Coo-Coo for Coconut Macaroons

Life is just a bowl of. . .Cherry Clafouti

Cherry Clafouti

2 tbsp softened butter
1 ¼ cups half and half
2/3 cup all-purpose white flour
3 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups cherries, pitted
confectioners’ sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°.

Grease six shallow ramekins, or one 9-inch baking dish with about half of the butter and set aside. Pit your cherries.

Put the half and half, flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, almond extract, lemon juice, and salt into the blender. Blend on high, stopping once or twice, if necessary, to scrape any flour clinging to the sides.

Pour about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of batter into the prepared pan. Bake the thin layer of batter for approximately 3 to 5 minutes until the batter just begins to set. Remove from the oven and arrange the pitted cherries on the semi-cooked batter. Cover the cherries with the rest of the batter and dot with the remaining butter. Return the clafoutis to the oven for 35-40 minutes. Until puffed and lightly golden brown. Serve warm.

Clafoutis are the perfect, simple, rustic summer time dessert, but are also great for breakfast. They can be made with a variety of fruits (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, apricots, peaches, apples, pears, etc., or even a mixture of fruits...though you may want to vary the amount of sugar you use based on how sweet your fruit is). I, for example, had some left over plums from yesterday's tart and some extra batter so I went ahead and whipped up a plum clafouti as well.

What's for dinner?

Lemon-Herb Roasted Pork Loin

Garlic-Rosemary Roasted New Potatoes and Pearl Onions

Parmesan Roasted Asparagus

Plum Tart

Going Native

There has been some sort of paradigm shift in our house lately. I am not entirely sure if it is just that we are catching up with the times and finally doing the socially responsible thing for our planet and community, or if we have finally transitioned from lazy ego-centric Californians to eco-centric, earth muffin Oregonians. In either case, after getting our composter two months ago there has been a drastic change around here. Taking the time to collect all of our kitchen waste motivated us to also become hyper vigilant about our recycling. Whereas I was once too lazy to even rinse out my tin cans or plastic bottles and instead simply opted to throw them in the garbage, I now find myself digging in the trash after people, and picking out all of the recyclables, washing them all out by hand, and sorting them accordingly. It is somehow extremely gratifying to me, this new shift in thinking about what we consume. We now almost exclusively use reusable grocery bags (and recycle the few paper and plastic bags that we do end up using) and have been cutting back in every way that we can to prevent food waste (thank you Debbie Meyer Green Bags!), and the over producing of trash. Two months ago we were taking an overflowing garbage can (the largest of three sizes offered by our county) to the curb once a week, which we often had to stomp on the top of to force all of it to fit. We have now downsized our garbage output by three fourths, and are rolling a nearly empty can to the curb for pick up every Sunday. In fact, we are now considering downgrading to the smallest garbage can offered by our county, saving money, while we are doing our own small part to preserve the planet. It is amazing to me that a few extra seconds here and there can make this large of an impact on just our one little household. Imagine if we all were able to cut back this much. For the first time I guess the difference seems tangible, that recycling really can drastically cut back on the amount of our waste, that we as individuals really can make a difference. I challenge you all to join us, to use less, recycle more, and invest the few minutes it takes here and there to responsibly manage your own household waste. It really does feel great, you'll see!

Happiness is: A house full of flowers

Monday's Makings

Garden Salad

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Fruit Salad

Sandwiches for the finicky kidlets

Garlic/Cheddar/Chive Biscuits

Simple "Tupperware" Storage Solutions

Someone on MoxieClean asked about solutions for cluttered Tupperware storage, which I think is a problem for all of us. Here was my response, in which I describe how I have come to solve this problem in my own kitchen:

Well I too can feel your pain. Long have I suffered with disheveled cabinets and/or overflowing Tupperware drawers. But no more. I finally had to simply make the choice and let everything I had go. Just let it go. My simple solution had been in front of me the whole time, with my dear friend Ina (who lives on TV). At Smart n' Final (or the Cash n' Carry for the Oregonians) they sell cylindrical, plastic deli containers. They have varying grades of thickness, and I prefer their thickest (with the brand name "Newspring") I purchase the 8oz, 16oz, and 32oz sizes, and stack them all in our deepest drawer (or cabinet). They are very inexpensive and come in quantity (it might be a 15 dollar investment to start) and best of all, they all use the EXACT SAME LID. So I have four neat and orderly stacks (small, medium, large, and lids). No more searching or fumbling. No muss. No fuss. The good news too, is that because they are so inexpensive, I don't give a second thought to sending left overs home with friends in them, or running the risk of accidentally leaving them somewhere. I use them in the fridge and the freezer, and they are dishwasher safe, and can be used again and again and again. They have been a godsend for me and my cabinets. And hey, if it is good enough for Ina, it is good enough for me. =)

For those of you who asked for it, here is a picture of our "Tupperware" (and kitchen towel) drawer. Hope this helps! =)

Pups, Pals, and Peonies

Look who made a friend

Kitchen Cabinets: The continuing saga

My MoxieClean kitchen spring cleaning marches on... Here are some more of my cabinets that I was able to get around to today. Luckily the sheer mortification that I feel in presenting the before shots to you has been momentarily tempered by my pride in having been able to redo all of them...so I am putting my shame aside for a moment to bask in my own cleaning glory. While our home may be a clutter free, "sparkling showroom" (as some have called it), just behind our cabinet doors was our dirty little, shamefully cluttered secret.

I forgot to take a before picture of this one, needless to say it was much worse than this.

Spring cleaning, Moxie Style

With a little encouragement from MoxieClean, spring cleaning is well underway here at my house. Yesterday's mission was cleaning out the dreaded over stocked, shamefully unorganized kitchen cabinets. I took everything out, scrubbed the cabinets down, disinfected, weeded out some unused items, consolidated packaging, found some more logical homes for some things, organized everything, and put it all back in. Fwew! It feels so much better. I was only able to get to all of our upper cabinets yesterday and hope to tackle all of the bottom cabinets soon as well.

This photo begs the question, does one really need a coffee pot, French press, and a stove top espresso maker? Really? Apparently, in our kitchen, the answer, for some reason, is yes.