Yesterday we had the first pickup of the season from our new CSA. We’ve pre-paid what amounts to $20/week for about 6 months worth of weekly vegetables at a local farm. I’m excited about this for several reasons. First, this helps us move toward our goal of eating locally produced food, at least for half the year (more if we are able to do some canning). Second, we get some of the freshest vegetables around – stuff that was picked from the field hours, or sometimes …

I like trying out food, especially if I’ve heard of them enough to wonder what the hell they might be. Case in point: the crumpet.

I’ve been thinking about eggs a lot lately. I know – I’m weird. But we’ve ordered 5 little ducklings, and they will be arriving in the mail in late March. So I’m looking forward to the day when they start making eggs for us.
As I was telling my mother about the duck project the other day, she reacted with great surprise when I told her that I am currently going through 18 eggs per week in some weeks. “What do you use 18 eggs a week for?!” …

I made these with the whole family the other day.  Both recipes came from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie issue.  The pinwheels have ground almonds in the dough, while the candy canes are minty, and contain mint extract.  I’ve been putting the mint extract to good use in my baking since last year, when I used them as an addition to my Spritz cookie dough, which I highly recommend.  I get bored easily, so I like to try new cookie recipes, or tweak the old ones.  I also used …

A couple of years ago we noticed pomegranates on sale and bought one to see what they were about. We had no idea how to eat a pomegranate or how they would taste, but I knew that 6 pomegranate seeds are why we have the seasons (see the story of Persephone). It turned out to be a tremendously tasty fruit – sweet, tangy and thirst-quenching. Since then we’ve noticed a number of pomegranate-based juices in the grocery stores. Turns out that their healthfulness matches their taste as …