For a change of pace, we offer four Homemade Cleaning Products Recipes from former Americorps interns Emily Orth and Lisa Broulette that offer ways to upgrade our household cleaning routine to create a healthier, safer home and help the earth.

“Kale Slaw” was one dish served after a recent “pasture walk” at Anathoth Community Catholic Worker Farm
 in Polk County near Luck, WI.  In late July, over 60 farmers, ag experts and friends toured veggie and pollinator gardens and grazing pastures of beef cattle, hogs and chickens.  It was fun to learn and share as we walked.

My daughter planted bountiful and beautiful peppers in her first garden this year.  The purple varieties are gorgeous!  She and her husband treated us to this recipe for "Stuffed Purple Peppers" and have already frozen green peppers and canned hot sauce of varying heat levels.  She’s caught the garden and kitchen bug!  

It’s zucchini season!  Have you ever seen your neighbor coming by with an armful of green torpedo – shaped produce?  Don’t run and hide!  Here are two versatile zucchini recipes, one easy and one worth the details:  Cheesy Zucchini Towers and Zucchini Lasagna.

After a short trip, we came home to a monster zucchini (to be used in waffles) and several small ones in the garden.  We used them in “Pasta with Zucchini from Navaro” (a small town on the Italian Amalfi coast).  It’s yummy and a favorite of actor Stanley Tucci, who admits his life revolves around food!

"All the Veggies" Bolognese Sauce" fills the kitchen with tantalizing smells AND helps clear the fridge of random produce.  Leftover food of all kids often can be on the verge of going in the trash.  We can all do a little to get to Zero food waste! This post includes resources and recipes to reduce household food waste AND climate change!  

Who wants to heat up the stove on a hot summer day?  This vegetable-dense Asian Chicken Salad has a tangy Cambodian sauce, shredded chicken and colorful veggies to please in the heat of summer.  What are your go-to minimal cooking summer meals?

This recipe for "Brunch Berry Pizza" is a cool and beautiful red, white, and blue dessert for guests that suits any special holiday or gathering.  Berries are a nutrient dense summer treat and affordable, especially if you know someone with some bushes!

These Rhubarb Crisp and Sauce Recipes are worth repeating this season when both rhubarb and strawberries are plentiful.  Strawberries tell a story of sharing, according to Native American Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer.  See the post for links to the wisdom of strawberries.

This recipe for “’Massaged’ Kale Salad with Lemon Dressing” is full of nutrients, packed with flavor and may make you into a kale lover. Even kids liked it!  It can be made ahead as the hardy leaves keep well, even with dressing.  Rubbing washed kale with a bit of salt and oil or fresh lemon juice tenderizes the greens.

On a hot summer day, who doesn’t enjoy a cool drink?  This festive recipe for Italian Sangria is fruity, refreshing and can be made with or without alcohol.  Sangria comes from the Spanish word sangre meaning blood, an element of life itself.  

In our after school cooking class in spring 2022, Tamra Dickinson and I shared these recipes with students at Hillside Elementary in La Crosse.  It was fun to watch them wash greens and spin them dry in make-shift kitchen towel salad spinners.  Mason jars of dressing ingredients were shaken with every muscle they had and we all enjoyed a spring kale salad!