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Yes, it is winter. And it is time to find some hearty soups. So, anyone who has been to the Olive Garden recently should know about this soup. I must confess. I think mine is a tad better. heartier. bigger. fuller. double-chin bigger. yeah. O.K. Start with a stick of butter. Seriously, do all of my recipes start with a stick of butter? No, they do not. Some start with two sticks of butter. See? So, put this one stick of butter in a stockpot. Start melting it on high h

This recipe bears repeating. I posted this almost exactly two years ago, and it’s time to remind my new readers about this great recipe. Hope you are enjoying your blueberries!! For the recipe: In a bowl mix the batter: 2 cups brown sugar 1 c. oil 4 eggs 2 t. vanilla 2 cups milk Mix thoroughly. You probably don’t want to use a mixer for this recipe–just mix with a spoon. In a different bowl: 6 cups wheat flour or a combination of wheat and white flour 4 t. baking powder 1

Will takes my homemade yogurt to work and shares it with his friends. Some of them have been pestering him for the recipe. My idea originally comes from a spin off of the crock pot yogurt recipe, Emily @under $1,000 a month and a little ingenuity. So, how to start.. how to start. You need a big crock pot. How big? About this big. Something that holds 1 gallon of milk comfortably. This is the insert of mine. So, let’s review: on for 3 hours, off for 3 hours. Are we get

I made these in hopes of my kids not liking them. I had visions of Will and I sitting in our little tea-drinking spot, drinking gallons of tea over one or two cookies here and there. Bonding like. No such luck. I tried. They were good enough for the kids OR they just condescended to eating them.. either way. The batch was gone in about 48 hours. Not to sound like a greedy pig or anything… but now I’d like to hide a few of them next time. They use dates. What’s a date? I

Accidental successes in the kitchen need to be given the glory they are due, don’t you think? BIG BATCH INSTRUCTIONS: Cook 2 boxes of rotini noodles–makes about 8-10 cups of noodles Cook 2 packages of Italian sausage (one spicy, one regular) To cook the sausage, I remove the skins before cooking and brown all the meat like you would for ground beef (minced) Veggies: fresh broccoli, snap peas, green onions, red peppers, spinach, and mushrooms. (about 6 cups of veggies for this

If you clean your fridge, you just may find what I did: 10 small potatoes, 4 parsnips, 6 carrots, an onion, scallions (green onions), a green pepper, a head of garlic, and a jalapeno pepper. (one red potato was in there also) If you don’t have helpers, it will take you a lot longer to make this. Then again, you won’t need a shovel to clean up the peelings from the floor, like I do. If you think “bite sized” pieces when you are cutting everything up, it may end up looking l

For a while there, my family was calling me the “Mix queen” because everything I made came from a homemade mix. I bought the Make-a-Mix cookbook (around 13?) years ago, and it changed my life. Suddenly everything that was homemade had a convenience factor. And it wasn’t long before I discovered the beauty of designing my own mixes. In fact, some times I even sell them. But usually we just give them away or eat them! So, here’s a Biscuit Mix that I made up . 4 cups of whol

Homemade peanut butter! I hardly ever make anything the same twice. All food is a “raw ingredient” in which to create something “fabulous” (or not!) Either way, the sheer satisfaction of making concoctions in the kitchen, the sewing room, the organizing venue, or the school curriculum is what makes life “fun” for me. I enjoy the “hunt” if you will, of finding the latest, greatest, strangest, most colorful, most frugal, repurposed “stuff” to make things out of. I like to re

And you should know this about me, I never do anything small. Every recipe is huge, including this one. 9 cups of white flour (or ground pastry flour) 1 t. salt 3/4 cup of coconut oil 3/4 cup butter [one and a half sticks] With a pastry cutter or your hands, combine everything together. They call it “cutting” the shortening in. As you work it in, the flour and fat will combine and become like a coarse mealy texture. If you grab a hand full of it and squeeze, it should temp

