I have a friend named Ree, and she has a brand new cookbook. I know that almost everyone already knows and loves her, but after meeting and hanging out with her husband Marlboro Man and two of their kids in the Dominican Republic, I feel a special fondness for her.  Ladd is the real...
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No one really wants to waste food, especially when you’re trying eat affordably. However, there are times when you just can’t face another meal of leftovers. I often avoid food burnout by sticking leftovers into the freezer the day the food is made. That way I can wait a week or two before I...
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Since we grew quite a few beets in our garden this year, I’ve been meaning to try making borscht, a hearty Russian beet soup. Today I spotted this recipe at simplyrecipes.com, and gave it my own tweaks changed it til it was barely recognizable. (I doubled the quantities below and ended up with enough...
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A lot of people assume from the title of my book that I feed my mega-family for $75 a week. Um, no. That would involve more beans than I’m willing to serve. The $75 a week on the cover of my book actually refers to a family of four. (Little-known publishing fact: many authors,...
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To use my pumpkins: Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal To use my tomatoes: Slow Roasted Tomatoes Too good to resist:   Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Torte What about you?   Discovered anything yummy this week?
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Our 9 hens are laying about 3 eggs a day so far. They’re young so they’re not in full swing yet, and I’m sure that figuring the per-egg cost would be distressing at this point. But we should be getting more eggs soon. Even now our 4 year old is having a fabulous time...
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Makes: 2 loaves This bread is slightly sweet and is wonderful eaten plain or toasted. Ingredients 1 tablespoon yeast 1/4 cup warm water 2 cups boiling water 1 cup quick oats 2 tablespoons shortening, melted 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds 4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose or bread...
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A couple of you mentioned you’d like to see the process of canning tomatoes. Since I had some to process anyway, yesterday I got the camera rolling again. Canning tomatoes the easy way from Mary Ostyn on Vimeo. —————————— In the comments on the grape jelly video, I showed some of the costs of...
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Every day people google ‘grape jelly‘ and end up here at the Owlhaven.  I thought I’d add a video of the process to show you just how easy it is! How to Make Grape Jelly from Mary Ostyn on Vimeo. – Related links Grape Jelly Apricot Jam Technorati Tags: canning, canning fruit, grape jelly,...
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This week we have devoted a few hours to freezing some of our abundant corn crop.  It’s a fairly simple project, but after three people in two days asked me how we do this, I thought it might be worth offering a brief tutorial here. Start by husking the corn and removing all the...
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