To make sweet potato filled pierogi,  I just used my regular recipe (sort of) for Potato and Cheese Filling and substituted sweet potatoes for the baking potatoes (Russets). First, boil the sweet potatoes in their skins and then rice (or mash) and add to the rest of the ingredients. You may want to use a mixture of both potato types, because the sweet potatoes have a lot more moisture in them, making it more difficult to pinch and seal. Feel free to experiment with quantities. I made a small batch with just a couple of small sweet potatoes. added a bit of cheese and onions without measuring. T ..read more

Sometimes the best salads come about by utilizing what you have on hand. During the fall season, we have some wonderful opportunities. This salad was made with tender cauliflower florets, sauteed onions, spinach, tomatoes, goat cheese, dried cranberries, beets (fresh boiled in skins and cooled, peeled and sliced) and sunflower and pumpkin seeds. This was topped with honey mustard dressing that I had on hand, but any dressing would do. Especially any homemade dressing! Enjoy the season! Susan ..read more

It was a beautiful summer day to grill some flatbreads and I decided to experiment with a few bagel-flatbreads (without the holes). I used a variation of my bagel recipe, but without using the sponge method. See dough method at end of article. Below is my original Grilled Flatbread video for reference. Dough balls after slightly flatteningFlattened dough in hot water The bagel-flatbreads after turning (The three in the center) I only experimented with 3 pieces of dough. I just let them sit in boiling hot water for about one minute and then placed them directly on the grill. At first the ..read more

This is my second article comparing a kitchen product purchased while on vacation in Paris with a similar product found in American grocery stores. The funny thing is that this comparison actually involves two products that are made in France - bleached and natural parchment paper. I didn't have experience with natural baking paper and was curious how it would compare side by side with the bleached white variety. The Reynolds version (top in the above pic) is the type I see most often in local stores. The paper is made in France, packaged in the U.S., very high quality and allows for the ba ..read more

1.  Europe 2017 - Carrefour Hypermarket This is the first of my articles relating to our European trip in July.  We visited Copenhagen, Berlin, Bremen, Amsterdam, Bruges, and our final destination, Paris. While there, I wanted to go to a large retail store and see what is was like and hopefully purchase some goodies to take home. We were traveling light and could not take too much with us, but I still had to get some more cooking things! Looking online for a place to go, I read about the Carrefour chain and its hypermarket in Paris. This hypermarket was equated somewhat to our Walmart superst ..read more

This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked from YouTube viewers and students. Usually it refers to leftover pizza dough, but it can be about any yeast dough. My answer is that the freezer is not too friendly to living yeast and the dough will be rather lifeless after being thawed. I prefer to finish off all I've made made (although, I sometimes refrigerate some for use the next day) and then freeze the finished product. This is true with pizza and breads. Freshly made dough For example, a couple of weeks ago we did some backyard grilling and I made one of my all-time favorites, gri ..read more

I had some left over pastry/pie dough in the fridge and wanted to use it up, but didn't feel like rolling out dough. Because I make my pie dough with butter, (recipe) it gets extremely hard when cold. So...I decided in my moment of laziness to try something new.  I just chopped up some fruit (apples, pears and plums) into small oven proof bowls, added some sugar, cinnamon, flour and lemon zest (didn't measure) and gently mixed with a spoon. Then I thinly sliced my pie dough into disks and placed it on top of the fruit. Baked at 400F until bubbly. Didn't time it, but I think it took around 30 ..read more

I often get asked about the necessity of proofing yeast, how should the yeast look, how long should it take, what if the yeast doesn't get foamy, etc, etc... I would like to answer some of those questions here. My most watched video on YouTube is How to Make Pizza Dough, and in that video I show how to proof active dry yeast. I'd like to go over some of the many concerns and questions involving this step. First, let me talk about the yeast. I would prefer to use beautiful, natural fresh (cake) yeast for baking breads and pizzas, but that is quite impractical for home baker as it doesn't stay f ..read more

Our Fall Schedule is out! We'll be making some incredibly delicious foods this season. Just take a look at a few... And then go sign up at SusansCookingSchool.com. Croissant Bread Chocolate Pear Torte Slow roasted BBQ beef sandwich Specialty pizza with goat cheese and more ..read more

Just had an enjoyable visit to the Oneida County Public Market. They're open Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. Iron Hoof Farm (I bought leeks) Everything looked beautiful, the prices were fair, and the vendors were friendly. My take homeFresh little red potatoes, sweet onions, red ripe tomatoes, purple peppers, and some other type of pepper that I forgot the name of. An extra treat - Utica Bread was there too! This crusty, sesame seeded loaf has incredible flavor and an airy inner texture -one of my favorites ..read more