Fruit Parfaits

Last nigh Tyler made a "chopped salad" of honey crisp apples and clementines. She layered it in with Greek yogurt and honey in "fancy" glasses. It was good, but she said she'd leave out the clementines next time. I thought that would be a good idea too.

Linguini with Carrots and Andouille

This week Tyler created a pasta dish with garden-fresh carrots (here's the picture of her harvesting them), andouille sausage, peas, tomatoes, chicken stock, and topped with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  She was hard pressed to choose ingredients, as the fridge and pantry were a little bare. It certainly was an original, creative creation.

Celery, Onion, Brown Sugar...Concoction

If you have trouble seeing the video from email or iPad, just go to www.tckculinaryjourney.blogspot.com to watch. This goes for all videos (I understand that automatic post emails do not show the videos. Sorry for the technical difficulties, if you're having them.)

We All Have Our Thing

Last night while getting ready for bed Tyler asked me, "Mom, do you ever just feel like sweating onions just for no reason? You know, just sautéing them to cook them, not to brown them?" I said, "Do you mean do I enjoy sweating onions when I'm starting to make soup or something?" She replied, "No, do you ever feel like cooking onions, just cause it's fun, not to use them for anything? I do."

She and I made butternut squash soup for dinner and she managed the onions, measured and added the other ingredients and did the stirring throughout the cooking. Apparently she realized (or was reminded in the process) she really enjoys cooking onions. I guess I'll know what's going on if I wake up to the smell of onions cooking one of these mornings.

Their Herb Salad

Tyler and her BFF, Lexi, love to make "herb salad" in the back yard. They've spent hours this summer picking, chopping and slicing herbs from the herb garden and tend to add whatever else they find. Today they used sage, lavender, chives, garlic chives, and basil added cherry tomatoes, cucumber and lemon zest. They will usually eat a spoonful or two, usually claiming it's delicious. Cooking is new to Lexi but she's enjoyed coming over to do it and is getting to be good at it too. Here's the finished product. You can see on their faces the herbs are a little strong:)

We had fun today making colored cupcake sandwiches to take to Auntie Kelly's tomorrow. Took us a while to make, but the pretty, tasty finished product was worth it.

Pickled Carrot and Cucumber