apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Since it's cooling down in San Diego this weekend, I think I'll do some serious cooking. I'm planning on making some Mexican dishes using the fresh peppers and tomatoes from my grandmother's garden that I received yesterday. There's also fresh black plums from her tree that may go into a dessert of some sort, as well as some fresh blueberries that I think would be delicious in some muffins. Not to mention, the freezer that I need to restock with some bento-friendly dishes since school starts later this month.

That salad you have pictured looks out of control amazing. I think I need to recreate it...mmm!

We went from 102 a week ago to 66 this week in Seatte, back to the familiar gray. I believe I will whip up a soup from scratch, going with cannellini beans, mushroom powder, carrots, leaks (humor me in honor of Kurt Vonnegut), celery, and onions. I would like to try sweating the onions like that mushroom soup recipe from last year. That mushroom soup was so good. I want to see if sweating rather than caramelizing the onions changes the flavor of bean soup.

It is hot here in Denver! I'm looking forward to a picnic with cheese, olives, marinated almonds, fresh fruits, veggies and bread from the market paired with some meats and a nice glass of wine :)

It will be a busy day today so not much time in the kitchen but tomorrow I would like to slow roast some tomatoes and perhaps make some blueberry muffins for the freezer.

The heat broke in Boston on Thursday, so I can just now bear to turn the oven on! I spent Friday afternoon making a pie with some of the first local peaches--I forgot to ask about freestone, so I ended up with cling and they were a pain, but the pie was still dreamy.

And I'll be getting a batch of baguettes into the fridge to retard before heading off to Julie and Julia this afternoon, anticipating the inevitable post-film baguette craving :)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-Breasts-with-Garbanzo-Beans-Tomatoes-and-Paprika-242113

A neighbor just had a garage sale and I picked up a meat grinder for $1...I'd always wanted one, but didn't want to fork out big bucks for something I might try once and give up on. Now I am thinking of making sausage too. It is a "Universal 2" grinder. Any suggestions?

In Tucson we've 'cooled down' to a high of 101 today. In celebration I'm deep cleaning my kitchen.

As a reward for cleaning, though, I'm making a batch of philadelphia style ice cream (good ol' vanilla with chocolate chunks) to enjoy once everything gets done. Hurrah!

Winter here and to warm me up I'm attempting my first ever traditional lasagne. I've made a pumkin and spinach lasagne before (which didn't turn out very well) so its made me wary of trying lasagne.

I'm also making a marble butter cake. Yum.

Thanks a lot! I'm also a gourmet and pastry enthusiast and this would really go to my compilation. I would also like to share. I came across a good site about European and Swiss cooking which also gives free sample family-secret recipes.

i just wanted to share my breakfast from this morning

oatmeal with sliced fresh cherries, yellow and regular raisins, toasted wheat germ, cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a little maple syrup....tasted like a granola bar in a bowl

I made Dorie Greenspan's Dimply Plum Cake (Smitten discusses it here). It is heavenly. I also threw together a potato broccoli gratin to use up last week's veggie delivery and an eggplant pasta which would have benefited from anchovy paste.