Monthly Archives: December 2012

Spinach, Mushroom & Artichoke Quesadillas

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Julie • 0 Comments

I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas again. It was just Christmas like, last week, wasn’t it? Every year, the 364 days between the holiday somehow manage to condense themselves more and more. I’ve heard people say for years that as you get older, time passes more and more quickly, and I am definitely starting to catch on to that. This year especially seemed to fly past at breakneck speed. It was a good year in many ways, and a tough one in some others – but when you come out the other side relatively unscathed, the good part wins.

Something else that feels like it was just last week was the beginning of this blog. But it wasn’t last week – it was just over a year ago that I bought a domain and started puzzling through the mysteries of blogging. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to get out of it. In all honesty, I’m still not sure. I’ve noticed the blog taking a backseat over the past few months as life has gotten more hectic, to the point where I sometimes feel guilty because I haven’t been able to get up a post in a week or longer. I know for sure that’s not what I want – the second this stops being a hobby and starts becoming a chore is the second I check out. If that means I occasionally have to space out new posts so I can find the right kind of time to cook, take pictures, and write, I think I’m okay with that.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Appetizers, Main Dish, Quick & Easy

Apple Pie Fudge

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Julie • 3 Comments

It’s a little sad heading down to the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings of late, mostly because I feel quite strongly that I should still be in bed. Does this happen to any of you? You go to bed on Friday night with the best intentions of sleeping in until some shameful hour, or at least until all major fast food chains have stopped serving breakfast – and instead you jerk awake at WTF o’clock and then lie there waiting for the first light to trickle in the window while thinking about everything you have to do today until you finally surrender to wakefulness and get up. WORST. This happens to me once in a while – once in a while being every single Saturday morning. This is how I know I’m aging a little – the definition of “sleeping in” has slowly, insidiously crept back from the early afternoon hours and now resides at about 7:30. If I’m lucky.

But! The silver lining in the degradation of my internal alarm clock is that instead of rolling out of bed in late morning after the farmer’s market has already closed, I now get the pick of pretty much everything. This is awesome in the spring and summer, when produce is bountiful and the town square (yes, we have one of those!) is positively teeming with farmers, home canners, bakers, and jewelry makers. After Thanksgiving, though, the majority of the vendors drop off – the remaining ones have to-die-for selections of my favorite winter veggies – kale, broccoli, all kinds of gourd-geous squash (see what I did there?), but pickings are slim when it comes to fruit. Apples are pretty much the only game in town, and even those are starting to thin out. A few weeks ago one of the vendors was selling home-bottled apple cider along with the fresh apples, and this recipe for apple pie fudge immediately popped into my head. I’d seen it and bookmarked it the week before and remembered it called for apple cider – it seemed like it was meant to be.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Desserts