2013 November | Bohemian Cottage

Convivial Bohemian Table

A romantic table lit by candle light. We only have so many heartbeats in this lifetime, and meals to enjoy, so I try to make them special.

One the best parts of cooking for me is the conviviality of coming together with family and friends. Nothing nourishes the bohemian soul more, with the exception of traveling perhaps. I think it is one of the most basic things we can to do in our world to promote peace and goodwill, starting right in our own homes. That is something that I try to point out to my girls, if everyone took the time to slow down and share nourishment and break bread with one another, no matter how humble, it might make a difference in the world one household at a time. (read more)

Vanilla Cinnamon French Toast

Vanilla Cinnamon French Toast with Star Fruit

For breakfast me and mom made french toast together.We both made different types of french toast . I made Vanilla Cinnamon french toast. We wanted to do something together so mom went to the store and got the stuff to make it . Mom just HAD to buy me a star fruit. I begged her for about 5 minutes till she said yes. And now star fruit is my new favorite fruit there is!

Here is how I made it:

Milk 1 cup “psst … we used half and half!”

1 egg

1 dash of Vanilla extract

1 pinch of cinnamon (read more)

Christmas Breakfast. Bacon and Gruyere Stuffed French Toast

Sweet and Savoury are achieved with the combination of bacon, gruyere and maple syrup.

When my youngest daughter, Coda and I set out to find a breakfast recipe to make for Sunday morning, we wanted to make something special to enjoy our one on one time together. As you saw a couple weeks ago in Coda’s post, she went a more traditional route with the French Toast recipe but added her own bohemian flair with her star fruit garnish. My recipe had the experimentation with the flavors and the unexpected addition of cheese. Cheese on French toast you might be asking yourself? Try it you may be pleasantly surprised. Look out Monte Christo! Maybe I should have titled this post as “Monte Cristo has a tough little brother!” (read more)

The Late Autumnal Garden 2013

Beautiful Fall Foliage from our Raspberry Bush

Our Raspberry in full fall color

With the gorgeous mild weather we have been having, I was inspired to work out in the garden for some fall clean up. Much to my surprise my raspberry bush is giving us quite the show with it’s beautiful rust and burgundy foliage. I still have some mums, sage, carrots and beets in the garden.

I was able to memorialize our vivid and robust Swiss Chard from my last harvest. Next year I will include some of the recipes I experimented with.

Swiss Chard Harvested from the Garden

Here are a few more shots of the last of our 2013 garden.

(read more)

Caramel Apple has a Sexy Sister!

Caramel Apple has a sexy sister

With the excessive prodding by my youngest daughter Coda to pleeeease make caramel apples, I finally caved. In my mind it was going to be a sticky mess of gooey caramel to clean off of every surface in my kitchen. And since I don’t have a dishwasher (Gasp!) clean up is a consideration always. Coda has a way of linking cooking to quality time with Mom (where did she develop that notion?) so I did agree to give it a go. As usual I was also wanting to get creative and experimental with the traditional recipe. When shopping for all of the ingredients, I came upon these precious tiny pears, and thought they too might make a lovely companion to melted caramel. So begun the creation of caramel apple’s sexy sister! We also had various toppings that we experimented with such as sprinkles, chopped pecans, and to get a little risque, chopped smoked almonds. My good friend Cat has a recipe to make the caramel, but for a weeknight project, we used wrapped candies for these. I will be making her caramel recipe and sharing another treat in a later post. (read more)