apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

having my parents over so we can finally watch dexter season 3. Want to make some munchies for the "viewing party"

Also, going to make some strawberry jam out of How to Pick a Peach.

Tonight I'm making a tuna casserole for my husband, and a bacon/olive/onion/cheese quiche for myself. We'll each eat these over the weekend and have breakfast and lunches covered.

But I'm most excited about what I'm making to bring to a barbeque on Sunday...I'm going retro...a cool whip and yogurt pie! Remember those? It's probably an 80s thing, but they are so delish and so simple.

gonna make some yummy breakfasts (pancakes on saturday, poached eggs on sunday) and keeping all the dinner and lunch fair simple. leftovers in sandwiches and lots of rice and beans from our friends the slow and rice cooker.

weekends tend be soooo much busier than weeknights round here lately.

Thermometer is heading northward of 90° this weekend, so I will try out two new recipes: chilled cucumber & tomato soup with fresh dill, and BLT salad with avocado dressing.

Midsommar fest--sort of Scandi Mardi Gras--so there will be ham, various fish, new potatoes, strawberries...and lots of fancy grog!

I bought some deliciously juicy peaches today. Looking forward to enjoying those and might make something with them too. Maybe french toast topped with peaches and almonds and whipped cream. Yep, that sounds like a plan to me! I love that I have time to make breakfast on the weekends.

Crazy from the heat here in S. FL so eating a bunch of various salady things over the weekend...

AT granita sounds like a good idea...

Will be making Smitten Kitchen's spanakopita triangles to freeze for a party next weekend

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/06/spanakopita-triangles-
then-some/

I've been on a mission to find a new way to use rhubarb each week for the past few weeks, without making pie. Last week, I ended up with a savory rhubarb-onion sauce over whole wheat pasta. It was awesome.

Today, I stewed a bunch of it in a pot with a small amount of water, until it had the consistency of applesauce, then used a sieve to separate the liquid from the pulp. I plan to experiment over the weekend to see what kind of cocktails I can make with the liquid. The recipe says to just discard the pulp, but I don't have the heart to do so. So I'm going to add it to a zucchini bread recipe without the zucchini, and just see what happens. It doesn't have a whole lot of flavor since the liquid was taken out, so I figure it'll mainly add some fiber to the bread. Could be awful, though... we'll see!

I'm hoping maybe I'll be able to get one more non-pie rhubarb experiment in next weekend, if I can still find some. Any suggestions?

I think today I'll be trying to come up with a tomato-cilantro chutney recipe that comes close to the ones from Hampton Chutney Co. in NYC. I love the tomato and cilantro ones, especially with a cheese dosa. Now that I'm far away in London, I thought I might try to combine them to have with grilled cheese... who knows if it will work out!

Also, something with strawberries on Sunday, after I get some at the farmer's market. Maybe the Gourmet Strawberries and Dumplings recipe?

www.kitchenist.com

Maybe a little cooking this weekend, but mostly a lot of WEEDING in my vegetable garden. All in the hopes of having more to cook with on future weekends. :)

- Amelia of Gradually Greener

So far looks like it'll be a lot of BBQing! Both today and tomorrow and it's 90 degrees in DC :)

But here's a fun dessert I'd like to share w/y'all: Bakewell Tart. You might have never heard of it (just like me!), but it's simple and oh so pretty!

Getting ready to put together a meal for my sister-in-law's baby shower. Tea sandwiches, crudite, etc.

Then preserving some seasonally foraged fruit: juneberries. I will be making wine with them.

I will also be brewing a wheat beer and going through the process with my brother.

Tomorrow, hopefully bbq'ing a brisket to have with the sinus clearing horseradish harvested from KS.

You know, every weekend I read the comments on the What's Cooking This Weekend Post and every weekend I'm sitting in lab doing experiments and wishing I were doing what everyone else is: cooking something good.

So, I'll mention that I'm jealous as hell of all of you - even with the heat in the 90's for some of you - and I'll tell you what I'm cooking in lab.

Today I'm doing two protein preps: expressing protein in non-pathogenic E.coli, screening some plasmids for insertion of GFP (green fluorescent protein) using PCR (polymerase chain reaction - like photocopying DNA but only specified sequences that I tell it to copy), making some freezer stocks of some more E.coli, and if I'm feeling ambitious, finding out how much of a cofactor binds to one of my proteins.

Tomorrow, I'll purify my proteins from the harvested bacteria, do some more cloning and do the cofactor binding if I don't do it today.

Ok, now I need to get that PCR started.

Go cook something awesome because I'm never going to get to at this rate.

this weekend we'll be breaking in the new bbq accessories my husband got for his b day last week. tonight we'll be making a pork tenderloin (still haven't decided which rub to use) and spinach in a foil bag on the grill.
tomorrow i'm hoping to try out the infamous beercan chicken, along with various veggies we got in our csa bin yesterday. i personally plan on eating all of the cherry tomatoes, since they are the most perfect flavor ever!

I picked up some sesame oil this morning and began making peanut sesame noodles only to discover that my peanut-butter-aholic boyfriend ate all the peanut butter. So he's going to get some.

I also bought some tequila to make this drink recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/dining/245grex.html?ref=dining

I have a plethora of basil in my little steel tub garden on the balcony.

Making AT Ricotta Gnocchi with slow roasted tomatoes and
asparagus.

Risi e bisi. Bought a huge pile of shelling peas at the market. My 3 1/2 year old is becoming an ace sheller.

I've got some very long stalks of rhubard to use up, too. I am inspired by tequilastrapple's mission to find new uses, but given time constraints, I think I'm going to make the rhubard syrup/jam featured on this site a few weeks ago. It's a crowd pleaser, and best, it's a twofer: one process, two products. I love that.

Boyfriend and i were having a quiet weekend and i made:
- Ricotta & Sweet potato tortellini with caramelized onion and current dressing
- Breakfast I made Ricotta hotcakes (These were ultra thick! Recipe from Bill Granger http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/44/ricotta-hot-cakes-with-honeycomb-butter)
- Citrus & Berry muffin
- Tonight dinner i made Potstickers using Kenny Lao's recipe

All because I got a new pasta machine :P

Cooking up a "popeye" omelet with "perpetual spinach" from the farmers market, bacon, potatoes, avocado, and a little Jarlsberg.

Made a huge batch of sausage gravy and biscuits for a hungover crowd. Every year, at the end of the school year, we teachers throw a big three day moving party. Friday night one place, Saturday another, and I usually host the Sunday hangover brunch. Because we are between houses right now, the brunch was at another teacher's house. I still brought the gravy and it was grand!

I attended my canning class on Friday evening and it was an intensive 3 hour class. I don't profess to be an expert but do think I will attempt to do some on my own this summer. We made some carrot fennel soup, bread and butter pickles, tomato bruschetta and strawberry/raspberry freezer jam. I can't wait to eat them in a few months time.

Outside of that, it was low-key on the home cooking front with nothing too involved: grilling chicken and some veggies for fajitas for dinner last night and tonight was grilled red snapper and grilled eggplant drizzled with feta dressing. It's super-hot here in Northern California (108 degrees today) so the emphasis was on easy meals that could be prepared outdoors.

@sciencegeek, I just wanted to check back in and say much condolences to your cooking-less weekend, but also thank you for that comment. It was one of my favorites ever.