Tired of complicated baking recipes that call for expensive equipment, complicated techniques, and hard-to-find ingredients? Baking, Unplugged comes to the rescue with a collection of simple, back-to-basics recipes for everything from muffins and breakfast pastries to cookies, pies, cakes, and puddings. These are baked goods just like grandma used to make, made from scratch with basic ingredients and standard kitchen equipment. The book includes 114 recipes in all, as well as basic instruction on ingredients, how to read a recipe, and how to set up an "Unplugged Kitchen." Recipe chapters include Treats for the First Half of the Day; Cookies and Bars; Cakes; Fruit Pies, Fruit Tarts, and More; and Creamy Desserts. The recipes include favorites such as Blueberry Muffins, Uncommonly Good Pancakes, Sour Cream Crumb Cake, Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies, Caramel Turtle Bars, Moist Vanilla Pound Cake, Cherry-Berry Pie, Classic Tiramisu, and Anytime Bread Pudding, and many are illustrated in a 16-page full-color insert.

Offers easy, accessible baking recipes, including cinnamon sugar snickerdoodles, fluffy yellow sheet cake, and lemon Bundt cake.

From the guru of brand-new uses for brand-name products come ideas and tips for culinary fun, cleaning shortcuts, and kitchen cabinet remedies Joey Green has fascinated readers for more than a decade with his quirky and innovative tips to make domestic engineering a lot more fun. Now fans will be completely intrigued and entertained by Joey's kitchen--and pantry-focused ideas, like using Canada Dry Club Soda to buff stainless steel appliances and flexible fabric Band-Aids as labels for frozen foods. Filled with time- and money-saving ideas, Joey Green's Kitchen Magic offers clever ways to make household items do double duty, like using ReaLemon for revitalizing wilted asparagus, L'eggs Panty Hose (clean, of course) for removing corn silk, and Oral-B Dental Floss for slicing layer cake. He shares unusual ideas for kitchen troubles, like stirring in Jif Peanut Butter to save burnt gravy and using Efferdent to clean the coffeepot. Joey even tosses in home remedies from the kitchen (soothe a blister with Carnation Nonfat Dry Milk) and simple recipes (try Slow-Cooker Brisket with a Coca-Cola marinade). Whether it's a quick fix (Eggo Waffles for hot dog buns, anyone?) or an emergency substitution (Bounty Paper Towel for a coffee filter), there are loads of useful and entertaining tips for making the most of brand-name purchases.

The proprietors of Inn Serendipity show how easy it is to cook homemade and homegrown meals that help the planet and go easy on your budget. Join Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko, proprietors of the award-winning Inn Serendipity, as they launch a return to our roots of independence, self-sufficiency and frugality, blended with the spice of modern living. Farmstead Chef whips up a quirky, homespun tale of how we can eat well, nourish our bodies, and restore the planet. Rediscover the benefits of homegrown and homemade cooking, preserving the harvest, stocking the pantry, all while building community. From breakfasts to mouth-watering desserts, Farmstead Chef showcases the creative and budget-friendly side to eating lower on the food chain more often while taking responsibility for the food we put into our bodies—by growing it, sharing it and savoring it. Recipes include: Zucchini Feta Pancakes Winter Squash Fritters Herb-infused Spare Ribs Strawberry Dessert Pizza Homemade Graham Crackers After your meal, pull up a chair and enjoy inviting slice-of-life “Kitchen Table” features, such as interviews with local food heroes and visionaries transforming our food system. Farmstead Chef also shares tips practical cooking tips and lively short essays inspired by John and Lisa’s organic, self-reliant homestead and bed & breakfast. This fully illustrated cookbook will show you how to reconnect with nature through food, especially when shared with friends. Praise for Farmstead Chef “Farmstead Chef stirs up revolution, moving us back into the kitchen, our home gardens and local farmers markets. It captures the renaissance of homemade and homegrown cooking where key ingredients include fresh, seasonal and local food along with a deep-rooted conviction that our every bite can make a difference in transforming our world.” —Nell Newman, Co-founder and President of Newman's Own Organics “This book put a big smile on my organic farmer face. Why? With playful people like Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko kissing off corporate America, the serious nature of taking back our food supply becomes a belly-laugh, belly-full party that even the most skeptic will want to attend. For good food and good laughter, Farmstead Chef is the place to be.” —MaryJane Butters, publisher of MaryJanesFarm

Features two hundred recipes for Italian home cooking for soups, salads, pizza, pasta, main courses, polenta and risotto, desserts, and more, with step-by-step instructions with photos for cooking techniques and ingredient profiles.

Are you pressed for time, too tired to cook just for yourself, or simply looking for something beyond a microwaved frozen meal or take-out food loaded with fat, salt, and preservatives? Busy people want a real oven-baked dinner without all the fuss (not to mention the leftovers!). The solution? The trusty toaster oven—which is designed to bake, roast, toast, and broil small portions of food both efficiently and economically. This amazing cookbook will show time-pressed cooks how to prepare delicious, healthy meals quickly and easily, while opening their eyes to the wide range of dishes that are possible with this often underutilized appliance. Pop It in the Toaster Oven will inspire any bored eater to break out of the toast function with recipes such as Buttermilk Pancakes, Minted Lamb Chops, Ginger Miso Calamari, Spicy Beef Fajitas, and Pear Praline Pie. With special tips on choosing the best toaster oven and the proper cookware to use, Pop It in the Toaster Oven will help readers to rediscover this wonderfully convenient appliance.

Unplug your toddlers! Here is screen-free play for ages 1-2 that’s creative, fun, and makes the most of everyday household objects. Here are games to play alone and games to play with siblings and friends and parents. Games to play indoors and games for outside. There are toddler-friendly hand-clapping games, games to play with stuffed animals, and games to let off a little steam, plus lots of ideas for keeping toddlers busy (perfect for when you’re making dinner). These are the kinds of truly fun games and activities deliberately designed to stretch the imagination, spark creativity, build strong bodies, forge friendships, and explore the real world—the opposite of hunkering down in front of an addictive screen. Originally published as a single, parent-friendly encyclopedia of more than 700 screen-free, no-batteries-needed games and activities, Unplugged Play is acclaimed as “A terrific prescription for much of what ails children and parents today” (Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods) and “Just plain fun! . . . Will help parents give their children the kind of childhood that more and more children are missing” (Mary Pipher, PhD, author of Reviving Ophelia). These new editions are brightly designed books targeted to a specific age group. And the need, of course, is even greater than when the book was originally published—screens are far more ubiquitous, causing parents even greater concern about their overuse—and these timeless, imaginative, easy-to-implement games are here to the rescue.