purely lovely

My mama (and dad, in the first photo), in the late 70's and early 80's. In North Carolina. I especially love that last shot-- she looks like pure love to me!

It struck me that all those clothes are so stylish now.

mmmmangoes

We got our annual order of mangoes from pine island!!! 30 pounds came to us 3 days ago and they're already half gone. We had planned to freeze them for smoothies, but they are just so delicious that I've been eating mango and avocado salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If we DID have enough to spare, I'd like to make these and these. I have popsicles on the brain.

the building.

Well, I finally finished my dad's quilt. I LOVE how it turned out, and even though it took me 2 years, I still want to make another one. I am trying to decide on a pattern from the Denyse Schmidt book I have.

Anyway, the point of the story is that I am finally allowed to start NEW PROJECTS and the first thing I did was help Ruben build us a bar out of a piece of bowling alley. Okay, that's a lie. I just watched. Okay, even that is a lie. He did it while I was at work. But whatever, it's great!

A few years ago the bowling alley in our town burned down. We went by when they were putting the alleys in giant dumpsters and hauled a few pieces home. We still have several huge chunks left that Ruben wants to use as flooring somewhere, but this is the first time we've used them in a project. He sanded them a lot to get off the smokey varnish and that really lightened them up. I think the bar turned out just stellar (definitely an improvement over the former formica!), and it inspired us to do a new paint job on the dining room walls. Oh, AND I think I've just about convinced him that we really need this table.

the clearing.

We've been doing some cleaning.

Cleaning out the cabinets, dusting off the shelves, trying to part with more and more of our beloved stuff.

I come from a long line of hoarders. For me, clearing out is hard and serious work. I have to keep reminding myself of those pretty magazine pictures that show the spaces I'd really love to inhabit (like pretty much everything on this website!)

yummmm.

I finally got around to making these cookies. The dough gave me fits when I rolled it out and there may have been some cursing involved-- but it's Florida in the hottest summer I can remember, what did I expect? The end result is decidedly worth it. These are very very good. It was my first time using quinoa flour, and I love the nutty-wholesomeness it lends to the flavor of the cookies. I'll be making these again.

mysterious waters

A local favorite. Wakulla Springs State Park

Treasures from an antique store in Hayesville NC. I just got back from a bliss-full week in the mountains. It was so cool at night and I slept like a rock. I swam, I ate delicious food, drank some nice cold beer and went on a very fun train ride with my nephew. Now I am shuttling off again to the coast for a science experiment. Can't wait to feel that salty breeze.

first ever special order from my Etsy shop! woot.

back yard scenes and a recipe

Those are our chickens up there-- Honey and Petunia. We've been thinking about getting a couple more, but I'm not sure about disrupting the order these girls have in the yard right now. They seem pretty happy to be the only girls out there. We got these as adult birds and so they are most definitely not pets. As in, they don't want us to touch them. They do come running when we go in the back yard, though, because we like to bring them treats. One day I wouldn't mind raising some from chicks so that I could hold them....There's something really nice about petting those feathers.

The last photo is Ruben's smoker. He's been smoking cookie ingredients lately, with good results. At first he was smoking the butter, which involved freezing it first and keeping it on a bed of ice in the smoker, so as not to melt it. That worked pretty well, but the resulting cookies had only a very faint smokiness. Our chef friend suggested smoking the flour instead, and that has been great. MUCH more smoky and delicious! Ruben usually uses some cherry charcoal that his friend makes, but you could try it with other wood types and I bet it would be fun to do a taste test and compare them.

To smoke the flour you just immerse a bowl of flour in a smoky environment for a while -- you could make a homemade smoker like ours (just an overturned metal tub on the grill, over smoldering coals) or use a real smoker. You may want to stir the flour a few times, to increase the smokiness.

Here's the recipe we've been using and loving. Our families request these cookies pretty often.

Smoky and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe slightly adapted from this recipe from Not Without Salt.

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup turbinado sugar

1 3/4 cups light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs, room temp

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups smoked all purpose flour

1 lb high quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2" chunks

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

fluer de sel, for sprinkling

Cream butter and sugars until light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Continue mixing while adding the eggs, one at time, being sure to mix well between each egg. Add vanilla. Scrape down the bowl again. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. With mixer on low, slowly add the flour, mixing just until combined-- take care not to over-mix. Fold in the chocolate with the rubber spatula.

Place spoonfuls of dough on parchment-lined cookie sheets, sprinkle each with fluer de sel, and bake at 360 degrees for about 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden but still look a bit wet. Cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes, and then move to cooling racks. Enjoy!

escape to the sand

We took off for the beach on Monday afternoon and spent a night and day with some family who rented a house for the week. It was pure heaven. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies (can't remember where I got the recipe, but they involve a whole pound of dark chocolate and a lot of fleur de sel) and we cooked fish and roasted asparagus and drank beers and laid in the surf. Ahhhh. My nephews loved Ruben and they all made a giant crab out of sand and shells. There really is nothing quite like a mid-week vacation, when you just know everyone else is at work and you are thankfully, happily, joyfully NOT. Also, I got to sleep out on the screened in porch and fell asleep listening to the waves and watching the moon shine on the water. It wasn't even hot, because there was an awesome breeze. I wanted to stay all week.

There was definitely a bittersweet-ness to our time there, though.....considering the giant mass of oil and tar that is rapidly heading our way. It's kind of mind-blowing. I saw so many dolphins and periwinkles and fish and crabs, and Ruben saw a sea turtle, and it was really sad to think that they will all probably be dead soon. Huh. Yeah. Mind-blowing. Definitely still in the denial stage of this grief.