Quinoa salad

Last night Julie Norman came over for dinner-- and we caught up on the summer's happenings while chopping veggies and preparing a dinner together.

We made a quinoa salad-- started with one of those boxes of quinoa and brown rice with a flavor packet, and added extra quinoa to bulk it up.

We chopped and steamed: asparagus, green beans, kale, broccoli, zucchini

We also chopped: cilantro, red pepper, avocado, and cut fresh corn off the cob

Mixed together the quinoa with black beans, corn, red pepper, and cilantro and then put the steamed greens on top, and of course avocado just to top it off!

And as per tradition, Julie brought grapes for dessert!

Snow day bread

Last week, inspired by the promise of a Snowquester blizzard and the memories of many warm-breaded snow days at the Brown's in the early 1990s, I stocked up on whole wheat bread flour, flax meal, sunflower seeds, and active dry yeast.  I hadn't made bread since... well, since watching Susanne make bread in the Stone House kitchen, and I knew the soft, wheaty roll I was aiming for -- the kind perfectly sliced horizontally and dressed with butter and a Mor Mor slice of Gouda cheese.

Five hours later (the heavy dough rose slowly in our chilly kitchen- eventually I microwaved it for 30 seconds and watched as it ballooned in the ten minutes afterwards), I had a dozen and a half of delicious rolls -- not the clones of Susanne's I craved, but still delightfully tasty.  (David and Dad thought they were potatoes at first.  We're talking about dark, round rolls.  Haha.)  They made the base of a lunch for Mom, Dad, David and me, who sat at our kitchen table and filled the rolls with B&L smoked turkey, provolone or brie cheese, avocado, and baby spinach leaves.

I talked to Karin, who also baked bread on the snow day, while working from home.

Here's to bread-baking: both the memories of bread lovingly being baked around us, and the loving recreation of that bread to share it with loved ones around us.  Especially on snow days.

First posting...

This is a blog about life in a kitchen, my kitchen, your kitchen and beyond. Køkken Hygge, kitchen coziness, is what happens when we get together, cook, talk, laugh, cry, eat and then clean up. I will post recipes, articles, thoughts, ideas and pictures at irregular intervals, feel free to do the same. KH! Susanne (Susanne using sebastian's profile)