TLC in the Kitchen

Do your bananas ever look like this?  Surprisingly, it happens in our house quite often.  I have a hard time understanding it, though.  My daughter likes them almost totally green.  The little ones like them just barely yellow and I like them just before they turn brown.  How is it that some of them get [...]

I can always use help with healthy meal planning.  Favorite tools of mine include cookbooks, the Thursday Food Section of the newspaper and the weekly grocery store ads.  Often, I just need some inspiration for planning healthy meals for the week.
 
Cookbooks are a great tool.  The index makes it easy for you to look up [...]

Today we celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day!  Johnny Appleseed became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance of apples.  Johnny Appleseed, whose real name was John Chapman planted apple trees across the American Frontier. John Chapman was among the American [...]

Why garlic and onions? Whole books have been written about garlic, an herb affectionately called “the stinking rose”. A member of the lily or Allium family, which also includes onions, garlic is rich in a variety of powerful sulfur-containing compounds including thiosulfinates. While these compounds are responsible for garlic’s pungent odor, they are also the [...]

It’s been one of those days where I just don’t feel like doing much of anything. Not that that is an option, of course. But, at least I could make a very quick and easy dinner that was delicious! This dinner literally took 20 minutes, the time to make the rice.

I got a lot [...]

I have never big on making a New Year’s resolutions, but this year I am. Not just for me, but for my family, too. My resolution is to improve our overall health. I am going to plan and prepare healthy meals that we will all enjoy so we don’t feel like we are on a [...]

Have you ever attempted making a gingerbread house? I have. Even as an accomplished baker, I found it slightly overwhelming. A gingerbread house really requires a lot of planning, time, energy and commitment. With all that invested, I wasn’t truly happy with the results, so I now focus on other Christmas cookies and specialties.
My husband [...]

When I started thinking about starting a blog it got me to thinking.  Where did I learn to cook?  When did I learn to cook?  As I have been thinking a lot about it, the answers have been surprising.  Even to me.
 
My mom taught me the basics.  As a matter of fact, she was a [...]