this beautiful sign caught my eye a few weeks ago at a lunchtime farmer’s market. it makes me want to be a winning farm to earn the sign! i am not a farmer, but i am an indoor gardener (of cooking herbs). what an interesting program.

i bought the cutest little watermelon the other day, and it inspired me to have a photoshoot. i have been kicking around the idea of paying someone for an almost foodies logo and header design. my friend reminded me about my old school doodle and the knife. don’t think i am ready to outsource yet.

this teeny watermelon was yellow like a male goldfinch on the inside, and it was sweeter than a [insert something super sweet here]. i am not a photo pro, and can’t figure out why my photos look awful whenever i shoot something orange or yellow. so for that reason, i will not show you the inside of this little gem.

okay, i guess this one isn’t totally awful. i want you to be able to see the sweet yellow goodness:

mmm. like a springtime daffodil that you can eat. right? maybe. i still like the straight up pink watermelon the best. maybe it’s the color. and i love eating it with cantaloupe. the colors and textures are amazing together. i will be sure to get some photos of that afternoon snack under the fluorescent lights in my cubicle. are you taking advantage of melon season? have you had a honeydew yet? i tried a sample, and was not impressed. think i might take a chance on a whole melon this week. oh how i love this time of year!

i recently joined our local food co-op (well not the super local one a few blocks from home), but the other one that is already open…in albany, and i am really excited.  i work once a week and spend that time chatting with people about food.  awesome, right?  totally.

i was so happy to spot this al baraki (a wonderful lebanese restaurant that started in troy, and moved to albany) falafel in the freezer section (this photo was taken on my own time).  when i went back to make the purchase, they were gone!  it’s so wonderful to see local and convenient products for sale.  [don't worry, i won't utilize this blog as a way to highlight specials at the co-op.]

finally got around to working on a wedding cross stitch for skfl and me.

got into caramelizing leeks and eating them right out of the frying pan.

spent a decent amount of time in the car listening to audiobooks.

i was making yogurt like crazy and putting on a few pounds (thanks whole milk).

and then there was the obsessive punching out and sorting of paint chip samples for a project phase.

most of my time was spent pressing on mae’s head because it feels so good (and she likes it).

i picked up a quince on a recent trip to whole foods.  now i just need to figure out what the heck to do with it.  good thing i have so many cookbooks to search, and of course my new favorite book.

i’ve been spending so much time moving this website over, that i forgot to post a few stories.  i thought you might enjoy a photo of mae doing her thing.  now i’m off to figure out what to make for the next potluck – breakfast for dinner!

work plants thriving at home in the natural light.

i don’t know what got into me over the weekend.  maybe it was a successful round of cupcake baking on friday night with improvised boozy frosting (more on that later).  or perhaps it’s the two ovens in the wall of our new place.  who needs two ovens?  have i said this before?  well, we do!  i have yet to use them both at the same time.

our egg kick came to a crashing halt when i became paprika’d out a few weeks ago.  yeah, i totally overdid it and needed to take a break.  thanks to my twitter (no need to link to it again), i am able to keep track of our dinners and sometimes weekend breakfasts.  too many eggs with homefries!  and i thought my weight gain was from being a judge in all over albany’s tournament of pizza (too afraid to talk about it right now, for fear of inadvertently revealing the outcome).

back to the story – i had a hankering for some corn muffins and almost all of the ingredients were on hand.  then i got to improvising (something i am usually very afraid to do while baking) and came pretty close to nailing it.  the base of the recipe is from the silver palate cookbook (a cookbook i HAD to buy after tasting the best oatmeal cookies EVER at a holiday party a few years back), and it’s for crackling cornbread.  i substituted blueberries for bacon, even though semantic inequality told me that was the inferior choice.  i probably could’ve added a bit more sugar and butter and will do that on the next round this weekend.  i also substituted yogurt for the buttermilk (thanks to the cupcake recipe that gave me the choice the night before) and added a bit more salt to account for the lack of bacon.

so here is what i worked up.  i’ve got to say that i’m pretty psyched to be posting a recipe, even if i might add to it in the future.  do you have any suggestions to share?  there are so many cornbread recipes out there for different cravings.  if you make these, let me know how they turn out or what modifications you make.

corn muffins with blueberries (working title)

based on the crackling cornbread from the silver palate cookbook

• 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup organic lo-fat plain yogurt
• 1 cup blueberries
• 6 tablespoons sweet butter, melted
• 1 egg, slightly beaten

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.  grease a regular sized muffin tin (i used spray oil, butter would probably be better.  wait, butter is always better.)
2. stir dry ingredients together in a bowl.  then stir in yogurt, butter and egg.  gently mix it all together and fold in the blueberries.
3. pour batter into the muffin tins, set on middle rack of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.  you know they are done when you stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean.
4. let them cool in the muffin tins for about 10 minutes (if you can wait that long).
5. serve with butter and honey.

shaul farms – fultonham, ny