Lighter alternatives for Thanksgiving side dishes

Are you trying to keep your Thanksgiving dinner from being a calorie-bomb, while still having traditional foods? Here’s my one hot tip: if it’s not something that you LOVE, make it differently. You can have any or all of the traditional foods, but use alternate cooking methods that lighten the food up. (more…)

A really sad thing

We’ve had beastly hot weather over a week now. My house has no AC. I accidently left my favorite sourdough starter on the counter overnight. I had to throw it away in all its pink-orange spoiled glory.
If you have ever wondered if you’d KNOW for sure if your starter has gone bad, let [...]

It’s a Cooking Contest!

My son Nate asked me to post this:
Instructables is hosting a cooking contest.
Do you have a great original recipe idea? Here’s your chance to share the recipe and win a prize!
*All entries need to be submitted by 12:00 AM, July 9th, 2007 EST.
Recipe submissions will be judged on the following:
*Completeness
*Spelling and grammar
*Adequate pictures
*How easy it [...]

Some of us are really good at ONE thing….

And then there’s Nate. Nate’s good at just about everything he puts his hand to. Nate, my second son, loves to cook and has his own cooking blog. The other corner of the web that Nate spends a TON of time in is a site call Instructables. This is a site about how to do, [...]

The. Best. Sourdough Bread. Ever. (or The Key to the Bread Universe)

Last weekend, we drove 9 hours to reach Auntie Clair and Uncle Paul’s house, arriving well after midnight. The next morning we all staggered down to breakfast, VERY bleary-eyed. I was halfway through a delicious slice of Artisan bread when words finally started to make sense to me. “What????” I exclaimed, “Clair MADE this bread?????” [...]

Wow! Talk about Customer Service

If you’ve been reading this blog for any time at all, you know that the one appliance that I use DAILY is my Kitchenaid mixer. I finally burned out a mixer last June and had to get a new one. I bought directly from the Kitchenaid site, rather than through a dealer or a store. [...]

Pears and Waterford Crystal bowls

When Dave and I got married, over 21 years ago, we received many lovely wedding gifts. We were pretty fresh out of college, spent every spare minute rock-climbing, didn’t own “real” furniture, and liked very simple living. A fair number of our older, female relatives used a phrase as they examined all our lovely wedding [...]

And can someone please tell me WHY

Pyrex loaf pans are considerably smaller these days? Over the years, I’ve broken a lot of loaf pans. The other day, another one shattered on the floor. I was particularly sad because it was one of my older pans. For some reason, I can’t even buy the older size anymore. Every glass loaf pan in [...]

Maybe I was dozing

But some time in the last 18 months, BARLEY has gone from being something I bought by the bag for $.79 on the dried bean aisle to being an item that can be found with Specialty Items for $1.99 a BOX.  At first I thought I was just shopping at the wrong store, but the [...]

Laura’s food goal for this year

I struggled to know what to title this post, because I hate the word “diet”, and I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions. But the fact remains that I’ve been wanting to finally take off that pregnancy weight (my youngest is 5, I think it’s time! ) So, at the risk [...]