I am a huge fan of cast iron cookware. My parents gave me a set of fry pans and my grandmother’s cornstalk pan when I got married. Recently, I found a dutch oven at Williams Sonoma on a huge discount sale and snatched it up as well.

My favorite dessert……….of course you know what it is. APPLE PIE!!!

Dark chocolate covered cherries…yumm!!

Bananas foster over vanilla ice-cream, apple pie, fruit crisps, cherries jubilee, AND dark chocolate anything! HA! Blessings for a very MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My favorite dessert is chocolate cheesecake. But lately, I have been making your “Cherry Cordials” with such rave reviews that I’m making three batches a week! Sending people out of church moaning in delight, or quilting, or meetings…same response. Thank you so much! I wish I could eat them all myself but it’s Christmas and fun to create a memory that will become a tradition every year.

Brownies, chocolate chip cookies…basically anything including chocolate!

Anything with chocolate! brownies are always yummy!

My all time favorite dessert is a brownie trifle… layers of brownies, thick chocolate pudding, cool whip and heath bar crumbles repeated twice more making a triple layer of yumminess. Sadly I found out I am allergic to dairy, and I haven’t found a way to make it dairy free yet… but I will!

My most loved dessert is Apple Pie!

Magic cookies!

Cheesecake! The velvety, dense kind that is baked and made from scratch…perfect just plain, or a splurge with any kind of topping😋

Gingerbread and/or gingerbread cookies.

Ice Cream ! mmm! 🙂

I also have a hard time deciding on just one favorite dessert. I guess a homemade chocolate cake is close to the top of the list.

Hungarian crepes with apricot preserves and cheese with powdered sugar!!

My all time favorite dessert is PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE!!!! Eaten slowly this rich fulfilling desert makes me feel so ‘loved’ inside! lol!

A Heart-Shaped Cherry Chip Birthday Cake that my mom would always bake for my Birthday on February 13th! <3

The Monuments Men

Currently reading “The Magic”

Currently reading “Jane Eyre”

True Blend

I’m in my city’s book club and we are reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
These books look awesome! I have a grandbaby just 18 months and her ma, my daughter is a middle school teacher!

In The Company of Others by Jan Karon

The Broken Way

I’m reading The Virgin’s Lover, Phillipa Gregory

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp

Little House on the Praire (series)

The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore

Mistress Marshams Repose by T H White, The Notorius RBG, Ink and Bone, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
I always have several books going at a time. I also have Rogue Lawyer in my car.

Just finished “Seasons of Grace” trilogy by Beverly Lewis.

Discovering Swallows and Amazons—–An autobiography of Arthur Ransome

I am reading The Next Level, a parable of finding your place in life, by David Gregory.

Currently reading “Rangers Apprentice”!

I’m currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Always an adventure in the Scottish Highlands! haha!

I’m reading the Harry Potter series with my 4th grader. I’m still on the third book while he is already half way through the fourth.

Currently, as in just read, was Mustache Baby. A. Dor. Able! A must have for every mustache laden home… or even every naked-lip home!

The Whole Towns Talking by Fannie Flagg

Red Knife by William Kent Krueger

The Christmas Sweater

for women only, by Shaunti Feldhahn

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

We keep water saving shower heads on both of our bathrooms so that water waste is cut back while showering. Also,in our yard, we planted St. Augustine grass that is heat and dry tolerant for this part of Florida eliminating the need to water much when drought periods happen.

Having grown up on a farm where we had to haul our water we learned all kinds of ways to conserve water. My dad was very strict about our usage and practices that have stuck with me all my life. There are many things I do but one thing I do is when I’m running water to wash dishes I fill the tea kettle with water while waiting for the hot water to come in to the sink.
CJ

I have been using all of my bath water full of epson salt Soda and essential oil to water house plants and garden .My husband just scratches his head,my plants and garden are beautiful and happy.the dog gets bathed in their to.I also run water to my big Berkeley water filter till it gets hot before I start the dishwasher,I could go on and on with my conserving water .i always think before I waste.

We have a HE washer that cuts bank on a lot of water usage! I know there are many more ways to conserve water that I need to practice more.

We spend a lot of the Spring and Summer camping.
I become so use to “Cowgirl shower” I take them at home also.
Saves water and energy.

