ps i love the farmer's market!

Gloria, Jarrod, and I went to the Iowa City Farmer's Market this morning. It was Gloria and my second time and Jarrod's first and I am just in love with the Farmer's Market. Farmer's Markets make me so happy that Jared (not the same person as Jarrod but their names are pronounced the same—not confusing at all) said to me two weeks ago, "Is this your first time at a Farmer's Market?" No. It was not. I just love them so much they make me happy and I can't stop smiling, that's all.

Today at the market I bought some green beans and apples for dinner tomorrow (I'm hosting our dinner group and making pork chops baked in apples with green beans and rice on the side—so excited!), some beeswax for bookbinding, apricot goats cheese, fresh mozzarella, dried apple chips, and, perhaps most importantly, some cockscomb flowers (see pictures).  I saw them at the market and instantly fell in love. These pictures don't really do them justice. They are fluffy and coral-y and red-magenta-y and amazing. Jarrod went out into the yard and cut the greens and other flowers and helped me arrange them and do they or do they not look amazing?! MUCH better than the pure hosta arrangements I'd tried earlier.

I bought 3 stems of cockscomb and they were so thick that only 2 fit in my milk glass vase, so I pulled out this little square vase I had left over from an arrangement my mom sent me for my birthday a few years ago and it was puh-fect! I just trimmed the stem way down, wrapped the inside with leaves and filled it with water. Now I have a big arrangement for the dining room table (and dinner tomorrow) and a tiny one for my breakfast table to enjoy every day. Flowers make everything happier.

So do Farmer's Markets.

PPS Jarrod and I made Lemon Soufflé Pancakes with homemade blueberry sauce after we couldn't find the ward football pancake breakfast and it was AMAZING!

Fun fact: it is possible to whip egg whites with just a whisk, but it does take a long time and a lot of arm power: it helps if you have more than one person and one of you is named Jarrod. Here are the recipes for your culinary enjoyment (thanks Aunt Taunya!):

Lemon Soufflé Pancakes  

Combine following ingredients and set aside:
1 Cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
¼  tsp Salt
2 teaspoons of lemon rind

Mix following ingredients and fold into dry ingredients:
¾ C milk
3 Tbs melted butter
1 egg yolk

Whip until peaks form and fold into combined mixture above:
3 egg whites

Adding Blueberries is also AMAZING or just serve with the Blue Berry Sauce!

Blueberry Sauce
 2Tbs. Butter
1/4 C. sugar
1 pint blueberries

Melt butter, mix in sugar then stir in blueberries.  Cook for 2 minutes, stirring.  The sauce is ready when the juice has thickened some but the blueberries still retain their shape.

best thing since before sliced bread

What's the best thing since BEFORE sliced bread, you ask? I will tell you: homemade bread. I made some today, checking another thing off my secret "Things I Will Do Once I Move To Iowa" list. I'd made homemade artisan bread before and, while tasty, I was looking for a recipe that would be a more everyday type bread. I googled simple bread recipes and came across this beauty, reproduced here for your baking pleasure:

Prep Time: 3 hours

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

Ingredients:

·      3/4 cup warm water

·      1 package active dry yeast

·      1 tsp salt

·      1-1/2 tbsp sugar

·      1 tbsp vegetable shortening

·      1/2 cup milk

·      3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

Preparation:

1.     In large bowl, add the warm water. Slowly stir in dry yeast. Continue to stir until yeast is dissolved.

2.     Add salt, sugar, shortening, and milk to bowl. Stir.

3.     Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.

4.     If needed, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough chases the spoon around the bowl.

5.     You do not need to use up all the flour called for in this recipe, or you may need more flour than called for. The amounts vary depending on many factors, including weather, which is why most bread recipes only give an approximate amount of flour needed.

6.     Turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding small spoonfuls of flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.

7.     Put dough in buttered bowl, turn dough over so that the top of dough is greased. Cover and let rise in warm spot for 1 hour.

8.     Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured board and knead.

9.     Preheat oven at 375 degrees F.

10.  Form dough into loaf and set in buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.

11.  Score dough by cutting three slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Put in oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

12.  Turn out bread and let cool on a rack or clean dishtowel.

I accidentally let my bread rise for two hours the first time instead of just one, and though it turned out a little misshapen, it was still delicious. Here, you can see for yourself:

Check out that golden brown goodness! Doesn't it look good enough to eat? (I'll let you in on a secret: it was.)

The lovely white innards. The bread was light and fluffy and SO good. You can see how it's not exactly symmetrical, but that didn't affect the taste at all.

