eat your fruits and vegetables

[carrots grown by my sister, avocados from my parents' yard, mangoes from a coworkers neighborhood. the rest i think all came from fruitville grove...]

fruits of the summer

i have been neglecting my blog, among other things in my life, for a bit now (workaholic tendencies taking over.......)

but may I just say....fresh avocado....fresh mango....

why would i live anywhere else???

yum.

Easter Colors

Last weekend (was it only last weekend?) I had the most lovely Easter tea with my family.

(We celebrate with food, in case you couldn’t tell…)

Here, take a look:

A rainbow of dye

Pastel

My niece’s first year dying eggs. She had so much fun. She was tossing the eggs in the dye with abandon. I started saying “plunk” every time she did, and she quickly picked up on that. Plunk, plunk, plunk. Luckily eggs of the hard-boiled variety are a little tougher than the raw ones.

In progress

The first dozen

Pink! My niece's favorite color. This dye took a long time to soak in though…not great for the impatient.

My rainbow (she shared the dying responsibility with us)

All twenty-four (pre-stickers)

Easter shards (following our traditional egg duel - does anyone else do that?)

Naked eggs

Egg purgatory

Deviled

Easter tea, courtesy of my mom and sister: meat pie, scones (with clotted cream and cherry jam), ham biscuits, pimiento cheese sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, babka, cupcakes, and a chocolate Easter bunny.

Cold cuts + fruit

Kielbasa, fresh and smoked

White borscht, with the fresh kielbasa (my dad's specialty)

Adorable cupcakes that my sister made. Cute and delicious! (She left some without the coconut grass for me…)

Easter rose

Savory Tarts

Bacon

atop

Onions caramelized in honey, white wine, and bacon drippings

atop

Creme fraiche with nutmeg, sea salt, and black pepper

atop

Puff Pastry

Left overs made for an excellent breakfast this AM.

My delectable weekend continued:

Strawberries

Grapefruit sorbet served up in a compost-able bowl/orange peel

Proscuitto di Parma and drunken goat cheese. I paid a visit to my one of my favorite places, Casa Italia, where my family used to stock up on delicious cold cuts, salads, cheeses, and cured meats for the holidays. As a I walked in the salesclerk chuckled, and I figured he was just feeling jovial. But upon checking out, I mentioned that I remembered coming in as a kid, and he said "Yes, I remember you," which explained his knowing laugh. It was nice to see a friendly face from the past.

(*I know my father is cringing at me playing with my food, and then photographing it and posting it for all the world to see but...) it was cut so beautifully thin. Translucent indulgence.

And some gnocchi with parmesan and basil, to finish the evening.

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning.

Strawberry muffins. My ratio of strawberry to muffin was a bit high, but who cares? They are tasty!

Let's give basil another try. My plant that lasted for years had me spoiled; I am still not used to having to start fresh every now and then.

Small-scale gardening...one day I'll have a yard, but this'll do for now...

My kitchen window. Which I can see now, from sitting on the floor to take this pic, is collecting quite a bit of dust underneath. Spring cleaning this afternoon...

Fair Days

So I missed the circus when it was in town. This was sad and also somewhat ridiculous. You see, the construction site I visited nearly every day for the duration of the circus…it was right across 12th Street.

I do love the circus…

BUT…

I did make it to the County fair!

I rode rides:

I ate fried foods:

I saw chickens:

And lots of others animals:

Ahh...fair days...

Spring Yellow

I seem to have developed a small obsession with photographing my vegetables, but they are just so pretty. I love market day.

Today I came home with these yummy vegetables (including one gigantic three pound romanesco!) and had a "Yellow Salad" for lunch: local organic lettuce and yellow tomatoes (less acidic than the red, I hear, and so delicious), and hard boiled eggs. I dressed it with an improvised pureed carrot, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, ground ginger, with a touch of honey concoction.

(And there I am, reflected in my salad bowl in my springy sundress, I see...)

Eating Healthy Food Is Prettier

Just look at these gorgeous specimens:

Dinner

All organic salad:

-strawberries*, tomatoes, and pickling cucumbers** from Parksdale Farms

-lettuce from Worden Farms***

* the size of plums and deep yummy red all the way through

** a) I did not know you could eat these un-pickled, and when I asked "You can eat those raw?" Mister Gary picked one up, took a bite and said "Yea...like this" and b) amazing crispy flavor!

*** still crispy after two weeks forgotten in my fridge...impressive

Add shredded sauteed zuccs from Parksdale Farms to my pasta (pasta not organic...BOGO from Publix).

YUM.

Romanesco, Beware!

(My romanesco, slightly less-than-perfect but with lovely 'arms' curling defensively up around it)

My sister discovered this vegetable called romanesco at my local Farmer’s Market. We call it the “fractal veggie” as it is like a cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower but in a geometrical fractal explosion.

It’s a Spring-ish (it’s getting towards Spring here in FL – not to make all of y’all who are currently snowed in jealous) veggie so I peer into the Worden Farms tent at the Farmers’ Market whenever I’m there, awaiting its arrival.

Last week I was out of town on market day, for my Mom’s birthday. But I’d mentioned this green geometrical wonder to my friend who also frequents the Farmers’ Market…lo and behold it was there! And she bought one for me!

So after work on Monday she grabbed it from her apt, met me at study group (study study study [why didn’t I pay more attention to moments of inertia and radii of gyration when I was in structures class??]) and passed it off to me after study group. But then we decided to continue studying (at a bar…strangely effective for the first 30 minutes or so), then went to dinner, and by the time the night was over…my beautiful veggie had slipped my mind.

Until…not when I got in my car Tuesday morning and should have seen it (still groggy), but when I arrived on a construction site soon after, and saw it sitting next to my notepad (which I’d thankfully remembered). Who brings raw heads of vegetable to a meeting on a construction site? So in my car it sat, in the thankfully cool morning lack-of-sun.

So when I made it into my office finally I felt like I was toting around a poor little orphan vegetable, which amused me to no end. I couldn’t leave it in my car so I brought it in. And I feared I’d forget it at the end of the day, so believe it or not, I set an Outlook Reminder to 4:50 pm “Romanesco – bring home”. Normally I’d have used a post-it, but alas, post-its don’t have times that can be set when they’ll pop up in your face…

So…to make the long and uneventful, but amusing-to-me, story of my orphan vegetable slightly shorter than it could have been…it’s now home safe and sound.

But I was too lazy to cook tonight and ate leftovers from my freezer. So, Romanesco, beware…tomorrow is your last day!

(The picture-perfect romanesco that the wikipedia folks found, in all its fractal glory)

Juicy

Healthy start to 2011: Yum. (Oh, Krystyna, you white liar [nibble nibble on the last of the holiday sweets...])

Late Night Snacks

Whilst snacking in bed, I discovered I have an edamame-colored quilt!

Late Nights and Beheaded Cauliflower

Most of my waking hours lately have been spent at the dreaded office…dreaded…but I am grateful to be working so…no further complaint there… Alas, I have not seen daylight hours in so long though so I’ve been playing with my camera inside in the evenings…mostly taking snaps of my food.-Gorgeous-orange sweet potato oven fries.-Drop biscuits, as all I had in my house that day were basic staples - little box of Parmalat, oil, flour, and thankfully baking powder at least. I’ve since been grocery shopping…-Sautéing pearl onions. I got so wrapped up in taking photos and playing with the settings on my camera that I actually burned the onions in my neglect of them.-Cauliflower soup (a new favorite thanks to my fancy new immersion blender, gift from my aunt and uncle!)-and my favorite…the beheaded cauliflower. Hahaha.