My grandma (aka Grammy) makes the best jams. Whenever we visit she pulls out a selection of homemade jams to spread on hot fresh biscuits every morning. Oh yum. A few years ago she taught my mom, sister, and I how to make jam. It was a lot easier than I expected! I decided to [...]
I nearly forgot about Christmastime while we were on our trip, so when we got back I asked Daniel to help me put the tree up first thing. While listening to good ol’ Bing of course! The dogs even get excited when we pull out the boxes of decorations and give them their Christmas toys. [...]
A while back I made my own suet cakes for our backyard birds, and they absolutely loved them. I have never seen so many birds in our yard before—it was like The Birds but in a good way. When I ran out of homemade and refilled the feeder with store bought suet, the birds didn’t [...]
A hand painted chalkboard mug is a great gift for anyone. Fill it with an assortment of loose teas and an infuser, or some coffee beans and biscotti. Personally I’d want my chalkboard mug gift to include cocoa, since I can’t get enough chocolate around the holidays (or the rest of the year for that [...]
I’ve made many cakes the easy way—baked, frosted, and served right from the pan. I figured it was time I tried to make a real out-of-the-pan, multi-layered, decorated cake. So, I made Daniel a birthday cake over the weekend. It’s certainly not perfect, but I love how it turned out. Imperfections just make cakes charmingly [...]
Lately we’ve had a lot of rain around here, and all sorts of wild looking mushrooms have been popping up. Since one of my terrariums recently suffered a casualty, I decided to make some little mushrooms to fill the void. Supplies: oven bake-able polymer clay sturdy wire cut into 3″–4″ lengths (make sure it isn’t [...]
I finally tried Deborah’s Red Velvet Cheese Ball recipe over on Taste and Tell. If you love red velvet cake you have to taste this. It’s all the goodness of the red velvet and cream cheese icing rolled into a big ball and covered in chocolate chips. I served mine with vanilla wafers and chocolate graham crackers. Yum [...]
I get excited for Christmas when September arrives, so I’ve been craving a Christmassy dessert lately. Peanut Butter Balls are my holiday go to, but my recipe makes a zillion and calls for an entire pound of butter (no wonder I start every new year with muffin top). After a little experimenting I’ve found the [...]
Daniel and I love Indian food, and there are several great restaurants around here that we frequent. (Saffron and Tamarind are our current favorites, so if you’re local give them a try!) Whenever I am feeling brave I’ll ask for my food to be medium spicy instead of mild, but then I have to order a [...]
I had some jello tins leftover from my candle making, and I wanted to use them as popsicle molds. I was searching for a nice healthy recipe when I stumbled across these Nutella popsicles. I quit kidding myself about the healthy thing and picked up a fresh jar of Nutella. These are like fudgsicles—but better! 1/2 [...]