something special.

this one's for my main squeeze, who happens to not be one of sentiment. but since i'm the one with the blog... here's to the great years we've had thus far cooking, eating, learning, adventuring, playing together, and here's to many more. i'm one lucky gal. (and no, that's not me in the picture. that's fernando, the friendliest little cow you'll ever mee...

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almost like milking a cow, but not. homemade yogurt

You might think I've gone off the deep end. But I was so excited about making homemade yogurt on Sunday morning that, once 6:30 rolled around, I hopped out of bed, took Fin out, and went straight into the kitchen to prepare for my latest experiment. I made a racket, but managed not to wake Ryan while I sterilized some jars and readied my workspace. Let me show you how easy this can be before I tell you what all I did (because c'mon, you know I can't make it easy). The recipe is this simple. Homemade yogurt:2 cups milk2-3 tablespoons yogurt (either store-bought or saved from your previous batch),...

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flatbread pizzas, naan-style

What to do with mountains of naan but make little personal pizzas? And how about jazzing them up with healthy, swoon-worthy ingredients?Sounds good to me. I made two versions of naan pizzas, both of which turned out marvelously. Before I could begin assembly, though, I had to caramelize some onions.I finally put the mandoline to use, and have the gorgeous thin-sliced onions to prove it. But after that eye candy treat, things did not go as planned. I was led astray by two sources here: one source suggested adding SUGAR to the onions in order to caramelize them!?!?! and the other instructed me to...

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naan wonderful

It started like this. "What are you making?"If I say 'naan,' he'll think I'm making curry to go with it. Choose your words carefully."Flatbread." Two hours, 500 degrees, and one smoke alarm later... "So, what is this again?""It's naan. And it was much more involved than I expected.""Can I have some of that pawn?""It's NAAN.""Can I have some of that non-pawn?"I tell you what, life with Ryan is seldom without laughter. This whole thing started after I read this recipe for flatbreads with goat cheese and caramelized onions. Because I was able to work from home one afternoon--a luxury, I know--between...

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peace.

The clouds hang low and threaten to let loose nourishing drops for my little plants. Birds' voices flit around noisily, and dogs make their presence known down the hill from us. The windows are open and all of the outside is allowed to flow in, and does just that, following the breeze into the front and out the back. It is quiet; none of our machines are making any noise, and while there's a hum from the neighbor's air conditioner, I sit in calm and cool at the kitchen table. Our home is clean and purged of excess after an entire day of spring cleaning yesterday; the same cleaning unearthed one...

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favorite lunch: chicken salad

Long ago, my mother made something that was every bit as good as tuna salad, but without the fishy smell. And ever since then, I've loved chicken salad.In college I made my own version a few times, but the recipe wasn't consistent. In fact, I remember once when I made it with grape halves and rosemary--it was incredible--but recreating that particular version never brought the same results. A couple of months ago, though, when I bought a rotisserie chicken for soup night and saved one breast for chicken salad, things have become...different. Now I have a "recipe" (I use quotes because, let's face...

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tangy snack, any time

I can't hide it any longer. There's something new in my life. It's snarky, and bites back, but gives me just the faintest taste of sweetness on the return. It's malleable and versatile and flexible and yet always predictable. Tangy and lemony on its own, full of creamy flavor and texture, silky smooth, and a member of my very favorite food group (dairy). And now that I've finished describing it, my lip-smackingly-delicious afternoon snack is almost gone. A chips-and-dip craving (it's 90 degrees out already and I needed something salty, crisp, and cool) sent me scavenging through the pantry and...

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EARTH DAY!

Not only is it Earth Day today (which is just another way to say...live green EVERY day!), but I also have exciting news. Ryan and I harvested our very first salad the other night! This is the VERY FIRST partial meal we've had from our container garden. We had enough lettuce to make two small side salads. This is organic mesclun lettuce, grown from seed. I planted 3 containers of it, and two of those containers came up. What I'm learning is that plants really do have specific planting seasons, and if you miss that window... it's too late. (My mom had the same thing happen with her heirloom moon...

