My Dad sends me stuff all the time for “my food blog”. It is cute. Sometimes I just archive the email, glancing over the content and storing it away. But today, since I would like to post today (remember NABLOPOMO), I thought I would publish the latest email from my Dad.

And thus I present 25 uses for coffee filters (besides brewing coffee, of course). This has made its way around the internet, so I am not sure who deserves credit for the original list.

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the  microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome. Coffee filters are lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect delicate china dishes by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.
4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine  bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter. Can also be used to remove sediment from the last glass of wine in a bottle.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the  skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter to apply polish.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale. Great for creating your own mise en place.
9. Hold tacos.  Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, to soak up extra grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nick fixers.”
15. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliquéing soft fabrics.
16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.
18. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.
19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.
20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.
21. Use to wrap delicate Christmas ornaments for off-season storage.
22. Use to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
23. Use to sprout seeds. Dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place in a plastic baggie until they sprout.
24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book.
25. Use as a disposable “snack bowl” for popcorn, chips, goldfish crackers, or any other snack item that your kids need after school.

What is your favorite use for coffee filters?

Photo © 2010 J. Ronald Lee

Here is my dinner plan for the week of November 27:

Cookie of the Week: Traditional Chocolate Chip

Sunday: T-Day redux – Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, green beans, pumpkin and pecan pies

Monday: Pizza with soccer team

Tuesday: Pizza with other soccer team

Wednesday: Quick dinner out between soccer and talent show (yeah, lots of soccer this week)

Thursday: Turkey dinner leftovers, with addition of mashed potatoes

Friday: Who knows! Trashy TV and Takeout, hopefully, but I am guessing I will feel like cooking after all our dinner’s out. Maybe something easy, pasta with meatballs.

I did visit the Farmer’s Market this morning to pick up a few things (beets, carrots, kiwi and green beans) and took a few photos of what is seasonal and local. Looks pretty tasty!

In the meantime, I ordered a box of 5,000 mealworms to crank up the protein in their diet. The kids, who are surprisingly cool about lots of my animal experiments, are totally grossed out by the box of mealworms in the house. To keep the chickens in mealworms, I was planning on growing my own, but without the enthusiasm of the kids, this project might be abandoned.

The chickens LOVE mealworms. It is hard to express the joy they demonstrate when I arrive with the plate of worms each morning. They jostle for position and dig right in to snatch the best specimens. The chickens make cute little eating sounds, but then they give me sad faces when the worms are gone and scratch the fence around the run, to indicate they would like more, please.

So, if I can figure out how to grow the mealworms without offending the rest of the family, I think it would make an excellent treat for the girls and we would save money by not having to purchase so much of the regular layer pellets.

On the other hand, mealworms are also ideal for human diets. Maybe we can start a new trend, grow-your-own protein. Anyone wanna join me for Mealworm Canapes or Mealworm Cookies? LMK!

Yesterday I took the required three, plus Apple/Cranberry with French Crumble Topping, and a Fuyu Crunchy Persimmon Pie. Both were well received. The Crispy Persimmon Pie (forefront of photo above) was one my Mom had cut out from Sunset Magazine in November 1981, but I am not certain she ever tried it. It was on the same page as a Custard Persimmon Pe and Spaghetti Squash with Orange-Filbert Butter. Funny how times have changed. Filberts are now called Hazelnuts, which oddly sound more exotic.

A special note to John and Amy – King Arthur Flour has just introduced a Gluten Free Flour Mix, and the product line includes several convenient mixes (GF Cookie Mix, GF Muffin Mix, GF Bread Mix). I have not tried these products myself, but reviewers on the KAF site give them multiple thumbs up. Sounds worthy of another experiment.

Back to the giveaway at hand – with the help of Random.org, a winner has been chosen:

Congratulations to Cameron! I will be in touch to arrange delivery of your prize.

Be sure to sign up for the King Arthur Flour email list and receive all sorts of great discounts on shipping and products. The KAF website is also full of help and suggestions for easy holiday baking, including a fun “Chat with a Baker” feature. Ask any question you have!

From a menu planning standpoint, last week was a disaster. The menu plan was good, but our schedule was all wonky, and we ended up abandoning the entire plan by Tuesday night. We still ate well and at this point in the season, many of the vegetables in our box from Mariquita have good staying power, so we can just use the leftovers this week.

Thursday was our last box from Mariquita for the season (sign up now for next year!) Our box contained a Winter Luxury Pumpkin (already roasted for pie), Parsley Root, Celery, Gala Apples, Red Potatoes, Gold Chard, Yellow Chantenay Carrots and Pan di Zucchero (Italian vegetable resembling endive or chicory, but huge).

Here is my dinner plan for the week of November 20:

Sunday: (leftover from last Thursday) Pork Chops, Lime-Cilantro Sweet Potatoes, seared kohlrabi (see recipe here), watermelon radishes with ranch dressing

Monday: Israeli couscous salad with Apple, Fennel and Parsley Root, sauteed chard, hummus, carrot and celery sticks, pita bread

Tuesday: Vegetarian chili (from the freezer), corn bread, carrot and celery sticks

Wednesday: Annual crab feed, I hope the crab fisherman reach a decision

Thursday: Thanksgiving (we bring pies, appetizers and cocktails)

Friday: Leftovers

What is on your menu plan this week? Share your favorite Thanksgiving recipe!

P.S. Don’t forget about the King Arthur Giveaway! All you need to do is comment to be eligible to win. Big prizes!

