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Olivia’s Scrumptious Ginger Cookies | Printable Recipe

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I never considered myself to be a fan of the ginger spice. But somehow when my daughter Olivia (14 – the girl of the triplets) makes her ginger cookies . . . . I take one bite, and there’s a party in my mouth! I think it must be just the right amount of ginger, combined with the butter. Whatever it is, it can be hard to stop from having another.  And if no one is looking, another. We don’t have treats like these around the house often. But when we do, they are homemade, and it’s a treat indeed!  In fact, anytime Olivia bakes or cooks for us, which is frequently, it’s a treat!  As I type up this post, she is actually packing up to head out for a cooking competition for the weekend! She’s got some real skills, and you can taste them in these cookies. (Like everything else she whips up for us!)

We’re giving you Olivia’s Ginger Cookies recipe today. There’s a printable version at the end of this post. 
So, you can make some for yourself, and thank us later.
–

Olivia’s Ginger Cookies


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Let Us Eat Dessert!

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Do you have dessert very often in your family?
There is no time that I have been more reminded that our time as one family under this roof is dissipating fast than when the six of us have been gathered around our table, having a meal together. As a mother, I just don’t want to ever let these days go. So meals together have been something we have always done, and it has always been important to my husband and I, and I believe to our children too. Though the meals have felt rather usual in our day-to-day routines as a family for years, I knew they were memories in the making. Instant treasured memories….the day one or more of those seats were empty, because life moved on.
Well, life moved on this year, when [Read more…]

Hearty Homemade Corn Chowder – Recipe

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Every once in awhile, an urge comes along, and I have no idea where it came from. And really, it doesn’t usually matter from where!  I just know I want to roll with it. As of late, that urge was to make a big pot of hearty homemade Corn Chowder for my family! When I spoke these thoughts aloud, I got lots of encouragement to go ahead and do it, from everyone in the house. So, I got looking for a good recipe.

However, I never managed to find a recipe quite to my liking. I didn’t want to use heavy cream (for our heart health), I did want to use certain kind of potatoes, more or less of this or that, and a little of somethin’ else, etc.  So….in the end, I just comprised my own recipe. And since it was quite a satisfying success, I thought to share it with all of you!  (You can thank me after you have some for yourself. 😉 )

Corn Chowder Recipe Does it look delicious to you, or what?

I’m going to give you the general step-by-step first, with some photos, and then [Read more…]

A Kinder Kind of Egg.

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Let’s talk about EGGS.

Eggs are a staple food item, in most anyone’s kitchen. They are quite popular for breakfast: as scrambled, over-easy, hard-boiled, poached, or omelet style! They make incredible egg salads for lunch, and are called for in most baking recipes. And let’s not forget most every mother’s favorite backup plan; Breakfast for Dinner!

We all know that eggs are good for your overall health! But did you know that farm eggs are even better for you? It’s true. Farm fresh eggs are higher in omega-3, and higher in vitamins A, D, B-12, and E! And they are also lower in fat and cholesterol.

Our ‘girls’ will be ready to start laying eggs by the end of the year. But long before we were keeping chickens ourselves, we had to buy eggs. When needing to buy them from the store, we wanted to be sure the eggs we bought were the best available to us! And we found them to be Nellie’s Cage Free Eggs. Nellie’s Cage-Free Eggs are free from antibiotics and hormones, raised on small family farms, and are also Certified-Humane. In fact, Nellie’s were America’s first Certified Humane egg producer and the First “B-Corp Certified” farm.

They also offer Pete and Gerry’s Organic eggs, which are produced by Certified Humane cage free hens, also raised on small family farms, and they are fed exclusively organic grain, which is free of any pesticides or GMOs.

Another thing we love about Nellie’s is that they support little small flock farms, just like we do, and just as we are, now. We really love our chickens, as you all know! For those of you that care about animals and want to be able to trust that their eggs were raised without cruel factory farm conditions, you can count on Nellie’s for that, too.
So if you can’t manage to get local farm fresh eggs, and store bought are your only option, maybe you will want to consider Nellie’s Cage Free Eggs, too. They are truly a values-led company. That’s always a kind of company we want to support. Nellie’s is where both the chicken, and the egg, come first.

