Getting caught up

While Sean's been away at a friend's house studying for the biggest test of his academic career, we've been holed up in the house with some reoccurring sick kids and just plain ol' tuckered out me.  These photos are from the last few weeks.  I'm loving again the 5 min artisan bread cookbook again.  We made loaves, and doughnuts and rolls with this batch.  We mixed up another today.

Here's the photo I plan to post on Chow Bella with my recipe for Fresh Cream Dressing paired with a main post about lettuces.

The prettiest pre slow cooked meal I've ever seen.  Inevitably it ended up a more uniform color toward the end of cooking.  It still tasted lovely, and ended up making a few meals for us.

My little wrap job of a homemade heart-shaped pretzel we brought to a friend along with a meal to celebrate a new baby girl.  We didn't get to see the sleeping darling.  I hope to soon.

Off to the farm tomorrow to catch up with Farmer Frank.  Talk to you all later.

xoxo jen

The ultimate dual purpose piece of furniture

Oh my.

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Loverly List

I'm sitting here sipping my decaf coconut thai chai hot tea and blissfully ignoring the messy house.  The kids got to bed early tonight and while my darling husband is working hard for the next week, I plan to play here in my blog.

I haven't been alerting you all about my stories over at Chow Bella.  I think I told you about the first one, but you also have missed out on tatsoi, getting your kids to eat their veggies, radishes, preserving the harvest and winter squash.  I'm working on some posts about rutabagas, mustard greens and the Lunchline movie screening.  Oh, and my radish post made it for the print edition.  I guess they call them "paper clips," cute.  I think it comes out on Thursday.  If you see one go get one for me, I don't get around much these days. :)

My virtual inspiration board is getting pretty full and I need to share all these wonderful finds.  So, without any more fuss, here they are:

1. More gorgeous kids clothes ideas I might never try to make.  These great pants.

2. Avocado dressing

I'm such a big fan of avocados.  Especially hugging my salad leaves.  I want to make this tomorrow with some of the salad we got at the farm today. 

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3. I want to move my two kids into the same bedroom and give them this adorable {and thrifty} book shelf wall.  Ikea spice rack.  Awesome.

4.  Speaking of awesome things for the kids' room, they need one of these too.  A dress up rack.

5.  I'm dying for a new pair of specs.  It's been something like 5 years since I've gotten a check up or needed a new pair due to old age.  I've surprisingly held on to my current pair for a great long while.  Someday I want one of these from Warby Parker.  Great price too: $95.

6.  How amazing are these crank up tables.  So versitile and good looking.

7.  Don't you have to have these tiny pouches.  It makes me want to scour my local Goodwill and make one for all my friends.

8.  Warm mediterranean couscous salad.  Say no more.

9.  I sort of have a problem with onion soup.  I might love it too much.  Here's a must make recipe because it's so simple.

10.  Cookbooks as a comic strip.  What fun.

 Bonus item: Did you know we painted a wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint?  So glad we did.  It turned out darn fab.  Here was the inspiration.  We went with black.  I'll share some snaps of it when I clean my kitchen a bit more than just some surface wiping.  Another day. :)