Most of the time when Stefan is on vacation, I fall out of my usual groove a bit and don’t run around like a crazy woman all day. You probably noticed by my lack of posts for the last week or so…and I’m just now starting to catch up on everything here in the house. I...
How to use a pizza stone
If you read this blog often, you might remember that we are avid pizza eaters. This week we had zucchini and rosemary pizza TWICE. And it wasn't just because we were trying to use up our zucchini (that's what zucchini bread is for) but because it just tasted THAT...

Canned Jalapeño Hot Sauce Recipe: How to Make and Preserve Your Own Fiery Flavor
Learn how to make and can your own jalapeño hot sauce at home with fresh peppers. Easy, flavorful, and shelf-stable — the perfect homemade hot sauce recipe.

Sinfully good M&M oat bar cookies
Although the recipe may sound slightly healthy and I wanted myself to believe it, but I really can’t imagine that it is. But I guess that’s where all the good flavor comes from – the fat and calories! I made this recipe for the first time last week from Southern...
Harvesting green goodies
We got to harvest a few more things from our garden last week...it's always an exciting time. But it can be tedious when it comes to things like berries, especially gooseberries. They grow all over the bush and you really have to climb up, down and around the bush to...

Making garlic breadsticks the easy way
The weather was cooler last week; a nice change from the blazing sun we’d been having. So I thawed out some minestrone soup and decided to make breadsticks to accompany. I’ve never tried making breadsticks before but as usual, with a bread machine, the process can go...
Hickory Smoked Pork Shoulder with Sweet-Tangy Barbecue Sauce
Even when living in a foreign country, the Fourth of July is always a special occasion for us. So we fired up our ugly barrel drum smoker and cooked one mean pork shoulder. We made pulled pork sandwiches out of the finished product which turned out fantastic. This...

Homemade ice cream with fresh berries – Staying cool while enjoying the harvest
Homemade ice cream is SO easy to make with an ice cream machine. I don’t know why I don’t make it more often. Maybe it’s the fear of then having to eat it all! 🙂 But seriously, if you use a no-cook recipe for ice cream, throwing the ingredients together and pouring...
Making your own baby food – the KISS method
For those who have never heard of (or forgotten) what the K.I.S.S. method is, it means: Keep It Simple Stupid. Since the day we started feeding "solids" to Mackenzie, it was apparent that she wouldn't be settling for jarred baby food very long. The only boxed thing...
Balsamic Chicken with Beer Rice
Ever on the quest for new recipes, I was flipping through my cookbook Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes and came up with the following meal: Balsamic marinated chicken with beer rice and sugared carrots. The balsamic chicken browned beautifully while...


