July

In Michigan, cherry pie is the thing, and Cherry Republic supplies the best cherries. I make a pretty good crust.

Back in the WV humidity, two nice salads helped:

And these blooms too, as they always do.

Party for poets, etc

Per usual, the grad poets came to my house for dinner to celebrate the end of the semester. Here's what we ate!

In other news, I got an exciting shipment from King Arthur Flour....

And here are some recent meals... nothing too exciting... but yummy, I think....

The KAF goodies let me bake a bread very similar to the delicious Cheesecake Factory dark loaf...

Finally, look at these beauties....

A good evening

For dinner: mac & cheese: delicious, almost always. Especially in this case. Super good NY Times recipe. Low-fat? No. That would be ridiculous.

Served with sautéed kale (and dates).

And earlier: Chinese lantern: one of my most favorites, which I saw on a walk.

Lots of pretty

First blooms in the garden...

And along a favorite path...

Food can be pretty too, of course.

A quick salad of asparagus, pea pods, etc.

 

And potato salad. The vinaigrette kind. A few adaptations since last time.

A simple dinner after a long drive.... grilled vegetables, sautéed spinach....

A new bread recipe. KAF buttertop. So so good.

Finally, and definitely in the "pretty" category, Lake St. Clair. A recent Sunday morning. A little before 8. Michigan...

Fiddleheads, ducks, tablescapes & whatnot

It's spring-for-real now. Evidence: fiddleheads.

Also, ducks. 

Is "tablescape" a real word? And if so, is this one? Well, anyway, close enough, and pretty.

And here's the dinner that went with those candles. The sweet potatoes were roasted with rosemary, fyi.

And yesterday included some planting... 

Lots of things

Much walking, the usual cooking and baking. These are the highlights.

A lovely hemlock.

A Tiger Cake!, exclamation point required. For my students.

First, on a paper plate, in class...

And then, the last piece, at home after dinner...

It swirled nicely, didn't it? And all by itself, just like the recipe promised.

Today I made a delicious asparagus soup. There are lots of recipes. I used this one, from Epicurious. No cream, though, yes, a dollop on top. And I sautéed the asparagus before adding it. 

The spinach salad has a red wine vinaigrette that I made using this recipe from Food 52. Actual red wine makes the difference here.

And that's The Bread, which I've not made for a few weeks.

Finally, some flowers. First, impatiens on the deck.

And, finally, coneflower (echinacea). I have one on each side of my front porch. They're slightly different, one more orange in the center, one more red...

Oh, almost forgot: here's a little lavender and some Lake Michigan rocks, including a Petoskey stone. The pic is a little dark, but if you know what you're looking for, you'll spot it...