cultivating me

Last summer I purchased dwarf citrus trees – lemon, lime, grapefruit and kumquat.  We already have a very large orange tree in our yard which we love and use on a regular basis.  Having citrus trees in my yard reminds me of the house where I grew up. We had orange, lemon and grapefruit trees [...]

There were many things I looked forward to when it came to Christmas but one of the things I looked forward to the most was baking cookies.  Both my mom and my aunt baked cookies for the holiday and each had their specialties.  My aunt would bake a whole assortment of cookies including rum balls, [...]

I have lots of memories when it comes to the holidays.  One thing I will always remember (and still enjoy) is my mom and grandmother serving up eggnog around Christmas. They always warmed it, added whipped cream a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, and for the adults – a shot of brandy. Eggnog is still [...]

101 Simple Salads, #25 Ridiculously good.  This is another salad I would like to eat every day for the rest of my life.  As you can see, I added some pinto beans to this salad even if the recipe didn’t suggest it.  I’ve been eating these salads for my lunch and wanted to round out [...]

101 Simple Salads, #3 I really like cucumbers and red onions and I go waaaaaaay back (in fact my dad’s favorite sandwich is peanut better and red onion – i know, it explains a lot of things, about both of us)  but I’m no so big on dijon mustard.  I was really unsure about this [...]

101 Simple Salads, #10 today i made a salad which included a type of green – arugula.  i am again using tomatoes from my garden. i only planted 3 plants this year:  2 larger variety (champion and best boy tomatoes) and 1 cherry tomato plant.  i have learned this gives us more than enough tomatoes [...]

101 Simple Salads, #13 i feel perhaps i might be cheating by choosing another salad which contains fruit.  but i currently have a refrigerator full of ripe strawberries and tomatoes from my garden so i decided to use what i had on hand. it was delicious and i would have loved to have served this [...]

101 Simple Salads, #4 after the way yesterday’s salad swept me off my feet, i had high expectations for this salad and ended up a bit disappointed.  this is not to say this salad was bad, it just wasnt’ as scrumptous as i had hoped it to be.  i think perhaps some of the problem [...]

101 Simple Salads, #2 directions form the article: 2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing. oh my this salad is good!  i admit i was a bit skeptical by the pairing of tomatoes with [...]

can you hear the angels singing?!? i’m not one who normally shares videos i find on the net but this is just too good to keep to myself. it’s part of a new cooking site that not only shares new recipe ideas but it has videos that show you how to make them. heeellllooooo my [...]