Archives for “Cooking/Kitchens”
This time of the year cooks everywhere are baking up a storm. Cakes, pies, cookies, candies you name it. And guess what spice they’ll use the most. If you said vanilla you would be correct. It’s the most expensive spice after saffron because it’s difficult to grow. But where does vanilla come from? [...]
The cake pans and cookie sheets that is, right onto the baking rack!! It’s a SURRENDER kind of season for me, so with the holidays in mind, I thought I’ll surrender my favorite recipes, if you’ll surrender yours! And even if you don’t, I’ll still share, because I’m that kind of girl. In our [...]
In Running Wild, Linda Howard and I (Linda Jones) put a woman on the run in Wyoming during the wintertime. We’re both Alabama girls, so trying to do the setting justice took some research. Not that either of us was dedicated enough to actually experience a Wyoming winter. :-) Carlin Reed, off the grid in [...]
November is NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a novel – or 50,000 words – in a one month span. Writing 50k in that amount of time means you don’t have the luxury of going over everything you’ve written over and over again. You have to keep moving forward. The [...]
Sometimes my mom will call me up and ask me for a recipe. At times I have it and will give it to her. At times, she has to deal with a bit of karma when I answer, “Well, I do this and put enough of this in to make it whatever, and bake it [...]
Do you have something in your kitchen that says “home” to you in a personal way? I do. It’s a pair of blue glass roosters. Whenever we’ve moved–eight times now–the blue roosters get special treatment. Inevitably as I wrap them in newspaper, I think about the pioneer women who packed their most treasured possessions into [...]
Hi! Winnie Griggs here. In my current work in progress I’m considering having a few scenes take place in a confectionery. So I’ve been doing some research into what sort of treats would have been available in such an establishment at that time (1895). And what mouth watering research it was! Here’s just a little [...]
I kept trying to think of a topic to write about and was coming up blank. During all this scouring of my brain, I was in the process of cooking one of my favourite summer meals: Hodge Podge. And then it clicked! I’ll do a recipe post, I told myself, and give the P&P readers [...]
There are an awful lot of modern conveniences I wouldn’t want to do without. Showers come to mind. Coffee pots. Washing machines. I can’t even fathom a day in the kitchen without electricity. Most of us have heard of the Ben Franklin stove, but it wasn’t really what we think of as [...]
I’ve been watching episodes of Masterchef this summer, and one particular cook caught my eye and set my cowboy-loving heart to fluttering. Mike Hill from Powder Springs, Georgia. From day one of the auditions, I could tell this was a cowboy with class and with true cowboy heart. He competed in memory of his sister [...]
Well, it’s the day after the Fourth. We’re all cleaning our driveways and bearing up under the heat. I’m always looking for something quick and easy, yet home made, to fix on a holiday or a weekend. I created this one because so many of us love hash browns, and I love a good quiche. [...]
In 1893, Grover Cleveland began serving his second term as U.S. president, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murder of her parents, and the World’s Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago. Several products and inventions made their debut at the Exposition. The first ferris wheel, Juicy Fruit gum, shredded wheat, and cream of wheat were [...]
Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets–they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit — or green with pineapple and whipped cream — or at holidays — a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into [...]
What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker? How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams? And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south [...]
With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt [...]
Hi. Winnie Griggs here. I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, [...]
Have you ever been to a cookie exchange? I went to my first one last Sunday and had a blast. All those treats! Even better, the exchange was part of a bigger program. The Women’s Ministry at Centerpointe Christian Church here in Lexington used their December event to support a ministry called the Refuge for [...]
One of the things I love about Christmas is traditions. I’m a farm girl, and I have a lot of “country” based traditions that I remember fondly. Some of them have gone by the wayside as I bring up my own family, but I remember them with a special sense of nostalgia, and one of [...]
The first freeze of the season hit us this morning in Abilene, Texas. The cold snap reminds me that winter is fast approaching. Those blue northerner winds that cut through you like ice shards, sweaters, fuzzy socks, and lots of snuggle time with loved ones. Like any season, there are things to look forward [...]
Thank you for the opportunity to share my new western historical romance, TEXAS TWILIGHT, with your readers. It’s book two in The McCutcheon Family series, and was a joy to write. I think it’s because I got so attached to the family in MONTANA DAWN, I was eager to learn more about them, create a [...]
In my current work in progress, I have placed a large, modern, garden just outside the kitchen door of the ranch house. In the days before refrigerators and all-night grocery stores, nearly every settler planted a kitchen garden once the house was finished, be it soddy, cabin or a mansion. But what exactly is a [...]
Good Morning! Going along with a similar message from my last post, I thought we might continue on in the same vein as we did a couple of weeks ago — survival. With droughts in the south and midwest, flooding in our farmlands and northern states and with grain elevators gradually reduced to only about [...]
For every Easter of my life, I’ve decorated eggs….except one. Last year when we away from home on a trip to Northern California. Yep. Even one April, when we were in Hawaii I colored eggs –the condo had a big kitchen, and we took the finished product along on picnics at the beach. Something I [...]
DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT ASHAMED OF ECONOMY. When I began my newest novella for Be My Texas Valentine, I had to do some research on how laundry was done in the late 1800’s, so I went to my bookcase literally filled with reference books not only on the craft of writing, but [...]
I’m not a sickly person. In fact, during my years teaching school, it was often more trouble to miss school than gut it out. And I get flu shots religiously every fall. Nonetheless, I came down with two nasty cold/viruses during the flu season of 2009-2010 and needed medical care for a horrific cough and [...]
