Raspberry season is almost here! We are having a wonderful growing season here in the upper Midwest, with plentiful rains and just right temperatures, so my backyard berry patch is beginning to get my hopes up for another bountiful season. Every day, the little green nubbins seem to get fatter and fatter; if they continue…

Fair warning: This is a post that will be most appreciated by gardeners or by those with ready access to really fresh farmers’ market produce. When I started planting my garden this year, I wanted to use up some old seeds. Knowing that germination rates go down as seeds age, I just planted my radishes…

We all have heard that “fresh is best,”  to avoid anything with more than five ingredients listed long or with ingredients we can’t pronounce. These are definitely good guidelines, but they are often difficult with our limited budgets and times to follow consistently. Now, some studies have identified a clearer classification of the “processed” foods…

Always economical and nutritious, lentils are also surprisingly versatile. When I recently was able to get some of the basic brown lentils for 59 cents a pound at Costco (in a Costco-size 10 pound bag!), I knew that this was the time to really test their versatility. I will be posting several recipes in the…

When my mother wanted to make chocolate frosting, she usually started out with boiling water and cocoa. It was fast and the use of the boiling water eliminated what she called a “raw taste” that just adding cocoa to a basic powdered sugar frosting. When making chocolate apple cupcakes recently, I wanted to frost them…