I love celebrating birthdays – one-year-old birthdays to 90+ birthdays. I love filling the table with favorite dishes and desserts, considering the table detail for the little ones and the big ones, the celebrant and the celebrators. Children’s gifts? I love the whimsy of finding the right gift for the right child. Can I tell you how exciting it is … Continue reading →
I remember turning my completed thesis in to The Dean of Graduate School’s Office and waiting, waiting, waiting. I’d pop in and ask – I was on pins and needles. I’d fought an uphill battle to get to that point. My initial thesis-adviser kept sending other students to persuade me that creative writing was not my thing – if I … Continue reading →
Last week we won the trifecta of Snow Storm Challenges: No water! No electricity!! No Propane! Praise God for warm blankets! Praise God for Hope!Praise God for gas-filled cars to recharge batteries and find some warmth!Praise God for restaurants that stayed open!And Praise God for the Electric Company Power Crews, the dispatchers, the road crews who salted and cleared the … Continue reading →
My three-year-old grandson sat on the kitchen counter stool. It’s a favorite place for little boys who want to be bigger than they are. To sit on the stool at the counter is to sit shoulder to shoulder with his uncles. All the little ones strive to climb that mountain and prevail. I stood across from him making lunch. He … Continue reading →
This is a something old made new blog post – updated, much yummier recipe and a message given heart-tweaks because not only have I grown since I first wrote this, but those who sit at the table have grown – and so have their tastes, and there are new people, new babies. . . and because cooking isn’t ever just … Continue reading →
One of my sons and his sweet wife were talking about soup for dinner – tomato soup to be exact. It was cool outside, cloudy with a chance of rain. Tomato soup sounded good to me, too, so I volunteered to make a pot for after work. I’d never made tomato soup before, but tomato is a language I understand. … Continue reading →
“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” ~ Psalm 34:7-8 (Note: Cooking isn’t just cooking at the Blue Cotton House. There’s always a story, a Mom Lecture Nugget, a little nourishment for the soul with words or without. As my first … Continue reading →
“All change comes from deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ and living out the changes that understanding creates in your heart.” ~ Tim Keller . . . Because Cooking can be so much more than just cooking. . . . I adore the Louisville Hot Brown Sandwich. For a long time, I rarely ever made it. Not because … Continue reading →
“‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’And she answered, ‘All is well’” ~ 2 Kings 4:26. 72 days into 2019 – 7 days of doctor visits, pre-surgery testing, 2 surgeries, 3 hospital stays totalling 14 days. There has not been much Everyday Ordinary. . . . , but there have … Continue reading →
“I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees” ~ 2 Corinthians 12: 9 The Message After walking through A Great Challenge, in the middle of an everyday ordinary moment, when rinsing … Continue reading →
Let me set the table here – the historic table – about recipes and reputation. Growing up in my grandmother’s house, I had the luxury of learning all sorts of recipes – daily recipes, bridge day recipes, celebration recipes and feast recipes. It was long after I married that I came to recognize that a recipe wasn’t just a recipe … Continue reading →
I’m feeling keenly the contrasts lately. Maybe it has something to do with being a “tween” – living life in between aging family with health challenges and raising children still in the nest or encouraging those outside the nest. One day I’m hugging grandlittles who give whole-hearted hugs or big slurpy smiles – and another day, I’m sitting beside a … Continue reading →
Last week, I pulled out an old recipe. It my great-grandmother Muddy’s recipe – her corn fritters. I don’t know why I hadn’t made them in such a long time. For a season, Muddy’s Corn Fritters were a dinner-time staple. . . until they weren’t. The old recipes, like Muddy’s corn fritters, handed down for generations mother to daughter, from … Continue reading →
Saturday, I jumped in my canoe and paddled to my garden for dill. The day before, during a lull in the rain, I’d spotted my youngest one, sitting on the raised garden edges, slipping his hand into the tomatoes, chard and peppers to pinch off a few leaves of chocolate-mint and stuff it between his cheek and gum. On Saturday’s … Continue reading →
“Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle” (Psalm 103:5). “Don’t worry about cooking. Just rest and enjoy,” my husband encouraged, as I stuffed mason jars and lemon curd into a cooler on wheels, to be packed in the back of my van. All that was missing was my kitchen sink! He … Continue reading →
Reasoning that if you make creme brulee (egg yolks), you might as well whip up a batch of meringue shells – and if you’ve already made creme brulee – it’s time for something chocolate – and if you want to provide a gloss of credibility and nutrition to what your doing – throw in a couple of blueberries, blackberries or … Continue reading →
I might call myself Nacho Mama when I cook Mexican, and I might really be Not(ch) Yo’ Mama – but that does not stop me from trying to find recipes that allow my dinner to be all things to all people. I refuse to be a short order cook, but if the cookin’ can wear different plates, well then, why not! … Continue reading →
My Joyful son, whose joyfulness has been challenged by teen-itis – and probably by his mother’s response to his teen-itis, turns 16 this month. I miss the days he would say wonderful words like, “Great cookin’, mom” or sneak up behind and hug me. You’ve heard about his humor: “Joyful has grown beyond snuggle-buggles and telling me he loves me, but he … Continue reading →
