little moments

A few little weekend things:  

It seems right now, when time to myself is rarer than ever, I try to find enjoyment in the little moments, the little things...the time I had before and took for granted now is precious and appreciated more than ever...like having a moment to clip some flowers from the garden.  I picked these tiny Violets that had seeded themselves from last summer...the only "vase" little enough I could find to put them in was a tiny glass salt shaker...and a favorite flower that is now blooming, the beautiful blue Delphinium. 

We also took a little (unsuccessful) blueberry-searching, hot hike high above the lake on Saturday which little Bub seemed to love.  And on Sunday we had some guests over for brunch.  I served egg bake...my new favorite thing.  Pre-baby I used to make quiche a lot.  Now its egg bakes.  But I love egg bakes and could eat them every single day...with a just few drops of Sriracha on top.  Perfect!

on homemade pizza...

Last weekend I was up to my elbows in dough for a good portion of it.  (And I didn't mind in the least.)  We got Little Bub to bed early on Friday evening and then Hub and I spent some time together in the kitchen making a few delicious pizzas.  If I had to choose a favorite piece of kitchen equipment, the pizza stone may just be it.  It makes homemade pizza and bread so much better, so amazing!  There is nothing quite like homemade pizza dough (which really is very simple...this is the recipe I use except I only do half) baked on a pizza stone...the flavor, the crispness, the texture...can't be matched!  I get a little dramatic when we make homemade pizza.  I rave on and on between bites.  And I say things like every Friday night should be "homemade pizza night!"  (But it is that good!)

After making pizzas from scratch several times now, we've learned a few things and we have our method down pretty good.  (Our first few times were full of messy/frustrating/marriage-testing moments.)  This time I realized that I've never actually read the recipe for "baking the pizzas" beyond just "making the dough" part.  That is where Hub comes in.  He controls the oven, how long to bake them, everything from that point on.  And so he's never actually read the recipe before that point.  My job is to get the dough ready and on the peel.  He comes in next with the toppings.  And I take it from there to get the pizza into the oven.  He sets the timer, controls the heat, and keeps a close eye on when he thinks its done.  Combined I guess we make a pretty good team because the pizzas turn out wonderful.  We've learned along the way not to make the pizzas too big or too loaded or we have trouble sliding them off the pizza peel  (we like this peel).  And we've learned to leave a little bit of pizza dough hanging off the edge of the peel to grip onto the stone for a smoother transfer.  And we've also learned to experiment and try crazy things on this pizza dough.

The first kind of pizza we made was a margarita-style pizza (first photo) topped with fresh basil from the garden.  It was fresh and delicious, if not a little bit basic.  The other kind was a new pizza we made (inspired by one we've had here):  a BBQ chicken pizza with banana peppers.  That's the one Hub is seen making here.  I admit, I was extremely skeptical at first when Hub first ordered this pizza.  But a little bite here and there won me over.  And our homemade version was even better!  We topped it with fresh arugula from the garden which added a nice little bite.  

Then, I woke up bright and early Saturday morning with little baby and decided to make cinnamon rolls from scratch.  Apparently I hadn't yet spent enough time with flour on my hands from the night before.  But these are truly worth it.  Yum!  And to me, the weekends are for slowing down a bit and enjoying really good food with those I love!

on summer lately...

Black raspberry tart, whip cream on anything we can find to put it on (with the iSi whip cream maker, a delicious birthday gift I got a few months back), new gooseberry plants discovered, garden blueberries starting to ripen, my "garden in the woods" flowers blooming, a profusion of pink flowers (this Stonecrop) that I'm really loving, and a sweet little baby boy hanging out with my garden gnomes...that is a little of my summer, lately.

weekend happenings...

 Friday evening:  a walk to the nearby creek to survey some of the flood damage that occurred here earlier in the week.  It was a lovely summer evening!

 Rainy Saturday afternoon:  lunch at one of our favorite places (we realized that we hadn't been there since New Year's Day!)...walking through the wet garden out front after a delicious lunch.

