Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Pretty in Purple

More pretty functional decor in my bathroom!

Spanish Lavender Bath Salts from ArboreDerm turn into...

Untitled

PURPLE on my bathroom sink!!!!

Untitled

I also reused a smaller Yankee Candle jar.  

**This was actually a perfect re-use because for the life of me, I could not get the scent of the Xmas Pine out of the glass no matter how many times I ran that sucker through the dishwasher, used baking soda and such...

Kroger's Blueberry Pomegranate Chocolate Chunk

Check out the Husband's delicious looking ice cream!

Untitled


Untitled

I won't eat this for many reasons... but just LOOK at the gorgeous colors!  Marketing to our inner children is really a gold mine. 
















Check out the ingredient list... 
Untitled






Gone are the days of cream and sugar

























But still VERY PRETTY!

Farm Fresh to You 6-19-13 csa box

I'm pretty stocked about this week's box... Eggplant... avocado... peppers!!!


1 Seedless Watermelon
4 Haas avocados
4 White nectarines
1 container of Apricots
1 lb Sweet Gypsy Peppers
1 Purple Globe Eggplant
1 bundle carrots
1 Romaine Lettuce
1 lb Vintage Wine Tomatos

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Ihsan's Falafel

It's a happy day when you visit a Farmer's Market... and they actually have ... 

ORGANIC, FLOUR-LESS Falafel!!!

Hot out of the deep fryer!


mini falafel balls



Untitled 

Bag of falafel

Untitled

The Great Spring Strawberry Harvest

I decided to "shop locally" for my strawberries this year... guestimating that that which I spend at Whole Foods on frozen organic strawberries bares... little fruit!

I sampled strawberries each week at my farmer's market and when I felt that they were at their height of sweetness... went in for the kill (on my debit card... but I'm sure it was worth it!)

Step 1 ... bring home more strawberries than you can hold in your arms...

strawberries for freezing 1 More Strawberries



Step 2 ... line up each washed, dried and hulled top onto cookie sheets like a neurotic OCD patient... 

My Strawberries

Untitled Untitled

Step 3 ... scold your husband for the "missing" drying strawberry. Ignore his proclamation "I don't know what you're talking about" ...

Bad Dog

Step 4 ... stick as many trays of strawberries as you can in the freezer and let them become rock hard...

Step 5 ... pull out your vacuum seal machine that you got as a birthday present YEARS ago and simply do not use enough...


Untitled Untitled 

Step 6 ... call up and beg your awesome brother-in-law who you know has these special freezer bags as well, and take some of his... because of course you ran out of your own!...

Step 7 ... jam your own freezer with endless bags of frozen, pre-measured strawberries for easy access...  

Step 8 ... take all of the remaining frozen bags of strawberries (because you have already eating about 4 bags worth) out of your freezer, line them up on the couch like solders on the front line and photograph them for your blog...


Untitled 

Step 9 ... freak out that you might not have "enough" strawberries to last... the year? Then just say "oh F' it... if I need more, there is always WF" ...

Step 10 ... discard the box, the hulls and the plastic pint containers...

Untitled 

Step 11 ... reminisce on how pretty your "before photos" looked piled high strawberries in your gorgeous Emile Henry pie dish in FIG that you got as a wedding gift... 


Strawberry Pie... hold the pie. 

Step 12 ... make more and more sorbet and smoothies! ...

Sorbet

That was then

L and I found this in some back alley way in Venice... Look how adorable that bookshelf is on the left!

We decided it just needed a little bit of TLC and new knobs!

photo 3

Getting it off the streets was beyond anything a sketch comedy show could have portrayed!  But we were persistent and got it done!

photo 2

Just a little hand sander (don't get me started on THAT story) and this guy is ready for the o'natural look or a quick coat of paint or stain and some fancy knobs from Anthropologie.com  and Bob's your uncle!


CAM00979

For some reason, I guess I never took a photo of it all sanded!

White Bean and Peppers

My last shipment of Farm Fresh to You looked like this!

Farm Fresh to You 6-5-13
1 Green Honeydew Melon
4 Haas Avocados
3 Yellow Nectarine
1 Strawberries 
1 lb Ass't Summer Squash
.5 lb Sweet Gypsy Peppers
1 Bunch of Broccoli
1 bunch Nantes Carrots
4 Bay Mixed Lettuce




More gypsy peppers came and with the shipment came a recipe from AllRecipes.com for a White Bean and Peppers. Recipe can be found here

It was quick and QUITE tasty!

Untitled


Untitled



Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Candyman: The David Klein Story

I was flipping through the Roku last night trying to find some much needed distraction when I finally settled on  this:


Like Jelly Bellies themselves, I was drawn to this documentary by the cute little beans on the cover of the screen, which is what first drew me to the little delicious bellies themselves.

I never ever liked jelly beans.  Weird Al in this documentary describes regular jelly beans as "packing material that was used in Easter baskets" and I could not agree more with him.  Jelly Belly, is a candy all on its own (and vegetarian friendly as they do NOT contain gelatin!) I would not bother to put any other jelly bean in my mouth.

This is an interesting documentary about David Klein, the founder of Jelly Belly and the tumultuous history about how Jelly Belly was started, and where it is at today. 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Jig-er Bug

When you tell a friend that you just watched a documentary about Irish Step Dancing... this is what you get:

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

PS, the documentary was called "Jig" and can be streamed off of Netflix.



I used to Irish Step Dance as a young child.  I lived in a town adjacent to a large Irish community and my bestie at the time was very much Irish.  I was the only anomaly (aka non-Irish) in the line of dancers. 



I really enjoyed the few years spent dancing.  And if the mood is just right, I could even dance a few jigs myself still.  Gotta love muscle memory.

What did you do as a kid? Any fun dance or sports or art program?

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

YAY Sorbet

Sorbet by Petunia21
Sorbet, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

I finally "mastered" the sorbet aspect of the Vitamix. It does have to do with proportions, which I HATE, but when it works, it works!

3/1 frozen to non frozen.

Here was 1 cup of coconut yogurt, 2 cups of frozen strawberries and 1 cup of frozen loquats. I also added in a splash of vanilla extract. At the end, I did a quick pulse of raw cocoa nibs.

This could have served 4... we ate it all that night.

When Life Gives You Dill... you make Dill Hummus

I had found dill and cucumbers at the farmer's market which led me to the idea of PICKLES!!!  Well, that didn't happen... yet.  I ended up eating the pickles before I could get the other ingredients for pickling, mainly, the pickle salt.

So in the meantime, I have been dilling everything!  This weekend, we picked up some chive hummus and I thought... DILL HUMMUS!

A few searches on the internet brought me this recipe. I copied and pasted it from Food.com.  The uploader was 3killerbs

Ingredients:

1/2 lb chickpeas (garbanzos)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup tahini
3 garlic cloves, whacked and peeled
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)

Directions:

1 - Soak chickpeas overnight. Bring to a boil and simmer 30-45 minutes or until tender.
2 - Drain, reserving liquid.
3 - While chickpeas are still hot, put them into the blender with all the other ingredients.
4 - Add 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and blend on medium speed until it achieves a smooth, peanut-butter-like consistency. Add additional cooking liquid if it seems too stiff.
5 - Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

6 - Best if chilled overnight to develop flavor.

Untitled