Fix-It and Forget-It

This recipe is for everyone who wants to use a slow cooker, but doesn’t want to produce enough food for a small army. One of the reasons we love slow cookers is that we can cook up large quantities of food for our families. But what if you’re cooking for one or two, and you don’t want to eat leftovers for a week? Continue Reading...

Need a quick, easy, and light slow-cooker meal for a busy evening? Cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a taco-flavored sauce, and serve the results wrapped in tortillas with the condiments of your choice. Delicious! Continue Reading...

Do you ever have days when a simple question like, “What’s for dinner?” throws you into a tailspin? Continue Reading...

This recipe can be personalized in a million ways. Use ground turkey or chicken instead of the beef. Leave out the green pepper and double the corn. Substitute cooked macaroni for the noodles. Throw in some canned beans. Continue Reading...

written by Tina, Assistant Manager at The Good Cooking Store

Tina bakes bread as recreation because she’s good at it and because she loves to eat it. Her cake-baking and cake-decorating hobby has turned into baking wedding cakes for her many friends that astound them and their guests. Here we get a tiny view into her early love of food. –Phyllis Pellman Good

I grew up in northwest Ohio. Many of our family vacations included a trip 5 hours north to visit my mom’s parents in Michigan. One of my fondest memories of these childhood trips was not the drive itself, although I do believe that this is where I got my love of road trips, but rather what awaited us at Grandma’s house: Hamburger Vegetable Soup.

We would walk in the door of Grandma’s house to her warm welcome. Not that she was always physically present…often we had to hunt for her out in the garden or down the road at my uncle’s farm. But the smell of warm soup on the stove always greeted us, no matter where Grandma might be.

She had a knack for making this soup, probably because she made it so many times for so many traveling children and grandchildren as a homecoming soup. Her blend of vegetables varied depending on what was in her freezer or ripe in her garden, but the staples were always the same: hamburger, carrots, celery, peas, and often potatoes. And when we tasted it, we knew we were with Grandma.
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1. You’re sad because your child is starting school (that sweet little vulnerable person who has also exasperated you plenty) and you need some emotional back-up.

2. You’re gleeful (but it wouldn’t seem right to say it out loud) that the summer is almost over and life is about to become quieter and more routine. (Can’t the sound of a school bus be really great?!) Time for a little celebrating.

3. You haven’t seen your neighbors very much this summer with everyone’s comings and goings.

4. You haven’t seen your sisters or brothers much lately either.

5. There’s a great Labor-Day concert in the park. Invite your good friends to join you for a potluck picnic before the music.
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I come from a little brood of 2 kids. Merle comes from a major tribe of 7 kids, all boys, by the way. I can only imagine. . . well, no, I really can’t.

The photo above is from the early years on the farm when the 7 brothers lined up to sing, which they always like to do. Merle is second from left.

Anyway, both kinds of families have their own particular advantages, and how lucky am I to have a toe in each!

A good many years ago, when Merle’s folks were still living on their farm but were starting to slow down a little, somebody in the family got a Christmas gift idea for them. Instead of giving them stuff when they were clearly starting to slim down their household, we decided to do fix-up projects around the homestead. Things they weren’t getting done or needed to hire people to do: painting, cleaning out the shop, fixing spouting, repairing mortar in the little stone smokehouse. . . those kinds of projects. Here we are in those early years painting the corn barn.
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