Recently Grist ran a slideshow of various urban composting options. Some of the options looked a bit ridiculous. (Tabletop composting? Seriously?)

But the intensely low-tech, almost-free pallet composter looks like a keeper.

If you’re a typical DIY-er, you probably know all you need to from that picture above and the description of it. But check out the full article for tips on where to get the materials, how to assemble it, and how to use it.

We’ve already landscaped the backyard, and there’s a tree right in the only spot that would have made sense for us to do this. Unless … hmm, maybe there’s enough room between the tree and the back fence. Now where did I put that measuring tape?

My first thought when I tasted this was, “This doesn’t taste like Italian to me. Maybe French.” Jenn agreed. But her father, Lou — whose mother and six sisters were all born in Italy — said, “No, that’s what Italian tasted like when I was growing up.”

I cook tomato sauce with beef or sausage in it all the time. I don’t usually do it with chicken. But this, the ingredients and the method, is exactly how Nana, Sentina, Coca, Josephine, Bertha, Nora and Perrina used to cook.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (~6 pounds)
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons butter
3-4 slices thick-cut bacon
12 ounces crushed tomatoes (pictured can is 28 ounce)
2 tablespoons Italian herbs (oregano, chives, parsley, etc.)

Directions

Before you start, make sure the chicken is completely thawed inside and out. I’ve thawed chicken before only to find there were still ice crystals inside the cavity. And take out the bag with the innards. No, that’s not stuffing. (Oh, and pre-heat the oven to 300°.)

You could prep this on a cutting board, but it will be much easier (and less messy) in a big bowl. Trust me on this one.

Coat the chicken liberally all the way around with salt.

Then coat with flour, and pat to make sure it sticks.

Flip it over and do the other side.

Stand the bird up and tap to knock off the excess.

A note about chicken: Always use one hand to handle the chicken, and the other hand to touch everything else. Don’t touch anything after you touch raw chicken.

In a French oven (Usually this is called a Dutch oven, but when it’s made by Le Creuset, it’s a French oven.) melt the butter over high heat.

Brown the chicken top and bottom.

This should only take a minute or so per side.

Cover the breast with the bacon, pour the tomatoes around the sides, and add the herbs.

No, I’m not being really specific about the herbs. I did oregano and chives because I had them in the garden, and parsley because I had some in the pantry.

Cook, covered, at 300° for one hour. But at 20 and 40 minutes, turn the chicken over. Take the bacon off and place back on top each time you turn it over.

Here’s the bottom at the first turn.

We could already tell this was going to be good.

After one hour it was looking almost good enough to eat.

See that tear in the skin? That’s where I grabbed it with the tongs to turn it over. Try sticking the tongs inside the cavity so the skin still looks nice.

Now, take off the bacon and cook uncovered until the breast starts to get crispy — about another 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken and let it rest for about 10 minutes.

You want the temperature to equalize from the inside to the outside before you cut it. If it’s still hotter on the outside, it will squeeze out a lot of juice when you cut, which looks great in commercials but leaves you with dry chicken.

While the chicken is resting, skim the excess grease from the sauce.

Oh yeah, we’ll be using that.

Split the chicken into eight pieces: two each breast, thigh, leg and wing.

Serve on top of pasta, or with the pasta on the side, with the sauce over it.

And that’s it.

When I woke up, I wasn’t sure what I was going to post for Labor Day. Then I checked my comments and found these:

Reassurance from Ally:

I can’t think of anything that hasn’t been said–but I bet it was yummy anyway.

Thanks (and proof that it works) from Phalini:

I just had to share my success with you, because you have been one of the most helpful people in my journey toward learning how to make butter. Thank you again!

Support from Ally (again):

This ad is aimed at people who think that a Kit Kat or a Diet Pepsi from the vending machine is within their budget, cheap enough for them, but organic food is not.

A good laugh from Rachel:

um, if you’re Jewish, use vegetable oil instead of bacon fat. I’ve become adept at modifying your recipes that use bacon fat. LOL

Anticipation from Refrigerator Gaskets (Love the name, by the way. Is that Greek?):

I forwarded this post to my wife, I think I will be having it soon! Will post back with the results. Thanks again for sharing with us.

To those I mentioned here, to everyone else who has ever left a comment, and to all of you who read my stuff every day but never say anything … thanks. All of you make this whole thing worthwhile.

I mentioned two weeks ago that OpenSky, the people behind a lot of the products in my store, are helping out with The Lunch Box Project.

The project’s goal is to ensure all children have access to healthy food at school. With the help of singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, The Lunch Box Project is working to raise $20,000 in the next few weeks.

