This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

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top to bottom:: indigo apple tomato, white currant harvest, tomatoes ripening on the windowsill (chipmunk thwarting), collecting seeds for drying (dill, coriander, mustard), brining lovage seeds to make pickles, turkey taco salad with fresh salsa, stock making from all the veggie and herb tops/stems this week, lovage seeds drying, everything salad.

We traveled a bit last weekend so I spent many mealtimes cooking in the tiny hotel kitchen. In my experience, the closer to a big city you get, the more non-functional the "full kitchen" is (no matter how expensive), so we always take enough options so that we can feed my allergy boy no matter how simple the tools. I also always plot the nearest food co-op/Whole Foods types of places too, so we were within 10 miles of two WF's and were able to grab a few extra things for him that could be heated in the microwave, as the "full kitchen" didn't contain an oven or a toaster. Traveling in a more congested area can be tough food-wise also, as we base our hotel requirements on specifications that dictate where we can stay and it usually isn't close to the things we are traveling to see. That can mean the hotel is not easy to get to for lunch or snacks mid-day, so we always pack a full cooler with ice packs plus a wide variety of snacks and drinks so that we are still OK if we don't really want to do a 40 minute drive to get 15 miles back to the hotel. That means we can also just stop and eat anywhere, and so we snacked in the foyer of Fermilab (very cool), had lunch outside a beautiful nature center, and had a close at hand palate cleanser after my boy tasted every single balsamic vinegar and olive oil in the gourmet food store and max'd out his taste buds. {He selected a great aged raspberry balsamic, honey-ginger balsamic, a vivid green intense peppery spanish olive oil, and a fantastic olive oil which was pressed with blood orange rind -- yum!!!}

After our trip we have been playing catch up, so we have been collecting the first tomatoes (early so the chipmunk doesn't get them), harvesting seeds to dry and use for seasoning blends, collecting herbs for all of the pickles I am behind on, and filling the dehydrator daily to catch back up on all of my tea and culinary herbs for the winter. Playing a bit of catch up with the CSA share as well. I pulled out an extra table to stack all of my overflow of veggies I need to freeze/can/pickle/make. And with the hot sunshine returning, I am making a few rounds of coconut water sorbet and popsicles with the last of my strawberries, first of my red raspberries,  and the finally in season blueberries!  Yum. 

What have you been making?

Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty that Moves to see everyone in the blog hop!