This week’s meal was a mish mash of ingredients: cow peas, potatoes, brown rice, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and onions were sauteed in olive oil. Of course I pre-boiled the cow peas and potatoes and cooked the rice ahead of time. I originally had this meal earlier in the week, but couldn’t manage to get a decent picture because it was so late in the evening. As soon as I took the first bite, I thought that it would be a perfect breakfast dish. So today I got out the left overs, heated them up and served them along side of some scrambled eggs. Every bit of this meal was local, folks. And it was quite good- even if it isn’t very photogenic.

This week’s local meal was super simple and stress free. Just boiled the corn, blanched the purple beans (well, they were purple…) and mixed the greens with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Oh yeah, and sliced the pickle. I bought those pickles from Newcastle Produce. These are the real kind made with just a brine and no vinegar, which I’ve never had before.  I quite like them.

I then poured myself a home brew from our keggerator and sat down to a delicious meal.

Hope you all in the U.S. have a safe and fun 4th of July!

I go to Karen’s Bakery & Cafe quite a bit. It’s my favorite place that is walking distance where I can grab a small snack and sit outside on their large patio surrounded by herbs and flowers to read or get some knitting done. The other day I noticed that the employees were using customer’s left over water to irrigate their potted plants. I love this idea and I do it at home. It’s a quite obvious solution to wasted water, and I’m sure plenty of people do it at home, but I had never thought that a business would put it to practice as well. Way to go Karen’s!

The summer when I was thirteen, my best friend Rachel and I explored the world of food. Nothing that we came up with was culinary genius, but it was good enough to wolf down while watching old movies like Sayonara or Flower Drum Song. One of our favorites was something Rachel came up with… a simple chocolate smoothie which consisted of blending Nesquick powder, ice cubes and a splash of milk. They would never blend quite that well (probably because we were impatient), but that was okay because little flecks of chocolate powder and chocolate milk bubbles would be left on on the rim of the glass which were promptly scooped up with a spoon and eaten. That summer was the end of our stint as chefs, but it left us with homemade garlic croutons, unripened mango and soy sauce, cinnamon popcorn and of course the Nesquick smoothie.

A couple weeks back I picked up a discount bag of raspberries (they were slightly crushed) at the farmer’s market and froze them with smoothies in mind. Then a few days later when it was too late to run to the store and get ice cream to curb my usual chocolate craving, I concocted a remix of our old favorite- the Nesquick smoothie:

A cup of vanilla goat’s milk yogurt (for sweetness), a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder, ice, raspberries and a splash of milk whirled in the blender until smooth. Perfect!

Today I had another raspberry-chocolate smoothie with scrambled garlic eggs and sauteed swiss chard. This was one of my favorite local meals so far because I used all left over ingredients from the week before.

I’ve taken the plunge and begun knitting myself a sweater. Completing the baby sweater really gave me the courage to try the real thing. The pattern is the Slouchy Cardigan in Greetings From the Knit Cafe. It is a really simple, dressed down, basic construction cardigan that still looks capable of being a really elegant addition to an outfit. The book says “This is the perfect sweater to wear with your pajamas, especially on those mornings when you have to take the kids to school but don’t feel like getting dressed. It’s the sweater you wear on Sundays curled up with the newspaper or while cutting flowers in your garden on cool mornings. The flared sleeves and curly sides keep it pretty and feminine and the DK weight alpaca, worked at a slightly larger than usual gauge, keeps it light and cozy.”

Well I don’t have any kids to take anywhere, but I do love wearing sweaters over my pajamas all day (just ask Joe). Perfect for me!

Knitting commenced just under a week ago and I’ve already completed the back panel and I’m on to the right front panel. I may be able to knock this thing out before the month’s end! Then who knows… once the first sweater is out of the way I can only imagine the addiction I’ll be facing. I’ve queued countless sweater patterns. One for my mom, one for my sister, one for Joe’s mom, one for Joe… and on and on. You get the idea. I’m sure there are a few of you who know exactly the feeling.