Kevin Lee Jacobs – Gardening, Recipes & Home Décor Tips

How I Strain and Store Used Cooking Oil

In the comments section below my Super Crispy Homemade Chicken Nuggets video, a viewer asked: What do you do with the leftover cooking oil? In truth, I never discard my deep-fry oil after just one use. What a waste that would be! And here, in words and pictures, is how...

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This Pumpkin Bundt Cake is blessed with a gorgeous countenance, a moist crumb, and a beautiful autumn-spice perfume. In other words, it is the kind of cake that belongs on your October or November tea table! Here's the step-by-step and printable recipe: To start, throw some flour, pumpkin pie spice,...

Quiche with Hash Brown Potato Crust

This is a gluten-free twist on a traditional quiche. The crust is simply made from store-bought frozen shredded potatoes (a/k/a "hash browns"). There's no butter to cut in, and no dough to roll out! I used spinach and ham for my quiche filling here, but other fillings would work as...

New Washing Machine!

THIS IS NOT A PAID ADVERTISEMENT. I simply wanted to tell you that I purchased a Maytag Commercial washing machine. Would you like to meet this old-school appliance? My former washer -- a high-efficiency, high-tech Cabrio -- bit the dust after four years of modest use. Although the machine was...

Classic Sandwiches for Afternoon Tea

Can you get away for a moment? Please join me for Afternoon Tea! The menu includes fragrant tea, yummy petit fours, and three classic sandwiches. The sandwiches are the same cucumber, chicken, and egg-and-cress subjects that I enjoyed at Kensington palace. Their beauty is in their simplicity. Watch: Afternoon Tea...

Homemade Sandwich Buns

Probably I was a French baker in a previous life. How else can I explain my great passion for yeast dough? I love to mix it, knead it, shape it, and -- after it has been baked -- eat it! Today's recipe is for the Homemade Sandwich Buns you see...

How I Smother Weeds with Newspaper

WHEN WEEDS INVADE MY PERENNIAL BEDS, I don't get mad -- I get newspaper. Newspaper-mulching, as we have discussed before, makes weeds disappear instantly. And it prevents them from re-emerging for an entire season, if not longer. I newspaper-mulched one of my weed-choked beds just this morning. Would you like...

How I Strain and Store Used Cooking Oil

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | October 6, 2021 10 Comments

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | October 4, 2021 5 Comments

1950s Minute Rice Casserole

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 30, 2021 9 Comments

What to make for dinner when you are pressed for time? Well, you could do what Mr. Fox's mother did in the 1950s (and what my own mother did in the 1960s), and make yourself a Minute Rice Casserole! Here's the recipe, along with the answer to your burning question: … [Read more...]

Tiger the Cat (2003-2021)

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 27, 2021 113 Comments

Buckets of tears were shed here over the weekend, as Mr. Fox and I said goodbye to Tiger the Cat. Tiger -- an affable and extremely chatty female tabby -- was 18 years old. She was a cherished member of our family for 17 years. We will never forget her. Tiger was my … [Read more...]

2021 Kitchen Garden Report (Yours and Mine)

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 24, 2021 51 Comments

How'd your vegetable garden perform during the summer of 2021? Did it produce for you the harvest of your dreams? Thanks to a too-cold, too-hot summer, my own kitchen garden was (and still is) a prolific disaster. Here's my "farm report," followed, I hope, by … [Read more...]

Apple Crisp the 1950 Way

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 14, 2021 18 Comments

Here's the printable recipe from the "Apple Crisp 1950 Recipe" video that was recently published on YouTube. Click here to watch the episode, and to learn why, even to this day, I associate the scent of baked … [Read more...]

How to Dry Parsley in the Oven

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 12, 2021 22 Comments

Got a bevy of beautiful parsley in your garden? You might like to dry it for winter culinary use. Dried low and slow, this culinary staple usually retains much of its peppery/grassy aroma. The following oven-dehydrating technique has proven successful for me: Oh. … [Read more...]

Acacia Serving Tray Giveaway/Winners Announced

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | September 5, 2021 525 Comments

Per the number generator at Random.org, the winners are...#355 from Marsha; #27 from Vicky Vickers, and #63 from Dianne Sofia. Congratulations, all! To collect your prize, just send me an email. Today, … [Read more...]

Welsh Rabbit (Welsh Rarebit)

BY Kevin Lee Jacobs | August 28, 2021 31 Comments

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I made -- and ate! -- Welsh Rabbit. Are you familiar with this cheese-on-toast tavern fare from 18th-century England? Click the "play" arrow above to watch the dish come together in my kitchen. Then scroll down for some … [Read more...]