Below is a roundup of some comforting, healthy and quick recipes we incorporate in our meal planning regularly. I’m by no means a dietary expert or health nut, but I like to try to keep my diet pretty clean. I feel so much better eating this way than I did six months ago when I was working a job I hated and didn’t have enough free time to figure out what foods I needed in order to feel good. I’ve also dropped about 10 pounds in the past six months which is a nice by-product of eating the right foods for my body.

Each week we get a large produce bin from Green B.E.A.N. delivery that is said to feed a large family. The two of us easily consume it all. Most of the time our order will contain 4 lbs of yams, baby spinach and another lettuce, a few bunches of carrots, at least two other green veggies — most often Brussels sprouts and broccoli, and then a handful of fruits, typically 8 apples and a pound of bananas. We top off our order with a dozen eggs, nuts and a selection of turkey, chicken, bison and ground beef.

In addition to our delivery from Green B.E.A.N., we make sure to stock up on coconut oil, olive oil, almond butter and other tasty fats. And Lara Bars. I keep those on hand because…. well, I just like them and they help fill in calorie gaps when I fail to eat as much as I intended. We also only keep water and seltzer water on hand (as well as the fixings for delicious cocktails like this, this and this).

My weekday lunches often include a baked egg (just like hard-boiled, but done more easily in the oven), carrots or a salad, almonds and a piece of fruit. Dinners for both of us  include a protein, probably meat on the grill, and a hefty assortment of veggies either fresh, baked or steamed. Of course we’ve got some sweet treats to get us through the week, like the chocolate sorbet I made last night (oof. amazing). More often than not though, dessert is apple slices and almond butter with a square(s) of dark chocolate.

The following recipes usually make an appearance at least once a week in our house. I think they are well worth making an appearance in your kitchen as well.

Guaranteed Crispy Sweet Potato Fries & Sriracha Mayo Dip from The Art of Doing Stuff: This recipe is the closest that we’ve come to making crispy sweet potato fries. It takes some time to get it right, but it’s worth it when you get it all figured out. One thing I’d suggest is to mix the oil with the corn starch-covered fries in a bowl and not on the pan. After the fries are coated with the starch and oil, coat the pan lightly with oil, then arrange your fries. We’ve also found that simply mayo with some sriracha and chili powder to taste makes for a nice dip if you don’t have all the ingredients on hand.

Sweet Potato Hash (with fried eggs!) from Nom Nom Paleo: It’s delicious as breakfast or dinner. Overwhelmingly good. Quick and easy (if you have a food processor).

Caveman Crunch from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations: This recipe, pictured at the top of the post, has become our go-to breakfast and snack option. Regan eats it with regular milk and I eat it with a little coconut milk (or by the handful if I come home from work ravenous). I used the recipe as is the first time around, but later realized it’s a pretty adaptable recipe and you can make up quantities of ingredients as you go along, depending on what you have on hand. It’s tasty, like granola, but it keeps me satiated for much longer.

Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts from 101 Cookbooks: Pretty much the best way to eat Brussels Sprouts. We omit the cheese, but it’s amazing with or without. Really, we made these for Thanksgiving last year and my father, who is not much of a food guy, asked for the recipe  and told mom that he could get behind Brussels Sprouts done right. I figure if this recipe can evoke excitement from him, it’s a winner.

Dijon Dressing: All the salads we make use either Dijon Dressing or the Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe’s. To make our Dijon Dressing we use approximately one part olive oil, one and a half parts balsamic vinegar and two parts Whole Grain Dijon Mustard, mixed well. Change the quantities depending on your taste, of course. It’s got a bit of tang and a bit of spice, just right with a spinach salad topped with grilled chicken breast, tomatoes and walnuts.

Kale Salad: We make lots of salads, but one we’ve found that keeps well for the week so that it can easily be packed for lunch is a kale salad. We like to toss about two bunches of kale with a pint of blueberries, a pint of grape tomatoes and a cup or so of sunflower seeds with Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar and grapeseed oil. Of course I’ve never measured quantities, but I’d say we use about 1/8 cup of vinegar with a few healthy splashes of oil so that all the leaves are lightly coated.

So, that’s a peek into our refrigerator and pantry. What’s in yours? I want to know what foods keep you going each week.

After a week of hiking, drinking margaritas and eating green chiles, we’re glad to be back home. We spent our first day back in our yard, hands in the earth, gardening and tending to everything that grew while we were away. We drank an abundance of water and replenished our bodies with meals harvested straight from the garden. I don’t always give Indiana credit for being a great place to live, but I love it for the fact that things grow with ease here and plants and water are bountiful.

