Into each life, some rain must fall…hopefully!

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We’ve waited and waited. Weeks on end without rain and with record high temperatures, close to or in the 90’s, and dry as a bone. Then finally this weekend, some rain!

Our house in the forest, by artist Jeanie Holland.

A time or two now, I believe I’ve mentioned that our property is mostly shaded. And by this I mean we practically live in a forest of 80-year-old and 100-foot-tall pine trees, with an understory of dogwood trees, Japanese maples, shade-hearty shrubs, and various perennial plants and ferns.

From the get-go, I knew my desire to have a vegetable garden of any type was an exercise in futility, but I pursued it anyway. And this spring, on top of having no sun in my yard, we’ve struggled with having very little rain at a time when we usually get the bulk of rainfall we’re going to for the next few months. The clouds tease, the forecasters make promises and all the moisture goes right around us. I’ve watered, only just enough to keep everything going and within our watering restrictions, but city water with all that chlorine just isn’t what the plants want. Then Friday rolls around, and what’s this? We have moisture coming from the sky…ta da! Suddenly everything is growing again. Continue reading →

Picnic Perfection: Couscous Salad

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Ready for the picnic, cookout or pot luck, this salad has outdoor fun written all over it!

As a complement to my last post, I’d like to share one of my favorite salads that is just great for picnics, a cookout or a weeknight vegetarian dish. I first saw this couscous salad by chance on an episode of Paula Deen’s cooking show on the Food Network, and intrigued, I adapted it a bit to my taste…then a bit more. It’s one that comes together very quickly and lends itself to adaptation, so you may wish to try your own versions as well. Couscous is so versatile, which is one of the things I really love about it! Continue reading →

Day Tripping: Mountains, a Winery and a Picnic

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Lovely Dicks Creek Falls at the juncture of Waters Creek and Dick’s Creek in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

As I’ve alluded to before, we’ve had a rather turbulent Spring around here thus far which has resulted in a few blips on my blogging radar, as well as generating a pervasive feeling of constantly playing catch-up. After returning to town last week, I found myself extremely busy with a hundred things to do on my plate and by the time the weekend approached, I had begun to feel the need to get away from it all for a few hours and recharge the emotional batteries. What better way to do that than a little day trip, I ask you? Continue reading →

Strawberry Orange Almond Crisp and a Terrific Casserole

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This photo almost ended up with the spoon in it…I couldn’t wait to taste!

I was out of town for several days at the end of last week to visit with family and friends, and took my new laptop with me so I could post and read while away. Woe was me when I found that I couldn’t “connect” from where I was due to spotty internet service and no wi-fi available yet. Ah, technology, it’s great when it works…

A fabulous bread pudding-like casserole that is great the next day, too!

I’m back home now and I’d like to share a couple of very tasty items I made before I left town. One was the lovely dessert above. The other was a dish from blogger friends Katherine and Greg over at Rufus’—a wonderful Kale, Spinach and Bread Casserole that we enjoyed oh-so-very-much and that I highly recommend. Katherine’s recipe, which you can find here, immediately got my attention because I’m such a fan of savory bread puddings and greens. She used gruyere and blue cheeses in hers, which sounds divine and I would have, too, except for the fact that I was leaving town and only had fontina and parmesan on hand. I’m happy to say that it was terrific with these two cheeses, so I know it must be outstanding with the other two…especially since gruyere and blue are two of my favorite cheeses. I’ll be making this one again, and thanks, Katherine, for the recipe!

And now for the dessert. I had lots of fresh Florida strawberries on hand, and I wanted to try something I’d never had or seen, a fruit crisp made with strawberries only. I’ve often wondered why you never seem to see a strawberry crisp even though you do see pies occasionally—I guess it’s because it takes a lot of strawberries to make one—but I have to say, it’s really a terrific thing! My recipe, which pairs the flavor of orange and some almonds with tart berries, is really a delicious way to enjoy this spring fruit treat. It’s not an overly sweet dessert and can be made more so when topped with vanilla ice cream, or more complex by enhancing the natural sweetness of the berries by topping it with crème fraiche. The first time we had it, ice cream was on hand, but I can tell you that the next day, using the crème fraiche just took it into the stratosphere! And of course, you could use whipped cream flavored with Grand Marnier…or whatever you like. Continue reading →

Orzo with Lemon, Asparagus and Ham

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Light and Lively…oh wait, that’s a yogurt isn’t it?

