Kitchen Tip Tuesday–Kitchen Organization

I was tickled when I read on Tammy’s blog that this week’s kitchen tip didn’t have to be a tip at all, but rather, a request for one.  I am declaring the month of January the month of the kitchen, which means I’m going to work on making my kitchen what I really want it [...]

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New Year’s Eve

We had a rather low-key night tonight, which is what I really like.  Our church is having a New Year’s Eve service, but since we have two little ones, we decided to forego it in lieu of an earlier bedtime.  I cooked a big meal tonight of oven roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, English peas, and homemade [...]

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Books to Be Read in 2008

Semicolon is hosting her usual Saturday Review of Books, only this week she gives special instructions to link a book list which details the books you read in 2007, your favorites from 2007, books you want to read in 2008, or some combination thereof.  I had already planned to do this, but this challenge gave me [...]

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Book Review–Backwater by Joan Bauer

Title:  Backwater
Author:  Joan Bauer
Publisher:  Penguin
ISBN:  0142404349
Length:  185 pages
Synopsis:  Ivy Breedlove is well on her way to becoming the black sheep of the family.  Born into a family of lawyers, Ivy is passionate not about the law, but about history.  Because her family believes that their profession is hereditary, Ivy has a real fight on her hands just [...]

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Christmas Musings

I was busy in the kitchen tonight baking and cleaning and listening to the radio.  The song “Breath of Heaven” came on, and since I had no distractions, I was able to listen to the words for the first time.  Once again, there into the dishwater, I shed a few tears.  Why is it that God [...]

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Book Review–Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian

Title:  Forgotten Fire
Author:  Adam Bagdasarian
Publisher:  Dorling Kindersley
ISBN:  0789426277
Synopsis:   Vahan Kenderian, the son of a wealthy and influential Armenian, never expected his life to be anything less than it had been for his first twelve years:  one of privilege and happy times, with his father a stabilizing force; his mother, a doting parent who indulged him; [...]

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Red Velvet Cheesecake

This makes such a beautiful dessert for Christmas get-togethers.  You can find the recipe I used here.  I have made this cheesecake twice with great success.  Here are a few hints for making cheesecakes:

Allow plenty of time!  Be sure to remove your cream cheese from the refrigerator well in advance of when you plan to make [...]

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My Christmas Baking Marathon

Oh my lands, I’m tired!  I’m having some of my oldest and dearest friends over for lunch tomorrow, and I endeavored to do almost every bit of my cooking today.  In addition to this, I also did my annual Christmas baking of cookies and candy to give as gifts.  This is what I made today:

a red [...]

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How to Make Marbelized Christmas Ornaments

I call these handmade Christmas ornaments marbelized for lack of a better descriptive term, although the term tie-dyed does also come to mind.  Although using the traditional Christmas colors is certainly a possibility, you may tailor this craft project to fit your own personal taste or the taste of whomever you are making these ornaments for.  For this demonstration [...]

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Works for Me Wednesday–The Nativity Story

As it turns out, this week’s edition of Works for Me Wednesday is, as Shannon calls it, the “Christmas-ish edition,” which is wonderful for me because I planned to write about something “Christmas-ish” anyway. 
First of all, I need to admit that I am not a huge movie watcher.  Steady Eddie and I prefer not to [...]

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