For these reasons I’ll forgive Indiana for not having the views we have enjoyed for the last week.

I’m just happy to be back now so I can begin sharing smaller, every day adventures with you again.
For those interested in Santa Fe and the surrounding areas, below is a list of things to do.

Santa Fe, though lovely, is mostly galleries. If you are staying for any length of time we recommend lots of day trips. These are the places we visited outside of Santa Fe.

1. Taos. Just another gallery town, it seemed. There was little to nothing to do here and I would have much prefered to visit a real ghost town. Lots of people really enjoy it here though.
2. Rio Grande Gorge
3. Earthship Biotecture World Headquarters. I’d totally live in an earthship some day. They are amazing and a really neat way to be off the grid.
4. Bandelier National Monument and Tsankawi, the detached portion of the park.  If you only have time for a little hiking we recommend only visiting Tsankawi. The views are amazing and the hiking is a lot more rewarding. This hike, by far, was the best part of our entire trip.
5. The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. Such a cool place. I’m amazed by the history of this state. The state capitol is more than 400 years old and tales of the wild west are everywhere, and at the same time the history of nuclear science and the Manhattan Project is just as prevalent. Our docent at the museum was a 90-year-old gentleman, Yale PhD and one of the last surviving scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. Pretty cool way to spend the day, learning from the mouth of one who has experienced what it’s like to feel the distant impact of a nuclear test blast against his face.

For more vacation images head over to Flickr.

Yes. That’s a bottle of homemade shampoo shining like a beacon in my windowsill. It’s only special because it took me so long to find the right recipe.

Little by little I’m trying to replace all of my health, beauty and cleaning products with things I make using only natural ingredients. After I successfully made deodorant and a few different hand and lip balms, shampoo seemed as though it should be next on the list.  And it seemed like it would be easy to find something that worked. But it wasn’t. Not at all.

First I tried baking soda to clean my hair and apple cider vinegar as a conditioner. This method works wonders for lots and lots of people, but not for me. I tried the baking soda as a paste on my hair. I tried it diluted in water and poured on my head. I tried it with apple cider vinegar and without. All I ended up with was a flaky scalp and greasy hair.

In the midst of experimenting with the baking soda method I went to the hairdresser for a cut. When I arrived I reluctantly took my hair out of my pony tail and explained I’d been trying something new with my hair but it hadn’t been working very well. She didn’t judge me at all, but suggested I at least use some Dr. Bronner’s once a week to make sure I was actually cleaning my hair (I took this as a gentle way of letting me know my hair wasn’t clean). So when I left the hairdresser I tried Dr. Bronner’s, but it might have been even worse than the baking soda and apple cider vinegar combo. In fact, my hair was the perfect texture for dreads. And even my always supportive and encouraging husband touched my hair one night and suggested that maybe, just maybe, I should try something new.

And so I did. It’s so nice to not be dirty anymore. Seriously, there was about a month during which my hair was in no way acceptable in polite society. But now I can exit the house without a hat or scarf on my head. I can even get close to people. These are luxuries I now realize. It’s pretty great to have them back.

This shampoo is based on the amazing resource found here at The Modern Herbal. It provides a grid of ingredients, what each does, and provides suggested herbs and oils for different hair colors and types. I have normal dark hair and so I created the recipe below following the framework provided by The Modern Herbal.

Rosemary Shampoo

You guys. Working with metal is so much fun.

It’s this really powerful thing that we have the power to do — make metal yield to our desires. It’s not all easy or fun and games, but with the right tools it’s really amazing what heat and pressure can do. Of course, I’m still learning and doing some things wrong, but it’s all coming together nicely and I’m being patient, taking lessons in stride and not dreaming bigger than my abilities right now.

After working on the sterling silver rings in week one, we moved on to more affordable metals and have been playing with copper and brass for the last two weeks. Last week we made a copper bracelet. When heated, metal tends to pool and become round (my apologies for lacking the appropriate scientific terms) and so we took this bit of science and used it to create decorative balls at the end of 14 gauge copper wire, then gently curled our pieces around one another to create a bracelet. We then oxidized, buffed and tumbled our pieces to work harden them. It’s not necessarily my style, but just knowing the effort behind each part of the process, I now have a new appreciation of all jewelry.

