In the sidebar is a list of labels or categories for the blog entries.
While the labels "vegetarian" and "meatless" may appear to be redundant, the two are not the same thing. Recipes labelled meatless but not vegetarian sometimes call for chicken broth, beef granules, or similar. While it may be possible to substitute vegetable broth or water in some of those recipes, if that was not mentioned in the original publication, I won't label the recipe as vegetarian, because I don't know what the results may be. Likewise, recipes that list "chicken broth OR water" will be labelled vegetarian because using the water option would make it vegetarian. On the days that we eat vegetarian, we are still ovo-lacto vegetarians, so there is likely to be cheese, eggs, milk, honey, or similar ingredients in recipes labelled "vegetarian". Every time I post a dessert I have a hard time deciding whether or not to label it vegetarian and meatless ("it's a dessert", I think. "Of course it's meatless!"), so desserts are less uniformly categorized in that sense than all the rest of my recipes are.
We have lived at sea level and then at three different high altitude elevations (slightly high: 2,500ft; moderately high: 4,600ft; and high: 5,700ft). Recipes labelled with "high altitude" were made at the moderately high level. People living at exceptionally high altitude (8,000ft and thereabouts) should expect the usual difficulties with adjusting the recipe. Baked goods made at altitude will have this label, as will any dish that required clear changes, but most recipes made at height will not. For example, a pasta dish will require only one change at high elevation: the pasta itself must cook slightly longer since the water is boiling at a lower temperature. This change does not make it a high altitude recipe, and the label will be absent. Baking recipes that have successfully been tested at both sea level and above will note this.
Because I don't often use ground beef and instead substitute ground turkey, some recipes may be labelled "beef pork or lamb" when none of those meats are listed in the ingredients. For these recipes, you can confidently use ground beef instead of the listed ground turkey. In many cases, beef was what the recipe originally called for.
"Approved" is a holdover from before I began the star rating system. At that time, a recipe was either "blah" or "Approved", so where "blah" was phased out for the one star rating, "Approved" could be anywhere from two to five stars. I can't switch "Approved" recipes to a star rating without making them a second time, because it's been years since I made them and I can no longer remember that specifically how we felt about each one.
Please read the page regarding "gluten-free" recipes for more information on recipes with that label.
Please check out the page about canning and preserving for more information on that subject.
The "oven-free-entree" label is just that: entrees that can be made without heating up the oven, most useful during the worst of the summer heat. Most will be stovetop dishes, but some may involve the microwave or toaster. Side dishes, snacks, and desserts are not included.
Instructions on cooking techniques can be found under the label
"techniques" and explanations of some ingredients under the "info"
label.