I am a voracious reader, when not cooking, eating or writing about food. Reading has always been an important part of my world – I remember when I was young, I much preferred reading the next in the Nancy Drew series (the original mind you) rather than going to soccer practice, and there were times when the coach would have to gently remove the book from my hand and shoo me out onto the field.

These days, there are usually 2-3 books on my nightstand in progress, plus any number of books waiting to be read. I also have a stack of New Yorker magazines, and Sundays are reserved for paper reading, which takes a good deal of the day. We take 2 papers, of course.

Over the years I have tried to track the books I read, mostly just because I would find it interesting to track. But lately, I have a better reason. In the past year, I have found myself, on more than one occasion, purchasing a book, from the Friends of the Library Annex, that not only have I read before, but I am pretty sure I donated it in the first place. That and the random books I checkout again because I cannot remember I have read them already, and also wanting to be able to track new recommendations led me to the search for a program to help manage all this data.

I cannot remember who suggested I try Goodreads (Ginger, Becky?), but it is a great tool for tracking and building a social network around reading. I know, I already have a bazillion social networks, but this is different because knowing what my friends are reading really is interesting, exciting and useful.

Goodreads is easy to use – set up a profile, add the books you have read, are currently reading, or want to read, then look for some friends. Jeannie reads a lot, and I love trolling through her list to see what I should add to mine. Ginger and I have similar tastes, but we don’t always agree on how to rate the book. Becky showed me how to double my reading power by adding audio books to the mix. There are also giveaways and contests and bookclubs to join, if that is what floats your boat.

Come join me on Goodreads, we can be reading buddies!

Originally from Martha Stewart, the cookies were very easy to mix and bake, and the frosting came together nicely in the stand mixer. I used a 2 inch cookie scoop and my yield was slightly higher than the recipe indicated, 16 cookies total (with a couple misfits for tasting purposes). Now that they are made, I think they would be great additions to the Thanksgiving dessert table – little hands might find them more desirable than pie, and they travel well.

This all came about because of my love of the Adjusta Cup Measuring Cup (that is the item in the forefront of the photo above). I find myself reaching for this gadget almost every time I bake – it is designed to measure sticky and goopy ingredients, like peanut butter, molasses and shortening. With Thanksgiving next week, I am already gearing up for pie making and this tool is indispensable. I use it to measure out shortening and then freeze the shortening before making the pie crusts.

The Adjusta Cup is a great kitchen gadget to have on hand; simple to use, well labeled and dishwasher safe (although I wash mine by hand). I love the 1 cup version so much that I recently ordered the 2TBS version for small amounts of goopy stuff. At $9.95, it is pretty much a no-brainer, great for the cook on your list or perhaps Santa might put one in your stocking.

When I asked King Arthur Flour for help in putting together a giveaway box, we decided to include a couple items to help the busy baker and anyone interested in healthy family eating. The Gingerbread Cookie and Cake mix works for either cookies or cake (magical stuff) and we were able to mix up the cake after school this week for a quick treat. The kids liked how easy it was to follow the directions and work the project themselves; I liked that the kitchen was not a disaster after their cooking adventure!

A 5 pound bag of King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour is included in the giveaway as well, and is ideal for anyone interested in taking a small step towards healthier eating this holiday season. Much lighter than regular whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour is much closer to standard white flour, yet offers the health benefits of whole grain goodness. We use it at home in our pancake and waffle mix, substituting out 1/4 – 1/2 of the called for flour. I like it in brownies and cookie bars, places where the kids don’t notice the difference and where there is a good amount of moisture. I also like to use it for any of my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipes – sometimes the straight whole wheat recipes are too dense for us, and the white whole wheat adds a nice lightness to the whole grain recipes.

Finally, the rules!

I am going to make it easy – all you need to do is comment on this post to be entered to win. That’s it. You can write anything you want, does not necessarily need to be on topic, although to make it easy, how about you tell me about your favorite food to bake during the holidays. Or tell me about a recent kitchen disaster (or success). Or just tell me what you had for lunch.

Winner will be chosen by random from among the comments; entries will be accepted until Wednesday, November 23, 2011, midnight PST; limited to the U.S. only; one entry per person.

Disclosure: King Arthur Flour provided for my review one box of Gingerbread Cookie and Cake mix and one 5 pound bag of White Whole Wheat Flour. The Adjusta Cup I purchased myself and would have written about without the giveaway, I love it that much. Really, a great tool, one that makes many things in the kitchen easier. Thank you KA for sponsoring this giveaway. If you are interested in more KA products, please visit the King Arthur Flour website and sign up for their newsletter. For great baking suggestions, visit the King Arthur Flour Blog!

Found this treasure in my recipe box, along with my Mom’s note and a “wow”. She had lots of recipes, so a wow is pretty special.

I like that these can be made in a tiny version, 12 mini loaves. Perfect for hostess gifts during the holidays. Maybe I should check out these Bake and Give Mini Round Pans from King Arthur Flour. That would make a pretty package!

The recipe is easy, although made in the traditional way, so it takes a little longer than my usual non-knead dough recipes. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Here is my writing plan for the rest of the month, in weekly menu-plan style:

Sunday: Family Dinner Plan

Monday: NaBloPoMo writing prompt (made food friendly)

Tuesday: Travel Tuesday – highlights of past trips

Wednesday: Gadget Wednesday

Thursday: Cookie Thursday

Friday: Family favorite recipe highlight

Saturday: Local food spotlight

Wow, getting this all organized feels great! Let me know if I have missed any topic you would like to hear about.