Tag Archives: seasonal

{meatless monday} something fun for the holidays! — mini chocolate-dipped lady apples

17 Dec

chocostachiodippedladyapples-web-10

every now and then, i’m creative with sweets.  i’m not much of a baker, so i don’t keep common baking components around the house – i seldom even have milk in the fridge.  half & half, maybe… anyway, i wanted to try to make some candy-dipped apples of some kind without having to make an extra trip to the store, so this is what i came up with. i bought the apples prior, with the idea of creating something fun with them for the blog, and i had all the other items lying around.

i just think these are so fun – take them to the office for the holiday party, or make them as a special after-school snack for the season… either way they’re super easy and cute and everyone will love them! Continue reading →

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{try-me tuesday} — a seckel pear

4 Dec

the truth is, i like to switch it up a little.  if you were looking forward to a “travel tuesday” post, fret not – for there will be plenty others to come. i just have a good backlog of food fotos at this point and i want to share some of these before their season is over 🙂

i love trying new foods and whenever i’m in the produce department and i spot something new, i grab it up.  the beautiful seckel pear was my latest first.

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i love the colour!  they are smaller than a normal pear and tend to blossom into this burgundy colour as they ripen… Continue reading →

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{meatless monday} — creamy mashed “yamtatoes”

3 Dec

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who says you can only have ONE kind of mashed potato at once?!  well, maybe nobody said that, but i’m breaking that rule anyway.  sometimes my mashed potatoes just aren’t sweet enough, i need something else in them. well wait a minute… this other potato over here is even named “sweet” – why can’t i mix the two together?!  well, you CAN audrey, you so can.

plus you know me, i love my dishes to have lots of colour! Continue reading →

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{foto friday – seven different kinds of squash}

12 Oct

it’s that time of year.

my goodness do i love autumn!  the leaves, the brisk air, the campfire nights, the comfort foods… i mean, i guess most people don’t consider squash a “comfort food” – but isn’t it, though?!  i mean… in my opinion, if you put something in the oven, it’s comfort food.  haha!  mostly i just mean i think of the aroma that roasting squash in the oven creates in your home… it just screams AUTUMN and COMFORT!

anyway, squash was on sale and i bought all kinds of it.  i wanted to try some varieties i had never tried before.  a few of my favs were in the mix, but i also came out with some i never tasted and i am excited to! Continue reading →

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{meatless monday} — buttercorn squash soup

8 Oct

i am fully aware that “buttercorn” is not  a word… remember how i like to make up names for my dishes?!  well, this was no exception.

and i’m so fully in autumn mode it’s not even right.  and it’s not just because we got hit with some snow this week.  i’ve been ready now for weeks.  i thrive in the fall, i love this time of year!!  and yes, part of it is because i have a birthday approaching! 🙂  but i just love the food autumn brings.  i’m finally ready to put away the salad fork and bust out the soup spoon more often… i’m ready for root vegetables, squashes, potatoes, yams, and soups!!!!

squash was on sale a couple weeks ago – 10 pounds for 10 dollars.  so i snagged up 3 different kinds – spaghetti, acorn, and butternut.  i always use my spaghetti squash as pasta, so i knew what to do with that… and i was going to try to make the butternut squash as soup anyway – then i thought, well why can’t i just use BOTH kinds of squash in the soup?!

and so i did. Continue reading →

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{thirsty thursday} — wild-caught king salmon dressed in basil vinaigrette w/ a rye lager

27 Sep

so, salmon season is pretty much over… i think we’ll get another run or two but that will be it. do you know how you can just kind of guess that the season is about over? well, have you been to the grocer and SEEN the size of salmon filets right now?!  massive!  like, i mean MASSIVE fish!  they’ve been cruising around eating up the other fish, gettin’ all fat and delicious on us… THAT’S how you can usually tell it’s the end of the season.  they’re HUGE!

