A (Short) Visit to the Farm

My In-laws have been helping out at an organic farm outside of Osceola, just up the road from where they live. So last Friday, my friend Jen and I headed up there with my Mom-in-Law to visit the animals and check out the garden. It’s a small operation, but the vegetables they’ve had have been [...]

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Tri-Color Beans

Last weekend, I picked up a pile of tri-color green beans at the farmer’s market. I didn’t want to steam them, which sounded really, really boring and flavorless. Instead, I melted some butter in a skillet, threw in the beans, splashed some soy sauce and sprinkled some crushed red pepper. I stir-fried them until they [...]

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Birthday Dinner with the Folks

I have a twin sister. So I shared my birthday with her for the first, oh, 25 years of my life. Then she moved to Ohio. Then DC. And then Denver. Around the time she left, my brother got married to a really amazing woman who’d birthday is a week before mine. So, for the [...]

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Salut on Grand, a Second Try

The girls and I went over to Highland Fest this past weekend. It’s a cute neighborhood-ish festival. We browsed the stalls, ate some cheese curds and mini-donuts, played Bingo and bought some jewelry. Apparently the fried food wasn’t filling enough, so we ran up to Grand Avenue between downpours and had lunch at the new [...]

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Farmer’s Market Jackpot

This is my favorite time of the year. Not because the days are long, the sun is always out, and I live near about 10,000 lakes, but the St. Paul Farmer’s Market is just loaded with goodies. (Don’t get me wrong, the other things are darn nice as well.) I went over to the market [...]

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A Green Bean Made Me Cry

I was putzing through the garden the other day, just checking on what’s growing and what’s not growing. In the far corner, I planted what I thought was a bush zucchini plant. Looking back at my notes, it’s actually a cucumber plant. Which is fine, actually, I’ll eat both. I noticed it had taken over [...]

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Cooking Light Summer Dinner

Sometimes I find it amazing how recipes just sort of find me. Last weekend, we picked up a Pork Tenderloin from the farmers market, and I had randomly picked up a couple plums at the grocery store the day before. Then, paging through the July issue of Cooking Light, I found a recipe for the [...]

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A Childhood Favorite Served With a Side of Beets

I found myself scouring the cupboards for something for dinner the other night. Husband was at softball and there was little to eat in the house. I had just about decided on cheese and crackers, when I saw a lonely can of tuna hiding in a corner of the cupboard. Growing up, we had to [...]

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Slow Food Minnesota Events

In keeping with my new theme of enjoying summer and slowing down, I thought it appropriate to post about a couple of events coming up with Slow Food Minnesota. There’s a picnic coming up on Sunday, July 13th at Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul, and a Wine and Cheese Event on Friday, July 18th [...]

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Summer Vacation

It’s finally July. And it’s officially summer. Which means I’m taking a bit of a vacation. Not an everyday vacation from the blog world, but I need a few days off to walk through the woods, stick my feet in the creek and roll around in the grass. I’ll still be posting at least once [...]

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