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simple pleasures

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals. I think part of its draw is that you can go either savory or sweet with it, and either way will do the trick. But the best breakfast, one that always tastes delicious, is something my parents used to make for us as kiddos. Toast, smeared with butter and jelly, and topped with a fried egg over-easy with salt and pepper. Now, I'm sure you've had eggs with toast before. But the simple addition of jam or jelly puts it over the top, and the sweet fruit flavors mesh so well with the subtle egg flavor and match perfectly with a tang of salt and pepper..... And there's...

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topsy-turvy dessert

In the last month or so, this has become one of my favorite new recipes. It's so simple and summery and flat-out delicious that once you make one, you’ll follow suit and make another as soon as the last crumb has left the plate. Even without the halved maraschino cherries on top (which I thought was traditional), this pineapple upside-down cake is reason to celebrate.This all started one day when I’d emailed Ryan to tell him I had a surprise for him at home. He got home while I was outside, and saw my cookbook opened to the desserts section...and his eyes did a bee-line for the pineapple upside-down...

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chicken in a pot with all sorts of goodies

By now, you're well familiar with my ubiquitous red pot. It is my very favorite kitchen accomplice, ever at my hand to bring my next hopeful recipe to life. Really, my red pot needs a name. She (oh yes, it's a she) really does all the work, and puts up with my constant burning of various fats or vegetables (cabbage comes to mind). She shares in my victory and as payment gets a sunny spot on the butcher block, followed by fanfare, a little parade of me and Fin, marching toward her, reaching down to her, and carrying her decidedly into the kitchen for our next adventure.Last week, she accompanied...

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simple, savvy, successful stir-fry

Remember me saying something about wanting to branch out, to try new things? Here's a start: veggie stir-fry. I love this photo of the carrots all lined up and awaiting the next leg of their journey. They started off in the ground at my mother's home, were picked and rode in the car to Austin, were carried out to the back porch to get cleaned the first time, then spent a few days in the crisper drawer of the fridge, patiently waiting for their culinary expedition. I had to pick something perfect for them--these tiny carrots begged for a special purpose in life. They didn't want to be the stars,...

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soup night: white and green

The week we were blessed with fresh produce, storms crashed through town, throwing down hail (plenty of friends' vehicles, as well as Ryan's, still have battle wounds) and lots of rain. Spring storms call for a hot bowl of soup, and on "Kale Night," that's exactly what I whipped up. In an all too familiar stroke of creativity, I combined about three different recipes (here's one from 30 Bucks a Week; of course another came from my mom, and yet another from a cookbook) to come up with my own version of kale and turnip soup. Here's what I decided on:EVOOSalt & pepper5 cloves minced garlic1-2...

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two for one

Since I've been so remiss in updating last week, here's a special two-for-one offer. Mainly because the recipes were simple and quick, and I didn't take too many pictures. Ryan and I agreed to try and go vegetarian for the next three weeks. Directly following that discussion, I went to the grocery store and came home with this week's fish special: Atlantic salmon. Which, of course I now know, is on the Seafood Watch's site as a market name to AVOID. Won't happen again, because I'm going to download the sustainable seafood app on my iPhone. Happy? Anyway, I came home with some inexpensive...

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triple washed, ready to eat

Garden-fresh vegetables, while carrying with them the distinction of being the healthiest, most opulent meal, must be washed. A few weeks ago, while eating a beautiful salad with greens from my mother’s garden, I looked down and thought, “I didn’t put rosemary in the dressing...” and realized I was staring at an inch-long wriggling bit of extra protein the exact shade of an uber-fresh rosemary needle. It served as a gentle reminder of just how fresh my food in fact was. So before I could embark on any culinary adventures with the pounds of produce that hailed from my mother’s garden, I had to...

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