I have eaten such an insane amount of milk (in the form of ice cream) during this pregnancy! Every week I've told myself, you've really got to stop eating so much ice cream, hot fudge sundaes, frozen yogurt, Blizzards... you get the idea. Yet, every week I couldn't seem to resist just one little bit... so here we are at the end of the pregnancy and I gave up. In fact, I'm eating ice cream right now.

I have been craving a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake the whole nine months. But, being me, I decided to make ice cream cakes with an Oreo crust myself. My best friend and her son have birthday's a day a part, and they were having a party! The perfect excuse to experiment. I made a vanilla ice cream cake for the kids and an espresso ice cream cake for the grown ups! I headed into the endeavor having absolutely no idea what I was doing, but also with the knowledge that with ingredients like Oreos, fudge, ice cream and whipped cream, I really couldn't do anything too disastrous. The results were, "I'll have a third slice", kind of amazing.

This recipe makes once cake.

I just can't stop baking cookies. This baby girl is sure to be made completely of cookies and citrus fruit when she makes her debut. Lucky for me, Gigi loves making (and eating) cookies as much as I do. I'm spending lots of time baking, cooking, playing, cuddling, reading, visitng the park with her. Pretty soon we'll be cooking together while a baby sister is strapped to my chest!

My recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies is here... and in case you missed it, our cooking video for them is here!

I love this time of year in Oregon. It's sunny and warm enough to sleep with the windows open, but still cool enough at night that you need a down comforter. Everything is in green and blooming, and all the fresh herbs are becoming available. Last weekend, Gigi and went to visit a friend's farm and she loaded me up with sorrel from their garden as we were leaving. I'd never used sorrel before and she recommended I make a pesto from it. The sorrel made a fantastic pesto that had a slightly more bitter flavor than basil. We pulled some wonderful salmon from the freezer and had ourselves an easy, wonderful dinner.

Last week I posted my recipe for Roasted Blood Oranges, and this week I'm sharing my simple recipe for roasted grapefruit. This is one of my happiest discoveries this past year. I love any and all citrus fruit but grapefruit is at the top of my list. Roasting it with a little sugar mellows out the bitterness and brings out the fruit's natural sweetness. A few minutes in the oven and this tart breakfast food transforms into a comforting, sweet treat. This is an fast, easy and healthy dessert. You can jazz it up with a little sprinkle of cinnamon or ground ginger.

I've been pretty obsessed with citrus fruits throughout this pregnancy. If you only the the quantity of oranges, pineapple, and grapefruit I've eaten... You can imagine my joy upon discovering that blood oranges had arrived in our grocery store! I snapped up a bunch of them a long with some Cara Cara Oranges and decided to roast them. I love roasted grapefruit (I have my recipe for that coming soon too) and thought the blood oranges would do pretty wonderful things under the broiler. They were simple to make and completely delicious.

It's definitely spring around here. Spring in the Pacific Northwest is a silly thing... sunny and warm one minute, dumping rain the next. This often means trips to the park are in t-shirts and rain boots. We've been laying pretty low the last couple of weeks, organizing the nursery, doing some light spring cleaning, little trips to the coffee shop, and Kyle has been working hard on getting our raised beds in place in the backyard, and I've been baking a lot.

These cookies came into being after my good friend brought me back five lovely Meyer lemons from California a couple weeks ago. I knew I wanted to do something simple and sweet with them. Slowly the idea for shortbread cookies began to form. I wanted to add something a little unexpected so I took my daughter for a walk and we clipped a bit of rosemary to add to the cookies. With the addition of a tart/sweet Meyer lemon glaze, these cookies were perfected. I could have eaten them all myself, but instead we packaged them up and delivered them around town, and even sent a few across the country, to good friends.

Okay... someone needs to stop me from baking so many cookies! I think I've made a dozen batches in the past two weeks. While I've given most of the cookies away to friends, I've managed to eat my fair share. With just ten weeks left to go in this pregnancy a little cookie and a mug of tea in the afternoon has been too inviting to resist. Maybe I ought to try making some of those "healthy" cookies with spelt flour and avacado... or whatever it is people use to substitute for the good stuff?

I'm feeling under the weather (again)! I've been sick so many times during this pregnancy, probably more times than in the past five years. So while I nurse this little cold, Gigi is having tea parties, and Kyle is planning/building our raised beds.

Anyway, back to cookies. Below is my recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, and tomorrow I'll post the cooking video that Gigi and I made with this recipe.

I've come down with the same cold that Gigi has... it was bound to happen after all the cuddling we've been doing. Luckily she seems to be feeling a tiny bit better this morning. Somehow, despite having a sick tot and a sore throat the last couple of days, I've managed to get a lot done. I started and finished my 2012 taxes, made a month's worth of menus and did a huge grocery shopping trip, did all the laundry (well, Kyle folded it), and I watched the first disc of the old Dr. Zhivago mini-series. Apparently not even stupid cold can slow down the nesting power of pregnancy.

