yellow

Polite reminder to self: in the future, don't schedule a move and a career change for the same time. Seriously.

yarny dessert

Last night, I crocheted this cupcake.

stitched with love

As a way to combat all the things that have been stressing me out lately, I've been crocheting a ton. I just sent this blanket down to North Carolina for the baby shower of a very good friend who's expecting her first baby, a boy. This zig zag stitch was the last one my Grandma ever taught me, and I think it's definitely my favorite. Details are here and here.

and at the end there was dessert... of course

For the last part of our brunch, I made this peach and almond cream tart with the fresh fruit above. I think it came out pretty well, and again there was none left. The finished tart looked like this.

going fast

The Pièce de résistance of course was the quiche. Again we used the produce from Adam's CSA. This one had red and orange bell pepper, white string beans and fresh eggs. And it was gone in a flash.

summer salad

Fresh mixed greens, cucumber, cranberries, walnuts, feta, raspberry vinaigrette ... I'm realizing now how covered in flower the counter is in every shot.

cheese and herb scones

In addition to bagels from the place in our neighborhood (the best I've ever had) I made these same scones again... they came out dryer this time, but still quite tasty. I used sharp cheddar, fresh thyme and sage. Everyone raved about them, and yet there were a few left over for breakfast the next morning.

heirloom caprese

Our inspiration for the brunch menu came from two tasty sources. The first was the herbs my dad grew in his garden. The second was the amazing produce our friend Adam let us have from his CSA while he was out of town this weekend ... I walked right across the street and came back with two big bags of fruit, veggies and fresh eggs.

It was fun to create the dishes around what we'd been given. I knew right away what to do with the big bunch of heirloom tomatoes. Esposito's, my favorite neighborhood source for fresh mozzarella is closed for summer vacation, so I had to try another small Italian grocery story. I sliced up an orange, a red and a green tomato. Added in Dad's basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. I could have eaten the entire plate myself.

monday + brunch = monch!

We hosted a little brunch at our place today... we spent over four hours cleaning and cooking deliciousness from scratch. You can mark it down as a success when your friends are still at "brunch" at 5 p.m.