random ramblings

Kitchen Renovation

Hey all! I know you probably are thinking I fell off the face of the earth and am nowhere to be found. I wanted to let you know that some major kitchen renovations have put my recipe making to a slight halt…but only temporarily! I will be back with some amazing new recipes soon. 

You see, when you have a kitchen that looks like the picture here, it’s hard to make much that’s worth sharing. 

Kitchen Renovation

To be fair, the kitchen is further along than in that picture since that was from a week or two ago. Currently, we have all the cabinets up (including an island!), there’s a plywood counter, AND a partial floor. Woohoo! Right? I guess any progress is worth celebrating! So until my shiny new kitchen is complete (or mostly complete), I wish you all happy cooking! Let me know if you come up with any amazing recipes I should try! 

Baby Peaches

garden-1Guess what!?! We have peaches!! Travis’ grandma planted a peach pit for us several years back that took to growing quite well. Every year the peach tree gets a little bigger and a little more promising. I think it got some flowers last year without any fruit. This year it has peaches! Well…it has baby peaches. I’m not exactly sure they will turn into real life-size peaches this year but either way it’s so exciting! Look at those little guys…so cute!

garden-2I don’t know why I’m surprised every year when we actually grown things in our garden. Yes, it is work. But it’s not magic. You plant seeds and take care of them and you’re bound to get at least SOMETHING. We happen to be getting several things this year. Our garlic, green beans, peas, red cabbage, carrots, cilantro, rosemary, mint, chives, and strawberries are all coming in nicely! It looks like we’ll get a few tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Those didn’t fare so well with the weather all over the place when we planted them. We should have planned that better…

garden-4For some reason our basil is not doing so hot. Our first year we had so much basil that we couldn’t use it quick enough and now these past 2 years have been lacking in the basil department. I’m not sure what’s different about these past 2 years but I hope it grows for us again at some point. I miss you, basil. COME BACK!!! Pretty please (Obviously kind words work to grow plants. Known fact.).

garden-3

Farmer’s Market Finds

This is a story about life changing cherries. You heard me. Life changing cherries.

My parents came up from Ohio to visit this weekend. We went to *gasp* Ann Arbor. Ohio State folks going to Ann Arbor. Brave move. For those of you not from the Midwest, University of Michigan (in Ann Arbor) and Ohio State are HUGE rivals when it comes to sports. Being that I am not exactly a sports fanatic, this didn’t faze me. However, I must say we did double check our attire to make sure we didn’t have any stray Ohio State gear on before we left. We spent the day walking around Ann Arbor, which is a cute town, and walking around another cute nearby town…eating the whole way, of course.

Actually, the whole weekend mostly consisted of eating at local restaurants and laughing. I think we all ended up stuffed beyond belief from delicious food. I’m pretty sure there are worse things in life. However, since we all love food A LOT but are also trying to eat somewhat healthy, what better place to check out than the local farmer’s market?? Well, actually ended up being markets. We started by going to a farmer’s market we had never been to before thinking it would be wonderful but turned out there were about 5 stands, 2 of which actually had fresh food. So we resorted to another local farmer’s market where they have PLENTY of wonderful options. We are very lucky to have multiple farmer’s markets within close proximity!

Okay. Okay, I’ll get to the point of the story. We picked up some teeny tiny sweet Michigan yellow plums, which were good. BUT, let me tell you. Let me tell you about these scrumptious little deep purple cherries. Now, I don’t like cherries. Not one bit. The cherry on top of my sundae does not make it better. My life was changed when I tried these fresh Michigan cherries. Michigan grows a lot of cherries and blueberries and I’ve always gone for the blueberries. But now, I think I have a cherry addiction…for only these delicious cherries. They taste like candy and make my mouth water. I need one now just thinking of them…

Okay, back. It was delicious, by the way. After trying a few cherries upon our return from the market, I told my husband that we are going back every weekend to buy more cherries from the farmer’s market. I’m pretty sure that is not optional. Perhaps I’ll try some from the store if I get brave but I’m pretty sure nothing can get better than straight from the farmer’s market cherries. So if you’re ever looking for me, check the cherry stand at the farmer’s market. Chances are I’m there salivating. Now I just need to come up with some recipes to use these for! They’ll probably be eaten before that happens though. I think I need to go now to eat a few more cherries to “research” for future recipes. Yeah.

P.S. Moral of this long, rambling story is go to the farmer’s market and try local food! You may be surprised at what you like!