Category Archives: Kitchen

My first encounter with biscuits and gravy was, unfortunately, not a positive experience. During a family vacation to Florida while I was in junior high, we stopped at a breakfast buffet in a state I would have considered “the South.” While perusing the buffet, I was presented with a pan of pale gravy near a...

Sweet, sweet summertime is fleeting by! In addition to the kickoff of sweet corn sales, the first week of July found me helping with a teacher workshop, The Science of Food Preservation, put on by Central Iowa Agriculture in the Classroom and Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation. The last couple of months, I have also had...

I don’t know about you, but some of my best childhood memories were made during the summer months. As a kid, this was the time of year I looked forward to the most: Countless hours swimming in the pool with my cousins, nights at the lake, bonfires, campouts, family vacations, and the list goes on!...

There is a special kind of magic that unfolds in a garden, a slow and steady show where you get to be both the audience and the conductor. For me, it is all about the joy of delayed satisfaction. Think about it: You plant a tiny seed, no bigger than a speck of dust, and...

Need a quick getaway? Let me be your tour guide! Adam and I snuck away for a few days to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary last month at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. If you are looking for a place to hike, eat great food, and drive less than four hours to get there,...

This Christmas, Lynnette bought me my very first air fryer. I absolutely love it. It cooks foods to crispy, crunchy perfection in a fraction of the time of the oven, without heating up the kitchen. I was deeply skeptical the first time we tried cooking brats in the air fryer, but it immediately won me over,...

We have now had a few days that really feel like summer!  It has been awesome pool weather, and you can “hear the corn grow.” (Chatter is that sweet corn should be ready the first week of July – that’s next week, yikes!!) This is also the type of weather that finds me looking for...