Archive for the ‘Special Recipes’ Category

Picture Book Recipes For Flavor Packed Homemade Pie Crust Variations

These two recipes are designed to inspire your imagination to meet your taste

There’s a line you might’ve heard: “You can improvise with cooking, but you have to stick to the recipe with baking”. I’m not a fan of sticking to the letter of recipes and very quickly learned that you can improvise with baking, at least somewhat, especially when it comes to making pie crust.

Last post showed how to make a quick and easy pie crust from scratch, which tastes way better than any pre-made store bought pie shell. This post provides two recipes that are intended to inspire your imagination. Sure, both recipes work fine as is, but the best thing about preparing anything to eat is making it just the way you want to suit your personal taste.

The first recipe for Banana Nut Pie Crust, which you can get by clicking this link or the picture directly below, uses banana both to add flavor and replace the need for oil or butter in the pie crust dough.

The second recipe, Fully Flavorful Nut, Quinoa and Flaxseed Pie Crust, which you can get by clicking this link or the picture below, shows how to use a variety of optional ingredients to pump up flavor across the board.

Next post: picture book recipes showing how to make Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Apple-Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving Dinner Help: Stress-Free and All in Pictures

Just 10 days out to Thanksgiving, by far my favorite holiday because all that’s expected is a fully-flavorful meal and being together with family and friends.

At the same time, I know from my own experience that laying down a Thanksgiving dinner for those same family and friends, especially if it’s your first time around, can be stressful. The goal here is to provide straight-forward stress-relief, which you can access by:

  • clicking this link or the tab above labeled Thanksgiving Help for a Thanksgiving dinner planning and timing guide and uniquely easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipes that show how to make roast turkey, turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, apple pie, and fresh whipped cream and more.
  • getting your own first-of-a-kind Stress-Free, Quick & Easy Thanksgiving Dinner video/picture ebook for $2.99 (it’s extraordinarily affordably priced, especially these days, to make it as widely accessible as possible). Click this link to a short video trailer about the ebook. The ebook itself is available at:

Fresh Whipped Cream Picture Book Recipe



Fresh Whipped Cream

What doesn’t go great with fresh whipped cream? I often have the vat-sized measuring cup you see below in the fridge good to go whenever I need it: in coffee, on pancakes, French toast or with fresh fruit – and it’s incredibly easy to make!

The secret to whipping cream as quickly as possible is using cold ingredients: fresh heavy whipped cream straight from the refrigerator and, if you have time, even using a freezer-chilled mixing bowl or measuring cup, as shown below.

Here are the only 3 ingredients and pieces of kitchen equipment you need.

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture book recipe.

Summer Favorites: Tour de France and Fresh Basil Pesto

The Tour de France: my signature summer sports spectator event. Fresh pesto: my signature summer fantastically flavorful and versatile food favorite that I call “summer butter”. I have pesto in my fridge, in the freezer, and always ready to use with pasta and grains, as a sandwich spread, with chicken or fish, on freshly cooked or uncooked vegetables (absolute killer on freshly cooked corn on the cob) – just about anything. Great stuff!

Here are the ingredients and…

Basil Pesto Ingredients

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Cilantro Pesto-Hummus Picture Book Recipe



I’m a big fan of rich basil-flavored pesto and cilantro infused hummus. The “pummus” (pesto + hummus) recipe you see here combines those flavors by substituting fresh cilantro for fresh basil and then really pumping up the herb flavor of bean-based hummus.

Here’s what you need to make pummus, which goes great with vegetables, on pasta, with rice, on bread – your imagination is your only limit.

Click any picture on this page for an easy-to-follow picture book recipe.

Almond Butter with Dried Cranberries, Flaxseed and Toasted Coconut Picture Recipe


Flavor rules – always!

Cool thing about making almond – or any nut – butter on your own is that you can add anything you want to it to make it all yours.

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Homemade Almond Butter: Training Food Extraordinaire – All in Pictures

I’ve always been a big fan of almond butter: great flavor and texture, terrific energy sustainer. Years ago, when my favorite vendor of that almond butter – and  many other favorite food products, Trader Joe’s, experienced a recall and then was only able to dole out cases of new almond butter the way Apple doles out new versions of its iPhone, a Trader Joe’s salesman I’d gotten to know asked me quite bluntly, “Do you have a food processor?”

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Gorgeous November Bike Rip Followed by Breakfast for Lunch

Out for a gorgeous late morning, late fall rip on the bike that featured a good look at one of my favorite cycling sights: Silverwood Organic Farm on Western Rd. in Sherbourne, MA. Sky was cloudy, wind snappy, temp. about 45 – perfect for November – and it all felt great under the Breitz! “Breeze Blaster” windbreaker over layered shirts.

Then home by noon to the full-on flavorful sweet and savory lunch shown below – fresh fruit, Greek yogurt, fresh almond butter, dried fruit, kefir and honey Read more »

6 Days to Cancer Ride + Almond Butter Power Fuel in Pictures

6 days to the Central Mass. Bicycles Battling Cancer ride (please consider donating – I’m just about half way to my $300 goal). Almond butter will certainly be part of the breakfast I have to power that ride next Sunday. I had a fat tablespoon of it just now with French toast (made with killeer BirchTree Bread Co. seeded levain bread) to prep for a 30+ mile I’ll take later this morning. Here’s what you need to make almond butter on your own.

The food processor does all the work (yah, you definitely need a food processor). You just have to clean the food processor when it’s done – but that cleaning is well worth the incredibly fresh, rich flavor.  Click any picture on this page for complete step-by-step picture book directions that, you bet, include how to clean a food processor (sometimes you just can’t have too much fun!).

Fuel up, ride on!

Warm Apple, Kiwi and Cranberry Fruit Topping Picture Book Recipe

Apple Kiwi and Cranberry Fruit ToppingLast post showed how to ripen and prepare fresh kiwifruits (kiwis). Here’s a fully flavorful way to have those kiwis warmed in a pan with fresh apples and cranberries either as is or over hot cereal, or any way you like.

Apple Kiwi and Cranberry Fruit Topping on Hot Cereal Read more »

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