Served up at basement card parties and corner bars for the last 100+ years, the Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet is a Wisconsin classic with an intersting history. It's still the drink of choice of deer hunters and ice fishermen, before and after Packer games, and at supper clubs serving up another Wisconsin classic - the Friday night fish fry.

Growing up, my Polish/German parents and grandparents always had a 1.75L  bottle of Korbel brandy on hand. Family gatherings, holidays and celebrations like weddings, anniversary parties and multi-generational reunions always included the matriarchs mixing up big batches of the Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet which they'd fondly refer to as "making soup" when us kids would ask what they were doing? No fancy muddling tool required, a tube of lipstick or a Bic lighter sufficed back in the day.

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This right here is the perfect Fall dessert! It's a delicious and simple cake that comes from my favorite cookbook author, The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Her recipes never flop or dissappoint. This cake erved warm with vanilla ice cream, it's to die for. But is's also pretty spectacular served at room temperature a dollup of real whip cream.

Cranberry & Apple Cake

12 oz. fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest (2 oranges)
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ cup sour cream
1 cup...

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In nursing school, I was taught that the number one way to prevent the spread of disease is frequent hand-washing. Although you may think you are washing your hands correctly, be sure you are following the guidelines, below. Soap is important, but what's actually most important is the action, the vigorous rubbing of all surfaces of your hands for at least 20 seconds to mechanically remove germs.

This infographic shows how the World Health Organization recommends handwashing be carried out:

If you're a liquid hand soap user, and want an all-natural soap, below is a DIY recipe that's inexpensive, easy, and a great alternative to the commercial gunk that you buy at the store. 

Amazon sells the foaming dispensers and Dr. Bronner's, and Avery sells labels with free templates that you can down load, customize, and print right...

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This year has been the best year I can remember in a very long time for tomatoes, and I have a bumper crop! I did water-bath can some of them as sauce last month, but honestly, it's an ordeal. So here's a super easy method for freezing diced tomatoes so that you have them all winter long to be used in soups, chili, stews, and sauces, any recipe that calls for a can of diced tomatoes. Roasting them first adds so much flavor!

Let's Freeze 'Em!

Preheat oven to 390 degrees.

No need to blanch and peel the tomaotes, they taste fine with skins on. This cuts your work into a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. Chop the tomatoes into 16th (that's in half, then half the halves and half again - got that?) You can add fresh basil if...

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Dinnertime often sneaks up on me. Suddenly it's 6:00 pm and I'm starving. But when I'm tired from working all day, cooking feels like a big deal that I don't care to tackle.

Up until a few years ago, that mindset is how I'd end up eating junk-laden foods like frozen pizza, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Chinese carry-out and my dirty little secret addiction: a drive-thru Big Mac and fries wolfed down in the car on the ride back home. And now the empty nest dragon is trying to hurl me back into these old habits.

The key to breaking that bad habit has been to come up with meals that I can prep, cook, and have on my table in under 30 minutes. By "on the table" I mean, eat standing up at my kitchen island, another empty nest gut-punch because sitting alone at...

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I'm Day 18 "Empty Nest" and here to report that although I am better, I am not great.

First, let me tell you that my son has adjusted to college life even better than I had ever imagined, I've never seen him happier. And I am so very grateful. I raised him to be an independent thinker, not afraid to take risks, kind, brave, optimistic, and with an understanding that the whole wide world is his for the taking if he is willing to do the work. But shit, it's hard to watch that play out now.

Yes, I am proud of him, happy he is only an hour away, glad that he got into a good school, and blah, blah, blah. But I like him a lot and I miss him a lot. It's really that simple.

There have been so many things these past two-plus weeks that I've...

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For all the Mama's who dropped their baby off at a college campus this month, this poem by Gretchen Schmelzer is for you. May it comfort you.

The Universe deposited this message in my in-box yesterday, the same day that I delivered my son to his college dorm to live with a roommate he's never met.

When I finally sat down last night after a very long and difficult day to catch up on email, in the deafening quiet of my house without Johnny, there it was, this poem, a lifeline.

Leaving my baby boy in Madison yesterday was the hardest thing I have ever done as a parent. I had been preparing us for this day for months, years really, but I now know that nothing was ever going to prepare me for that moment when I hugged and kissed him, said goodbye, and...

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Homemade pasta sauce, made from homegrown tomatoes, is far superior to anything you're going to buy in a grocery store. If you don't grow tomatoes, head to the Farmers Market this week and buy them because tomatoes are in season and at their peak in August. I use a combination of any and all of the tomatoes I've grown, paying no attention to what the experts say are the "best" for sauce (ie: Romas). They're all good!

I found this recipe years ago online, I wish I could remember the source, but I can't. It's got a kick, so if you do not like a bit of heat, omit the red pepper flakes. And if you like a lot of heat, add more. Yes, this recipe is a lot of work but if you love fresh...

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Just like my grandmother and my mother before me, I've been "putting up pickles" for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I've tried a lot of different recipes and spices but I always come back to this recipe, our family recipe. It's a traditional dill pickle recipe that is not too tart, or too salty, or bland.

Head to the farmers market now, this week! "Pickles", which are cucumbers that are not fully grown, are in season but won't be much longer. Look for cucumbers that are ideally no more than 3 inches long and were freshly picked that day or the day before. 12 pounds of cukes will yeild 10 quarts of dill pickles. The cukes should feel firm and crisp, not limp or rubbery, which indicates they were picked several days ago. As soon as you...

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Calling all hippies, young and old! My son, Johnny, is designing, making and selling Limited Edition Tie-Dye shirts on my website.

    

The shirts are $16 each and 100% of the money from the sale of these shirts is going into his college fund. Johnny will be a freshman at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in September, majoring in Biochemistry.

Visit my website and if you love a shirt, grab it! Johnny is adding new shirts weekly, so check back often. If there is a specific color, pattern, or size you'd like, shoot us a message and Johnny can...

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