Café Latte Heath Layer Cake

Hello! Are you ramping up for the biggest cooking holiday of the year!? I am! My parents are hosting, but I'm bringing these brussels from epicurious.com, Ina Garten's stuffing, and this pumpkin ice cream. The holidays are always peppered with my babies birthdays, and that is what inspired this sinful, ooey, gooey, chocolatey, moist, delicious, chocolatey, soooo yummy, did I say chocolatey cake. Bookmark this one for the next time you need a special occasion cake that is quick and easy to whip up, ingredients are easily found and you'll be sure to impress all! 

Wanna-Be Chef / Move over Giada / Food Network Star in Waiting

Come one, come all to my personal Freak Show. Behold, my riveting Food Network performance sent to FN producers for the show Best Home Cook in America, here on the bee-log for all to see. The casting director said start and stops are OK and asked that I talk about myself and not the actual cooking because apparently FN knows how to cook - pa-shaw. The video feels really spastic to me, but it does show my squirrely, fun personality - too bad the producers didn't get the impression I AM AN AWESOME wanna-be chef. Next season, FN, next season. With over 400 views I either have some magnetic sparkle in my video or my Grandma has nothing else to do - probably the latter - yep, I checked with my Grandma, it's definitely the latter.

The Only Bowl of Oatmeal you Should Ever Eat Again. Period.

I'm beginning to realize I think about food a lot more than the average person. I'm beginning to realize it's really my thing. I'm beginning to realize I'm a fantastic spokesperson when it comes to home-cooking, local-loving, vegetable procuring, -- an all around kick ass foodie in the true sense of the word. Yes, I teach yoga - it was a bucket list task, a to-do, a check off the check list of life if you will. But - nay! Not my true calling - possibly, could it be? a sabotage to my true path. How did a bowl of oatmeal lead me to these ponderings? I dunno. Something about a couple good words and a steaming cup of coffee aside oatmeal goodness in the morning. 

Pumpkin Pie Bars

These Pumpkin Pie Bars are so virtuous I allowed my 6 year old to have one for breakfast - yes, for the record - it was pie after consuming a bowl of shredded wheat. So virtuous, I broke my never eat after 7:00 pm rule and devoured ate one at 9:30 pm. So virtuous, you'll be wondering what the word virtuous actually means. In this case it means make these bars and find company soon because you'll be opening up your fridge door moving leftovers aside grabbing for the 9x13 and whipped cream servin' up some creamy pumpkin, with the best chewy coconuty flaxed-out crusted bars to all the boys in the yard. Super simple. Super tasty and wholesome. You'll want to make these again and again!

The Foodie-est Way to Prepare Pheasant EVER!

Are you a fan of wild game? And by wild game I don't mean little minds inquiring about all the banalities of life causing you to declare a 10 question limit on the afternoon before your brain explodes a spirited activity you might play with your little ones. I mean pheasant! And grouse! And venison! And And And... um... what else? Let's get wild! 

Kaleonaise Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato {BLT Sandwich}

I've undergone Been blessed with 10 years of marriage and finally entirely understand a postcard I received in my early 20's of a retro Anne Taintor postcard displaying a 1950's husband and wife duo standing in front of the refrigerator with the tagline: male refrigerator blindness claims another victim. As a newly married woman I was completely clueless to the meaning of the postcard. Male refrigerator blindness? Odd, but OK, whatever you say - married people are weird. Fast forward 10 years, Travis in front of a (seriously) bursting fridge and apparently there is "nothing to eat." Aha! Refrigerator Blindness - it's a thing! A real thing! May all men be eyes wide open when BLT's with Kaleonaise are in the fridge. Amen.

Cabbage & Pappardelle with Toasted Pine Nuts

A most distinguishable blue and white website that allows you to fully lose yourself into a contented mind numb, displays which can be an offensive stream of photos, and sometimes causes an occasional LOL has really got me feeling inadequate as a mother. Pissed me right the bleep off. There, I feel better admitting that. But for real - when I see Homemade Green Glow in the Dark Gummy Worms for Halloween, from scratch, I want to scratch. Her eyes out, that is. What is wrong with gummy worms from a bag once a year? Please, do you have to raise the bar that high? You're killing me! And really, how the H do you get homemade gummy worms to glow!? You've gone too far. Too. Far. What does this have to do with cabbage? Nothing! But read on for the recipe. It's a fabulous one! 