whenever there is a one-day special or sale of any kind on salmon, i nab it up.  i don’t like freezing my fish, so i’ll just buy enough for a nice meal with the roomie or cook a little extra for salads.  all seafood is so much more expensive out here in the land-locked states, so i don’t eat it nearly as much as i would like. frozen fish just doesn’t taste as good… i prefer only eating wild-caught, in season, as local as possible fish.

the real secret ingredient to this dish and part of the inspiration for even buying the fish was to use some of this absolutely amazing marinade that was gifted to me as a generous sample.  it’s a locally made product which is a basil-based vinaigrette that i was immediately hooked on the first time i tried it when the vendor was demoing the product with some simple bib lettuce. i didn’t find a website for the actual producers, but i do know that this particular bottle in the above foto was made only 3 days prior to me consuming it.  talk about fresh!!  i’m so lucky.

if you can find it, get it.  you can buy it online and it’s actually cheaper than the store that way.  the ingredients are so simple, if you had the right combo of good oil and vinegar you could almost mimic it.  but i tell you, it’s the best dressing i’ve ever tried!!  i’m not sure i’ll ever go back to another dressing again!  and i have tried a TON of vinaigrettes!  italian-style dressing is my absolutely fav, but it simply has to have the right combination of good oil and good vinegar and the right kind of spices.  i mean, when you’re basing your dressing around FRESH basil, i guess you can’t go wrong… Continue reading →

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{foto friday} — for the love of figs.

21 Sep

i’m pretty sure it’s fig season..

and i love me some figs… just love ’em…

i decided to try ALL THREE kinds of figs this year… even though i have always heard that black mission figs are the best… i wanted to give them all a fair chance and then decide for myself… i had only had the black figs prior to this little experiment… Continue reading →

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{thirsty thursday} — risotto balls and creamy avocado dip w/ a seasonal red hoptober ale

13 Sep

these were absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS!!  perfect for the football game, easy to make {if you can stand making the risotto ahead of time earlier in the week}, and out-of-this-world delicious! a coworker suggested this recipe to me when i told her i was trying my hand at risotto… i was eager to try BOTH!

here is my recipe for the mushroom/leek risotto that is beginning this dish. start with that – and 2 eggs and some breadcrumbs… i had *just enough* to make these : Continue reading →

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zucchini pizza strips

11 Jul

food can be fun.

i love it when i see a recipe or look at a vegetable a different way and say, “what if i tried it like this…”  because typically, i’m a creature of habit.  when i find something that works for me, i stick with it.  i often don’t sway.  in fact, i had been using the same ranch dressing for like, 7 years.  annies organic cowgirl ranch.  i love the stuff.  but then one day a co-worker suggested this other brand {with less fat, made from yogurt, and still so tasty} and now THAT is my new favourite – haha.  i guess my point is, sometimes i get tunnel vision. but this blog has helped me to rethink ways of preparing food.  i always chop my veggies into 1-2 inch pieces, and steam them or saute them.  sometimes i’ll roast them all together.  but never did it occur to me to cut zucchini into strips and serve it like a pizza slice!!  what! Continue reading →

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roomie’s salmon birthday dinner

10 Jul

my roommate celebrated a birthday last month, and i’m just getting around to blogging about the meal – d’oh!

naturally the best gift i can give anyone is food – so i cooked for him. 🙂

nothing says “summer” like corn on the cob, eh?!  ANNNNDD, it’s salmon season.  the first runs started coming in early june.  whenever i think of making a special meal, i always think of salmon.  i can’t cook a steak to save my life, and i’m a snob when it comes to eating out.  so, i splurged on the $24.99/lb. salmon and conserved with the sides 😉 {these two filets ran me about $17 — but in new york, i probably would’ve paid only about $11, boy do i miss living by the ocean!} Continue reading →

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cherryfest! {and a big thank you!}

9 Jul

it’s cherry season!!!!!

