Alex’s brother Ben married Kim this weekend. It was a happy handmade affair featuring: home-brewed beer by Alex, a home-sewn flower girl dress for Lil by Grandma Cindy (Thanks Mom!!), home-cooked food by Kim’s brother-in-law and a Taysetee cake by my sister Heather, origami flowers folded by the bride and groom for centerpieces and bouquets, and, the piece de resistance, one thousand gently folded paper cranes arranged as a background for the ceremony. Ben and [...]

I’m not back quite yet. April Fools! I convinced one more person to write for me this week, my husband Alex. Here’s a little bit from him about beer brewing. If you want more details or a tutorial, let me know in the comments. I’ve been brewing beer for over a decade now.  The justification at first was that I could save money by brewing my own tipple.  However, between the cost of the equipment [...]

March is coming in like a lamb this morning. Sun is streaming through the windows, I hear birds chirping, and I see the green tips of daffodils poking through the soil outside. Before the heady gardening month of April, we are challenging ourselves two ways in March. Liquor Cabinet Challenge I’m issuing our family (well, Alex and I) a new twist on a pantry challenge this March: drink only what is in the liquor cabinet [...]

My friend Jill (and her friend Maya) are writing Friday Five posts on their blog Itinerant Foodies. It’s a great idea for a quick post before the weekend and starting today I’m going to steal it! This week, I want to share five things that are aging in the house. Sometimes I feel like I have no space and this is why: tucked into every corner and counter are jars of foodstuffs fermenting, drying, and [...]

Not long ago, in an era of our country’s history rife with stifling regulations, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union convinced the US congress to pass the Eighteenth Amendment outlawing alcohol production and sale in 1919. Prohibition did little to stop drinking or the “societal ills”. A good many righteous individuals drank their way through the time period with such clever techniques as labeling liquor as medicine, opening speakeasies, and brewing up bathtub gin. And so [...]

Our cider press has seen lots of action since we acquired it a month ago. Here is what it produced so far: October 26 – 1 liter pear cider November 6 – 1.5 gallons winesap cider, 1 gallon gold rush cider + lots of tastes consumed at our Cider Pressing Party November 21 – 5.75 gallons winesap cider, 1/2 gallon pomegranate cider We still have seven bags of winesap apples, some gold rush apples if [...]

Central Ohio is home to many fantastic restaurants.  Those of us who live here know it is as difficult to choose a spot for a date night from the many great options as it is to name a favorite child.  Well, except for those of us who only have one child…I guess that isn’t a great simile… Outside of our happy heartland,  Columbus restaurants get little love.  It took six months of badgering after the [...]