No disrespect to Martha and those who aspire to her homemaking pinnacles I just have to be honest about this – my act doesn’t include perfect house cleanliness nor coordinated napkin rings. Our table is more likely to be set with Ball canning jars and mis-matched plastic plates (antique ones marked on the back from...

Yummmm, sugar cookies. I know its only November but the holidays are really just around the corner. Once Halloween is gone, it seems like its a full-on sprint into the winter holidays. If you have the time, one nice way to open the season is to make a batch of beautiful sugar...

We are just at peak fall color here, mother nature has decided to cool off, the kids are wearing their Halloween costumes all day long, and it feels like fall to me, finally. We were expecting lows of 29 F last night so I had to put row covers over the spinach, bell peppers,...

Maria Speck I recently had the pleasure of meeting Maria Speck, a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), Les Dames d’Escoffier and Slow Food USA who is a food writer and journalist. She publishes in the German magazines Stern and Brigitte, the DPA news agency in Germany, Saveur, Gastronomica, The Vegetarian Times,...

This last August 22nd, my middle child turned 4 years old. Life becomes very full when you have three kids, one being all of 10 months, and you homeschool and you are dedicated to starting a new direction in your working life. So full that time zips past ferociously fast. So fast that when you look at the...

(Banana tart with soybean praline base, enrobed with banana chocolate sauce) Nuts, especially peanuts and walnuts, are lethal for my oldest child. They are also delicious, found in many of the desserts that make life worth living, and are almost impossible to simulate. I do not like peanut butter, don’t miss it, but I have always felt...

I wasn’t necessarily raised on transcendent biscuits, we had patacones and arepas instead. My mom, who is from Illinois and from a family of Illinois corn, soybean, and pig farmers who came from the hills of Kentucky ages ago (and I don’t know where before that), would talk about the delicious food her grandma...

I apologize for not posting much this last week. Its been rather hectic! To broaden my photographic learning experience, I am the second shooter in a few weddings this summer with this fantastic guy Rob Brown, his site is Rob Brown Photography in case you need the friendliest wedding photographer in New England. I...

Hmmmm, chocolate. It’s likely something we all take for granted. You might think that the definition of chocolate is an inherent thing and you might think that when you go to the store and when you buy something that is called chocolate that it would, indeed, BE chocolate. For the most part, that is what it...

(Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies) I am a super bad mom, I really am. Once the caffeine hit the system this morning I jumped up and baked these cookies (the dough was in the fridge overnight). The bad part is that we essentially had these for breakfast. We are going to have a second course of...