THE GAMINE: March 2012

Fresh From The Farm

Friday morning started with a big box of farm fresh veggies!

How to Tell If an Egg is Fresh: bonappetit.com

Dinner For One

Dinner for one :

Homemade veggie burger

Steamed artichoke

Fresh pickles from Sonoma Brinery

Stella Artois

Unfortunately this recipe still needs a little work. It sort of had the consistency and taste of lumpy paste. Glad I tried it on a night I was alone!

Spring Flowers

Took a brief moment to enjoy the beautiful flowers blooming in the yard today.

Tea

I had a little tea party

this afternoon at three.

Twas very small-

three guests in all-

just I, myself and me.

Myself ate all the sandwiches,

while I drank all the tea;

'twas also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me.

-Jessica Nelson North

Today I occupied myself in a desultory but pleasant manner, doing a number of small tasks around the house. This is one of my favorite ways to spend time when I am procrastinating working in my studio.

I've been living in my house for about six months and I'm still working on getting it all set up. I put things where ever they made sense when my goal was to get everything unpacked. Now I'm working on actually making things look good. Today's goal was to get a few of my collections to look good and not just like a bunch of clutter.
Try not to have to many collections in one room to avoid the cluttered look. Try to pick just one or two and keep them appropriate for the room they will be living in. Salt and pepper shakers in the kitchen, perfume bottles in the bathroom or dressing area and so on. If you are like me and love collecting, editing is not easy. Keeping some things in storage and rotating through out the year is one possibility that might work for you.
I don't know if anything actually looks better or less cluttered, but a few things got rearranged and some even got dusted!

Thomas Keller�s Perfect (Yes, Perfect) Poached Egg: bonappetit.com

Thomas Keller�s Perfect (Yes, Perfect) Poached Egg: bonappetit.com

Yes, I love a really good poached egg!

Monday, Monday...

Monday night and what is for dinner? Well I thought it might be fun to try another recipe from "The Meat Free Monday Cookbook". This time I ventured into summer and chose Paella Verduras. Week eleven.

I was able to find Paella rice at our local Whole Foods. We had a fresh baby spinach salad on the side.

Not every dinner makes everyone happy. This was the case tonight. I thought the recipe was very good but my husband disagreed. This dinner was just a little outside the box with its fava beans and red peppers. I think it would have gone over better with the traditional meats but alas no meet on Mondays! Tomorrow I will make him traditional spaghetti and sausage to make it up to him.

SPINACH SALAD

fresh baby spinach
spanish onion
shaved parmesan cheese
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix in salad bowl and enjoy!

Meat free Saturday

Saturday morning started with an Amazon box at the door. Inside it was the new "The Meat Free Monday Cookbook". I'm always on the hunt for good vegetarian recipes. I collect cookbooks, read endless blogs and cooking magazines, so with great enthusiasm I couldn't wait to make something from this new cookbook. Overlooking the fact that it was a Saturday I decided to make The "Best Ever Banana Bread" from week two and the "Spring Vegetable Tarte Fine" from week one.
The banana bread is gluten free. Don't be scared, it had a nice consistency. If you have tried a lot of gluten free breads, they tend to have a very grainy consistency. This was not too bad. I would recommend it. It went very nice with a four o'clock cup of expresso and milk.

I made the spring vegetable tarte fine for dinner with a bowl of homemade mushroom soup on the side. This is a great recipe that I will make again. This could work for a normal weekday dinner or for company.