Today we made jump rings, cut, filed, annealed, pounded, sanded and rolled pieces of metal through the mill in preparation for the last two projects for class. The rolling mill is a fabulous tool for achieving textures. After softening the metal through the process of annealing, soft textures can be imprinted onto the metal. I used thread and lace. Even when working with metal I can’t seem to get away from my love of soft textiles, and I find the combination of the two textures so appealing.

Once through the rolling mill, putting pieces in liver of sulfur helps the metal oxidize and develop a patina, which helps each texture become more visible. Next week this motley assortment of textured metals will be graced with a cabochon and rivets to help round out metalsmithing 101.

Even though I told myself I wouldn’t get ahead of myself, in between projects this week I was able to sneak in a necklace for my mother-in-law, just in time for her 70th birthday. It may not be the fanciest jewelry ever, but I cut myself making it and that’s got to count for something.

Near the end of the summer, when my unease sitting at a desk all day had become apparent, the accountant came back from a lunch with one of the organization’s board members and said, “Claire. I think I’ve found a place you would love. It’s a stained glass studio and it’s a mess.” And it was a mess. A beautiful mess. The board member owned the stained glass studio and kindly hired me the following year. The next summer I spent each day snipping lead, cutting glass and soldering everything together. And when the summer ended I returned to business school.

Even though stained glass wasn’t my calling, working with those tools each day was something I loved. Since then I’ve dreamed of making jewelry in the same fashion, but have never really pursued it.  And then a  few weeks ago I grabbed some metal and my motley assortment of tools, and then tried to make some jewelry. For some reason I think I should just know how to do everything right away with no background,  no education, no experience. Ten minutes later, with a messy pile of metal scrap next to me, I was grumbling to Regan about how horrible I am at everything (failure tends to escalate rapidly in my world). My dream of making jewelry would have ended right there, in tears, if I hadn’t married such a smart man. While I was grumbling, he was looking up jewelry making and metalsmithing classes for me.

Today was my first day at Introduction to Metalsmithing at the Indianapolis Arts Center. Over the next four weeks I’ll learn to cut, heat, solder, pound and have patience as our teacher navigates us through each important step of metalsmithing. And I think I’m going to like it. In three short hours I had a tour of the studio, orientation on how to use torches, and how to join and solder jewelry. I even managed to come out with two sterling silver rings.

These two rings are made from gauge 14 and 16 silver wire that is joined, soldered and then hammered on a ring mandrel to size 5.5. They are hammered so that the surface is faceted, not smooth. I’m a big fan of the texture and am enjoying wearing them stacked on either side of my wedding band.

Even though our teacher has promised we’ll walk out wearing something new next week, I’m just trying to focus on what else I can learn, not what more I can create. At least not yet. When I get ahead of myself it always ends badly.

Our teachers Raphael and Claude were patient with us as our clumsy hands tried to mimic their actions. Clumps of dough somehow turned into perfect spheres for them as their fingers hovered like cages surrounding the dough, rolling it lightly along. Every time they showed us a new trick we said, “Aha!” as though our understanding was complete. Then we tried it on our own, only to realize that one night in the kitchen would never make us experts. Through all our failed attempts we developed a deeper appreciation of bread making.

By the end of the night our faces all were red and beads of sweat were on our brows and upper lips as we worked to replicate everything we’d learned. By the end of the night we’d all worked thoroughly, putting all our focus and physical energy into the  perfect loaf. And when we stepped back to see our results, our class of thirteen had produced more than 150 loaves of bread. They were beautifully browned and crusty on the outside with an airy network of perfect chewiness on the inside — the texture you only get with the best French loaves.

As I slow down and learn more about how to make different foods and products, I’m more and more amazed at how much we’ve reduced processes as we simplify tasks. Some processes are simplified in order to feed a growing population. Some processes are simplified to save money or save time (both valuable things, of course). But sometimes I think processes are simplified just because people forgot there was a process at all. I worry that as we continue to simplify processes we risk losing the art behind things. And, as I learned this weekend, bread making is an art that should never be lost.

Growing up at a summer camp I had access to the camp kitchen, and from the first moment I stepped foot in it I was fascinated. More than the stainless steel counters and over-sized equipment and canisters, I was fascinated by the cooks. All were women I could spend a day beside, watching their every move.

