It amazes me how much spam I get on this blog. Fortunately, WordPress comes with a great spam-blocker. But still, I scan through the blocked comments to make sure nothing legit got misplaced, and it appears that the world is composed of two types of people: addicts and the people who supply them. Name your [...]

The Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine ticks me off.  It sits there in my kitchen, taunting me, making me feel guilty.  I mean, if it didn’t work very well, that would be one thing.  I’d just taunt it right back.  But the thing is, it’s really, really good.  It makes everything easy.  It’s powerful and efficient, kneading [...]

Father’s Day is coming up, and it’s hard to find a gift that isn’t a) a tie, b) a shirt, or c) uh…a tie. Why is it so hard to buy for men? But not this year. Check out these groovy gifts: If your guy is going green, check out this great sale on solar [...]

Mother’s Day and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love being a mother.  I love having a mother.  I love being pampered on Mother’s Day, and the Sassy Husband does it well.  But I hate, in the most loving way possible, trying to find something for my own mother.  She and my dad have downsized to a [...]

My turn to host Book Club happened to fall on April Fool’s Day.  In the name of fun and foolishness, I made “Grilled Cheese Sandwiches” for dessert.  I wish I could say everyone was totally fooled until they took the first bite, but they all knew something was up.  Still, it was fun.  Here’s how [...]

No raindrops on roses (we’ve been getting snow) or whiskers on kittens (ours ran away), bright copper kettles (I have stainless) or warm woolen mittens (Thinsulate gloves around these parts).  No brown paper packages tied up with string (but I do have an ongoing affair with Amazon, and its brown cardboard boxes with the smile [...]

My husband brings home the bacon. I fry it up in a pan, while wearing heels and pearls. My children walk sedately in the door, careful not to track dirt on my freshly-mopped floor, and hand me their report cards. Straight A’s again. I congratulate them, and promise to take them to the zoo this [...]

1. Flour (all-purpose) 2. Sugar 3. Baking soda 4. Baking powder 5. Vanilla extract 6. Salt 7. Unsweetened cocoa/baking chocolate/chocolate chips 8. Yeast (well, technically, you want this in your fridge, but you know what I mean) 9. Brown sugar 10. Canola oil Five more things that you’ll be glad you have: 1. Cornstarch (thickens [...]

It all starts innocently enough.  You pull the sheets out of the dryer, warm and soft and smelling of mountain air or newborn babies or spring flowers.  You find the pillowcases.  They are small, manageable rectangles that turn easily into stacks of evenly-folded squares.  Next comes the flat sheet.  Fold it in half.  Do it [...]

No?  Well, then, you’re in luck.  I’m going to tell you how to make two different meals in, like, five minutes.  You might think this post was inspired by my chronic procrastination (and you wouldn’t be wrong), but I had an additional reason tonight:  I’m supposed to have eight empty cans for my Cub Scout [...]