Introducing...

Introducing the newest member of our family...Pepper! This sweet little kitty came home with us a week ago and filled our house with doting oohhs and aahhs. He divides his time evenly between sleeping, snuggling, and completely spazing out. Yes, it has been quite entertaining, watching him attack anything that catches his eye—especially his tail. It was clear: kitty needed some of his very own toys.

I knit this little fishie for him and it quickly became his favorite. The simple pattern, from Teach Me To Knit, came together in no time at all.

Instructions called for tying the fish to a thread and dangling it from a stick but, as you can see, Pepper prefers it no strings attached. More fish are in the works, as this one is already thoroughly abused.

He's so fun, but no matter how wild he gets (clawing up the back of the chair, stalking unsuspecting toes), it's never long before he's fast asleep again.


Welcome home, Pepper!

Blueberry Granita

An icy blueberry treat...the perfect berry recipe for these hot muggy days. You may have noticed that since the scones, we have not baked any other blueberry recipes. No thanks. In fact, I don't think we have turned on the oven at all. It's been sandwiches and grilled fare for meals all week. So enjoy another blueberry recipe that involves very little cooking:


Blueberry Granita
1 cup blueberries
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
water

Combine blueberries, brown sugar and water in medium pan. Heat over low flame, stirring often and using back of spoon to break up berries, cook for about 10 minutes. You want the consistency to be syrupy-mush.

Dissolve 1/2 cup granulated sugar into 1 cup boiling water. Combine with blueberry mixture and pour into shallow pan and put in freezer. Use a fork to scrape the freezing mixture every 15 minutes or so, to make ice shavings. Once the mixture is completely frozen, scoop out into small dishes. Enjoy!

They're SUCH Hippies, They...

Another Blueberry Idea
A friend of mine once described a family he knows as follows: "they are such hippies they make their own yogurt." To which I whole-heartedly agreed, "wow, total hippies."

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when we made yogurt for the first time. Or maybe "grew" is a better word than "made". In any case, it was a cinch and the yogurt was delicious. We sweetened the plain yogurt with honey and vanilla—so yummy.

I found the recipe in Kathy Farrell-Kingsley's book The Home Creamery, a gorgeous book that has inspired me to even try making cheese again. (I tried my hand at making mozzarella once—I put it on a pizza and, long story short, we had takeout for dinner that night. )

The blueberry recipe? Blueberry yogurt, of course (it's not so much a recipe as a suggestion, I suppose). Processing fresh blueberries into this yogurt gave it a seasonal zing, tangy and sweet. I should mention that the blueberries did make the yogurt a bit thinner.


If you're not up for making your own yogurt, simply blending (or food-processing) the berries into plain or vanilla yogurt would work just as well. Store-bought blueberry yogurt does not compare to the freshness of adding your own berries.

Homemade yogurt has now made its way into our regular kitchen routine. So this begs the question, does that make us "hippies"?

{note: the recipe for making yogurt is available if you follow the link above to Amazon.com, then click on the "search inside this book" link on the left}

Doughnuts

Warm, soft, and sweet, these homemade doughnuts were the perfect undertaking for a Saturday morning. My mouth was watering when I found this recipe for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts online.

As a family who used to live in the land where Krispy Kreme stores abound, we crave the unmatched experience that is eating one (or two) of their doughnuts. And while the final product didn't quite compare to the real thing, it was—by all means—a delicious substitute.