for the love of cheesiness!

Remember when we were in London and I fell in love with scones. Well there is one thing better then a scone, and that is a scone with cheese baked inside. Trust me. Now go make some.

because running a marathon wasn't enough..

As many of you know, we travelled to Utah last weekend so that Dave could compete in the St. George marathon. And many of know you know that Dave didn't just finish the marathon he ran it FAST. 3:26 fast! Given a time like that, you might think that we layed low for the rest of the weekend, but you'd be wrong. After the race (and a short nap), we decided to take in the local sites which amounted to a drive through Zion National Park and a stop in Hurricane (pronounced "hur ih kun" by the locals) for some fresh apple cider. We woke up Sunday with the long drive back to LA in front of us and decided on a quick detour through Snow Canyon because really it was too close to miss. Then after that we decided to take a two lane highway out of St. George looking for something interesting for lunch. We somehow ended up at Kayenta, a small community with some amazing blue corn waffles. Then we realized that we were (relatively) close to a land art piece, Double Negative. We knew vaguely how to get there as Dave had tried unsuccessfully to see it the year we met in a cross country land art tour with some friends. That year, he was in the civic (aka red devil) and the civic wasn't quite up to the road conditions, but we were in the Audi! oh wait.. not an off road vehicle either but we gave it a go.

And it made it!..well most of the way.. we walked the last 1.3 miles across the top of the mesa...for this.

and it's only Tuesday

Apparently misery loves company because not only are Dave and I enduring triple digit heats, smoke from the "fire of the century', but we've also put our oven to some back breaking tests this week thus raising the temperature INSIDE the house to a balmy 98 degrees. oof. Now some of you know that we've started taking our eating habits seriously this year, but we've also taken our cooking to new levels, sticking to from scratch recipes with fresh ingredients when possible. We recently instigated Suppers with the Freelands in an effort to socialize more often and share our new love of all things yummy. This week is the inaugural Supper (tomorrow night to be exact) and while I thought the menu for the week planned including the Supper was appealing yet not overly taxing. I think I misjudged. Below is a list of what's come out of the oven or off the stove top since Saturday.

Tomato Rosemary Foccacia which was quite tasty, Cash can attest as well since he helped himself to half.
Boiled chicken for arugula salad
Our weekly loaf of French Bread
Hake with clams, rice and green beans from Spain cookbook
15 cups of chicken stock
Braised 5lb chicken for Rilletes-Day 1 (Supper dinner)
Duck fried rice and miso soup with tofu.
Sauteed shredded chicken for Rilletes - Day 2 (Supper dinner)..this better be worth it.
Chicken enchiladas with Ancho chile sauce, black beans and spanish rice from Mexico cookbook
Lemon greek yogurt ice cream (Supper dinner) Yes it was baked and a slight variation on the recipe linked. We added 1/3c lemon juice and substituted some honey for sugar. As a custard it tastes amazing and can't wait to try it frozen.

pure country..kind of

Last weekend Dave's parents were in town for a quick visit. We subjected them to the usually routine and took them to our new favorite destination near Los Angeles, Brophy Bros. in Santa Barbara. This place has the freshest fish for miles (my dad even agrees)...and the weekend lunch scene is not to be missed. But we didn't stop there...nope we pulled out all the stops and scheduled a nights stay in nearby Santa Ynez valley which I'll have to agree with the website is 'in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country'. This area is truly the country...and not like Napa or Sonoma either. We had Cash with us (the dog, not the currency) and the wineries were so laid back most ASKED us to bring the dog inside. This is also where the majority of Sideways was filmed for the movie fanatics out there. On Saturday, post lunch we stopped at Foley Estates, Sanford, and Lafond. The latter of which keyed is into Demetria Estates for our single (and favorite) Sunday tasting. Saturday, Dave and I managed to nap/sleep through our dinner reservations (apparently we are older than we realize) but luckily Bradley Ogden's new restaurant, Root 246 had an opening. The restaurant has a full farm to table menu that seriously can not be beet. (ha). A few pictures from the weekend can be found over on the sidebar through the flickr link.

my father's daughter: a poem in four parts

My dad is a Tarkio, Missouri farmer.

I grow things in LA which is a bit warmer.
Last year he grew corn, but this year has beans
I must have inherited some of his genes.

eat your greens

Lately, waiting for the garden to be edible is like watching paint dry. In fact, David said to me the other day that "staring at it will not make it grow faster" Really? Because I thought my stern glare was definitely forcing that corn higher. Specifically I've been waiting for the rhubarb because I have some dishes planned, like pies, cakes, and ice cream, but for the longest time its just been green stalks with a bit of red at the bottom. Granted the stalks are getting very large but 98% still green. Thus when we were in Brooklyn this weekend wandering by a farmer's market and I saw GREEN rhubarb for sale, I was very inquisitive. So I asked the vender, what he clearly thought was a ridiculous question,"Does rhubarb ripen after you pick it?" Duh, No! Then i follow with..."Can you eat green rhubarb?", to which he replies "would I sell it if you couldn't" Okay, fair enough Mr. Farmer's market man. But given that it is Brooklyn, I did some research upon our arrival home and wouldn't you know, some rhubarb is green! Well rather it doesn't ever turn red do to the climate. And with that my friends, Dave and I are tonight enjoying some chx thighs with a nice rhubarb chutney. Yum!

growing

Since starting seeds over a month ago the garden has seen big progress.

First Dave built a raised vegetable bed for the back yard.

Then we waited,
and waited.
and then finally!

Corn! 8 plants total + 10 more from thinning...

Beets (and cilantro top left)...these are red ringed (i think) and we have a row of yellow as well.

and the beans, seen here are french green, but we also have red (for chili and soup) and white. I think around 16 plants of each...that's a lot of magical fruit!
Also appearing this week are carrots, red & white onions, leeks, melon, eggplant, peppers, and okra.

Last but certainly not least, our berries and rhubarb plant are nearing their yumminess quotient.