Last week’s veggie basket included a big head of Romanesco cauliflower.  It was almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.  I knew we had to do something “haute” with this veggie – not just a steam and some cheddar or dipped in ranch dressing.  Nope.

After some Googling (Google is my favourite cookbook), I found this recipe for romanesco with gorgonzola.  The recipe called for brandy…  but we subsituted that for whiskey.  It was crazy good.

You may have noticed that the blog has been quiet. That’s because behind the scenes, I’ve been working hard on a new project. My own shop, Paper Skirt! This week, I’m stocking the shop with a series of silk-screened greeting cards.

It’s all set up for shopping – from the comfort of your cubicle! I’m also blogging over there too. In fact, from now on, all paper related posts will be on Paper Skirt.

Come on over! Sign up for the Paper Skirt newsletter, too! We’ll be adding new products each week.
See you at the shop,

Lana

This week’s veggie basket came with a nice looking head of broccoli. A quick recipe search turned up this recipe for Orzo with Broccoli, Feta and Olives. Will report back with the results tomorrow!

Update

Great recipe.  Fast, easy and delicious.  Word to the wise – if you’re using mediocre olive bar olives (as I was) it’s probably a good idea to use less.  I always find them too salty.

Over the weekend we stopped at Zone in the market to spend a gift certifcate.  Easy right?  Just pick something you like. But what if you like a lot of things?  And you’ve got to decide fast because it’s Sunday morning and the brunch crowd is going to descend upon the store in droves as soon as they’ve gobbled up their egg benedicts.

Pressure.

We went for decorative and practical gifts.  This Umbra picture hanging system and fancy salt and pepper shakers.  Two things we love: cooking and photos.

Don’t be fooled by the innocent looks of this framing system.   Getting your photos aligned in each frame and level with the other two frames = fussy.  It looks good, but we probably won’t be rotating the collection very often.

The folks over at Craftzine are having Crafty Tag Contest. I decided to submit my flower tags that I made for our wedding. (We ended up using them on the favour bags and guest room bags.) Submit away – the contest ends on August 13!

Another keeper recipe – especially if you love baby eggplant.  It’s a Thai Spicy Eggplant recipe adapted from that “loud TV chef who needs to stop yelling and who shall not be mentioned.” I used red onion instead (it’s what I had on hand) and added a swig of sesame oil.. because I love seame oil.

I swear, Google is the best recipe finder.

This week’s veggie box was packed with stalks of giant green leaves. Seriously huge. At first I thought I was getting kohlrabi, but after some Googling, I determined that in fact I was in possession of an armload of collard greens.

Next – what to do with them? Again, I turned to Google. After some searching, I came across this risotto recipe and it sounded *just* right. Greens + rice + molasses? Party on. Even though I *love* molasses, I was hesistant to use it for something other than toast or molasses cookies.

I made a couple of subsitutions – I used some slices of peameal bacon rather than normal bacon and waaaaay less butter. I used at least half what the recipe recommended.

Result – delicious! And the collard greens? Mmm! I can’t quite figure out how they can still be a bit crunchy after stewing them for 45 minutes. Crazy.

I was tagged by Rhonda of Our Wedding Plus to come up with 8 random facts about myself. Here we go:

1. Sometimes I read magazines from back to front. Depends on how many ads are in the front. I guess I like to get to the good stuff! It’s a habit I developed after reading too many wedding magazines – once you buy your dress, you don’t need the first half of most of them!
2. We don’t have cable.  Just rabbit ears.  The minute we can’t get America’s or Canada’s Next Top model will be the day I order cable.   I prefer buying magazines over cable channels.
3. My favourite all-time movies include: Office Space and Zoolander.
4. I love my .01 pigment pen.  And I don’t like to share it.
5. My cat is the chattiest person in the house.   Most of the time.
6. Raisins.  How I hate them in baked goods.  Why would I want squishy little nubs in a fluffy cake or crispy cookie?  It’s just wrong.  Wrong.
7. We own over 10 cloth grocery bags.  The ones from Australia are still the best – wide and shallow with a stiff cardboard in the bottom.
8. I am a school and book-aholic.  I love reading and taking courses.  I’ve already signed up for two courses for the fall: media relations and another grahic design course.