Tasty

This salt is the finest I have ever used.

I enjoy my grapefruit peeled with a sprinkling of salt.
Just thinking about how delicious this is makes me hungry!

I had a bowl of peeled grapefruit for breakfast while on vacation in Texas a couple of years ago. The grapefruit was freshly picked.

It was wonderful. I decided I must learn how to peel a grapefruit.
I looked on u-tube for a demostration video
on how to peel a grapefruit. It is easy to do. I have been practicing. I think I am ready to serve peeled grapefruit for Christmas breakfast.

We bought a slow cooker in November.

I have used it at least once a week.

My favorite slow cooked dish is soup.

Seems as if Sunday has become soup day.

Yesterday's soup was:

Potato Carrot soup

12 small golden potatoes cut into chunks

1 red onion diced

sliced carrots I used 12 small baby carrots.

sliced celery

salt and pepper

parsely

I covered the vegetables with water and slow cooked them for 6 hours.

I added salt and pepper right before I served. I sprinkled parsley on top for garnish.

There is enough soup for three dinners.

Tonight I added rice to our soup.

It was so tasy. Nice to have a quick hot soup when it is so very cold outside.

Soup is comfort food for me.

The cowgirl has entered the kitchen.

We eat a few eggs each week.
The shells we are using in our drip coffee
before sending them to the compost.
I do think it makes for a smoother cup of coffee.

We enjoy the good sweet potato.
I think for Christmas breakfast I will make
sweet potato hash browns.
The Fleur de Sel and white pepper will be
all they need.

I am learning how all the appliances
in my kitchen work.
We cleaned out the cabinets and drawers
in the Kitchen.
We organized our baking things.
We organized the pantry.
We organized the spice cabinet.
The Kitchen is ready to start the New Year.

I am going to do
meal planning in 2011.

I will be using different cookbooks,
that I check out from the library,
 for inspiration.

I want to eat seasonally
and as locally as possible.

Winter Solstice  pumpkin soup

sounds divine.

I will leave off the dry sherry
and the half and half.
Perhaps I shall serve
 a bit of cornbread on the side.

Cookies

We began our glutten free baking last night.

We started off with Raison Oatmeal cookies.
 My husband's favorite.
I used my old recipe and substituted
 Bob's Red Mill glutton free flour for the wheat flour.
We also added 1/4th teaspoon xanthan gum powder to our batter.
These cookies taste just as good as Raison Oatmeal cookies made with wheat flour.

I have a few recipes I want to try.

We want to try to bake
glutton free bread.

This cookbook has inspired me to write my cookbook.
I have a recipe book I have used in the past but never did I write the stories that go with each recipe.
Now that we are baking glutton free
we have another story to add to familiar recipes.
It just takes a minute to write the changes down.
I am filling in the history while the cookies cool.

December's Cookbooks

I read cookbooks.

I just love the way they are written.
I enjoy the photographs too.

We are eating lots of homemade soup.

and dreaming about pie.

We add lots of cinnamon
to our diet.

I use cherries as a motif in December.
I do enjoy the cherry flavor.

We have our hot tea in the evenings.
We still have fresh mint in the garden.

We are doing protein drinks
and smoothies.
I am looking forward to our first snow
and hot chocolate made with co-conut milk.

Fig Preserves

California Figs are ripe and in the stores.

We bought 16 pounds!

We followed Jam Ladies' recipe for Black Mission fig preserves.

This was our first canning experience.

We used a boiling water canning method
so we did not need the pressure on the canner.

Our preserves came out just wonderfully!

We did up 18 half pints of Fig preserves.
This was so easy.
We are ready to do up a few more.

Cook Books

I have been reading cook books.

Trying out some new combinations.

My husband and I cook together.

We have done some baking.

It is fun to dance together in the kitchen.

Being glutton free is not as hard
as it once was.

I am trying new spices.

Cooking is so much fun!

Light Supper

Artichoke Dip

and Spinach Salad made for a light  tasty supper.

I chopped some artichokes and stirred in some shredded parmesan cheese.

I folded the mixture into 5.2 oz of soft gournay cheese.

I spooned it all into a pie pan and sprinkled sliced almonds and paprika over the top.

                                              I baked my dip in a 350 oven for 20 minutes.

I set out a cracker tray.

While the dip was baking I fixed our salad.

Taking the lead from the dressing I added

chopped figs and walnuts

to fresh baby spinach.

With a sprinkling of parmesan cheese

the salad was ready.

I sliced two Honey Crisp Apples for our fruit plate.

We had a most delightful supper.