Fall has always been my favorite time of year and now that’s it’s nearly here I find myself itching to work on things around the house and bake more cookies. To light pumpkin-scented candles and add fall colors to my kitchen and den. I was online browsing around for fun ideas and came across some great stuff on the Country Living website. There are some some wonderful craft projects as well as information on antiques, decorating ideas, home improvement tips, easy recipes and lots of other goodies too. I found a few craft projects I’d want to try my hand at along with some new recipes too - if you’re looking for a few new home ideas, it’s definitely worth a visit!

I wonder how many people take the time to cook or bake with their kids anymore? I know many of us may have fond memories of doing this with our grandmother or aunt, but since many families live so far away these days it’s not necessarily a part of our kid’s memories. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking with my children. Sure, everything takes a little longer and gets a bit messy, but it’s pretty amazing to watch the progress they’ve made since they’ve started. Plus they think it’s so cool to eat something that they made - they’re always quite proud of their results.

I hadn’t thought about how many kids may miss out on this experience until I visited my son’s class one day and happened to start talk about making cookies with one of the children. I was surprised when she mentioned she never makes cookies at home and quite a few children chimed in saying the same thing. Too bad the classroom doesn’t have a kitchen, I’d love to visit and make a batch of cookies or muffins with the children. Not only is it fun, but it’s a skill they can use throughout their lives!

Yippee, time to plan the Easter dinner menu. I am serious about being excited about it because it is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colors of the season, the excitement the kids feel during the Easter egg hunt, and the fun of planning a menu with some of our favorite foods. We usually make a delicious spiral ham for the main entree with some homemade mashed potatoes and fresh veggies and salad among the side dishes. My sisters always bring a few of their favorite dishes and desserts so we share the work a bit. This year I’m also going to make a batch of small breads using my Romertopf Clay Mini Bread Loaf Pans so everyone can have their own warm homemade bread to enjoy. They’re not only delicious, but add a really nice special touch to the table setting as well.

One of my sisters is making my favorite dessert, homemade carrot cake! Oh, it is so fattening but it tastes so good. I like to pretend that it’s healthy because of the carrots, but who am I kidding. She has a great supply of professional nonstick steel bakeware because she loves to bake so much. I don’t mind since I usually get to enjoy the results. She’s gotten so good at it I’ve told her she should own her own bakery or at least start a small bakery business from home.

I really love cooking and while I don’t often have time to cook big meals during the week, I like to make big family meals on the weekend.  Coming up with different menu ideas can be a real challenge sometimes. For one thing, we have a vegetarian in the family, so whenever I make a meal that includes meat, I have to make sure there are some good side dishes for her or make an additional vegetarian entree that I’m sure she’ll enjoy. Plus we have food allergies to deal with, so that means avoiding foods with eggs and baking without eggs, which can be pretty tricky.

As challenging as cooking this way can be sometimes, we’ve found ways to be creative with our food and make everyone happy. The hardest part I’ve had to overcome is believing that a meal needs to be based on a meat entree. But I’ve found some great cookbooks and recipes online that have helped me make many great meals that don’t revolve around a meat dish.  However, there are some nights when it seems like everyone is eating a completely different meal, but that’s okay.  I don’t mind the cooking as long as someone else does the dishes!

I have always loved Halloween. As a child I used to love to get a good scare. Sure, I’d jump and scream and want to run away, but I’d always come back for more. Of course I loved the trick-or-treating too. Dressing up in a costume and going to the neighbors to get a treat, what’s not to love? My costumes were always simple and homemade, nothing like the variety of cool costumes you see today. And we still got things like candy apples and pennies for a treat, not tons of chocolate and candy bars like my kids enjoy- though I always limit their intake.  Since this year Halloween falls on a Saturday, we’re having a little nieghborhood party for the kids to enjoy during the day - something simple but fun!

I found a bunch of special crafts, games and treat ideas on the web. For one things, you can have a mummy wrap relay race - you divide the kids (or adults) into small groups and see who can wrap someone in their group in a roll of toilet paper the fastest. Another fun idea is to fill a plastic pumpkin with strips of paper saying either trick or treat - every time they pull a strip they’ll either have to perform a trick or get a special treat. There are lots more games to be found as well as wonderful treat recipes too. It’s a great excuse to get out and have some fun with the kids.

