First One Down!

Alight. First of the fourty... twenty, out of the way. Sort of. You see, they're baked and tasted and shipped and all gone, but I haven't uploaded the pics. And dont want to make this the post about it... soo... I did it!

The Fourty

I'm attempting something to kick up my awesome. I don't have a lot of awesome going on... but there will be some awesome if it kills me. I'm grabbing 40 recipes just a whim short of 'at random' and cooking them. I feel a bit cheap, because I'm just stealing them off food porn sites that a hundred other people have tried... I should be making up my own, but right now I don't have the wherewithal to handle it.

To be noted I will be making something similar or inspired by or exactly the recipes listed.

1. Lavender Brigadeiro from Patricia Scarpin at Technicolor Kitchen
2. Soy-glazed Flank Steak by The Bitten Word
3. Red Bean Spinach Soup by Jessie at EatStudy
4. Pasta with Summer Squash, Sausage, and Goat Cheese over at Use Real Butter (A name I highly support)
5. Homemade Pita Bread and Hummus at Savouring Time in the Kitchen
6. Taste the Sun... Then Play In It Fruit Salad at Healthy. Happy. Life.
7. A perfected BLT inspired by Lick My Balsamic
8. Spring Yogurt as made by One Particular Kitchen
9. Mozzarella scratch made inspired by Kristen
10. Hard cheese inspired by the rennet instructions I bought for the cheese that Kristen inspired
11. Fried Cheese Curds inspired by squeaky cheese
    
12. Roasted Red Peppers Stuffed with Quinoa and Feta with Balsamic reductions ~ Kristen
13. Cheesy Grilled Pepper Poppers by a blog I've since forgotten :/
14. Cream of Leek and Parsnip Soup posted on Ceramic Canvas
15. Indian Cardamon Mava Cakes from my nemesis Tartlette
16. Frothy Mint Lemonade over at Eat Make Read
17. Quinoa with Summer Vegetables on Karina's Kitchen
18. Pasta with Bacon Peas and Ricotta posted by Junglefrog Cooking
19. Chocolate Ginger Cookie a Martha Stewart recipe baked at Food Gal by Carolyn
20. Butter Mints inspired by a woman at a catering gig

There. The first 20. These are link intensive, more so than I should make them probably, but I'll post the next soon.

Dry Like My Bread

Man... I've left all my foodies high and dry lately. I'll see what I can do. Maybe blog my catering gigs.

I Got A Puppy! I Got A Puppy! I Got A Puppy! Hey Hey Hey Hey!

This morning dawned sadly, tossing and turning in my sleep with a tear evoking dream about my Carson. I woke breifly with tears in my eyes. I had been petting her. Spending time with her... and then it struck me that it was past. Too late to pet her silky neck flaps and tousle her ears. I miss her so much. She was a beautiful sweet kind mischievous friend and nothing can ever replace her.

I miss too though, having a dog at all. I'm not one to be stingy with doggy love, or to clam up with heartache forever. I'm prepared to give some love, maybe a puppy and maybe too a adopt-a-dog. I've been asking for weeks...

An hour or so later Mum woke me again, this time with a call. A call for puppies. Free labs had been advertized on the radio that morning. We drove out a little before noon. Three were already gone... and there was a really really handsome boy, but meet our girl.... (no name).

A Pharmaceutical Kitchen

I'm no wise woman ready to spout off home remedies or lists of medicinal foods. I made a cough syrup once, I guess. It had honey and vinegar and cayenne pepper and tasted vile as you might expect, but it was still better tasting than the real stuff.

That aside I found a better way to bring the pharmacy into the kitchen. Legally dears, no green brownies here, just antiques(though at one point it did contain antique medicinal cannabis). Fresh onto my kitchen wishlist comes this lovely medicine cabinet.

The top and three drawers are filled with 288 of these amazing tins. Each with the wonderful antique writing and old paint, and a little window looking into the contents within.

Its only worth five to seven thousand dollars. That's the rub with antiques. I don't mind very much that they're old. Its the design I like. Designs that are out of manufacture and amazing and hard to find. I'd just as soon have a new box with a set of new jars, spice labeled instead of medicine jars, for my own. I love the uniqueness of the jars, and though I'd miss a sprinkle feature, easy spoon access and the window would be worth it.

Now I'm trying to convince my Dad to build be me a cabinet for my regular jars... but if any of you know a tin manufacturer... give em the hint.

Pic-less In Denile

Believe it or not, I've been doing stuff when whilst neglecting my favorite blog. The truth is, I've discovered a hatred for uploading picture. I cant keep them organized. Its a terrible hassle to resize them (because I take them COLOSSAL!). Its a pain to keep edited ones and originals separate and safe. An increasing worry over digital storage, and a lack of editing software. And there's an inescapable fact, food blogs, like cook books SURVIVE ON PICTURES.

Very few people want to read a blog about food with no pictures. And heck, even if you DO post pictures regularly, without the amazing skill of the great food photog-blogs out there, you twont get linked. Its very distressing.

So while I could tell you about my cheesey rolled rustic bread, and my still singing a chorus of crackles fresh from the smoking hot oven blue cheese walnut sour dough... I wont without pictures. Nor will the Girl Scout style Samoas get posted. And those all HAVE pictures taken. Crappy, thoughtless and easy pictures... but at least some sort of photographic evidence of their conception. The angel food cake I baked (that fell because apparently letting it cool UPSIDE DOWN is really really crucial to structural integrity), and the egg nog that resulted to clean up those egg yolks. The carmels I made. The biscottie I whipped together, or the Dorrie's disagreeable cookie recipe I tried(think chocolate chip cookies, shaped like paper disks)

None of it. And if I did, I probably wouldn't give you recipes. Cuz I'm lazy like that. Word.

Tossing You A Bone Bean Soup

I'll throw you some scraps here. This was my attempt at a bean soup. Five beans to be exact. Canned beans. I was hungry quick like, wanted vegges, beans, loads of flavor, and some crunchy spicy sprouts to top it off. And so it became.

Bean Soup

1 can black beans
1 can navy beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 red pepper chopped
1 crown of brocolli chopped into small flouretts
fresh chopped up tomatoes
some beef and chicken bollioun to get me started
some turkey sausage stuff
spicy sprouts for topping
Probably some onion/shallots all sauteed up, but I cant remember

I tossed everything but the beans(and sprouts) into a crock pot to get all cooked up and flavorful . The brocolli and red pepper smelled sooo good cooking. When things were cooked I added the beans, not wanting them to get mashed up during cooking. And we ate it, and it was warm and tasty and thats the soup.