Category Archives: Cooking

Brunch in the backyard

October 8, 2013

This weekend we had the most amazing weather in Seattle. It was sunny all day Saturday and Sunday. Walker and I took full advantage of it and we even more glad that we chose a place with a backyard. We made brunch and headed out back to enjoy our meal in the sun. Then we had some back yard work planned to straighten out our little patch of land. These are a glimpse of the yard before we’ve done any work. Even though it’s a bit untidy it sure it nice to have.

I’m thinking maybe some pumpkin carving is in order? Care to join me?

My farmers market finds

October 3, 2013

This is from my trip to the farmers market last week (before we moved). I purchased 1 head of cabbage, 2 onions, 2 heads of garlic, 2 small yellow squash, 2 small zucchini, some tomatoes, 6 tiny plums, grapes, a cucumber, 2 red peppers, and a pint of lions mane mushrooms all for right around $20.

This week I thought it would be fun to share what I made with my produce. The mushrooms and 1 onion went into a risotto. The cabbage, squash, the other onion, and peppers went into a very large stir-fry. The tomatoes and cucumber went into a tomatoes and cucumber salad. The grapes and plums we enjoyed on their own.

Kinfolk event: canning the season

October 2, 2013

If you haven’t heard of Kinfolk yet you may want to check them out. They focus on “creating small gatherings and finding new things to make and do”. When I saw they would be having an event in Seattle I pretty quickly signed up. Despite being based in Portland they have just recently started having events in the Seattle area. This particular event was centered around canning and harvesting the season. I have been wanting to do more canning myself so this seemed like a win win.

The event was actually held in Kirkland and taught by Tina of BigSpoon. I had never been to Kirkland before but from googlemaps it didn’t look like it would take too long on the bus. Well maybe normally it wouldn’t but last weekend it was raining, well pouring, all weekend long, including the Saturday evening of my event. My first bus was late, and then my second bus was late, and then not really knowing where I was I got off the bus too early and had to walk a bit farther. Basically I arrived maybe 20 minutes late, not bad considering.

Luckily I hadn’t missed much and jumped right into where they were at in the apple butter making process. After the cold bus ride/walk over the cozy kitchen that smelled of cooking apples was quite a comfort. We learned how to make 2 kinds of apple butter and a mustard (with fresh horseradish)-it was spicy! While we were waiting for the apple butter to cook down we had some snacks, most of which were canned-sticking with the theme.

In addition to the jams we made in class and got to take home we also got a goody bag with some bigspoon jams inside and a few other things! I also managed to find out the girl next to me lives really close to my new place and she kindly agreed to drive me home. Bless her heart for agreeing to give a stranger a ride home because the thought of getting back on the bus from this strange placed seemed less than desirable.

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