Drip Coffee.
Aug/102
My lovely wife and I share a mutual appreciation for good coffee, and also coffee culture (we believe that coffee houses are the pubs of our generation — a place for people to get together for a good drink, conversation, and community).
Our current coffee gear includes a standard 12-cup maker (brought out only when we’re hosting a large group of people), a Bodum french press (our standard coffee maker of choice), and a stove-top espresso maker. For my birthday this year, Kristi added another piece to our arsenal — the Hario Ceramic Coffee Dripper.
It’s a wonderful little device, because it allows us to make a single cup of coffee on demand. The process is almost identical to making a french press pot, so it didn’t involve much change. After a few cups, I can say that it indeed makes a good cup of coffee — lots of body and flavor, but with the smoothness of being sent through a paper filter.
Check out some coffee-prep shots below — and also check out these awesome videos made about Intelligentsia, the company that sells the Hario.
Panzanella!
Jul/100
A recipe for success:
This (homemade nonetheless)…
plus this…
and this…
a bit of this…
and a touch of this…
produces one very tasty, homemade, fresh, local, and CSA-based dish!
I had never heard of Panzanella before, but it sure is a fun word. The word calls to my mind exclamations like “Eureka!” and “Bonanza!” Maybe I’ll just start exclaiming “Panzanella!” whenever I have a Eureka moment in the kitchen upon discovering a new fun food…
Recipe found here, and it was perfect timing for the vegetables we got in our CSA that week. It was very picnic-friendly for a Friday night at Summerfest, too. Not to mention, an appropriate addition to our breakfast spread for our Belarusian guests last weekend… (tomatoes and cucumbers are frequently served at breakfast in Belarus…)
Raspberries.
Jul/100
We were surprised to discover one of our raspberry plants was producing fruit this year – we were expecting to have to wait until next year for berries. But these beauties were just waiting to get picked this week.
Our mini bell peppers are also turning from green to yellow to orange…
What’s growing now…
Jul/100
I think our blog is long overdue for a garden update. While the Southland community garden is thriving (just click the link to see the big heads of zucchini harvested this week), the little raised bed at our homestead is not doing so bad either. We had just about given up hoping for the broccoli to produce anything when seemingly out-of-nowhere, spied this beauty…
It was our first head of broccoli, which we harvested and enjoyed in a stir fry just the other night.
Also, we have brussel sprouts starting to form…
They probably won’t be ready for harvest until near-fall, when the weather turns cooler.
Lastly, several mini bell peppers! Since they are a “mini” variety, we’re not even sure how big they will get, but they are looking nice so far.
In other garden related news, Kristi submitted her application to join the Fall 2010 Master Gardener class happening in the Bluegrass… traditionally only 30-40% of applicants are accepted, so prayers for acceptance would certainly be appreciated… it sounds like a lot of fun and a great opportunity to become knowledgeable in all things garden-related.
Brought to you by…
Jun/100
This dinner was brought to you by our local CSA produce…
… featuring: spaghetti with parmesan and CSA yellow cherry tomatoes; roasted CSA vegetable medley including 2 varieties of beets, yellow onion, purple top white globe turnip, garlic scapes, and sauteed curly green kale; toast with a CSA garlic scape (+ walnuts + parmesan + olive oil) pesto spread! How could I forget some homemade sweet tea with spearmint from our own herb garden?
While I don’t anticipate wanting to buy and eat turnips and beets often, I’m still glad we got to experiment with cooking these new vegetables and stretching our palates.
10K Training
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