List of Miscellaneous Recipes & Information Articles

NOTE: I am moving recipes from my old Cat’s Kitchen site to this site, so be patient – I have many, many to move. Meanwhile, you can go to Miscellaneous & Information on my old site.

General Info (Other Sites):

• USDA Safe Food Handling: Main Page – list of articles
• USDA Safe Food Handling: Freezing & Food Safety
• USDA Safe Food Handling: Safe defrosting methods for consumers
• Internal Temp. Cooking Chart for Meats & Poultry: Whatscookingamerica,net or ochef.com
• Fahrenheit/Celsius Oven Temperature Conversions
• Secondary Edible Parts of Vegetables: (aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2005/may05/SecVeget.html)
• Best way to wash fruits/veggies (to minimize pesticides, etc): articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/12/13/best-way-to-wash-fruits-vegetables.aspx; bottom line: use white vinegar (not apple cider vinegar):
  1. Fill a large bowl with four parts water to one part white vinegar.
  2. Soak the produce in the mixture for 20 minutes.
  3. Rinse the fruit or vegetables in clean, running water.
• Cast Iron cookware 101: How to use, care for, Season, and more on Lodge Cast Iron site: lodgecastiron.com/discover/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/all-about-seasoning provides links to their pages on several use and care topics.
  • See also my page: Care of Cookware

Metric to English and other Conversions

• Oven Temperature Conversions (Fahrenheit/Celsius)
• Semolina Flour Conversions
• Starch Equivalents
• Yeast Converter (by Type)
• Other Sites:
• What’s Cooking America: Metric Conversion Charts for Liquid & Dry Measures
• All Recipes: Cup to Gram Conversions for Common Ingredients

Preparedness, Emergency Evacuation Articles

• FCOES_Guide-Evac-Levels-Cklist.pdf (from Flathead County Office of Emergency Services, and copied on The EssentiaList (essentialstuff.org); includes:
  • Guide to Evacuation Levels
  • Emergency Evacuation Checklist

House & Yard Articles

• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (About)
• Recycling, Other Sites:
  • Waste Not Project (Home Page), includes: Where to Recycle, and lots more info about recycling in Flathead County (Montana).
  • Pacific Steel and Recycling; Kalispell location is just off E. Idaho at 105 Flathead Dr – see MapQuest
• Self Contained Compost Bin for Pet Waste

Equipment & Utensils:

• Baking Stone and Pizza Peel
• Bread-Making Equipment (bowls, pans, bannetons, etc.)
• Care of Cookware
• Crock Pot: Tips for selecting and using
• Equipment for Culturing Dairy & other Milk

Cat’s Food Articles

NOTE: I’m reorganizing some menus:

• ‘About’ items for different foods have been moved to Foods (About) Menu, including: Apples, Beans; Chocolate; Dairy; Fats & Oils; Fish; GMOs; Greens; Herbs & Spices; and Salt; plus there’s lots more foods on Foods (About).
• ‘Food Preservation’ items have moved to Food Preservation menu: Canning; Dehydrating; and Freezing;
• ‘Culturing’ items have moved to Culturing, Curing & Fermentation Menu: Culturing Dairy; Curing Meats; and Lacto-fermentation (of fruits & Veggies)

See also: 

• Foods (About) Menu
• Cat’s Christmas Menu and Preparation Schedule

Baking Soda and Baking Powder

• Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 1 (The basics; making your own baking powder)
• Baking Soda vs Baking Powder, Part 2 (Creating/adjusting recipes; soda equivalence)
• Other sites:
• Baker Bettie: Baking powder and baking soda
• Chemistry About: How to substitute baking powder and baking soda
• Decoding Delicious (The Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder)

Bitters:

• Digestive Bitters
• Herbs & Spices (About) Menu

Bread:

• Bread Basics (Yeast-Leavened Breads) (includes tips, metric conversions, using different leavens)

Brining:

• Brining (About)
• Brining Chart: Salt-to-Water
• Brining Poultry
• Brining Cornish Game Hens, Grouse, Pheasant & Other Small Fowl (scroll to Brining section)
• Brining Pork
• Brining Rabbit and other Small Game
• Salt Chart for Brining
• See also Other Sites:
• All About Brining

Broth, Stock

• See Soups, Stocks and Broths Menu
• Court Bouillon (for poaching)
• Other sites:
• The Amazing Benefits of Bone Broth (3-min YouTube video with lots of good info, even though it is an ad for Organixx product)

Coconut, Using

See also Foods (About) Menu

• Coconut Milk
• Coconut (About)
• Coconut Flour
• Coconut Milk Kefir
• Coconut Milk Yogurt
• How to Open a Coconut
• Golden ‘Milk’ (Coconut milk and Turmeric)

Coffee, Espresso

• How to make French Press Coffee
• How much ground coffee beans to use; from Equal Exchange Brewing Tips and Prima Coffee (for espresso):
  • French Press ratio: 2 Tbsp coarse-grind per 6 oz water
  • Automatic Drip: 1+ Tbsp medium- to coarse-grind per 6 oz water
  • Cone drip: 1+ Tbsp medium-grind per 6 oz water
  • Espresso: 18 – 21 grams fine-grind for double-shot, or 7 – 10 grams for single shot

Cultured Dairy

See Cultured Dairy (Menu)

Dairy:

• Ghee (Clarified butter)
• Cheese: Preserving for long term storage
• Whipped Cream
• See also Cultured Dairy (Menu)

Diet:

• Good Foods to Fight Insulin Resistance and Overweight

Dietary Supplements:

• User’s Guide to Supplement Timing (Graphic)
• IR-Hormone Imbalance – I: Hormones and Body-Weight Issues (new, April 2021)
• Supplements I use (updated May 2021 for changes made since 2019)
• Supplements & Whole Foods in my Morning Smoothie
• Probiotic & Prebiotic Supplements
• Other Sites:
• Everything you need to know about Supplements (Mercola)

Eggs:

• See also: Foods (About) Menu
• Eggs: Preserving for long term storage
• Eggs: Soft- or Hard-Boiled
• Coddled Egg
• Aerating Eggs & Sugar, such as for egg-leavened cakes

Fats: Rendering, etc.

