Strawberry Cornmeal Crumble Bars

Strawberries are cheap and local this time of year, so I modified a recipe from April's issue of Everyday Food. They taste like strawberry poptarts. Mmmmm. Not for the faint of calories. Can be made vegan by using Earth Balance instead of butter.

Look at what I have createeeed!

This is what happens when I actually have two days off of work.

Visit. Share. Contribute. Eat and be merry, Tampa Bay.

No-knead Bread

I absolutely love fresh made bread. What I don't love is the 10 straight minutes of total arm muscle sacrifice it takes. Here is a delightful alternative... No-knead Bread. You only need about 6-8 hours rising time... perfect for throwing together before work and then finishing in the evening.

The first rendition was pretty tasty, but I would like to experiment using different flours. This one had a mild sourdough flavor, soft in the inside and completely crispy on the outside. Read more for photos and recipe.

Pumpkin Risotto, Asparagus Spears and Layered Salad.

I've been trying to clean out the freezer and I still had some pumpkin left over from baking around halloween-time. So for dinner, I made it into a pumpkin risotto. I would suggest adding squash as well, though, because the texture was slightly stringy from the pumpkin. Never-the-less, it was tasty. The layered salad was made up of sweet ginger sauteed mushrooms, home-grown greens, local grapefruit and avocado. 

I'm posting the recipe I used for the pumpkin risotto, as well as some process photos. Risotto is somewhat time consuming, but not as bad as some other major culinary undertakings.

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

I had no garden last year. So I decided for sure I would at least have a small one this year. It's going great! Here are the seedlings soon after transplanting. I've got lettuce, spicy salad greens, basil, thyme, green onions, a few hot pepper plants, a strawberry plant and some flowers. I'm hoping to get in some lavender, oregano and maybe a few more veggies. 

Sushi Fest!

Phil and I have been absolutely hooked on making sushi lately (until I got sick from eating some dim sum... now we're on a bit of a hiatus). It seems intimidating, but it's incredibly simple.

Some ingredients we have tried that were delicious: carrot (peeled and cut into strips), cucumber (peeled, deseeded, cut into strips), mango, cream cheese, smoked salmon, crab stick (imitation crab meat) and avocado. I would suggest not using regular cooked fish and definitely don't use any fish raw you get from the grocery store. You must use sushi grade fish. This is also a very easy meal to make vegan.

Here are a few tips and photos of our efforts so far!