Tag: featured
Your garden, your story
When I go on vacation, I usually return home with fewer than a dozen photos. It’s not that I don’t like photos, it’s that in the moment, I’m too busy enjoying the experience to be bothered by snapping photos. If I’m standing barefoot in the wet, cold sand of Pfeiffer Beach in January and the […]
Gluten-free carrot pancakes
How do I know when spring has sprung? Some of my personal tell-tale signs include: not being OK with the unacceptable appearance of my feet, rushing to do basically everything outside even though it’s still too cold, feeling overwhelmed with all the gardening chores that need to be done and my desire to stop eating […]
Olive oil: the real deal
A great book can change your life or at least part of it. I recently read (and reviewed!) a book like that called Real Food, Fake Food by Larry Olmsed. It reminded me that great food can also be life-changing, especially when you know exactly what it is you’re eating and you are getting what you […]
Apple Dutch Baby
Tonight, the temperature here is going down to 7 degrees. Seven. For us here in eastern Pennsylvania, that’s unusually cold even in the dead of winter. Everyone’s face gets all scrunched up when they’re outside because it hurts. I don’t mind winter or the cold so much at all, as long as I have my […]
Book Review: Real Food Fake Food
I have often said my life would be easier if I wasn’t informed about food and if I didn’t care deeply about eating good, honest, sustainable and humanely raised food. There is nothing convenient about my quest for food. There is no one-stop shopping since I need to visit several places just to get everything I […]
Spiced Roasted Eggplant with Bulgur Salad
As in years’ past, the leaves on my garden eggplants look like Swiss cheese this October. Once again they are the unfortunate victims of flea beetles I simply didn’t take the time to battle. There was even a big fat tomato hornworm I didn’t have the heart to kill. It was huge by the time I […]
DIY Natural Skincare: Winners and Losers
If I could hold my head up high and proudly look you square in the eyes, you’d see that my skin is looking great. I’m slightly ashamed to tell you it’s not because of the plethora of DIY natural skincare concoctions I’ve been trying on my face. For more than a year starting with my […]
Tomato cucumber salad with quinoa and grilled sourdough
This is that magical time of year for food when all things come together to produce an embarrassment of riches, a “stupid first world problem.” In the Tomato Envy garden, there is so much fresh food it’s hard to know what to do with all of it. That’s when I turn to my trusty collection of […]
Summer Gazpacho
Someone reminded me the other day that although it’s September and photos of other peoples’ kids heading off to school with their new backpacks flood my Facebook feed, it’s still NOT fall. That doesn’t come until September 22nd this year, the autumnal equinox. So while I might be so over the heat and hard work […]
DIY Calendula Oil for Great Skin
How amazingly pretty are these little orange flowers? The sunny good looks of these edible calendula flowers belie their very serious benefits for dry, damaged skin. When you combine these benefits with those of a super nourishing oil, you tell your troubled skin, “I mean business.” Benefits of calendula for the skin Calendula, an annual flower sometimes […]
Hi! I’m Brande. I’m a proud homebody, reluctant career girl, and happy wife to a nearly flawless husband. I’m not afraid of spiders, getting dirty, ill-advised kitchen experiments, or lofty ideas. Welcome! I can’t wait to get to know you. 
Freezer Friendly
Gluten Free
Good For Singles
Sure To Impress
Vegetarian