I have a very important reason to celebrate! I'm kicking up my heels and shouting hooray! I did it! (Drawing is from my collection of vintage cookbooks titled "The Lunch Box Cookbook" illustrated by Lou Peters and published by Culinary Arts Institute Copyright 1955.)   It's not because I logged 79.25 miles in the month of March thus surpassing February's mileage of 64.5 miles,…

Besides the plantable calendar that I gave my daughter Heather for her birthday, I gave her a book filled with patterns and directions for making a variety of projects using t-shirts. What a fun way to recycle!   If you're struggling for birthday, anniversary, baby, wedding, and other gift ideas, check out my daughter Jessica's new…

A few years ago, at the Little Falls (Minnesota) Craft Fair held the second weekend in September for the past 3o some years, I purchased a ring formed from the end of an old silver spoon or fork. The downside of silver is that it tarnishes.  So for my "clean" prong of my "4 Cs" productive stay-at-home day,…

Tonight at 8 p.m., the window of opportunity closes. If you haven't submitted a comment on my Food Blog Awards and Free Drawing post, time is slipping away. Dick will draw a name from all submissions and I will contact the winner tomorrow via email as well announce that person in tomorrow's post. One final…

The recipe for these oh, so yummy berry and cream cupcakes is a combo of Martha Stewart's chocolate buttermilk cupcakes and a recipe from Cupcakes Year-Round 50 Recipes for Every Season and Celebration by Sara Newmeier with my variation using raspberries instead of cherries. I used M.S.'s chocolate cake recipe because Sara N.'s used a whole stick of butter instead…

Sometimes… more often than not… we get stuck in a rut doing things the way we have always done them… not because it is the most efficient way, but it's just habit. Recently, I broke free and came up with a more efficient way to store my baking utensils. Previously, I would criss-cross my kitchen…

Frost is predicted for tonight so I am frantically using my zucchini. I made zucchini crisp for dessert last night. I also made two loaves of zucchini bread, of which not a crumb remains.  The bread recipe called for 1 cup of oil. Instead, I substituted 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce. I also reduced the 2 cups sugar to 1 cup. The…

  Over the weekend, Dick and I shopped the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Lyndale Avenue along with two of my daughters who were visiting… Lisa, with her husband and two kids from New Jersey, and Jessica from Florida. Jess and I broke away from the pack for a while to sit and listen to a jazz musician while we ate from…

Welcome! Grab a cup of tea, java, mocha and make yourself at home. Allow me to introduce you to my bed and breakfast. My goal in creating this blog, and my retro bed and breakfast's atmosphere, is to inspire you to create and surround yourself with things that are just plain fun. A Green Routes…

Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed & Breakfast 12349 Whiteley Creek TrailBrainerd, MN 56401218.829.0654email: Whiteleycrk@aol.com Directions to Whiteley Creek Homestead from Brainerd: At Brainerd's landmark water tower, next to the Chamber of Commerce, go east on Washington Street to the last stoplights at the eastern edge of Brainerd. You will see the East Brainerd Mall (with a Cub Foods…