We use a wringer washer 3 loads with the same water 🙂 ((whites~lights & darks)) also conserve dish water and bath 😉
Have a Merry Christmas !!

Let’s see…low flow showerhead, HE washer, mulch garden beds & rain barrel.

When water melts in our cooler, I use the water to water our indoor plants.

We carry water in the car to refill our water bottles. Water savers on our toilets and shower heads. Cat water to water plants, cooking water for outdoor plants, use the fountain water when I change it out for plants.

We catch rainwater from our metal roof to use around the farmstead (gardens, animals, washing, etc). Before we had running water that was our only source.

I have a raised bed garden with drip irrigation, purchased HE washer, only run dishwasher when it’s full, wash only large loads of clothes, and turn the water off when brushing our teeth.
These items would be so great to win, my job is as an itinerant braillist so I travel from school to school in our rural area to assist students. A good quality water vessel like Revomax would be essential to my day.

I use all leftover water that is sitting around the house (my cups, pet bowls, etc) to water my plants. Also use water filling station at work to cut down on the bottled waters they offer.

I nag, and don’t feel a bit guilty about it!

I have a HE washer and I am heavy on the mulch and have tried to pick the flowers and bushes that don’t require much water. If there has been quite a bit of rain I have used the water the sump pump kicks out to rinse my car off after I have washed it.

We use low flow shower heads, don’t let the water run unnecessarily and any water that is left behind in buckets from rain or melted snow we use to water the outside plants.

We have 3 cisterns for collecting rain water with which we later water our potted plants and garden areas. In addition, we leave our irrigation off as much as possible in the winter, and during the rest of the year if we are so lucky to have rain (in CA!!!).

Our source of water is collecting rainwater into our cistern, so I always have to conserve water. After I got married I first washed our clothes with a wringer washer. Then I got a water saver washing machine where the wash water went to a tub. You reuse the water in the tub for the next load. Now that the kids are grown and moved out I love my Bosch front loader washing machine. In 35 years we have not had to haul in water. We have come close, but it seems to rain just when we needed.

When I am waiting for the kitchen faucet to run hot water for dishes, I hold a half-gallon container under the spewing water until it gets to the hot temperature I am looking for. Then I set that water out and use it to water the houseplants (I have over a dozen.) and/or the outdoor plants.

– save a ‘container’ of water each time the toilet is flushed by keeping a jar or other container inside your toilet tank – the tank will fill and flush, but each time the jar in the tank conserves water. It adds up to be a lot considering how often toilets get flushed!

I love reading all the comments below! It may not seem like much but I no longer use the jets on our tub because it requires so much more water to fill it up past the jets.

I conserve water by washing full loads of cloths and dishes. I turn the water off while brushing my teeth and many more. I also found some new ways reading the comments!

There are low flow “gadgets” on bathroom and kitchen sinks. Also use rain water in summer to water flower bed.

We purchase HE appliances to reduce amounts used. We also set timers when using water outdoors for garden and stock tanks so we don’t forget and leave them on, wasting water.

In the summer time after my daughter swims in her kiddie pool we fill up our water jugs for the plants.

I collect rainwater, water plants with the cat’s old water and use refillable water bottles, both gallon jugs and personal size.

My grandgirl, Karysse, has always, from the time she was a baby, loved cows…

My daughter and her husband, newly married in April, are looking for a house with lots of land so that they can have farm animals. As a child, she helped her dad with the dairy farm we co-owned. She fell in love with the cows and also the bull we had. She even named him (Devon)! They are also looking to have a few sheep so that, in her words, “we can raise them, shear them, make yarn, and knit something for someone,” lol. I would love to give this book to them to get them headed in the right direction 🙂

I would give it to my good friend who lives in the country and already does much to show she has the soul of a farm girl. She bakes her own bread. She teaches Tai chai and mindfulness parenting. She sews, cooks and puts in a garden. I can see her having a milk cow.

My, uh, sister. She’s uh ,my twin. She lives at my same address. We have, uh, very similar names at first glance. It’s, uh, just wild what we have in common.

(joking…I’d keep it. It’s the only one of the books I don’t have).

My sister… She has owned goats before without using their milk, and would love to own a cow.

My Mom who is 92 yrs old grew up on a dairy farm and always had a cow as I was growing up. We always had milk, butter and cream. It was a good life for her and I.

