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, […]

 Who says I can’t bake a fruit pie? Well, me, actually. Pies are the one thing I’ve always had difficulty with in the kitchen. They are always runny. Apple pies, blueberry pies, peach pies. All runny. I don’t have issues with other kinds of pies, like pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, […]

 I am a chocoholic. My favorite treats to eat during the holidays, or anytime really, have chocolate in them. As much as I love sugar cookies and the like, I’ll usually choose chocolate over a non-chocolate treat. If I’m going to consume the calories, it may as well be chocolate […]

 I used to love to decorate sugar cookies when I was a kid. Now I’ve come to think of them as tedious and taking too much time for something you are going to eat anyways. Well, this fall I ordered some new cookie cutters (I’m not sure why, I must […]

  ‘Tis the season for potlucks! We had our first holiday potluck on Saturday night. A Winter Solstice Party. One of the party-goers was commenting on how much he loves potlucks: there is usually no planning, no communication, and yet there is always just the right assortment of everything. Someone […]

 Last night for dinner I made a really easy recipe that I came up with. Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos. It was a little dry, so next time I might add some butter or oil to the mix to see if that will keep the chicken more moist. We had chips […]

 Confession: I love “chick lit.” It all started with “Bridget Jones’ Diary.” It really is what sparked my reading fiction again. I have always been a major book worm. This is actually a surprise because I had difficulty reading when I was in grade school. It was a very traumatic […]

 That’s my dog Moo Moo. And that’s flour on her face. She is always in the kitchen “helping” whenever I cook or bake. She faithfully hovers around my feet looking for some morsel to drop, which inevitably does, because I’m a klutz. Today it was flour. I had the mixer […]

  That’s my husband snow-blowing our driveway so I could get to work this morning. Yesterday we had a blizzard, which is pretty typical for Minnesota this time of year. We got about 5″ of snow and blustery winds all day. I’m so glad I didn’t have to work on […]

 Every year, the local paper holds a holiday cookie contest. I entered it a couple of years ago and made the finals, but didn’t place at all. It was a fun experience and they said that they really enjoyed my entry letter. I’ll post that along with the recipe after […]