When I was a young bride, my mother gave me a lesson on how to buy a week’s groceries on twenty dollars (not including paper & cleaning products). OK, yes, that was a long time ago, but I’ve never forgotten how to be frugal when necessary and with a little planning create healthy, filling and enjoyable meals for my family. Since I am doing the 10 Week Wellness Challenge with the Iowa Food and Family… Read More
Musings of My Inner Erma Bombeck: Gordon’s Winter Project
Like many a dad, my father was handy. He could fix things. As a farmer and father of twelve children, nine of them boys, it was a necessary skill. He fixed tractors, cars, windows, electrical problems, washing machines, broken chairs, you name it — he fixed it. But over the years one of the main things he fixed was a plethora of broken chairs, broken by boys leaning back on them, plopping on them and… Read More
Musings of My Inner Erma Bombeck: An Irish Blessing
“CLEARLY, MARY, WE ARE NOT LUCKY!”, wailed my sister Sue in her best Dirty Harry voice, whipping around to grab my shirt collar and give me stink eye. After a second, and getting over the shock of the statement, we fell into a heap of laughter. Nonetheless, as I think back, perhaps she may have had a point. We were after all, trudging down an Iowa country road away from my stalled 1982 Plymouth Horizon… Read More
Lighten Up and Skip the Canned Soup: Green Bean Casserole
When I was in 7th grade we were required to take Home Economics and the first thing we made was a white sauce, also known as Béchamel sauce. Having been in 4-H and done lots of cooking already at home, I thought this was the lamest thing. I couldn’t imagine Creamed Peas on Toast eeewww– the epitome of a teenager’s idea of gross food! Little did I know that years later this skill would “FREE” me… Read More
Winter Blahs? 6 Ideas To Get Your Spring Mojo…
The end of winter can really bring me down…the snow is often dirty and the days grey, this year the winter blahs have hit me far earlier than usual– we are barely into January. I need spring, I need sun, and I need flowers. However, I have found there are a few things I can do that help my mood and get me ready to hit the ground running. Here are 6 easy things you can… Read More
Garden Fresh Stuffed Green Peppers — Yeah Summer Foods!
As a child I hated green peppers — or so I thought. Growing up in a large Iowa farm family and in an era when grocery stores had limited produce, they were not in my mom’s genre of cooking. Her style was pretty classic old school Iowa — corn, beans, peas, and carrots in a roast. It wasn’t until I went to college that I experience a wider selection of vegetables and learned I liked… Read More
Woot, Woot – I Made French Baguettes..Thanks, King Arthur Flour!
I have always wanted to make French Baguettes. For me nothing is as delicious as a slice of a baguette, crusty on the outside, soft and flavorful on the inside, slathered with butter or a sumptuous French cheese. Baking bread was not something we did in our household. With nine brothers and two sisters, you couldn’t make enough bread in a day to feed or keep them happy! So taking on a baguette was kind… Read More
Fall In Love With Korean Honey BBQ Skewers
I love food; cooking it, grilling it, baking it and especially eating it. But just like most everyone else about 4:30 every afternoon I start to think — what am I going to make for supper tonight. There begins the search –looking in my cookbooks, opening every cupboard, digging through the freezer, and scouring the fridge to see what I can put together that my husband will like. Not that he is picky, but he… Read More
25 Tips and Tricks to Travel Smarter in Paris…from an Iowa Farm Girl
Ooo La La — Paris in the spring! I have been back a little over a week from my first trip out of the country, other than Canada, which I don’t think really counts. Paris has always been the one place in the world I have wanted to go and my handsome husband did not want to go with me. Apparently I nearly killed him on our trip to Chicago last summer – he calls… Read More
Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken for a Dinner for Two
Last night my husband wanted Mexican for supper, but I was getting tired of the same old beef tacos and burritos — I wanted chicken and I wanted it grilled. So we compromised — a grilled chicken taco salad. I didn’t have a recipe and really wasn’t in the mood to search through my cookbooks and online sites — so I punted. A few weeks ago I made a Mexican Street Corn Salad that had… Read More
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