For the rest of this weekend — through September 7th — OpenSky will donate $1 to The Lunch Box Project for every sale of a healthy Lunch Box product.

I just tried one of the products, theGoodOnYabar. I got the 3-bar sampler pack (manufacturer’s descriptions):

• Breakfast Bar – the original favorite provides 24% of your daily fiber. A stellar 100% organic nutritional line up includes Oats, raw hemp seeds, raw blonde flax seeds, raw sesame seeds, maple syrup and vegan dark chocolate chips. The Breakfast Bar makes a hearty start to any day.
• Peanut Butter Honey – similar nutritional goodness to the Breakfast Bar, with the addition of 100% organic Roasted Valencia Peanut Butter and Raw Honey.
• Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate – The GoodOnYaBar’s most popular flavor adds vegan dark chocolate chips to the peanut butter honey mix. A great substitute for cookies and candy bars!

We went with the Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate.

It’s not really a “bar” like I was expecting. And they’ve obviously made no effort to disguise the fact that you’re eating plenty of raw seeds. I like that about it — it looks like exactly what it is.

Reviews were a bit mixed — I thought it was okay, probably good to have in the backpack when going hiking. It’s not the kind of thing I would want for breakfast, though. I didn’t eat the whole thing, but can’t imagine it being filling enough for a meal.

Jenn, on the other hand, was … disappointed, I guess would be a nice way to say it. When I told her what was in it, she said, “That’s the problem. I hate flax.” If we had checked the ingredients first, I wouldn’t have bothered to ask her opinion. That’s like asking someone who doesn’t like garlic to sample my spaghetti sauce.

So we had some neighbors try it. Cathy said it could have used some crunch, which I can totally agree with. She thought the taste was a little flat, and had an odd aftertaste. Thought some fruit would be a good addition.

Audrey said it tasted okay, sort of like a Snickers™ but without the nuts. But it got stuck in her braces. Yeah, it’s sticky and chewy and full of little seeds. Not a good match for braces.

Overall

If you care about eating organic or vegan, theGoodOnYabar is a great snack, or maybe even a breakfast replacement. If you eat like I do — meat, cheese, dairy, eggs — this isn’t going to take the place of a regular meal. But it could still be a compact, lightweight snack to take on a hike.

Help the Lunch Box Project

Remember, for the next four days each order for the products below will send $1 to The Lunch Box Project.

I’m a Yankee. So I have no idea how traditional this version of shrimp creole may be. But it sure is tasty.

NOTE: It’s always a good idea to ask where your meat is coming from, but with shrimp it’s even more important. With the oil spill in the gulf, we don’t yet know the impact on fish that could be caught this year, or the long-term viability of the fisheries. And it’s probably best to avoid imported shrimp, except from Canada. (This assumes you’re in the U.S. Otherwise, check your local regulations and use your judgment.)

Ingredients

1 pound uncooked shrimp (thawed)
1 medium can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1 large green bell pepper
½ large yellow onion
½ cup white mushrooms
4-6 cloves garlic
3-4 thin slices ham
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and black pepper to taste
chipotle powder

Directions

Keep your knives sharp. This has nothing to do with creole. When you’re cutting a pepper and instead of slicing cleanly it rolls over, letting the knife slide onto your fingertip — and by the way, you should have your fingers tucked under when chopping  …

Fortunately the knife was so dull that it only cut halfway through instead of taking the fingertip clean off. Thanks for your concern.

So anyway …

Dice the pepper and onion.

Bring some water to a boil and add the shrimp.

Boil for about 10-12 minutes, until bright red on the edges and there is no gray color left.

Drain, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Don’t overcook shrimp or it will get rubbery. Peel the shells and chop into bite-size pieces.

Melt a few tablespoons of butter or bacon fat in a large non-reactive pan — stainless steel or porcelain coated, but not raw cast iron (unless you’re really confident in the season).

Add the onion and pepper, and season with salt and black pepper.

Chop the mushroom roughly, mince the garlic and add both.

Here’s where traditionalists are probably going to have a problem with this. I’ve seen recipes that call for no pepper. Some say crushed red pepper, or cayenne, or Tabasco — which is cayenne with vinegar. I went with about a teaspoon of chipotle, which is made from roasted jalapeños.

You can obviously go with more or less pepper, depending on how spicy you like it. Just remember that it’s easy to add more, but pretty hard to take pepper out if you overdo it.

Mince and add the ham.