So, I encourage you to be bold and try making some bread of your own! If you don't feel comfortable kneading, I'm told there are some very helpful videos on YouTube (right, Chaela?).

In other news, I have officially sent out all my emails requesting letters of recommendation for my graduate program applications (6 in all), have a meeting scheduled for next Tuesday that will hopefully end in an offer to become a binder at the conservation lab in the university library, have posted new items on my etsy (good news for all of you out there following and making comments! More goodies to choose from if you win!), and am planning on participating in a world record breaking hokey pokey dance tonight. You know, normal things.

And I am still LOVING my red velvet cake box planner.

homemade pizza

One of my favorite recipes I have is one for homemade pizza. That's right, crust and all. Are you intimidated? Impressed with my culinary skill? You shouldn't be. It's easy, you can do it too.

Here's the recipe, which I got from my lovely friend Jen over a year ago:

1/2 T yeast
1/2 c. warm water
1/2 t sugar
1/4 t salt
1 T oil
1 1/2 c. flour

Take the yeast and mix in the warm water until the yeast has all dissolved. Then add the other ingredients. I usually add a little more flour at the end because the dough is still sticky. You can either cook this on a pizza stone (if you are blessed enough to have one) or just on a regular cookie sheet. I do it either way. If you want to go the pizza stone route you'll need corn meal to put on the pizza peel so it will slide off nicely onto the stone.

After you've got the dough all mixed up, roll it out onto your surface of choice. I've never owned a rolling pin so I usually just push it out with my fingers until it's about the size I'd like, or I use a plastic tumbler as a rolling pin to get it started. This amount of dough supposedly gives you between a 9-10 in pizza, but it really depends on how thick you make your crust. It you want it thicker, it'll be smaller. If you want it thinner it'll be bigger. If I remember correctly, if you want to fill an entire standard sized cookie sheet you'll need to double the recipe.

Add sauce, cheese, and toppings of choice. Some of my favorite toppings are zucchini, pepperoni, tomato, green peppers, onions, and asparagus. Lots of vegetables that you wouldn't normally consider to be pizza worthy are actually amazingly delicious, like the asparagus. You can also swap out the red pizza sauce for bbq sauce and put chicken on top to make a bbq chicken pizza and that is also a-MAZE-ing.

Once all your sauces, cheeses, and toppings are on, stick it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes. I usually err on the longer side to make the crust a little crispier. Sometimes the sauce gets a little soupy so you have to eat it with a fork and knife, but that's no big deal. Also, did I mention it is delicious?

So there you have it. Easy peazy. Now go make yourself some!

tender mercies

Today is the second to last day of the month. So of course I haven't done my visiting teaching. And my companion Summer is harder to track down than a vegetarian at a hoe down, so I decided I would go on my own. Instead of baking cookies and writing a note that says, "Sorry we missed you, enjoy these cookies" I felt inspired instead to put together an elaborate cornacopia of produce and deliciousness that I acquired today at two of my favorite food suppliers: the food co-op and the Farmer's Market. (Anyone who knows me even a little knows that I love these two things very very much. And if you didn't, you do now.) So, if you'll kindly look below you will see my twin creations. I think they turned out pretty well. And yes, those are cereal boxes that they are in. Or rather, one cereal box cut in half and lined with grocery bags. I was pretty proud of myself indeed... Also included was a note slipped under the ribbon around the bread that said, "Sorry we missed you, enjoy this food" (well, not really, but kind of).

As I was on my way over to deliver said goodies, I was walking across the parking lot and I heard my name yelled from above. I look up saw that it was Celeste Cummings. Celeste used to live in Campus Plaza, but has since moved on to bigger and better things. And by that I mean she moved down the street which, by the way, puts her in a different ward and stake. Oh Provo. But there she was on the third floor of Campus Plaza yelling my name. So I said hi back and we chatted a bit from a far, then I went and dropped off my food to my girls on the south side of the building. On my way back home I decide to swing around to the north side of the building instead of just walking down the south side stairs so that I could actually talk to Celeste from a distance of less than 100 feet. Sadly, as I rounded the corner I saw her already walking away with John Taylor and another friend in tow. 

Normally, seeing that I was too late to catch her, I would have just let it go, but for some reason I hurried after them. I caught up with them at Celeste's car and she came over and gave me a hug and invited me to dinner. What? I was worried that I was intruding on a pre-planned dinner party (which I have learned in the past is never a good idea, even when invited) but when she said that it was all spur of the moment I said, "Sure!" and got in the car. My plan of saying yes was again put into action. 

