Novel Eats

Valentine’s Day is probably one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because of all the girlie colors and hearts and flowers, or because of the shallow romance courtesy of department stores, but I just can’t help but like it. Of course, I’m sure that I resented the holiday when I was single or forlorn over someone that wouldn’t “Be Mine”. That’s probably a given. Now Valentine’s Day offers me an excuse to get into the kitchen and try to make something that has equal parts romance and flour and KitchenAid mixer.

Like banana bread? Chances are you’ll love this easy and delicious pumpkin bread, too.

I love homemade crackers, and these are easy to make. Be sure to make the dip, too!

I normally try to post at least once a week, but sometimes life gets in the way. I realized (with a nearly audible gasp) only this week that it was nearly THREE weeks since my last post.

Here’s my laundry list of excuses. First of all, I think I was lazy. Plain and simple. Then the in-laws (all of them) came to visit, and as much as they cooed over my blog, I didn’t lift one finger to type out a blog post in their presence. I also barely lifted a finger to cook for them aside from a fruit crisp.

And today, I am sick. My throat is sore, my face feels warm, and I have a headache. As such, I am not consuming sugar today except for what comes naturally in the fruit I’ve been eating (just look up “sugar and immune system” and you’ll see why I avoid it when I’m sick). So what better thing to do when I am not sick enough to be lying down than to write a blog post about something that has so much sugar in it I should have a weak immune system for at least a week after consuming it?

Farm season is well upon us again, which means we have been getting fruit for a few weeks now in our local community supported agriculture program. We have participated in our local CSA for a few years by getting vegetable shares, but last year another farmer joined in the fun and was providing us with fruit, so we got a fruit and vegetable share last year. Holy cow. We got some of the most amazing fruit, so much so that this year we’ve said good bye to the vegetable share (Good bye! Perhaps we’ll see you another year!), and said hello to two fruit shares.

The first couple of weeks we didn’t get a whole lot of fruit, but the last couple of weeks we’ve gotten more than our share (hehe) of peaches and plums. As soon as I saw the peaches I couldn’t think of anything else but when I was growing up next to Grandma.