Perfect for summer, Tarragon Chicken Salad (plus a bonus salad recipe)
If I could only keep a handful of cookbooks, “The Silver Palate Cookbook” and “The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook” would be among them. Continue Reading
Author: Doni Chamberlain
Retired oncology nurse shares blue-ribbon recipes, and passion for county fairs, activities, and pot-bellied pigs
It was barely 24 hours before Mary Trevor’s deadline to drop off a carload of Shasta District Fair entries, yet she had the non-plussed, unhurried air of someone who’d done this a few times — or 40 — before. The… Continue Reading
Mysterious medical condition: That’s just the way the cookie crumbles
My backyard is filled with bulbs I planted in the fall of 2021; a way for my family to remember me in the event I died before the following spring. The symptoms began with a sudden, persistent cough. To make… Continue Reading
7th Annual Lavender Harvest: Giving back to the community, sharing a love of flowers, farming, family and fun
On a recent Saturday morning, lavender farmers Gary and Rocio Parkinson had been up and working since 5:30 a.m.; typical farmers’ hours at the couple’s 29 Rows Lavender Farm in Happy Valley. The scent of lavender wafted by on a… Continue Reading
4 herbs that will flourish for even novice North State gardeners
In the early 1900s a young woman, her husband and baby boy left their Greek homeland for passage to the United States to start a new life. Inside her coat she’d sewn a generational secret; a small bundle of oregano… Continue Reading
Anderson woman’s iris farm sells thousands of flowers of every imaginable name and color
The word “addiction” might be a tad strong when it comes to describing Teresa Moravec’s obsession with irises, but just barely. Moravec traces her love of all flowers to her mother and grandmother. “I’ve always loved gardening,” Moravec said as… Continue Reading
Breaking up (with stuff) is hard for Baby Boomers to do
The phone call was from a lovely woman I’d not seen in a while. It was good to hear her voice. She cut to the chase. “You wrote recently that you collect dishes, and silver serving pieces, too, right?” A… Continue Reading
Doni’s Very Best Carrot Cake: With such wholesome ingredients, it’s practically a health food
This is a purely anecdotal observation, but I’ve noticed that people who like carrot cake above all other cakes tend to be healthy eaters; the kind of people inclined to run marathons and are dedicated to yoga. Generally speaking these… Continue Reading
Everything I need to know about people I learned from my Little Free Library
A few years ago I fulfilled a rather simple but meaningful life goal: I placed a Little Free Library in front of my house. This minor bucket list acquisition took a little bit of doing. After all, it’s not as… Continue Reading
Broken water main builds unexpected neighborhood connections
It was exactly one week ago, shortly after 6 p.m., when I heard yelling outside my home. I rushed outdoors to my porch to investigate. There, I saw several neighbors standing on both sides of the street, hollering excitedly back… Continue Reading
