more seasonal squersh

I love squash.  I really do.  I am now fully appreciating fall/winter for all the varieties of this vegetable!

Roasted spaghetti squash with some butter.  From here, go either one of two distinct, both delightful ways:

1. top with fresh grated Parmesan, or any other hard cheese

2. top with sauteed onion, tomato, sweet peppers and a scootch of garlic. Optional: pasta (and not very much)

*win*

fresh out of a brown paper bag

Ben found this brilliant idea to make leftover bagels that are frozen, as delicious (if not more--for their crispy outer layer) as the morning they were made:

Oven to 400F, frozen bagels inside, a few minutes later, bagel perfection.

Bagel Breakfast for lunch - complete with and egg,  bacon from the PA Dutch farm market +  fresh sliced cheddar. B for Brilliant!

Bouncing Berries a la New Jersey Pine Barrens

I heavily modified a recipe to make do with what we had, thus, resulting in a fresh cranberry orange-lime muffin, topped with toasted walnuts.

Next time: I won't sift the flour; use almonds instead; and generously fill the muffin tins for an overwhelmingly large muffin Top :]

autumnus wintrus treats

as part of my "talent" that I would share (Ben played the guitar, Amy played the piano, dad played the violin.. you get the point), I opted for baking--- a sweet potato casserole with brown sugar pecaned topping (which ended up being the crowd favorite), and this experimental (sad?!) pie. 

pumpkin sweet potato Pie

New: Complete Streets in New Brunswick..

and the rest of New Jersey, someday.

This Saturday AM kicked off with the dusting off of the bicycle (thankful that I have a stupendous husband that headed out to prep my bicycle that hasn't been unlocked for 3 months).

Civic Eye Collaborative is a new and unique consulting firm of transportation planners and a media art guru.  They're young, but I'm excited for what they will come up with to inform and empower NJ and other local communities to make getting from Point A - to - Point B.

Saturday AM proved to be the perfect weather to shoot some "b-roll" for a short video they are creating to show planners what little they can do to make a big difference in complete streets (for bicycling, especially).

Nothing interesting to see here, except a staged photo.  Mosey over to Civic Eye's web site for better images and more on their work, and perhaps in several months, the finished product.

on Franklin Blvd (Somerset); Dave, Brian, and David

rustic apple pie

tis the season for apples; thus, tis the season for apple pie!  I'll say...I'm pretty proud of the lattice pie crust top.  It was all the more tasty shared with our MC.

Acorns and Flying Saucers

Yes, that's right...

Acorns and Flying Saucers.

We took 'em and roasted 'em in the oven for a half an hour - 

     threw them in a soup of sauteed onions, garlic, carrots, and pears - 

  simmered for another half hour - 

     and pureed it just to the point that when you take in a spoonful, there remains an outstanding texture that allows you to still guess what may be in that delightful bowl of fall/winter squash.

raw materials, all from our backyard *high-five, Ben!*

squashed saucers and acorn.
f I had fresh cream, I woulduh dropped a dollop
of sour cream in the middle

a Kale-er meal: Winter greens

Who knew a wholesome dinner could be so satisfying... Observe a dinner made almost entirely from our garden (or someone else's --thanks, Union Square Farm Market!):

Black Prince Cherry Tomatoes - our community garden in NB
curly kale - Union Square Farmers Market in NY
apple potatoes - apples from Riameade Farm in Chester NJ
bacon from Whole Foods

I don't do this often, but I'll take credit for coming up for a quick, kick butt way to cook up kale which satisfies as a co-main dish :)

- 2 bunches of curly kale (fall - winter)

- half a jalepeno pepper, cut in 0.5x1" strips

- balsamic vinegar

- dash of sea salt (1-1.5 tsp)

- 3 cloves garlic, minched

1. Rip off kale leaves, leaving them in large bits

2. blanch in bunches (don't overfill the pot so it blanches evenly) for 3 minutes; set aside to drain in colander (sprinkle lightly with sea salt)

While it drains,

3. sautee the jalepeno pepper in a skillet with OO; begin to add the balsamic if it gets too dry

