“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 →
Quite a few years ago, a tradition started in our house. First, it started when my boys trooped in on a chill afternoon with the neighborhood kids following behind. They’d line up on stools on the other side of the island, for steaming cups of hot cocoa. Then, one day, I found some hot chocolate cups at my favorite pottery … Continue reading →
My very favorite coffee shop has a delicious pastry, Pain au Chocolat, an out-of-reach recipe because ordering a special chocolate from Italy for baking seems exhausting. Then my very favorite Italian cooking show presented an awkward-for-me cookie recipe with a very simple ganache recipe filling. Both left me feeling like a frustrated failure. Until inspiration finally dawned in my blue cotton mind. Sometimes inspiration is the collision of … Continue reading →
“Don’t get in my bubble,” they say to each other – and to me sometimes. And the way they say it, playful yet serious, is one of my very favorite things. The way boys banter and set boundaries through humor is one of the true delights of being a mom of sons. “I’m not tellin’ that,” when I try to … Continue reading →
Recipe Updated with journaling of their story in the family: March 4, 2019: One of the first things I’d cooked in over a week, my blue cotton granola bars, – and the littlest who’s not little any more said, “It’s the best ever.” Maybe it was the sprinkling of pecan dust. Maybe it was just because mama cooked – and … Continue reading →
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – right? So what did I learn to do when I, um, married a man and had a bunch of sons – learned how to cook some mighty fine fixin’s, that’s what! Let me tell you, it has not been a cake walk! My husband could care less about food … Continue reading →
The Christmas Candy Trinity at our house consists of Truffles, Majeskas, and Bourbon Balls. Christmas Truffles have delighted my Christmas since I was old enough to walk. Rich, not too sweet, and totally decadent – the stuff culinary of dreams! Christmas Truffles 1/2 Cup Sugar 4 tbsp. flour 2 Cup 1/2 &1/2 2 egg yolks 3 1/2 bags Ghiradelli semi-sweet Chocolate … Continue reading →
It’s beginning to look like Christmas – the mantle is decorated, the snowman wreath is on the front door, and the stockings are up. That means it is time for my Grandmother’s Christmas Coffee Cake which can be found coming out of my oven through Valentine’s Day. A teacher’s gift, a Christmas morning staple, and some warm tangible love for … Continue reading →
Yeah, ladies! Oysters are the key to a true feast – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January Fun-feast meal! The pre-requisite feasting delight is not the must-have turkey and my especially yum dressing or whatever feasty dessert conjured up.I refuse to be shewish and withold the key to Feasting Success from you – though my grandmother would be so tempted to do so! You … Continue reading →
Swine Flu has turned a family member into a boarish-feeling, snout-snuffling, grunting, hacking, coughing, retching statistic of a media-hyped illness. How to turn this Swine Flue victim back into an up-right walking, clean-nose, easy breathing, content-containing-stomach owning homosapien? A Harry Potter Spell? Rabbit hair and dirt stirred into a paste and rubbed across the forehead? Definitely not. Media coverage has bumped this flu … Continue reading →