It's pouring rain out today and I made a big batch of my simple miso soup last night. It's the best thing when you are feeling under the weather. Rain and soup... and disc two of Dr. Zhivago. I came up with this recipe after craving miso soup for the majority of this pregnancy. It's simple, MSG free, and made from scratch. You can easily adapt it to suit your own taste. I make it constantly these days.

I've been working a lot the last couple of weeks on organizing my menu and recipe planning into a format that I can share with all of you. I've developed what I think is an efficient and fairly simple system for menu planning and monthly grocery shopping (on a budget). I'm finalizing everything and hope to have it up on the blog next week... although next week I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday so I can't make any promises!

This recipe is an example of a money and time saving breakfast or afternoon snack for your little one (or your husband). Gigi loves her oatmeal for breakfast but I don't always have time to make her the stove-top 20-minute kind... nor is she willing to wait that long! I rarely bought the little packets of instant oatmeal but when I did, I have to admit that I loved the convenience. But I hated the fact that they cost so much and were essentially a processed food. So I decided to make it myself. While the quick oats used in this recipe don't have the same nutritional value of the slow cooked variety, I still feel like I'm feeding my kiddo something homemade and I know exactly what's in it. This particular version is Cinnamon Raisin but you could easily change up the recipe each time you made a batch. I can't wait to experiment with dried apples pieces, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, etc. The possibilities are really endless. If you're feeding this to a toddler just make sure any dried fruit is cut up really small since it expands in hot water. I hope this simple little recipe saves you a bit of time and money.

My recipe...
Homeade Instant Oatmeal // Cinnamon Raisin

It's 8:25am now and Gigi is up, she's already had breakfast and is watching a little PBS while I finish catch up on a bit of work for today. I've been up since 4:45am... blame it on pregnancy or my desperate need to sit down for a few quiet minutes on my own and reflect on the past year and make some plans and goals for the year to come. I've got a lot of great projects in the works and things I'm excited to share with you, a few new features mixed in with little looks at our simple days.

When I look back on last year my goals were pretty big: Travel with my family to Europe! Complete my BA and graduate from college! Launch a new website! I can't believe I accomplished all of that with a one year old! My goals for this year are pretty minimal and simple... Exercise and eat well throughout this pregnancy and after the baby is born. Cook a lot and create new recipes as often as possible. Minimize "wasted" time. Make Gigi laugh a lot. Write more letters. Take a road trip and go camping. Get chickens and plant a wonderful vegetable garden. Sew more. Be the best wife, mama, sister, daughter, and friend that I can be. That's really it! I see this year as an opportunity to live frugally, enjoy my babies, continue to create a home space that we love, and a time to nurture the relationships that are important to me.

Now moving on to really important things, like brown butter... I've been adding brown butter to everything that calls for butter! I drizzle it on soups, toss pasta in it, and add it to baked treats. It's so rich and delicious and it's so simple to make. I'm amazed at how much it elevates anything it's added to. I love blueberry muffins. Adding brown butter to my simple blueberry muffin recipe was an obvious use for my favorite ingredient. These muffins are slightly sweet, just rich enough, flaky and light... just the way I prefer my pastries to be.

...and a quick tutorial on how to make Brown Butter.

As I sit here with a kitty purring on my lap, a very tired toddler taking a long afternoon nap, hot cocoa steaming in front of me and a candy cane to dunk in it, I feel perfectly wintery. It's that time of year where I have choice... I can either let the grey, dreary days get to me, or I can embrace them. I choose to make the best of these winter days by working on little sewing projects, spritzing our clean sheets with summery lavender oil, and cooking the most satisfying dinners. With this pregnancy in full swing I have to admit that I've had a hard time with breakfast and lunch... dinner has my heart. By the time dinner comes around it's usually dark out and, if I'm being totally honest here, I'm usually in my pajamas. This soup is one of those dinners that makes the whole house smell perfectly cozy and inviting. The butternut squash and garlic roast for an hour in the oven sending the smell of caramelized veggies into every room of the house, and the heat from the oven makes the kitchen and dining room extra warm. A big bowl of Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and a thick slice of toast is just the thing to prepare you for an evening of watching Harry Potter on the couch.

I'm truly excited to share my new cooking video with you. The recipe is for Portobello Dip Sandwiches, a sort of vegetarian take on a philly cheesesteak with a savory, rich au jus! This is one of my very favorite winter time dinners. It's flavorful and satisfying, and it's really inexpensive. Total comfort food... garlic bread piled high with veggies and topped with melted mozzarella cheese. Mmmm....

