Today Alex and I celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. Eleven years!! It is hard to limit the list, but here are 11 things I love about being married to Alex: 1) He knows me and loves me for myself. 2) Better than just knowing, Alex indulges me with simple things, like the last bite of ice cream or serving me a nightcap. 3) Alex exudes such confidence that I am able to feel more confident [...]

I recently mentioned on twitter that having the first meat of the season hanging in the basement made me feel like our house was a home again. Someone (who are you? I can’t find the tweet now!) replied “It’s modern mistletoe!” That got me to thinking about how meat curing is a tasty metaphor for my nearly-eleven-year-long marriage to Alex. Curing meat takes time and attention from both parties in our house. We help each [...]

I ate spaghetti with steamed garden dragon tongue beans, olive oil, pepper, chili flakes, and Parmesean cheese for dinner. I miss Alex who is in California on business. He is the reason we eat things other than pasta.

I am surrounded by fantastic fathers. These inspiring, caring men enrich the lives of Lil and I: l to r – Mitch, my dad; Mike, my uncle; Tom, Alex’s dad, click to enlarge My dad, Mitch, is patient and funny. He encouraged his four girls to be strong curious women, enduring the resulting loud and confusing dinner conversations. I clearly picked up Dad’s love for the outdoors, good food and strong drink. Speaking of eats, [...]

Today’s guest post comes from the man of the homestead, Alex. This isn’t a sexist classification, it’s the truth: Alex lives with two female humans, two female dogs, and four female hens. He’s the only guy around to take on demanding issues like horse racing and distillery websites. Apparently there is a race-inside-the-race held prior to the running of the Kentucky Derby. It is called the “Turf Classic” and is on grass inside the main [...]

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 [...]

When I came home yesterday, Alex presented me with some fabulous buns. No, not those flat buns on my mud-footed, heron-tattooed, oyster-foraging husband. These sandwich buns! My baker-man was inspired to make buns at home instead of purchasing them at the grocery store as part of our Pantry Month challenge. He cooked these up with this recipe, adjusting flour types to what we had on hand. They were surely cheaper than store bought and well [...]