Strawberries

Saturday, despite being under the weather and in pain from my first ever sports injury, Millie and I went strawberry picking in an effort to stay out of the way of Tony and his motley crew as they built our new deck. We went to Natura Farms outside of Forrest Lake. They also grow many veggies and herbs, along with other berries and fruit. We got the last of the raspberries they had left, along with a few nice stalks of rhubarb and of course, our ice cream bucket (almost, due to an unexpected potty break) full of strawberries.

On the way home we stopped at a cute little log cabiny place and had a lovely lunch together, just me and my girl.

Years ago, when I was working at MCAD, my biggest treat was running to the French Meadow and getting a latte and their strawberry rhubarb muffin. I haven't seen them anywhere else since. Mine turned out smaller then the gigantic ones at the French Meadow, but equally delicious, if I may say so myself.

Next will be bars, made with quick cooking oats. If they turn out I will deliver them to the neighbors who helped with our mighty deck yesterday.

Birthday Ice Cream

Today, my dear husband turned 40 years old. Yep, the big 4-0. The least a man deserves when turning 40 is their very own birthday ice cream. He hasn't had any yet, so I cannot report his reaction, but I tasted it (just barely, I promise) last night and can honestly say it was delish. But I may be biased.

I started with David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream (which on its own is divine) and added crumbled mini oreos a couple of minutes before it was done.

Tony's Oreo Cookies Ice Cream.

On a side note, we went to the Anchor for dinner, which specializes in Fish 'n Chips (thanks again Alissa for watching Millie!). It was very good, but I am paying dearly for it. Three hours later, my stomach hurts so badly I may never be able to look at a fried fish again. Just typing that made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

Chicken Pot Pie

I've used this recipe for the filling before and topped it with store bought crust (as the recipe recommends). This time, I got a bit full of myself and decided to try the "real" thing. So off to smittenkitchen.com I went. For my very first try and home-made pie crust, I would say this was not a complete failure.

Recipe for "easy" pie crust from smittenkitchen.com.

I knew pretty much right away that this particular attempt was not going to be a glowing success. I had huge lumps of butter, instead of the "tiny flecks" Smitten Kitchen raves about. This, of course, led to shiny butter puddles on top of my baked crust. This is not always a bad thing, but it did make the crust a bit chewy, kind of the consistency of naan. Again, not necessarily a bad thing. The filling, as always, was delicious. It is delicately laced with fresh thyme, and how can that be bad?

The biggest problem is that now I have a huge pan of it, with dinner plans for the next two nights. Leftovers anyone?

Pretty, it wasn't.

Tomato Butter Sauce

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion
It sounded like a good idea in the early afternoon, when it was pouring rain and getting progressively more dreadful outside. A simple, hearty dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, topped with a tomato butter sauce. It's a recipe I've wanted to try for a while, compliments of my favorite kitchenista, Smitten Kitchen.

Two hours later, in my now-sun-filled kitchen, with two burners and the oven running, it was hot and steamy, and not in a good way. But I soldiered on. The house smelled amazing- butter, onion and tomatoes. Add Trader Joe's garlic bread to the mix and you get the picture. Sun be damned, we were having this rainy day dinner regardless.

And it was gooooooooooood.

The sauce is crazy simple. Three ingredients, maybe a shake of salt. It's very, very sweet, so if you prefer it more savory, you might want to cut down on the yellow onion or add salt and pepper. I also made meatballs (not so simple, but worth it) and my newest obsession: arugula salad with pecorino, olive oil, lemon zest and toasted almonds (thanks Chef Steven!)