For many of us, this is the only time of year that we get out the cookie cutters, rolling pins, and often tattered and stained recipe cards from Grandma, ready to tackle the great American rolled cookie tradition. And for many of us, this ends up meaning a mess in the kitchen, shapes that seem…

Our family enjoyed potato pancakes for many years before I discovered that they were also called latkes. This time of the year, when many families will be making latkes as part of their holiday festivities, seemed like a good time to bring out my favorite method for making potato pancakes. Maybe I should put “potato”…

The stores are full of fresh cranberries from mid-November through December, often at loss-leader prices. This year, on the day before Thanksgiving, I found a store that had already marked these down to less than half the price of most places. Knowing how well these bright berries keep in the refrigerator and how easy they…

Many years ago, my sister shared a cookie recipe based on an ordinary cake mix, standard two layer size, any flavor of your choice, and it has been a wonderful go-to cookie for a variety of occasions. If you do an internet search, you will no doubt find tons of links to similar recipes, but…

Here we are, almost to December in the upper Midwest, and I am just finishing the last of the greens from my garden. Little warms a gardener’s heart than to be able to serve food fresh from the back yard for months and months. Even if you are not a gardener, however, now is the…

Putting away all the leftovers from a Thanksgiving feast can be one of the biggest challenges of the day, and it sometimes is tempting to just toss foods that you aren’t sure would work well a second time around. Mashed potatoes may fall into that category for some of you. After reheating them once with…

After putting up the post about French-fried onions, I realized that many of my friends find preparing onions something to be avoided at all costs. Isn’t it inevitable that you will end up with smelly fingers and burning, teary eyes? Not necessarily! There are of course lots of suggestions out there for avoiding the tears,…

 It’s that time of year again. For many, Thanksgiving is synonymous with roast turkey and stuffing, with lots of pies to follow. For others, the really mandatory dish at the Thanksgiving day feast is Green Bean Casserole…and please don’t try to make any adjustments to the tradition.  Since I have been given the task of…

We had a “CrockPotLuck” at church today, with everyone asked to bring a favorite dish made in a slow cooker. Our wonderful kitchen committee would provide all the homemade desserts, as well as biscuits, corn, bread, rolls and vegetable and fruit trays. Truly a feast to be thankful for. Though the weather has been warm…

On a late fall visit to Sekapp’s Orchard just outside of town, I couldn’t help but envy the baskets of beets, some of which were as big as baseballs. The beets from my garden were, as usual, very small and not very plentiful. In fact, almost the entire crop fit on the roasting pan when…