You can see in that last  picture that the onion and pepper are thoroughly softened and starting to brown. If you did a mise en place — that’s just French for “set in place”, meaning you prepped everything all at once before you started cooking — you’ll have to cook for a while before adding the tomatoes. If you chop as you go, and stir after each addition, there should be plenty of time for everything to cook along the way.

Now that all the veggies are cooked, stir in the tomatoes and the Worcestershire sauce.

Once the tomatoes are heated through, remove it from heat and stir in the shrimp.

Serve over white rice.

And that’s it.

We’ve done lots of recipes from the old cookbooks Jenn bought at an antique shop last year. Every one of them came out great, even with the substitutions and tweaks we made. Until this one.

Now some people might ask, “Why would you take the time to upload all this and write about it if it didn’t turn out right?” Good question. It’s because I really want to try again, but I have no idea what to change to fix it. I’m hoping someone out there will see a step and say, “Yup, that right there … that’s where you messed up.”

So if you’ve got a few minutes, and know your way around fruity desserts, I need your suggestions for what to do differently.

Ingredients

1 quart peaches (about 8-10)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg whites
½ cup cream, whipped
½ cup sugar

Directions

Like many of our “experimental” recipes, this one came from the Ohio State Grange Cookbook Eleventh Edition, 1949.

The recipe called for a can of peaches, but we used fresh peaches — which might be the whole problem — so Jenn mashed them up by hand, then with the potato masher.

Then mix the cornstarch with an equal amount of water.

The recipe called for using the syrup from the can. Again, we weren’t using a can. So we figured the syrup in a typical 1949 can of peaches was what is today called “light syrup”, which means simple syrup. So we used a half-cup of sugar and about a quarter-cup of water.

Whisk until the sugar is dissolved, then add the cornstarch mixture.

The directions said to stir “until clear” over the double boiler. We went for over an hour and it never got clear. Right then we suspected something wasn’t right.

But when you’re doing a new recipe, you never know until it’s done. So we went on with stirring in the peaches.

Then set it aside to cool.

In separate bowls whip the cream …

… and beat the egg whites until stiff.

Add the whipped cream and egg whites to the cooled peaches and fold them in.

Pour into a mold. We didn’t have any gelatin molds, so we went with this shortcake pan.

Which seemed like a great idea, until the peach filling came up almost to the edge. And we noticed the little hole for hanging the pan on a hook.

Luckily, we had mini-marshmallows on hand — for hot cocoa, of course — and stuffed one into the hole.

Put it in the fridge for several hours and …

… not firmed up at all. So we spooned it out and topped with the remaining whipped cream.

(By the way, the lighting in my in-laws’ kitchen is so different from mine that the colors were way off. Trust me, that’s the same stuff from the previous picture.)

So anyway, here’s the question: Why didn’t this gel up like it’s supposed to? Did we not use enough syrup? Were we wrong that it would be simple syrup, and this recipe needs corn syrup?

Okay, that’s several questions. Have you got an answer for any of them?

Is this how you feel when people start talking about grass-fed beef, sprouted grains and local vegetables? Then you might want to check out the Real Food for Rookies online class.

I don’t spend a lot of time writing about how to select the best ingredients. First of all, I know a lot of people are just learning to cook from scratch. I’m happy to see people start with real meat and vegetables rather than a box of frozen “meal solutions”. I’m not kidding, that’s what the food industry calls pre-made dinners.

The other reason I don’t focus on sourcing is that a bunch of other people are already doing a good job of it. One of them is Kelly the Kitchen Kop. (Don’t worry, she knows food better than she knows spelling.)

Kelly spends the first half of the Real Food for Rookies class teaching you how to select the best ingredients, and the second half showing you how to use them.

1. Reading Labels to Avoid the Junk
2. Choosing Which Fats & Oils to Use in Your Kitchen
3. Choosing Which Sweeteners to Use & Batch Baking Tops to Save Time
4. Choosing the Right Meats
5. Choosing the Right Produce
6. Choosing the Right Dairy
7. Healthy Breakfast Ideas
8. Healthy Lunches, Snacks and Oh-the-go Foods
9. Healthy Dinners & Fast Food Alternatives
10. Superfoods Part 1
11. Superfoods Part 2
12. Beyond Real Food

(Click here for more details about each class.)

If you’re just looking for a bunch of recipes, this isn’t the class for you. But if you want to improve what you’re putting into your recipes, check out Real Food for Rookies. Then come back here for more ideas of what to make with your high-quality ingredients.

DISCLAIMER: I get a commission if you sign up for the class.

The Huffington Post had a great little slideshow about culinary pros’ favorite tools and tricks. I’m totally with them on #4 — the huge roll of plastic wrap; # 7 — the microplane; and #10 — adding pasta water to the sauce.

