I try really hard to leave the house clean when we leave for a trip.  When we return home it seems that we always hit the ground running.  If I can leave the house clean, hopefully in our dash back to the our routines, we won’t trip on anything.  There was extra motivation for getting [...]

Filed under: Housekeeping | No Comments »

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week.
This has been a wonderful week of family time away, time with friends and mentors, rekindling relationships from our life in Southern California. It was a week of firsts for GBaby: first trip to the beach and first swim in a pool.  We also had a surprise [...]

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Sweet basil is one of my favorite garden herbs.  The glossy green leaves add such flavor to summer meals. But how can you best preserve that flavor for your winter cooking?  Drying and freezing basil are two of the most popular methods of preserving basil.  Read more.

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Filed under: Food Storage, How To | 1 Comment »

This week I’ve been gone, so nothing has gone into my freezer. So I’ll pass along a few tips I’ve picked up to help avoid freezer burn.  These ideas will help you better protect your food once it heads to your freezer.  Freezer burn is when ice builds up on your food in the freezer [...]

Filed under: Freezer Friday | No Comments »

I like to try to trim the grocery bill by including vegetarian and vegan meals into the menu.  This is one of my favorite fall meals, and with fall right around the corner, I thought I’d get a batch in the freezer ready to go.  This is a hearty, meat free meal that can satisfy [...]

Filed under: Crock-Pot, Main Meal, Sides~Soups~Salads | No Comments »

I cannot tell you how much I love this recipe.  I made two loaves – we had one for breakfast and snacks and the other I served with ice-cream for dessert and it was perfect.  While I had hoped to send one to the freezer, that didn’t happen so I’m going to have to try [...]

Filed under: Breads, Recipes | No Comments »

Updated 8/25/2010:  If you’ve landed here from $5 Dinner’s Grow Eat $ave bit on Tomatoes- welcome!  I’m still waiting for the arrival of my 2010 tomatoes – they’re getting really close!  Here are some of the ways I used tomatoes last year and plan to repeat this year.
I love fresh tomatoes and all the possibilities [...]

Filed under: Sides~Soups~Salads | No Comments »

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week.
This week has absolutely flown by, so much so that I had to look at the calendar to see what I had done this week!  We had a wonderful visit with friends that were passing through our area on a family vacation.  It is always [...]

Filed under: Sunday's Sunshine | No Comments »

Ok, so I wish I had this to give away, but I don’t.  Erin over at $5 Dinners does.   Check it out!  Contest ends August 29th at noon…

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Today I have to pack and I am not a fan of packing.  Especially since the airlines have now added fees for checking bags.  So my mission is to get a week’s worth of stuff for two adults and one infant packed into one duffle bag, a carry-on bag and a diaper bag.  I’m really [...]

Filed under: Travelling | 1 Comment »