“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” ~Harriet van Horne Today Jeff and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary! I’m thinking about all the details that went into our wedding day as I look through our old wedding scrapbook and photo albums…planning the candlelit ceremony, the…
“If heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?” Frank McCourt, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ (1996) This is a recipe I developed using a very old bread recipe as a…
This is a recipe I make as an appetizer all year long. A friend of mine requested it, so I decided to post it. Use your favorite veggies! Enjoy! Ingredients 1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent rolls 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 (1 ounce) package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (dry) 2…
~Make cider floats! Pour real apple orchard cider over cinnamon ice cream ~Harvest grapevines and make homemade wreaths for Christmas gifts…here’s a new twist on this idea. homemade grapevine wreath ~Go to a grape stomp or participate in a grape harvest at a local vineyard. ~Host a harvest party: plan a hayride, have a campfire,…
“You have to eat oatmeal or you’ll dry up. Anybody knows that.” ~Kay Thompson Delicious baked oatmeal sweetened with applesauce and brown sugar. This breakfast treat can be served with apples and sausage (see recipe below) or a healthier ‘every day’ version that I like is to serve it with is vanilla yogurt, berries and…
“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as…
Every autumn my friend Bonnie would feature “Lunch in a Pumpkin,” at her tearoom, “Tale of Two Sisters,” here in Red Wing Minnesota. I use to work there and I so miss that place! The old house on West 7th street still speaks to me as I pass by every day on my morning walk.…
photograph by Melissa Placzek “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ~Albert Camus This is so simple to make, yet so delicious I’ve made it several times for Christmas dinner. ~Maple Pork Roast~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine: 1 cup real maple syrup 1/4 cup Dijon…
This is a favorite meal in our house. When the pot of soup in the fridge starts getting low, Jeff has been known to start stockpiling it in the back of the freezer with his name written on the freezer bags in bold letters. 😉 ~African Peanut Soup~ In the bowl of a food processor,…
“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” ~Truman Capote These make a nice first course or side dish. ~Venetian Baked Tomatoes~ 8 medium, round tomatoes 5 slices crustless bread, cubed 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp. salt 1 egg, beaten 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tsp. onion…