Homesteading | Self Sufficient Living | Living off the Land
November 4, 2026
This Saturday I found myself standing in several inches of liquid beef tallow. The fryer had overflowed at the Soda Fountain. There were five order tickets on the pass waiting to be filled. And there I was, wielding a squeegee, attempting to guide the wave of oil into a more appropriate location, whilst trying not to break my neck on the slippery floor and keeping the kitchen limping along. Needless to say, this was not on my …
October 21, 2026
You know your soil is bad when even the weeds don't want to grow in it. Welcome to my new front yard. If I was going for Dust Bowl vibes, I'd be nailing it. It's dusty. It's sandy. It's barren. And when the wind blows (which it always does), half the dirt ends up inside my house. But I've got a plan, and it involves a mountain of cardboard and wood chips. I've gardened for nearly two decades, and while I've been aware …
October 6, 2026
Today, after two years of writing, testing, revising, photographing, editing, second-guessing, and wondering if this thing in my brain would ever be “real”… …the Old-Fashioned on Purpose Cookbook is officially out in the world. And in very on-brand fashion, I’m not on a glamorous book tour today. Rather, I’m doctoring a horse, running to grab wood so I can finish my bedroom makeover, ordering a (literal) dump-truck load of …
October 5, 2026
I changed my mind about homestead and it changed how I wrote cookbook #2. When I wrote The Prairie Homestead Cookbook in 2017–2018, I was in a very different season of life. Same core person, yes. But a different kitchen. Different rhythms. Different ages of kids. And a different version of homesteading. Needless to say, I’ve changed a lot since then, even beyond the few more wrinkles and grey hairs… But I think that’s …
October 3, 2026
Why falling-apart cookbooks make me happiest. When my first cookbook came out, I wrote in the introduction that I wanted people to ruin it. I wished for flour in their bindings. Dog-eared pages splattered with gravy. Scribbles in the margins. Bent corners. A cracked spine from being opened to the same recipe 75 times. My biggest fear was writing a beautiful cookbook that lived untouched on a shelf. Thankfully, my fear never …
October 1, 2026
You Don't Need Another Cookbook (You Need a Better Way to Cook From Scratch) You probably don’t need another cookbook. There. I said it. Most of us already have plenty. Whenever I’m thrift shopping (which is a LOT these days) I’m struck by the sheer volume of cookbooks for sale. Sometimes entire boxes of them. Often barely used.(And always a copious number of those Taste of Home compilation volumes. Remember those??) It's not …
