Homemade English muffins

Yum! The recipe was from The Breadbaker's Apprentice. Really easy to make (for a yeast bread), and they turned out almost perfectly. They didn't have quite as many bubbles inside as I would have liked, but I am pretty sure that it was me and not the recipe... I didn't have a metal spatula to scrape them up to put them on the griddle, and my thicker plastic-y one, I could tell, made them lose some bubbles. Otherwise, the top and bottom are perfectly crispy, especially when toasted. Fresh, we just ate them with homemade raspberry jam, but this morning, we made them into egg mcmuffins - yum! I definitely want to make these regularly to keep around!

Oriechette Carbonara

Another delicious recipe recommended by Brian...
The Carbonara part of the recipe came from another food blog - Spork or Foon, and the Oriechette part came from Epicurious - recipe for oriechette and chickpeas.
Another great find with the homemade oriechette. I will so never be able to buy store-bought again. It was way too easy to make, and they were way too good! The recipe calls for semolina, but we used part semolina and part farro (compliments of BT and CAS). The recipe says it makes 8 servings - so we made a full recipe and froze the other half.
Also, I always use way more peas than the recipe calls for, because they are just too good!

Crepes

I just love crepes. I only have 2 non-homemade experiences with them, but they are both great memories. One was in a train station in Switzerland one morning after traveling through the night on our honeymoon. Just Nutella. The second was at Eastern Market in Washington D.C. There is a street vendor-type guy who sells them in the Seinfeld soup kitchen style, and I had an amazing strawberry, white chocolate and almond crepe. He also made savory ones, but of course, I prefer the sweet!
Dad and David were up for the weekend and to run the River Bank Run. Sunday morning we made crepes. The topping options were Nutella, dulce de leche, or peaches and whipped cream. These are both the peaches and whipped cream. Mmm - bacon!

Pan-Fried Chicken (supposed to be partridge) with a delicate pearl barley, pea, and kale (supposed to be lettuce) stew

An amazing recipe from the Jamie at Home cookbook. As the title says, it was supposed to be made with partridge, but the chicken was a great fill-in. Also, the recipe called for wilting romaine, but I wanted more texture, so we used kale, and it was awesome. Bacon makes anything better in my opinion, but I thought just the barley, pea and kale mixture would be good for a vegetarian meal too. This is a definite make over and over again recipe for us.

Asparagus!

Here is some asparagus that we are growing in our yard. Mom gave us some roots a couple of years back. Only 2 bunches survived, one in the front of the house (apparently I stuck some in my front flower bed...) and one in the back. We just steamed the first harvest, then I used the second harvest in some scrambled eggs with some mushrooms and chives from the garden. Mmm! It is amazing how sweet and nutty they are when picked fresh. I think even people who don't like asparagus would like these!

CSA's

So I have been looking into joining a CSA (though I believe we are late - I think people usually secure theirs during the winter months).

Here is the CSA I really wanted to join, but I believe they are already sold out -
http://www.trilliumhavenfarm.com/
They offer a working share that would be so cool, but again, they are already full. I was especially interested in this place because they sell at the GR farm market, so I know they are good, clean, quality, etc. I think its kind of risky not knowing who you are going with because there is another one I found info on online, but I know the people from the FM and I question the cleanliness of their operation. I wouldn't know that from looking online, though, just because I have seen them and their produce in person. Let's just say you can't sell me my salad greens while chain-smoking cigarettes.

Another one that I found and was interested in (that is unfortunately also sold out) is
http://www.groundswellfarm.org/index.html
I think I still might try to volunteer at this one.

The one I am still considering is
http://www.fatblossom.com/Site/Home_.html
I don't know anything about the farm other than they were recommended by the Groundswell Farm people, but they have a "small share" that is supposed to be for only 2 people (as opposed to most that are for 4), so I am tempted, but I want to know more about them first.

Bistecca Florentine

That cut is just the NY strip part. Amico-74 and still cutting meat. He speaks no English, but we understood each other over the coals while it cooked.