Hello, June!

Oh look at that… I let May go right by without writing ANYTHING. Whoops. I’d like to promise that it won’t happen again, but let’s be honest… we’ve been here before. (Plus, I’d hate to lie to all five of the people still reading this blog. Ha.) 

I might not be writing, but I am still cooking. I’ve acquired a new cookbook (thanks to Karen!), and the more I read it, the more I’m convinced that I could be friends with Bridget and Julia. (That’s not weird, right? I’m just cooking their recipes; not camping out at ATK in Boston.) 😀

I’m also monopolizing the library’s copy of The Perfect Cake, which is counteracting all of my summer exercise. So far, I’ve tried one of the mug cakes, the chocolate sheet cake,  the icebox Margarita cheesecake, the strawberry dream cake, and the Boston cream pie. I’m hoping to make at least a couple more cakes before I hit the renewal limit in a couple weeks. 🙂

We also planted our garden! We’ve added a raised bed, so things are a little less crowded (in theory… somehow we still ran out of room), and our lettuce just started to poke up through the ground yesterday.  Grow, baby, grow! Our rhubarb is up and thriving, so I’m going to start filling the freezer and make a few desserts along the way.

For the first time in five years, we aren’t participating in a CSA. Our CSA farm isn’t offering a CSA share this season, so we’re going to try their market share instead. I have mixed feelings about it, but I am excited for the season to start! (I’ll definitely miss the “grab bag” aspect of a CSA, since it forces me out of my comfort zone, but it will be nice to get to the farmer’s market regularly. And I won’t miss trying to find ways to use the kohlrabi.) 

That pretty much brings us up to the present. I do have an ice cream recipe to share soon, so hopefully June isn’t as quiet here as May was!

Summer Reading

Look at what I just picked up from our library!

In line with my “try before you buy” philosophy, I reserved a copy of “The Best Mexican Recipes” from America’s Test Kitchen a few weeks ago. As with most of their cookbooks, there was a waiting list, and I finally got the email saying it was my turn. I’ll have it for four weeks (unless I luck out and get to renew it), so I need to come up with a must try list ASAP. Andy has already requested drunken beans, which appear to be the Mexican version of baked beans, so we will be trying that soon. If I’m organized enough to get some pictures, I will be sharing them here!

In other food-related reading, I also picked up “Never Out of Season” by Rob Dunn. The tagline on the cover says, “How having the food we want when we want it threatens our food supply and our future.” It sounded interesting and timely to me, as our CSA should be starting up soon, and that’s all about seasonal eating! 

Speaking of seasonal eating, our garden is all planted (minus the dill seed, which will wind up in the flower bed since we ran out of room in the garden again), and I have been harvesting rhubarb for a couple of weeks. Yay for seasonal desserts! I  planted two new-to-me types of basil this year, lemon and Thai, along with the regular Italian basil. I cannot wait for the plants to grow a little more so I can start picking leaves. Our garlic is going strong, and I am ready for scapes to appear. Edible plants are the best. 🙂 Happy almost-June, everyone!

New Reading Material

Look at what I have for two weeks!

I’ve had this on my library wish list for several weeks, and I finally made it to the top of the waiting list. I will probably read through it, and hopefully get to try at least a few recipes. I am so excited! If I’m on top of things, I will get a few pictures too. 🙂

Reading List!

Yesterday, I visited the library on my way home from work. (In theory, I was there to pick up some movies for our weekend entertainment, because yes, we are that lame cheap old insert your own adjective. Movies from the library = Friday night at our home.) 

But since I was there, why not kill two birds with one stone? I was just going to look for one book (Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes) in order to get some ideas for several baby shower cakes/cupcakes that are coming down the pike. Even though that one wasn’t available, I still picked up quite a few books for my weekend reading. 

• Ripe for Dessert, David Lebovitz (Dessert with fruit? How fast can I try every recipe?) 
• Everyday Pasta, Giada De Laurentiis (Have I mentioned my love for carbs?)
• Cupcakes, Shelly Kaldunski (I did get a cupcake book, so we’ll see if it’s as good as Martha’s.)  
• Fondant Modeling for Cake Decorators, Helen Penman (I picked this one up so Karen and I can work on our fondant skills… hopefully there’ll be instructions on building a flamingo!) 
• Let Us Eat Cake, Sharon Boorstin (Anything with the subtitle “Adventures in Food and Friendship” is going to catch my eye.) 
• My Life in France, Julia Child (Seems like one of those books that I should read… even though I haven’t made any of Julia’s recipes… yet.) 

Thankfully, my library lets me keep books for four weeks. That should give me ample time to try a few recipes (like those cream-puff-looking things on the back of the dessert book) and hopefully an evening or two to read the others. And maybe then I’ll pick up the next Hunger Games book…