In light of the spring holiday, we thought you’d enjoy a different kind of April Fool this year. How about a light and easy fruit fool?

A fruit fool is an English dessert
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Christmas Cookies 2
Originally uploaded by Witty Girl.
If you’re like me, you love baking but hate the extra trip to the grocery store for the random special ingredients that you won’t use again until next year. Over the years, I’ve come up with a few tried-and-true recipes that I know I can make, because the ingredients are always on hand. Add a few Christmas-themed decorations, and they’re perfect for your next holiday party.
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Crock Pot – I wish I’d gotten one of these years before I did. You can make a huge variety of things in it beyond just soups, stews and casseroles. I’ve made sauces, appetizers, side dishes, and you can use it for hot drinks (like cider) or even desserts. Use it for parties and it’s one more thing you can prepare ahead of time. It’s a great gift for someone with a baby, too. I can quickly prepare dinner early in the day, during a nap or when my daughter is playing, and avoid having to cook in the evening when babies and toddlers are usually so clingy and fussy.

Rice Cooker – Throw away any ideas you have about rice cookers being a big waste of counter space. We use ours to cook varieties of rice, but if you’re adventurous and trying to improve your diet, you can also use it to explore other whole grains, like quinoa, spelt, bulgar, or millet. Cooks perfectly every time. You can steam vegetables in it, as well. You can mix in spices or veggies in to make Mexican rice or a pilaf. Unlike most of them, this cooker does not have an aluminum pot, which is a big bonus.

Scooter

I love Christmas cookies, but man, I hate making them. Mixing dough, rolling it out, cutting it, baking it, decorating, blah blah blah. Not to mention my counter is usually far too cluttered for rolling out dough. But look at this - the Norpro Nonstick 12-Piece Holiday Cookie Pan.

No more rolling, no more cutting, heck you can even use store-bought dough! Smoosh the dough in, bake and decorate. Christmas just got a whole lot easier!

Now that summer is over, and the corn and tomatoes have gone the way of the dodo, we turn to fall’s produce. Everyone knows about apples and pears, but autumn also offers some of the most delicious and unusual fruits of the year.
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There are certain times of year being a vegetarian is difficult. Most of the time, I don’t think much about it. Skimming through labels at the grocery store is second nature (you’d be surprised what products contain chicken fat or stock), as is ordering my Thai food with no fish sauce and avoiding most Mexican restaurants (beans and rice often are made with lard). I’ve been a vegetarian for 13 years and converted my husband over six years ago.
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Thanksgiving is a perfect time to try something new, so why not try a new cocktail or four?  Or maybe a great Beaujolais Nouveau (before they’re all gone). Below are some sites that can help you to find that perfect holiday drink to compliment your Thanksgiving gathering. We’ve even included some non-alcoholic options for the teetotallers among us. Cheers!

Alcoholic Options

• Drink Swap
• I Drink
• Chowhound
• That’s the Spirit
• The Hostess with the Mostess

Non-Alcoholic Options

• Thanksgiving Punch
• Hot Buttered Cranberry Punch
• Pomegranate Soda
• Cranberry Bomber
• Flavor of Vermont Mulled Cider
• Cider Snap
• Cinnamon Apple Spice Hot Cider
• Hot Mulled Cider in the Microwave
• Hot Raspberry Cider

No, I’m not talking about some game show like Supermarket Sweep, nor a lame board game, or even an arena for singles to meet. The Grocery Game is a fantastic way to save a bundle on your groceries.

I started “gaming” in early 2006. Both years, we’ve had grocery savings of over $1000.

How does it work? Every week, the Grocery Game website has a list for your grocery store. The list tells you what’s on sale - what you should buy that week. But, it doesn’t list everything that’s on sale - only the things that are good values. Sometimes your store will put a product on sale, but it’s a pathetic sale - 10 cents off a $2 or $3 product, for example. With the Grocery Game, you quickly learn that this sale isn’t worth your time. It tells you to buy when the item is at the lowest price the store will have it at. Plus, combine it with the coupon that was in the paper a few weeks ago, and it’s an even better deal! (And yes, TGG tells you which coupon to use.)

Every week, you print your GG list. On it, there are black items, blue items, and green items. Blue items are for stockpiling (rock-bottom prices), black items are things to buy only if you need them, and green items are free. Yeah, you read that right, free. The store puts an item on sale for, say, $1. And you have a coupon for, say, 50 cents off, and your store doubles coupons. So the item is free. And there’s nothing better than free groceries.

It takes a few weeks or months to really learn to shop the GG way. Because you don’t just buy what you need for the week. You buy what you need for the next 12 weeks, but only when it’s on sale. Juice is dirt cheap? Don’t just buy a bottle - buy enough to last you until they’re on sale again.

With the game, we average about 30% savings every week. But we live in a high-priced area outside of DC, and the sales at our store suck. Most players average 67% each week.

TGG does cost money - $10 every 8 weeks (you can get a 4 week trial for $1), but I save more than that in one shopping trip.

Oh - and a GG tip - don’t clip your coupons! Every week, I pull the coupon sections from the paper, write the date on them, and throw them in a folder until shopping day. Since TGG tells me which circular each coupon is in, I cut them out when I need them.

Emschwar

Pumpking Patch
Originally uploaded by Sarah Andrew.

Halloween is over, now what do I do with those pumpkins we bought?I admit, this is the first year in a long time that we’ve bought pumpkins. Heck, I don’t think my husband and I have ever bought pumpkins together. But, this year was different – we have an almost 14 month old who fell in love with the pumpkins.

And now, I sit here and think, whatever shall I do with them? I don’t want to just let them go to waste, so I’ve turned to Google and figured out the top things I’ll do with my pumpkins this year.

1. Pumpkin Pie
2. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
3. Pumpkin Bread
4. Pumpkin Rolls
5. Pumpkin Soup
6. Compost the remains

What about you, what will you be doing with your left over pumpkins this year?

JennyLou

Five years ago, I got the itch to return to school. I’ve always wanted to open my own catering business, but other than working as a short-order cook in a bowling alley, and operating food concession booths at local fairs, but what I lacked was ‘real’ kitchen experience. Family and friends encouraged me to do ‘something’ with my talent in the kitchen.

So in 2002, I enrolled in a part-time evening program at the Connecticut Culinary Institute. Three main courses of study were available; Advanced Culinary Arts Program, Professional Pastry and Baking, and Advanced Italian Culinary Arts. I chose the Advanced Culinary Arts Program, figuring that this would afford me a wide variety of skills. Besides, I already knew that my cake decorating skills were deplorable, so pastry was out for me.
read more from "Everything you wanted to know about culinary school but were afraid to ask"