Buckwheat harvest muffins (vegan, grain-free)

cranberry buckwheat pumpkin muffins

I was in the mood for something reflecting the local harvest. So I threw together muffins featuring acorn squash, cranberries, apples, and buckwheat—plus cinnamon, a traditional autumn spice. These were moist and have an addictive flavor. If you want a more mild buckwheat flavor, substitute half with wheat flour or gluten-free flour mix. Supplies measuring cups and spoons 2 mixing bowls … Read more

Cherry-almond muffins (grain-free, vegan)

sherry almond gluten-free muffins

I made sauce out of some of the cherries I picked this summer. I often use applesauce in muffins, but decided to experiment with cherry sauce in this batch. They gave these muffins a slight pink tinge that the camera didn’t really pick up. If you don’t have access to cherry sauce, just purée some frozen cherries in a blender or … Read more

Cats and houseplants

lilo the cat eating houseplants

Spider plants, tremble in fear. The highlight of Lilo’s week, other than escaping out the back door and hiding under the deck a few times, was the other night when we had our first frost. I brought in several my houseplants from outside to keep them from getting frost-killed and stuck as many as I could in the kitchen sink to … Read more

Homemade bleach gel pens are easy to make—and a waste of time

Sometimes when I make a quilt with both brightly colored and white fabrics, I or the quilt recipient washes it without putting a Shout Color Catcher Sheet in the machine with it, and it ends up looking like this: My solution for this problem has usually been Clorox Bleach Pens, but my local supermarket no longer carries them and I … Read more

My new audio center

For years, I’ve had this cute little console that likely spent its previous life as a side table in a hospital or lab. It’s got an enamel top, and previously had a baked-on pastel paint-job that had seen better days. My friend Dekalb ground off the paint to bare the steel underneath, which I sealed with spray polyurethane. On the … Read more