butter

you'll need two jars and a pint of heavy cream

fill the jars a quarter to halfway with the cream 

put lids on jars and secure them tightly

shake, vigorously. you will need to shake the cream for about 20 minutes- it will slowly become thick like a whipped cream consistency (this is when the shaking gets hard) and then...

the butter will become one big clump and separate itself from the buttermilk

use a strainer and a bowl to strain the milk from the butter, we saved the buttermilk to use later on

rinse the butter with a tiny bit of cold water and repeat the process of straining- this helps remove any excess milk from the butter

knead the butter with a wooden spoon to get the very last bit of milk and add sea salt, we used about a half tablespoon which was plenty

enjoy!

lighthouse dinner

Coming from such a large family, sometimes it's hard to get everyone together for dinner these days. Especially during the summer there is so much going on during the week that more than likely not everyone will be home around dinnertime. So the other night my momma and I decided last minute, after a busy day for everyone, that we should pack a picnic dinner with whatever we could possibly put together from our fridge and kayak to the lighthouse and have dinner there. So her and I as well as my dad and one of my four brothers (oh yeah, and Avett) drove to town and parked our car near the creek where we kept the kayaks and paddled the 20 minute trip to the lighthouse where we found a few other people who had the same brilliant idea as us. We've done this before, last summer, and it's something that I love to do and I wish we did it more often. It's somewhat romantic. 

j'aime l'été mange

Is it just me, or is summer so much more inspiring when it comes to making good food? I mean, yes I really enjoy making some good soup and other warms-my-heart type meals during the fall and winter, but there's something about summertime that makes cooking up a good dinner so much more enjoyable.  I'm sure this has to do with the overflow of fresh vegetables and fruits that we get during summertime (even better when you only have to walk outside your house to get them), but I think it also has to do with the fact that summertime brings everyone together- having dinner outside on the deck, enjoying iced drinks while you wait for the cooler part of a summer night to arrive-it's just a good time and often changes the way I feel about cooking.

rainy day muffin makin'

ingredients

-3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon salt

-8 tablespoons butter

-1 cup sugar

-3 large eggs

-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-1 cup greek yogurt

-1 1/2 cups chopped peaches

-1 1/2 cups blueberries

preheat oven to 400 degrees 

1. mix 3 1/4 cups of flour (save 1/4 cup to coat fruit with), baking soda, baking powder & salt in a bowl

2. cream butter & sugar until mixture is fluffy-like

3. add eggs, one at a time 

 4. mixture should look like this after eggs are added
5. add vanilla & greek yogurt (sour cream works just as well)
6. instead of slowly (and messily) adding the dry ingredients, I poured the butter-sugar mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mixed with a spatula

grease muffin pans, bake for 18-24 minutes or until knife comes out clean

can't get you outta my head

Old Crow Medicine Show
"Wagon Wheel"

P.s. if you have a love for music, especially folkish country music, and you haven't watched this documentary then put it on your to-watch list (ahead of everything else).

12 good things

Just wanted to share some captured photos of all things good these past few weeks. I really need to start reminding myself to take more photos of delicious foods and fun things that I've been getting to eat and experience lately. Sometimes I just get too caught up in the goodness of it all and forget. Example: I went to the farmers market with my momma the other day and was so excited to snap a few shots of that ridiculously awesome gelato ice cream (I'm not sure how it can be both gelato and ice cream, but they insist) I mentioned a few posts back, but I devoured it before I even remembered, whoops.

growing good

Hopefully this is a no judgement zone...because I'm about to share some pictures of my oh so sad garden. This year, for some reason, a lot of the seeds I planted didn't come up. Now, our soil is not the best of soils, but I added a lot of compost and even some aged horse manure, but it didn't seem to help. Compared to last year, I only have a few beets and a few carrots growing. To make matters worse I came outside today to find that something has been eating the leaves of my beets! Not too happy about that. The plants that I started from seed inside before the last frost have done well since I planted them in the ground once the weather was warmer. So I guess that makes up for the lack of other plants. But I do just love me some beets and carrots. No worries though, our other garden (tended by my lovely mother) is flourishing and really puts my garden to shame. There are beets, red and golden, carrots, kale, lettuce, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans, sunflowers, squash, blueberries, concord grapes and some herbs, I believe rosemary and oregano. As for my sad garden, we have strawberries, watermelon, cucumbers, basil, lavender, chamomile (that's trying so hard to grow) and some seriously invasive mint and lemon balm (but we love it). So here are a few shots of our ever-changing gardens, as well as some flowers here and there.

1. beets & carrots, old plant pots with the bottom cut out for deep rooted potatoes

2. the few (sad) beets & carrots, hopefully more will come up with the next planting

3. strawberry plants (note: these were not doing well at all in the beginning of the season, but after adding some manure and compost, they really came back- so much that they started shooting vines out to each other and creating new plants!)

4. watermelon & cucumbers that I started inside my house from seeds (using a heat lamp)

5. see how invasive that mint & lemon balm is???

6. lemon & lime basil, lavender

7. echinacea plants

1. seriously check out this lady's garden...

2. kale

3. fingerling eggplants

4. red beets & some lettuce peeking through

5. golden beets

6. carrots

7. tomatoes- staked up with wooden posts and supported by wire as well as tomato clips (this is essential for tomato plants, otherwise they become too heavy and weighed down once the plant produces it's fruit)

8. baby tomatoes

1. lots of yummy food to come

2. baby yellow squash

3. green bean plants- no beans yet

4. a few blueberries on our first-year blueberry bushes, in a couple of years we will have an abundant amount of blueberries to pick

5. concord grape plant shooting out vines, but probably no grapes this year

1. large leaf italian basil- this poor guy got booted from the garden to make room for lavender plants, but has done quite well in this pot

2. bee balm- plant this to attract butterflies and hummingbirds

3. unsure of this flower, possibly mexican sunflowers?

4. million bells petunia flowers

5. baby grapefruit tree

While we're on the subject of gardens, sometimes it's hard for some people to imagine having a garden because say...they live in a city or have little to no planting space. That shouldn't stop you. Here are some pretty awesome ideas to get your gardening on without needing too much space (or even a yard)!

windowsill & stoop gardens

growing ideas for small spaces

balcony gardens

rooftop gardens

sometimes you gotta use what you got

1. wood pallet garden, seriously? 

2. radio flyer or...garden bed?

3. shoe organizer or...garden pots?

4. old coffee cans transformed into hanging herb pots- saves ground space

5. wine boxes used as small garden beds- easy to move around

now get creative :)

can't get you outta my head

I've been discovering a lot of new, really good music lately and I decided it's quite necessary to have a music post every week or so. After all, good music is almost as equal as good food, right? Since I can't seem to figure out how to just post a song at the moment, I'll post the video of the song that I currently can't get out of my head.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
"Home"

sammiches

If I could go out to lunch every day, I would. There's just something about making lunch that I absolutely despise. When I was doing my internship, I would bring my lunch almost every day and every night I would stand in front of the fridge staring at my options. For the most part, I packed snacks and would just eat a little at a time throughout the day instead of eating one big lunch. Yogurt, nuts, tortilla chips or fruit are all good choices for snacking. But now that I'm home around lunch time, I always find it a struggle to find something satisfying for lunch without getting too complicated. Enter: delicious, easy sandwich made from leftovers.

leftover grilled chicken (heated up in a frying pan), bacon, american cheese, mayo and lettuce (hand picked from our garden, woo) all on multigrain flatbread

so good

While we're on the subject of all things good...how good is this?