Pesto, pesto!

One of the things I miss most about Princeton is my friend Hannah's homemade pesto. (And I miss Hannah, too!) But I found myself with all of this beautiful basil, some from the farmers' market and some from our garden:

So I made pesto, and tossed it with our favorite semi-local frozen pasta and local grape tomatoes.

With the leftover pesto, I topped a pizza:

I make our own crust in the bread maker. A batch makes enough for three pizzas, so I'll usually bake one right away and freeze the other two balls of dough. My secret ingredient is extra sugar in the dough -- thanks to Lee H. for that idea!

It's my blog, and I'll post if I want to

I'm back! After a week of not eating ... and therefore not cooking ... and certainly not feeling like writing about food, I'm back. But apparently:


Oh, well. I'm going to write about it anyway. New food posts coming soon!

World's Funniest Dog

This is Kirby, who was supposed to be taking a quick potty break before Brent and I left the house. Knowing we were on the way out the door, he decided to stage a sit-in in our beautiful, sunny garden.

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.

Rubbed with Love

Last summer on Orcas, Mom and Dad introduced us to Tom Douglas' Rub with Love salmon rub. We brought some home and have used it on salmon but especially love it on pork. We also recently used it on chicken. This year, we bought more salmon rub but also added pork rub to our collection, which we used on chicken tonight:



I had leftover grape tomatoes, goat cheese, and citrus dressing from "Bad-ass Pasta Primavera," so I made a salad by adding local organic romaine and not-so-local avocado. We topped it with the grilled chicken:

By the way, sometimes I am not nearly as bright as I look. I literally just now, while composing this post, realized that Tom Douglas of Rub with Love and Tom Douglas of Dahlia Lounge were the same. Duh!

Today at the Market

It was just a quick trip to the farmers' market today ... huge blackberries, bunches of basil, and some cookies for dessert. But raspberries were back and sweet corn is in season. So I'll be making a big trip next week!

Shout out

This delicious turkey-cranberry-walnut salad was one of the highlights of our short detour to Storm Lake, Iowa. We are now huge fans of the Grand Central Coffee Station.