Sezen

Crav­ing a taste of home and need­ing to have some quick options on hand when fam­ily came to visit, I decided to give my Grandma’s Ger­man Cab­bage Burger recipe a try.  Back in Nebraska they actu­ally have a restau­rant chain that sells these, and many call them “Run­zas”.  The name Cab­bage Burger can be a lit­tle mis­lead­ing for people unfamiliar …

Here’s a pop­u­lar appe­tizer that is quick and easy to make.  It’s per­fect to whip up the day before a party.  There are sev­eral ver­sions of this recipe out there; this is just the one Mom and Grandma always fixed.  I could not find where this exact list of ingre­di­ents came from.  So, if you …

This is a great project to become famil­iar or reac­quainted with your sewing machine.  The stitch­ing doesn’t have to be per­fect and it can be a won­der­ful oppor­tu­nity to test out your free motion quilt­ing skills (this was a first for me).   Addi­tion­ally, you will save tons of money on mate­r­ial since you are repur­pos­ing old sheets.  …

Grow­ing up, when­ever Mom asked me what I wanted her to make, my answer was always Acini de Pepe Salad.  It does take a lit­tle plan­ning and makes a very large amount, so gen­er­ally this side dish was reserved for hol­i­days, carry-ins, and church pic­nics.  This recipe is a fam­ily favorite and is taken from …

Fol­low­ing up from the pre­vi­ous post, com­par­ing hard-boiled to baked eggs, today we are look­ing at the final details for cre­at­ing deli­cious dev­iled eggs.  When I was lit­tle I referred to them as “angel eggs.”  I didn’t like the word “dev­iled” and couldn’t com­pre­hend how some­thing so won­der­ful could have such a hor­rid name.  Gen­er­at­ing joy and laugh­ter from …

I have recently heard sev­eral peo­ple men­tion that rather than hard-boiling eggs it is bet­ter to bake them in the oven.  Gear­ing up for the Easter week­end, I wanted to see which method works best for me.   I used eggs from the same car­ton to try to elim­i­nate mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors, such as var­i­ous fresh­ness, size, …

Since we’ve moved to the East Coast, it’s been quite a chal­lenge find­ing any great Mex­i­can restau­rants.   Some gro­cery stores don’t even carry tor­tillas.  Miss­ing my family’s cook­ing, espe­cially the enchi­ladas we had at gath­er­ings, I decided to try my hand at the recipe my grandma and cousin per­fected.   I have labeled these “almost” authen­tic since I …

Wednes­day you got to see 100 of my favorite movies, but I reserved the best for today’s Top 5.  I have been wrestling with this all week.  Try­ing to set­tle on only 5 favorite movies is like being asked to sin­gle out your favorite fam­ily mem­bers.  There are so many that I love, it’s been …

After the post on Mon­day talk­ing about films, com­par­ing orig­i­nals to their remakes, I’ve had read­ers inquir­ing as to what my favorite movies are.  Try­ing to nar­row it down is like try­ing to pick an ulti­mate food, ani­mal, or color.  I think for some peo­ple this may come eas­ier than for oth­ers.  For me, it’s practically …

Grow­ing up, I never real­ized how impor­tant food was to my fam­ily life.  Almost every great child­hood mem­ory and expe­ri­ence involves food in some way or another.  Whether we were get­ting ice cream after win­ning the big game; hav­ing a bar­beque when it was too hot to cook in the house; eat­ing a four course …

Lately, we’ve been crav­ing food with a slight Asian flare.  Not feel­ing quite up to deep-frying or mak­ing my own egg rolls, I decided to start small and use one of the recipes I know my hus­band enjoys, Sweet and Sour Chicken with Pineap­ple and Rice.  This one is easy on the clean up since …

Keep­ing up with my cook­ing jour­ney, last night for din­ner I made lasagna.   I got the recipe from a friend who clearly has a culi­nary gift.  She wrote this her­self and has been gra­cious enough to share it.  I love this method because it’s easy and uses no-boil noo­dles, which saves a lot of time …

At some point in our lives we all face major changes.  Some are good which we look for­ward to with great expec­ta­tions and excite­ment such as wed­dings, the birth of a child, or a job pro­mo­tion.  Some unfor­tu­nately hit us like a freight train, knock­ing us off our feet, the death of a loved one, …

If the post from last week, The Ulti­mate Gift, got you think­ing about Valentine’s Day, here is another idea to sur­prise your sweet­heart with a sweet tooth.  This recipe for deli­cious Fudge Balls comes from my mother-in-law’s fam­ily, and we always make them for Christ­mas.  How­ever, we enjoy them so much we find our­selves making …

What to Give This Valentine’s Day Many of you are aware, and if not you might want to take note; Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away.  If you haven’t even started think­ing about it yet, because it feels like we just got done with Christ­mas, join the crowd.  It always seems to sneak …

Acces­sories can make a big impact and dras­ti­cally change the appear­ance of even mun­dane objects.  Mag­nets would fall into this cat­e­gory; they are an often over­looked lit­tle addi­tion that can dress up your newly cre­ated Mag­net Board, your refrig­er­a­tor door, or the inside of your cubi­cle on the desk and file cab­i­net.  Some peo­ple are fortunate …

When we lived in Iowa, my hus­band and I were look­ing for an easy way to dis­play pho­tographs, notes, and ideas.  We wanted an option that could be quickly updated with new items and also not cause any dam­age to the pho­tos and illus­tra­tions.  Rul­ing out a bul­letin board or tra­di­tional fram­ing, we decided to …

The world needs what you have to offer.  Every per­son on this planet has been endowed with spe­cial skills, thoughts, tal­ents, and expe­ri­ences.  As we enter into this year, I rec­om­mend that you con­sider new ways you can share your gifts and unleash your cre­ativ­ity. There are numer­ous ben­e­fits to pur­su­ing a cre­ative life.  For …

I love cre­ative projects!  They are one of my many pas­sions.   I don’t like to think of things as “prob­lems” per se, but rather as “oppor­tu­ni­ties” for enhance­ment.   Mov­ing to a new place, or just get­ting that itch to redec­o­rate your old space, can offer a gold­mine of pos­si­bil­i­ties. One oppor­tu­nity we were …

Any­thing with gooey marsh­mal­lows and melted choco­late is okay by me.  If you don’t have access to a fire pit for tra­di­tional s’mores, mak­ing them in the oven with refrig­er­ated cres­cent rolls is a great option.  All you need are minia­ture marsh­mal­lows, choco­late chips, and a tube of cres­cent rolls. I use the reduced fat …

High­lights from Novem­ber and Decem­ber 2011 — Photo Album Christ­mas just ended, we had a won­der­ful week­end, and we are finally get­ting back into some sem­blance of a nor­mal rou­tine.  Thanks for bear­ing with me dur­ing the long hia­tus.  Many things have been chang­ing in our lives these past few months, with the most sig­nif­i­cant being …