Blogs

Year after year, as we’d pull boxes down from the attic and sort through their contents, the kids would cry out, “The Santa plate!” when it appeared.

Do you know what’s more satisfying than making a food gift and giving it away? How about making 27 food gifts, sharing them with your co-workers, and getting to taste each one of them!

I think what I like best about Thanksgiving is its inherent simplicity. No one’s expecting shiny wrapped presents. Nobody’s likely to blow a finger off with a firecracker or step on a hard boiled egg. No one’s expected to don a silly costume on this day.

Every year people make out their Thanksgiving menus – and every year they look pretty much the same. Sure, we get innovative every once in a while. For example, one year I tried to shake it up by making peas and creamed onions.

When you think holiday gifts, think close to home, think cookbooks, and think community. Where does that take you?

Here’s another food blog we like a lot: Laura’s Best Recipes. Our featured recipe from Laura on The Food Channel right now is her Sausage, Wild Mushroom and Sourdough Stuffing. Just in time for Thanksgiving.

When you think about Thanksgiving, it generally conjures up pictures of home. Family gathered in the kitchen to sneak just a little turkey as it sits and rests in its roaster, and the happy bedlam of timing everything to arrive on the table just right.

We were doing the photo shoot for our March Madness spread, and the room was full of the smell of brats, mustard, onions, French fries and popcorn. The stack of vegetables was trying valiantly to hold its own.

If your food budget is feeling squeezed these days (and isn’t everyone’s?) you really should check out the blog, 5dollardinners.com. Erin, who calls herself $5 Dinner Mom, can show you how to stretch your family food dollar and still eat well.

I’ve been a part of hosting a number of wedding showers this year. And, while I know it is no longer June, I thought I would share a bit of my experience while it is fresh in my mind. Not to mention all those December weddings still to come…