While I’m a total sucker for warm, sunny skies, I do love curling up by the fire with a hot cup of something and a good book, and I’ll take advantage of any excuse to spend my day in leggings and a hoodie. (Notice the constant presence of some sort of heat source?) But I have to say, winter’s biggest saving grace is the food. Soups, stews, fresh baked bread. Ultimate comfort food—which is pretty important when we’re freezing our tushies off.

January usually begins with a complete inundation of resolutions; diet talk and unrealistic expectations that leave most disappointed by February 1. With this in mind, I have started approaching the start of a new year with the aim to create a manageable goal that gets me excited to pursue each day.

New Year’s Eve morning in the Groomes Family looks quite different than most as anywhere from 60-80 people (ranging from 6 months to 80 years-old) cycle through our home chatting together while tasting roughly 3 dozen different varieties of pie. We call this Pie Breakfast, and it is our most treasured family tradition. 

Every fall, with the first crunch of leaves, I cannot resist welcoming the season with a few autumnal favorites. Here is what I recommend, reading, watching and baking.

Learning about the art of sourdough has been a fun process. I didn't get it right off the bat; it took me a few tries and a lot of reading and many troubleshooting conversations with my sister-in-law who already had it down. Being able to transform flour, water, and salt into beautiful loaves still makes me feel a little bit superhuman, but it’s really not as complicated as I thought. And once you understand how a starter works, there’s a lot of room to play and experiment.

You’ve Saved All That Sourdough Discard, Let’s Make Some Waffles!

After almost a week of growing our own starters, we’ve got lots of sourdough discard sitting in the fridge ready to be used. This is an easy recipe for your weekend breakfast. I’ve also included two recipes quantities, depending on how much discard you have and how much breakfast you need. The instructions are the same for each. The 3 cup recipe made about 10 large round waffles. You can also freeze these and reheat them in the toaster on busy mornings. Enjoy!

I grew up eating my Mom’s version of spaghetti often. I remember being told by someone who does have an Italian background that it’s not the correct way to do spaghetti, but I truly do not care. It’s the way I learned to eat spaghetti, and now my kids eat it the same way. We have several different pasta and sauce combinations that we eat and enjoy, but this is for sure the favorite.