I have an enduring love affair with bread.  It’s not just the pure pleasure of pulling off a steaming heel of bread, slathering cold sweet cream butter over the top, sinking your teeth into the crumb and shattering the crust; although those are reasons enough to be devoted.  Making bread; the process of measuring, mixing, [...]

Time is up on the giveaway.  I will now retreat with my calculator and devise a highly scientific method of picking the winner. (Actually, the winner will be chosen at random.  I thought I should probably mention that!)  I will announce the winner later today, so please come back to see who the lucky winner [...]

We’ve been spring cleaning like crazy around here lately.  It’s so invigorating to be able to open the windows after having them firmly shut since November.  And even though I hate doing laundry, there is something incredibly peaceful about hanging the first couple loads of clothes and sheets and towels on the line.  Everything is [...]

Déjà Food
Pronunciation: \ˌdā-ˌzhä-ˈfüd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Yo Momma. (Actually, my step-momma… but I wanted to say that)
1. Leftovers.  But with a French name, therefore, more sophisticated.
Among the catalog of wonderful things my step-mother, Valerie, introduced me to when she and my father married are many now-standards for me: SOB Smoothies (‘Strawberry’, ‘Orange’, and ‘Banana’ Smoothies.  What were you [...]

I am about to let you in on a secret.  I routinely lie to my fourth born child.  But I confine it to food and hope that since it’s with the end design of nourishing him that eventually I’ll be forgiven.  He has such strict (and arbitrary) rules about what he will and won’t eat.  He won’t [...]

I make no secret of the fact that I’m a fan of the book ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’.  Using their Master Recipe, I have experimented and made some of our new family favorites; Bread!  Fully Loaded and English Muffins, among others.  I’m the first to admit that I tend to get stuck in [...]

Dang.  It is cold.  At least it is cold here in my own little corner of Amish country.  When I woke this morning my outdoor thermometer was shivering.  I used what little brain power I have available prior to quaffing a pot of Irish Breakfast Tea to decide that firing up the oven to bake [...]

Sooooo… Did I mention that we had more than 30 people in our home to celebrate Ty’s birthday? (A.K.A. New Year’s Eve.  Such a helpful and cooperative baby… He was our little tax deduction.)  And did I mention that with the notable exceptions of the rocking hummus my sister made and the fudge from my friend [...]

They don’t call them quick breads for nothin’!  Here are a couple of recipes I’ve used to great acclaim over the years, and my source for these is my mother–a great baker in her own right.  These two breads in particular have been appreciated as Christmas gifts by my own family, and I just shipped [...]

 
When I read Beccy’s post yesterday, it immediately triggered a memory from my college years–well, my second round of college years. I had originally gone to college right after high school, but in my sophomore year, it was required that we declare a major, and I had NO idea what I wanted to focus on [...]