Haagen-Dazs “Made Like No Other” recipe – Caramel/Salt Surprise Summer Salad

July 12, 2011 in dessert, Food Porn, Humble Garden


Recently, BlogHer and Häagen-Dazs® asked me and a few other bloggers to create original recipes (not just desserts) using their ice cream as an ingredient.

How can one possibly say no to that?

I said yes and then, to the delight of my children, I went out and bought quite a few containers of Häagen-Dazs. I had to buy extras to fend off the ravenous offspring and then I set to creating my original take on Häagen-Dazs as an ingredient in a savory dish.

I could not help slipping in some of the lovely things growing in my garden too!

Click through to see all about this recipe – Caramel/Salt Surprise Summer Salad and enjoy!

Haagen Dazs original recipe

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Chicken, our way

July 8, 2011 in chicken, Food Porn, Humble Garden


As you likely know, we try to grow and enjoy wholesome food at home, making us frugal foodies.

We raise and milk our own dairy goats.

2011 Kidding season: diapers

We raise our own laying chickens for eggs.

Humble Garden 2011: Infant chicks - upclose

We are getting a family Jersey cow this fall. We will have cow and goat milk next spring.

Humble Garden: Our New Jersey Cow

I blog about some of that craziness at my homesteading blog Humble Garden.

We source a lot of our red meat as pastured Beefalo meat from Wild Mountain Farm.

This year, in addition to our layer flock, we will be raising between 25 and 50 broiler chickens which we will butcher and freeze for the year!

The video below shows those (the little yellow ones) as well as some fancy chicks – ameraucana which lay blue eggs and purely ornamental chickens – white crested black polish – the ones that look like they have marshmallows stuck to their wee little heads.


Many people here in the US are getting into urban homesteading but run into roadblocks when they try to get some chickens.

I totally support you all and send you all my positive vibes as you fight to regain the right to raise chickens in your space.


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Danger in Paradise

June 9, 2011 in Behind the Scenes, Food Porn

(one of our neighbors down the street)

We had a VERY close call here at Nika’s Culinaria.

(NASA satellite image of the track of this tornado through our area)

We were missed being hit by the Massachusetts EF-4 1/2 mile wide tornado by only a 1/2 a mile – living near a climate induced disaster zone REALLLLY brings home climate change in a way thats almost down to the cells of the body.

Before, in some ways, climate change was academic – charts, presentations, news about far away Pakistan or Moscow, Joplin, MO.

But now the battle has been engaged. We chose this area to build a home and a homestead because its NOT the south or tornado ally or midwest etc and that its supposed to be “cooler” and wetter than the intense droughts in the works for much of the US – well – with this tornado – what i knew – that nothing is safe or sure – is something i know for certain. one can dig an earth home – create a sustainable self sufficient eden in their backyard but mother earth can easily simply wipe it clean.

The real work is inside our heads – and the goal is resilience and hope in the face of chaos.

Here are photos from the apocalyptic devastation just down our street.

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A Sweet giveaway

February 26, 2011 in contest, Food Porn


To learn more about the delicious sweet roll you see above, this giveaway and how to enter the 45th Pillsbury Bake-off coming up, please click through to the giveaway page!

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