Here’s a helpful tip from the Houseproud kitchen: thyme salt makes just about everything taste better. Really, it’s true! I’ve made all sorts of herb salts, but I use thyme salt the most. It goes with almost everything. It tastes yummy whisked into a salad dressing, tucked under the skin of a roasted chicken, or sprinkled on toasted olive bread. It’s become a critical part of the brine I make for my “feta” tofu, so I keep it in constant stock. It’s a very useful thing to have on hand, but it does take a little time to make (SNORT, giggle, giggle). Really, the only downside of making thyme salt is that separating the tiny leaves from their stems is such a tedious task. But that’s one of the reasons why thyme salt makes a thoughtful gift for your fav’rite cook: you’ll being doing the grunt work for your lucky recipient!
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Gracious me, with Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror, we’re in the thick of the winter holiday season now, aren’t we? Are you feeling swamped already? Take a few minutes to make a batch of brine-fermented beets this week, and soothe your frazzled nerves and over-indulged belly with a glass of beet tonic in the coming days. 
Have I mentioned that I follow Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before 6 philosophy of eating? If you haven’t already heard about VB6, it can be described as eating vegan during the day, focusing on whole foods and avoiding junk, and having a flexitarian diet for dinner. I like eating this way for a number of reasons, none of which I’ll trouble you with today.
Here’s an easy recipe for you: lentils and bulgur, cooked together in one pot, based on a dish that’s popular throughout the Middle East. It travels well and is still yummy days after it was made. It’s an earthy dish – hearty, filling, and cheap. It’s also a one-pot meal that needs minimal attention or prep work, which is useful if you, too, have decided to clean every FRACKING inch of your home and each item therein. No matter how unreasonable your plans or how troubled the world, this food comforts the wearied soul. 
Hello, hello and hello again, my pets. Just popping in to let you know that I have been thinking about you this week, although there’s been little here to prove that. I would have stopped by earlier, but I’ve been stricken with a severe attack of lack-of-focus-itus, which has resulted in a large number of half-started sewing and knitting projects, and a general inability to get anything of substance done. This lack of focus, coupled with the way I generally feel these days after hearing the news, has made me uncharacteristically out-of-sorts. On the off chance that you occasionally suffer from the blahs yourselves, here are a few sure-fire methods to revive your sense of hope and purpose, all of which I’ve employed recently: go for a walk; do the hokey pokey*; fuss about in the garden; and make jars and jars of peach sorta-jam. 
Greetings from the Houseproud homestead’s kitchen, my pets! I was a busy little munakins this last week, most of it spent out in the world, but a few good stretches of time spent in our kitchen. And given how busy I’ve been and how busy I’m sure you’ve been, what better way to amuse you this week than by giving you some easy recipes to hack? What I’ll be showing you today follows my rule of “spend a little time now and you’ll be happier later”. I’m a great fan of applying this principle to cooking, as it keeps me well-fed and happy no matter what my schedule is like. 
Houseproud 