If you're in a part of the country that's getting pounded by winter storms this weekend, I feel for you.

We had our first big storm cycle of 2025 last week which brought snow and ice to town, but it hasn't been too windy so far. Our home is mostly electric, and we're fortunate to have a wood stove and plenty of firewood to keep warm.

(We're considering getting this tri-fuel generator to connect to our transfer switch just in case, as we have a propane source, and hopefully we'll never have to use it for an actual emergency.)

I think a lot of people right now are ready for warm weather (in the northern hemisphere, at least) but dang, when Punxsutawney Phil (the celebrity groundhog) said there would be 6 more weeks of winter, he wasn't kidding. In the next few days our lows are expected to be 2°F!

Until spring arrives, you can scratch that itch by growing something indoors. This might be a good time to start a few seeds inside, like tomatoes, peppers, and other plants that need a long season to mature.

​If you want a foolproof guide to starting seeds indoors, click here for a step-by-step tutorial.​

But if it's still too early for you, try some easy plant propagation if you're looking for a fun project this weekend. I love getting free plants 😁 and one of the most satisfying things is turning one plant 🌱 into many. 🌱🌱🌱

You buy just one plant at the grocery store (not even the nursery, which is great for climates like mine because our nurseries aren't stocked until April or May) and create more plants at home with it.

​Here are five things you should know if you want to transplant your supermarket living herbs. (You can do the same with living lettuce, too.)​

​And if you love lemongrass, it's incredibly easy to root store-bought stalks in water. (Several years later, my lemongrass from that post has grown 4 feet tall—and it's still in the same pot!)

Wherever you are, I hope it starts to warm up soon for you!

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I've been buried in recipe making and shooting this past week for The Route 66 Cookbook, with only three more work days left before photos are due to the art director.

I'm exhausted. We had a hiccup this week when the bake igniter in our oven went out right before I was supposed to bake a cake! The stove worked, the broiler worked, but the baking element wasn't firing up. In a moment of panic (with the cake batter already mixed), I called our next-door neighbor and was able to run over to his house and use his oven. But if you do a lot of baking, you know it's tricky using someone else's oven, especially when you're not there to monitor the temperature. So of course, the cake got burnt 😖 and I had to make it again yesterday.

(We got the igniter fixed, by the way—a new part and a YouTube video saved us from waiting weeks for a service call. And good thing, because I still have four more recipes to shoot that require an oven.)

After that crisis was averted, we hosted a casual dinner party—more like an all-you-can-eat buffet 😆—so our friends could help us eat all the food I've been making! It's really hard keeping up with all of it when there's only two of us in the house (the kids don't eat that much) and four or five complete meals coming out of the kitchen each day.

The fridge in our house is jam packed, as is the extra fridge in the garage, and even our two standalone freezers are filling up. (It's not easy finding certain ingredients in the small-ish town we live in, and this week the only place I could find footlong hot dogs was the local wholesaler who had 10-pound cases. So I guess we'll be throwing a big BBQ this summer! 🤷‍♀️)

Once we turn in our photos next week, I'm gonna need a LONG break from cooking! Haha.

​

P.S. Get a head start on the season by starting your seeds indoors—here's my foolproof guide.

P.P.S. Ready to get more organized in the garden this year? Let my Ultimate Garden Diary help you keep track of all the things!

Inventory your seeds and soil amendments, record important dates (like seed germination, transplanting, and first blooms), and write down everything you want to remember about your garden in one place.