Santa Monica Farmer's Market

I just returned from a visit to Los Angeles to visit my son who lives there. I timed my flight arrival on Wednesday to make sure I could make it to the farmer's market at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

This is one of my favorite things. It was one of my favorite things when I lived there. If you go to Los Angeles, go to the 3rd Street Promenade on Wednesday mornings. You'll be glad you did.

Enjoy!

Things To Come

Wow, I am really amazed at how well our garden is doing! I think we just picked a great spot in the yard....it's getting lots of sunshine and apparently is very happy!

Soon we will have yellow squash. The tomatoes are also blooming like crazy...can't wait to have a tomato sandwich. There's nothing better in the summer, right, than a tomato sandwich with mayo and salt and pepper.


I have picked lettuce about 6 times now and there's still a lot still to go. I've shared with neighbors too and I'll need to pick again this weekend. But the spinach....it is delicious! We had some in a salad again last night. This I planted from seed and love how a pack of seeds that cost $1.29 produced so much spinach. I'll definitely plant spinach again. Who wants some?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So glad we put in the vegetable garden this year! I love watching it grow.

The lettuce is going crazy! I think the two big ones are ready to become part of a salad.

And the spinach now has little spinach leaves....this I planted from seed.

Also from seed, I planted French Green Beans....two have popped up!

We also have squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, and Brussels Sprouts.

It really is the little things that make us happy.

Ready For A Garden!

We decided last year (well, I did a lot of hinting and begging) to plant a garden this year. Last weekend, it finally was a great weekend, schedule and weather-wise, to lay it out and get the box built. We worked most of the afternoon Saturday digging the trenches where the boards would go, then finished up on Sunday replacing dirt and leveling out the space.










We had really good help...Haven is a great digger and she really got to it!





Then she had to settle back and just be the supervisor.

And we're done with that part. The next step will be to add lots of nutrient-rich soil, then wait for the proper time to plant.

We're thinking tomatoes for sure, maybe squash and cucumbers and some kind of bean. I can't wait! I just hope I do a good job with the weeding and watering...not really my strong suit.

Strawberry Jam

It's that time of year again!
Last week I picked four gallons of strawberries and got busy making jam. I also made a Strawberry/Mango version that turned out great and I'm glad I decided to do.



The strawberries were delicious and we ate a lot just as they were. The flavor is very far removed from any you get at the grocery store. But since they are so ripe and just picked, I had to make sure I got them all put away the same day so they wouldn't go bad.

After picking strawberries in the morning, I worked for the rest of the afternoon and got about 35 jars of strawberry jam and 25 jars of strawberry/mango jam. But now that's done for the year and on to the next crop that comes in fresh....peaches in July?

In between I'll be shelling peas and beans and canning green beans. I don't know why it took me so long to learn this, but eating in season is the best way. We ate strawberries for a week but they were delicious because they're in season and just picked. When cantaloupes, watermelons and tomatoes are ready, we'll eat that till we've had our fill. Then we'll wait till next year and do it all again. Such a fun time of the year, when fresh food taste best.

Lucky Lake Weekend

Here I am again, at Lake Burton for the weekend. My husband and the electrician have been busy all day installing something big, I don't really know what they're doing. Me, I've been knitting, reading, doing my nails, sitting in the sun. Yes, I'm lucky.

I'm just along for the ride. And to cook all the meals, of course. But that's no big deal at all!

I spent the morning watching the ducks go by, reading in the swing. Oh yeah, it's the life.


This evening I'll make steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, roasted asparagus, and a big salad. Hopefully Lindsay can relax. I sure am relaxed. And lucky.

Another Lake Weekend

Last weekend, my husband and I (and our dog Haven) were able to spend another relaxing weekend at Lake Burton. Last time we were there it was summer and the lake was very active. This time, there was hardly anyone there, very few boats on the water, and it was very quiet. So relaxing!

We stopped at the market on the way and bought fresh vegetables and apples for the weekend. There was a pumpkin there called "Marina di Chioggia", a green pumpkin that said would be good for ravioli and gnocchi.

I did not buy it, just wasn't in the mood for investing the time to make either. But it seemed interesting.

There were about 10 varieties of apples. We bought about 5 different kinds and enjoyed them all weekend. I also used them to make apple tarts later in the week.

They also had cranberry beans, one of my favorites. These have a beautiful red and white outer shell, and when you cook them, they taste a lot like pinto beans, only like fresh pinto beans. I cooked them the way I've recently discovered, with a bunch of sage and lots of garlic. They were delicious!

We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a Fall weekend.

