Jam Sessions ("A Little Nina Simone Would Do You Good" And My Summer Drought Harvest)

When I heard the temps would be in the "dangerous/triple digits" range for an undetermined period of time, I made a mad dash to the store for provisions: canning jars, Bing cherries, Rainier cherries, plums, blueberries (two pounds each), sugar, lemons and chocolate. If things were going to get bad, really bad, I wanted: bread, homemade cherry plum jam, Pandora (my Nina Simone station!), chocolate and my favorite espresso--Lavazza. I pretty much lived off these things the past few weeks--give or take. 

Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Syrup Glaze (Rediscovering Rod Stewart)

I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I was standing at the checkout counter at the store with six lemons. I always have lemons in the fridge-had at least four or five in the "crisper" already. Something as simple as lemons can take over my mind in a nanosecond. Maybe it's the heat. Nineties already, and it's not even June. So, when I got home, I thought it might be fun to crank up the oven in the morning and whip up something lemon-y and poppy seed-y. After I baked them, and while I was patting myself on the back for a "job well done" in the baking of said muffins, I ate. . . two. This morning, I ate two more. Dr. Thyme had three for breakfast. I think I want another one before I go to bed here shortly. I thought if I wrote about these lovelies, I might not be as inclined to binge eat my way through my cake keeper of muffins at nine o'clock in the evening (which is sure to keep me up and extra hour). 

Vegan Brunswick Stew Cobbler (A Rock Idol Flashback And Portlandia Obsession)

Last night I was in the mood for pastry and barbecue. No, I'm not pregnant. After throwing open five cookbooks and covering every inch of my kitchen counters with marked recipe pages and variations on a theme of a "stew" and of a "cobbler"--I came up with this recipe for a very tasty best of the best for a bake-until-bubbly sort of casserole dish. Sometimes it's the journey. My cooking mojo is doing combat with this post-Christmas (I finally relented and took down my winter wonderland Christmas lights, but not without some angst over the lack of snow!)--and it's been a challenge lately to come up with crafty and clever meal ideas. It's rare for me to find inspiration in one cookbook anyhow. I need a collision of at least a half dozen books sometimes to figure out what might make for a singular yummy meal.   

Vegan Chocolate Syrup Cake (The Perfect Grammy Night Dessert: Was that Johnny Depp singing with Norah Jones?)

My love of music runs far and it runs deep. My ipod is filled with a ridiculous assortment of music. Ridiculous. Last night was a ritual in our home: we watched the Grammys. No phones, no texts (I have never sent a text in my life)--but you get the idea. Last night's award show was probably one of the best I'd seen--especially for an Almost Fifty gal like me--seeing the tour de force of "seniors" out hip the hippest of them, I was floored.