Smitten Kitchen's Apple Slab Pie

Dammit, I make a lot of crust-filled things, but when this shows up in your social media feed you find yourself succumbing to yet another crust-filled Saturday. Alas! May this pie be the point of realization to lay off tallow-laced dough and start run down a path of meals that may feed a family, be already stocked in the pantry, impress Food Network, reheat easily for leftovers, travel well, be full of nutrition, and have only five ingredients. Oh, yeah - don't forget organic, raw, gluten-free, paleo, vegan, and have no calories. JUST KIDDING! We could probably stop at the first three and call it good. But you should go here. Go to the land of Apple Slab Pie - it's a place. Join me. 

Cereal Bars

As someone who talks/thinks/breathes cooking to the Nth degree, I've discovered many home-cooks have a difficult time improvising in their daily cooking. Someone may simply avoid a recipe with an ingredient list 3" long, or stop themselves at the witching hour 5:30pm from starting Chicken & Dumplings Deliciousness because the freezer didn't hold the specific called for frozen green bean medley. Here is a lesson in improvisation. I craved the classic Rice Crispy bars, but didn't have rice crispies. What's a girl with a craving to do? Let's throw in those old, stale Rice Chex and call 'um Cereal Bars and call it a day. Everyone loved. Everyone's cheeks were chocolate covered. My husband couldn't wait to get home at night to devour them. All the boys come to my yard for these. Make them come to yours, too.

How to Make Tomato Sauce like an Italian

Did you freeze whole, cored tomatoes in a freezer bag this past August? Please tell me you did - because then you can make this pasta sauce and enjoy summer fresh goodness all year round! Fresh  (or frozen) tomatoes are tossed into a Dutch oven after you get some flavor going down in the bottom of the pot - you know - the usual suspects any Italian nonna would use - Italian sausage, olive oil, garlic, carrot. After browning up Italian sausage, set aside, then get the garlic and carrot cooking, throw in your frozen tomatoes, breaking them down with a wooden spoon until all soupy, saucy and lush. Whir with an immersion blender or something similar, add fresh herbs, return the Italian sausage to the pot, simmer for another 10 minutes, toss with pasta. The BEST pasta sauce you will eat. 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 17

This post is my last Vegetable Love Post and then I can get back to telling you about cooking! Today I'm attempting love communicated via food making a Vegetable Beef Slow-Cooker Soup for dinner and Cereal Bars for late-night noshing after school snack. Recipes posted soon! Until then - check out  these brussel sprouts! Gasp! This blog has no brussel sprout recipes! How have I called myself a "blogger" until now pretending to "have a blog" when it has no recipes for brussels?!?? Someone fire this woman. Any recipe suggestions? 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 16 + acoupla shots of Maui

What do I say? How do I start? Today was my first day back to the grind and reality bites first graders bring home piles of papers within the time span of a week. A week spent on an island that is surely paradise - azure colored waters that you swim in, but really don't swim, because the water is so salty you literally float atop the sea salt gazing down through snorkel gear on octopus, blowfish, eels, urchins, coral. Sand to walk upon that feels like powder to the feet. Not a speck of trash anywhere in the water - crystal clear and clean. Coming back to reality I'm glad I have this cornucopia of Sweet Beet's week 16 CSA bushel to talk about - because I'm not sure I can even dare to think up a recipe, procure that recipe, bear down on a sink full of dishes, and hope the kids won't turn their noses up. No. Let's go to a happy spot.

How to Preserve Salsa {Summer in a Jar} + Canning Tips from a Home-Cook

Chop 65 onions, 300 cloves of garlic, 457 hot peppers and then imagine the heat that permeates into the skin and will. not. leave. your hands. However! Fear not, friends - my hands have finally returned to a normal state of being after burning for a full six hours straight and now salsa is put up for the Winter (super score). Beware! Canning is not for the faint of heart. It's hot. It's steamy. Water bubbles over. Hot peppers burn into your skin. Eyes water. EVERYTHING is hot. Fingertips are deadened by the time you're done boiling the salsa, pouring the boiling salsa into jars that just came out of the dishwasher scalding hot, tightening caps, then dipping those burning hot jars into a cauldron of water dangerously close to bubbling over. Not to mention the temperature outside is probably about mid-80's when you're undertaking a canning sesh. Glass busts. The sweat that pores from the brow. Dam - no wonder more people buy salsa at the store - except that salsa from the store sucks! There, I said it. And I mean it. Not. Taking. It. Back. 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 15

