Get started now on your holiday baking. A few tips for freezing cookies, baking with your kids, figuring out what to make first and having fun while you do it. Get the Christmas music ready, it’s time to bake! Tomorrow it will be December. (If you just recoiled at that thought, I’m with you.) That means just 25 days until Christmas. To me, that’s 25 days to get a whole load of baking done and accomplished and crossed off my list. It also means the start of the busy holiday season,... more

A look at this month’s Eat Well, Spend Less series on Thanksgiving food and entertaining.Keep the focus on family and being thankful this week. Holiday meals and entertaining can be expensive, and when you’re supposed to be giving thanks for all that you have, the last thing you should be worrying and fretting over is the cost of sharing a meal with your loved ones. Here are a few helpful tips to consider in the next few days to keep the food on your table wholesome, amazing and budget-friendly... more

Enter to win a Babycakes Cupcake Maker and cookbook that makes more than just cupcakes. It can make your entire meal in minutes. My kids are generally pretty excited in the kitchen, especially that pink-apron-wearing one up there. If I so much as walk towards the kitchen she is asking if we can make something. The mere mention of a mixing bowl has her pulling out aprons left and right. The kids’ enthusiasm in the kitchen makes me smile, and while sometimes I am less then thrilled about having... more

This month in the Eat Well, Spend Less series we’re taking a look at the holiday season and keeping the budget under control. Here you’ll find advice for stocking your dessert table. Have you ever noticed that desserts are often expensive? Let’s take cheesecake, for instance, all of those eggs and packages of cream cheese add up fast. Then try making cheesecake for a large group, like you would for a holiday celebration, and it’s easy to see how the cost can get out of hand. However,... more

Prosciutto and Gruyère stuffed and grilled into the center of the cheeseburger, creating an oozing center of delicious to your Juicy Lucy tailgate eats. Try this along with a side of Bush’s Boston Recipe Baked Beans for a complete tailgating meal. Tailgating in the summer is easy. It’s often done in t-shirts and flip-flops, and the variety of food available is vast. Nothing more than a few hot dogs or a thin cheeseburgers are required for a main course and they can be casually ingested on a... more

Pie dough for one 9″ crust 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, beaten, optional (for the crust) 5 cups peeled and thinly sliced just-ripe pears (4-5 medium) 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 large vanilla bean, scraped 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup buttermilk 2 tablespoons butter, melted Preheat oven to 425° F. Roll out pie crust and fit into a 9″ pie plate. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes. Brush the edges of the crust lightly with the beaten egg. Arrange... more

A creamy vanilla and buttermilk custard envelopes a pile of perfectly plump pears, all baked off in an all-butter pie crust. Yesterday my husband and I packed up our car. Not the family car that fits all the kids securely in their car seats, us in the front, but the small commuter vehicle he drives to work every day. We roused Kjell from his bed before the other children were moving in their rooms and drove across the state to visit the Mayo Clinic. As we made our way between the oil refinery, the... more