MissKatieMay's Profile

I can't say enough good about sparklestories.com - we know the man who writes & tells the stories and he's AMAZING. Not published books, but phenomenal stories from a great Waldorf trained teacher and born storyteller.

foog foog: shipping to Canada is hardly ever free because it's actually quite expensive for retailers. Because products are (generally) already imported, they have to pay a special duty to, essentially, export the product again. We usually suggest to people that, if at all possible, you ship to somewhere in the US and then ask that person to mail it to Canada - any given person can send things much less expensively. It's a bit of a hassle, certainly, and requires that you have a trusted and generous friend in the US but it will help avoid those high shipping costs.

Cool idea - that'd be an interesting thing to try in an office complex instead of doing water coolers or vending machines.

My favorite sparkling water use, though, was at my daughter's baptism - the water at the church was really sulphuric and the pastor didn't want my daughter to stink like a rotten egg, so Natalie was baptised with Poland Spring lemon sparkling water instead.

My husband absolutely insists that he once had red velvet cake that was colored with currants - I've never been able to find anything online to verify its existence, but maybe that's something else to try?

When I was a child, my father made a table nearly identical to this concept by getting a 2' by 3' piece of finished laminate countertop and screwing different length legs to the bottom - short ones for when we sat on the floor, longer ones when we sat in chairs. That thing took a lot of abuse and lasted my brother and me through high school - at the end, we took the legs off altogether and would rest it across the arms of a La-Z-Boy recliner to do our homework. I bet the whole thing would cost less than $40 if you found a piece of scrap countertop at a kitchen outlet.

I, too, use the magnetic spice containers but I just stuck them to the side of my fridge, in lieu of putting anything up on the wall or cabinet (we rent). If someone gets particularly vigorous with their fridge-closing, sometimes one or two falls off, but generally it works well and I can rearrange them as my cooking whims change.

My new favorite winter salad, featuring maple syrup, is from COOKING WITH SHELBURNE FARMS by Melissa Pasanen with Rick Gencarelli.

Chop up about half a hearty head of red cabbage. Thinly slice (or julienne, if you are feeling adventurous) 1-2 bosc pears. Toss in a cup of fresh cranberries that have been chopped, if you can still find 'em or dried will work fine if you can't. For the dressing, mix half a cup of plain yogurt, half a cup of maple syrup (preferably from Vermont!), a finely minced shallot, 2 T apple cider vinegar and 1.5 teaspoons of salt. Let it meld together for at least a half an hour and then try not to eat the whole bowl in one sitting.

The cabbage will color the dressing a very vibrant fuschia over time, but the pears manage to retain their color - just a note in case anyone's worried about the make-ahead factor.

I toted a copy around with me for years until I realized I never used it - I find their recipes just aren't as user-friendly as those I find in cookbooks like HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. So I gave my copy away, hopefully to someone who will use it more!

My mom was just talking about adding an island to their kitchen, and I suggested the semi-circle. They currently have an eat-in kitchen and would have to remove the kitchen table to accomodate the island, and I thought the semi-circle would make it feel more "table-y" than the standard straight countertop breakfast bar. Now I feel vindicated as a kitchen designer! :)

My parents have very high windows at the top of the hallway on the 2nd floor of their contemporary-style home. Years ago, my mother made insulated (they live in VT, so it gets cold in the winter!) roman blinds and had them installed. The cord is long and just hangs down the wall, secured by one of those figure-8 style cord keepers. It seems like the cord would be really noticeable (there's nothing else on this large expanse of wall) but it's not. I don't think they'd be that noticeable on this home, either, especially if you arranged them to line up with the dressings of the lower windows.