Orange You Glad.

I attended a fun event last week at my local Whole Foods.  I, along with two other local bloggers, Nikki Gardner of Art & Lemons and Mary Nelen of The Valley Locavore received a special tour of the store, with stops in each department to chat with the knowledgeable, friendly staff and sample some special "budget-savvy", holiday-party perfect snacks and beverages.  We even received a tutorial in the floral department on creating inexpensive centerpieces for a festive table and had some fun rolling our own truffles.

Potato Leek Soup

My new kitchen is lovely. My camera is broken and my iphone photos aren't doing any justice to the space, so I've borrowed some images from So Happy Home. I can tell you that a visually clean, organized, monochromatic work space is exactly what I needed after the "uniqueness" of the old kitchen. We're slowly moving everything back in, but we're being judicious with what returns and what gets packed away for a spring yard sale. We're cooking as much as we can; I've already managed to start a fire in my oven (everything and everyone is fine) AND give myself a burn on my arm that will probably produce a scar I'll have for the rest of my life. I know you're reading this and thinking I'm being careless but I like to think it means I'm bad-ass in the kitchen. Or something like that.

How I Get My Kid to Ingest Zucchini and Other Tricks

Wow. Things are getting pretty stressful here at Chez Kutcher. We've had a few days of our plumber no-showing to a job that was supposed to be done last Wednesday, unforeseen expenses that are really pushing our limits (and buttons), and an all-around "GET ME OUTTA HERE" cabin fever feeling, even though we spent a lovely weekend at my family's home in PA.

Let's talk about something exciting and stress-free, like feeding toddlers. That's not stressful at all. Ha.

Kitchen's Last Stand

The time has finally come to update our kitchen.

We've been without our broke-down, mashed-up, eclectic kitchen for officially two days, but we've not been able to use it for almost a week; The water, gas, and electricity have been off since last Thursday. The whole project is slated to take approximately six weeks. Gulp. If you'd have asked me last week how I thought I'd be faring right now, I'd say I was sure to lose my mind. On Sunday evening, I thought about how stupid we were for doing this in the heat of the summer and with a 15 month old running around...and how we really should have done this BEFORE we had our first child. Oops. I imagine it was sort of like that moment that many people have just prior to walking down the altar to be married; A cold-feet sort of moment where you have to make the fight or flight choice.

Turning Over A New (Lettuce) Leaf?

This afternoon, I sat in front of the open fridge after picking up our CSA share crying and mumbling something about being a terrible mother. I'm pretty sure it stemmed from not being able to fit all the veggies in the fridge; Clearly these two things are connected. Lately, I've been struggling to keep up with life's demands. In addition to raising my now 14-month old, I'm running a new business. Add the usual housekeeping and garden-tending and the kitchen remodeling that we're gearing up to have done next month, and I'm just about ready to wave the white flag.

Summer Kale Salad

Let me preface this post by saying you might find the following salad recipe unusual. I had been trying to think up a quick kale recipe that I could make when the weather was hot. I wanted something more interesting than kale with lemon and olive oil, or kale and beans, or kale and sausage (although, I do recommend my Kale and Spicy Italian Sausage recipe for when the weather is cool or rainy) and I wanted my kale cold.

Yes. I wanted to eat my kale chilled and crispy. I decided to start with blanched kale. Because I think kale tastes somewhat sweet when blanched, I tried to think up something that would be crunchy and tart to add to the dish. I also wanted to add a creamy, salty flavor that smoothed out the sweet and tart, but still added a little oomph. Ready for the big reveal?

Here goes: Kale, Pickled Red Onions, and Feta.