So we went to Celeste's house. And made delicious tinfoil dinners which included potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, garlic, and BACON! They were so good. We grilled chicken on the side. While we waited for them to cook we played the card games Blink! and Zeus on the Loose. I liked them both a lot. And not just because I won. Celeste, John Taylor and Celeste's friend Carrie are fabulous people. They really are. They are the kind of people that you just love to be around because they are cheerful and encouraging and just nice. And that's just how they are. They aren't pretending. Celeste was always sure to include me in any conversation, explaining about people or events if I didn't know what they were talking about. I love people like that so much because I think that is just so considerate and I like feeling included.

After dinner there was talk of going to Celeste's ward activity to watch a movie in the park. At this point I almost excused myself because the movie was one I'd never heard of before (Paul's Neighbor, or something to that effect) and I was afraid it was going to be lame, but I reminded myself that I really had nothing else to do (and besides, I was having a great time) so I went. The movie ended up being Madagascar 2 (which was surprisingly good) and again, with Celeste, Carrie and John Taylor it was 10 times better. 

All in all it ended up being a great night. A fabulous night! One for the history books. Or rather, blog annuls...

Moral of the story? Always do your visiting teaching, even if you feel lame going by yourself with only food and no message. Okay, maybe that's not a great moral. What about: when people you don't really know invite you into their cars and into their homes, you should always go. That's much better.

cinnamon rolls

Today my roommate Chelsea and I made cinnamon rolls to bring to one of the girls we visit teach—she has 3 finals to take tomorrow plus get all her stuff packed so she can leave early the next morning for San Diego. We put some whole wheat flour in them to make them more substantial and breakfast-y and I'm going to bring them over to her tomorrow before my 7 am usage final. We had a bunch of extra (we are only giving her 3) so I packed some up to bring to my friend Paige to thank her for lending me one of her books, and then let the roommates and their fiancees and home teachers have the rest. They were gone within the hour. There is something satisfying about making food and being able to share it with other people. I just might become one of those people that always doubles a cookie recipe and then gives the excess to people I feel impressed would appreciate them. Just maybe...

fancy

Once upon a time Megan and I were in a philosophy class together that we affectionately called Drawing with Darin. Part way through the year I become addicted to this snack called fancy trail mix. Megan would laugh at me and my fancy trail mix but always wanted some. One time at a gas station on a road trip we saw some mojo trail mix and Megan told me that it was way better than my fancy trail mix, but in actuality it was fancy mojo trail mix.

Today I made more granola, which Megan also loves (and Sydney accuses me of being obsessed with—she might be right). We were going to make it together but our schedules just never lined up, so I made it alone today and decorated this fabulous container, filled it with granola, and gave it to the Megan. She loves me. And I love her.

lust

Today I made lust. Also known as chocolate scarabs. (Or scabies, right Chaela?) They are delicious and easy. Let me tell you how to make them:

1 pkg of square pretzels

2 pkg of rollos (the big bag kind)

1 pkg of halved pecans

Line the pretzels up on a cookie sheet and place one rollo on each pretzel until there is one rollo per pretzel. Then put the cookie sheet in the oven (set at 350) for 3 minutes to melt the rollos. Take the cookie sheet out and before the chocolate hardens push one pecan half into each pretzel/rollo set. That's it!

You can let them cool for a while or eat them hot. If you're going to serve them, like at a party or something, I suggest putting them in the fridge to cool them before you put them in a bowl so they don't stick together. Enjoy!

alchemy

Recently I've been doing a lot of alchemy. Here are a few of my favorite creations:

This chicken noodle soup, made from scratch, is displayed attractively in a local, handmade bowl bought earlier this month at Bowls For Humanity. It tastes really good with saltine crackers, apples, and Colby Monteray Jack cheese.

This is beef stew that I made with my mom when she was visiting this weekend. It is one of my favorite meals. The bread and beef are both from my monthly order from the Utah Community Food Co-op. I highly recommend it. Both the stew and the food co-op. Also, I can you tell that I love this bowl?

I've also made some delicious banana bread, but I do not have a picture of it. My friend William gave me the recipe and he is quite a baker. His recipe makes 5 mini-loaves and one big loaf. Great for giving to people who you love. Or who you want to love you...

Granola is also good but sans photograph. It gets eaten so fast it's gone before I remember to take a picture. It is one of Megan's favorites. Even more than fancy trail mix.

Perhaps someday I'll give you the recipes.

i am writing.