Hey! Want some extra spending money?

Oh YES, there’s a happy ending to this fun egg-quality chat! (I was going to say an egg-citing ending, but you would probably have seen that coming. Right? 😉 ) Anyway, we are giving away a $100 Visa Gift Card to one of you; our valued readers! Want a chance to win it?

Just tell us this in the comments below: Why it’s cool to be kind.      

Sweepstakes Rules:   SORRY, THIS SWEEPSTAKES HAS ENDED.

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You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

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 This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 11/10/14 – 12/31/14

 Be sure to visit the PGO & Nellies brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

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Simple & Savory Homemade Applesauce (Recipe)

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With the Fall season, comes apple season!  And we all know there are innumerable wonderful and delicious things, that can be made with apples!
They really are a fruit of so many gifts. But some recipes take a lot more ambition, than others!
If you just want to enjoy the simplicity and goodness of apples, while still having a great celebration happening in your mouth, than this applesauce recipe is for you!
Applesauce is also a versatile food, that can be used in so many different ways. We’ll talk about there here, too.

 

  • 4-6 pounds Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Cut Into 8 Slices
  • 1 cup Water
  • Juice Of 1 Lemon (or 6 shakes of Lemon Essential Oil)
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon or Cassia, More Or Less To Taste

(*Optional Ingredients: Nutmeg, Maple Syrup, Allspice, Butter)

It’s This Simple:

1. First, we always recommend you begin with washed, organic apples, if possible.
What kind of apples? That’s up to you! But varieties of the sweet and soft kind, are best when making applesauce. In this recipe, we used all McIntosh apples, and so can attest to the goodness of an applesauce made with that variety!  But other varieties you may want to consider, that we have heard are very good also, are Galas or Fujis.
For us, we’ll use whatever organic soft and sweet apples that we can find available at the store, Farmer’s Market, or orchard.

2. Wash, peel, and core your apples.  You’ll want to cut them into 8 pieces generally the same size, so if you have one of those round apple slicers, then this simple recipe, just got even simpler, for you.

3. Combine *all ingredients in a large pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes.

* NOTE: Let’s talk about all ingredients for a second, and what we use:

– We did not use any of the ‘optional ingredients’, but you are free to make it to your own taste!
– We used Cassia (fresh and fine ground), because we had that, and did not have cinnamon.
– Also, instead of squeezing a fresh lemon, I  just did about 6 bottle shakes of our Lemon Essential Oil!  (It may have been the secret ingredient, that made this recipe such a hit!)

On to the cooking…..

4. We just let it cook down, as we stir it now and then, and don’t try to break up the big pieces. We love it chunky! But if you prefer your applesauce pureed, you can do that in a food processor or blender once it’s done cooking, to your preferred texture or consistency, in suitable size batches for your appliance.

OHHH, the Many Uses for Applesauce!

Store in the fridge and serve alone as a breakfast side, or an afternoon snack!
Or, warm and ladle over your pork chops, or on the side with your ham, cold over ice cream, or a instead of syrup over pancakes or waffles. You can even use it as delectable surprise filling in your baked goods! Also, did you know that pureed applesauce can be used as a substitute for any baked good recipe that calls for vegetable oil? That’s a less fattening option, that’s much healthier for you.

 

It’s This Savory:
One first bite, and my husband, Michael, was love-ing-it!  He was like…”Honey, is there lemon in this?!”.  He loves lemon anything! He was clearly really enjoying it. I told him I used our lemon oil, instead of the fresh lemon, and he was so impressed! He also loved it chunky. Everyone does!
As my family stated, “This is way better than the boring applesauce from the store.”  I sure agree.

So there you have it! Fresh, homemade applesauce.
It couldn’t be simpler to make yourself. ENJOY!
——
**P.S.  If you’d like to get some lemon essential oil, or any other oils for yourself, you can email me and I’ll point you to where: TheRichardHome@aol.com .


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