Category Archives: Feature

Four years ago, Ciara McDonald and her husband, Ryan, were living a world away in Cambodia. This week’s featured cook and her husband worked for a non-profit organization in southeast Asia. “Ryan worked on a village farm trying to teach sustainable agriculture and farming on a small scale,” explained Ciara. “He wanted to teach the natives...

The time has come, we meet again! As I write this, the kids are roaming free outside. But don't worry, it's a nanny state here at the Rankins’. I have cameras watching their every move. When did that become a thing? We just don't let kids play outside alone. Oh, I think Harvey just got...

It’s Memorial Day week. I remember so many people who have passed on that I thought so much of or loved. My parents, of course. My mother was such a kind, soft-spoken lady she could not discipline me. Had it not been for my dad giving me a mega thumping now and then, I would have amounted to...

Well, it happened again. I had another mind-blowing, brain-shattering weekend. I wrote earlier that eight of my wife’s female cousins spent a week here so I was kicked out of my own house! This time, all my daughters came home for a late Mother’s Day. They brought four granddaughters. Counting my wife, I was battling nine women. I...

In the Manatt household, it is three cheers for the chili of this week’s cook, Sam Manatt. Her mom’s “slop,” however, doesn’t get similar accolades. “It’s a major comfort food, but I’m the only one who eats it in my household,” said Sam, who described the “slop” as a ground beef/cream cheese mixture topped with biscuits. Sam...

So I've noticed as the days fall by the wayside, I don't wish for a vacation to somewhere fancy, but only staycations. When did that become a thing? It just sounds so simple. Well, that's what I've dreamt of this week. Is dreamt not a word? Spell check is telling me dreamt isn't a word. If...

I have never been classified as a smart person. Way back when I was a kid in school, teachers would tell my parents how smart I was, but never tried to do the best I could. I guess it was too hard for them to say the truth, “Folks, your son is stupid.” So modern technology...