The Kitchen Sink

Ah, the famous kitchen sink.  The place I find myself most...washing hands, dishes and peaking out the window.

The Fridge

Onto the fridge.  You know, I've always wanted a fridge with a water dispenser on the front, but for some reason my husband keeps fighting me on it.  Maybe it's because I drink water all the time and he likes kool-aid. Do they have kool-aid dispensers?

The Stove

I've been wanting to draw elements in the kitchen, but in digital form, so I can make some new prints.  The next few days I'll share bits and pieces of this project.  Eventually I'll combine them into one composition.  To start here is my handy dandy stove.

Ghirardelli Chocolate

I've been a huge fan of Ghirardelli Chocolate since my first wandering into one of their downtown Chicago shops many years ago.  The thought of luxurious chocolate shakes and hot cocoa just made me giddy.

Just think of my delight was I was chosen to participate in the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolates.  A few days ago I received my special little package that included the following dark chocolates: Twilight Delight, Midnight Reverie and Sea Salt Soiree.  Ah.  Now, that was a very nice evening.

The next challenge... incorporate them into a recipe, rather than just eat them out of the box.  Well, geez, of course I ate them out of the box.  I couldn't stand to wait.  The Sea Salt Soiree called me and, oh my, was that good.  Kudos to G. for the neat combination.  After eating some solo, I chopped them up and mixed them into my vanilla ice cream that night with a little peanut butter.  Hey...I had lots of chocolate in the house and couldn't just let it sit there.

Don't worry, the next day my neighbor shared a lovely chocolate cheesecake recipe with me.  Over two days I collected ingredients, then made the most luscious cheesecake ever.  I mixed in the Twilight Delight and Midnight Reverie and it was fabulous.  Now take note, I'm not the best baker in the world, so I was more than elated to not only have made my first real cheesecake, but one with my favorite chocolates mixed in.  Another fine day.

Thanks to Ghirardelli and Foodbuzz for sweetening up my week.  Oh, and you can find the tasty cheesecake recipe here. Off for another piece of chocolate delight....

Reminiscing

I was thinking about last fall and my grand adventures partaking in the Project Food Blog Competition.  I thought it would be fun to share my favorites again: (ah, what memories!)

The Secret Society of Raspberry Revelry

The Joy Cupcake {In Aisle Eight}

Blueprint Biketrip

How to Make a Fruitie Smoothie (as embarrassing as it is)

YumGallery

As you might guess, I've been really busy with other projects, so embarrassingly have not updated this blog as often as I'd like.  One project was creating the logo for a really neat new food blog, YumGallery.  These are not the typical culinary postings.  I encourage you to check out this new foodie experience here.

Corn

Though our corn is not quite ready we have been able to enjoy tons of sweet corn from our generous neighbor (Thanks Brian!).

Inspired by our son's boy scout troop who grill corn for fundraisers, we've now been throwing ours on the fire as often as possible.  With added butter, salt and pepper...we just can't get enough.

Spinach

We actually harvested our spinach about a month ago....and was it yummy.

Inspired by the extra eggs gathered from our neighbor's chickens, we made spinach quiche a couple of times.  Very good.

My visiting brother also made a spinach omelet for my son...and my picky offspring actually liked it. It's so nice seeing him eat (and like) something healthy.

Beets

Ah beets.  I still don't know what to do with them.

I love pickled beets, but how else do I eat them?

Any suggestions?

Tomato

Though our tomatoes are not quite ripe yet, I had to include them...because of my mom. She has been asking me daily, "are the tomatoes ready yet?".

I am personally not a huge tomato fan, but my mom lives for them.

You can learn more about her tomato infatuation here...and more here (I seem to write a lot about this tomato craze).