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Jan 18, 2017

Five Foods Known to Cause Cancer

I saw this in USA Today and thought it was worth sharing. Here are five foods they say are known to cause cancer:
1. Processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, ham, and sausages. Limit your intake.
2. Highly salted foods like pickles. A high intake is linked to stomach cancer. Less is better than more.
3. Alcohol. It can raise your risk of mouth, colorectal & breast cancer. Limit intake to one drink a day for women, two for men.
4. Charred meat. High heat + meat = DNA-damaging compounds. Cook at lower temperatures and flip meat frequently to avoid charring.
5. Scalding hot beverages. Routinely drinking very hot tea, coffee, or soup is linked to a greater risk of esophageal cancer.

Filed Under: Nutrition
2 Comments
Jan 13, 2017

Trying to Keep Up

Jenny Jones photo Jenny Can CookWith over 300,000 views every week between my website and youtube, from 200 different countries, I simply can’t to keep up with the growing number of questions. I never expected this when I started sharing my recipes and I want this to be the best experience for everyone but it’s become overwhelming.

I am a one-man operation, doing the best I can, but here is the reality: If I don’t get to 25 questions in one day, the next day it’s 50. Another couple of busy days and it’s 100 and by then I can’t catch up. I need time to work on my recipes, take the pictures, perfect the details, and share what I love. I also need time to focus on my philanthropy.

It’s wonderful to see how popular my recipes have become and I want to always be there but it’s become impossible and that makes me sad. This is my creation. I take a lot of pride in it and want it to be perfect so please know I am doing the best I can. I hope everyone understands and there are ways you can help:

  1. Understand if I am not able to answer your questions.
  2. Please do not ask a question that you can research online.
  3. Please do not ask about changing my recipe as I only make them the way I post them.
  4. If a recipe didn’t turn out, please look at the FAQs before asking what went wrong.
  5. Please continue to share your helpful comments, especially if you’ve tried something different with one of my recipes and it turned out well. That’s helpful to all of us.

My sincere thanks to everyone who jumps in to answer questions to help out.  – Jenny Jones

Jan 9, 2017

Make Caesar Salad at Home

Homemade Caesar SaladI LOVE LOVE LOVE my Caesar salad! Now I don’t have to go to a fancy restaurant to get a classic Caesar salad. It was always a mystery to me because I thought I had to use whole anchovies but for me, anchovy paste is perfect and it’s also easy to use. It takes just minutes to make this dressing but you need the right ingredients. You just shake it all up in a jar and it’s done.

Traditional Caesar salad is made with romaine lettuce and for me, hearts of romaine make the best presentation, not to mention homemade croutons. I usually make croutons with slices of my faster no knead bread and my recipe is super easy too. Click here to see how to make homemade croutons.

I encourage everyone to eat a salad every day and now you can make one of those salads a classic Caesar. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Dec 14, 2016

A Christmas Gift Everyone Loves

Best Christmas Gifts from Your KitchenIf you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas I can tell you from experience that everyone I know loves to receive homemade goodies. Cookies, breads, cupcakes, biscotti… you can hardly go wrong. And then there’s homemade caramel corn. OMG! This is a gift that everyone absolutely loves! It’s super crispy, light, and so delicious! That’s what I give every Christmas and people start asking me in October if I’m making caramel corn again this year. That’s because there is no store-bought product that even comes close. And my recipe is simple. You don’t need a candy thermometer or any fancy equipment.

I just pop the corn in the microwave (my paper bag method) and stir in an easy syrup (made in five minutes) with butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and corn syrup (this is not high fructose corn syrup – they are not the same). Then you stir it up and bake it. I don’t make it for myself very often because I can’t stop eating it. So it’s a Christmas treat for me too. If you want to feel like Santa Claus next week and see big smiles on happy faces, give homemade caramel corn. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Dec 5, 2016

These are Some Big Cookies

Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip CookiesHere’s a closeup of my Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are big! These are the ones made with 100% whole grains and no butter. Before baking you press them flat with a fork and they spread even more when they bake and come out super thin and crispy. I made them last night and the recipe makes twelve. There are five left. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Nov 27, 2016

Spice Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Buttermilk Spice CakeI really enjoy this moist buttermilk cake, especially because it’s another one of my easy, one-bowl recipes. The combination of spices in the cake along with a mild cream cheese frosting really works for me and I always like any frosting I can make without butter, but it’s also good with chocolate frosting. (You can use the frosting from my zucchini chocolate cake.) It may not be a fancy special occasion cake but my favorite cakes are quick and easy so I mostly bake and frost in the same pan. However, it’s easy to transfer this cake onto a plate and frost the sides as well, like in my photo.

I kept the recipe simple using just all purpose flour but it’s hard to tell the difference between the 100% all purpose and the one made with half whole wheat pastry flour. This recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of flour so I use 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour with 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons of whole wheat pastry flour. If you like desserts without butter like I do, you should try this easy spice cake. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Nov 15, 2016

Simple Make Ahead Stuffing

Simple Bread StuffingIf you’ve ever cooked an entire Thanksgiving turkey dinner then you know it’s all about surviving. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who does it all from scratch deserves a one-week cruise in the Bahamas! I do it all from scratch: the turkey & mashed potatoes, the gravy, the stuffing, cranberries, green beans, and pumpkin pie. How do I survive? By doing everything I possibly can… in advance.

That includes the pumpkin pie, the fresh cranberries, the stuffing, and even the gravy. I make my gravy in advance and just stir in some of the turkey drippings before serving. To make the best gravy and stuffing, I need a good stock so here’s how I schedule my prep:

One week ahead: I bake my easy white bread with 1 Tbsp. sugar and dry it to make cubes for the stuffing. The dried cubes keep well for days but they must be completely dry.

Two days ahead: I make turkey stock using two turkey wings. I rub them with oil, salt & pepper, and roast them on a sheet at 375° F for an hour. Then I put the wings and drippings in a soup pot with about 8 cups of water and all the same veggies & spices as my chicken soup. I cook it for 3 hours, strain, cool & refrigerate. Then I skim the fat off the top before using. Oh, I take the meat off the wings for snacking – it’s delicious! I also cook the fresh cranberries.

One day ahead: I bake my pumpkin pie and make my gravy and stuffing.

Obviously, not everyone wants to work this hard so a store bought loaf of white bread is fine and you can use chicken stock (Swanson’s unsalted in the carton is good). Some people like to crisp the stuffing in the oven but I prefer it soft. It feels more like it was cooked inside the bird that way.

Whether you make it ahead or on the day of, stir in a little of your turkey drippings before serving – it makes a big difference. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones

Filed Under: Holiday
6 Comments
Nov 13, 2016

Sunday Fruit & Nut Bread

No Knead Fruit and Nut BreadSunday morning breakfast becomes Sunday brunch when I make my beloved no knead fruit & nut bread. I used the overnight method because I wanted it ready sooner than later this morning. There were two kinds of raisins in the pantry to so I mixed red and yellow ones and the nuts were toasted walnuts. The oven should be preheated to 450 and then reduced to 400 for baking because the sugar in the dough can cause the bottom to burn. So I tried something new this time and after the 30 minutes when you remove the lid and parchment paper to finish baking, I lifted out the bread and pushed down the parchment paper into the bottom of the pot. Then I placed the loaf back on the pile of parchment and finished the baking process for another 12-13 minutes. This was the best bottom crust I have made yet. And this is truly the best fruit & nut bread I have ever had. And it’s whole wheat! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones