Here’s one of my favorite and super-easy Christmas sweets. Pretzel and Nut Bark 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup thin pretzels broken into small chunks 2/4 cup salted nuts of any kind (I use mixed nuts) 1/3 cup white chocolate chips or almond bark 2 Tablespoons (more or less) of Christmas colored sprinkles (any [...]

We’ve made oodles of cookies and sweets this year – many of them the old standby recipes like peanut butter fudge, chocolate chip cookies and magic cookie bars. I thought I’d share one of my favorite indulgences this time of year that’s maybe not so ordinary, but very easy. Cream Cheese Cookies 1/2 pound butter, [...]

I had the pleasure of speaking at co-op this week.  (Boy, do I miss those gals!)  We talked on the topic of healthfully and frugally making convenience mixes.  I talked about my reasons for even considering making homemade mixes in the first place – MSG and red food coloring – then added that being frugal [...]

Well, not exactly! We’ve been doing all sorts of hands-on learning during our Colonial History unit and one of the activities I had planned was making butter.  At co-op over the years, the kids have had the opportunity to shake cream in baby food jars to make their own butter, so I didn’t think we [...]

The green and orange peppers are finally coming on the garden.  Freezing them is such a snap that I can have a whole bucket done in about 15 minutes.  Wash, cut off the tops, take the seeds out, slice, parboil for three minutes, place in ice water, dry and freeze in ziptop bags.  It’s that easy! We [...]