• See also Foods (About) under “Fats” for related articles
• Rendering Lard in a Crockpot: The Process

Fiber-Rich Foods

• High Fiber Foods
• Other sites:
• High Fiber Foods Chart (Mt. Sinai Hospital)
• Top Fiber-Rich Foods List (Today’s Dietitian)

Fruits & Vegetables

• Beans, Peas (Dried): Basic, Cooked
• Beans, Peas (Dried): see also Foods (About) Menu: Legumes
• Beans, Peas (Fresh): How to Freeze
• Blueberries: How to grow them Organically (Mercola)
• Dried or unripe fruits: rehydrating or cooking
• Fennel: Roasted
• Garlic: How to Roast
• Garlic, Caramelized
• Mushrooms (see Fungi, below)
• Orange, other Citrus: How to Section, without Pith & Membranes
• Poaching fruits
• Preservation of Fruits & Veggies
• Stewed Dried Fruit
• Stewed Tomatoes, Homemade
• Tomato-Veggie Juice, Homemade & Spicy
• Unripe or dried fruits: rehydrating or cooking
• Tomatoes: Moved to Foods (About) Menu under Fruits & Veggies: Tomatoes
• Other sites:
• The Vegan Gourmet on dried beans
• Blueberries: How to grow them Organically (Mercola)
• Mercola video interview of Dr. Gundry, on plant lectins: youtube.com/watch?v=YgImyfAvVyM

Fungi (Mushrooms)

• Mushrooms (About)
• Reconstituting dried mushrooms
• Roasted mushroom base (for adding to ground meat)
• See also (other sites): Reconstituting dried mushrooms, with photos

Grains, Pseudo-Grains, Flours & Starches

• Conversions between Starches & Other Thickeners
• Lime water (for soaking corn/cornmeal to make hominy/masa)
• Quinoa (About)
• Thickening sauces using flour or starch
• See also: Rice, below
• See also: Foods (About) Menu under ‘Grains’
• See also: Foods: Grains, Flours & Starches

Grilling

• Marinades and Grilling/High-Heat Cooking Tips for Meats

Herbs

• Other Sites:
• Stevia, How to Grow (Mercola)

Lime Water

• Lime water (for soaking cornmeal to make masa)

Meats

• Brining Meats: see “Brining” above
• Poultry: see ‘Poultry’ below
• Marinades and Grilling/High-Heat Cooking Tips for Meats

Mushrooms

• See Fungi, above

Nuts & Seeds

See also: Foods (About) Menu under “Nuts & Seeds”

• See also Coconut (above)
• Blanching & Pulverizing Almonds
• Cat’s Whole Grain Mustard Spread
• Cultured Nut Milk (Coconut Milk Yogurt, etc.)
• Crispy Pine Nuts
• Nut & Seed Milk
• Toasting Nuts & Seeds
• Sweet & Spicy Roasted Nuts

Pasteurization:

• Food Safety and Pasteurization (printable pdf file)

Pest Control (Naturally)

• See Cleaning, Pest Control and Personal Care Menu

Pets

• Cat Food: Purr-Fect Meal not yet
• Beware: Sodium Selenite in Pet Food is Toxic

Poultry:

See also: Foods (About) Menu under “Poultry”

• Brining Chicken
• Brining Poultry
• Chicken Stock or Broth
• Cornish Game Hens, Grouse, Pheasant & Other Small Fowl (About Brining, Butterflying and Cooking Basics)
• Roasting a Bird (About)

Rice

• Rice (About): White, Brown and Wild
• Steamed white rice
• Steamed brown (whole-grain) rice
• Steamed wild rice

Shellfish, Seafood

• Steaming Live Clams & Mussels
• Storage of Live Clams & Mussels

Sprouting & Soaking (How-To)

• Beans & Other Legumes: Soaking & Sprouting
• Grains: Soaking & sprouting grains (before or after grinding/rolling)
• Nuts & Seeds: Soaking & Sprouting
• Sprouting Grains, Legumes, Nuts & Seeds, for Eating
• See also:
• Sprouting, etc Menu
• Foods (About) Menu: ‘Grains’ or ‘Legumes’ or ‘Nuts & Seeds’
• Grains, Flours & Starches Menu: Grain Berries, Kernals, Seeds, Flours

Supplements:

See Dietary Supplements, above.

Sweeteners:

See also: Foods (About) Menu under “Sugar and Other Sweeteners”

• Unrefined Powdered Sugar: Make Your Own
• Vanilla sugar (included in recipe post for Cheesecake)
• See also on The EssentiaList Blog: “Sweet Cravings” articles:
  • Part 1: Natural Sugar Sweeteners
  • Part 2: Corn Syrups, Agave Nectar & Aguamiel
  • Part 3: Stevia, Xylitol and Artificial Sweeteners

Thickeners

• Grains, Flours and Starches Menu
• Thickening sauces using flour or starch