OK, OK, I feel as if I may have been moaning and groaning about the state of my crisper drawer, but my parents taught me when the going gets tough the tough get going. Yes, being part of CSA challenges even the most inventive and adventurous home cook to be just that - inventive and adventurous, but when else will you be challenged to do so? Let's welcome the challenge. Bring it on. My competitive spirit has officially risen to the top. As they say in the homesteader circles - Let's put it up!

Farm 2 Table: A Buffalo Community Education Class {In Pictures}

I've officially led my very own community ed class! That feels so great to say because I've been to a handful of classes in the past - always walking away prodding myself: you should've/could've/all those udd've's taught that. You know, the time I signed up for the "Make Your Own Baby Food" class under the pretense of getting my baby spat on self out of the house wearing matching shoes even though I very well knew how to puree all sorts of squash. Or the time I signed up for a Gluten Free class without even the slightest intention of ever cutting gluten out of my diet, but I just love cooking so much I wanted to share the joy with someone besides the three people I serve every night at dinner. And now, my very own class, Farm 2 Table. It was so fun! 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 14

If you happen to run into me within the next weeks know that I will be spreading the vegetable love. Between being a parent, wife, sister, yogini and friend I'm trying to keep up with blanching, preserving and sneaking vegetables into my children's diet, but there is only so much one woman can do when the other adult in the house calls uncle to another green pepper on his plate. Harumph. 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 13

The only way to arrive at the complete realization my family does not love vegetables as fully as I do is to be in week 13 of your CSA bushel. Open my fridge door to the largest head of bok choy you've ever seen falling to the floor, the crisper drawer will reveal (I'm serious) 17 peppers, 4 eggplants, 3 heads of celery, a bag of lettuce, a bread bag of rainbow chard, some random loose kale, 2 heads of cabbage, and...uh...I think you get the point. All of these vegetables are either eaten by me, preserved, frozen, or somehow begged onto the husband and kids. Yes, begged. You should hear the groans when a simple veggie tray of sliced green pepper and kohlrabi graces the table. Apparently, I'm told, "other people" can't eat raw vegetables like a machine. Pah-shaw! Eat up! Your gut will adjust. 

Basil Chive Compound Butter

Why doesn't the 'you're not having any dessert if you don't finish your dinner' threat ever work with my children? The other moms at the bus stop claim their children never get dessert if plates aren't crystal clean. My kids seem to have leftover pieces of ham or the stray pile of vegetables sticking to their plates after they are long gone from the table, rice krispie treat in hand. Hash tag am I doing this right? Hash tag how much therapy will my children need? Hash tag hand over the bowl of noodles with a gigantic dollop of basil chive compound butter. Hash tag I'm done. 

On My Bookshelf Now

This book has made me an emotional wreck! I cannot stop thinking about Will Traynor since I finished this fantastic, memorable book. The first chapter wraps you around its little finger so tight you'll be consumed and think of nothing else until you've read the last page. Will Traynor is a demigod - handsome, rich, powerful, a real man's man - and then suddenly in a wheelchair, a quadripaligic, due to an accident. The book is about the relationship between Will and his care-taker. About life's relationships. About choices. About pushing yourself into awkward places and maybe opening your mind a little bit. The characters are richly written. The writer must be English because the slang took awhile to get used to, but I warmed up and felt myself wanting to use the word bugger and I was calling sweaters by the British name: pullovers. I laughed out loud several times and cried even, too! Actually, I ended this book in tears and still haven't gotten over the ending. I won't give away anymore. Just read this damn book!

