Life is in the Details

I love cookbooks!

This new cookbook, Small Plates & Sweet Treats, just arrived (yes at 7pm!)... I think I have my bedtime reading for tonight (after conjugating some more French verbs). (Note: This was pre-ordered before I started my cookbook diet. Just sayin'.)

There's Lahey's Pane Integrale dough on the counter starting its long rise & journey to becoming bread tomorrow night. We'll be having this with butternut squash sage soup and zucchini thyme frittata for dinner if all goes well.

Tomorrow, Mike and I will be taking our first tour of a potential place to have Jessi's Bat Mitzvah. Fun!

Hello October & what I'm reading

Hello October! Your arrival always catches me off guard and I'm working on ways to fix that.

I'm hoping this week is slower paced than last because that one was jam-packed... as was most of September, a little too much so I've made notes on ways to correct that next year.

I could use some breathing space. And painting space. And cooking space.

I want to get back to learning French while rocking on my front porch bench. I have calls to return. I have an event to plan and a kitchen to rebuild. Lots of good stuff is going on that I'd like to better focus on.

The leaves are now changing colors so fall is definitely here. I'm trying to accept fall for fall and not see it as the prelude to (dreadfully) cold winter (yep, I'm still a Florida girl who envisions being at the beach everyday). Winter doesn't factor into my plans much, yet I know that winter is when I'm able to slow down and it's always my most productive painting time.

I've come even enjoy the (ostentatiously) bright yellow mums out front that I've cursed in years past. They were planted by a previous owner and I've tried (unsuccessfully) to rip them out over the past six or seven years... often with my own bare hands. Acceptance is crucial to my sanity. Yes, I'm evolving.

I just started a good book which always make the time pass pleasurably: The Billionaire's Vinegar, about a 1787 Lafite that supposedly belonged to Jefferson and the mystery surrounding the record-breaking auction of said wine.

What I'm reading

Yesterday I....

It's a bullet list day all the way. Lots to do. Thinking about too many things. Need a brain dump.

Yesterday I...

• Started listening to Coffee Break French (switched from Spanish based on Summer 2013 summer possibilities)
• Grouted my mosaic with buttercream (sand grout, not frosting)
  

• Had a nice date lunch with my hubby
• Took the kids to library so they could sign up for the summer reading program
  

• Made yummy fried rice... I prepped and J cooked. :D Cooking with her in the kitchen makes me so happy.

 

• Got moving (Step Moves)
• Got real. This included erasing some due dates on some art business tasks that I'd like to do them but I'm not really ready to do. Seeing the tasks pop up as due every so often and having to move the date back over and over and over was discouraging. I need to spend time focusing and thinking about this some more before adding due dates and taking next steps. I'm still not sure this is a cop-out/procrastination or a step forward but I'm going with it for now. I feel like I just need some quiet to figure things out.
• Caught up on some email (feels like I will never truly be caught up... How Mike manages inbox zero is beyond me)
• Researched possible craft projects with Jessi for her upcoming birthday party (Found a good possibility. It involves duck tape. We're going to do prototypes this week and see how it goes.)
• Talked with family afar (my mom, my mother-in-law, and my aunt)
• Read this on my porch: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

• Finished reading aloud chapter 11 in the second Harry Potter book to the kids

 

Today is for art (working on starting week 1 in Your Living Canvas, though the class is wrapping up the final week - week 6!!!) and food (it's meal planning day) and fitness (STS disc #3 - Legs). Oh, and more French. Up first, fitness! STS, here I come.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!!

This is Sweet Potato Spelt Bread from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. While nice on it's own for breakfast with some cream cheese, or served as a part of dinner or alongside a soup, I think it might also make a good bread to use in some herbed Thanksgiving stuffing (if only my family liked stuffing... it's fresh-baked buttery dinner rolls for my family today). 

Enjoy your day!!

Sweet Potato and Spelt Bread

Today I cooked off a couple of loaves of Sweet Potato and Spelt bread from some dough I mixed up a week or so ago (from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day aka HBI5MAD). I needed to add a lot of flour to this when I went to shape it as the dough was very wet. I just kept adding flour until the dough was easier to handle and would shape a nice boule and it all worked out well in the end... another testament to how flexible this dough and method is. It puts me at ease knowing that I haven't really had any bad loaves come out of the book yet and I find myself craving more whole grain breads with their toothsome chew and heartier composition. I can't say that Mike would prefer this hearty, dense loaf all the time but he's is more whole- grain-bread-friendly lately... and all of us ARE enjoying the frequency of home-baked bread and the aromas that fill the air. I'm enjoy all of this too AND the fact that baking near the oven keeps me a bit warmer now that the temperatures have begun dipping down into the areas on the thermometer that I'd really rather they not go. I'm a warm weather girl all the way.

Doesn't this look a bit on the wet side?

But with a little flour (okay, more than a little) it turned out to be manageable and even quite cute. Yes, I think bread boules are really cute. I'm smitten with baking bread. Clearly.

Those little orange flecks you see are the shredded sweet potato (with skin on for added nutrients), though Ryan first though it was cheddar cheese.

 

I had a big slice of this with some leftover soup (Cream of Split and Fresh Peas... photo coming soon) that I packed up in a Thermos for lunch on the pool deck today before I began my second shadowing session on my way to becoming a certified Stroke & Turn Judge official for J's swim team.