it’s the best time to buy cherries right now – they are at their in-season peak and the price is right!  if i may – another push to get you to buy organic. cherries are on the dirty dozen list {as is most things you eat the skin with}, so it’s best to buy them organic if you can.  don’t be scared, when you buy items in season at their peak, you pay less, the taste and quality are better, and you are voting with your dollars!  OG cherries are typically 9-10 dollars a pound when bought in march or april when they start trickling in.  but if you buy them now, you’re going to pay a lot less – somewhere between 3-5 dollars a pound — and yes, for organic!  and if you can grab some from a farmers market, even better!!! or if you have a CSA buy-in, you may notice them arriving with your monthly shipment. yum – and you can totally freeze them. or make jams or syrups for your sodastream maker… Continue reading →

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{featured produce of the week : organic purple carrots}

1 Jul

locally grown here – they don’t call us colourful colorado for nothin’

although my favourite colour, tender, and still yummy when eaten raw, i prefer purple carrots steamed with a smidgen of maple syrup.  actually, what i do is –

chop them up into roughly 1/2 inch pieces. add enough water to cover the carrots to the pan and boil {covered} on medium high heat until the carrots begin to soak up the water. i don’t even add any butter or oil, because these things are so good without it.  add in more water {or veggie stock for extra flavour} if necessary, but basically you want the carrots to almost glaze, and then add in a tiny bit of good quality maple syrup toward the end.

they are so yummy cooked this way.  i would like to try to peel them thinly and use them almost like a pasta – or perhaps i’ll run them through the food processor, but i do think i need to buy an attachment for that…

and — purple carrots *kind of* resemble fireworks, eh?!  😉 Continue reading →

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featured produce of the week : seasonal organic english peas

23 Jun

if you haven’t had these delicious treats, i highly recommend you try them. perhaps it’s the fact that i’m about 2/3 english, but i just love sitting  and shelling english peas.  and of course, eating them 😉  i’ll have a few recipes featuring these tasty little morsels next week, so stay tuned! Continue reading →

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{featured produce of the week : seasonal organic garlic scapes}

15 Jun

i was going through my film, preparing some blogs for the week, and i realized that i had used these garlic scapes in about 4 of my dishes.  i had never tried using them before, but the smell was so intoxicatingly wonderful, i couldn’t resist. and at 3 bucks a pop, i was able to make so many things with them!  i just love eating seasonal foods.  it’s like, something to look forward to. it’s a treat, you know?!

this article explains what exactly garlic scapes are.  essentially, it’s like baby garlic.  can be used in place of scallions, the bulb itself isn’t as strong but the scape is wonderful!!  i just think anything “baby” is better… haha.  ** i also recently discovered these are locally grown here in northern colorado – woo!

stay tuned for some of the dishes i used them in – including a unique take on mashed potatoes! 🙂

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cheeky halibut and the usual

21 May

my roommate said to me, “this is probably my favourite fish you’ve made so far…”  🙂 thanks, Brian in SEAFOOD! also, the title sounds like the name of an old jazz band…no?!

i had never heard of halibut cheeks.  but after having that amazing wild caught halibut earlier this season, i knew i had to try them.  anything fresh, wild caught, and semi-local and i’m all about it.  i do miss the east coast a lot for the seafood, i must say. Continue reading →

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fried fiddlehead ferns

22 Apr

yeah, try saying that five times fast 🙂

fiddlehead ferns

have you ever seen such a thing?!   Continue reading →

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wild seasonal halibut and fresh steamed artichokes

20 Apr

preface : this is one wordy/lengthy post!!! 🙂

i really love to eat in season, as often as possible.  apparently, it is halibut season.  i will admit that i miss living on the east coast simply for the amazing seafood selection.  as someone who doesn’t eat a lot of meat, fish has always been a great source of protein for me and besides all that, i just love it – anything from the ocean, really! Continue reading →

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seafood sunday

1 Apr

    

as i’ve mentioned, i’m not on any kind of diet nor do i often say, “i don’t eat that” {unless it’s overly-processed ickiness} — i try to live by the general rule of “everything in moderation.”  i’m what i like to call an “intuitive eater”… more on that in the future… Continue reading →

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