Microgreens are the closest a gardener can get to instant gratification. Instead of three months, you can enjoy your harvest in just two weeks. These tips for growing microgreens will help you get started. Microgreens have lots of uses. Throw a microgreen mix into your smoothie to boost the nutritional value. Add some radish microgreens…
Hosta Minuteman is a delight in a shade garden with its deep white margins. It makes a great container plant and will stand out against other plain green hostas in any shady garden spot. This plant is one of the few hostas that don’t mind more sun as long as you take care to keep…
Watering cans are a staple of any gardener but, for me, they are not just for watering plants. I love turning them into watering can planters and using them as garden art. The size is perfect for potted indoor plants and the look of them transforms a plant into a work of art that looks great…
Looking for a 30 minute meal that is special enough to serve guests? This delicious garlic lemon chicken has a tangy and tart lemon mustard sauce that tastes as though you spent hours making it. This saucy chicken recipe is easy, full of flavor and sure to become a family favorite. Recipes just don’t get…
Carving of vegetables and fruits into sculptures has been practiced for many years. Some think it even dates back to early Chinese dynasties. These food art photos show just how delicate the pieces can be. Food art is the process in which beautiful models such as animals, plants, statues, faces and other themes are created…
These tips for preparing spring flower beds will make things much less hectic when the warm weather arrives in a few weeks (or months!) Spring is just around the corner and daylight savings on the horizon, we’ll soon be wanting to start planting for flowers and vegetable gardening. The weather is so cool now, and…
A silicone baking mat can take high heat and replace parchment paper for baking & food preparation. I like to use them in lots of unusual ways in my kitchen. You can use them for cookies, of course, but there are lots of other creative Silpat baking mat uses, as well. With a silicone baking…
Today’s featured daylily is a real beauty. It is called Daylily Earth Wind and Fire. It is a gorgeous large daylily that blooms in mid summer. This daylily was first hybridized by Lovett in 2004. The plant is from the family hemerocallidaceae, genus Hemerocallis. About a year ago, I spent the day talking to the owner…
Crock Pots are a huge help in the kitchen. They make meal prep a cinch and give a wonderful aroma as the meal cooks, almost by itself. But be sure to avoid these slow cooker mistakes. If you open the lid, fill pot too full or add ingredients in the wrong order, you may end…
This recipe for baked Italian sausage and peppers is oven baked in one dish for a really easy week night meal. Flavorful whole sausages are combined with tomatoes, Italian seasonings, sweet peppers and onions for a tasty dish that is really simple to prepare. It is one of my favorite 30 minute meals. Keep reading…
Looking for a pretty indoor plant to brighten up a window sill or table? Try this purple passion plant – gynura aurantiaca. This distinctive plant has velvety leaves with slightly raised hairs on greenish purple stems. Gynura aurantiaca is native to Java and is fairly easy to grow if you have a brightly lit room….
Butternut pumpkin is one of my favorite types of squash. It is resistant to squash bugs and tastes wonderful when roasted. Instead of planting the crop in soil enriched with compost, I experimented this year by planting in compost to see what would happen. This type of planting works best in a rolling compost pile…
These Hasselback baked apples are a fun take on the traditional baked apple recipe. Instead of hollowing out the apple and adding a filling, the apple is thinly sliced and then drizzled with a delicious buttery brown sugar topping. A crunchy gluten-free flour and oat topping completes this delicious dessert recipe. When you are following…
Growing Columbine – aquilegia in your garden will reward you with delightful dangling bell shaped flowers that come in almost every color of the rainbow. This hardy perennial is easy to grow and much sought after by many gardeners. Since they self seed readily, you will never be without them once you have them planted. There is…
With the holidays approaching, these Baileys Irish Cream chocolate truffles are the perfect sweet ending to a special meal. Rich, creamy, and very easy to make, they’re perfect for any celebrating or gifting. Made with Bailey’s Irish Cream and a touch of Kahlua, they delight with an irresistible chocolate-coffee flavor. Perfect for holiday gifts—or treating yourself…
If you like to cook French cuisine, growing chervil is a good idea, since the fresh herb is hard to find at local grocery stores and Farmer’s Markets. Chervil is a delicate herb that comes from the carrot family. Close cousins are dill, parsley and fennel. Chervil is a native of Southeastern Europe, southern Russia…
Plants, vegetables and trees can grow into the most amazing shapes. These oddities of nature show that twists, bends and outgrowths can turn an ordinary plant into something that looks totally different. This inspiration for this post came from a morning breakfast jaunt. After breakfast Richard and I were driving around and we came upon…
Are you looking for an easy slow cooker hearty winter meal? This flavorful vegetable beef barley soup is chock full of vegetables in a delightfully seasoned broth that will warm you to the bones. The soup cooks for hours so you can get on with your day, and makes the kitchen smell amazing, to boot….
There are dozens of uses for license plates if you just think outside the box a bit. The colors and designs lend them selves to loads of home decor projects, both inside and outside the home. Have you ever thought about using number plates in DIY projects? Using recycled items saves money on the projects…
Large, showy indoor plants are a delight in the home. Growing dracaena fragrans gives the feeling of being in a corn field. The striped yellow and green leaves bring a lot of softness to any corner of a room. It is not too hard to figure out why Dracaena Fragrans is called The Corn Plant. The…
Aphelandra squarrosa, also known as zebra plant can be a real challenge to grow. But the spectacular flowers and showy striped leaves make it worth the effort. If you love to grow flowering houseplants, zebra plant can’t be beat The flowers come in late summer and autumn on a tall flower stem that is long…
Pruning forsythia requires some basic knowledge of how the plant is meant to grow. Forsythia flowers give us one of the first splashes of color in early spring gardens. But to get that color and a well shaped shrub, it’s important to trim forsythia bushes correctly. Check out this article for more information on forsythia…
No holiday season would be complete without the buttery and crisp taste of a Scottish Shortbread cookie. Biting into crunchy shortbread cookies gives you a light as air texture and taste that just can’t be beat. The cookie is so popular that January 6 has been labeled as National Shortbread Day. Let’s learn how to…
Spaghetti recipes are always a big hit at our house. They are cold winter comfort food at their tastiest. There are literally dozens of ways to incorporate a tasty spaghetti sauce into a quick and easy weeknight dinner sensation. One of my earliest spaghetti recipes was a combination of both beef and pork that became a…
There are many healthy kitchen swaps that you can use all year round for weight loss success. Implementing these food swaps will make sure that those extra pounds won’t find themselves on your thighs and rear next year. For many of us, the start of the year means making a New Year’s resolution to lose…
This DIY candy cane vase makes an easy holiday decor project that is as much fun to put together as it is to display. Since it uses poinsettia flowers it goes right along with all your Christmas plants. All you need are some candy canes and a few inexpensive supplies. Grab some peppermint sticks and…