Recycle. Refurbish, Repurpose. Reuse.
By the first week of December, Christmas has exploded at our house. Many years of accumulation has resulted in box upon box of mismatched Christmas decor. They are things that I love and can't bear to part with even if I don't have the room to display them all. That isn't really true though, because… Continue reading Make Do Decorating: “Snowy Woodland” Christmas Tree
I found this sugar cookie recipe many years ago in a book filled with early American recipes. It has the best flavor of any I've tried and I'm often asked for the recipe. In the cookbook where I found it, a story was told about a young woman in colonial times baked and sold these best selling… Continue reading Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
Medina, Oh is a cute little town where one can easily spend a day browsing the many shops plus an antiques mall. Also in the downtown area is a local Christmas attraction called Castle Noel. Castle Noel is owned by Mark Klaus, a sculptor whom I first became familiar with when he was selling his beautifully… Continue reading Castle Noel: A Christmas day trip to Medina, Ohio
The first time I saw these little pastries was at a holiday party at a relatives house. I was very young and reluctant to try an ugly black cookie (it was poppy seed). As an adult, I discovered just how wonderful these Eastern European traditional treats are and a few years ago I went looking for a… Continue reading Kolacky
I found both this chocolate cookie recipe and the mocha-chocolate frosting recipe in two different sections of the same vintage 1950's cookbook. They weren't intended to be used together and the frosting recipe is the same one I often use for chocolate cake. The first time I tried frosting the cookie with it, I knew I… Continue reading Mocha-Chocolate Frosted Drops
Growing up, Mom was sure to make a batch of these cookies every Christmas. They were Dad's favorites then and still are today. There are many similar recipes with various names: Russian Tea Cakes, Snowball Cookies, etc. Mom's recipe calls for them to be dropped from a spoon onto a cookie sheet. I like to… Continue reading Mexican Wedding Cookies
Holmes County is the heart of Ohio's Amish country. You can easily spend a day here, or a week, touring all of its many shops and sites. One Friday morning in mid-November my daughter and I made our way to Millersburg, Ohio with a single destination in mind. "Tis the Season" lays claim to being Ohio's… Continue reading “Tis the Season” for Christmas Shops
"What do you do with all of your free time?!" People ask me that question and I find it difficult to explain that having too much free time is not, has never been, a problem for me. In fact, I'd still be glad to tack on a couple of hours to the end of each day. I… Continue reading One Month Without a Job and Loving All That Free Time!
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