marking the holiday

It isn’t wholly the holiday without my mom’s fruitcake. I never got mine last year due to the pandemic. So they thawed and enjoyed it over Thanksgiving, which is fine. But this year, I travelled home, so this year’s fruitcake is all mine! My mom has made a habit of doubling the candied fruit. Wait! […]

today’s small bounty

It’s time to pull the potatoes. From a coworker: “After they bloom and lay down.” I have two 2×4 foot elevated beds that I’ve begun alternating with onions and potatoes. This year, I went with blue fingerling potatoes and red and white onions… Today, I pulled about half of the potatoes, and I thinned out […]

who knew…?

I was this week old when I learned that potato plants flower… These are blue fingerling potato plants. Last year was the first time I grew potatoes, but I planted them mid-summer for fall harvest. They struggled in the heat and never got big enough to flower. The deadly nightshade is gorgeous!

a say something cake day

Today, I came home from work to this: My husband and I have been seeking out gluten free mixes for various baked goodies. The first successful cake was here. It was a King Arthur gluten free chocolate cake mix, and it was delicious. So was the scratch-made cream cheese icing. This one is Pillbury’s gluten […]

waking up to cake

Last week was a rough, six-day work week. I crashed for a nap shortly after getting home Saturday afternoon. I woke up to a thing of beauty sitting on the stovetop: My husband eats gluten-free and the baked things are the most difficult part of that. This is a King Arthur gluten-free chocolate cake mix, […]

first harvest

The first pick from the garden: Pink Beauty radishes! They were delicious in a slaw with cabbage, cilantro, and green onions. Pink Beauty radishes are fast spring radishes. They are mature at different rates, so hopefully we can stretch out the batch. A definite keeper!

hurray!

hobbit house hot cocoa

If anything, this is a hobby and/or lifestyle blog. Although it sometimes includes recipes, I don’t consider it a cooking or food blog. That said, I offer this promise to all of you: you will not have to read through any horrifically long, drawn-out event or memory of my life before you find our recipes. […]

fall beds, fall cooking

Today is a chili kind of day, but dinner got started late, because darkness at two-thirty is messed up and tomatoes need to cook down. While the remainder of our green tomato harvest roasted with onion and garlic, I headed outside to tend the fall beds. We’ve already had snow and numerous frosts, so I […]

no waffling over breakfast

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but… Trader Joe’s has a gluten free buttermilk pancake and waffle mix that is a one hundred percent sacrifice-free waffle experience. The surface browns and crisps, the center is fluffy. The flavor is pure waffle. Get a box for yourselves and try them. Just them on their […]