Paris Markets

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Paris was the street markets. I could have just curled up and stayed there all the time. One day, I'll go there and shop every day and cook a great meal every day from food just purchased at the markets in Paris. I wish I was there right now, planning a meal, shopping for the food, and coming back to my apartment there and preparing an awesome meal. Ahhhhhh...

I have a lot of pictures of food at the markets, but here are highlights. I went to a market street called Rue Mouffetard and another called Marche Montorgueil. Both were awesome with separate vendors for fish, bread, cheese, wine, meat, and on and on. It was heaven.


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I could just cry, it was such heaven. I was drooling. Did I say this made me very happy?

Back From Paris

I just spent ten awesome days in Paris. I had never been before, I went by myself, spent the whole time exploring Paris except for one day-trip to Claude Monet's home and gardens.

Soon I will share highlights and pictures, including cooking at
Le Cordon Bleu Paris, the many miles of walking, eating in bistros, awesome street markets. For now, I must prepare for a client cook day tomorrow, back to reality. Stay tuned!

Pound Cake on a Rainy Sunday

It's been a nice, quiet, rainy Sunday here. And we really need the rain. The rain has cooled things off too which is awesome! Although I like summer, I'm always glad for the next season to come for the change in temperature. It's great that we live in Atlanta and actually have all four seasons.

Today I've been cooking. I made a chicken stew with cornbread muffins. I also made pound cake called "Million Dollar Poundcake." Here's what's left:

No, we didn't eat it all! We have a neighbor just home from an extended hospital stay and another neighbor, a WWII vet that we like to share meals with. We packed up chicken stew, cornbread muffins and pound cake fresh from the oven and delivered to them.

The pound cake is really easy to put together and is very moist and delicious. Here's the recipe:


Million Dollar Poundcake

2 cups butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.

Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in extracts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Enjoy!

End Of Summer

Summer is winding down and the days are not so awfully hot. We've been enjoying many dinners on the porch. It's nice to take time from our busy days to actually sit down to dinner together and enjoy a meal. We had a southern vegetable plate recently, nothing fancy, just good food. I made homemade cornbread and cooked some of the green beans I canned over the summer. I also found one last tomato that had ripened on the one tomato plant we grew this summer.

Blooms on my gardenia bushes have made a sudden re-appearance and I've been picking them for the table and inside the house....love the smell!

I'm getting excited about my upcoming trip to Paris. I had taken a French language course at Oglethorpe University last spring. I met with my French teacher yesterday and she gave me some good tips. I'm putting together a knitting project today that I'll take with me to work on on the plane. Maybe I'll do a little packing this weekend since I have a pretty hectic next couple of weeks just before I leave.

I've been teaching a session of cooking classes through Operation Frontline. Next Friday is our last class so I'll finish my menu planning this afternoon for that. What a great group of women and a fun class this has been. I really enjoy teaching these classes and hope to do another one soon.

I'll also be researching more vegan recipes this afternoon for an upcoming wedding shower I've been hired to do. So much fun learning new things!

Life is good!

Peach Butter and Cooking

Thankfully, I've been really busy lately with personal chef cook dates and yesterday was the first day in several days that I've been at home. I voted, did laundry, did errands, made a cake, cooked dinner, and made peach butter. My Aunt Tootsie got me a box of Alberta peaches from the same peach orchard as before. Sunday I made 15 pints of peach jam. With the rest of the peaches, I wanted to try peach butter.

I found a recipe online that said to make it in the crockpot. It was very, very simple. I filled the crockpot almost to the top with fresh sliced peaches, added cinnamon, allspice and ground cloves, then about 3 cups of sugar.


Set the crockpot on high and let it cook for about 6 hours. I then blended it with my immersion blender and filled the jars. Then a quick water bath in the canner and it was done.

Notice the crock pot I have from the 70's. It's a hand-me-down from my mother in law. Seriously, it still works great! Don't you love the avocado green color?This morning I had some peach butter on a piece of toasted bread. Delish! I have about another 16 peaches or so and am going to make another batch today.Last night we had a vegetable plate for dinner. Last weekend at Lake Burton at the Osage Farms market I bought some beans I'd never heard of...Peanut Beans. I shelled them and cooked them yesterday. They were very good, almost like a small pinto bean. We had those with fresh-shelled butter peas, corn that I cut off the cob, fresh tomatoes and cornbread. Yum!
Yesterday I also made a pound cake for new neighbors across the street. There was a June Cleaver moment when Lindsay came in the door from work and said, "wow, something smells good!" It was the cake. After the cake cooled, we took it over and met our new neighbors. They are very nice, have a two year old and another on the way.

It was nice to get a lot done yesterday. Hopefully another productive day today!