4. toss in the garlic; brown

Squeeze the kale if it's dripping. Then,

5. Toss the kale into the skillet to heat up again and soak up the pepper + garlic flavors; add sea salt to taste

6. Add some more OO and balsamic

7. Voila!

     You can add a tiny bit of fresh Parmesean cheese; I'm usually unreasonably generous with the freshly-grated cheese, but not here.  Take heed--if you add too much, you'll overwhelm the other outstanding trio of flavor

Serve hot with whipped apple potatoes topped with caramelized onions and hearty bacon and sauteed/steamed heirloom tomato halves.

tHis was delicious...I promise.

Little Town sunset

in a corner of the little town of Middlebury, the sun fell over a quiet waterfall.

Middlebury, VT

Behold...the Golden Wood!

Thanks to Columbus Day weekend and a 70-degree day, our first experience in Vermont was unforgettable:

Summer is Out

the few days before summer officially ends, the sunsets rush off into the night faster than the day before

18:19p, new brunswick

Because a Fresh Coconut is Better

....than a not fresh coconut...and heck, why not?!!

we ventured into the exotic fruit world and stood up to a wild coconut.  Ben was sure we would be able to crack it open.  It's amazing:  it has two tiny holes that "happen" to be perfect to puncture to let its silky, smooth, yet delicately thin and pure milk flow through.

Anyway, we had plans for this coconut, but it perfected itself with its leftovers serving as a perfect way to make non-dairy milk.

Voila!

new brunswick

"the mighty Raritan" ...at sunset!

Impromptu Fritter

I shredded two potatoes (one was purple) and made some Potato Fritters with Goat Cheese and heirloom cherry tomatoes as a last-minute-Oh-we-need-to-eat meal.  The goat cheese is from a small goat farm in Ithaca  (Ben insisted we stop in...glad we did!) and the tomatoes are from our Community (Shiloh) Garden in New Brunswick.  While the photo was snapped in a jiffy, they were more yummy than they look, and also last about all of a few minutes.  Observe:

Quick fried in a skillet  (just to seal the potato shavings), then baked at 400F for about 10 minutes.

Paella Schellacked

Recipe Mash-up!  We took two recipes and came up with the following:

Chicken and Shrimp Paella
with roasted red peppers, onions, and eggplant (!)
with an array of carefully picked spices and seasonings

For the first time ever, I took a knife and scissor to poultry, thanks to Ben picking up a Cornish Hen ("heirloom", he calls it) from the PA Dutch Farmers' Market.  I bet people would eat a lot less meat (forget the emotional part of cutting into, and prepping the chick!), if only they knew how much work they had to do, and do it every time they wanted meat.

Anyhow, it was absolutely delicious.  I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch this week.

Millions of Peaches...

Summertime in NJ, especially late-July and August is near-synonymous with peach season.  And the best thing about it is, you can get great, local peaches at every (yes, bold statement), EVERY farmers' markets!  There are more peaches than you know what to do with.  Ben has incorporated them into our morning smoothies, I've made a peach tart, and they are the perfect way to accompany and perk up a Swiss Chard salad (b/c Swiss Chard is intensely in bloom during this time as well).

So when its 80 degrees, rip up some chard, honey your peaches, throw together a light, oil/white wine vinaigrette, and chop up some almonds for a salad that even men will thoroughly enjoy in the summer!

August Summer Salad, 28 August

Civilian Conservation Corps at work

we should put more money into doing stuff like this...make our assets more accessible, because it is too unfortunate a waste for people to be missing out on vistas such as these!

They built from this:

This:

So you could see this:

Morphology

This is a pwHelms Bread recipe, which yields a TON of dough.  So what better way to use it up than to make tight, little cinnamon rolls that are perfectly crusty on the outside and unreasonably (yet deliciously) moist on the inside?

What would you make with extra (half-wheat, a little sweet) bread dough?

One Too Many Dimensions

26 April 2011 - hidden and abandoned architectural pieces

3 years ago: "Last Chance"

On the way down from Lookout Mountain--it's almost mystical: