By Mary Rarick

Berry season’s in full swing in the Pacific Northwest, and like many families, we love fresh berries. Occasionally I throw a few quarts in the freezer, but that’s as far as I go with “putting up” the produce. The rest we enjoy fresh, mostly as finger food. (more…)

By Mary Rarick

Those of you who follow me on Facebook have probably noticed I take a break every so often for a hot chocolate break. This is no ordinary 5 minute break. It involves chopping an ounce of chocolate, and stirring it with milk, cocoa powder, brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon into it’s transformed into liquid “chocolatey goodness,” as my son would say.The whole process can be accomplished in about 15 minutes, but I prefer to let the flavors meld a little longer, so my “batches” usually take a bit longer.

I can’t claim any credit for this recipe, though. All credit belongs to my friend Brandie Kajino, The Home Office Organizer. Her recipe can be found at joyof thekitchen.com.

Don’t think you have 15 minutes for this treat? You do. Everyone does. It’s a choice. Now choose it. You’re worth it.

Disclaimer: This recipe is not for the inexperienced. It’s super chocolate-y. Some have been known to add more additional milk. Not me.

By Mary Rarick

I’m not exactly sure how a recipe for stuffing–or dressing, if you happen to call it by that name–ends up in my blog except for the fact that when I mentioned to my tweets that I was making it in a crockpot, the requests for the recipe were numerous. But the “legitimate” reason to write about stuffing, if I need a real reason, is that it reminded me of how I use it to occupy my kids when they needed something to do.

Let me backtrack and tell you that our family loves bread products with virtually no exception. We like rolls, French bread, croissants, bagels, biscuits, as well as regular old sandwich bread. While I will occasionally make bread from scratch, more often than not I buy it, a few loaves at a time.

Now here’s the problem with bread where our family is concerned: with the exception of yours truly no one likes what we affectionately refer to as “the heels.” And, frankly, I probably wouldn’t be eating them either except that I was raised to not let good food go to waste.

But for every problem I try to come up with a solution, and I wanted to share what works for me. I tear all “heels” and other unwanted, uneaten pieces from the end of the bread bag into bite-sized pieces and toss them into a large ziplock bag in the freezer. But here’s the beauty of it all: actually, my kids tear up the bread. And they love it!

And so when the weather turns cold or I’m in the mood for some comfort food I draw on my frozen bread supply for stuffing ingredients. Without further ado, here’s my mother-in-law’s recipe:

Dressing Recipe:

1 loaf of bread, torn into bite-sized pieces

1/4 c. margarine or butter

chopped onion

chopped celery tops

2 eggs

1 can cream of mushroom soup (We’re from the Midwest where they believe you can’t make anything good without Campbell’s.)

sage

salt and pepper

chicken broth and/or milk

Cook the onions and celery in the butter until softened. Place bread pieces in a large bowl. Pour onion and celery mixture over the top and mix. Add eggs, mushroom soup, sage (to taste), salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Add chicken broth and/or milk to moisten further. Mixture should be of a soupy meatloaf consistency.

Pour mixture into a crock pot. Set to low for 4 hours. No peeking.