potatoes, salmon, and the creamy cheesy part that holds it all together. :)

This casserole makes a delicious breakfast or brunch dish. Filling and simple! :)

One of my very favorite potato recipes is Creamy Potato Soup.

And...

...seasoned baked potato wedges! Easier than French fries and just as yummy (Joshua would disagree and say French fries are better!). ;)

And lastly:

Caribbean Sweet Potato Salad, for my fellow cilantro lovers! This is a super-healthy potato salad recipe and when I make it I just can't stop eating it! It's SO yummy.

I have more potato recipes... but I can't link them all right here, so you'll have to head over to the potato page and browse through the photos over there. :)

To participate in this week's In-Season Recipe Swap:

Post your on-theme recipe, including your own photo of the food. Link to this post, and then come over here and let us know where to find YOU! Just leave your link in a comment and I will manually add them to this post throughout the day. :) Recipe theme for next week (October 28, 2009) is onions!

1. Twice-Baked Taco Potatoes (Heather)
2. Cheddar Chicken and Potatoes
3. Garlic Mashed Potatoes (dairy-free) (Alea)
4. Mustard Potatoes (Donna)
5. Scalloped Potato Gratin (Libby)
6. Baked Potato Casserole (Gina)
7. Mashed Potato Soup (Laura)
8. Eggs, Cheese, and Potatoes (Chaya)
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(Banner graphic by A Source of Joy Graphic Design!)

Paprika seems to be a more pricey spice, even at bulk food stores (where I get the majority of my spices and dried herbs).

However, I've been able to find paprika much more affordably at stores like Dollar General or Big Lots. Sounds odd, but the paprika tastes fresh and was less than half the price of the bulk foods stores I had checked recently, so it works for us! :)

The delicious chili we had for dinner tonight!

Do you have any tips for affordable herbs and spices? I'd love to hear! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Baking tip (Rachel)
2. Freezer meal tips (Mrs. Mordecai)
3. Silicone basting brushes (Lenetta)
4. Herb tips (Jenn)
5. Infrequently used spices (MJ)
6. Re-using oil (Vickie)
7. Polishing silver (Alea)
8. Kitchen calendar (Linda)
9. Growing green onions (Tracey)

It's Friday! Yay! We love having the weekends together as a family. A break from weekday jobs and homeschooling is welcome... and the fellowship at church is refreshing! :)

Last Friday, I made this salmon feta pizza. I'll get the exact recipe typed up later, but basically I used my homemade crust and topped it with red sauce, mozzarella cheese, sliced onions, crumbled feta cheese, and chopped Lox (cold-smoked salmon). It was really quite good, although it doesn't beat our favorite toppings of turkey pepperoni, pepperoncini peppers, and feta cheese. :)

I re-warm the leftover pizza slices by placing them on a cookie sheet in the oven and then turning the oven to 375 degrees and timing for 10-15 minutes. If the pizza crust wasn't too browned during the initial baking, the re-warmed leftover pizza has a perfectly tasty crispy crust. :)

Homemade pizza is an easy meal for Friday nights after a busy day preparing for Sabbath and the weekend! :) If you're making pizza tonight, what toppings are you putting on yours? :)

Aside from today (which is beautifully warm and sunny!), we've been having some chilly Autumn days.

I made a container of hot chocolate mix, which is delightfully handy and yummy! Sometimes it's just plain easier to heat up some water and have instant hot cocoa, rather than heating milk like I normally do. :)

Already on this site are our recipes for milk hot chocolate, almond joy hot cocoa, and mint hot cocoa. Have I mentioned that I like chocolate? ;)

What are your favorite Autumn and Winter drinks? Anyone have family-favorite recipes to share along those lines? :)