Irish Coffee

Irish coffee has traditionally been served on St. Patrick’s Day at Dave’s house for as long as he can remember. We have great memories of enjoying Irish coffee made by Dave’s dad Jim over the years. We were given a set of Irish Coffee mugs as a wedding present 22 years ago by our good [...]

Quick and beautiful dessert idea

I had a group of women coming over to my house tonight for dessert, and wanted to serve them something lovely and delicious, but did not want to venture out into the -17ºF weather to shop for ingredients.  I remembered that I had made an impulse buy a few weeks ago when I saw little [...]

Russian Tea Mix

One of the fun gifts we got this year was a decorative jar full of Russian Tea Mix from Wendy, one of Dave’s coworkers. My boys had never had this sweet treat before and they LOVE it! It’ll be gone in a week, so I realized I needed to hunt up my own recipe for [...]

Holiday Liqueurs

As usual, I realized today that I’m running a little behind on some of my Christmas gifts. Auntie Joan helped remind me with some suggestions for holiday liqueurs: (more…)

Quick, easy hors d’oeuvres

The trickiest thing about hors d’oeuvres is spelling it. Sometimes, the next trickiest thing about them is remembering to plan for them. Today, if you realize that you haven’t even thought about ideas for appetizers because all your attention has been on The Bird, here are a couple of ideas from my 16 year old [...]

Whipping Cream

This is probably something that most of you know how to do, but I remember a time when I had no idea how to whip whipping cream to top desserts…. (more…)

Cranberry Orange Relish #1

So….I haven’t been able to find my recipe for cranberry relish  anywhere. I’ve sent out an SOS to my sister-in-law, Clair and she can’t find HER favorite recipe either. What kind of conspiracy IS this? Clair did suggest this recipe and I plan to try it. Anytime a recipe calls for jalapeno peppers, I feel [...]

Molded Cranberry Salad

My dear friend, Beth, shared this recipe with me. So if you’re looking for a colorful cranberry jello option, look no further. Beth has a lot of great recipes on her own food blog, so be sure to check her place out: Scraphappy Mama! (more…)

Barb’s Kickin’ Cole Slaw - reprise with a photo

Thanks to my Dutch heritage I love getting a good deal. But can there be too much of a good deal? This week Dave brought home a great deal…..of cabbage that is.
Fifty pounds of cabbage.
For only eight bucks.
Lots of cabbage.
What now?
SLAW!
I have already posted the recipe for my cole slaw. Today I’m posting a photo. [...]

Homemade Beef Jerky

Years ago, Auntie Karen introduced our family to homemade beef jerky. We behaved immoderately with the beef jerky then and we still can’t control ourselves if there is homemade beef jerky in the house. The good news is that it’s very easy to make. The bad news is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep a [...]