garden bisque

This is an adaptation of the Statler Garden Bisque, which was my favorite soup served on campus until I discovered Temple of Zeus.  I adjust the veggies slightly and add my favorite secret ingredient from Delallo.  Very healthy and amazingly delicious! Goes well with spanakopita.

tamales

Tamales are a fun portable snack.  I often freeze a bunch and then take a few for lunch.  They also make for a good team activity - I think I had June making tamales with me once, even though she claims not to like Mexican food.  Start by soaking corn husks in warm water.  Then mix the filling.  I like cheese with corn, green chilies, and pinto beans or maybe roasted pine nuts.  I usually add chopped garlic as well, but Kyle thinks garlic isn't very authentic. Of course, you may wish to add meat as well.  The masa herina gets mixed with veggie broth and maybe some garlic powder and then comes the fun part - assembly.  Basically, you want the husks to hold the dough with the filling inside.  You can figure it out.  Steam for 40 minutes and enjoy! (A bamboo steamer comes in pretty handy here.)

spanakopita

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet.  You must make spanakopita.  They are delicious!  It takes only a few simple ingredients, about 20 minutes to assemble, and 25 minutes to bake. 
Here's how it's done: Pre-heat oven to 375.
You will need: a box of phyllo dough, a bag of frozen spinach thawed (or about 8-10 oz fresh, cooked), 8 oz. feta, a stick of butter, S&P, EVOO
I recently learned that some of the feta sold in the US is made from cow's milk, not goat, as it should be.  Goat's milk and cheese are easier for most humans to digest and taste much better imho. So, get some good goat feta and some whole wheat phyllo if you can find it.
Melt the butter. Cut the phyllo into strips 2.5 or 3 inches wide. Mix spinach, feta, S&P, and just a bit of EVOO in a bowl.  For each triangle, stack about 4-5 strips of phyllo, brush with butter, spoon some spinach feta mixture on one end, and roll like a paper football. Brush the entire triangle with butter and lay on a cookie sheet. The phyllo directions say to butter each sheet, but I think it tastes just as good if you spare yourself the heart attack for now and only brush one sheet before rolling.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden. Enjoy! 
One batch makes about 18 and they will disappear pretty quickly.  They can be rolled up and frozen to be cooked later.  This is one of my favorite pot luck dishes.

end of the season clearance

We went to the Farmer's Market last weekend for one last burrito of the season and the Rutabaga Curling World Championship. We left with a reminder that Ithaca is worlds away from almost anywhere else and a huge bag of root veggies.  Looking forward to dinner tonight!

spicy spinach spirals

Kyle can not get enough of these spicy spinach spirals!  They are simple, spicy, and relatively healthy. Our friends seem to enjoy them as well and we'll be serving up this perfect picnic/party food on the boat this summer!  I'd share the recipe, but I just submitted it to a recipe contest, so let's wait and see what the judges think.

veggie pot pie

I've been wanting to make pot pie for a long time and Emma inspired me to get a move on it.  I made this one evening after work and didn't have time to make bread dough, so I made pie crust, but I do plan to try it with bread dough sometime.

I love recipes that use a ton of random veggies (the asparagus was my favorite in this one) like fritatta, soup, and simple veggie bakes.

It was absolutely delicious!  Unless you have a craving for dead animal; as Kyle said, "it's as delicious as a pot pie without meat can be."  We gave the second one to Dirk and Bronwyn, so hopefully they agree.

Oh, and here's Kyle enjoying his meatless pot pie.

cherry coffee cake

yum!  doesn't this make you wish you had cherry coffee cake this morning?

Actually, I was tired from quilting all night and accidentally put all of the crumble under the cherries.  Still delicious though!

texas sheet cake

Mom got me craving texas sheet cake so I made it last night and brought it in for a colleague's birthday and she is out sick!  It's in the fridge outstairs and hopefully it stays there until tomorrow and she returns to work.  People were wandering in as I tried to get it into the fridge and now we have about half a dozen women craving chocolate cake. It's going to be a long day!

