Happy Egg Day!

Since we'll be out of town on Sunday, I thought I'd wish you all a Happy early Easter today.



May your day be filled with sunshine and large quantities of chocolate. :)

Headed down South, to the land of the pine

Ok, well I guess that south is somewhat relative in this instance. When you live in Washington State, pretty much everything is south.

The point that I'm trying to make, however, with my Old Crow-quoting title, is that I am psyched to be headed out to Tennessee in just a few days. The land of BBQ, twangy ballads and bourbon. Hello yes.

I get to gorge on grits & gravy, re-aquaint myself with my dear old friend, Mr. Daniels and I get to hang out with my super-cute nephews. I'd take this vacay over the beach any day.


My brother-in-law with his handsome lads, Eric & Ryan :)

To Market, to market...

Today we took the kids on a little outing to Seattle. Being the foodie-geeks that we are, we naturally had to hit the Pike Place Market while we were there.



Did I bring a list of things that I needed to get? No. Am I ever that organized? No, not usually. So instead, I like to make a little game of my wigged-out, schizoid market shopping called Now what in the heck am I going to make out of all of these oddball things that I just HAD to have from the farmer's market? aka - my own personal version of Chopped.

Here's what I'm working with for this week-


Apple Pork Bratwurst, Nuremberg Sausage, Blueberry Vinegar, Wild Ramps, Fresh Morels, Blood Oranges, Red Pepper Jelly & Garlic Pepper Jelly (hubby's choice)

A few meals that immediately come to mind are:
*Breakfast-for-Dinner - Omelette of fresh eggs, sauteed ramps and apple-pork sausage
*Homemade Pizza with Morels & Sausage
*Spring Greens Salad with a blueberry/blood orange vinaigrette w/red pepper jelly glazed Wild Salmon.

I love the challenge of using new & unusual ingredients in my cooking, and I honestly can barely control myself at farmer's markets. Everything is so fresh, and handcrafted and a little bit weird - just my style. I'd have gone much crazier with the shopping were we not about to leave for a 9-day vacation, a week from today. That isn't to say that we didn't live it up a little. Olivia tried her first - and likely last - kumquat. I only wish that I'd had the camera out to capture the squeezy-pucker look on her face when she chomped into it. We also caught the requisite fish-throwing show and stopped at my husband's all-time favorite market shop, Uli's, where they sell, I kid you not, Bacon Sausage.



I think my watch started running backwards at this point. Not to be outdone by meats within meats, the produce also brazenly asserted itself.



I was seriously in food-geek heaven. Thank goodness that we only go to Seattle once a month, or we'd be broke and weigh 400 pounds each.