Until just recently, my children knew of only two types of animal protein:  “chicken” and “meat”.  The chicken category included not only chicken, but also fish, pork and turkey.  And the meat category included beef, venison, and sometimes ham.  They were told to “eat your chicken” or “eat your meat”, no matter what it was.  [...]

When you live in a small town, often that means one road from your house to where ever you’re going.  And that often means you’re most likely to end up driving behind someone going at least five miles under the speed limit when you are running late for something, be it work, school, doctors’ appointments, [...]

When I was a new bride, I already had a few dishes in my cooking repertoire, but I wanted to learn to make some of my husband’s favorite dishes, too.  So I asked his mother to teach me to make these recipes, and one of them was spaghetti. Here’s what she puts in:  onion, ground [...]

My Grandmother was green. Not the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba Thropp kind of green, but the eco-friendly, earth-preserving kind of green.  She kept her thermostat turned way down in the winter and way up in the summer (if on at all).  She never let the water run while washing the dishes.  She hung [...]

When I was growing up, my family lived beside my grandparents.  I had an aunt and uncle that lived about two hours away in the country.  I remember that whenever there was a big snow, though, they were always at our Grandma’s.  I really didn’t think about it much at the time, my cousins and [...]

World Tour Day Six:  Great Britain. The first time I had scones with real clotted cream and jam was in London at the hotel where we were staying.  I was very excited to sit for a proper afternoon tea and enjoy the formality of the tradition.  Even though I had eaten a nice lunch not [...]