Oct
04
A few weeks ago, someone I know vaguely from town said to me, “Oh, I know you, you’re the radical homemaker who makes everything from scratch.” Since then, I’ve gone back and forth a dozen times between been well pleased that my reputation precedes me (I do live in a very small town) and feeling …
Oct
04
I’ve been absent from the blogging world for almost six months, but once again, I’m back! You can read more about why I’ve been gone on ChezArtz, but suffice it to say we’ve been busy. The turmoil of job insecurity and an upcoming trans-Atlantic move helped us begin the process of evaluating the choices we’ve …
Mar
30
This past fall, I started knitting. Oh sure, I knitted a scarf or a pot holder or something when I was 12, but this was the first time I’d given it a go as an adult. Armed with a copy of Patons Next Steps, a pair of size 10 bamboo needles, and a couple of …
Mar
18
My father used to tell this great story about sawing off the treadle of my grandmother’s spinning wheel as retribution for her not letting he and my uncle go out to hunt. In the end, they climbed out the window and went anyway, and I can only imagine my grandfather’s reaction when he learned what …
Feb
22
Today is my darling husband’s birthday, so this morning the kids & I baked him a cake. I chose my Grandma’s Fresh Apple Cake recipe in part because I had ingredients on hand and in part because it was one I could adapt so that it used mainly local ingredients. Oh yeah, and also because …
Jan
12
It took me longer than I’d hoped to get this post out. Part of my struggle was that choosing the veggies for your garden is such a personal choice. But a conversation with a friend last night helped me really focus in on how I choose veggies for my garden. Start with the limiting factors …
Jan
11
My biggest lesson-learned in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge is not to send your spouse to the grocery store–even with a detailed list–if you expect to hold to eating from the pantry. Oh well, we still were able to use up quite a bit of stuff from the pantry this week, so I can’t …
Jan
04
This month, Life as Mom is hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. The idea is that each family spend the month of January trying to eat their way through the bounty in the pantry/freezer/cupboards to save a little money in the New Year. I am a bulk food addict and I belong to an …
Dec
20
That’s a bold statement, I know. But my Mom said it was the best pie crust ever, and she’s like George Washington when it comes to lies, so it has to be the truth. After a flood of Facebook posts and Tweets about struggles with pie crust, I figured it was past time for me …
Nov
04
I know a lot of folks who, like me, love the idea of making mozzarella from scratch. But I also know quite a few people, myself included, who have tried it and failed miserably. This weekend, I think I finally had my mozzarella breakthrough, so of course I had to share it here. First, the …
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