You know how sometimes you’re just putzing around in your kitchen and you remember some ingredient that’s been in the pantry for a while? You meant to use it before now, really you did! A perfectly good, even wonderful, ingredient like that little tin of some special something, that interesting package of pasta, dried beans, a grain of some type, that pesto. Well in my case it was, and is, orzo. Continue reading →

Ma’amool for Easter

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These cookies have Easter written all over them. Festive and rather stunning, if I do say so myself!

The Ma’amool mold with the tag.

A dear friend of mine is a treasure hunter. By this I mean she finds the most amazing treasures in any number of places…yard sales, estate sales, thrift stores, etc. She’s so good at it, that some of my most creative and interesting objects in the house are things that she’s found…everything from a hand painted swashbuckling hat holder to a  very cool and Don Quixote-styled metal horse sculpture. Last fall on my birthday, one of her gifts was an odd (to me), but really beautiful hand carved mold. Continue reading →

Strawberry Shortcake for Breakfast and the ABC Award

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We’ve had some fine Florida strawberries in the market lately and I wanted to make something special with them…at least special to us as we don’t eat dessert all the time around here. Enter the current issue of Bon Appetit, where I saw this recipe for shortcake that sounded intriguing and a bit healthier than some. Not that it has any ‘diet’ ingredients, or low fat this or that, but it incorporates ground almonds and oats into the batter…lovely! I tweaked it only a little in that I used half and half instead of cream because that’s what I had on hand. The result was really flavorful and not too sweet, with a coarser and more crumbly texture than the traditional biscuit or cake-y versions. We had some for dessert the first time, and then I realized I’d like it ever so much better for breakfast! I layered it with Greek yogurt instead of whipped cream and it was a really nice way to start the morning. Here’s the link to the original recipe, if you’d like to try it for yourself. Continue reading →

Salad Days

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“Salad days” is an idiomatic expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person’s heyday when somebody was at the peak of his/her abilities—not necessarily in that person’s youth. ~Wikipedia

Hmmm. I think somehow the term applies to this post.

For instance, it is Spring here in the northern hemisphere—as I’ve now gone on about ad nauseam—a youthful and innocent time for plants in the garden which are inexperienced in protecting themselves against insects and rabbits, not to mention very large cats who view direct-seeded spots in the garden as litter box potential…ewwwwww! And what’s more, it’s also the heyday of certain veggies like the noble asparagus, at the peak of its taste and ability to inspire new dishes.

Yep, it works for me! Continue reading →

A Hiccup, and What I Love About Spring

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Azalea blossoms in our yard shot with a macro lens. I think azaleas are fascinating!

Forgive me readers for I have been MIA. It’s been two weeks since my last post.

Missed me? I’ve missed you all….figuratively and literally! I’ve been dealing with some family health issues for the last two weeks, so had no time for cooking, blogging or keeping up to speed with other posts, either. So sorry about that…some of my fellow bloggers are so prolific I may never catch up! Since I still haven’t had time to get back on my schedule of cooking or just fun eating in general, I’ve decided to give you an update on things I will hopefully be cooking from my garden within a few months and my quarterly commentary on a few things I love about the season at hand….Spring! Continue reading →

That Thing About Spring

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Nothing says spring like Greek marinated and grilled pork loin chops, veggie kabobs and tzatziki sauce...at least to me!

We’re really getting a taste of spring around here now with our temps moving up from the mid to upper 60’s on Saturday to the low 80’s tomorrow and for the foreseeable future…whhaaaat???? Am I living in Florida? Pinch myself…nope, still in Atlanta. Whoa, that’s more like early summer!

Anyway, the birds are returning and the bees are buzzing, and all this activity resulted in some rather demonic energy on my part last weekend. Continue reading →