Make Something. Share It.
This is our second salad in one week featuring baby kale and strawberries (this was the first). The most obvious reason for this is that these are seasonally available ingredients. The second reason is less-than-obvious: I used to hate the idea of a salad as a meal. I’m six-feet tall, just over 200 pounds and didn’t think a salad could fill me.
I was wrong.
Today is Joel’s Birthday, so I’m surprise posting. when we started this site the original intent was to have a place to record Joel’s experiments in the kitchen, and little snippets of our life and love for food so we could look back on them later. Almost 5 years in Well Preserved has achieved that and so much more.
In the spirit of our original intent I’d like to ‘document’ his 40th birthday.
I’ve known Joel since he was 14. We didn’t start dating until 17 years later and we will have been together a decade next spring. Joel loves numbers and statistics, I still count on my fingers and math can make me cry. When we met, I was trying pretty hard to ‘fit in’. Joel was trying ‘pretty hard’ to do the opposite. Eventually I moved downtown, he got on a bus and traveled all over Canada. Through most of our 20s when we didn’t have a lot of contact, we found out later we were at a lot of the same events or hanging out in the same neighbourhoods. Without going into a lot of detail, it’s pretty much a fluke (or you could call it fate) that we ran into each other at all 9 years ago. To say ‘there’s never a dull moment’ is a complete understatement and after all this time I still sometimes laugh and shake my head that we’re together (15 year old Dana still thinks it’s hi-larious). I’ve always been really independent and self motivated, but Joel has helped me see how much more fun it is to tackle stuff together , inspire each other and carry each other’s luggage every once and a while. I feel very lucky. I still can’t believe that weird kid is 40 though. Happy Birthday Einstein*
*unimaginative 14 year old me’s nickname for my smart computer lab partner, that I used get to do most of the work.
It’s almost time for another HomeEc!
Not sure what that means? WellPreserved hosts a monthly gathering (usually a potluck) where a bunch of strangers gather together, share food and friendship. Dana and I host the Toronto event (at The Handlebar in Kensington Market) and Kate and Rachel host their version in Columbus, Ohio.
The Columbus location has changed – Kate will be sharing the details this morning on her blog Kate, on the Way.
Each event has a different theme – this month’s theme is:
What the heck is picnic? Show up with something to share that’s inspired by the idea of having a picnic. We’re not too serious about rules and we have all levels of cooks so don’t be shy!
If you’ve never been to a HomeEc, we really hope you’ll come out. There’s a friendly stable of regulars and several new people too. We’ll be the best hosts we can be and make sure that you get to meet some fun people and interact with a community of fun people who love food. If you’re really nervous about making something (and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches definitely count!) just show up to your first event and check it out.
The event is next Monday (June 24th) and starts at 8:00PM.
When I was a child I ate whatever was put in front of me. Part of this is attributed to the part of my personality that makes me willing to try to eat anything, another part came from the good fortune to have minimal food allergies and the last part came down to the two options I was given at every meal: eat what we made or don’t eat.
Because of my perspective, it’s always a bit of a pet peeve when I see menu items ‘designed for kids.’ I understand why that may be necessary or why it may work for others; it just wasn’t part of my experience and is difficult to relate to.
Having said all of that, I’m not sure a very young me would have dug this recipe!
Strawberries arrived this week. The arrival of the red orbs means one thing to me: summer is finally here.
When I grew up, I knew my Mother had a reputation. All of our cousins would sing her praises; she was famous for her pink lemonade.
My Mother is an amazing woman who has a tonne of talent and all sorts of things that she should be known for; I’m afraid her pink lemonade probably wasn’t one of those things. We thought she had a magic touch even though we all knew it was coming from a frozen tube. I’m still not sure why we adored it so dearly though I look back and I never remember her self-promoting her talents as a tangy-tonic maker!
We’re happy to share a homemade version which has far less sugar with you today:
It was a busy weekend and we were looking for a quick bite.
This is a time of year I try to use up as much of our surplus canned goods as possible (and there are a lot!) in order to prepare for the bounty of summer and to rotate the contents of our preserve shelf. We know that the market will soon be swelling with an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables and we’ll be less inclined to eat our preserves so this is a guilt-free time to open as many jars as possible.
Late spring/ early summer is a busy time around our house. I tend to travel a lot for work, we’re a lot more social (like bears coming out of hibernation), farmers market season kicks into another gear and projects in the garden tend to take a lot of time. Meals like this one are ready in minutes (the longest step was making toast)and can easily fuel you through the day.
We’ve finally got most of our raised beds planted last weekend. Some of the garden is planted with seeds and other started with seedlings so we can get the most of the season ahead.
Some may find it odd that we’re posting three asparagus recipes in one week (a different asparagus sandwich and a salad with butter-toasted almonds) but that’s just the way our kitchen rolls. We eat it while we can, and its prime asparagus time in these here parts!
Dandelion wine is something I meant to make for a long time; unfortunately good intentions often got swallowed by the many tasks of spring. Because we’ll age most of this wine for 2-3 years, I wish, more than ever, we would have started making it years ago when i first fell in love with the idea.
Alas, I suppose it’s better late than never!
