Meeting and greeting

Hard to believe it's that time of year again, but, alas. In any case, I was happy to host the MFA meet-&-greet this past weekend. Here are some pics of the food.

I made four salads.

Quinoa with edamame, corn, chick peas, dried cherries & pepitas.

Wild rice, cantaloupe, blueberries, spinach, toasted almonds & feta. My favorite.

Mixed greens with sautéed asparagus, toasted pecans, blue cheese. My vinaigrette.

Watermelon, tomato, feta salad. An old stand-by.

I also made two quick breads: beer bread and cherry-walnut bread. The latter is a Cherry Republic recipe.

And for dessert, two kinds of cookies: NY Times chocolate chip (the best...) and chocolate-pumpkin seed cookies (also very good).

Whew! That was fun.

Shopping!

King Arthur. Of course.

A well-named bread

"Excellent white bread." NY Times recipe. I credit the sun with helping to get a nice rise here. This loaf had two rises in the dough bucket and one in the pan and spent a good bit of time cozied up on a chair by the window (note: Myrna was not so happy about this) and then actually outside, on my little kitchen porch.

Autumn-ish

... says my friend Carol about these cookies—chocolate chunk-pumpkin seed—which I made yesterday. A test run for a party. And yes, sigh, autumn-ish. Also, really good. Like a brownie, but with pumpkin seeds and paprika for kick. Thanks to Bon Appetit for the recipe.

New bowls. Very exciting.

Mason Cash bowls. In the forest.

Some scones. KAF recipe. Dried cherries and toasted almonds. I froze these overnight and baked them in the morning—then took them to a meeting. Pretty pleasing.

Just bread

The buttertop bread. With cherry preserves from Cherry Republic.

Meanwhile, it is, believe it or not, a school night. 

Tomatoes and other summer-y things

Let mostly to their own devices, my tomatoes, little and not so little, came along.

A couple of attempts and these zucchini cakes turned out nicely. 

They're delicious with chutney (and a lookalike chick pea patty)... and the leftovers made pretty good driving food on a recent road trip.

Finally, it's time for figs. Here are some grilled ones with spinach, pecans, raspberries, feta.