My Recipe...
Portobello Dip Sandwiches

Would love your feedback on the video!

Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies

Thanks for all the sweet encouragement on feeling better. Unfortunately we're still feeling pretty rotten and now Kyle seems to have caught the bug. Poor Gigi can't sleep with a stuffy nose and cough and the whole house smells of Vick's Vapor Rub. We'll get through it, and hopefully in time for Thanksgiving! If I'm being totally honest, between the sickness and the days turning dark at 4pm, I've been feeling a bit lonely. We've hardly left the house for ten days. Luckily I have my cooking. I've been baking, cooking and reading cookbooks. Nothing encourages experimentation like cabin fever. The idea for these Brown Butter cookies came to me when I was wanting to make a simple cookie but I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies. I thought if I browned the butter and used brown sugar instead of white I might end up with a toasty, rich version of the classic sugar cookie. I was surprised at just how wonderfully they turned out. They are crispy on the outside and chewy in the center like molasses cookies, and the flavor is rich but not overpowering. These are my new favorite cookie! They're perfect for the holidays so get baking!

My recipe...
Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies

Sourdough Toast with Mascarpone, Blackberry Jam and Basil

It's 8:43am and I'm sitting at the dining room table with a warm cup of Earl Grey tea. Up until a month ago I have been obsessed with the very British PG Tips black tea. But suddenly I am converted. I have been having the Earl Grey tea with a smidge of honey and a splash of milk and finding that it's the perfect way to start my days lately. Right now Gigi is watching a show on PBS and I'm preparing to dive into the pile of work I have neglected over the last few weeks. G and I got pretty sick and somehow I lost ten days this month. Even though time is flying by I find that I am more grateful than ever for my little family. We spent the whole weekend relaxing together, cleaning the garage, tidying Gigi's room and packing away her summer clothes into boxes. We are looking forward to a few nice, quiet weeks at home.

I whipped up this little breakfast the other day and am in love. I'm not a big breakfast person, I maybe have a couple bites of yogurt, a piece of toast, or a little granola, so this light airy toast is perfect for me.

My recipe:
Sourdough Toast with Mascarpone, Blackberry Jam and Basil

Everything feels so still right now. I am enjoying the solitude right now and the idea of curling up on the couch and escaping into a good book has me held hostage. The dark clouds and showers are perfect. My favorite things about fall are: Gigi wearing Babylegs with every outfit, spending way too much time in my sweatpants, baking cookies and cakes and muffins and breads, bright orange pumpkins on my dining table, watching favorite movies like The Apartment and Julie and Julia over and over again while eating all the Halloween candy... What are you favorite things about this season?

This time of year I love a rich pasta dish but I tend to get stuck on red and cream sauces. With fresh herbs like thyme still growing strong and shellfish available at the market, I decided to indulge in a different kind of pasta dish. Clams with Spaghetti cooked with shallots and white wine, fresh thyme and lemon zest. It's still rich and indulgent but it is equally light and fun. Don't forget to pick up a great bread to soak up all the wonderful sauce!

My recipe...
Clams with Linguini with White Wine and Thyme

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. I've been pretty lazy if I'm being totally honest. I've been spending too much time in my sweatpants, cozied up on the couch. I have been editing a lot of photos, looking at a lot of cookbooks and cooking a ton. This time of year something takes a hold of me and I feel the need to stock the freezer with soups and easy dinners. We are having this strange extended summer here with insanely beautiful fall days. The rain is supposed to show up tomorrow and stay put for a while so I'm going to get up and go today and hold onto the last sunshine and vitamin D of the year. Luckily you can buy ice cream all year round so I don't have to let go of summer altogether. This dessert has become my favorite. It doesn't feel exclusively summery. The rich balsamic and maple syrup add a rich zing to the simple treat. It's insanely good. Rain or shine.

My recipe for...
Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberries and a Balsamic and Syrup Reduction

Pitas with Grilled Eggplant and Tzatziki

One day when we were Paris we grabbed our maps and slipped out of our apartment for an adventure. We had a huge list of places to eat with L'As Du Fallafel somewhere in the middle of the page titled, "The Best of Paris". The list was made for us by our good friend Bill who loves food as much as, if not more than we do. He lived in Paris for years and undoubtably/enviably ate his way across the incredible city. We got off the metro and walked through the bumpy streets of Marais, until we spotted the bright, colorful restaurant. Then we stood in a long line on a warm fall day and, when it was our turn, ordered pitas stuffed with the most insanely delicious eggplant, red cabbage, and tahini. There's never any seating so you just take your fallefel and walk until you find a park bench or a curb then you sit down and savor every bite. When you're finished licking your fingers you only wish you had room to eat another.

