A Quick Update

Lately I've been reading more than I've been cooking, but I've been reading about cooking, so that's something. Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee are sort of like cookbooks, but they explain how and why cooking works so that you are free to experiment and have more successful results instead of constantly having to go back and refer to a book or recipe.

Playing with Michael Ruhlman's Ratio

My first ratio based baking experiment - coconut almond cupcakes with almond butter frosting. They look so pretty but they were a huge failure. Way too much oil... like the consistency of a wet sponge. Ugh.

 Other than that I'm working on building up my garden. Most of the plants are sprouting in small containers right now, but there are a lot of exciting little ones popping up: Tomato, cantaloupe, lettuce, rosemary, basil, strawberries... the list goes on! Unfortunately the mango seed I wrote about here had to be thrown out. It was doing really well and was sprouting a huge root system, but there was an issue with the broken heat in my house for awhile and it got so hot that the pot became infested with maggots and mold... gross. Everything was under the soil so I didn't know until I was going to transplant the seed. Too bad, until next time!

My little garden! Everything is still sprouting, so all I have planted right now are cantaloupe (on the right) and sweet pea (top left).

The first grill of the season. There were also some tuna steaks, but they're not pictured.

Soon I'll share some more recent kitchen creations like goat cheese ravioli, fresh strawberry cake, and coconut curry inspired oatmeal (It sounds strange... you'll have to trust me on that one), but for now I just wanted give you a quick glimpse of what I've been up to!