I was surprised to read today that The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a research report that found organic produce not significantly better for us than conventionally grown veggies and fruits. As someone who tries to buy organic whenever possible, I just found it hard to believe. How could pesticides and other chemicals used by conventional produce growers not be found to be harmful? It only seems logical that they would be inherent in the food and how could that be a healthy choice for us? You can read the summary here if you’re interested.

Somehow it’s been over a month since I’ve been on the blog. I honestly don’t know where  the time has gone, but then I think most of us feel that way. One day you’re planning a small vacation or a special gathering and the next it’s a month later and the vacation has come and gone, the event has passed. And now that summer is full upon us now, the kids are home from school for vacation and the temperatures are sizzling. For me, the tricky part of this season can be figuring out what to make for dinner that won’t make the kitchen hotter than necessary.

So what to cook? Well of course, like many people, we do a lot of bbq. Most times it’s simple like hotdogs, hamburgers and corn on the cob. Other times we mix it up and bake fish, like tuna fillets or flounder, or we make variations of kebobs like chicken and pepper kebobs or vegetarian versions. Another convenient cooking method for summer cooking is the slow cooker. While many of us use it during the winter for stews and soups, this great kitchen appliance is perfect for the hot seasons as well. I confess that I still use the oven now and again during the heat,  but usually it’s easy to find work arounds with a little bit of creativity and flexiblity. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with some delivery pizza now and again!

From Mom to Mom, I wish you  a very very Happy Mother’s Day!  May you have a pleasant, fun-filled, restful, thoughtful and special Mother’s Day filled with memories to treasure always.  As a mom you give a lot of yourself throughout the year and so it’s always nice to be appreciated on your special day.

I wish you flowers and dinner (that you don’t have to cook!) and a day to sleep in late with breakfast served in bed. Wouldn’t that be lovely? We don’t need oodles of expensive gifts (but we wouldn’t turn them down of course). Just the returned love of our family is much appreciated.

As the Easter Holiday draws near, I am torn on what to serve for dinner. For years many in our family have wanted ham or lamb for dinner, neither of which I am a big fan of now, though I did enjoy the sweetness of glazed ham when I was younger. But as time passes I have become less and less of a meat eater. When it comes to red meat I do enjoy a good juicy steak now and then, or a big grilled hamburger. And we also eat a fair amount of chicken and turkey.

But back to the holiday dinner. I find that I’m not enjoying meat as much as I used to, as if I’m losing my taste for it. Now I don’t know that I’m ready to be a vegetarian, but I have come to realize that I would like to start having more vegetarian centered dinner dishes rather than meat-based ones. So the tricky part is whether to come up with a completely different holiday dinner menu or to compromise with the meat-lovers by serving a little of both. Knowing me it will be both, so now I need to come up with some dishes that will taste great together and be special enough for a holiday meal.

I honestly hadn’t been thinking of Easter right now. Yes I see the displays in the store and our online store of course - but at a personal level I am mostly just trying tackle one week at a time. So thinking of anything going on in April seems far away indeed. But the family calls have begun to discuss who will be traveling where for the holiday and suddenly the holiday seems to be around the corner. The funny thing is I haven’t a clue what I’ll be cooking this weekend but I’m already planning an April menu.

I really love our family get-togethers Sure there’s the usual craziness that goes on and a relative or two that might drive me a bit insane, but it rarely gets to me like it used to. Now I simply appreciate the precious time together and try to appreciate each person’s individual “quirkiness” instead. I find I am a lot less stressed that way & really get to enjoy the day. I truly hope the same is true for you!

The biggest romantic holiday of the year is nearly here and it’s time to make plans if you haven’t already! I confess we actually haven’t made our plans yet and aren’t quite sure still what we’d like to do. Restaurants can get so busy for this holiday and that can sometimes get a little crazy for us. Though I do wonder with everyone’s money woes plastered all over the news right now how the restaurants will fare this year.

We are leaning towards a nice romantic dinner at home. Something scrumptious we don’t often eat, like a tasty sirloin or tuna steaks. I love cooking so it’s fun to plan the menu. Though I think I will buy a special dessert for the occasion, something rich and chocolate. We’ll put on some soft music, light the candles, open the wine, and have a lovely romantic dinner in the comfort of our home.

