Market Day

Oh how we love Market Day! Each week Murphy and I pack our baskets and head down town to the Wednesday Market, held near the Art Museum. This season we have had the pleasure of participating in a CSA from Gathering Together Farm and what a treat it is to pick up our basket each week.

Murphy walks into the farm stand, heart sunglasses on, basket hanging off her arm and quickly wins over all the fellow shoppers and booth attendants. Often she can be found grabbing a ripe tomato off a table or quickly pulling a cucumber out of a basket and having herself a little snack right on the spot... the lovely folks working the booth assure me they enjoy her eagerness to eat any and all vegetables, seeing a future customer in the making.

Often Dad will walk the few short blocks up from his office to join us for lunch and a quick stroll around the little loop that makes up this small, yet bustling, market. We usually sit and enjoy a plate of fresh falafel and hummus, watch the people go by and discuss with our Little Miss what each passerby must be having for dinner with all the goodies they are making away with.

Before we know it, it is time to load our vegetable laden baskets into the car. We say, "Goodbye" to Daddy, Murphy reminds him to "wort hard" and we are off to make our way over the little hill and tuck ourselves in for a nap.

Wednesdays, they are pretty special days round here.

The Cottage is all the Cozier!

Well, it's been a couple of days since my last post, to say the least! A lot has changed at the Cozy Little Cottage and we are now all the cozier around here! In June, 2013 David and I welcomed our darling little girl, Murphy Marie, into the world. Our lives have been a wonderful whirl of love and excitement since then. She is the coolest cat in town and I am just tickled to get to be home with her every day.

While it has been quite here on the blog, we have been passing the days with all our favorite activities: baking bread, singing songs, gardening, meeting up with lots of mamas and their babies and trying our best to live the slow life.

If you have missed us dearly and have been wondering where to find us on a more regular basis, please do check out my instagram account, Allison Sacoolas, where I post in a much more timely fashion!

After two years of enjoying our little miss and all that goes with this wonderful world of parenting, I finally feel like I am ready, and capable, to jump back into all things Cozy Little Cottage. Please hold me to my promise of enjoying this pace on a weekly basis- I can't wait to see you here more often!

Remember Ladies...

"always practice safe salsa". These were the words of my trusty OSU extension food preservations teacher at a tomato processing class I recently took! I loved the line and was so excited to get my salsa on! So I did what any canning loving girl would do... I called up my mother and told her it was time to put up or shut up! Luckily for me, she chose the put up and hustled her hiney up to Portland for a Saturday spent at the Cozy Little Cottage.

Upon her arrival I had all the goodies we would need for the day set out and ready to go!

We diced and diced and diced!

We cooked it up a bit, per the recipe's directions

While waiting for the jars to process, my mom partook in one of her favorite past times... copying my recipes! We both giggle at this often, years and years were spent with me as the novice, her as my teacher... what fun it is to switch roles sometimes!

Hmmm... this seems to be the only shot of the finished product. How time flies when you are putting up the harvest!

I pay in platter lunches. This one was accompanied by eggplant caponata as well (to top those little toast squares of course!) Not only do I pay in lunches, but I believe my mother may have made away with a jar of salsa (of course) and a bar of homemade soap!

What a day we had! Saturdays at home are my favorite kind and to be in the kitchen with loved ones, oh, all the better! Here's to wishing you a happy harvest as well!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

Menu Plan: 9.9- 9.14

Back to school here I come! During the school year I try very hard to make, make, make on the weekend, in hopes that the week will be smooth sailing... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I so love my time spent in the kitchen on Sundays.

Thursday 9.8- Left Over Mac & Cheese or Left Over Curried Chicken Salad

Friday 9.9- Date Night Out!

Saturday 9.12- BBQ with David's Co-Workers (I am planning to make a green salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries and sunflower seed. I'll toss the salad with homemade raspberry vinaigrette)

Sunday 9.13- Herb Seasoned Pork Chops, Roasted Eggplant
                      * Make Roasted Tomato Sauce and freeze
                      * Make Pesto and freeze
                      * Mix Tea Blend

Monday 9.14- Curried Carrot Soup, Cheese Toast... hmm, two curry dishes in one week...

Tuesday 9.15- Cucumber Boats filled with Tuna Salad

Wednesday 9.16- Greek Orzo Salad

Millions of Peaches...

Oh those Presidents of the United States of America had it right... we really are going to eat a lot of peaches.

Yesterday on my way home from setting up my classroom I stopped by Grandma's Place and quickly picked a little over 20 pounds of peaches (they are my favorite to pick... so quick!) At a dollar a pound I could hardly stop myself from picking more... around these parts a dollar a pound is a screaming deal!

Our favorite way to preserve peaches for the colder months to come is dip them in a water bath for about 30 seconds, plunge in cold water, peel, slice and freeze. I always try to put up as many peaches as I can because they are our favorite treat; we want to enjoy them all year long! Throughout the year these peaches will grace our kefir smoothies, top our oatmeal (I do half oat groats and half steel cut oats in the slow-cooker over night and then we wake up to a warm breakfast!) and we will for sure be feasting on our favorite peach/raspberry crisp on some cold winter evenings as well!

When freezing I always think about how we will be using said food in the future. I like to freeze in amounts that are called for in recipes that I use often (well, for me, more like cooking patterns I like to follow... I rarely follow recipes, but love to read cookbooks to get ideas for flavor combinations). For things that will be used over a number of days, like fruit in smoothies, I like to think about how much we will use in a week, that way I can pull everything from the freezer on Sunday... it's like grocery shopping in your own garage!

And all those peelings and pits? Well this year I am going to try my hand at peach honey... we'll see how it goes?

Oh and, lest us not forget about another wonderful peach song, thank you Steve Miller Band! Any other peachy songs out there that I forgot?