We make ricotta, cream fraiche, and yogurt weekly and love cows milk. I can remember buying a gallon from a neighbor each week and carefully separating the cream from the milk so we would have the thick, yellow clotted cream to have on strawberries from our garden. Yum. Miss it now as many home cowherds (this is a person who tends cows) can no longer sell raw milk off their farms in the county where I live. We still use a lot of milk and tonight it is in our mashed potatoes for dinner, with a dollop of cream, for sure

I would gift it to a coworker who recently moved to a rural area with a dream of farming and the recipes would be fun for us to do together , we love to get together and cook

I would just love to win your book and get lost in it!

I really can’t have a cow, but would love to have your book to add to my collection. It is on my Christmas list. We had cows growing up, and I remember those days fondly.

My daughter.. She’s a farm girl and has had milk goats, chickens, and cows, but, not a milk cow. It’s time. Haha

My farmgirl dreams of a jersey and a guernsey to start a small artisan cheese business.

We had a milk cow when I was in my teens and I loved it! I live in town now but would love to read this book. I also have a friend that we “farm-sit” for once in awhile which gives me the treat to get to milk again. I would “share” this book with her. =)

Well…If I win I would probably keep the book for myself! I’ve already named my future milk cow, Paisley 🙂 I can’t wait to start making my own cheese and dairy products.

I will admit that I would like it for myself. We, my parents and I, live on a farm together. We raise our own chickens and turkeys. We have also raised pigs and cows for meat. My mother milked a cow when I was a little girl. We have a feed store and sell raw milk from a licensed farmer. As much milk as my dad drinks he thinks we should get a milk cow.

I am that dreamy farmgirl.

I would gift the book to my dearest friend, Deb….she has chickens, and would love a milk cow too!

The farm girl I would give it to longs for a simpler time and place of her childhood. Growing up on a dairy farm where meals were served up with freshly churned butter and rich cream adorned hot
breakfast cereals. Homemade ice cream was one of the best things about summer😊.

This would be for me. I lived on a farm as a young girl and have memories of many of the things my mom and dad did – had chickens (fresh eggs), pigs, cows for milking, etc. I was very young when they split up, but I carry the memories with me and practice my country style living the best I can in the city. I love your magazine. Thanks!

I would love this book, as I just purchased a milk cow this past spring, but my friend Chandra would also love it as she makes cheese!

I would give the book to my daughter Anna. She will be 19 in March and she loves farm life and animals. We have a small farm with 2 cows and 2 calves, 2 goats that she showed for FFA and the buyer gave them back to her. Of course she wouldn’t resale them! She wants chickens now and wants a dairy goat and milk cow in the future. She also has 1 horse (Sugar) and a miniature mule (Otis) who is blind in one eye. We subscribe to your magazine and love it. We also have purchased your Glamping book.
So yes a vintage camper is on my daughter’s want list also. She has a 1967 Chevy pick-up (her 16th birthday present) that she would pull camper with.
Thanks for opportunity to win the Milk Cow Kitchen Book!!!

I would most certainly have to gift this to my mother.

The farmgirl I would give this book to is my youngest daughter. As the mother of 4, she inspires me everyday, managing a farm with her Farrier husband and homeschooling her children(ages 2 – 7). They own a miniature Jersey cow, that she milks every morning. She makes yogurt, cheese, butter, and ice cream. It’s such fun to watch them living their dream.

As much as I would love the book for myself (selfish much?), one of my besties recently added a milk cow to her farm family… she could really use the book. As a side note, I’m quite certain some of the cheese and butter made from recipes in the book will be shared with one of her besties… especially if that bestie gifts her with such a fab book!

Well, I guess I’m wishing my life away, but when I retire I’m looking forward to becoming a full time farm girl.

WooHoo, Santa is coming to you from Idaho! Enjoy everyone and post some photos over on the Chatroom when you finish a project so we can all be a part of the fun.

We are from cda idaho, my daughter just purchased a property with acreage , she has chickens and her goal is a cow or cows she had room and so ready willing and and able!

Spring and summer is usually spent with me spending countless hours in the pastures fixing fence and cutting out volunteer cedar trees. I usually pack a lunch and disappear all day for a couple weeks. What a happy great this would make on those days!