winter

  • Winter is coming

    But really, it’s here. Last weekend Josh and I hosted two separate gatherings of friends to play the Game of Thrones board game. This is a complicated, multiplayer game where folks play as the houses (House Stark, for example) from… Continue reading

  • Colonial Craft: Pomanders

    Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you’re settling into 2014. I spent Christmas with my family in Ohio, listening to my dad’s beloved Ray Conniff Singers and cooking up a storm. We spent… Continue reading

  • Maple sugaring (II)

    Last week I wrote about my family’s maple sugaring tradition. Today I’ll add an amendment: while we love most of the maple sugaring process (tapping trees, collecting sap, boiling it down in the evaporator), we have a hard time with… Continue reading

  • Maple sugaring

    In our family, February and March are the maple syrup months. Temperatures dip to freezing at night and warm up during the day, so the sap runs easily from the trees. Evenings are spent out in the sugar shed, boiling… Continue reading

  • Staying warm

    I flew back home to Ohio on Saturday night, and after staying up far too late talking with my parents, we discovered that the house had its own welcome-home present to offer: a broken furnace. Plus, Northeast Ohio was going… Continue reading

  • Scarlet fever and other Little House stories

    We’re battening down the hatches here in Rhode Island: there’s a blizzard on the way! Josh and I both have a snow day (it never gets old), and we’re planning on waiting out the storm with movies, books, and cinnamon… Continue reading

  • Planning the garden

    Today I taught my first session with a new group of students: little guys (to me, anyway), 4th – 6th graders. We talked about reading and books and the program we’ll be starting tomorrow. The kids were fun, energetic, and… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to serve plum pudding

    We had a relatively quiet Christmas here in Ohio, seeing family and telling funny stories and going for long, snowy walks and eating good food. As per tradition, we served plum pudding for dessert on Christmas night, along with a… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to steam plum pudding

    On Saturday we talked about how to make your own plum pudding, the most classic of British holiday desserts. (Yes, I am still wondering where the plums are in the recipe.) Today we’ll discuss the cooking process, which is a… Continue reading

  • Dining at Downton: How to make plum pudding

    This time of year, my family is all about tradition. Previously I wrote about the Brunswick stew we’ve kept from my mom’s side of the family, though I tested out a Williamsburg variation of the recipe. That’s still on the… Continue reading