life is a bowl of berries

Day two of cloudy, gray, chilly weather. Mood to match. What better way to counteract the gloom than with a simple summery pick-me-up: Sliced strawberries sprinkled with vanilla sugar. Oh, and heavy whipping cream (leftover from the whipped cream on the rhubarb crisp). Fruit is good for you. If it doesn’t warm up tomorrow, I […]

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ashes to ashes, tiny bits of glass to tiny bits of glass

R.I.P. awesome glass pitcher. You will be missed. Ah, those glory days when you were filled with margaritas. Oh. That was yesterday, not long before your untimely demise. The upside is that I am going to Crate & Barrel to replace my late pitcher. And the dinner plate and bowl that have also died by […]

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the red worms are coming, the red worms are coming!

A year ago, I was surprised at how easy it was to talk my husband into composting on our apartment patio. We bought a plastic tub, drilled some holes in it, and went to town! Ninja helped (note: kitties are NOT compostable!): Last year went pretty well, but we only started composting in July and […]

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rhubarb crisp

Though I offered several other choices, my husband decided that rhubarb crisp would be a perfectly good use of our giant heap o’ rhubarb from the market. It turned out just fine! Tart warm rhubarb, sweet crispy topping, and cool fresh whipped cream made for a nice layered treat. It should definitely tide us over […]

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rainy day rhubarb

After a string of beautiful sunny days, today is chilly, gray, and rainy. It’s actually good because we really need the rain, but it made for a soggy trip to the farmers’ market this morning. The husband grudgingly accompanied me; it’s not his favorite activity, but he was lured by the promise of rhubarb. We […]

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dumplings, part deux

After my first experience making dumplings, I knew I wanted to try again. They were not as successful as the first attempt, but for I now know some tricks for the next time. The biggest problem was that my wrapper dough was too sticky which made it a challenge to roll out. Where the wrappers […]

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fresh tofu spring rolls

Longer ago than I care to admit, I picked up the dry goods ingredients for making fresh spring rolls at home. After several near-misses of having most of the ingredients at any given time, I finally buckled down and made them tonight! They were a relatively simple appetizer to tide me over after a long […]

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baking adventures: baguettes

A while back, I bought Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. The light wheat bread recipe has become my go-to sandwich bread, and the cinnamon rolls were one of my first food blog-style posts on my LiveJournal. Half the book is dedicated to explaining the “12 steps of […]

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not macaroni and cheese

My husband woke up from an afternoon nap and was hungry. “Mac ‘n’ Cheese” was his suggestion. While sometimes the blue box hits the spot, I wasn’t feeling something that … orange. So I countered by offering to make a quick pasta dish despite having very little produce in stock. It turned out fine, and […]

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flowers before fruit

I may not have accomplished a lot today, but I did spend some time “in” the garden. We’ve had just enough warm weather now that my plants are experiencing growth spurts. The most exciting thing, however, is that everything has flowers! My husband bought me a Gerber daisy on a whim. After the first blooms […]

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