Chicken Pot Pie

I made some chicken pot pie a few weeks ago. I kinda winged it with whatever veggies we had and stuff from the pantry. It was so delicious. I was going to make homemade bread but it was getting late so I used some frozen dough that we have had for a bit. It is delicious bread though!!! It was mainly carrots, corn, green beans, chicken, celery and then some cream of chicken and mushroom. I made these in loaf pans and made 3. We still have one in the freezer that is split up for Tim to take for lunches. Pot Pies are great for dinner! You can make so many different types of meals in a pot pie. Just add all your favorite ingredients!

Tonight I made corn fritters.....

Tim will be so excited when he gets home tonight. As long as I don't eat them all before he gets here! I haven't made these in like a year because Tim would ask for them like every week and we didn't wanna get sick of them so they faded away. These are delicious and I just eat them plain most of the time but Tim likes them with a sweet chili sauce. He found his favorite one at Trader Joe's. I make them different than mom used to make them. The ingredients are...corn, water, eggs, flour, soy sauce, chili powder, onion, garlic and coriander. Sometimes I use different spices in place of the garlic, coriander and chili powder but the end result is basically the same. DELICIOUS! I had corn fritters with a tiny bit of leftover mashed potatoes and then some hot sausage pierogies from Pierogies Plus! It was an awesome dinner for me tonight!!!

Bagels Bagels Bagels

I have made bagels a few times since we moved in and they are deeeeelicious! I even made some extras and put them in the freezer. The first day I made these I had one at each meal. They were so good right out the oven with melted butter or toasted with butter. I highly recommend everyone making their own bagels!!! First I boiled them and then I baked them. It doesn't take long at all either! The longest part is letting the dough rise.

Mcdonald's

When your in Florida with Tim's family you don't have much of a choice but to have fast food for at least one meal a day and the other meals are at a restaurant or something else not cooked in your own kitchen. This is something that did impress me though. There is a huuuuuuge McDonald's down there and we went. They have a huge menu with so many selections and they even had ice cream, real ice cream! You could get omelettes or sandwiches or pasta or the regular nasty items. I got this turkey club and I must say it was pretty delicious. This was over thsi past summer when we went to visit and we were in downtown Disney late and of course his stepmom had to go to McDonald's. But at least I got to see this nicer McDonald's!

Tortillas then.... Tortilla Chips

So I made homemade tortillas. So easy and soooo delicious. We didn't even have tacos but we ate them with other stuff. I can't remember all the different things we put in them but I know one night we had a leftover night and mixed it all together in a taco and it was sooo good! After I made the tacos I then used them to make tortilla chips. The thing I still need to figure out is how to get the chips and tortillas to stay thinner. I rolled them out with my marble rolling pin as thin as paper and then when they cooked, they poofed up! The tortillas don't matter so much but I wish the chips were thinner. I just added some salt to the chips and they were delicious though! Tim and I could eat chips and salsa everyday. Since the chips weren't thin they didn't get completely hard either because the outside would cook fast and the inside still soft.

Choc Chip Cookies Friday Night!

This will be one of many posts I am about to put up. I guess I could do it all in one but I always take pictures and don't want to mix them all up! Andrew and Dre slept over friday night and I have been craving cookie dough. So I made them cookies!!! I used the recipe Debbie gave me from a little cookbook she got with the kitchenaid mixer because I love how the dough tastes. I didn't use a kitchenaid mixer though and I used chips from Aldi's instead of Nestle's. They were still delicious. Bobby took some home and ate them pretty quick and I cooked up the last of the dough tonight after eating it all weekend. I didn't eat alot of it....I'm not sick. Here's my cookies.... More food to follow since I haven't had my computer up for a few weeks.

pure cacao

I just enjoyed some 99% cacao that I purchased at the chocolate store in the strip.  Yum!  I tried it with dates, but it's actually quite enjoyable solo.  In case you are wondering, the 1% that is not cocoa includes cane sugar, spices, cocoa butter, and Bourbon vanilla bean. Try some for yourself. 

croissants

I made croissants on Saturday.  June said she loves apricot croissants from Ithaca bakery so I decided to make some.  In IB style, I also filled a few with Nutella and left some plain.  They were pretty easy to make, but took a lot longer than I expected.  After rising, the dough must be refrigerated twice.  I also realized that I should get a marble rolling pin and maybe even a marble slap for rolling out dough.  My wooden pin seems cool, but isn't very effective.

I felt a bit sick working two sticks of butter into the the dough until I did the math and figured out that since it makes 2 dozen croissants, that's less than a Tbsp. per serving.  Not great, but not as bad as I thought.  I still can't eat that many without getting sick so I sent most of them to the cabin with Kyle and his dad.

