friday night is alright.

casey is really working on his mint julep. he's got piles of mint in his front yard and seems to think it's fun to use the mortar and pestle. and i've got a bottle of woodford reserve.

this past friday, he got it right. absolutely. i think it's the simple syrup.

we also ate sauteed cauliflower + dinosaur kale + vidalia onion, roasted turnips + beets + yukon gold potatoes, quinoa, sliced tomatoes, and topped with a fried egg. oh, yes, this CSA is a good one.

drive-in.

alex and i have been going on about sonic for at least a week. we learned that there is one in mebane (pronounced meh-bin, not meh-bane) and have scheduled a visit.

but casey and i went hiking in the uwharrie national forest on saturday and passed one in siler city on the drive down. and he was not so excited about it at the time, but i wanted soda immediately. with all that perfectly round ice that's like sno-cone ice and fancy flavors you can have added. casey had never been to a sonic (they aren't so common in the north) and so he had no idea what he was missing.

i waited. there's no need for a flavored soda at 10am before a planned hours-long hike.

but on the way home, we stopped. for vanilla coke and tater tots and grilled cheese, which we ate in the car like good americans.

now, a dairy queen blizzard and we are in business.

mixed up.

shira's flight on wednesday was canceled so she was surprisingly home for dinner. it was a CSA pick-up day so there was certainly a bounty of goods! and i had just bought provisions in the asian market. and it was too hot for hot food, which means spring rolls.

 and lots of prosecco. (once you open a bottle, you have to commit to the whole thing, y'know.)

small spring rolls with beets, carrots, spring onions, basil, and vermecelli. with peanut sauce and sriracha and lime.

all gone.

yes, there are no more strawberries. we ate 2 buckets full in under a week!

well, shira made a strawberry-rhubarb crumble, but still.

it's hot.

i am eating popsicles and drinking mint sun tea. and reading about school gardens and composting and soil, as well as workers in the food system. it's going to be a long summer.

i am also trying to contain my excitement regarding the 2 baby birds in the nest in the bush in front of the house. soon, i'll get close enough for a photograph. but! i have named them.
mama bird = bonnie
baby birds = francesca and mabel

EDIT, may 27: after some research on the internets, i think francesca might really be frank. 

EDIT, june 1: i found the third baby bird on monday and named her henrietta lou. but they all flew the nest by tuesday. this is where the story ends.

h o m e m a d e

absolutely delicious homemade pizza.

we followed smitten kitchen's pizza dough recipe (we'd both made it before and think its the best + the easiest). the pizza on the left has sauteed kale, roasted pinenuts, and burrata, with a bit of olive oil and pepper. the pizza on the right has parmesan, mozzarella, tomatoes, spring onions, herb olive oil, and fresh basil.

you completely missed out.

oh good gracious.

a short story. 

shira and i went strawberry picking yesterday. in effland, north carolina.

there were SO. MANY. STRAWBERRIES.

 

we came back with 2 buckets full.

and stopped at maple view for (strawberry!) ice cream on the scenic drive home.

the end.

yeehaw.

i am back, kids. back to the baked sundays. this week, cowboy cookies. with pretzels and chocolate chips. but i bet you could put practically anything in them--potato chips, nuts, candies.

you have to think about these ahead of time, as the dough is to be refrigerated for 4 hours(!) before baking.

 

also, the recipe calls for espresso powder but i didn't have any, so i just left it out. i am sure they would be EVEN BETTER with it, but they are pretty awesome as is.

 

and! last night, casey was a super helper in the kitchen, making mint juleps as i got everything ready and decided it was "the night" to learn to use the stand mixer. all very exciting.  we're off to a cook-out in a bit so i am taking this trove of cookies with me.

what it's like.

 

working at home = articles by dean cliver (a food safety pioneer of sorts) + iced coffee + full-fat yogurt + sesame ryvita and blackberry jam

lunch = quinoa + tomatoes + cucumber + broccoli + corn + lemon vinegar from tina + olive oil.

also, have you noticed that everyone is into quinoa these days? it's in every conservation it seems.

the recipe.

here's the recipe i made for the bake sale on saturday. it's absolutely adapted from ina garten's and is one of the best scone recipes i have ever made. please enjoy. 
****
Maple-Oatmeal Scones

The Dough

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour, plus a bunch extra for the rolling pin

1 cup oats, plus additional for sprinkling

2 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

1 lb unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

4 large eggs

The Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, combine the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar, and salt. (Do this on a slow speed or your counter will end up covered in flour.) Blend in the chopped butter (Sometimes I stop the mixer and reach in and break up the butter bits into smaller pieces with my hands.) Whisk the milk, maple syrup, and eggs and then add to the flour/butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will be stupid sticky.

Dump the dough out onto a really well-floured surface. Flour your rolling pin (I used whole wheat, but you can use all-purpose as well) and roll the dough to about 1 inch thick. (You might have to keep adding more flour to the surface and that’s ok.) Like most scone dough, lumps of butter will still be visible. Cut into rounds using a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the tops are just starting to brown.  Use a fork to make sure the insides are done, too.

While they are baking, combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla for the glaze.

When the scones are done, cool for about 10 minutes on the counter and brush each scone enough glaze to cover the scone’s top and sprinkle few oats on top.  Remember, if the scones are too hot, the glaze will thin. 

