Sprout & Pea

 You know those days where every­thing in your tiny lit­tle world seems to stand still for just long enough to take it all in? Those days where you just feel grate­ful for it all? Sat­ur­day was one of those days for me, and it was a sim­ple day too. I woke up, met my cousin for brunch and we enjoyed some deli­cious poached eggs with herbs and cheese out­side on a rare 60 degree day in Brook­lyn. We caught up, walked around, did a lit­tle shop­ping, and explored neigh­bor­hoods by foot. On our walk, I received a phone call from one of my most favorite peo­ple– just to say hello and that he was think­ing of me as he biked around where the wind took him on this unbe­liev­ably beau­ti­ful day. Read more:

It may be a lit­tle bit early for Thanks­giv­ing, but tonight I decided to get into the spirit of the hol­i­day and make some stuff­ing. I was inspired by a new favorite drink that I’ve been enjoy­ing recently at a local restau­rant — a car­damom honey cap­puc­cino. I thought about mak­ing my own car­damom honey cap­puc­cino this morn­ing, but set­tled on tea instead and after that, the thought of car­damom was in the back of my mind and taste buds all day. When night­time came around, I had the sud­den idea to try mak­ing car­damom and honey stuff­ing. Read more:

I love nights when spon­tane­ity takes over and before you know it you’re sit­ting down enjoy­ing a big home cooked meal and a mil­lion laughs with a few of your clos­est friends. Sun­day was one such night, and I wanted to make some­thing spe­cial for the won­der­ful folks gath­ered around my table, so I decided to get fancy and break out the truf­fle oil. I also had a big but­ter­nut squash lay­ing around that I had for­got­ten to include in a veg­gie roast the other night, so I wanted to fig­ure out a way to incor­po­rate it into the meal. Read more:

Yes­ter­day I read this arti­cle about pota­toes, and specif­i­cally pur­ple pota­toes, low­er­ing blood pres­sure and boost­ing your over­all health. Yes­ter­day, I was also crav­ing pizza. Nat­u­rally, the first thing that came to mind was the recent potato pizza I had made. So, with my mind set on a pur­ple and sweet potato pizza for din­ner, I wan­dered through the farm­ers mar­ket after work and finally at the very last stand, found some beau­ti­ful pur­ple pota­toes. Read more:

This dish is inspired by both my mom’s deli­cious spaghetti squash and a dish i had at a local restau­rant a few years ago. Grow­ing up, one of my favorite side dishes with din­ner was my mom’s sim­ple spaghetti squash with honey and but­ter. It was like candy with my din­ner, only it wasn’t overly sweet and I was get­ting my daily veg­gies in. It wasn’t until I saw a spe­cial for spaghetti squash on the menu at Lodge one night that I thought of the deli­cious stringy veg­etable as a main course. With dou­ble inspi­ra­tion in hand, I decided to make my own twist on this, com­bin­ing my mom’s recipe for spaghetti squash with a few of the top­pings from my din­ner at Lodge– with a few tweaks. Read more:

I had never thought about mak­ing quinoa for break­fast, until I came across Heidi Swanson’s recipe on 101 Cook­books. The thought of it made me feel all warm and cozy inside so I of course decided to make it for…err…dinner. Franky, I couldn’t wait until break­fast to taste this. I made enough to have left­overs for break­fast the next few days though and I’m cer­tainly glad I did!
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