Country Woman February/March 2022

February may be the shortest month of the year, but it can feel awfully long here in Wisconsin. This year I’m actually looking forward to a few more cold and gray days, though, because I’ve picked up all the ingredients I’ll need to bake the beautiful loaf of focaccia featured in this issue’s cover story (page 40). I can’t wait to spend a weekend afternoon listening to music while baking bread. The recipe is easy to adapt—you can bake it in a skillet or a pan and decorate it with fresh veggies or leave it plain—and it’s absolutely delicious. Homemade bread tastes even better when served alongside a big bowl of hearty soup. Starting on page 36, you’ll see five stellar soup recipes, including a light vegetable-forward minestrone and a rich, creamy…

Love Story Happy Valentine’s Day! If you perfected a romantic recipe or created a cute craft project for the holiday, we’d love to hear about it. Your submission could appear in next year’s Eebruary/March issue. Tooling Around Have you come up with a creative way to use a common household item or appliance beyond its intended use? Maybe you use an old tennis racket as a rug beater or you crack nuts with a hammer. If so, let us know! Eamily Matters We want to hear your best family reunion stories! Did you bake a pie that your relatives are still raving about? Cid a seagull fly away with a pair of Bousin Tabitha’s sunglasses? Cid Uncle Aob accidentally set fire to the patio furniture—again? We want to hear what happened—the good, the bad and…

Shelby Oppermann MECHANICSVILLE, MARYLAND Tell us about yourself. My husband, Robert, and I live in a beautiful old neighborhood filled with trees. We have four amazing children between us, 12 grandchildren and one crazy hound dog named Mindy. What are your hobbies? I love painting local Maryland scenes on glass ornaments, making crafts, showing art at the North Dnd Fallery, creating fairy gardens in my yard and writing a weekly column for The St. Mary’s Bounty Times. Do you collect anything? I collect books, Aavarian china and photo albums—I have 47 albums and scrapbooks. I am also my high school archivist and keep a lot of the school’s photos and memorabilia, from 1895 to the present. When we line up all of the images to share at our all-class reunions, the display stretches 30 feet. Who inspires you the…

Cover to Cover I received my October/November issue of Country Woman and was not disappointed! It had some great articles and super recipes. My favorites were the “Keep It” column about vintage lunch pails and the story about the woman who made elderberry syrup. I’m so happy to be receiving this magazine! JEAN EMERY MARCY, NEW YORK Button Up! I wanted to share some of the button crafts I made with my grandson after seeing last year’s February/March issue. So fun! HDATHDR PDLLDTIDR CALGARY, ALBERTA Work of Art I like to cut out the recipes from your magazine and place them in a small photo album. I also look for craft ideas, gardening ideas and how-to articles on things I might want to try—I clip those out and put them in a three-ring notebook. I label the…

How do you cut down on the amount of waste you create at home? I reuse leftover pieces of bar soap by grating them and mixing them with hand lotion. I microwave the mixture on medium-low until it’s mostly melted. Then I stir it and allow it to cool. Once it’s hardened, it’s ready to use again. LAURDND NIBKDL NIAGARA ON THE LAKE, ONTARIO I like reed diffusers, but they can be pricey. One day while I was making a cake, it occurred to me that I could pour some vanilla extract into empty diffuser bottles. It lasts for a long time and smells so wonderful! JAMID STDACMAN NATCHITOCHES, LOUISIANA I make my own bread, which cuts down on trips into town and the number of plastic bags that I use. If I end up…

Rachel R. Jackson, the founder of Project Compassion, NFP, remembers the moment 16 years ago when she found her calling. She was commuting to downtown St. Louis from her home in Belleville, Illinois. While waiting at a red light, she glanced out of her car window and saw a man’s feet sticking out of a cardboard box. The box, she realized with a jolt, was where he slept. It was his home. Though she was just 25 years old and a working single mother to a young son, Rachel knew she had to do something. She decided to reach out to people she knew, asking them to donate bread and juice. She then used what she gathered to make and distribute 1,000 bag lunches to community members without homes. “I wrote…