Garden Amendment

The other day I found out that all of my "watermelon" plants (that I grew from seed beginning over 4 months ago) are in actuality "zucchini" plants. That makes sense, because I planted the two sets of seeds next to each other in the same little peat starter pods. I guess that's why gardenistas always tell you to label your plants! Ha! Minor amateur gardener faux-pas! That really explains why all of my so-called watermelons look so much like zucchinis. And why the new zucchini plants look so much like the old "watermelon" plants. Good thing I love zucchini!

Soulard Farmer's Market

Yay, it's been a while since I last went to the Soulard Farmer's Market, but it is as awesome as ever, if not even better! There are the obvious signs of improvement; previously abandoned buildings redone as "Soulard Market Lofts", and the old parking lot across the street repaved and turned into an electronic pay lot.

Dorie Greenspan's Tartest Lemon Tart

Dorie Greenspan is a fancypants chef, cook, baker, food writer of delectable treats. Laurie, from Quirky Cupcake, runs a site called Tuesdays With Dorie, in which amateur cooks across the world all attempt a different Dorie recipe each week, picked by the floggers from one of her books. It is fascinating the way that one recipe can have so many variations among bakers. Participating in the blog sounds fun, but there are a couple of reasons why it is not logical for me.

1. It would get expensive buying all those special ingredients every week
2. I absolutely do not have the time for baking something new each week, it seems like each day is over before I know it!
3. I would probably weigh about 400 pounds if I had to eat an entire pastry every week. Not that I wouldn't LOVE to, or think that I couldn't, because I certainly would dig in and eat the entire dish if there were no consequences! I think I will try to keep my dessert-making down to about once a month!

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage

I found this recipe on one of the flogs I read, Simply Recipes. I thought it looked mostly healthy, and I am just cuckoo for zucchini. I know, I know, another repulsive picture. Don't let it fool you though; this dish was delish! It was about a million times more difficult to make than I thought it would be (it took almost 2 hours from start to finish!), but absolutely worth it. Somehow (maybe it was all the pepper?), the turkey (okay, I used ground chicken, it was cheaper) actually tasted like sausage! It was amazing. I ate all of the leftovers, very yum! Next time, I would halve the amount of salt and pepper, but those are the only changes I would make. Well worth the time!

Dead Bird

The other day, Nunisha came over for barbecue and hanging off. A bird flew into the tiny window above the couch, snapping it's neck and (hopefully) instantly killing itself. It was very horrible. I'm sorry little birdie.

Alton Brown's Protein Bars

I just love that Alton Brown and his show "Good Eats". He is not just showing you how to put ingredients together, but giving you scientific information on properties of said ingredients, as well as neat and handy tips for making kitchen life easier. The other night on Good Eats was a rerun about granola bars and protein bars, and I thought we should try out one of the recipes.

Alton Brown's Protein Bars

These were one of the messiest treats I have ever made! One plus of this recipe is that it is not actually necessary to use a stand mixer. Another cool thing is that it exposed me to all sorts of things that I had never used before, like soy protein powder, wheat germ, and tofu. We used the leftover tofu to make a smoothie. Yum!

When these bars first came out of the oven, I tried some pieces that had crumbled off and thought them rather cakey, more like a dessert than a bar. After they had been refrigerated though, they became more dense, and I must say that I am completely addicted! I will definitely be making these again, they were delicious!

Who's there?

Huh. Couch looks different today.

Hmmm, seems to have grown some sort of lump-type protrusion.


Oh my! Pardon me! Meow meow Miss Pinky!