apple bread

My mom gave me a big batch of apples and asian pears, so I turned them into 3 loaves of apple bread. I used this recipe at recipesource.com, and it is hands down the best apple bread recipe I’ve tried. I used half butter and half crisco, and left out the nuts, and instead of

Victoria Magazine’s Christmas Issue is available!

I got my issue — did you get yours? So many beautiful photographs of holiday-decorated homes, and ideas for entertaining and display! Not ideas for gift giving, but for making sure your holiday is full of gracious detail! I like the article about holiday scents. Isn’t the smell of Christmas a huge part of what

finishing up projects

I’ve had this chair in the works for a while. Since it’s for Elle’s desk I felt like I had a couple more years to let it slide unfinished, but I don’t like seeing it around looking like a mess. So here it is, before and after. Originally it had a dark stain and was

more about food

Since this rice pudding is a little different, I thought I’d tell you about it. I first had this served to me at a Chinese restaurant as a dessert. I know, most don’t serve desert (and when they do, sometimes it’s an orange), so when the waiter put this down at the end I looked

The last of the garden

It’s cold overnight now, so the last of the tomatoes are being picked, but the basil is surprisingly still going strong. I’ve managed to make 3 pints of pesto out of about 5 plants (with several harvests over the summer, maybe 3). I froze the pesto, and just scrape out what I need for each

Burrito dinner

I opened one of the chipotle salsa and gave it a go as burrito sauce. It worked perfectly, was spicey but nicely tempered by the cheese and beans and beef. Notice the glass of juice? It’s watermelon juice. I visited Cancun with a friend in 2001 (my gosh, has it been that long?) and every