A favorite first board game for my kids over the years has been Hi Ho the Cherry-O, wherein little cherries are painstakingly put into holes in the cardboard game board and then a spinner gives each player the opportunity to “pick” one, two, or three cherries and put them in his or her basket. The…

Here’s a dish that could work as a dip (similar to refried beans) with chips or as a vegetarian main dish (even vegan if you skip any dairy trims) with rice. Gluten free too–a dish for many different dietary needs/wants–and it tastes good too! While you could make this without zucchini, why not grate in…

McDonald’s and Starbucks have nothing on us! Both of these chains have been promoting “frozen strawberry lemonade” this summer and, though they are pitched as being healthy options, both are heavy on the calories and light on any nutrition other than some Vitamin C. Add in the cost of both drinks, and you can guess…

I came across the sage advice again today: Under no circumstances should I get soap or detergent anywhere near my cast iron skillet nor should I use anything at all abrasive on it. Treat it as gently as nonstick cookware was the comparison. LOL. My grandmothers and generations of women before them would have found…

My kids’ paternal Great Grandma was a master cook and baker, and one of her “signature dishes” was Flop Cake. She never would say why she had given it this name, but no matter. She always baked the moist, almost brownie-like cake in a 9 X 13 pan, with a thick layer of fudge frosting…

We have all heard the jokes about the orphaned bags of zucchini left on the doorstep overnight, but I had a very nice experience a week or so ago. There at the door were my master gardener neighbors, offering up a beautifully arranged basket of zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers they were offering to share…

My raspberries are currently on hiatus, having finished their July efforts a little less productively than most years but once again full of blossoms and “baby berries.” The hordes of bees humming all around are a wonderful sight. I sometimes think these berry bushes read the calendar better than I, since turning the page from…

My daughter-in-law has been adding to her already busy schedule the making of grape juice and grape jelly, thanks to a proliferation of grapes ripening on their back yard fence. She cooked up a huge pot of grapes for her first batch and allowed them to drain through a colander. This yielded over a gallon…

This has been a summer of wonderful rains, lots of heat, overall good conditions for most gardeners around here. Unfortunately, I planted late and only a little and have been showing again that a green thumb is not part of my anatomy. Still, thanks to many other gardeners I know, I have spent the afternoon…

Now that the heat is upon us even in the upper Midwest, it’s time to stop using our ovens. Some of us are not grillers, so we need to look for other ways to prepare some favorite foods without heating up the kitchen. One family favorite even in summer is spaghetti and “meatballs,” with mandatory…