***
(also, i am working on a blog revamp and am trying/working out some things. please stay tuned for the new and improved version.)

in which

 

i eat breakfast and watch nova: secrets beneath the ice. there's nothing like a little climate change and end-of-world discussion to start my day in fear.

mustard greens (my least favorite greens, but they came in the CSA and therefore i have to eat them) with garlic and pepper, a salad of spicy radishes, tomatoes, and israeli cucumber with olive oil and sea salt, scrambled egg whites* and spring onions with gouda on sourdough. 

*why egg whites? i made gelato yesterday and used up the yolks. so now i have to find ways to eat the whites. today, i hid them in a sandwich. there are more. ugh.

**also, i took this photo on my new iphone. i am trying to figure out if that's going to be a more efficient way to do this blogging. i am a slow phone typist so it's doubtful it will ever all be done from the miraculous iphone.

just the beginning.

it's corn season! casey and i had our first ears of it last night. seriously, i love this time of year.

yes. yes. yes.

maple-oat scones for the bake sale tomorrow. ready.

but, ma.

i just wanna eat tacos all the time. they are delicious.

thankfully, i've got bon appetit and the CSA keeping me out of a food rut. today, we picked up 2 kinds of lettuce, rapini (which is some kind of broccoli rabe), spring onions, beets, kohlrabi, and peas. a short bike ride to the farmers' market yielded radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. the refrigerator is packed with goodness.

and tonight, a variation on this recipe.

yeah, the grape leaves.

it looks like there are a lot of them. there are A LOT of them. maybe 40 or so. 2 layers of grape leaves!

but, i had to make them. as soon as i saw the recipe in the april bon appetit magazine, i just had to do it. and they took a decent amount of time. while they are certainly not difficult to make, there are a lot of steps and the rolling takes a bit to get down. luckily, i had alex to sit here and laugh at me as i attempted to roll them taco-sized, to no avail.

in the end, absolutely delicious. better than the ones you buy at the store, in the cooperative, wherever. WAY better.

that's me.

a food blogger baker. i am making scones for this event.

pretty awesome, huh? i bake things and childhood hunger is eradicated. done and done.

when we sing, we begin with do-re-mi.

perfection: an egg and cheese biscuit from sunrise biscuit kitchen, with hashbrown. 

the sunrise biscuit kitchen is a local institution. it's a drive-thru biscuit shop in chapel hill, with lengthy lines of cars every weekend morning. it's greasy and lovely and cheap and is, quite possibly, the best cure for a hangover. most people, after they buy their biscuits (with chicken or bacon or whatever you might want), scoot their cars and trucks into the small parking lot next door and eat the goodies in the car! for the most part, there's no waiting 'til you get home.

when we read, we begin with A-B-C.

wait wait wait. my newest goddaughter is here! and she's adorable. we'll have to get her a baby spatula or something.

april 22nd: this is my favorite kind of meal. fried egg sandwich on seeded bread with avocado and cheese, chichpeas + tomatoes + cucumbers + olive oil, coffee. hard to beat.

april 23rd: fried egg, coffee, toast with cream cheese (i was in a phase), avocado slices, chickpeas, salad of watercress, radishes, and cucumbers.

april 26th: lima beans (tina's fave), baguette with brie and pea shoots (sounds like a "ladies who lunch" kind of sandwich), sauteed kale, tomato + cucumber salad.

april 28th: this seems like some sort of "fusion," but is really a mess of everything i had in the fridge. tacos with kale, refried beans, ricotta salata, avocado, onion, garlic, salsa verde.  and potatoes.

there's more to april, but those will be individual posts. i mean, sunrise biscuit kitchen cannot share its moment in the "smashedgoods sun." it's too much.

let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

holy bananas. i have never gone so long without a real post! april was a beast, full of linear regressions and microeconomics and food ethics and seriously, nothing actually fun. 

how do even begin to recount what i ate/cooked/baked? these photographs are not so telling.

april 4th: pretty sure i cooked everything in the april issue of bon appetit, including grape leaves, which were a serious undertaking, only completed as a friend sat with me, laughing as i rolled them.

april 6th: fried egg, roasted potatoes and mushrooms, tomato salad, garlic bread, leftover roasted squash and some other vegetables (this is where it gets complicated).

april 8th: greek yogurt (which i love but it's WAY more expensive than the regular kind, so i only buy it on sale) and leftover garlic bread. this is certainly a meal created from a lack of time. 

april 15th: this one makes me hungry just looking at the photograph. salad with carrots and radishes (which i fell in love with this spring), egg over-medium, roasted blue potatoes (i get extra utility from food that's an exciting color), toast with cream cheese. 

april 17th: perfectly fried egg (i mean, seriously. look at it.), carrots + hummus, avocado + ryvita, salad of red quinoa, chickpeas, tomatoes, and radishes. 

april 17th, dinner: a salad? is there a carbohydrate hiding under those veggies? i have absolutely no clue.

more eating adventures from april to come.

the day.

in which i return to this blog. it's all happening.

(yes, i sliced open my finger on sunday morning. yes, i was making breakfast tacos. yes, i held my hand above my head and kept cooking. yes.)