Owls

We live close to the city of Rochester, but just far enough out that there are things like horse farms and vegetable farms down the road. This also means we have things like bunnies and deer running through our yard, and if you listen closely at night you are bound to hear some owls.

OK maybe you wont hear this owl, but he is pretty darn cute. You can find the pattern in Amigurumi Animals: 15 Patterns and Dozens of Techniques for Creating Cute Crochet Creatures

PS. Don't forget about my awesome Clearly Fresh Bag giveaway! You have till Friday to enter.
PPS. Keep your eyes peeled for a kick butt whole wheat avocado chocolate chip cookie recipe!! Coming soon!
PPPS. Info about this years jam exchange also coming in the near future!!!

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3 Ingredient Recipe

I'm a big fan of quick easy side dishes, especially ones that help use up all those CSA veggies we've been getting. In this past month's issue of Real Simple they had a whole section on 3 ingredient recipes, this one caught my eye since it involved bok choy (one of the things I happened to find in last week's basket).

I picked up this cilantro from the Rochester Public Market. For those of you who don't live here, it's an amazing open air farmers market open all year long. This is about half the bunch and it cost a grand total of $1.50. Plus the farmer told me how he pulled it out of the ground just that morning, you seriously can't get any fresher than that. (The market actually won a nationwide contest for America's favorite farmers market in 2010!)

Next time I make this I want to add something else... I'm not sure what though. John agreed that it was missing something... there was no pow... but maybe we just like super bold food.

Boy Choy and Pineapple Slaw
Recipe from Real Simple Magazine June 2011
4 cups thinly sliced baby bok choy
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 cups thinly sliced pineapple
3 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper to taste

Toss together and let sit 15 minutes before serving.

Any suggestions on what you'd add to really make this sing?

PS. Don't forget about my awesome Clearly Fresh Bag giveaway!

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Peanut butter and Jelly Bars - GF

Sometimes recipes sound amazing... but they don't end up looking like what you thought you were making. These are gluten free and vegan (if you use vegan preserves-not all are), and VERY delicious. However mine didn't want to come out of the pan in one piece... coming out in many gooey chunks, check.

Truthfully I think it's because I used cashew butter, maybe it was too soft/liquid compared to PB? Not sure.. But definitely head over to Sweet Roads to see her pictures, they are beautiful! Unlike my sad torn apart hunks of deliciousness :)

Peanut Butter Bars
Recipe by Sweet Road
3/4 c peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1tsp water
4 tbsp preserves
1/4 c chopped walnuts
1/4 c rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350º F

-In a bowl, combine 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c peanut butter, vinegar, and water
-Spread the mixture evenly into an 8x8 baking sheet (grease it first or line with parchment paper)
-Spread the preserves evenly over the peanut butter mixture
-In a bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 c sugar and peanut butter with the walnuts and rolled oats to form a crumbly mixture
-Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the two layers in the pan and bake for 15 - 20 minutes
-Allow to cool, cut, and enjoy!

PS. Don't forget about my awesome Clearly Fresh Bag giveaway!

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Copious amount of veggies - and a giveaway!

Yesterday was the longest day of the year (daylight wise that is) which means the days are getting shorter now, noooo!!!! But it also means it's officially summer! To celebrate I wanted to make something super fresh utilizing the copious amount of veggies we got from our CSA this week!

Arugula, turnips, garlic scape (anyone else have to google that? I had no clue what they were), bok choy, leafy greens! The best part is I'm storing all of my veggies in those Clearly Fresh Bags I told you about a few weeks ago! (I'm also going to mention that the sprouts are now officially 4 weeks old... and still aren't floppy or dried up.. insanity. I had some on my lunch salad today. And they were good!).


I decided to whip up a quick arugula pesto. Have you ever made your own pesto?? You really should, it smells so amazingly fresh it's unreal. All it takes is a few minutes in a food processor and you are good to go!


Arugula Almond Pesto (makes about 1 cup of pesto)
adapted by steph chows
In a food processor spin until well chopped
6oz arugula washed and dried (about 1.5 cups packed)
1 scape (or you can use a few cloves of garlic)
3 Tbs slivered almonds
1/4 cup parmigiana cheese
1/4 tsp salt

Then slowly drizzle in
1.5 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs water

We had this over pasta tonight, it was a bit bitter (just a warning) but delicious! We also grilled up some chicken and adding that into the mix made it a lot less bitter tasting.

Another great way to celebrate summer officially starting is a giveaway!

The wonderful people at Clearly Fresh Bags have offered 20!!! of my readers a package of Clearly Fresh Bags to try out!! Want to know how to enter?

You can enter up to 3 times. Just leave a separate comment for each entry.
Shipping is only to the US at this time (sorry my international peeps).
1. Comment and tell me what would you store in your Clearly Fresh Bags?
2. Tweet /FB / or blog about the giveaway (then come back here and comment to let me know) Example: Check out this awesome giveaway @steph_chows for Clearly Fresh Bags! http://stephchows.blogspot.com
3. Like me on Facebook, then come back here to comment and tell me know you did!

You have until Friday July 1st midnight to enter the contest! Good luck!! But come on, 20 people will win!! That's crazy good odds!

Can't wait that long? Head on over to Clearly Fresh Bags and you can take 15% off your total purchase by using the code stephchow15 while supplies last (so head on over!)

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Our first anniversary

Hey everyone! Sorry to leave you all hanging last week, a lack of solid wifi made things a tish difficult to update things. But we are back and well rested from celebrating our first wedding anniversary! YEAH! A year ago June 19th, 2010 John and I got hitched and have been having fun ever since :) To celebrate we headed to Cape Cod for a week of eating delicious food, taking long walks on the beach, and enjoying some down time.

