I decided to do a themed cupcake each month in 2009. My goal will be to choose a different "clean" cake recipe each month. (According to Clean Eating Magazine,  "cleaning up a recipe is reducing calories and fat" and adding in or substituting more nutritious ingredients.) Since tomorrow is the final day of January, I thought I'd best get…

The winner of the Well Fed Network's Food Blog Award in the rural category is… Farmgirl Fare. The total votes tallied when the voting polls closed at 8 p.m. Saturday, January 26, 2008 were… Chez Lou Lou- 74 votes Whiteley Creek Homestead B&B- 221 votes (not so) urban hennery-232 votes Farmgirl Fare-389 votes Congratulations… a…

I am immersed in a sewing project today. Here is a glimpse of one of the two fabrics that comprise the bib-style apron that is shaping up to be a fun one to make any day's cooking/baking a celebration. When I was growing up, my mother sewed school clothes for each of my 11 siblings and myself. Rather…

I was notified yesterday that my blog has been chosen as one of five finalists in the Well Fed Network's Food Blog Awards. The Well Fed Network is a compilation of blogs focused on informed, high quality, food-based content. This is how it all went down… Nominations were accepted from January 5-9, 2009. A judging panel……

Dick has recommited to dropping a few pounds, so I made these scrumptious morsels to ease his mind that he does not need to forgo all treats in order to lose weight as long as they are made with nutritious ingredients and consumed in moderation. This extremely simple recipe with only four ingredients, that my friend Pat shared with me, is…

I needed a better method to drain the water from my canning jars when I rinse my grains, seeds, and nuts during their sprouting process, so Dick helped me turn my vision into a working end-product. He made this sprouting jar drainage rack from heavy-duty paint stir sticks and sign stakes secured at a 45 degree angle.     We…

In my Clean Eating Magazine e-newsletter, a subscriber shared this recipe for "clean" cheesecake. A clean recipe is one in which the calories and fat have been reduced to create a healthier version. Fresh local berries are hard to come by in the dead of winter, so for a topping I put a dollop of fruit spread on top.…

Did you know that "just a quarter-cup of sesame seeds supplies 74.0% of the daily value for copper, 31.6% of the DV for magnesium, and 35.1% of the DV for calcium? Also, sesame seeds are a good source of manganese, iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1 , zinc, and dietary fiber. In addition to these important nutrients, sesame…

Last night, Dick and I were hungry for a little snack, so I made some super simple nutritious "apple crumble". A very tiny bit of brown sugar is used for sweetness… just enough. It would make a tasty breakfast, too, if you are wanting to break away from the bowl-of-cereal routine. My "Good Mornin' Apple Crisp", is another…

Bruce and Irene, some friends from Bismark, North Dakota stopped by for a wee visit, so I prepared Italian Wedding Soup and baked a loaf of honey whole wheat oatmeal bread to serve them. It was a new soup recipe that I ran across on bread-and-honey's blog. Several days later I discovered a lightened up version in Martha…