A gentle rain

this morning... and a roundup: various things, shades of green.

Basmati rice + chicken + green beans + scallions + oh I can't remember what else.

Gemelli with swiss chard, tomatoes, pistachios.

Wild rice, farro, baby kale, mandarin oranges, dried cherries.

"Silky" zucchini soup. Food & Wine recipe. 

Oh, August

—So that was July. Much travel. Lots of reading (Lawrence in Arabia and the Bate biography of Keats were the main things; both are recommended). Not enough cooking. But now it's August, and I'm back home, happily.

Some recent highlights, beginning with this eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, tomato bake that my sweet friend Beth and I shared.

And then a couple of other typical meals... whole wheat gemelli with chicken, pecans, dates...

And a farro salad like the one at the always lovely La Quinta resort (or maybe theirs is like mine... yes, I think that's more accurate). 

This buckwheat bread seemed wintry, at first, but then it just got better and better, especially with some hummus.

And last night, I made these oatmeal-date cookies (with cardamom). Delicious.

Finally, it's Kitten Time here. This is Miss Myrna Loy. She is about 10 weeks old and quite precocious, she wants you to know.

Snowy, Sunny, Windy, Cold

—that was today. A good day for cooking and baking.

Here's the Ruby Swiss chard and white bean soup again.

And here's a lovely salad: farro, roasted sweet potatoes, kale, dried cherries, feta. 

I made that bread this morning. Harvest grains. KAF. 

The snow really wasn't much, which is maybe why my cat got brave and went out for a few minutes. She's intrepid, and quite beautiful.

A very pretty Sunday in September

A good day for a small dinner party for a visiting writer.

To start, tomatillo-avocado salsa. Rick Bayless recipe.

And two kinds of bread, the oatmeal loaf and the beer bread.

I made a green salad (no pic) and grilled lots of vegetables to go with farro. 

And a cranberry cheesecake for dessert. I've made a lot of cheesecakes. This was one of the best, by far.

Grilling is fun

Lamb chops with farro (and dried cherries and pecans) and---very exciting---fiddleheads. Tis the season for those.

And a steak salad (tomatoes, asparagus, onion, mixed greens, feta).

Cottage cooking...

has its challenges.

Nonetheless.

First, baked chicken with a farro salad. Note the loon plate. Loon turned at an awkward angle, but still visible.

And some beer bread, alone and then (half-eaten) as a snack with some berries.

And finally whitefish—caught by Carlson's of Leland, of course—with charred corn salad and some wild rice with asparagus, toasted almonds, and cherries. 

All of this in a pan-challenged, stove-challenged environment...

Two things

First: a salad to go with leftover pizza. The pizza, "artisan," wasn't exactly unhealthy... but, nonetheless, salad seemed like a good idea. So, farro with sautéed leeks, mixed greens, dates, pecans. Really delicious.

Second: the first dinner I grilled on my new-to-me gas grill. Very pleasing. Not sure why the pic is blurry, but, in any case, a filet along with charred corn salad (grilled) and asparagus (not grilled).

For tonight, and tomorrow

Farro. This time with asparagus, crimini mushrooms, toasted walnuts, feta, dates.