I forgot to take photos, but I have to point out that they look more like pillsburry cressents than flakey french croissants you would find in a bakery.  I'm not sure why that is - maybe the marble rolling pin will help - but June thinks they are as good as the one's at IB, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

3 best meals this week

Not much happening on this blog lately.  I haven't done much cooking - though I did bake 3 apple pies last night.  We had leftover apples from an event so of course I made pie for the office.  As I told my friend and colleague Myra, "You bring me apples, I make pie. You bring me zucchini, I make bread." 

Unless you count pie as a meal, which I happen to do, the three best meals I've had in the past week have not been cooked.  First, I went backpacking with Melissa and my newly reunited friend Allison from high school.  When we reached our lean-to on Saturday, we pulled out a bottle of wine and served it up with cut veggies, crackers, goat cheese, and smoked salmon.  Needless to say, I slept very well under the moon that evening.

My second best meal of the week was the quick dinner I grabbed at CTB before floor hockey.  The 5K.  Whole wheat wrap with peanut butter, granola, banana, jelly, and jalepeno.  Yum!  Next time, I would opt for honey over jelly though and I might try to sneak in some apple slices.

The third best meal was also a sandwhich and I'm quite nervous about how this is actually going to play out for me.  Yesterday, I arrived at Zeus too late for soup so I had to order a sandwhich. I had no idea how much I was going to love the BL Tease!  Chopped seitan, chopped gouda, mixed with mayo and served on rye with, of course, L&T.  OMG!!!  I thought about it for 24 hours and ordered another one today.  This is going to be dangerous.  The whole point of eating at Zeus is that I get a healthy veggie soup for $3.07.  A sandwhich loaded with cheese and mayo isn't quite the same (nutritionally or fiscally), but wow is it delicious!

Tim's Delicious Soup

Last night Tim made us some grilled cheese with Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup. It was delicious! We still have alot left so we will both have this for lunch all week probably. Which works out great really! He was inspired by a small restaurant we went to in Ohiopyle a couple times this summer. Theirs had cheese and tortilla strips on top which we left but it was still so good.

brands are for blue jeans

The other day, someone made the argument that I should shop at Aldi's because a lot of their products are name brands with a generic label.  I'm trying to think of how this helps me.  I'm trying to buy as much non-labeled food as possible - fresh food from the local farmer; ingredients from the bulk section to make my own muffins, cookies, and breads; bulk lentils and grains.  It's not to say that I don't have a decent selection of labeled foods in my kitchen, but I can say that they are probably not the most popular brands.  I simply want to ensure that I can identify (and want to put into my body) each of the ingredients on the label.  I recognize that this philosophy has become a luxury in our country and I continue to be baffled by how difficult it is to get back to basics.  We are now in a situation where branded food as a staple is a sign of a wealthy country.  Why is it that people in a poor country eat more fresh food than poor (and wealthy and everyone in between) people in a wealthy country and how can we get fresh food to people in this so called "wealthy" country?

Sorry for the rant, but at least it's about food.

move over moosewood

There's a new (almost) vegetarian restaurant in town and it seems that most of their ingredients are local.  Check out my beet (local) and goat cheese (local) pizza.  They offer the full selection of Ithaca beer along with several other options I hope to try another day.   As a colleague pointed out, it's also one of the few places in town where you can get a dinner entree for $12-16. 

Unfortunately we got ahead of ourselves and ordered two appetizers so we didn't have room for dessert.  Fresh cut french fries with three dipping sauces and a very garlicly artichoke dip got us started.  For those of you who enjoy eating meat or enjoy dining with carnivores, you will be pleased to know that a decent selection of local burgers, pork chops, and chicken items are available.  Kyle got his hands dirty with whole bbq chicken wings - just spicy enough to make his hands and eyeballs tingle (oops-remember, hands away from face), but not enough to give him hiccups.

It's been a while since I posted something. What can I say, I've been cooking a lot! So, my excuse is too much cooking and not enough writing.

I can start off with the dish that Emma mentioned, the fried catfish, which was one that I would definitely do again. Although, I would keep it more simple. I usually do the catfish with just corn meal, that's it. This time I tried to get fancy and coat with other spices and then drip some bacon grease after. Needless to say, I would just do the corn meal next time. Oh, and can't forget the hush puppies, I think I'll include that the next time as well.

