News and Recipes Blog

It is great therapy for me to make something from scratch. Be it a flower arrangement or a fresh bouquet for a bride, or baking a luscious pound cake! I believe when you create something, it is happiness you are creating to share -  like a slice of cake, a meal, a bouquet, or a little missive. These are all easily made and joy is found in the giving and sharing. I find great contentment when I make a casserole for someone just because I know they will appreciate it during their busy day. I'll walk a bucket of flowers over to...

I have come to realize I love buttermilk in just about anything. I make a great buttermilk pie, lemon buttermilk cake, a chocolate cake that has buttermilk in it and I fry chicken using a buttermilk soak! So it is no wonder I was drawn to this Buttermilk Cucumber Salad. The recipe is from Victuals, a book by famed writer and supporter of all things Appalachia. The cookbook also won the James Beard Foundation Book of the Year award. It's a great read that has recipes collected from her journey through the Appalachian mountains. I hope you like this salad as...

I've always loved the rain. I  like when  the skies get dark and the wind picks up. It's the anticipation, the rumbling in the distance. The flag on my porch starts to unfurl and flap a little. I inhale deeply and smell the sweetness of rain before it actually comes. Then the raindrops start! You can see the round circles of droplets start to cover the sidewalk. Easing into the porch rocker, I wait. Then, the deluge! The water runs off the eaves in great torrents. I have about 5 minutes of this blissfulness before the wind blows the rain through...

Two guys down in Charleston, South Carolina developed a way to cold smoke honey, olive oil, salts, etc. so the products retain their nutritional qualities while imparting a hickory-smoked infusion that creates a wonderful smoky and earthy smell and taste. When smoking the oil, they realized smoking at higher temperatures makes the oil break down and lose its chemical and nutritional values, so they cold smoke it at 37 degrees. But enough science!  All I know is the smoked honey tastes wonderful! It makes a great glaze for ham, a base for a BBQ sauce recipe and anywhere else you use...

As a child I loathed the taste of olives. It's funny how over time you develop new tastes! As an adult, I can't get enough of them. I prefer the large Queen green olive similar to a Spanish manzanetta olive. These olives are great to add to a little nibble plate that consists of deviled eggs, cheeses, crackers and pickled okra. On this week's "What's InSTORE Fridays" segment, I show you how to make a really tasty tapenade that would also make a great appetizer served with drinks. Tapenade is just a fancy word for an olive spread! The secret here is to use...