Roasting an Organic Free-Range Chicken {Fancy Roast Chicken}

The tag-line is fancy chicken which as a child I would've never dared to dream calling the way I grew up around fancy chickens fancy because I was privy to seeing Dad pulling out the Rubbermaid garbage can, filling it with scalding hot water (how did he logistically do that?), dipping the chicken that was just running around with its head cut off (literally - wow, that sounds cruel, but I remember it being a moment of hilarity) into the hot water, holding onto its chicken feet running the carcass over the rubber-knobbed machine that knocked the feathers out then ... oh, so many more gross things to remember about processing chickens that I won't put into words. Really. Fancy? Yet this chicken is fancy in my book. Why? Because the damn price tag, that's why! The things I'll sacrifice to feed my family wholesome, untarnished food. Later I'll be blessed, right? Are you on the organic, free-range, happy bird, but soooo very expensive compared to what you've been buying at Cub Foods chicken band wagon yet? Jump on the bandwagon and pick yourself up a fancy bird here. I'll admit, this is my first go at Fancy Chicken. I turned to Nourished Kitchen to guide me in my Fancy Chicken Roasting. Who else knows about unfettered, wholesome farm food better? I love her recipes! They are always just that - nourishing.

Farm 2 Table: A Buffalo Community Education Class

I seem to be talking about vegetables in abundance lately and why not? Minnesota local harvest is in full swing, let's embrace the harvesting by not jumping forward into Fall yet because we are still  gloriously in Summer. Summer Bounty. Amen. Won't you celebrate Summer Bounty with me by joining me in the garden? Not just any garden, a blooming, colorful - FULL being the optimum word  - garden full of deliciously organic vegetables that I have the exciting privilege of walking you through, identifying and *most importantly* cooking! We'll walk through the garden plots, identify plants in their full glory, pick something to cook and head into the kitchen to make a light dinner. Register Here! But first! Let me take you on a vegetable photo bomb extravaganza that was bestowed upon me by the sweetest photograph expert EVER. Seriously beautiful photography here, people. And you should see the vegetables in person - even better. And then you get to eat them. Unreal. Just unreal. 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 12

Hello, Friends! I can only hope these posts detailing my CSA work-share adventures are inspiring you to sign-up for your local CSA farm share next year or heck, even for the remainder of this year, why not?! The harvest is in full force, throttle wide open, in your face, bright, delicious, never been better, only getting better, did I say delicious, so fresh, so colorful, ohmigoshitssogoodyouaretotallymissingout. Or... you can come to my community ed class I'm teaching next week and help me cook all this stuff! Won't you say yes? What's that? You live in Pennsylvania? Too bad! Hop a plane. Just come. 

Pumpkin Cranberry Cake Donuts

First day of school! Sob! How are you dealing? Me? I'm... breathing. And scheduling lots of busyness so I don't have to think about my baby trying to get through the lunch line alone. Watching my babies do life is sometimes harder for me than it is for them - guaranteed. Fly little birdies. Fly. And then come home and eat donuts. Mmmmhmmm. The pumpkin cranberry variety. It's time for pumpkin things, people! Hooray. 

CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} Week 10 & 11

Hello! Have you been following my CSA adventures? I hope so, because look at how amazing things are becoming!! Totally Amazing. Out of this world amazing! AH-MAZE-ING. This week I needed to bundle week 10 & 11 into one week, but don't misunderstand, this is only one week's box - not two weeks. I'm bundling because I was Up North, fishing with my one true love and sweet little babies. We chartered a boat and caught our limits of walleye. Um, yum? We cooked up our catch in the cabin and we were so pleased when the kiddos literally wanted third helpings! More walleye. More walleye. More walleye. I didn't cook enough. Now it's back to reality and back to the farm! For more vegetable love. 

Broccoli Party Bread

Aren't parties fabulous? I want to throw a party every weekend if it weren't for my introverted husband I would be stocking plastic cutlery and tea lights as high as my laundry room shelving would allow which is probably a good thing because the other people in my life may be neglected in the food budget category if I were shopping for a parties all week long. When I do get to throw a party I usually like to have some nibbles immediately available upon guests arrival, like olives, nuts and something chocolatey and/or minty. This recipe is a great make ahead, inexpensive and feeds a crowd. A big crusty loaf of French bread is slathered with butter (I know, you're sold, right?), baked until supremely crispy, then a creamy, cheesy broccoli mixture is topped onto the bread, baked again, then sliced for noshing. Broccoli Party Bread will be so perfect at your next party, promise. Nosh on.