Spaghetti

Warm weather food: whole wheat spaghetti, tomato, onion, parsley, capers, olive oil, salt and pepper, served cold. So good. So good in fact, I ate too much.

Life Goes On

Things I've been loving

Homemade Yoghurt: I tried JCasa's homemade yoghurt recipe. I love it. No, correction, I LOVE IT. I was nervous with the first batch. In this hyper-pristine world, anything that includes leaving a dairy product out for hours is enough to strike terror into this 21st century girl's heart. But guess what? Not only will it not kill you, it is delicious, economical and being made weekly in this here household. I've tried it with a few different toppings. So far I'm really enjoying honey and berries.

Early Morning Walks:

Clear my head. Get me going. Involves lots of bug swatting, but it's amazing what some fresh air does for your disposition before jumping into a busy work day.

New Sewing Projects:

While I don't have the guts to try out the Challenge of the Utmost Kind (yet), I am trying to work hard to incorporate handmade into my wardrobe more. Right now I'm working on a top that is part knitting/part sewing. It's taken a bit to get the two to mesh, but it's finally starting to come together. This is unlike the cardigan that didn't fit (due to me casting on too few stitches for the left front) AND THAT HAD TO BE FROGGED. That, is another story.

Violets

I had no idea violets were edible until I read this post on Resurrection Fern (link). Since then, I've been looking at the backyard in a whole new light.

In a similar vein, I watched Food Inc. the other night. It's really had me pondering what I consume and trying to think of ways that I can adjust my own eating patterns. I'm thinking there will be much planting of seeds in a few weeks.

But back to the cupcakes -- the batter and recipe are from an old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It's nothing fancy, but tasty and perfect for the weekend.

Lemon Goodness

I've checked Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook out of the library at least three times in the past year. Each of those times, I've renewed the book at least twice. I really should just break down and buy it, especially considering how tasty the lemon sugar snap cookies are. The only change I made was to add some lemon juice (instead of additional zest that I didn't have), while adding just a bit more flower to compensate.

Cupcakes

The cupcakes were for the weekend, but the sugar rush could last a lifetime.

The specs? The cupcake recipe was from the side of the flour box and the icing courtesy of The Gentle Art of Domesticity. There was also a package of Dots, a roll of Necco wafers and sprinkles galore involved.

And the last one was finished tonight. Mmmm.

Soup's On

Best soup. Ever. Maybe that's hyperbole, I don't know. I'm so in love with this it's hard to be rational.

I read a lot of magazines, but I throw them out as soon as I'm done otherwise my living space would be over-run with glossies. I have a red three ring binder though that I keep stuffed with torn out pages. I've got a section for home decorating, clothing refashion ideas, holiday crafts and yup, recipes.

While looking for something easy, fast and hot (because dang, have you been outside lately?), I found this one from Rachel Ray. You can get the recipe on her site here. The only thing I didn't do was put the whole thing through the food processor because I like my corn chowder chunky. And I am also inherently lazy and hate washing a food processor. The truth hurts.

Unfortunately the entire batch has been consumed and I am staring down a lunch of ramen noodles. Sob! I think I'll need to whip up another batch like now.

Frothy

I made mocha au lait-s today for my mom and I. It's one of my favorite coffee drinks; it gives you a chocolate fix without the kick of the espresso shot you get in a cafe mocha.

Here's the way I make a mocha au lait. There's a lot of variety in recipes, but I like the way this tastes:

You need:

A coffee mug

Spoon

Milk Frother (you can try whisking the milk on the stove,

but I've never had much luck with this)

Ingredients:

Coffee

Milk

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 tablespoon sugar (alternately you could use chocolate syrup

in place of the cocoa powder/sugar)

Directions:

In coffee mug, mix sugar and cocoa powder. Pour in coffee, filling cup halfway, then stir. Heat half cup of milk in the microwave for one minute, longer if you like your drink hotter. You can heat the milk on the stove, but I'm usually too impatient to do this.

Once heated, froth milk until foam appears. Pour hot milk into coffee/chocolate mixture, using spoon to keep foam from pouring into the drink. Once the milk is poured in, spoon leftover foam onto the top of the drink. Garnish with cocoa powder.

Viola!