What's Cookin'?

I previously posted about my kitchen aspirations last month and want to share my latests library finds (you can tell we're back in school as our library bag was packed with books this week). These two books look great and I can't wait to try out some more advanced recipes from them!

I did attend a cooking class at iMonelli's recently and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn some great recipes and eat some wonderful food (bring a friend if you go). We watched the chef cook asparagus & onion soup, bruschetta, scallops & grits w/roasted veggies, asparagus wrapped in tenderloin. And I can't remember the name of the desert but I assure you it was delicious! I have yet to repeat the recipes at home, but they really don't seem too hard to follow.

The kids and I have continued making fresh, homemade bread and I've turned the whole process into a math lesson of learning measurements. Yummy! We make bread a few times/week. We've really tried to make everything from scratch the past month and it feels good knowing that we aren't consuming as many icky preservatives. Our next feat...homemade yogurt (we go through a lot of it).

Our gardens are almost dormant from the heat, but we've made a list of seeds to order soon. And for the first time ever we are actually going to make a garden plan to make sure our soils are correct for different plants. Did you know that a sandy loam makes the best carrots and spinach? I have to admit that I was impressed by our spinach crop this year!