Vicky Learns to Cook

So, I made pierogies today. Sure, it's easier to buy frozen pierogies. Sure, it is a LOT of work. But when you have a food sensitivity, you try. You try to make things from scratch so you don't get sick. And you try to eat things that are yummy, at the same time. While digging around in my freezer this week, I found some "No MSG added" Kielbasa. I'd have to say it's probably been 20 years since I had Kielbasa; it was one of the first things that made me sick, then I realized I couldn't eat MSG anymore.  (Spoiler: did not get sick tonight..win!) So when you find gold such as this, you tend to make a meal of it. (And by you, I of course mean me. I have no idea what you'd do, really.) So I nonchalantly promised the Hubs (aka husband, hubby ) home made pierogies, thinking hey, how hard can it be right? I should never say that. I don't think you can probably REALLY sprain a wrist kneading dough, but I came close. Here is a photo of the dou

It's looking like my first ideas; teach a cooking class at church, help people know how to live in Greater Detroit and eat for health, maybe even You Tube videos, even including gardening, are more difficult or not the right venue right now. But, not one to give up, I started thinking while grating onions for meatloaf yesterday, that maybe I need to build up some 'cred' first. And also I should keep band-aids in the kitchen. I mean, you can't teach what you haven't lived, not well anyway. I'm just beginning my journey, so maybe this format, this blog, can get us all there together, grated knuckles and all. Stick with me and we will figure this out. This week: Thanksgiving week. Thanksgiving was traditionally a time to see cousins. Loads of them! And the food was all we could think about. We talked food. We made dishes together. We did the dishes. Then we went to my other grandmas and did it all again for dinner. More cousins, more fun. Olives on our finge

Recently I moved to a new work location that gave me the chance to meet a group of people from a few Indian cultures, some from the North and some from the South. They even complimented my attempt at Coconut Til Ladoo for Diwali, even though that type of sweet is typically made in January. My friend said it was great that I was trying, at least. I did hear someone actually say that it was an example of a real Indian dish. High compliment! One of the things another friend taught me is that many of the people, especially those from Southern India, were vegetarian and would not eat cake with eggs in it. (or is this Vegan? I'm foggy where the line is drawn.) So I was challenged with this question: Can you make an egg-less cake? Well, now I've heard of this so I knew it could be done. So I went looking for a recipe. I found one in both metric measurements and SAE measurements, which is immensely helpful for the metric-challenged! Another nice thing about this recipe is tha