Margaret was one of those women. She was 75 and plump with hearty forearms and a rich Minnesota accent. I was eight when I first met her and my memories of her are almost ethereal. Sometimes I wonder if she was real or just a figment who appeared to me in dreams and taught me to enjoy food. In her later years at camp she retired three times. After the first few retirement parties thrown for her she’d show up the following week unscheduled, but ready to work. Quitting the kitchen just wasn’t in her blood.

Margaret was Polish like most of our neighbors, but her specialty was Irish Soda Bread. It was a treat she made once a week for a dining hall full of campers and staff. When I first tasted this treat I didn’t understand the appeal. To me it was just a plain bread with raisins sprinkled throughout, not anything compared to her other specialties. But as I sat and casually munched on my soda bread, everyone else around me clamored for more. With one loaf per cabin group Margaret’s soda bread was a hot commodity. Deals were made throughout the dining hall on soda bread days.

Since the days of Margaret in my life I don’t know that I’ve had soda bread again. But this year, while whipping up some car bomb cupcakes, I was suddenly overcome with the desire to make some soda bread too.

Finally, 20 years after my first introduction to this bread, I realize the appeal. I used this recipe from AllRecipes.com and came to the conclusion that my childhood palate just wasn’t set up to enjoy the finer things in life. Upon pulling it out of the oven this bread made my evening, my week. I’m sad I let 20 years go by before giving it another chance.

I used the recipe as is, mixing it easily in my Kitchen Aid and kneading for less than a minute before shaping it into a small ball. Every 10 minutes I removed the baking loaf from the oven, brushing it with a butter and buttermilk mixture. After 40 minutes it emerged golden all over and deeply browned at the peaks. The quarter-inch crust cradled the dense, delicious center.

It’s a simple bread, but simple or not, I now know what Margaret went through in that old kitchen, shaping dozens of these loaves and brushing them as they baked. She took so much care to make sure each one would emerge from the oven perfectly, ready to be served to the eager campers and counselors.

Thanks to my accommodating and talented husband for documenting the process as I baked away.

Chocolate Guinness cake filled with chocolate whiskey ganache and topped with Irish Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting. Yeah.

Using the Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe, found here, I made a batch of completely delicious cupcakes that were boozy, but not too boozy. In fact, they were the perfect companion to the homemade Guinness ice cream provided by our host.

And better than being delicious, they were fun to make. I’d never made filled cupcakes before. For some reason I had a mental block to the level of difficulty I anticipated them to be. But I was wrong. So easy. So good. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the rest of the batch because having these in the house is a dangerous thing.

Thanks to my accommodating and talented husband for documenting the process as I baked away.

I was inspired by his fearless fermentation experiment and decided to try making yogurt. Using milk, a spoonful of Greek yogurt, a crock pot and a thermometer, I carefully monitored the temperature of the milk and yogurt starter for an evening, then let it sit overnight at a steady 110 degrees Fahrenheit. When we woke the next morning, we were greeted with a crock pot full of thick yogurt. I strained it, then prepped it in miniature Ball jars with blueberries and honey on the bottom for Regan to bring in his lunch. I eagerly anticipated his reaction to it and, since he’s kind and gentle about everything, when I asked how he enjoyed it he said, “It was so good! So much better than store-bought. Really smooth and creamy. But I kind of think it might have been what made me violently ill.”

So, I may or may not attempt making yogurt again but I’m still really fascinated with the process of food fermentation and aging. Even though I know essentially where food comes from I still have a disconnect from how it’s truly made, though I’m working to understand it all. I’ll probably never be one to attempt aging meats or cheeses because of my already poor track record with making nausea-inducing yogurt, but who knows? I feel like making some sour dough starter might be a safe project to get me out of my failure with fermentation so far. I’ll let you know how it goes.

What have your successes or failures in fermentation been?

I’m wildly glad that I have friends in their thirties who give gifts like this on Valentines Day. Clearly I’ve chosen my pals well.

This is a simple hat pattern made up to accommodate the Rowlf-colored yarn I found. It is knit in seed stitch for the first inch, then stockinette stitch for the rest. The ears are seed stitch as well, and the face was made from my husband’s old t-shirts. I used a dessert plate as my template and went from there. The face is sewn onto the hat body lightly, grabbing only the top of the stitches so that the face stretches with the rest of the hat.

I doubt I’ll be making a Rowlf hat ever again, but now that it’s complete I realize it was kind of fun. I tend to be a bit too literal in my interpretation of things and so for a while I thought this project was a failure. But now I realize it’s just a goofy hat. And goofy hats are nothing to stress about.