Image by lembrik on Freepik Our First Garden Story The first year we gardened, we really flew-by-the-seat-of-our-pants and had no idea there was a difference between growing cold-weather vs warm-weather plants.   We just got all excited and giddy. We were going to have a garden full of beautiful vegetables. We’d go out to our garden and come in with all the components of a delicious salad, or stir fry. It was going to be perfect. Mr. Wonderful dug me about a 3-foot by 6-foot tiny postage stamp of a garden and I quite joyfully sprinkled in a bevy of seeds I had grabbed at my local hardwar ..read more

My Absolute Favorite Brunch Place This week I met a dear friend at Cheever’s Cafe for brunch on Saturday. This is Ana. This picture of Ana is not at Cheever’s Cafe. This is a picture of Ana at Harvey’s Bakery from 2 months ago because I forgot to get a picture of us at Cheever’s. I probably forgot, because I was so looking forward to the rolls that I knew would be arriving soon (we’ll talk about that goodness soon). When she asked for recommendations, I told her that Cheever’s Cafe had always been a favorite of mine for brunch. And then I realized I had never written about it. I am here to ch ..read more

Early on in my gardening career, my favorite gardening seeds were limited to the ones I could find at the local hardware store, big chain home stores like Home Depot or Lowes and my local nursery. The more I got into gardening, the more I realized there was an entire new world out there of seeds to pick from. And the seed catalogues started coming. It could be what you call a mild addiction, bordering on …well, serious problem. HA! Here are a few of my very favorite seed companies and the seeds that come from them! Disclaimer: I am not getting paid or any benefit from these suggestions. I just ..read more

I can’t tell you how many packets of taco seasoning I’ve bought over the years before it finally dawned on my I could make my OWN homemade taco seasoning! I was today years old when I finally tried it! Why haven’t I been doing this all along I asked myself!? I looked at the back of a taco packet and realized, “HEY! I have all those ingredients in my spice rack and a few others I think would actually make it better!” You know in our household, we are big taco fans. These are our favorites EVER! But sometimes, we just crave the old fashioned ground beef tacos in a crunchy shell topped with shre ..read more

Early in December, Mr. Wonderful and I were able to take a little escape away just over the Oklahoma border into Texas from the holiday season craziness to Tanglewood Resort in Pottsboro, Texas. And by escape, I mean a SORELY needed escape due to wrapping paper, ordering gifts, still recovering from Thanksgiving and all the millions of parties revolving around the holidays which were overloading makes me a little nutso. Add to that, we haven’t been out of town alone in forever, and we were a tad bit giddy. Tanglewood is located on the south shoreline of Lake Texoma in a beautiful setting with ..read more

My friend Vivian and I had a girls’ nite one night at a place here that served Warmed Marinated Olives. We are both huge foodies and since the place specialized in some delicious small plates, we ordered several things. I tell you, I cannot remember what else we ordered. Oh wait…there were gourmet pigs-n-a-blanket and they were fantastic too. How dare I forget about those! Speaking of, have you tried MY kicked-up Jalapeno Popper Pigs-In-a-Blanket? But these warmed olives were life-changing and I dreamed about them for weeks. I L-O-V-E olives. As in, I can clean out a can of black olives all b ..read more

There are many things to consider when planning a dinner party: venue, theme, supplies, and food. Then, you have to consider people’s dietary needs when curating the menu, and it seems like everyone is on some sort of diet these days. The CDC reports that 17% of Americans claimed to be on diets during the 2017-2018 survey period, mostly for health reasons. Also, about half of American adults have chronic medical conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, which are usually managed with special diets. So how can you plan a menu with people’s restrictions? Do you just make all ..read more

It is that time of year where our refrigerator is filling up with gallon bags of harvest like okra, peppers and more. It reminded me that, although I’ve made plenty of basil pesto, I need to get busy before the basil gets hits with the cool night temperatures and whip up some Shishito Pepper Basil Pesto!   You know I love to play around with pesto renditions like my Kale Pesto that I used to stuff my Kale Pesto and Mushroom Stuff Porterhouse Chops. If you’ve not grown shishito peppers, they are fantastic producers, even going strong all summer when the extreme heat hits here and the oth ..read more

Summer calls for quick, cool and delicious salads like this Summer Tomato Burrata Salad recipe. You can put it together in mere minutes and it will be sure to please even the pickiest of eaters! Our garden has been bursting and happy with tomatoes. To see how we grow our tomatoes and get so many in a small space click here. RIGHT up to the point that it turned 100º and they refused to come out and play anymore. We’ve been left with a counter full of tomatoes every day and last nite I made this Tomato Burrata Salad. And I almost cried at how good it was. The oozing sweet creaminess of the bur ..read more

Shrimp and grits is a traditional dish that originates in the Lowcountry of the coastal Carolinas and Georgia in the United States and was originally purposed as a breakfast dish using ground hominy. Later, southern restaurants and chefs began to elevate the dish, and now it is a foodie favorite with as many varieties as you can count, ranging from stir-fried shrimp and veggies to more of a saucy shrimp (our preference) being ladled over luscious creamy cheesy grits. We like to mix our house made KJ’s Louisiana Hot sauce into the sauce mix as it’s got SO much more added flavor than store-bou ..read more