But I’ve got a few more favorite things.

Kitchenaid Stand Mixer

I don’t think I’ve found anything that I use it for that you can’t do by hand, or with a handheld mixer.

But there are things that I won’t do by hand any more. Like rolling pasta. (Yes, that requires an attachment.)

Pampered Chef Mix N Chop

I didn’t want to like this when Jenn bought it. We already had a potato masher, what did we need this for?

Turns out, it works just as well for potatoes, and does ground beef better than anything else for chili or meat sauce.

Ninja Master Prep Blender and Food Processor

Stupid name, great product. You can turn ice into snow, which I’ve never seen another non-commercial product do. It’s worth it just for frozen drinks.

But then you use it for pesto, and soup, and salsa, and … you get the idea. It’s 80% as good as the infomercial made it look.

Egg slicer for mushrooms

Quicker and safer than doing it with a knife, and does a better job of it, too.

How to core lettuce

Quick and easy. Picked this up working at the restaurant in college.

How to peel peaches

One peach? Use a knife or a peeler. A dozen? Do this. It will save your sanity.

Rolling pie crust in a zip-top bag

Keeps the counter and roller clean, and gives you a guide for how big to roll it.

And since you need to wrap the dough and put it in the fridge for an hour, might as well wrap it in the bag.

Corn off the cob

No special tools — assuming you already have the bundt pan — and keeps the corn all in one place instead of all over the counter.

If you don’t have a bundt pan, put a small bowl upside-down inside a large bowl. Less stable, but still easier than doing it directly on the cutting board.

Remote probe digital thermometer

I won’t do a large piece of meat without this one. Cooking by time is a guess at best. With the probe, you know when it’s done.

What are your favorite tools and tips?

Let’s hear about it down in the comments.

Penne with pesto — or Penne alla Pesto if you want to impress people — is a great, light dish that you can throw together in almost no time when you don’t want to heat the kitchen up during the summer.

Assuming you’ve already got your fresh pesto, cook up a pound of penne pasta. Drain it, and mix in three or four tablespoons of butter.

Add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

And a tablespoon of that fresh-made pesto.

Have your wife sample it, and find out that she likes pesto more than you remembered.

Stir in another tablespoon of pesto.

And that’s it.

Told you it was easy.

Pesto is usually thought of as something that you put directly on pasta. But it also makes a great ingredient to keep on hand for making a quick spaghetti sauce, or for a burst of flavor in soup or stew.

I really should be saying “basil pesto”, because you can make pesto from any herb. “Pesto” refers to the technique. Traditionally, pesto was made by mashing the herbs in a mortar and pestle — pestle, pesto, get it?

Ingredients

fresh basil
garlic
extra virgin olive oil
(See below for amounts)

Directions

This batch came from my garden.

Cut off whole branches and peel the leaves off. You don’t want thick stems, so fold each leaf in half and peel the stem off the back.

Yes, it’s tedious peeling the stem from each leaf one-by-one. The alternative is getting tough, stringy stems in your pesto. Ecch.

Fill the sink with cold water and rinse the leaves thoroughly.

You can buy various products to add to the water that claim to remove pesticides and fertilizers and other stuff that you don’t want to eat. But I didn’t use any of those things, so I was just rinsing off the dirt that splashes up when it rains.

After the leaves are thoroughly rinsed, dry them. I haven’t found anything better than the Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner.

It’s a mini-centrifuge that spins all the water off the leaves without damaging them. Even after shaking the leaves off, the spinner removed all this water from them.

Remember this when you see how much finished pesto there is at the end.

My last batch of pesto was a little light on the garlic. So of course I overcompensated this time, using about a dozen smallish cloves. Cut the stems off, but don’t bother chopping them up. The food processor will handle that.

Add the garlic and all the clean basil leaves to your food processor. Stuff it in if you have to.

That’s the Ninja Master Prep I’m stuffing the leaves into. It’s got a two-quart pitcher, so you can see I had quite a bit of fresh basil to start.

After a quick couple quick pulses, the volume was already reduced quite a bit.

Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and process for about 10 seconds.

Scrape the sides down. Keep adding oil a teaspoon at a time and processing until it starts to get a creamy texture. You want a thick sauce, not a bowl of shredded leaves.

When I was done, the volume had reduced to this tiny little bit in the bottom of the pitcher.

I used the smallest plastic containers I had. I could have fit it all in one of them, but Lou (my father-in-law) wanted some.

Tomorrow I’ll show the most basic way to use this. If you want ideas today, I’ve already done pizza sauce and bulk spaghetti sauce using this pesto.