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the Engine 2 challenge

May is looking a bit different around the kitchen. It’s a lot more green. And red. And purple. Don’t forget orange and yellow. I was invited by Whole Foods to take part in a 28-day challenge of consuming a plant-based diet, based on the best-selling book The Engine 2 Diet, written by firefighter Rip Esselstyn, […]

simple meals

We’re trying so hard to go full steam ahead in to Spring. But around here, it seems like Mother Nature just wants to tease us, here with a lovely day then a blast of cold and rain, then yet another lovely day, then once again cold, and more rain. Lakes, streams, ponds, rivers and especially […]

pushing through

Last Spring at this time, our perennial garden was full of glorious color. The tulips were opened…. The Creeping Phlox was a lovely carpet of purple…….   There were Johnny Jump Ups leaping up all around the garden beds. And I had managed to keep the Prairie Smoke from being devoured by hungry critters. Which, […]

spicy tuna wraps

I recently started working again. Just part-time, but for good pay and doing something I love, and really, that’s all anyone needs, isn’t it? And I get to think about lunch too, bringing something with me when I work to help spur me through the day, give me a good dose of energy, keep me […]

lemongrass bars

More sugar. Must be winter’s end….. I’ve been lamenting a lack of fresh foods lately. The transition season is approaching rapidly; that between the depths of winter when root vegetables and long slow aromatic braises seem to be the elixir we all need to the first snap of green vegetables that promise warmer days and […]

pancakes for an ordinary day

Little that’s gone on lately has been ordinary, especially in other parts of the world. I’ve watched a few videos, scanned the headlines and saw a few photos, but for the most part, I’ve stayed far, far away from immersing myself in the news coverage of what’s gone on in Japan. I’m not posting on […]

chocolate graham muffins

A few recipes have crossed my path lately that call for crushed graham crackers in the base. If this is a trend, it’s one I can get behind 100%. There is little else that will swiftly chuck me deep into a well of nostalgia quite like biting into a crisp graham cracker, especially one spread […]

cherry-fig tea bread

Sometimes I come across a recipe by accident, through a bevy of channels found by clicking here, clicking there, following some promising links and then WHAM! you spot something that looks so delicious that you know you have to make it, right there and right now. Of course, it helps when I have everything on […]

ready for the ridiculously delicious?

Once again, Marx Foods tempted me with unique goodies to develop an original recipe for their Ridiculously Delicious Recipe Challenge. This particular challenge was open to anyone who won a prize in the previous year through any contest sponsored by Marx Foods. My second place finish in the Iron Foodie Contest last December earned me […]

classic ragù and soft polenta

There’s still enough wintertime for this dish…….. especially with yet another major storm bearing down on Minnesota. There’s still enough of winter for a slow stove-top meal, one that fills your kitchen with a heady fragrance, a simmer that beckons one and all from the cold and wind to a wide shallow bowl of tender […]