Decor | Lifestyle | Design
When I was a kid, I never really understood why my parents and the other adults in my life loved summer so much. I mean, I loved summer because there was no school (clearly the best thing ever!) But why did they like it, when they still had to go to work? And now that I’m an adult, I think I know. Alcohol.
I love to bake, however, I don’t do it nearly often enough. Somehow days get away from me, or I don’t have any butter at room temp, or am missing an ingredient, or simply because I can’t always seem to fit it in.
However, the first few days of this week I did quite a bit of baking. Probably because I was about to start what would be 11 straight days of work and when I’m gone, I like my kids to have a little something warm, and cozy, and homemade to remind them of me. So this week, I baked.
I love homemade ice cream! Ever since I got an ice cream machine a few years ago, I have been a convert. There is truly nothing like it. It is so different than anything you can buy in a store, and with an ice cream machine, it’s so easy to make!
Creamed peas. If you are envisioning over-cooked, mushy peas laying in a puddle of cream like something in an Old English pub, then you are not familiar with this version. This recipe involves fresh, spring peas and it is delicious. I have been wanting to make fresh peas for awhile now, so the other day when there were fresh, English peas for sale at Trader Joe’s, I snapped them up. Now, I must admit, I love peas. Not the aforementioned over-cooked version, but even frozen peas with a little butter and salt, slightly undercooked so they still pop, is something I make often. So the thought of fresh! English! peas was so exciting for me, I can’t even tell you. And though I could have served them simply with just butter and salt, I wanted to do something a little more. I ended up kind of combining two recipes that I found on Epicurious and changing them around to make one that was more what I was going for. Can I just say? This recipe was life-changing for me! The fresh peas had a distinctly sweeter profile than even the highest quality frozen, and combined with the onions, it was scrumptious (yes, I just said “scrumptious” to describe a vegetable). I loved them so much I made them again a few days later and used frozen, just to see how much difference there would be. And though it was still delicious, there is something very special about the sweeter, more distinct taste of the fresh. I urge you to go and get some fresh peas while they are still around (it’s a very short season).
I frequently (translation: almost always) have ripe to overripe bananas sitting on my counter. I don’t know if it’s me, but somehow my bananas seem to go from green to brown with no actual “yellow” stage in between! Because of that, I make a lot of banana bread!