girl crush. {26.52}

adam teases me that i have a couple of serious “girl crushes”. “girl crush” translates to admiration (with a touch of envy) for women who i think are totally awesome.  heidi swanson is one of those women. i am obsessed with her food and photography and am continually inspired by her work. i visit and follow her blog religiously, cook nearly one “heidi-inspired” recipe a week, follow her on flickr, and was starstruck when i met her at her book signing in portland last year. you get the idea.

heidi recently started this cool little pop-up shop called quitokeeto. despite having no idea what the name meant (i still don’t), as soon as i heard about it, i knew it was going to be fabulous. imo, heidi has impeccable taste when it comes to food and art. her choices for the first collection of her shop did not disappoint – they were varied, interesting, artistic, and just lovely. i wanted to buy everything. but in an impressive showing of restraint, i opted for just one thing: a set of petite picardie glasses. they are small, simple, and perfect for a pour of house wine or a bit of juice. love.

you can tell just how much thought and artistry went into quitokeeto, and how every detail was considered and selected with care – from the wonderful box design down to the handwritten thank-you note on the receipt, taped to the inside of the box. my girl crush is completely well-founded, thank you very much.

berry bliss. {24.52}

hi there. i’ve been told it’s officially summer. i’ll believe it when i see it. despite the fact that portland’s weather doesn’t reflect summer until after the 4th of july, there are still hopeful signs of summer every where we look. berry season around here is particularly exciting. i would really like to know exactly how many pounds of berries adam and i are able to scarf down in the few fleeting months that berries are in season. or maybe i don’t.  i’m sure it’s an obscenely large amount. while we are perfectly happy to eat the lovely strawberries from the farmers market just as is, i came across this wonderful spiced strawberry sauce recipe and just had to try it for the father’s day brunch i cooked for one of the best chefs i know, my dad. my dad is a former professional chef, so cooking for him is every so slightly intimidating. (though he is never critical, thankfully). he appeared to think the sauce was tasty, so i’m calling the recipe a keeper.  i served it with these biscuits, but i think it would be amazing in and on any number of things from granola to oatmeal to toast, to….well, straight out of the jar, which is how i managed to polish it off.

a word on the recipe:  i didn’t have star anise or a vanilla bean, so i subbed with a bit of nutmeg and vanilla extract and it worked just fine.

nourishment. {18.52}

please excuse what is about to be an excessive amount of catching up over the next few days.  i have committed to sitting my butt down to catch up my 52 week project.  here goes…

week 18 gave me a much-needed reprieve from the stress and craziness of the prior weeks.  i was able to take some deep breaths and let my mind wander and think about things other than painful training runs and stressful deadlines.  inevitably, my mind wandered to food.  the sign of a true foodie.  i spent a lot of time ogling over some of my favorite food blogs and trying to figure out just what i wanted to test out. this rainbow chard tart with rosemary almond meal crust from roost jumped out at me.  not only is it gluten free and easy to make dairy free, but the recipe also called for chard, which i never know what to do with and had just received in our csa box.  it was meant to be.  and who am i to turn down a delicious sign like that?

i’m happy to report it came out perfectly.  the herb-specked crust was crumbly and buttery and the savory, not-overly-eggy filling was a perfect complement.  adam gave it two thumbs up, which is always a good sign.