choco choco

ice cream ... !!

so my second birthday gift ... an ice cream maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer! and boy is it awesome. I usually hate mint chocolate chip ice cream but for the inaugural usage of my gift, I used this fresh mint chip ice cream recipe (courtesy of david lebovitz, the ice cream master) and it is AMAZING. it takes a bit of prep, but try it, you'll love it.

pesto pesto

It's an awesome feeling when you can walk outside, pick some basil from your garden and be eating some pesto for dinner all within 30 minutes or so. Talk about fresh!

Also, it's the start of birthday week for me and my first awesome present were a pair of ceramic knives ... they are so so great ... my second awesome present I'll talk about soon.

mmmmm

by the way, I'm going to start this post off by saying that ... yes, some of the photos are horizontal and some are vertical (gasp!)

I do the best I can here, people. do you want cookies, or don't you?

so I was going to start a new venture today and I thought, why not start by making cookies? yeah! by the way, they came out delicious, you wish there was a scratch and sniff on your monitor, trust me.

courtesy of smitten kitchen - she is awesome.

some cool stuff I found recently.

farmers market finds

I got these beautiful heirloom zucchini of all things, at the farmers market today, along with acorn squash, basil, and tiny tomatoes (not pictured) ... then made zucchini bread, courtesy of smittenkitchen from aforementioned courgettes. It was really great in an unexpected kind of way ...

impromptu

we had an unexpected but awesome gathering at our new place a week after we moved in ... as you can see, I took a bunch of photos of preparing the food but was having too much fun during the actual gathering to take many photos of the finished products ... ! regardless, everything turned out pretty good, if I say so myself ...

one of my favorites

sunday cook

I guess watching 'Julie and Julia' inspired a Sunday filled to the brim with cooking ... but then again so did going to the farmer's market. It was fun, but I'm exhausted ...

my favorite etsy shop right now ... I bet you can't guess what I bought ...

oh-la granola

I know...the photos didn't come out great, but the homemade granola bars did...!

I've been in the process of eating better, more natural, unprocessed foods and I came across this great site...I think I'm definitely going to have to get her cookbook.

tart treat

I really wish I had taken more photos of this nectarine/marscapone tart with a gingersnap crust (courtesy of smitten kitchen)...but I think I got really distracted by the fact that the first perfectly brown crust I made fell splat to the floor.

darn those removable bottom pans.

it was so good once it was done, though. to more dinner parties!

the fourth