so i know fall isnt really here yet...

but it really feels like it. this has been the coolest summer i can remember. i would normally like that (no LOVE that,) but it meant less pool time for the two-year-old. and it also means that i still have five tomato plants that are loaded w green tomatoes. it just hasnt been warm enough for them to ripen. it gives me the sads. but this week we went to the farmer's market and it was truly bountiful. harvest is upon us! i bought acorn squash, a fresh pie pumpkin, beets, a huge celery, and baking apples.

also this week johnny and i took ruby to a farm. the idea was to pick apples, but they just werent ripe yet. that being said, we had an amazing time. she got to ride around on a wagon while her daddy took pictures and her mother lost her mind discovering what leeks look like when they're in the ground. it was so much fun. we picked blackberries and broccoli and onions and grapes and leeks and...we would have picked waaaay more stuff, but i had to reign in the crazies. for the first time in my life i got to see a harvest, not just reap the benefits at the market.




so to me, and in my house, fall is here. last week i started cool weather cooking, ie. braising meat and roasting chickens. this is my favorite time of year. i've missed my sweaters and my creuset. i love the smell of things roasting in my oven. its intoxicating. red wine tastes better than white again. i found myself daydreaming about football parties and big vats of brisket chili, icy beer, and pumpkin pie. so i got right on it. of course. ;)

yesterday i made butternut squash soup. i also made a huge amount of veggie stock. and i roasted and pureed the pumpkin so i can make a pie today. i feel like i know enough about cooking at this point (and please, i may be wrong, who knows,) to not use any one recipe exactly. i tend to read as many as i can find and then take the best parts from them and make up my own. this happened to turn out wonderfully this time. the soup has just a tiny amount of cream in it and a touch of cayenne pepper. just a touch. you feel it on the back of your throat, making its warmth linger.

today i bake the pie. im trying a new pie crust recipe. i think i need to make a ton of it so i can freeze it. so i can make a thousand pies this fall.

how thrilling. fall. welcome back. you've been missed.

plastic containers

are you as tired as i am of looking at this:

i cant take it anymore. so i did something about it. i went out and bought a big box of pint size ball jars. you know, the kind for canning. my idea is thus....it looks way prettier in the fridge than gross plastic containers. they also wont stain when filled w tomatoey things. also, what kid doesnt like to drink a big lemonade out of a mason jar? its totally awesome and reminiscent of my youth. furthermore, you can use them as a cocktail shaker. insert ingredients for cocktail. put lid on. shake. amazing. and pretty much everything can fit in them. besides meat. and i always plastic wrap meat, i never put it in tupperware. takes up too much room. so im feeling totally inspired by this and i put some leftovers in the jars and took a picture of what they look like in the fridge.

that's spaghetti squash, caramelized onions, pesto, and a lentil and kale salad i made yesterday.

i have to make myself do this

i dont know why i cant make myself sit here and type. i can stand up and cook all day long, i can take a million pictures of the things i want to blog about, but when it comes to sitting here and typing about it, i cant.

so im making myself.

for the last month, i've been making this recipe:

the almost no-knead baguette

its amazingly delicious. all you do is mix flour, water, yeast, and a little salt. you knead it for a coupla minutes and then stick it in the fridge. the great thing about it, is that its A LOT of dough. and it keeps for up to seven days. so what i've been doing with it is leaving it in the fridge and taking out just a little at a time. this means i have fresh, homemade baguettes every day. and my house always smells like bread. its pretty amazing.

i think the key to making it taste like an actual fresh baguette is the water that you apply to the dough after its risen. it gives the crust that chewy, brown quality that i crave w fresh cheese. so i went to target and bought a one dollar sprayer...and voila! it works. i just make sure i spray the dough before i put it in the oven, and maybe once or twice during baking.

also, if you'll notice, it calls for instant yeast. the hardest thing about baking fresh bread, is making sure your yeast activates. people seem to be unable to do this. i know i was, before i read The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. gone are the days of trying to make yeast activate. you use instant yeast. i searched all over chicago for instant yeast. couldnt find it. well guess what? that's because its actually called "bread machine yeast." its amazing. if you've been afraid to make bread in the past, fear not! this will revolutionize the way you bake bread. or pizza dough. anything.

speaking of pizza dough...i bought johnny a cuisinart brick oven for christmas. the idea was that he loved our old toaster oven because he loved to make these insanely delicious crostinis, and he's fond of the expression, "take it to the next level" so i figured, w proper baking stones, he could revolutionize our pizza eating experiences. well. we tried. i bought trader joes pizza dough. we failed. it sucked. the dough was seriously over kneaded, which causes the dough to become super hard to work with. we ended up w little blobs of dough that were burnt on the outside and raw dough in the middle. yuck.

we gave up. i used the oven to bake bread, and he still makes his crostinis. other than that. it just sits there. so this week i used rose levy beranbaum's recipe for pizza dough. it was amazing. and super simple. its just like the bread recipe i listed above, in that its just yeast, flour, water, the only difference is the tiny amount of sugar in this recipe. its very malleable and easy to shape. great for people like me, who have a hard time w pizza shaping. as she promised, it was light and airy, but completely crispy. i topped mine w black mission figs, prosciutto, and caramelized onions. of course. ;) johnny and ruby went the way of homemade pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. try it. its fantastic.

marshmallows

my jill had a bar b que on friday night. i made homemade marshmallows. and graham crackers.
you can find the recipe here: s'mores

they were super easy and also super delicious. it may seem silly to make something from scratch that costs a buck at jewel, but i think making something from scratch makes food taste better. there's more love in it.

farmers market loot from 7/11

oh man. finally. tomatoes. it's been so unseasonably cold up here this summer. the tomatoes are just not growing. its very frustrating. i have five tomato plants and the only one that has had fruit ripen is the teeny weeny cherry tomato plant. so i have still had to buy them. i guess a few farmers are growing tomatoes in a green house, because they are incredible. and there are very few. i have to get to the market (http://www.chicagogreencitymarket.org/) at seven. when it opens. on a saturday. ouch. in order to even get them.

i've also found some very interesting things from green acres farms. i bought the most amazing thing over the weekend. wild spinach. who knew?! it's called lamb's quarters and it really does taste like spinach. just like w the purslane, i've only eaten this raw in a salad but you can cook it just like spinach. its amazing.

its painful to get there so early, but it is worth it. if you cant make it and want something, just let me know. ill get it for you. ;)

lamb's quarters (wild spinach)

this has been a long time coming

i have been trying to get a food blog up and running for a long time. the thing that kept me from doing it was my obsessive need for a good name for it. i tried french titles, which is funny, as i have no idea how to speak or even pronounce french. i tried latin. none of it made sense. so i had to sit quietly with myself for a coupla minutes to figure out what my real goal is for this blog. what i realized is that it is entirely for me to have a creative outlet. not to be flashy and showy. so who cares what the title of the blog is? i needed to find something that i found inspiring.

what i find inspiring is food. cooking it, eating it, shopping for it. i am completely devoted. so i have named my blog "purslane chronicles." if you have spent time with me in the last coupla weeks, particularly if you have eaten at my house, i am sure i have shared this magical plant with you. its a weed. an edible weed. not just edible but completely delicious. so far i've only eaten it raw in a salad but apparently you can sautee it too, like spinach. what may be even more exciting than how tasty it is, is how good for you it is. it has tons of antioxidants and omega 3s. and it only has 7 calories in a cup of it. anway. that's the inspiration.

purslane