I got the recipe for these Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins a few years ago from the blog Mumbling Mommy. Since then, they’ve become a family favorite and I’ve made them many times. They’re a nice way to use overripe bananas when we don’t feel like making yet another loaf of banana bread. These muffins are…
Several years ago, my husband and I built some simple untreated cedar raised garden beds for our backyard. They are four feet by two feet across, and 10 to 12 inches deep. They fit nicely against our cedar privacy fence. I got basic, easy building directions from the book Square Foot Gardening. Last spring, I…
I was 23 years old the first time I cooked a legitimate meal. Growing up, I didn’t cook, and in college my scholarship was such that it actually made it to my advantage to live in the dorms. So, when the time came for me to spread my wings as a full-fledged adult, I had…
Vegetables belong only in back yard gardens, right? Maybe not. Depending on where you live, some cities or homeowners associations do not allow food to be grown in front yards. Yet it’s becoming more common in many areas to see home owners making use of all of their real estate for garden edibles, and not…
I probably don’t need to tell you that technology is everywhere. If it wasn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this. I don’t automatically think that the internet–and everything that comes with it–is necessarily bad. It’s a tool. At its best, it can keep us in contact with people far away, teach us about things that…
“Hey, pretty girl. How you doin’?” The day last fall when an unfamiliar man said those words to me was one of the last times I went for a walk alone for exercise in my neighborhood. The Back Story: I wrote here a few months ago about how I walked for exercise almost daily for…
As an adult, jobs (for most households) are necessary in this world. They provide income to pay the bills, and in the United States they also provide access to crucial benefits like health insurance and a means to contribute to social security and / or a pension. For kids — teenagers — money is certainly…
This taco soup is a great alternative to chili, and it’s a warm and hearty meal on a cool day. This recipe was passed down by a family member, and I’ve made some adjustments to make it my own. It’s a versatile. You can omit beans or corn if you don’t like them, substitute the…
Sometimes you make a recipe that calls for half and half cream. You buy the carton of cream, use the amount needed in your recipe, and then wonder what to do with the rest of the cream sitting in your fridge. If you drink coffee, the answer regarding leftover half and half cream is obvious….
For years, I’ve lived on the cheap end of cell phone plans. Like $8 a month cheap. And while, early on, my phones were more or less prehistoric, today I carry around a functional (if modest) Android smartphone. On Tracfone. My data cap? About 1.2 GB. A year. And yet somehow, I’ve managed to get…
