Fast Forward to Fall

I must have missed the memo: mother nature pressed the fast forward button to autumn. It is still August, granted the end of the month, but it feels like October. My fingers are shivering - no, my whole body is shivering. This is absolutely crazy. Today's high was something like 57 and at 10:30 pm it is around 45. The cold is numbing my brain. I am having problems stringing together coherent thoughts so please forgive me. This weekend went by pretty much as fast as the week did. Not fair. I like the weekends to slooooooow down.

Anyhow, I had a friend arrive from Frankfurt on Friday so I decided to test out a few recipes. Friday night I made a pasta skillet from My Recipes with tomatoes, chick peas, basil, balsamic vinegar, angel hair pasta and grated romano cheese. (My Recipes includes recipes from Cooking Light, Southern Living, Sunset, Coastal Living, All You, Real Simple, and Health.) Since I had spinach in the fridgerator, I decided to spruce the recipe up a bit. I actually just made it again tonight for another friend (I made too much spaghetti on Friday and wanted to use it up) and threw in olives, which added a nice kick. If you're at all curious where the hodge podge of ingredients above leaves you, try it out for yourself. Here's a link to the recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=223284&adsqs=

My advice... go wild and crazy. Add whatever leftover veggies you might have. I used dried basil and a little marjoram the second time around and loved it even more. This is a great EASY recipe. Enjoy!

Saturday morning I decided to test a coffee cake recipe from Joy of Baking. I happened to be checking Facebook on Friday and noticed it. The coffee cake crumble picture kept calling my name and I gave in.  After all, I'm gradually trying to expand my repertoire so every new recipe helps. Also, I simply find time in my kitchen therapeutic. I think it has something to do with the act of creation. When you cook and bake, you have an end product. It's rather gratifying. While it might not always look phenomenal - especially if it's the first time - my track record is that nearly 90-95% percent of the time it tastes mighty good regardless of whether it looks exactly like the picture online or in the cookbook. I actually don't remember the last time I tried a recipe I didn't like. It has been a good roll. :) Here's the coffee cake recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/CoffeeCake.html. It turned out nice and light. It also looked beautiful. I did like it, but something in me, perhaps my gut, keeps whispering that I'd prefer a fruit coffee cake, one with apple or blueberries or something along those lines. I guess perhaps I should find such a recipe and compare them :)

Hmmm, it seems that the topic of food warms the fingers, mind, and soul. Maybe I don't need a third cup of hot tea after all.

Happy cooking and baking!