We do a lot of snacking in our home, especially when the kids have their friends over. Some weeks we seem to go through tons of mini-pizzas and sandwiches, chips and dip, juices, sodas, burgers, it’s endless. Then there are the gatherings for sports events or special movie nights. One of our favorite and easy snacks for movie night is homemade popcorn. We used to buy the boxes of packaged microwave popcorn, but that was before we received our Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper as a gift last Christmas.

We love this new popper and have ended up using it quite a lot already. The machine makes popcorn that is hot and delicious without a lot of unpopped kernels or any burning occurring like we ran into with the microwaveable popcorns. It’s pretty neat looking too, and you can just pour the popcorn into the cover and use it for a serving bowl. It’s easy for all of the kids to use too, and simple to clean up. Now it’s become one of our favorite cool kitchen gadgets.

Yes, hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is just 9 days away. We’re exciting - and we’re actually traveling this year. As much as we loathe hitting the road on the holidays and dealing with the traffic, it’s actually kind of nice not to be the one cooking the big meal this year. Although we will be back to hosting at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, our neighbors have already put up their Christmas lights and decor. It’s a little disconcerting to me to see the all of the Santa stuff when Thanksgiving hasn’t even arrived. I guess they’re just too excited to wait, or they’re trying to beat the winter cold. Not a bad idea!

Suddenly there is so much to do around town it’s hard to pick our favorite for the day. We love our fun family weekends, especially if we take an extra day off and make it a nice long weekend. The weather is perfect for long hikes and afternoon basketball, soccer or football. Then you can just back and relax on the couch with hot chocolate, popcorn, and a movie. Does it really get any better?

Our big state fair is going on right now, where we read the new fried food for this year is fried pecan pie. Because pecan pie doesn’t already back enough calories in it….? It’s a great family day spent there, but it will cost you - I think our friends went the other day and easily spent over $120 for their family of four. Wow! But they said they had an amazing time and would absolutely do it again.

Another great thing about this time of year is….football season! While we don’t get out to as many games as we’d like to, it’s great family fun to watch the games together, and munch on some great football snacks like chips and salsa or a big, delicious hero.

One of our favorite teams, the Carolina Panthers, is having a very good year so far. Itwill be interesting to see what the season has in store for them!

Today is September 22nd, so fall has officially arrived, though the weather the past few days ushered it in early. Around town the stores and garden centers have beautiful mums and pumpkins on display. The colors are so vivid and inviting, I find it hard to pick just a few mums and pumpkins for the porch. 

Normally we wait until October and hit the local farmer’s market, but the plants were so healthy and the pumpkins such a nice size at a surprisingly reasonable price, well, we couldn’t resist! So at our home we’ve officially said goodbye to summer and hello to Autumn. We were ready anyway since the mosquitos were getting a little too plentiful - they are one thing about summer that we will not miss.

One of the magazines my young son gets is called “Highlights“.  It’s a great little magazine, it has a couple of cute age-appropriate stories, a picture puzzle or two, a recipe, and usually a game you can cut out and play on the last pages. Very sweet, though he is just about on the verge of outgrowing it, so I’ll have to be on the lookout for a good replacement - we know kids love getting mail!

We usually try the recipes and this last issue’s recipe was so easy - chocolate covered bananas. Here’s how simple it was: Cut 2 bananas in 1/2, place a popsicle stick in each, freeze for 30 minutes (we put ours on wax paper on a tray & added a couple of strawberries too)- then microwave 1 cup of chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil for about a minute until melted. Let your child dip/swirl the bananas in the chocolate- freeze again for 30 minutes and that’s it. My son loved making it and eating it - and what kid wouldn’t?

It seems like yesterday I was pondering the fact it was almost the 4th of July. Now, how can this be? This weekend is the Labor Day weekend?  And I know sometimes I get so caught up in the crazy schedule of life I completely forget what the holidays truly represent - beyond having a day off!

I often remind myself of the many sacrifices made to live the way we live today, so I remember to appreciate how good I have it compared to my grandparents. It seems like a much more hectic life sometimes, but it’s filled with so many more conveniences than Grandma and Grandpa were ever able to enjoy.