 Sunday morning:  baking Almond Poppyseed muffins...I love to load the tops with slivered almonds and generously sprinkle with sugar.

Sunday evening:  picking Arugula from my garden to make some mini salads to have with pizza.  Yum!

strawberry muffins...

I think strawberry muffins may be one of my favorite kind of muffins.  The strawberries taste so good smothered within a sweet, cake-y muffin...almost like it is filled with jam.  I made these ones earlier this week and even little baby Bub couldn't resist gobbling some of one up, still warm from the oven, as I held him in my lap.

P.S.  That little pink bowl with handles (I think originally a sugar bowl?) is one of my latest thrift store finds!  I looove little bowls and cups (and things that hold things I guess). This pink one (Fire King) with swirls was calling my name.  After about a year long thrifting/antiquing dry spell, I finally found some lovely things last week!  That is what makes the thrill of the hunt all the more exciting!

mixed berry galette

While there are heaping piles of laundry to do and much other housework to be done, errands to be run, stacks of mail, paper, and other randomness covering the table/counter/dresser/desk/most any flat surface really, and a yard being overtaken by an astounding number of dandelions (yes, this is what coming home from a long vacation looks like), I found myself in the kitchen throwing together a galette.  I'm trying to tackle all that other stuff in bits and pieces.  I know it'll all get done eventually.  But I'm really craving some homemade food after being away from home for so long.  We did have a kitchen where we stayed while on vacation and we did mostly eat in (just easier with a little one), and we also had some amazing food (will share in a later post), but I still feel like churning out my own home-cooking now that we're back.  I've seen various galette recipes in magazines and cookbooks and they always look so effortless.  (I very loosely followed the peach-blackberry recipe in Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.)  Also, I've been trying to clean out the freezer and noticed I still have quite a few frozen berries from last season.  So with a new berry season on the horizon, I decided to use most of my old ones up.  This galette is filled with black raspberries, blueberries, a few red raspberries, and a few gooseberries...all wild or from the garden!  And now I can't wait for more berry goodness soon to come!

peanut butter cookies...

After a string of many sleepless (up with little baby Bub) nights, I decided to make cookies yesterday. It was the sort of day when I wouldn't even trust myself to drive. And now I'm not really sure how or when I made them? It seemed to take all day: mix the dry ingredients together, go change a diaper...crack an egg, feed baby some lunch...scoop out peanut butter, chop some nuts, and play with baby a little while...get baby down for nap, start baking them and baby wakes up 20 minutes later...get baby back to sleep and bake some more...etc, etc and on it went! Needless to say I didn't make a good home-cooked dinner. But cookies are important. And I wanted to make them mainly to please Hub. I heard him rummaging in the freezer the other night in search of some homemade cookies, a place where we often keep extras...but we'd been out for quite awhile. I decided I wanted to make peanut butter cookies and surprisingly realized I've never baked this basic cookie before. So in search of a good recipe (I wanted them chewy and thick, not thin and crispy) I scanned many of my cookbooks/test kitchen magazines but couldn't come up with one good basic recipe. So I turned to the google and my search led me to this wonderfully written, make-me-hungry food blog. I pretty closely followed the recipe except I omitted the peanut butter chips (didn't have any) and the chocolate chips (because I just wanted a straight up pb cookie). I did add a 1/2 cup or so chopped peanuts too because I wanted some chunks (I used a creamy pb). So there you have it. And in the midst of all this very slow/scattered cookie-making, I decided to pretend I was an amateur food-stylist as well. I had to have a little fun too, oui?

P.S. Oh, and the cookies are delicious too. I lost count of how many I alone consumed. But they were little...tiny in fact! ;)
P.P.S. And I don't know why you are supposed to flatten them a bit with a fork? Anyone? I only remembered to do this about 50% of the time and I think I actually like the fluffier, un-flattened versions better. :)

mishmash lunch...

