Each year, like scores of other mothers the world over, I set out for my kitchen armed with mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons -- and chocolate chips -- to begin my Christmas cookie baking. The cookies I make for my family are pretty much the same from year to year, but there is always one that's different; the one we bake to give. Before I start, I pull out my favorite cookie cookbooks, old saved editions of Christmas magazines… Read More

Even thought Trick-or-Treat is usually the highlight of our Halloween festivities, it falls on a night other than Halloween in our city, so the actual holiday is often times overlooked. I wanted things to be a little different today, so I took our 'plain Jane' dinner menu, added some new titles to our dishes, created a cute menu to print out and a more interesting meal suddenly took the place of hot dogs and fries.

Hot dogs became 'Frank-enstein-furters' and fries… Read More

This year's Trick-or-Treat night in our city turned out to be a real dud. It was raining and cold and since our city wouldn't postpone the festivities, it was get wet, or don't go. We opted not to go since the baby had recently had a fever of 102 and we were short a teen to help watch her while I took the other kids out.

We decided not to let the whole night be a total bust and picked… Read More

I know I've already shared my love of pumpkin, but you'll have to excuse me for sharing one more recipe. This is one that just begs to be shared. The first time I set out to make these pancakes I decided that they would be better with stiffly beaten egg whites instead of a flat-out whole egg recipe. I do use the whole egg, just separated and beaten for more "fluffability". These were nearly like a pumpkin soufflé and… Read More

The countdown is on and Halloween is just around the corner. If you're caught short on time, but still need to get a party together, this may be just the post you need to read. Now, this isn't fancy or overly special, but it works!

I decided on a color theme and went with it. I sat with my husband and a couple kids and brainstormed for ideas. We came up with lists of foods that came in orange, white and … Read More

Fall is just the beginning of "soup weather" and yet another reason why I love this season. Soups can be very time-consuming to make even if most of the cooking time is simmering for hours; the prep work can be downright tedious. Well, I say, "Canned soup to the rescue!" I know, I know, cans are bad, cans are icky, cans are for the gastronomically stunted. I disagree completely, though, and can attest to the helpfulness of canned foods when… Read More