“We elves like to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.” My favorite quote from one of my favorite movies, “Elf.” I love the flavor of maple. Since I was a kid, one of my all-time favorite foods has been pancakes. Mostly because […]

 That’s the question I’ve been asking myself lately. I’ve been in a cooking and baking lull lately, what with working a lot and trying to cut back on my sugar consumption. So I haven’t had much to blog about lately and it’s given me time to ponder blogging. It’s kind […]

 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 […]