Maria's Farm Country Kitchen

July 31, 2009 • in Food & Recipes

Secret Revealed! The Quest for the Secret of Really Green Pesto, Part 2

The Results: Making pesto can be a slightly messy job. Making two separate batches of pesto is a very messy job—especially since I was trying to get them both out on the table at the same time. I was reminded …

The Quest for the Secret of Really Green Pesto, Part 1

The Challenge: A few months ago (well, in the winter, actually), I mentioned in my Organic Gardening magazine column that one of my goals this summer was to discover how to keep pesto really green. Really, really, green. Like the …

Top 10 Places I Want to Travel to Before I Die

For some crazy reason I don’t have a vacation planned for this August. One day I looked at my calendar, and there was no room left to get away—when you combine my schedule, my husband’s schedule, and all the kids’ …

Fuzz Is My New Buzz

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older (with the granny glasses to prove it), but I’m starting to tire of the whole “buzz”-chasing world. Now, it’s all about fuzz for me. What’s fuzz? It’s the happy feeling and comfort of a …

What Family Values? The Real Reason America is Falling Behind the Rest of the World

I stumbled across a frightening little list this morning. It’s a list of the only four countries in the world that don’t offer guaranteed paid maternity leave for mothers (based on a Harvard/McGill University study of 173 countries). You might …

Sex, Adventure, and Plant Hunting

It never really occurred to me to wonder how the Latin names for plants were decided, or why and how the British became obsessed with gardening, or even to wonder where the plants in my garden originated (other than the …

Top Ten “Micro Moments” of Happiness

As Rodale News reported yesterday, a new study shows that people are happier and more resilient when they enjoy micro moments of positive emotions in their lives—rather than waiting for the big-bang moments, such as winning the lottery or getting …