The Blue Bear

...s and 50/50 blend sheets. I think back on my groovy synthetic clothing, my bean bag, my Biggie comb, my Breyer Horses and my Barbies. It’s all buried somewhere now, part of the immortal treasures of the 2oth century, my own King Tut’s Tomb. My great-grandmother Caroline, on the other hand, was born into a world which did not know polyester or plastic. In fact, rayon and polyester don’t appear on the scene until the 194o’s, so she was over 50 when...

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Who Wants Seconds? Book Giveaway

...ies, Waldorf salad, peanut butter blondies, sweet potato lasagna and white bean soup. We’re giving away a copy of Who Wants Seconds? to a lucky Root Simple reader. To enter the contest just leave a comment on this post–just tell us if you’re an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan. We’ll select a winner by generating a random number and matching that to the comment order. We’ll announce the winner on Friday and the winner will need to email us their addr...

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Solar Oven Triumph: Fluffy Egg Strata

...that day. For instance, we have still not had success in cooking a pot of beans in the solar oven (more on that in a future post)–but we do at least know that bean cooking is an all day venture.You have to get the pot in the oven early, and the sun has to be out all day. But other dishes may only need two to three hours of cooking. Morning cooking is more of a “sure thing” while starting a dish at noon is risky, but possible. You learn to plan ac...

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Solar recipe review: Moroccan Chickpea Tagine (Works on the stovetop, too)

...an likely pull this out of your pantry right now. If you have fresh cooked beans or your own canned tomatoes it would be all that much better, but this is a good recipe for busy days. The resulting stew is comfort food, spicy and sweet. My one critique is that it is perhaps a little too sweet. It calls for raisins or currants, and I used raisins. The raisins ended up being preternaturally sweet–perhaps due to the slow cooking? They’d be fantastic...

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One Secret for Delicious Soup–A Parmesan Cheese Rind

...hard rinds. They are magic flavor bombs. All you do is add them to soup or bean dishes. Add them at the start of cooking, because they need a good long while to soften up and release their flavor goodness. They don’t make the dish taste cheesy, but rather add that elusive umami (rich, savory) character to the dish. I think it would be redundant to use the rind if you are already using meat or bacon fat or the like in your soup, but for vegetable-b...

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