I was having blogger issues this past weekend and after an hour gave up trying to post, but here is a little preview to get you salivating….I will be posting the recipe this evening. For sure.

Will and I had a dramatic afternoon in the grocery store yesterday so I didn’t bring home enough food to create anything extraordinary. But I have big plans this weekend for some yummy recipes like blackberry limeade. With any luck, they will be up today and tomorrow in time for Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging, Sweetnicks’ Weekend Dog Blogging, and My Life as a Reluctant Housewife’s Weekend Baby Blogging.

Check out non-food writing of mine at Associated Content. This week I had two articles published there: one on being a journalist and one on the Cold War.

I’ve been waiting, somewhat patiently, for the day to come. I’ve struggled through months of wanting to support local growers but being unable to because of the late opening of farmer’s markets in the immediate area. And finally, finally, finally it’s that time.

As I was driving home this afternoon from a very brief trip to the grocery store, I saw the small apple shaped sign advertising our local farmer’s market. This sign pops up at the beginning of each summer and stays up until the farmer’s market closes in October. In any case, it said that the farmer’s market is opening on June 27!

Yip-yip-yip-peeeeeeeeee!

The women over at Work At Home Mom Bloggers are talking about first jobs this week and I decided to join in and share my first experience with a paying job.

So what was my first job? Well, promise not to laugh too hard, but from when I was 15 until I turned 18, I was a janitor at a local publishing company in my home town. I worked five days a week from 3-7 p.m. cleaning toilets, vacuuming, dusting, and other menial but necessary work. It was honest labor and great experience for me.

While I did learn some important lessons on cleaning (which my husband wishes I would employ more often), the most important lesson I learned was about budgeting my time. Since I worked everyday on top of school work and extracurriculars, I had to be very organized about when I did what. That lesson has stayed with me and to this day I thrive under pressure.

It has particularly come in handy with my cooking and writing – I can set a basic time frame and get things done during that time and then get to my other responsibilities. I know to budget time not just for the actually processes but for development, preparatory work and implementation.

What’s morning up? Morning up is what you need when you’re alarm has jolted you from sleep, leaving you eyes half shut and your lids unyielding. It’s what you need when your limbs just don’t want to pull away from the warm, cushioned comfort of your bed. It’s what you need when you’ve been up more times then you can count over the course of a night to tend to your child.

Sometimes we all need a morning up. Today, I did for sure. I traded in my usual coffee or smoothie for an iced blueberry latte.

Iced Blueberry Latte
serves 1

1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup skim milk
1 cup ice
2 tsp sugar
1 cup brewed coffee (I used a delicious, smooth French Vanilla blend)
additional ice

Combine blueberries and milk in a blend and mix until well blended. Add in ice and sugar and again, mix until well combined. Pour in coffee and blend again.

Serve over ice in a cute glass.

My son loves carrots. My husband likes carrots, and that’s high praise for a vegetable from him. And I really like them too. They are rich in beta-carotene and also contain alpha-carotene, both antioxidants that help ward off bad things for your body like eyesight loss and cancer.

It’s Tuesday, which happens to be the day of Sweetnicks’ ARF/5-A-Day weekly event where Cate challenges us to eat more fruits, veggies and anti-oxidant rich foods. Check her site later tonight for a roundup of great posts on the subject.

Grilled Herbed Carrots
serves 2-3

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped into 2-3 inch pieces
1 tbsp butter, chopped into about 8 pieces
1/2 tsp marjoram
salt
pepper

Take a large rectangle of heavy duty aluminum foil and place the carrots in the center. Put the pieces of butter throughout. Sprinkle with marjoram, salt and pepper.

Now, fold the two longest ends of the aluminum foil together and roll down. Fold up the other two ends. (You are making a little package).

On a preheated grill, place the packet seam-side up. Let cook for roughly 15-20 minutes. Remove from grill and serve.

My husband is that quintessential meat and potatoes type guy, or he was until I laid down the law: meals must include a bare minimum of one vegetable, salad is a staple and lean cuts beat out hunks of beef. Sometimes he still bucks at the “green stuff” on his plate, but he’s largely come around and given in.

These are the innocent victims, cut down in the prime of their lives. They were senselessly attacked under the cover of dusk and dawn by a party of bandits who until recently concealed their existence.

These are the victims friend’s, family and neighbors who are demanding justice for this horrific crime. They want the culprits sent far, far away so they never can cause pain in this place, the Garden, again.

But these victims are not alone. These wily bandits have been at work for sometime, wrecking havoc among the innocent and defenseless. Other victims have gone on to gain back some of their height and mobility and hope one day to be productive plants.

These sugar snap peas, for instance, were also victimized by this group. They are still in the beginning stages of rebuilding, but hope to be flowering plants in the near future.

WANTED:

Groundhogs

CRIME: Garden mutilation

Contact Cucina Bella with any information.

What’s your favorite out of print cookbook?

Mine is somewhat whimsical, or maybe just corny – Cooking With Friends. Yes, as in the Friends TV show.I know. How could I, a self respecting lover of food love such a gimmick-y thing? But the truth is that behind the gimmick are a number of excellent recipes for a wide variety of foods. I’ve had it for close to 10 years and still love it.

If you read the New York Times Book Review on Sundays then you have probably already read about what some noteworthy foodies mark as their favorites. If not, you can read about it in an article I recently wrote for Paper Palate. (NOTE: Paper Palate is now defunct.)

But I want to know, what’s your favorite?