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Marbled Cake Bars

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Hello, dear readers. Happy holidays! I think Christmas time is my favorite holiday. It's a time of giving and generosity. It's a time for family and traditions. We've put up a smaller tree this year, decorated the house with all of the collected nutcrackers, and started cooking up the old-time favorite recipes. We even sent a Secret Santa gift to an elderly gentleman at a nearby retirement home. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) I've been cooking a lot of unhealthy but delicious things.  These things are irresistible and should only be eaten in small quantities because they make you pack on that dreaded "winter weight." But that is what New Year's resolutions are for! I've been making these marbled cake bars for years and they never had an official name.  I've snooped and found out that others call them Can't Leave Them Alone Bars. That name really has no staying power in my memory banks, so I'm ju

Apple Farro Salad

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Hello, dear readers!  Welcome back. It's been hot here in northern Nevada, not melting trash can hot, but we've already had a few days at 100F.  When it's warm out, we tend to cook and eat outdoors. Grilling, and now smoking with hubby's birthday present (a Camp Chef Woodwind) has been our recent favorite cooking method. Since you have to balance out the hot with something cool, I made this refreshing and simple farro salad to go with dinner one night. We ate outdoors al fresco and the fresh air makes everything taste better! Ingredients 2 cups farro 1 apple, peeled and diced 3 green onions, whites only chopped 1/4 cup parsley chopped juice of one tangelo or orange, freshly squeezed 2 Tablespoons olive oil 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar salt and pepper to taste Method 1. Boil the farro in a large pot of water for about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside. 2. Heat the olive oil in a small pan.  Saute the onion until soft. Add the apple and cook ab

Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

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Hello, dear readers!  Welcome back for a lovely recipe. In honor of my dear hubby's birthday, I baked up something special.  At first, he wasn't sure what to ask for, so he mumbled something about coconut cake, then a pie, then he settled on something rhubarb.  Our rhubarb patch was doing well enough for me to get some for his birthday dessert. He got a crisp instead of pie or cake. Strawberry rhubarb crisp with a hint of cinnamon and vanilla. It was heavenly! The middle daughter (the picky eater) was unsure about the stuff that went into the fruit layer.  I told her it's pretty much just sweet and sour strawberry, like sour patch kids. It worked!  I wouldn't say she loved it, but she ate some without flipping out.  I think we're making progress on reducing the pickiness. So for your dining enjoyment, give this a try.  It's sweet and tangy, sticky and oozy, buttery and crispy in all the right places. Ingredients For the fruit base 3 cups diced rhu

Lactation Support

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Hello, dear readers! I've survived the rush of birthday season and now we can resume our regular, hectic schedule. That's good news for you because I have some great posts waiting to be shared with you! I have  jewelry boxes, a new box from Influenster to review, a couple awesome recipes, and then this post. Today's post is something near and dear to my heart. That's breastfeeding. Mom's can never get too much support, if you asked me. I have successfully breastfed my three kiddos.  I worked full time and pumped two or three times a day for the first year of each child's life. Once I got the OK from the pediatrician, I introduced cow's milk and gradually reduced pumping at work to a stop. But I still had a great milk supply. I know, I know. Lucky me! My oldest had a huge appetite and even with my great milk supply, using supplements and galactogogue foods, I still had to supplement with formula.  He weaned just before he turned two because my sup

Sweet Potato Pie

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Hello dear readers! I hope you are all enjoying the amazing food specialties that accompany this holiday season. I have been on a pie kick. You could say I have been crazy for sweet potato pie.  Now, normally we have pumpkin pie with Thanksgiving Dinner, and that is the only time of the year canned pumpkin is in the house. Well, I always have at least one sweet potato lurking somewhere. I don't know what got me so fired up, but I just had to have sweet potato pie. So I made one, for practice. Then we ate it. It did not suck. So I made another one. That one didn't last more than two days. It may have been breakfast one morning. Then, I had to make one more so we could have pie for the whole family at my folks' house for Thanksgiving. After mowing down three of these babies in a row, I knew I had to post this for everyone to enjoy. Ingredients Unbaked single crust for a 9" pie, use either  Pie Crust No. 1 or Pie Crust No. 3 2 garnet yams or other oran

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

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Hello, dear readers! Comfort foods seem to be a no-brainer when the weather gets chilly, especially here in the mountains near Lake Tahoe. Soups, stews, casseroles, and the like come to mind.  One of my favorite comfort foods is scalloped potatoes and ham. It's also seasonal for us since we only get a big ham a couple times a year, usually near a holiday, if not for a holiday meal. My dear hubby is also a fan of scalloped potatoes although his Italian grandmother makes hers a little bit differently.  She puts whole pork chops on top of the potatoes instead of mixing in diced ham. Her way is pretty darn good too. One of the best reasons to make this is that it's easy to assemble. The second best reason is that it's kid-friendly.  Any parent of a picky eater knows how foods tend to be white and full of potatoes. So, yes, this is guilty as charged! Although who's going to argue with you for making this? Ingredients 3 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and sliced ab

Nugget Rib Cook Off 2016

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Hello, dear readers. What did you do for Labor Day weekend this year? We consumed mass quantities of ribs, like we always do! We split up the rib-snarfing over two evenings. I was keen to go Friday night because of the live band. It was Vertical Horizon! The kids hung with a grandparents so hubby and I could cavort in public with other grown ups. We enjoyed a few cold ones with the music, some food like these piles of fried potatoes, and meandered through the market. We ate a few rib samplers, fried pickles, and funnel cake, but we didn't actually get any alligator. You know that stuff isn't native around here. The next day, we came back with kids and one grandma.  We did the Rib Village. Baby N was not patient. She was starved and devoured applesauce and ice cream after sampling some ribs too. We did some shopping in the market stalls. It was perfect weather. We walked our behinds off. Thank goodness for the bu