I went to Iowa State University. Go Cyclones! I knew since tenth grade that I wanted to go to ISU. I fell in love with the campus after visiting on an orchestra trip. However, my parents wanted me to keep my options open, so I also applied to University of […]

 An arctic air mass enveloped the state of Minnesota this week. Thursday’s low was around -15°. Right now in Saint Cloud it is -5°. A lot of Minnesotans thrive on this frigid weather, going ice fishing, snow mobiling and skiing. My husband and I think these people are insane. This […]

  *Note: This is not a low-FODMAP recipe! Sometimes the best things in life are free. This time it was a free cooking magazine I recieved in the mail. Cuisine at Home magazine. I was very impressed by the recipes in this free magazine and several of them caught my eye. The first […]

 My husband eats a banana just about every day, so we buy a bunch every week and every week we inevitably get over-ripe bananas that don’t get eaten. (I personally don’t really like plain bananas and can’t digest them very well, but love and tolerate them in baked goods.) This […]

 This was the question posed in the January 2011 issue of “Real Simple” magazine. I immediately knew what my answer was: Coffee. More specifically, that very first sip of the very first cup of hot coffee in the morning. I don’t know what it is, but I just adore that […]

 I love quinoa and I love pine nuts. I really love a recipe that combines the two. Lemony Quinoa is exactly that recipe. I like to prepare quinoa for my lunches when I’m at home. A lot of the time I don’t like to eat meat at lunch. I’m usually […]

  Part 1 of my birthday dinner I made myself. Part 2 will be next weekend when my husband takes me out to my favorite restaurant. We really don’t eat out too much. I love to cook so much, I don’t even mind making my own birthday dinner. We love […]

  Wednesday was my birthday. I am now closer to 40, than I was to 30. That’s ok though, I don’t mind getting older. When you’ve been through all the health problems that we have, being here yet another year is a fantastic thing. My birthday has become pretty low-key […]

 This weekend I wanted to cook something easy, warm and good. Roast chicken came to mind and I had a whole chicken in the freezer calling out to me, “Hey Dianne, it’s freezing in here, you wanna get me out and eat me?” Or maybe it was in my head. […]

 My husband and I are pretty boring people. We find ourselves interesting to each other, but most on the outside would not call us very exciting people. For example, we have never gone out for New Year’s. We love to stay at home. We are homebodies. On New Year’s Eve, […]