Happy New Year! Here we are in 2023, my third year of life changes. It was the middle of 2020 when we decided to leave our settled, comfy life in Wisconsin to start over in central Texas. A few more changes this past summer led us to move from Austin to rural eastern Texas. We even bought a house in…

Traditional Swiss Christmas cookie names don’t exactly trip off the tongues of most Americans and I doubt many have eaten them, either. Aenisguetzli, mailanderli, schweizer schenkeli, brazeli. They look like a spelling bee nightmare. I grew up very ‘Murican–through and through. It wasn’t as if my family wouldn’t have enjoyed generational traditions, it’s just that our ancestors apparently took the…

As homemakers, we don’t always appreciate the skills we’ve cultivated and it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. For example, I bake nearly all of our bread for several reasons, none of which have to do with being a gourmand. I like being able to control the ingredients. Since I always keep the ingredients on hand, I never have to run…

I thought that compiling some snippets around my household would be an interesting thing to do this week. I don’t think I’ve ever done a post like this before. The Garden I’ve managed to keep our first garden in Texas alive but I wouldn’t call it a rousing success. I think my plants have used their energy just staying alive.…