House salad

This has become our house salad:

The dressing is from epicurious.com

Salad Ingredients:
1 Cup Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored, sliced into thick slivers
1 Cup Romaine, chopped
3 tbsp Walnut pieces - as much as you'd like
3 tbsp Craisins - as much as you'd like
Bleu Cheese crumbles - as much as you'd like

Dressing Ingredients(Apple Cider Vinaigrette):
2 Cups Apple Cider
1/4 Cup Cider Vinegar
1/4 Cup Honey
1 Cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt

To make dressing:
In a jar with tight fitting lid, combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove cinnamon stick.

Can be stored in refrigerator for several weeks.

To make salad:
Toss romaine and apples in dressing. Add as much walnuts, craisins, and bleu cheese as you'd like. Eat.

Mom's scarf

Thanks to my beautiful mom for allowing me to take this photo. She's wearing my first photographed knitted garment. (Can a scarf be a garment?) Anyway, I double stranded two types of mohair, wool, and alpaca blend yarn and just did a 1x1 rib. The yarn is amazing.

I love you Mom!!

New totes and bible

I just wanted to share....

I finally bought some grocery totes from our produce guys. I have no idea why it has taken so long, but we have them now.

My current stash of plastic bags will soon turn into plarn. Ever heard of that? It's quite the technical term for plastic bag yarn.... yeah.

I also picked up this Produce Bible. The book is filled with practical advice on how to choose, store, and prepare fresh produce, as well as basic cooking techniques, nutritional information, and suggestions for companion foods. Plus, it's filled with beautiful photos.

A preface to any posted recipes...

I intend on posting recipes from time to time, but thought I should preface them....

Everything I make is an experiment.
Everything I make is made from locally grown ingredients.
I like spicy food, so if your taste isn't the same, you may want to cut out some of that hot stuff.

Last for now: I have fun cooking.... I hope you do too.

Happy cooking everyone!

Winter Vegetable Soup

My first recipe posting and hopefully some inspiration to check out your local farmer's market!

I picked up this recipe from epicurious.com and apparently it's one of Madonna's fav's. I made it about a week ago and just went back to the market to get more winter root veggies to make it again.

You should feel free to experiment with different veggies especially if you don't have access to all the ones listed below. Try and stick with the Winter Root variety, but have fun too.

Soup:
Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1 cup peeled, cored and coarsely chopped Granny Smith apple
1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped turnip
1 cup peeled and chopped butternut squash (seeds discarded)
1 cup coarsely chopped carrot
1 cup peeled, chopped sweet potato
5 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock
2 tbsp maple syrup
Cayenne pepper

Instructions:
For soup, heat oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add apple, turnip, squash, carrot, and sweet potato; season with salt, then sauté 5 minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add syrup, then cayenne pepper to taste. Cool slightly. Puree with a hand mixer, food processor or blender.

Toast:
Ingredients:
1 small whole-grain baguette
3 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Instructions:
For toast toppers, cut 6 slices bread and toast them. Spread 1/2 oz goat cheese on top of each; sprinkle with chives. Pour soup into 6 large bowls; float toast on top.

ENJOY!

Have you seen

The Olympic Mountains lately? I sure wish I could take the camera out and enjoy the light today, but soon enough it'll be Spring and I'll be that girl you can't get out from behind the lens.

If you have a chance today to get out and check out those Big White Peaks across the Sound, please do.

It's that time....

To actually get this blog going. I'm not going to stress if it's at a slow pace, so long as it has a pace at all.

So here goes....

To blogging.....