Then there was the next evening where we had another couple over and coconut curry chicken was served over rice lentil basmati rice with roasted and candied cashews on top . Not bad, but once again, I would ditch the lentils and keep it simple.

Monday, there was the butternut squash soup recipe from the back of the Silk box - delicious. That is one soup that tastes wonderful pureed. And I can't forget to mention the roasted golden, blue, and fingerling potatoes harvested that day from our garden. Yep, we died and went to heaven. Idaho would never believe the quality of the potatoes grown in Pittsburgh.

And last night we had beef chili made from homemade vegetable stock, which was made from stalks of collard green and brussel sprout plant. I unknowingly put in a pepper from our garden that was a little too spicy for Debbie so I had to make another batch and cut it. So, we'll be having the chili again, sometime in winter when we pull it from our freezer.

Pretty Colors

Tonight I made a deliciuos dinner! I was a little worried at first because I thought it would be bland but, i kept forgetting about the other ingredients that I would later add. It was also very healthy! There were a variety of peppers as you can see. Along with onions and garlic. I used rotini noodles which were cooked in chicken broth and this made them so much more delicious! I love pasta in any meal! The rest of the flavoring came from chili powder. And of course there had to be meat involved! I put ground turkey in this as well. It was all so juicy, flavorful and delicious. There was a tiny bit of sugar and vinegar as well but I don't know that they played as big of a part. We had some awesome breadworks buttered bread with the meal as well! I had some grated romano cheese out with the meal which we sprinkled on. We didn't put alot on though because it wasn't really needed. It was delicious without the romano.

Mmmmmm.....Fried potatoes from the other day! Not too much to say about them other than they were delicious!We had them last week for dinner one night I think. They just had salt, pepper and some garlic garlic seasoning from Tastefully Simple on them.

Today Tim & I had some running around to do. He had his first experience at Construction Junction and loved it! We got some ideas for an outside grill that he would like to build. Then, Tim had another first....we went across the street to the CO-OP. He loved it there as well of course. His biggest excitement was that they had the salsa he loves and Boysenberry Spritzers. They stopped selling that flavor at Whole Foods a while ago so he was happy to find another store around here with Boysenberry.We then went to Bloomfield for some Thai. We went to Thai Cuisine, Tim had never been there before and I knew how delicious it is! He got the Winter Curry and I got Pad Thai....both awesome! The spring rolls for an appetizer were delicious too!

Dinner with Bobby & Debbie

Tim & I went over for dinner last night and turns out Bobby is a wonderful house wife! He made hush puppies and catfish. To accompany those we had collard greens and brussel sprouts from the garden. Then, for dessert Debbie made an awesome apple pie! Surprisingly I liked the greens. The photos are Bobby making some catfish and the apple pie.

thin mints

Did I tell you that I found a recipe for thin mints?  I plan to try this very soon. Can't wait!  I'll let you know how it goes!

paw paw

I tried a new fruit yesterday!  Bronwyn has been talking about the paw paw for a week or so. Apparently it's all the rage in her lab.  Paw paws are native to North America but they don't seem to travel well, which may explain why they are not well known and readily available in markets.  If you are able to find some, I highly recommend trying it. It has more protein than most fruits and it's a nice change from the usual mix. The pulp can be scooped out with a spoon and has a custard-like texture.  I found the taste to be sweet and tangy, like a kiwi-flavored creamy pudding, but healthier.

sunday in the kitchen

Stewed fruit - inspired by the innkeeper/chef at the William Henry Miller Inn.  Saturday night I filled the crock pot with peaches, plums, pears, cinnamon, nutmeg, a good dose of ginger brandy and a splash of oj.  Set on low overnight and viola - stewed fruit!  Yum!  Also good with cherries, apples, or dried cranberries.

For lunch, a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe.   Saute leeks and peppers in a EVOO or butter, add cooked pasta, smoked salmon, and a container of marscapone cheese.  More Yum!  Serve with salad and a crusty bread and you have a meal sure to impress.  I learned about this one from Bronwyn and it was actually as easy as it sounds.

