Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for June, 2010

Zoe vs. Cow

Posted in Events, tagged , , , on June 13, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I’ve been doing my city-girl best to get my country on as of late, and I do declare, I’m doing a good job. I’ll be sharing some more fun market finds with you later this week (there is a Celtics game to watch tonight, after all!), but I couldn’t wait any longer to share some photos from last weekend when my boyfriend and I headed up to Brattleboro, VT for the annual Strolling of the Heifers event. The long and short of the event is that they walk ~80 cows (and goats and horses and sheep and oxen and people) right down Main Street. How could I not go? (How could ANYONE not go, really?) Check it out:

"BrattleBURRO kicks ASS" Love it -- Ha!

"Annie"

I want to steal the flowers for a front door wreath!

At the PETTING PEN post-parade.

Unfortunately, our grander plans to continue up further North after the parade were cut short by the TORNADOES that decided to hit Vermont that weekend. Since when does Vermont get tornadoes? Anyway, we decided it would be in our best interest to head back to Boston post haste after the parade, and so we did.

While I may not have livestock at my little urban homestead, I sure do have an affectionate kitty waiting for me whenever I open the door. And no tornadoes.

And the verdict? Zoe wins, hands down. Once again.

Read Full Post »

I scream, you scream…

Posted in Food Links, tagged , , , , on June 8, 2010 | 7 Comments »

…for the BEST ice cream EVER! OK, well it’s frozen yogurt. But really, it’s THAT GOOD. And the best part? You can make it yourself! Borders be damned, this treat knows no geographic boundries.

Without further ado, the recipe (and then on to photos, because that’s why you’re here really, isn’t it?):  Lemon-Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

A word of advice, having made this recipe several times now:  listen to Jeni when she says “I never make frozen yogurt as a low-fat replacement for ice cream.” It’s still very good if you don’t use whole-milk yogurt as the recipe calls for, but crosses the line from very good to speechlessly good once you up the milk fat content in the recipe. This last go round I had to use non-fat yogurt simply because my grocery store wasn’t carrying any full-fat plain yogurt. I blame this on America’s diet-culture fueled fear of fat, but I’ll spare you the rant. Just go full fat and serve yourself a spoonful or two less, ‘kay? You’ll thank me.

Lemon frozen yogurt fresh from the machine

Cooled blueberry sauce

Layering the sauce and yogurt

Cover and freeze an additional 4 hours (or as long as you can stand waiting)

I like to serve in Irish coffee mugs with a long spoon!

Yummy goodness

Read Full Post »

Leftovers, as promised

Posted in Food Links, tagged , , , , on June 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention as — abracadabra! — yesterday’s leftovers turn into today’s grilled slices of ciabatta, warm mushrooms, and shaved Ombra cheese right before your eyes!:

Fantastic! (My kingdom to not have killed my parsley plant five times over already, but that’s another story…) Even without the parsley, the leftovers were better than the first go round. The Ombra cheese was a much better pairing, although it probably doesn’t hurt that Ombra is just about my favorite cheese ever.

This past weekend, I found myself down at my favorite Boston specialty shop, Formaggio Kitchen. Last time I was there, they were out of Ombra, so I instead went home with a well-aged Gouda (with the delicious little crystallized bits — swoon!). As stunning as that was, I was nonetheless super excited to see the Ombra back in stock this visit, so I was sure to snatch up a wedge along with some other goodies:

Two of these are also old favorites of mine:  In the middle, there’s Formaggio’s homemade crostini made from day old Iggy’s bread. The cranberry walnut bread makes an amazing crostini when rubbed with olive oil and herbs! To the right are the “Chocolate Salty Oats” cookies from Kayak Cookies. Huge, thick chocolate cookies loaded with oats and the occasional chocolate chunk, topped off with sea salt. Outstanding.

I first discovered Kayak Cookies at the Food & Wine festival at Foxwoods in 2008. I mention this only as an excuse to write about the Pain D’Avignon booth that included the cookies in their display. For my Cape Cod relatives — please go visit Pain D’Avignon on my behalf!!! Let me see if I can scrounge up a photo so you can see exactly why I’m pretty much convinced that this bakery is the mecca of bread.

Getting back to my recent trip to Formaggio, however, let’s just admit that both the crostini and cookies are long gone, and move on. The last item in there is a French salted caramel. Haven’t quite figured out what I want to do with that yet, but I’m thinking that may warrant some homemade French vanilla ice cream.  Yes, yes…ideas are brewing now…  Hmmmmmm.

to be continued…

Read Full Post »

Lunch at the farmer’s market

Posted in Food Links, tagged , , , on June 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I’ve set a fun challenge for myself: for the entire run of the 2010 Copley Square Farmer’s Market, I’m going to eat lunch exclusively from the market (twice a week on market days). I should probably not refer to this as a “challenge,” as it’s actually the highlight of my week, but this way I can get a sense of accomplishment along with the enjoyment.

It’s not entirely a hedonistic experiment, though:  I do believe in the whole “eat your view” and “vote with your dollar” mentality. So in support of my local farmers and in encouragement for them to keep up the good work, look what I got to eat for lunch today!

It’s one of those meals that’s almost too perfectly simple, just the way I like it. The sandwich, from the Iggy’s stand:  Fresh bread, slabs of Niman Ranch ham, thick slices of cheddar, and butter. Mmmm. I think this may become a once a week tradition.

The other treat you’re looking at (which, much to my chagrin, will NOT be a weekly tradition…) is a slice of wild berries & cream tart from the Danish Pastry House stand. One of these days perhaps I’ll grow that proverbial hollow leg. Until then, this will be a “sometimes” food as they like to say. Today was as good a “sometimes” as any, I believe.

To round out my urban farm experience, all I need to do is direct my browser to www.hencam.com, and kick up my feet while I eat. Seriously, please click on the link — it’s awesome. I’ll wait. Be sure to check out the Goat Cam too.

Don’t you love it? Getting back to the market, though: I picked up a couple things for the house while I was at it, meaning dinner was just as good as lunch!  Check it out:

Ciabbata Bread from Iggy's

Beautiful Lupine from Stillman's

Bread, Shiitakes, Mediterranean Marinated Goat Cheese, and Spring Mix

Saute the shiitakes with butter, thyme, salt and pepper...

...pop open the goat cheese, slather on the ciabatta...

...and assemble sandwich.

Enjoy!

Very, very good. The goat cheese is the “Mediterranean Marinade” from Crystal Brook Farms. A fantastic cheese, but I think next time I’ll go for something more along the lines of a sharp cheddar or a parmesan for this particular sandwich. The goat cheese doesn’t need anything more than a cracker to be properly enjoyed.

Come back tomorrow for leftovers!

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 59 other followers

%d bloggers like this: