Apple Picking

Angelenos can be a greedy.  We have the sun, surf, sand, mountains, and when Fall comes around, we'd like out apple picking too please.  It is not exactly convenient to get there but if you are willing to make a day trip out of the city, driving inland for about two hours, you can find a place where the city feels very far away indeed.

Welcome Fall!

             

Fall is finally here and we have been celebrating.  My thoughts are full of apple pie, planting our Winter herb garden... and sweaters!!  Okay, I am mostly excited about sweaters.

Mixed Tomato and Quinoa Salad with Almonds and Feta

On our arrival home from Colorado we were greeted with 90 degree weather, clear skies and tons of tomatoes in our garden.  Unfortunately with the weeks of dry heat and no rain most of the plants were taken over by spider mites, but those that were still producing were thriving.  

Colorado Camping

We have just returned from Colorado where we had a camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park cut short by the tremendous rain and flooding

Labor Day Weekend Almond Butter Cookies

Let's talk about peanut butter for a minute.  It is pretty much the perfect food.  Great as a sandwich, a spoonful hits the spot as a quick snack, it makes celery infinitely more appealing and a jar smuggled in your suitcase can save you while traveling in abroad eating unfamiliar foods.

I come from a long line of peanut butter lovers.  My Mom once polished off an entire bag of peanut butter cups on a dare and my grandparents were chunky peanut butter lovers, snacking on the stuff throughout the day.  So it came as a complete shock to us when our daughter was born with a peanut allergy.  Not just peanuts but cashews, walnuts and sunflower seeds...how could this be?  She will never have a pb&j, no chocolate peanut butter ice cream (my favorite) no peanuts at a ball game, and none of her Grandma Sally's legendary criss-cross peanut butter cookies.

Wishing that she could experience the delight and perfect harmony of a peanut butter and chocolate cookie, I came up with a cookie recipe using almond butter.  Almond butter lacks the saltiness of the peanut butter, so the type of salt that you choose for the cookies is key here.  When I make any cookie I always use kosher salt for a nice salty pop to set off the sweetness of the cookie.  Kosher salt makes this cookie.  If you don't have any in the pantry, it is worth a trip to the store.  Here is the recipe.

ALMOND BUTTER & CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

1 c. salted butter

1 c. sugar

1 1/4 c almond butter (salted)

2 eggs

3/4 t. vanilla

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 t. kosher salt

1 1/2 c flour

14 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chunks

1 c. coconut

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the almond butter then the eggs, one egg at a time.  Add vanilla.  Mix well.  In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together then slowly add them to the wet ingredients.  Finally, stir in the chocolate chunks and coconut.  Bonus points for toasting the coconut first.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.  The cookies will be rounded and slightly soft to the touch.  

Enjoy your labor day weekend.  I hope that you enjoy the cookies, allergy or no allergy, they are delicious!

Today

Enjoying the last of the Summer heat and noticing a few changes in the season already.  Our leaves have already begun to fall.

This blog inspired us to harvest the tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic from the garden to make fire-roasted salsa today.

We spent the better part of the day sorting through piggy banks for coins to add to the collectors books. My daughter is a big fan of the National Park Coins Collectors Edition.

Home Remodel - White Kitchen

I mentioned in my previous post that we recently remodeled the kitchen in our home.  We have been enjoying the new space so much and it has been so much fun finding new little accessories to warm it up and really make it feel like home.

I promised photos and they are all here in this post, but first...the before.

 This is the view from the dining/living room into the kitchen area.  Our house is situated in a snug canyon in Los Angeles and although I love the trees and seclusion it offers, we get very little direct light in the house and it can be gloomy in the afternoon.  We decided to let in more of the morning light that fills the kitchen, by taking out the wall separating the two rooms, widening the doorway and creating a new eating area at a breakfast bar.

 Here is the new view of the kitchen from the dining/living room.  We are thrilled with the amount of natural light that we have now and the entire house feels so much more open and airy.  We repurposed the little used (mostly as a space for piles of papers) eat-in breakfast nook inside of the kitchen area.It is now a cozy a window seat and office area with huge drawers (to hide the paper piles in).  We are in the process of adding cushions and pillows to the bench.  I look forward to sharing those with you later in another post.

We switched out the heavy oak cabinets for bright white with stainless steel features and replaced the floors with a darker chocolate-black wood.  I researched countertop material endlessly looking for something as beautiful as marble that wouldn't greedily suck up every substance that was placed on top of it and eventually decided that the imperfections are a part of its charm.  Each one is memory of meals shared with loved ones, a Birthday celebrated or a seven year old's love of science experiments.  I have stopped worrying over every scratch and stain and have decided to just enjoy it.  We have been happily rolling pie crusts directly on it ever since.

I'll go into detail more about the accessories we chose in future posts.  We are still looking for new dining chairs to match the antique movie seats that we bought in Summerland.