It is pretty amazing to watch your baby grow up.  I enjoy hearing my coworkers talking about their teenagers and can see that that time will come sooner than I know it.  Brie is getting pretty talented - other than the fact that she talks in sentences that sound like "badi dita tala tata ya, ske?"  She knows what she is saying, I guess that's the most important thing right now.  She can put her shoes on unaided, she enjoys helping me in the kitchen and outside, she LOVES to clean up and tidy up the yard (especially loves raking the gravel into little mounds, yay!).  However, this morning she almost killed me - guess it's time for my heart to grow stronger for those teenage years to come... We moved her into her own toddler bed about a week ago... she's been doing okay in it, but seems to wake up in the night and not remember what is going on - Josh has found her a few times standing next to the bed looking at it and crying, perhaps she can't remember that she can get back in?  Anyway, she hadn't gotten out on her own until yesterday naptime, when she joined me in the office when she was done napping.  Then, this morning at about 6, I turned over, opened my eyes, and she was standing there looking at me.  I about had a heart attack.  DOn't know if I can take much more of that!  Now what, do we lock her in?  Don't think that would work.  Guess she's gaining a bit of independence...

What could it be?  It's a lemon cucumber.  Deceptively, it doesn't taste at all like lemon, just like a "normal" cucumber, but less bitter.  One of the exciting parts of joining a farm coop/CSA - you get to try things you might not have heard of of thought of buying before.  This week we got some beautiful heirloom eggplants, which are challenging for me because none of us really like eggplant much.  I'm up for suggestions...

One of my fellow students teased me last week when I was listing the things we were planning on doing with Brie - she said "wow - you sure do a lot of stuff!"  I guess we do - I don't like to sit at home and watch TV all day, and I know that Josh doesn't like to do things around the house like cut the grass on the weekends, so we try to stay busy with fun activities.  Last weekend we got Brie a flu shot first thing on Sat morning, then we went downtown to the Phoenix Farmer's Market.  It was different than I had anticipated - we did show up late because of the shot, but there was less food there and more crafts than I would have thought.  We still got an assortment of honeys and some fresh cheese, but it was definitely different.  Then on Sunday we went to the Queen Creek Olive Farm - a local olive grower who makes great olive oil.  It was fun and I'm posting some pictures.  Today we went to Josh's company party @ Encanto Park in downtown Phoenix, and then we went to a local food event @ the Duck and Decanter, also in Phoenix.  How fun!

Adjusted from Chef Edward's cooking presentation to include local foods in season:

 

Orange, Radish & Pomegranate salad

 

2 oranges

1/2 pomegranate (seeds removed)

4 small radishes

2T honey

2T freshly squeezed lemon juice

 

Peel & slice oranges and lay on plates (Chef Edward showed us a trick to this - I put it below)

Finely chop radishes and arrange them on top of oranges

Sprinkle as many pomegranate seeds on top as you like

 

Mix honey and lemon juice and drizzle over entire salad - yummy!

 

I also left the rest of the pomegranate seeds in the remaining honey/lemon mixture and then they are great to just eat or to throw on salads.

 

Cut ends off orange

Stand orange upright on one of the (now flat) ends

Using your knife, cut the skin off in slices from top to bottom all the way around the orange (one slice at a time)

If there is still skin left on the bottom (if you haven't followed the curve of the orange as well as you could have), turn the orange over and get the remaining skin

I found you can get almost all the skin off while removing very little orange and saving the step of peeling, which I hate.

After going to the food presentation the other day, I went out and bought Chef Edward's original book, the Tassajara Bread Book.  I actually was lucky enough to get a signed copy, as he had signed some at our bookstore before the cooking presentation.  It is an awesome cooking book.  I have already been having fun cooking lately after joining the CSA because I'm forced to do so (posting a great recipe I did with Swiss Chard below), but I haven't really done much baking lately.  I usually avoid baking because it often entails cookies or sweets and Josh and I are trying to be semi-healthy.  I never really "did" bread, but his book makes it so easy.  I have two loaves, one actual loaf and one braided filled with Parmesan and black pepper, in the oven right now.  The house smells awesome.  As he said, "Don't fear bread."  How wonderful to create something so yummy.  The book is full of good recipes, tips, and the entire how-to on how to turn out a great loaf of bread.  I highly recommend it. 

 

Ingredients

Yesterday I went to a presentation and cooking presentation by chef Edward Espe Brown of the new movie "How to Cook your Life."  He was a fun guy and made some really great food.  Unfortunately I have to miss the opening of the movie that I got tickets to because of school, but Josh and I will definitely be going to see it.  Check it out at http://www.cookyourlifemovie.com/home.html.  Go see it - if you enjoy food or enjoy cooking, I think you will enjoy this movie.