We were too stuffed for a full dinner and the bread wasn't going to be good the next day, so I made some bread pudding.  Melt butter in a ceramic dish. Layer bread. Perhaps drizzle with some liqueur (I happened to have a near empty bottle of Chambord). Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Cover with a mixture of egg, sugar, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and coconut.  Yum!  Inspired by Madeline's Restaurant. 

I find I'm much more inclined to copy a food dish I've already tasted and know I love compared to something I simply read about or imagine.  What does that say about me?

everybody loves dinosaur

How delicious does this look?  You need to experience Dinosaur Bar B Que.  We should allow time for a trip to Syracuse for some mouth watering bbq - pulled pork, cajun catfish, or drunken shrimp - the next time you visit.  This is the place with the great cornbread that I now copy.  Not only is everything seasoned just right at this biker bar, but they use local produce and even make the pumpkin pie and cheesecake from fresh pumpkin.  Too bad we were full after finishing these huge platters of goodness.
http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/index.php

cheddar parsnip

I'm still thinking about the cheddar parsnip soup I almost didn't get yesterday.  Every Monday morning I check the Temple of Zeus soup menu on-line and all week I was looking forward to cheddar parsnip.  Yesterday morning, after inviting friends to join me for lunch, I passed by Zeus and immediately noticed that the chalkboard did not list cheddar parsnip as the soup of the day.  Naturally, like the food freak I am, I inquired.  I was able to maintain my composure, but the whole time I was thinking that I may not make it another day and may have to make a Wegman's run so I could make my own soup at 9:00 at night after seeing Toni Morrison (who, by the way was delightful). The cashier didn't understand the importance of the question being asked, but the chef didn't take it so lightly and assured me cheddar parsnip would be served that afternoon.

It was exactly as I remembered (keep in mind that it had not been on the menu all summer, so it was a serious case of withdrawal). Try some at home: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/zeus/.

peaches - yum!

Yesterday morning, someone told me about Katie's peach upside-down cake  and naturally I thought about it all day and had to bake some for myself when finally I got home at 8:00.  It was absolutely worth the wait.  The fresh peaches were yummy and the butter, flour, and sugar made them that much better. I'm not sure why the photos are that blurry. Every photo I've taken in the past few days has been blurry (see photo of new railing on facebook) so I'm guessing my arms are just tired (wimpy).

Recipe: http://e-quilterscorner.danemcoweb.com/recipes/

Speaking of fresh local fruit, I just signed-up for a winter fruit CSA. Every Thursday for twelve weeks, we'll get an assortment of local apples, frozen fruit, jams, cider, and honey DELIVERED TO OUR HOUSE!  This is the second coolest thing that has happened in my life this week (#1 being the new railing).

"Coconut milk cures all!"

In an attempt to make a Jamaican jerk seasoning for a tofu stir-fry, I realized that, once again, I had no idea what I was doing. There are three main ingredients for the seasoning - allspice, thyme, and some fancy hot pepper name. I used cinnamon, thyme, and a fresh serrano and jalapeno pepper from the garden. And so the adventure began, improvising every step of the way. I should mention that I looked up other ingredients people have tried adding. Anyway, I started out with diluting molasses with water, adding the main pseudo-ingredients, and then tasted. Not bad, but how about adding some lemon juice, salt, tomato paste, which made it even better. Something was still missing, we needed something fatty to make it into a creamy sauce for a stir-fry and the coconut milk on the shelf spoke to me, in Jamaican! Pouring the Jerk sauce over the cubed tofu and baked for a half hour I thought, this meal seemed easy enough, right? Sure enough, the dish was delicious. We served it over basmati fried rice with onions, greens, and tomatoes, and ate it all. I highly recommend coconut milk for any recipe that needs a little extra something, it's just like dairy cream, only better.

