tutorial

How to remove lime scale from a clogged faucet

You know the feeling: you turn on the faucet and the water sprays in weird directions because the holes that the water is supposed to come out of are all clogged with mineral deposits. And maybe the faucet itself isn’t too pretty, either, coated with a white film that won’t come off no matter how hard you scrub. Fortunately, there’s … Read more

Growing wheat grass for your cat: an illustrated tutorial

My cat Lilo has a bad habit of eating fabric. One of the things I’ve done to help dissuade her from this habit – besides making sure that every bit of fabric not upholstered to something or currently being worn by a human is out of her reach – is to grow wheat grass for her. She enjoys eating it … Read more

Recipe: Making Sauerkraut, an Illustrated Tutorial – Part 2

This post is a continuation from Part 1, where I outlined the first few hours of the sauerkraut-making process. Here, I talk about the first week of fermentation. Within 24 hours of  chopping and salting  the cabbage, it had already expressed enough liquid to nearly cover itself: You can see in the photo above that some of the cabbage pieces … Read more

Recipe: Making Sauerkraut, an Illustrated Tutorial – Part 1

I never ate cabbage growing up. Maybe it’s because cabbage in a consummate winter vegetable, and we lived in places where the growing seasons were long and winter was more of a blip than a season. My first real introduction to cabbage happened in my first few hours as an exchange student in Germany. I had barely slept in the … Read more

Recipe: How to Make Turkey Soup Stock in a Slow Cooker

We had turkey for Christmas and of course there were leftovers, so it’s time for the post-celebration ritual of making turkey stock in the slow cooker. Stock is made by slow simmering of bones and a small amount of trimmings in water. It’s a great way to use parts that would otherwise go unused. Stock tends to have more body than broth, … Read more