Bake an old fashioned spice cake from a vintage recipe, then frost it with Buttermilk Buttercream laced with whiskey vanilla. Top the cake with pretty slices of dried pink apples. A treat for your Valentine.

January 6 is the Twelfth Day of Christmas and in the German tradition is celebrated with a special cake called Koenigskuchen. Here's the recipe for the rich, buttery, fruity version made in the north of Germany even today.

Making fresh, old-fashioned lemonade is easy (recipe included), but add blueberries and lavender, or lavender and mint, or raspberries and mint, and you have a party! The lemonades will dance with flavor.

The chilly days of January are perfect for savoring a cup of rich, hot cocoa. Curl up with a cup made from Ann Marie's new recipe - downloadable from a link in the blog post.

Hand-me-down dishes hold memories and family history lessons. Great-grandma's recipe for Hermits is included.

Grandma knew what she was doing when she used seasonal fruits to make luscious tarts and kuchens - quick and easy and absolutely delicious! This vintage recipe from my favorite church cookbook can be successfully used to make a gluten-free kuchen. Just substitute a 1:1 gf flour for the regular wheat flour.

Living in Wisconsin, we don’t readily associate squash casserole with the zucchinis and yellow summer squashes that proliferate with abandon in our late summer gardens as folks do in the South. Here's an easy recipe that uses lots of those garden vegetables and makes a wonderful side dish as well as a main dish for a light lunch. The gluten free corn bread recipe is included.

These light and buttery cookies are a perfect foil for sweet culinary lavender, and the recipe can also be used as a tart shell for other wonderful lavender desserts. Try it!

Easter was a little simpler at Century Farmhouse this year. Fewer eggs colored, baskets hidden, and napkins ironed. We stayed home for church services and listened to familiar voices speak from pulpits far away yet in our home. Connecting with those who matter is made easy, but it all seems so impersonal. Yet sitting around the big table with those who live here in this old farmhouse was a treasure. We shared an Easter ham and homemade biscuits, baked potatoes, roasted carrots with maple glaze and sea salt, roasted peaches sweet from last summer’s trees, and homemade ice cream - the treat we were looking forward to all week. Food does bring people together, and its flavors hold memories of golden hours and better times. We will be there again, maybe not soon, but we will be together again. The recipe for this simple yet glorious dessert is below. Be ready to defend the bowl from invaders with spoons, waiting to taste this sweet-tart confection. Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl If you are making the whole recipe - including the curd - start a day or two before you want to serve it so all the components are thoroughly chilled. For the lemon curd: The day before, whip up a batch of lemon curd (You can use other citrus fruits or a combination of them too!) using your favorite recipe. My favorite lemon curd recipe is by Ina Garten . For the ice cream: Keep everything chilled, and pop the bowl you will store the ice cream in into the freezer. Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together: 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk 3 cups half & half (half milk/half cream) 2 Tablespoons Whiskey Vanilla or vanilla extract vanilla bean seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean 1. Pour into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker and process until whipped and doubled in amount. 2. Transfer to the container you had in the freezer, layering it with the chilled lemon curd. 3. Give the mixture one or two swirling stirs with a spoon or spatula, cover and freeze to cure the ice cream for at least four hours. 4. Lick the churn dasher and any accompanying spoons and spatulas, getting every little taste. 5. Serve as desired after curing, if you can wait that long. ***Serving suggestion: top a scoop of the ice cream with fresh fruit and garnish with an herb leaf and powdered sugar

Love to bake? New to baking? Need an addition to a spring brunch menu that could be made gluten-free? Our English Tea Scones recipe is easy to make and can accommodate either traditional wheat or gluten-free flours. When the scones come out of the oven, you won't be able to resist the warm, fluffy goodness that almost doesn't need the honey or jam you have ready to top them with! Pour a cup of tea and let's get started.

Create simple flavored butters with ingredients already in your kitchen and make family meals special every day.