Well, I was going to write about making pumpkin pie today, but a few of my Facebook friends have asked that I share the recipe for Cowgirl Cornbread. (You can find pumpkin pie tips, and other easy pie recipes, on Rodale.com.) Lucia found the basis of this recipe...

I grew up with my mother's favorite stuffing, which is really "potato filling." I never really liked it, and much preferred my grandmother's Pepperidge Farm stuffing--even though she would put dried apricots in it. But I never liked either stuffing enough to bother getting the recipe. Then I met my...

Generally, there are three types of people: Those who won't eat cranberry sauce at all. Those who like it cooked and gelatinous. And those who prefer their sauce raw. I fall firmly into the raw camp. It is simply not a Thanksgiving meal without that tart, sweet, fresh, palate-cleansing, and...

As Barbara Kingsolver writes so charmingly in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, turkey farming is a brutal business -- unless you can find an organic, preferably small-farm, source. My mother raises turkeys every year on her farm, and the birds are surprisingly sociable, friendly, and enjoyable to watch. It almost makes me...

If you are not hosting everyone at your house, consider yourself lucky. You don't have to clean up the whole house, manage all the expectations, or think about whether or not everything can fit in your stove at the same time. I feel lucky this year because I am...

Actually, the season is almost over. That's why we have to enjoy every second left of apple season, and with it, apple cider both cold and hot. Here in Pennsylvania the leaves have already fallen, and the frost has killed off everything in the garden except for the kale, garlic,...

November is here, and the last farmer's market of the season in Emmaus is on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This week things are already winding down. The vendors are thinning out, and the crowds are filled with hard-core regulars rather than the summertime occasional shoppers.

In the few short years...

It occurs to me that I might have found the secret formula for getting kids to read. While the media and teachers complain that kids don't read anymore, I can't get my kids to stop. Even Lucia, who is too young to read, is a voracious reader. I jokingly yell...

Last night was a big night for me. I got to eat my first Shake Shack Burger, purportedly the best burger in Manhattan (if not the world?). It was pretty damn good. Normally I would never eat a burger if it weren't organic. But restaurateur Danny Meyer seems to know...

I am happy to report that my two youngest daughters and I have survived swine flu. There is great relief in that statement, because I think the worst part of the pandemic is wondering if you or your kids are going to be among the 1% who suffer serious,...

In Part 1, Pumkin came into our lives, only to vanish mysteriously.

In Part 2, the search for Pumkin seemed hopeless.

Part 3:

"Guess what we found?" Eve asked.

"Pumkin?" I asked, hopefully.

"Yes!" She said.

"Alive?" I asked with trepidation.

"Yes!" she said with joy. "I know...

In part 1, Pumkin came into our lives, only to vanish shortly before Halloween.

Part 2:

We searched all over for Pumkin. We drove around the mountain. We asked the neighbors if she'd been spotted. We went to the local animal shelter and looked for her. She had one...

When I was a little girl and sick in bed, I vividly remember my fuzzy gold blanket draped around my little legs. It transported me to the dunes of the Sahara. I would dream of adventures riding a camel across the desert. The sun coming in my window would make...

Well, so much for prevention. When you have a 12-year-old and a 3-year-old who provoke each other by trying to lick each other, there is no defense against a pandemic virus like H1N1. Eve came home from school with it last week. This week, her school has shut down for...

Well, actually, it turned out to be dinner for 25 (plus one kid with swine flu quarantined in her room with Ramen noodles).

The day of preparation went as planned--except that Wegmans did not have any decent organic grapes. I got the usual look, and a few comments,...

It's my mother's 81st birthday, and I've been elected to host a dinner for 23 family members at my house. Years ago, if presented with this goal, I would be totally freaking out by the day of the event. I would have been working on this night for weeks...

Wherever I go, I always try to find the farm-to-table restaurants -- in fact, my annual top 10 farm-to-table restaurant list is coming up in November! So I had to check out Founding Farmers in Washington this past weekend. The idea is appealing: a casual, family restaurant that's supplied...

This past weekend I took my family to the Green Expo in Washington DC. Green Expo is a series of consumer shows around the country on everything green, organic, and good for the planet. I went to humbly accept a check on behalf of the Rodale Institute for a program...

The other day I was in a four-hour meeting in New York City. Sometimes in New York, no matter where you are, you can smell food cooking from a restaurant or apartment somewhere. Well, all during that four-hour meeting I smelled chicken and gravy. It didn't stop me from paying...

In the magazine business, we are used to hearing about magazines launching and shutting down all the time. Still, when you hear of a magazine's demise, it deserves a moment of silence with the secret thought: "There but for the grace of God, go I." But when you hear about...