Shaina Olmanson's Blog

A recipe for casoncelli pasta filled with potatoes, leeks, fresh ricotta, and Grana Padano, served with walnut pesto. In partnership with LaCucinaItaliana.com.

We have officially dipped into freezing temperatures. We covered the garden beds with straw and leaves for the year, and the final harvest picked and carried inside. The lawn was raked and bagged and then promptly littered with a fresh blanket of yellow and red leaves, and the chickens rush into the coop earlier and earlier each evening.

Inside, we’ve...

A recipe for grilled shrimp coated in a ginger and turmeric glaze, served on a crisp and sweet slaw with grilled mangoes and avocado and tossed with a cilantro lime dressing that uses toasted sesame oil for a complex flavor. This post is in partnership with Fair Trade USA.


We skipped spring in Minnesota. We went from snow-covered and frozen straight into blue skies, brilliant sunshine, and humidity without warning. With no air conditioning, our best option for nearly every warm evening with...

A recipe for homemade salted nut rolls: soft marshmallow nougat surrounded by a bourbon-spiked caramel, rolled in salted roasted peanuts or pecans.

In Minnesota, the candy aisle is lined with red packages. Their distinct branding appears on endcaps. They sit proudly near the register. My mom would tell stories of her St. Paul childhood, the smell of the Pearson’s factory—melted sugar and roasting nuts—and the grade school field trips to see candy being made. She’d have us warm up nut rolls b...

A recipe for galete – slightly sweet, lemon- and cardamom-spiced waffle cookies topped with a sweet-tart lemon glaze. All you need is a bowl, a few ingredients, and a waffle iron.

“Do you like waffles?”
“Yeah we like waffles!”

So goes the chanting from the kitchen the minute the waffle iron appears. There are cheers. There are wide eyes. There are squeals of delight. Now imagine when you’ve offered them up as a cookie snack.

We are well versed in the language of #willitwaffle around here, a...

A recipe for a fall harvest curry salad with cauliflower, nutty quinoa, lentils, chard, cilantro, and roasted pumpkin seeds.

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I’ve been watching the tables groan under the weight of the piled produce at the market and thinking about autumn’s slow death as we creep towards winter. There’s beauty in the final push. The baskets filled to overflowing, bunches of herbs tumbled together. And the flowers....

A recipe for creamy, indulgent roasted blueberry cheesecake ice cream both churn and no-churn. Plus, a bonus recipe for graham cracker waffle cones because, why not?

This recipe is a desire to find that piece of myself lost to childhood. It’s a search for the blueberry cheesecake ice cream I remember eating from the canteen at camp. Overly indulgent and still refreshing, the creaminess offset by pungent blueberries. Once we had the ice cream in progress, the graham cracker waffle cones seeme...

A recipe for gluten-free strawberry shortcakes made with almond flour and coconut flour, topped with plenty of fresh-picked berries and whipped cream.

“Up, up, up.”

Softly, slowly, caressing blanket-covered feet that tuck up into the ball of child when touched. I prefer to wake up slow. I fully realize the stats and studies on the benefits of not hitting snooze, but I do not care. I plan two alarms. One to rouse me from sleep. One to actually get up to.

As such, I am the parent who quietly...

A northerner’s take on a recipe for pimento cheese, a southern staple, complete with pickled green garlic, pickled radishes, and pickled rhubarb.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
— Emily Dickinson

I’m watching the dappled sunlight come through the branches of our neighbors’ trees as I stan...

A recipe for warm freekeh breakfast bowls topped with roasted radishes, asparagus, spring alliums, and eggs that will get you ready to tackle any morning.

To get to my computer I pulled a sweatshirt off the floor and slowly sank my arms deep into the sleeves, a layer between me and the chill of a spring morning. I navigated a pile of dirty clothes outside the boys’ bedroom door. I ignored the laundry waiting to be folded on the couch.

To get here, I turned the world off and kept moving. The...

A recipe for cheese-filled potato rösti topped with spring peas, shallots, and bacon.
Feet stuck at the threshold to the kitchen, I stare at the empty counter, as if it had the answer. I close my eyes, feeling the blackness of my lids and welcoming the quiet escape it offers.

“Mom. Mom.”

Without letting the light in, I respond, “Mm?”

“What’s for dinner, Mom?”

Breathe. In and out.

“What should be for dinner?” I ask, the black of my eyelids staring back at me. I consider the contents of the...