Good morning, Sunshine

We love coffee. It is the theme of the decor in our kitchen.



So we grind our own each and every time we make a pot. Right now, we're drinking coffee roasted on Orcas.



We usually have decaf after dinner. On my to-do list is to find a good local coffee roaster, but right now we're drinking fair trade coffee purchased at a local independent coffee house, True Grounds. Usually we are customers of the big, bad corporate behemoth. But we should reconsider.

Fresh and local

We were homesick for Orcas from the moment we left. While we were there, just about everything we ate was fresh and local -- the fish, the meat, the vegetables, the fruit. The colors and flavors were unbelievable. So we've been trying to recreate it at home, which means lots of (expensive) trips here and here. We also wanted to try to recreate a fabulous dinner Brent had at the Inn at Ship Bay. So we present, "Bad-ass Pasta Primavera":

I splurged on fresh, local pasta (though next time, I'll go back to the regular stuff). The veggies -- grape tomatoes and a couple of kinds of squash -- are from local farms. The "sauce" is a citrus vinaigrette (lemon juice, lime juice, zest, olive oil, sugar, and salt) and lots and lots of goat cheese.

Tonight, we went with an old stand-by, Broiled Salmon with Marmalade-Dijon Glaze:


We used wild Coho salmon -- get it while it's in season! It made the dish. I have been using low sugar (but no artificial ingredients!) marmalade for my orange recipes lately, and it's great. On the side, I sauteed local (of course!) chard with garlic and oil and warmed some leftover homemade wheat dinner rolls. The mix of salty-bittery chard and sweet salmon was perfect!