the city of buttery love

Baltimore - The City of Buttery Love
The entire inner harbor smells like lobster and crab drowning in butter.  Or maybe it was just the smell of butter oozing from my pores. Either way, it was worth it.  These photos don't really do justice to the lobster and crab boil for two we devoured on Friday night.  The pot was filled with crab, clams, mussels, potatoes, corn, and did I mention...lobster?  Guess how much of it we were not able to finish?  Only one potato (of 4) because of course I needed to leave room for bread pudding.
Speaking of lobster, I felt like I had struck gold when I realized I was in town for the Baltimore Book Festival!  In addition to talking with local authors and scoring 7 used books for $5.50, the timing was just right for me to watch two chefs from McCormick and Schmick's produce lobster thermidor in the cooking tent.  The samples were amazingly creamy and confirmed that I should not attempt this at home until I'm ready for bigger pants.
I did make it to the Saturday Farmer's Market on the Harbor and it was possibly the smallest farmer's market I've been to, but certainly sufficient.  I believe there were five stands: baked goods, fruits, veggies, jerky, and meals to go.  I bought bison jerky for Kyle and bison dog snacks for Elle.
My recommendations for your next visit to baltimore: McCormick and Scmick's, Phillips Seafood (for the bucket 'o seafood), Sofi's Crepes, and the Walter's Art Museum (free).

Went to Kennywood on Saturday! It was a rainy day with no lines to wait in. Well, I may have exaggerated just a little. Sometimes we would have to wait for the cars to pull back up. I had a blast and Tim got home just in time to ride all the rides before we left at 8. In the meantime I was lucky enough to enjoy some potato patch fries! You can't go to Kennywood without having the famous potato patch fries!

julia & julia

Although I’m inspired by Julia Child’s zest for life and spunky determination for cooking, I’m left pondering whether I’m at all interested in mastering the art of French cooking. There is the obvious meat issue, but I also prefer a more simplistic style of cooking than Child seems to be known for, one that focuses on local seasonal food and doesn’t involve so much precision. Of course, there is probably still a lot to be learned from her and I should probably spend some time with MtAoFC to determine which recipes and techniques to incorporate into my repertoire. I’ll gain a bit of exposure when we attempt a few recipes next Monday at book club.
I must say that I also respect both Julia Child and Julie Powell for taking a cooking challenge so seriously. It’s always nice to see others who appreciate food and cooking so much. Personally, I would love to work my way through 524 dessert recipes in a year, but with my lack of self-control, I’m likely to have a heart attack before the year’s end and on top of that, a new wardrobe to cover the accompanying enlarged bottom is simply not in the budget right now.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend both the movie and the book.
Next up: My Life in France by J. Child.

Pierogies

I have been craving piergoies and it is more of a saturday or sunday food I would make because it is time consuming. I haven't had any free weekends lately but when I find the time, I can't wait to make some! Can anyone think of some interesting but good fillings? I have only tried sausage, corn, steak and mashed potato w/cheese.

danger

I just found a recipe for homemade thin mints!  Yikes!
http://bakingbites.com/2005/10/thin-minties/

Except for bikes and shoes, most things I have to borrow, and a camera happens to be one of those things. So, no pictures for now.

The morning began with oatmeal, consisting of apples and walnuts. Throw in some cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, and a half-pinch of salt, you have oatmeal that didn't come from the Quaker. Instead, we got to taste the tart baking apple that we picked up from the Farmer's Market in East Park of Pittsburgh (which will, ironically, be the camping grounds for protesters of the G-20). For me, the morning was continued with a home-roasted, hand-ground, Kauai-grown, moka pot brewed espresso, that gave me hints of mint at one point. Mint?! And, for whatever it's worth, I've never believed in the "notes" that winos and espresso junkies claim to be in their drink. So maybe I'm becoming a believer after all. All it took was making everything from scratch and fresh, that's all.

Ithaca "garden" pizza

All summer I dreamt of walking out the front door and harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, cauliflower, butternut squash, and pumpkin from my garden.  Now it's the end of summer and thanks to the blight, my garden pizza consists of one green pepper from my garden and a lone leftover roasted red pepper.  Fortunately, I had some good local cheddar and I put enough spices into the sauce that it even received compliments from Kyle.

pumpkin run

Ok, so it wasn't a pumpkin run, so much as an evaporated milk run, but pumpkin run sounds better. Every morning I wake up pondering the following: Should I bake or should I run? Usually, I need to rush off to work, but I've been known to whip up a vegan chocolate cake, some Irish soda bread, or some apple muffins before heading out. The weekends however leave me in a state of conflict. I was pondering what to do this morning when Kyle suggested that I run to the market. Brilliant! I grabbed a small pack and headed out. FYI: Two cans of evaporated milk, a bag of organic sugar, and some bananas on your lower back make for a pretty solid workout. Now for the fun part - turning the farm stand pumpkins into pie.