Family & Home

The new year is beginning! How many of us are contemplating what we want to do differently in 2013? If you are the primary cook for your household, or one of the primary cooks, you may be looking for ways to cook more at home. I don’t know about you, but while I am the primary cook, cooking is not primarily what I do – I  have to fit in all my other roles (mother, wife, daughter, friend, worker, etc.) during the day, too. One tool that can make it easier to cook at home is knowing ahead of time what you are cooking. Planning out the meals for the week definitely helps me when 5:30 rolls around and the family starts milling around looking hungry.   

This is the eighth post in the series Great Grains, highlighting unusual whole grains and how to incorporate them into your diet. Check out recent posts on Whole Grain Thanksgiving, teff, and barley.

This is Part Three of a mega-epic undertaking to make a real Christmas pudding. Also check out Part One, in which the pud gets cooking and Part Two, in which the pud cures. 

I'm making a pact with myself to not feel gross this winter. Usually this time of year, I succumb to the temptation to eat too much and then keep that same pace with drinks, leaving me generally sluggish and grumpy by the end of January. This holiday season, I'm planning to be more moderate with everything: I'll eat less salt, avoid starches, and eat fewer snacks and desserts. Also: more vegetables with as much color in them as possible and no giant meals with animal protein at their center.

For me, there’s no better gift than a cookbook. A great cookbook is so much more than a collection of recipes; it can teach you lasting techniques, educate you on confusing sustainability issues, and give you a window into another way of life. These eight cookbooks are some of the best published this year, and would make a great present for any home cook (or budding home cook). For other gift ideas, check out this year’s SGT Local Gift Guide. (And make a cookbook a local present by supporting an independently-owned bookstore in your city.)

For the pork lover:

This is Part Two of a mega-epic undertaking to make a real Christmas pudding. Also check out Part One, in which the pud gets cooking and Part Three, in which the pud is lit on fire and devoured.

Oh it’s a looker, that Christmas pudding.

I hope you disabled the sarcasm detector on your computer before reading that last line, or else BAM! Where’s the needle? It broke clean off.

It's getting to be that time of year when we're encouraged to buy, buy, buy. But when you're thinking about gifts this year, why not shop local? We've got a round-up of local gift suggestions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota from our writers. There's something for everyone on your list, from hand-crafted goods like pottery and baskets to experiences like a night at a B&B to some real adventure in the form of python meat. And a couple of our writers/farmers -- Debbie at Sapsucker Farms and Elizabeth at Bossy Acres -- have products from their own farms available this holiday season. You can also check out last year's local gift guide for some perennial suggestions, and also some recipes if you want to do DIY gifts straight from your kitchen.

There is nothing that warms the soul around the holidays more than family traditions, especially if those family traditions involve grain alcohol and small explosions. My father’s side of the family is mostly Swedish and during the holiday season they had several traditions. They would always get together and make Swedish potato sausage, my grandmother would bake cookies, and, of course, there was always a little lutefisk. One of the traditions that intrigued me the most was Glug, this strange drink that only the adults could have. Whenever a bottle of Glug was brought out, it instantly became the center of the conversation. The recipe had apparently been passed down through the generations, and there were always stories about how it was made and rumors of relatives who had accidents while making it. Whenever Glug was brought out, everyone enjoyed it and was excited to have some, unlike the lutefisk.

This is Part One of a mega-epic undertaking to make a real Christmas pudding. Also check out Part Two, in which the pud is cured, and Part Three, in which the pud is lit on fire and devoured.

This is the second post in our Co-op on a Budget series, which explores the different ways that we can shop co-op effectively and affordably. Also check out the first post, on shopping bulk.

About three years ago our young family went through a financial crunch, which I’m sure most Americans shared. My employer was on a two-year wage freeze and hiring-freeze. Rumors of layoffs were the smaller waves of a larger fear that the company might fail altogether. As a relatively new employee, I was confident that layoffs would affect my position. My wife, pregnant with our second child, had recently quit her job to stay home with our 3-year-old daughter and the expected baby, so my income was solely driving our household, and, to be honest, we were scared shitless.