There will be a full on post by John about my ice cream eating addiction that took place over the course of the week... lets just say I put moderation to the side for our anniversary week.



Hope you all didn't miss me too much ;) What were you all up to last week?

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Rhubarb Muffins

I'm out of town this week so I have some fabulous guest posts set up for you! (I was trying to write to tell you all this on Friday but blogger wouldn't let me!) Today we have my best bud Jeanne!

When I met Steph a few years ago, we learned very quickly that we have a lot in common. Tons of our conversations started with a story and ended with: "Me TOO!" We have the same birthday (albeit a year apart), we have crazy curls, we swam tons as kids, we craft, we camp, we have a serious addiction to the library, and when it comes to baking, we can't leave well enough alone. Recipes are more like guidelines anyways, aren't they?

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm so excited for local summer produce to start showing up on my table. It doesn't get more local than when you pick it out of your own garden. Okay. I'll admit it, the only thing that is ready in my garden right now is rhubarb. And that's probably because it's a weed. But it's one tasty weed let me tell you. I love baking with it! In the past month I've made: Rhubarb cake, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb square, stewed rhubarb... But today I'm here to talk about a favourite of mine: Rhubarb muffins.
Wait... Is that heavenly music I hear? Hells yeah it is.


I got this recipe from my SIL, and while it was a pretty damn awesome when she made it, I just had to tweak it.

Original Rhubarb Muffins.
In a large bowl add and combine well:
2 Eggs
1 C Sugar
1/4 C oil
1/2 C plain yogurt or buttermilk
1 3/4 C chopped rhubarb

In a smaller bowl combine well:
2C All Purpose Flour
2 tsp b powder
1/2 tsp b soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon.
Combine wet and dry ingredients and fold together gently until just mixed. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake at 375F for 25minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.


What did I change? Just the normal substitutions. Reduced the sugar. Apple sauce instead of oil. skim milk. And what's up with 1/4tsp cinnamon? That's nothing!
Added MORE rhubarb. These are rhubarb muffins after all!! And when it's growing like a weed and you aren't paying through the nose for it, might as well use it, right!?



My Rhubarb Muffins.
In a large bowl add and combine well:
2 Eggs
1/2 C Sugar or a little more
1/4 C apple sauce
1/2 C plain yogurt or buttermilk
2 C+ chopped rhubarb

In another bowl combine well:
1C Flour
1C Oatmeal
2 tsp b powder
1/2 tsp b soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon.
dash nutmeg

Eat. Enjoy. Or like me, take it to a gathering of friends and get rave reviews! :)


What recipes do you normal tweak? How would you modify this recipe? Add strawberries?

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Not Falafel

Last night I wanted to make salads for dinner topped with falafel patties... but I got seriously lazy, so lazy that I didn't even pull out a recipe and instead just started tossing things into a bowl. Lets just say the only thing these things have in common with falafel is that they contain chick peas... the similarities pretty much end there :)

The recipe is non existent. 1 can of chick peas, drained, rinsed and smashed up. Add in a few garlic cloves, some grated up red onion, half a grated up zucchini (random much?), seasonings to taste (salt pepper cyan red hot) toss in an egg for good measure and about a 1/2 cup of panko. Mix, and now for the really lazy part. I didn't even make patties, I just tossed the whole shebang into a lightly drizzled with olive oil pan and stirred away until it all got crispy.


Toss on top of some greens, cucumbers, snap peas, tomato, carrots, sprouts, add some dressing and you're got dinner in about 15 minutes flat. Perfect timing for a hungry husband to walk through the door and say "I'm starving what's for dinner??"

Do you have any delicious recipes that came out of you being straight up lazy?

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Clearly Fresh Bags

Have you ever heard of Clearly Fresh Bags? According to their website and packaging they make your produce last up to 50% longer. For a person like me who buys lots of fruits and veggies with great intentions... but doesn't always get around to eating them in time... this was a great idea!!

OK random question time. How do you like your bananas? Still a little green? Totally yellow? Starting to turn brown? It seems no matter how you like a banana the peek yumminess (yup that's a technical term) lasts about 1-2 days... and then it's all down hill and banana bread time. So that means you either need to hit up the grocery store every other day... or eat some not perfect to your liking bananas. These bags kept the bananas perfect for days!! For this reason alone I am OVERJOYED by these bags!! Look at the picture below.


Those bananas on the right have looked EXACTLY the same for the last 4 days!! The one left outside the bag.. whomp whomp.. sad sad banana, you will be turned into bread.

The bags also work with produce you keep in the fridge. Take my awesome home grown sprouts for example. Both of the piles below have been stored in the fridge for 2 weeks... which would you rather eat?


Clearly Fresh sent me a sample pack of their bags to test out. So the bags were provided to me but the opinions are all my own and totally truthful. You can learn more about their products here.

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Another new easy to make skirt!

I first saw this skirt over on Sewing in no mans land and fell in love. I love how flattering high waisted skirts can be! She also has the tutorial for a kids version of this skirt, so if you've got a little lady in your life you can whip one up for her too!

Love love love! Now my version has one big difference though... mine is a skirt and a belt, and hers is a one piece skirt. Here's why I went off track with this one... you see my waist is tiny... and my hips/thighs... are MUCH much larger... so to make the top wide enough to fit my bum through would have left a LOT of extra material open in the back... I needed elastic, so I made a simple skirt with an elastic waist and then followed the belt part but sewed the bottom part closed. Easy cheesy. Either way you make it though this sews up in a few hours and is so freaking cute everyone will flip for it!

Seriously how adorable is this thing!!??

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