Last week I had lunch at my house for mum and a friend who were up for a little visit. It was a little bit impromptu (which is actually how I operate best anyways) and I thought it would be rather uncomplicated. We had chicken salad on croissants with some mixed greens and an asparagus jarlsberg tart (inspired by this gorgeous one...but with jarlsberg instead of ricotta) and lemon bars from the bakery for dessert. I thought I was giving myself a break by buying the dessert...but I'm slowly learning that what I once could do without a whole lot of effort now takes a TON of effort for me with a little nine-month old baby hanging on my leg (who is also going through a little bit of the stranger/separation anxiety stage too). It was fun to be with them and enjoy some adult conversation. And I loved using some of my vintage flowery dishes and girly things like teacups and doilies that haven't made it out of the cupboard in awhile lately...but I think my brain is finally starting to connect that things I used to do pre-baby are just not going to be same right now...which is all good and fine...I just need to learn that...and I think I finally am!

Saturday scones

Actually, these Blueberry White Chocolate Streusel Scones were made on Friday...but I think they are best the next morning, despite what the recipe says about them best being eaten that day. Overnight, they seem to get more rich and dense or something.

The recipe I follow is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. It's actually a recipe for Currant Scones, but I prefer to use frozen blueberries and then sweeten them up with a handful or so of some white chocolate chips. And load them with streusel on top. Streusel makes everything better! One of my favorite indulgences is a good morning scone or almond croissant, something like that, to go with a dark cup of coffee...preferably ground and brewed by my Hub.

And speaking of coffee, I'm starting to realize that I may have a little addiction to skim lattes with whipped cream on top. I just confessed this to Hub the other day. (And yeah, I know...skim with whipped cream? huh? But in my mind that's how I like them.) It's been my little splurge for myself whenever I'm out running around with the baby. In all this latte-drinking lately, I've come to the conclusion that Starbuck's makes the best latte. Caribou and Dunn Bros are so-so and of course doable when in a pinch. And I'm not above getting one from - gasp! - McDonald's! But that's mainly because they have a drive-thru which is so much more convenient than getting the little baby out of the car to go inside for a latte. So impractical, ya know? ;)

baking and other thoughts...

For some reason, I've been doing a lot of baking lately...more than usual, especially with the new baby. Recently I made Chocolate Chip cookies, Ciabatta bread, Apple Pie, Pecan Mandelbrot, and Cinnamon Rolls from scratch. Perhaps its the weather which has been downright chilly, almost wintry at times. Last week we spotted our first snowflakes gathering slightly on the deck. The deer are starting to show their faces again in our woods. And last weekend we caught a glimpse of the long white feet of a snowshoe hare. (Their furry coats turn from brown to all white in the winter.) I did some baking too partly because my mom was up for a visit last week. She came bearing a big bag of freshly picked Haralson apples. We did some tag-team baking which is best when there is a little baby around. I made the crust and streusel topping, she made the apple filling. And perhaps I've been baking more because I'd been reading the latest Amish novel by Beverly Lewis. She is always writing about delicious sounding things they are baking up and I think it soaks into my fiber a little as well. The characters are often sharing these baked goodies with their neighbors and extended family too...which makes me want to do this more often with my neighbors. So banana bread is up next on the baking agenda. (The aging bananas on my counter are dictating this one.)Lately I've been thinking how much I love being a mom too. I think I love it even more than I thought I would. I remember the day I felt thoroughly like I was a real true "mom". It was the Saturday morning that Hub and I took little Bub to get his 3 month photos taken at JCPenney because we had a coupon and then afterwards ran some errands. I picked up some bags of frozen vegetables...something I never used to buy (except for frozen peas because they're best that way) but now I thought they'd be nice to have on hand in a pinch. I don't know...photos at JCPenney and frozen vegetables sounded and felt very "mommy-ish" to me at the time.

Although my baking may have increased lately, my cooking quality sure has fallen a bit...hence the frozen veggies. It's a give and take I guess...where one thing exceeds, something else must give a little!

All for now ~ there's a baby crying!