My three kids spend so much time with me in the kitchen. Daily, we chop, we mix, we bake, we stir, we do life together around our island and over food. At this point, they are trained professionals when it comes to helping mom out with food prep, but it hasn’t always been that way. […]
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Posted inAt Home
Zucchini
There is an urban legend that a New Jersey law makes it illegal to place zucchini in other people’s cars or leave it on a neighbor’s porch. The humor in this illustrates just how prolific this commonly grown vegetable plant can be, and how difficult it can be to dispose of excess produce. Recently, a […]
Posted inHome
Sounds of Silence
Stand on the deck and listen. It’s not exactly silent; there’s plenty to hear. There’s the chirp of birds and the rustle of the breeze in the trees. Crows bicker and an occasional heron squawks as it glides by. Underlying it all is the faint sound of waves from the beach far below. It is, […]
Posted inAt Home
Making Your Own (Simple) Household Cleaners from Scratch
Many of today’s cleaning products, from what we use to clean our homes to our bodies, contain dangerous chemicals. We shouldn’t have to worry about what we’re using to clean things as much as the items we’re cleaning. The pioneers didn’t have aisles of cleaning and personal care products to choose from. They used simple […]
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Midcentury Enamelware
As wanted as pigs in a sunflower field, as fleeting as floaters from a dandelion puff and as obsolete as the weekly milk delivery, midcentury enamelware kitchen items have more or less vanished from today’s scene — except for decorative candy tins that overwhelm thrift shop shelves and recycle bins. Decorative-metal stove-burner covers and TV […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
Protecting Your Harvest from Wildlife in Your Backyard
Gardening for wildlife is a satisfying focus for a gardener, knowing that your efforts benefit not only the human caretakers of a landscape, but provide habitat and nourishment for many creatures. What is better than seeing a hummingbird pushing upward on every fuchsia flower while you are hidden beneath a shrub, weeding? Or noticing that […]
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Outdoor Kitchens, from Simple to Sublime
Requests for outdoor kitchens are on the rise, from pretty basic to really crazy. While most outdoor kitchens are considered a luxury, there are ways to add them to your space in all budget ranges. First consider how you will use your outdoor space and what you really need. What type of cooking do you […]
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Tools That Almost Never Work
Organizing Culprit No. 1: The Filing Cabinet The No. 1 organizing fail is the one you’d least expect: the filing cabinet. That’s right. For anyone except the most organized people, filing cabinets are where papers go to die. This unorthodox view comes from years of working with client paperwork — the most important and useful […]
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Coming Home to Keyport
When the Butler family saw the house on the eastern shore of Dogfish Bay, they knew they had found their “forever home.” Set in a quiet Keyport neighborhood that drives like a trip down memory lane, the 2,700-square-foot home overlooks a peaceful waterfront setting of docks, tall trees and sunsets. It’s the kind of place […]