Category: Uncategorized

  • How To Fold a Burrito

    How To Fold a Burrito

    The other day, I shared how to cook beans in the pressure cooker. I wanted to share our favorite way to enjoy beans: the humble but scrumptious bean burrito! The best and easiest way to make refried beans is to simply put the whole beans in a pot and mash them with a potato masher.…

  • Instant Pot Beans

    Beans are just about the most versatile of budget foods, and I’ve pretty much nailed down the easiest way to cook them. Pre-instant pot days, I would soak them for 48 hours, changing the water every 8-12 hours until the beans were nearly sprouted, then slowly cooked them for 12 plus hours. Now I can…

  • Basil-Pecan Pesto

    This recipe is summer to me, through and through. It freezes beautifully, so you can enjoy it in the bleak grey of winter as well, but something about a lazy, hot summer day ending in high-quality pasta coated in this pesto…it’s magic. My kids all adore this pesto, despite adamantly telling me they don’t like…

  • A Texas Cottage Garden

    I’ve waited for this opportunity for years-the chance to design and nurture my very own English-y, cottage-y garden of flowers. Can’t you see it? A lazy summer morning spent tenderly weeding among the hollyhocks and zinnias, snipping a few stems to display on the dining table, happy bees gently buzzing around the roses. I have…

  • A Nostalgic Independence Day

    When I was a kid, my family would make the trek out into the woods of Arkansas every July 4th, way out past city plumbing and stoplights, to my great uncle and aunt’s farm. We would set off fireworks and eat homemade peach ice cream. I even distinctly remember my second cousins having a cannon…

  • Basic, Easy Beer Bread

    Basic, Easy Beer Bread

    This is a family favorite for weeknight dinners, and I have been known to deliver this, warm from my oven, to neighbors and friends. It is always a hit and it’s easily adaptable, with only five ingredients. The flavor will largely depend on what kind of beer you use, so do try to pick one…

  • Homemade Strawberry Lemonade and DIY Fountains

    We had our church community group over last week for an ice cream social and in some ways, a little introduction to our much-prayed-for new home. Well over forty people ate ice cream and had a blast, with kids ranging in age from zero to seven running all over. The hit with the kids, oddly…

  • The Easiest Rice Pudding

    We all have those recipes, the ones that are so adaptable and always a hit. Rice pudding is that for my family. Not only is it whole food and budget-friendly, it’s delicious. I have a general base that I start with and love to do a few variations, depending on what I have on hand.…

  • Homemade Nacho Cheese Sauce

    Last night, we had nachos and I made, for the millionth time, our family’s take on cheese sauce. It’s a simple recipe, but it took me a while to tweak it. I thought I would share it here with you all today. Ingredients 2 T butter 2 T flour 1 cup whole milk 2 cups…

  • Purse Dogs and the Passage of Time

    we did it! We are officially all moved in to our new home, and I feel so settled. After fifteen years of renting, owning a house is such a sigh of relief for the soul. That’s not what I want to talk about today, thought. I want to talk about purse dogs, naturally. The other…