Our little mountain in Tennessee is actually having a traditional, authentic autumn season. Instead of boiling hot weather followed by two weeks of what feels like a classic autumn, to be immediately trounced on by our local version of bitter cold. I’ve lived here 31 years – and this has been the first autumn that has felt like a traditional … Continue reading →
I’d never much like meatloaf until one day within the last decade, I rummaged through my aunt’s recipes at her kitchen table. I came across a recipe of my great grandmother’s,(Mary Eva, called Maymie to her friends and Muddy to her grandchildren). The recipe for her chili sauce my grandmother made. I’d never much cared for it as a child, … Continue reading →
June is our family’s Big Birthday month. We celebrate with one Big Party. One reason it’s my favorite celebration of the year is because the setting is outside. When they’re all outside – the boys and their girls, the grands – no one cares so much about the noise. The little ones’ energy doesn’t seem so big in outdoor spaces, … Continue reading →
When the words don’t come, it puts me at a loss. That the words don’t come doesn’t necessarily herald a hard season. Sometimes it heralds a season to be savored. A season to just pause and take it all it – the sweet and the sour, the high and low, the tough and the tender. It’s been a year! Not … Continue reading →
I love stories: Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall Stories – and Christmas Stories: Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, The story of Saint Nicholas of Myra – oh, how I loved that story – a story of being seen and cared for when we feel unseen and hopeless. Then there’s It’s a Wonderful Life, A … Continue reading →
“. . . breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” ~ Acts 2:46 Something happens at a table where bread is broken together. Maybe the bread broken together is … Continue reading →
I’ve been trying to catch my breath. . . so I baked. I baked a Chicken & Cauliflower Rice recipe from I Breathe I’m Hungry. I made a Flourless Chocolate Torte – and Lavender-Pumpkin Scones. I found all kinds of pumpkins – and exchanged Summer with Fall. Then I Fall Cleaned – much like Spring Cleaning. It was a deep … Continue reading →
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 →
