Oh hi there again.

Hi friends and family and dearest, beloved fans.  I know you've missed me just as much as I've missed you.  And really I HAVE missed you all and this silly little blog and it's not that I haven't had things to SAY, it's just that, well, this whole internet thing takes quite a bit of time and I had plenty of other really fun things to do all summer long like swimming in rivers and going to weddings and eating my weight in the freshest salmon I've ever had. 

While waiting for my (much anticipated, surely) return, I do hope you've all been enjoying the bounty of summer's sun and have been cooking up your own storms.  Please stick with me as I slowly ease back into making this little slip of a blog a bigger part of my life, something that I attend to more than a few times a year.  To make it more manageable and fun (because that's the point, right?), I'm again breaking the rules and throwing format out the blogspot window and going rogue.  I'll write some stuff about some stuff when I feel like it.

So today I'm going to write a little about figs.  These gorgeous gems are like a very good dream.  The kind that sneaks up on you, but lingers throughout your day and leaves you with a subtle, healthy smile.  A simple fig, delicate and soft, has one of the prettiest of flavors.  It's all sorts of floral and perfume and breezy fruitiness.  They ripen quickly and must be eaten as soon as possible - do not waste a single one!  An easy task, as they are incredibly versatile.

Think savory or sweet.  Broiled, pickled, raw, grilled.  In salads or spreads, jams or breads. 

Last night I managed to convince my skeptical brother of their worth by using fresh figs as a topping on pizza.  Of course, I wasn't anticipating writing this post so I failed to document said pizza, but believe me it was quite pretty.  And simple:

CARAMELIZED ONION, FIG, AND GOAT CHEESE PIZZA

2 red onions
olive oil
splash of balsamic vinegar
a good handful of fresh, ripe figs, cut into quarters
fresh goat cheese
3 tbsp (more or less depending on your taste) fresh thyme
pizza dough
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven as high as it will go.  If you have a pizza stone, be sure to put it in the oven while preheating - you want it as hot as possible.

Slice the red onion into thin rounds.  Caramelize them in oil and balsamic vinegar until quite browned and very soft.  

Roll out your pizza dough onto parchment paper.  Top with onions and dot with figs.  Slide pizza onto your stone and bake for about 10 minutes, or until crust is cooked and starting to brown.  Remove from oven and spoon goat cheese over pizza.  Top with fresh thyme and a good sprinkling of salt and black pepper.  

Slice.  Enjoy. 

You know what else would be good?  Maybe adding some prosciutto or arugula.  Rosemary?  Variations are really quite endless when it comes to pizza, and I highly encourage you all to get a move on with your experimenting.  Fig season is very short and it would be a shame to miss it.  

I'll keep you all updated with spoonfuls of my life, and promise a few more photos in the future. 

Good morning!

I just woke up!  Happy 10/10 world, make a wish! 

Fork.  I'm not a huge breakfast person.  I do love all things breakfasty, but don't usually have too much of an appetite first thing in the morning.  Most likely this can be blamed on the fact that I'm usually eating dinner well past normal dinner time.  Last night the pizza came out of the oven at 10:30.  Its a hazard of working late and wanting to cook real food.  No matter, it just pushes all of my meals back a bit. 

That said, one of my favorite breakfasts is a very very simple bowl of homemade granola, preferably with some kind of fruit in it.  Since apples are all the autumnal rage (my local market has the wonderful golden delicious varietal at the moment), I've roasted a few with cinnamon and thrown them in with my granola.  Served with milk, it's a perfect way to start the day. 

OH SO ORANGEY GRANOLA
4 cups oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup marmalade (with the peels)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp coarse kosher salt (plus more for sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl, making sure to coat all of the oats evenly.

Spread evenly on a rimmed cookie tray. Sprinkle with more salt. Bake in 20 minute increments, stirring the uncooked oats to the corners to ensure even cooking. When oats and nuts are a toasty brown, you're done! It will take a while, so be patient and DO NOT turn up the oven. You will burn your lovely oats.

Remove from oven and let cool on the tray before putting in an air-tight container.

A beaut!

CINNAMON ROASTED APPLES

Apples
Cinnamon

Turn your oven on to 325 F.  Cut up apples into little cubes.  Toss with cinnamon.  Put on a baking tray and throw in the oven until soft.  Do not over think this.  It really is this easy.

Eat with granola, in oatmeal, with yogurt, by the handful. 

Glass.  I'm a coffee person.  I am also a tea person.  I like hot beverages when the weather is cold and cold beverages when the weather is hot.  Preferably caffeinated, especially with breakfast.

This morning I woke up feeling a touch under the weather.  I'd like to blame my coworker who has been sick all week, but we could probably also look into how little I slept and much wine I drank last night to easily exonerate Max.  No matter, it was a delicious gamay from Olivier Lemasson and every sip was savored.  My under-the-weather morning drink of choice is green tea.  Lately I've been enjoying Yogi Tea's Super Antioxidant Green Tea.  According to the box it helps to combat the effects of free radicals!  Apparently free radicals are unstable molecules in one's system that are produced by pollution, aging and stress.  Yeah, I'll combat those.  Whatever.  Super antioxidant or not, I find this tea simple, fresh, healthy, and with just enough caffeine to wake me up.  I add nothing to it, I'm a bit of a tea purist. 

Green tea is processed using the leaves of this plant, Camellia sinesis.

Tea bag quote of the day: Feel good, be good, do good. 

Play.  Some mornings I wake up and need a touch of inspiration to get me going.  A few years ago my stepfather gave me a gem of a book, and every now and then I revisit it, but always in the morning.  Written by James and Kay Salter, Life is Meals is a delightful book of days.  A year in the life of the food obsessed.  A mixture of recipes, anecdotes, history and curiosities, which the authors have assigned to each of our 365 days.  For example, my birthday is June 24th, which has a little paragraph on the history of feta cheese. 

 This morning's entry is about breakfast, and has this intuitive quote: "To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day." -W. Somerset Maugham.  And so I leave you, to eat my first breakfast of the day.  I suggest you do the same.