Because I am a new gardener, can someone please tell me if it is normal in Northern Illinois to have broccoli sprouting around Thanksgiving? Broccoli-chicken almondine fantastico... 3 pounds of chicken breasts, cooked and cut up in decent size chunks. Set aside 1 stick of butter 1 small onion sliced lengthwise 1 cup of fresh mushrooms 4 cups of broccoli pieces 1 T flat leaf parsley Saute the veggies in the butter until the broccoli turns a bright green and onions are soft Add

Well, it’s a late Friday night, and I’m so sorry to be late about posting. I had many ideas about blitzing this week, but the “food blitz” came to the top of the list. Most noteworthy was the crockpot yogurt. I really liked it this time. I wasn’t so scared this time around either. I think the first time you make it, the idea of leaving warm milk on the counter all night gives a lot of us the heebee jeebies at first. So, here I am–alive and well, after eating this stuf

One of my family’s favorite recipes is chicken pot pie. I made this again this week, and it is a real hit. The difference with this recipe is that you roast the veggies before you put them in the pie. (all of the ingredients are in bold) 1) Roast until tender about 25-40 minutes at 400* 1-2 large sweet potatoes, large dice 5-8 red potatoes, med dice 1 large onion, large dice 4-6 large carrots, sliced 2) Cook 5 chicken breasts in water, reserving the liquid for the broth.

Fingerling potatoes are really popular at this time of year.  I was able to find a mixed batch of: red, white and PURPLE potatoes.  They need to be washed and placed in a little water to cook until soft (20 minutes or so) In a separate pan, saute onions and garlic in real butter, just until softened. Put the cooked potatoes in the onion/ butter mixture adding a little milk as needed.  Add salt and pepper to your liking.  Lightly mash.  You want to still feel the texture of of

This recipe is an organizing mommy original, but it was heavily inspired by this recipe. As I usually do, I made so many changes that I end up with my own recipe. Big surprise! If you have a grain grinder, use it to grind your spelt/ or wheat. Also, you can use store-bought wheat flour, but it tends to be very dense, so you may have to add less. Make a big mix: 6 cups of spelt flour (or other flour) 1 cup of hard, cold butter “Cut” the butter into the flour, like you would

Swamp Dish This is my attempt to get veggies into those “picky eaters”, and it worked!! You have to try the swamp dish. You can cut everything in half. I’m always feeding a large group. Just the ingredients: 4 cups elbow macaroni 4 cups raw veggies 2 cups raw spinach 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter 1/4 flour salt, pepper, chicken bouillon paste or other chicken flavor 2 1/2 cups milk extras: ground beef, cheese, The procedure: 4 cups of macaroni (dry)–cook and set aside 4 cups

Getting organized is huge, and sometimes we just don’t have the energy to do it! We all have to face the raw facts that eating better actually makes us feel better and gives us more energy, too. I’ve gone back and forth between getting really excited about healthy eating and facing the reality that it takes a lot more work to do it. This current health phase of mine does not require 1. buying any expensive equipment 2. buying strange foods that are hard to find 3. or taking

These are the types of vegetables that work well together: sweet potatoes, white potatoes, parsnips, carrots, rutabaga and other forms of gourmet potatoes: purple& red. If you can’t find these or don’t like something, just use what you have/ like. Every time I make it, it is different. Add ins: red onions, green pepper, garlic (minced) Peel the sweet potatoes and parsnips (and any other veggies that need peeling) and cut them into chunks. For the potatoes and carrots, you

After some great inspiration from my faithful blogging buddy, Laura (organizing junkie), I have been motivated to get organized with my recipes. Since I don’t have a truck load of loose recipe cards floating around, I thought I’d start with my overflowing cookbook shelf. To be honest, I think I collect cookbooks as a way of marking time. I have the classic cookbook from the church I grew up in. I have cookbooks from the Officer’s Wives Club from different bases we’ve been

So, I survived my crazy weekend.  We got HIM to the ACT test.  Chances are, he did fine, since he does pretty well at most things. I, on the other hand, took a little longer than the length of the test to actually fully recover.  But don’t feel too bad for my “what-if-my-kids-turn-out-as-dumb-as-me?” anxiety.  I hear it’s normal among homeschoolers. There’s nothing we can do about it until they prove they are really Einsteinish, and then (in my case), I’ll be excessively than