Fennel!

I love fennel.  I've been so happy to start seeing it show up in my CSA box and at the farmer's market.  Last week I grabbed several small fennel bulbs at the farmer's market, with no real plan of what I wanted to do with them.  I also started my fennel seeds for the garden.  I can't wait till I'm growing my own fennel!

I've eaten a lot of fennel this past week.  First I tossed together a super simple, fresh and tasty salad.  I used my mandolin to thinly slice one fennel bulb and then I tossed in a strainer and thoroughly washed it (the fennel was dirty!).  I julienned some raw celeriac I also found at the farmer's market and tossed that together.  To add some color I chopped some cilantro and the fennel fronds to go in the salad.  I simply dressed the salad with some hazelnut oil, the juice and zest of a very small lemon, a touch of local honey, salt and fresh ground pepper.  Not my prettiest salad, but it was so good and so easy. 

Marmalade and Other Friday Lazy Ramblings

With it being citrus season and all I've been up to my ears in oranges, grapefruit and lemons.  Mostly oranges.  For a while the boys and I were keeping up nicely, but after a while we started getting overwhelmed and I decided it was marmalade time.

 I mismashed a few recipes and decided to use pectin in case the boys didn't allow me the time to cook it down all the way.  I tossed in some ground cardamom and a splash of vanilla.  I added some sprigs of rosemary in a few jars just for fun.  It came out really well and was soooo easy.  I love eating it with some cream cheese on tasty toast.  Mmmmm.

Happy Friday!  These are actually from last Friday, but that's okay.  We did some PJ gardening with the cats and then made our way to the farmer's market and gourmet store.  I love having a partner in crime to indulge in all my tasty treats (the 1.5 year old!) he's my food bud. 

 

Sometimes you just need to keep things simple...the other night I needed just that.  I had a simple dinner of whole wheat spaghetti (I finally found my pasta maker downstairs, so next time it'll be homemade!), mushroom and tomato sauce, super spicy Italian sausage with caramelized onions and a medley of hardy winter greens.  And a glass of wine, of course. 

  I hope everyone has a great weekend planned!

Wheeler Gorge

We went camping this week.  We meant to stay two nights but it ended up being a bit chillier than we anticipated and we only stayed one. 

It was gorgeous.  The campground was empty, we had no one around us, and we had the best spot in the place, right on the bank of the creek.  It was incredibly lovely to fall asleep to the sound of rushing water.  We go to bed to the sounds of a creek at home, too, but it's more of a babbling brook with hundreds of extremely loud frogs ribeting the night away.  This creek was much bigger and wooshed us to sleep.  Even the boys went to sleep easily. 

Before bed, we made bacon wrapped hot dogs and enjoyed them with some beer and then I fell asleep while putting the boys down around 9pm.  I didn't get great pictures of the hot dogs because I didn't know where the camera was and it was quite dark anyhow.  But since this is supposed to be a food blog, I took a couple pics with my phone. 

In the morning it was beautiful.  We had brought the bean's bike and he rode that thing probably more this trip than he has since he got it at Christmas.  Later we went on a fun hike to a creek where the boys splashed and had a blast and then it was time for home.  Somehow we made it home less than 24 hours from when we left and we were exhausted.  Such is life with kids, I think! 

We will be doing a lot more camping this year and we will definitely return to Wheeler Gorge in the near future. 

It's a New Day

First meal I've cooked all week, freshly gathered eggs I picked up today from a local lady, wilted spinach with sauteed green garlic and fried tomatoes. 

This past week has been rather cruddy with the storm and then the boys and me getting a horrible stomach bug.  The weather was dreary, cold and rainy all week, I literally didn't leave the house the entire time.  I was cleaning up some disgusting messes and I just wanted some sunshine and for everyone to feel better.  Today the boys are all better and I'm feeling a lot better, too.  I actually got to leave the house and go pick up our CSA box, along with some eggs from a local lady, some fresh baked sourdough bread and chocolate chip scones.  It was weird driving down Topanga looking at all the destruction that was still left over from Sunday.  I can't imagine what it must've looked like earlier in the week. 

Spoiled Rotten

Some pretty treats from the Topanga farmer's market. I just had to stage a photo!

On Friday we took a trip to our little tiny local farmer's market where I snagged up some tasty goodies. We then popped by Canyon Gourmet, as we do every Friday, to get the bean a treat and more importantly, to get me some wine! I came home with loads of Cara Cara oranges, pea tendrils, some beautiful baby red scallions, strawberries, pecan butter, baby carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, baby Persian cucumbers, fresh baked bread from the gourmet store and a lovely bottle of Chardonnay.

Baby scallions and pea tendrils, yum!

For lunch the boys and I gorged ourselves on berries, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and made honey and pecan butter sandwiches with our fresh baked bread. We followed up with oranges for dessert while we sat in the gorgeous sunshine. If only that were today!

A Topanga Storm

Sunday we had our first real storm here in Topanga. I've always loved storms, especially since I was raised in the city and most southern California storms posed little threat to my city life. Sure, neighbors' trees have fallen, but that's about the worst I've seen and it never happened to anyone I actually knew so it was far from my reality.

When a storm is coming I've always looked forward to it. I love the pounding rain, gnashing cold winds and the rare burst of lightning we get in Los Angeles. This past weekend was the first time I experienced a real storm in a home that could actually be effected by the flash flooding and crashing trees. This is also the first serious storm I've been through as a parent.

Balsamic Molasses Lemonade and Pickled Chard Stems

photo by One Eleven Photography

The other day I took the bean to a toddler yoga class. He had a blast. After the class, the instructor (who is also a great friend, the beautiful Vicki Rose), told me she'd brought me a lovely bag of Meyer lemons, she knew they'd go to good use with me. I was so excited! After many more activities, I completely forgot about them and left them behind. I was so sad. The following day I had my dad and his wife over for lunch. They came bearing another unsolicited full bag of juicy lemons! I was so happy! And these ones actually made it all the way to my house!

On Monday the bean came wandering and asked for lemonade. I was about to respond that we didn't have any, but then I remembered my lovely lemons!

In the Garden

I've been working hard out in the garden the past couple weeks. We built the first raised bed with cinder blocks thinking it'd be a cheap way to go and it came with the added benefit of being able to plant in the holes of the blocks themselves. We didn't really think about the fact that each cinder block weighs over 25 stinkin' pounds.

The bean took a picture of me gardening.

Happy Birthday, Mama

Me and my siblings, Mother's Day 2007 (I'm in the green dress)

Today is my mama's birthday. She would have been 64 years young.

Broccoli, Chard and Pancetta Frittata!

Beautiful chard from my CSA

Yesterday was a crazy day in the land of this stay-at-home-mom. My wannabe-acrobat of an 18 month old took a couple nasty spills while I was attempting to make dinner and my 3 year old was being, well, a 3 year old.