I know my lunch of homemade soup and fresh-baked bread beat the cold pizza they were serving on deck by miles!

I'm completely loving cooking through this book and am really eager to get their newest release, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day, that I have on pre-order and that's set to be released on Tuesday. I may have to take a break from HBI5MAD to cook from the new one. Hope my family doesn't mind having various pizzas and flatbreads for dinner every night next week!

Somewhat off-topic, and yet still connected in a behind-the-scenes way... I need to figure out what to do about the poor lighting situation I have on my hands now. It's getting dark around dinner time and that's when I take most of the food photos that I post here so I'll be needing to research additional photography equipment to get me through these dark months when natural light with be at a minimum.

What I'm Reading and Digital Layout: Summer Wish List

Summer has been amazing and awesome and all kinds of WONDERFUL! I love the warmth. I love the sunshine. I love our schedule. I'm not loving that I haven't figure out exactly how to fit in my workouts totally (because I'm loving sleeping in a bit later) but I've still been doing very well getting them in (though not at the exact time that I want)... so I've been doing shorter workouts, sometimes in the morning, sometimes after lunch, sometimes more intense and sometimes less so. Today's workout was a steady-state 30 minute indoor ride on the bike trainer, and you know what?! It's all good! Tomorrow might even include a ride out on the trail. I'm taking my bike off the trainer and putting some air in the tires so that I'm ready to go. And let's hope that there's sunshine tomorrow morning!

So can you tell that I absolutely love summer?! Often I just mutter that to myself... or to others (like last night when I said it to Mike during our date night - our first one in 2 months!)

We've been crossing things off on our summer wish list (though we're completely cool if we don't cross even half of them, as long as we're having fun and doing things we want to do). I made a quick digital layout using the activities I listed in my previous summer wish list post. It's great when things come together so quickly. I have a list of more pages to make from things that happened in the last few months but those are going to have to wait because we play hard and then rest hard (LOL! As soon as the kids are in bed I'm in bed with my latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (and any cookbooks that catch my eye while walking to my room)! No, this book is not about bicycles in any way at all, but rather about life and living and intention and creating a good story for your life and other such goodness. I'm really enjoying it so far and I'm trying to savor it instead of rushing through it because then what good is it if a really fun book is over so quickly? It's likely that it would be tempting to pick the next book and move on from this message and I'm not wanting to do that just yet.

So what's been going on? I've been hanging out at the pool deck for swim practice, visiting my in-laws (photos to come), grilling with friends, packing (since Jessi is going away to camp soon), trying to configure coordinating playdates so both kids have a friend over at the same time, getting fitted for a night guard (that was earlier today), scheduling doctors appointments and follow-ups for the kids (and a blood test for Ryan tomorrow - shhh! Don't tell him yet because I'm not telling him until tomorrow when he needs to know), figuring out where we're going on our vacation, and looking through some new cookbooks like:

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams (and I DID make room for the ice cream maker so it's ready and waiting for ME ! Though we're recovering from those cupcakes that I posted on Facebook that we made and Jessi decorated for July 4th)

and Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck:

Good stuff!!!

::: This post has been brought to you by coordinated kids' play dates (of which this is the first of the summer) so I've been able to cut up a cantaloupe, put some food in the cooler in preparation for tonight's swim meet, sync my phone so I know where tonight's swim meet is, and post this. All without being interrupted. Amazing. Must try to do this more often. Now to see if I can fit in some core work.  Booyah! :::

Chickpea Spinach Burgers from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Volger

I made Chickpea Spinach Burgers for Jessica and I the other day from Veggie Burgers Every Which Way (which has not disappointed yet and I've tried 3 recipes so far, including this one, 2 ways) and they were YUM-my!

I froze a bunch of them so that I can grab some and defrost when I need to pack something for J's lunch or when I want something quick and don't want to think too hard about it. This pairs wonderfully with avocado or salsa or a salad.

I look forward to making more from this book over the coming months!

Open-Faced Egg Salad Sandwich from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

Simple. Good. Lunch.

Broccoli Gribiche from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

 

Heidi's broccoli gribiche is absolutely delicious! The tarragon in this was awesome and added such a mesmerizing layer of flavor. Even though I would never say that I'm a fan of tarragon (and I detest licorice), when used in small amounts it elevates a dish to spellbinding. The last time I remember being completely shocked by it was in Asparagus Soup from Love Soup by Anna Thomas. Maybe I am becoming a fan of this little herb after all.

I had previously (lightly) steamed broccoli for another meal and I tossed these leftovers in the oven with the potatoes during the last 5 minutes to heat them through instead of roasting it entirely as the recipe suggests.

Colorful fingerling potatoes.

Shallots, parsley, chopped hard-boiled egg.

The dressing was addictive (even without the capers that I could've sworn I had in the pantry but could not for the life of me find). You start by mixing an egg yolk in with the vinegar which I had never done. I made the dressing with less oil as I like things more on the vinegar-y side (3tbsp red wine vinegar to a little more than 1/4 cup olive oil) and had just enough rather than extra dressing. Next time I'll increase the amount I make so I can use it on other things. I couldn't keep my hands off this. I will definitely be making this again!