I wouldn't call this recipe a replication of that amazing fallafel, but it holds us over in between trips to Paris. The eggplant is marinated in lots of olive oil and smoked paprika and the tzatziki is flavorful and has a little bite. We devour these hot or cold, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They remind me just a tiny bit of Paris.

My recipe for...
Pitas with Grilled Eggplant and Tzatziki

Grilled Peaches with Marscarpone and Peach Syrup

This time of year is my favorite. The mornings are chilly enough for scarves, the evenings are warm enough for bare feet on the pavement. We are in the perfect window where you can snuggle up at night in your down comforter, in your flannel pajamas, but still leave the window cracked just a little bit. Things around here since we returned home from out trip have been nice. We are taking lots of time to get things organized, cleaned up, on a better schedule, etc. Kyle has had to buckle down on his studies in the evenings so I've been sipping wine and watching movies. This time of year feels like the time to focus and prioritize. Summers are always so busy and fun, but I love sinking into the fall with it's windy days and rainy mornings. These past few evenings have felt like summer and we've been grilling veggies, eating heirloom tomatoes, and going for walks with our neighbors. I don't know about where you live, but here the stone fruits are all ripe. In these late summer evenings making grilled peaches for dessert is my favorite thing. They're simple to make and taste like the sweetest part of summer. They're fresh, light, rich, delicate, sweet and smoky. They are the kind of dessert that begs you to savor every mouthful.

My recipe for...
Grilled Peaches with Marscarpone and Peach Syrup

Here in Edinburgh, Scotland it's been pouring rain all day. By pouring I mean...

...really pouring. We went for a long walk during a deceptive sunbreak to my favorite spot in Leith, a beautiful old cemetery in a churchyard. We'd just had breakfast and were admiring the gravestones from the 1800's when a few drops fell, then more and more and more. Our attempt to hide under the protection of a tree were in vain, I grabbed my muddy baby and walked as quickly as I could, through the sheets of rain back to the flat. By the time we made it to the front door we were drenched down to our knickers/nappy (as they say here). A quick change into mid-day pajamas and we were ready for a cozy afternoon. Gwyn went down for a afternoon nap that was cut short by the thunder and lightning storm that came through, with thunder and hail so aggressive that it set off the car alarms in the small lot below our apartment window.

When the season change is hinted at, or in today's case, is right in front of me, I adore a hot toddy with ginger. I love few things more than curling up on the couch to watch a good movie with a steaming hot toddy in hand... it's actually something I look forward to all summer long when it's too hot out for my favorite cocktail. This summer, however, I got clever and devised a plan to make a cold version of a hot toddy. After a few experiments I came up with a refreshing, sparkling cocktail that has all the same great flavor as my hot toddy. Perfect for sipping at sunset on your porch or enjoying in the garden. As the end of summer closes in and autumn looms ahead, there's still plenty of time for toddys... whichever fits your fancy.

The Toddy Recipes:
Hot Toddy with Ginger
Cold Toddy with Ginger

You can also try my Thai Hot Toddy if you like!

I love French Fries. Honestly, who doesn't? Sometimes I'll make them for lunch. Just French Fries. There's something about their salty, crispy, soaked in olive oil perfection that I can't get enough of. We go through so much olive oil in this house that we've taken to buying the restaurant size boxes of extra virgin olive oil. We pour through it like it's... well, wine. Don't worry, it's good fat. These hot summer days with barbeques out front with our neighbors and many, many servings of fries.

The last couple of weeks have been a wonderful whirlwind of friends, family, wine tasting, popsicles, and many summer things. We've skipped a few of Gwyn's nightly baths, gone to bed with dirty feet, forgone errands, and eaten too many cherries. Kyle is back in the brewery this week for the first time in months, following his shoulder surgery. He's so happy to be back to the work he loves. Long days in the brew-house aren't always easy, but they're almost always rewarding. Kyle is so good at his job and I'm so proud of him... even though I sometimes forget to say it to him.

I'm still reveling in the joy and excitement of my acting work last week. I so rarely get an opportunity to work as an actress that when I do I try to soak up every single second of it and relive it over and over in my head. I love what I'm doing but there are days that I wish I could make a living as an actress. It's so fulfilling.

This weekend we are going to see The Head and The Heart play at the Portland Zoo. It's so great to have a chance to take Gwyn to see them. Our friend Chris the band's bass player and I hope we get to say hi and introduce him to G. Normally we can't take her to shows but since this one is at the zoo, it's totally kid friendly. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to pack up a gourmet picnic basket and a bottle of wine and relax on the grass. Our step-cousin is also getting hitched this weekend so we're going to have a busy but fun next few days.

My french fry recipe is here.

*Note: From now on I'll be posting my foodie thoughts here and my recipes on Gorge in the Gorge. That way they're all compiled in one easy to use archive.