60 Minutes aired a segment on sugar and it’s evils last night, called Is Sugar Toxic?. I predict that now we will see a slew of ongoing articles detailing how sugar consumption is up and so is diabetes, heart disease and obesity. All true. In addition, 75% of these illnesses are completely man-created and can [...]
It seems as if there’s always something one could fret about when it comes to bees – too hot, too cold, too moist, too dry, predators, mites, not enough flowers/pollen – a person could loose sleep! Luckily, that’s not my style, I tend toward the “live and let go” side of the fence, trusting that [...]
Sometimes it’s such a relief to cook for the same number I cook for all summer long. It must sound funny, but it’s actually LESS thinking for me. I don’t have to hold back on amounts like I do when cooking for the family or testing recipes and even then half the time I end [...]
Certainly when the girls and Jon gifted me with a greenhouse for Mother’s Day last year, this is not what I was hoping for when I walked to the back of the house one recent blustery day! The winds blow so hard on our property that securing this house to the ground somehow becomes a [...]
Up until I discovered Scratch Baking Co.’s bagel recipe in their new and really cool journal, Baker’s Notes, I’d been using Julia Child’s/Dorie Greenspan‘s in Baking with Julia Child. Fear not Julia and Dorie, you both remain Goddesses to me. Both recipes are good and because the descriptions are so detailed, I was able to [...]
Recently Ella asked what a chicken nugget was and in one of those parenting moments when you realize so many things all at once, I thought about how sheltered she is, how lucky she is, how proud I am of the choices we are able to make and also, how sad that she doesn’t get [...]
Each year when we visited my grandparents for three summer weeks in their rural home in New York, we’d spend our time doing essentially nothing. It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t exhilarating and it wasn’t elucidating. Sometimes it was boring. The funny thing is, however, that now I look back on those days with a rosy, [...]
My sewing machine whirred away for a while this Christmas season in an attempt to give small, meaningful gifts from the heart rather than the pocket book. These coasters were one such gift and I’ll be posting about others over the next few months. For those who have sailed on the Riggin already, the striped [...]
Meatloaf This is my mom’s recipe. As a little girl I loved the leftover meatloaf sandwiches more than the meal itself. 2 pounds ground beef 1 cup oatmeal or breadcrumbs 1 cup tomato juice or 2/3 cup milk 1 large egg 3 tablespoons ketchup 1 tablespoon dried onion 1 tablespoon dried parsley Salt and pepper to [...]
When I was testing waffle recipes for the column, Jon and I had an assembly line going. Me making batter, him cooking the waffles. Click over to the Portland Press Herald to find recipes for Potato Cilantro, Chili Chocolate, Mocha or Coconut Orange Chocolate Waffles. Peanut Butter Banana Waffles 1 ripe banana, mashed 1/2 cup [...]
