Over the last year, Wolf has been on a mission to get back in shape and now he's been doing various half marathons and triathalons. As his diet shifted from calorie restricted to training, one of the most surprising transformations is that his palate seems to have changed as well. I used to be the only java junkie in the house, the one who fangirled over Blue Bottle coffee and sought out Stumptown Stubbies in the summer. And now, I’m not alone.
Sometimes you just need things to be easy and uncomplicated. To cap off a long week, you want something familiar. Something simple and delicious. That’s what this chocolate pudding is, just simple. No parfait treatments or graham cracker crusts or whipped cream dollops here -- just good ol' pudding. Where the box variety suggests chocolate flavor, this pudding doesn’t skimp. It's sweet, simple, and seriously chocolatey without being too rich.
While I’ve been waiting for stone fruit to really come in full force, I’ve been baking cookies. It started with some gluten-free peanut butter oat cookies from this month’s mailer from PCC, our local market. Then, the Spice Cookies from Jerusalem. Now, Cowboy Cookies…oats, pecans, chocolate chips, a little coconut. This time, with olive oil instead of butter. There are worse ways to pass the time.
Rhubarb is perpetually stuck in the Friend Zone, like that friend you’ve known your whole life, but you just didn’t see him that way. Every spring, rhubarb kicks off farmers market season in the Pacific Northwest, but all you have eyes for are the asparagus and peas. Last week at the market, I snapped a few photos of rhubarb but otherwise passed it by. Then, with a nudge from Hannah’s rhubarb cranachan (think oaty rhubarb jam parfait) over at Blue Kale Road, I put this crazy red celery-looking fruit on the shopping list.
It’s Tuesday night. The gorgeous Asian pears are gone, except for a half, the blueberry muffin from Craftsman and Wolves but a memory, the husband is sick and watching Corner Gas somewhere he can’t infect the rest of the household, and I had my dad’s Sloppy Joes for dinner. It involves Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo soup. Don’t judge. It’s back to real life. It’s a relief. Being on the road, dining out for every meal, sounds glam, but it is tiresome. I’m not 25 anymore.
But believe me, it’s not a complaint. I had a fantastic time in San Francisco, catching up with folks I see once a year. Italian and Cal-Italian dominated our restaurant choices over the course of the week and Tim, the friend we hung out with at the market, and I chatted about lavender biscotti, so naturally I’m diving back into posting with these little Italian cookies on the brain. So, Rosemary, Cornmeal and Pine Nut biscotti.
At the tail-end of blackberry season, every week is a guessing game. Whose berries will best? Last week, the Skagit Sun blackberries and golden raspberries were terrific. This week those blackberries were phenomenal -- sweet and full of berry flavor. It's not hyperbole. I bought a mixed flat of blackberries, golden raspberries and regular raspberries and ate half a basket of the blackberries as I walked back to the car. Then I high-tailed it back to their booth to get another flat of just blackberries. I thought I might make pork chops with a blackberry-cabernet sauce, but then I remembered this froyo.
