After thinking about it for ages, I finally joined the Daring Kitchen. Seeing as having a food blog is more or less a requirement for being a daring baker, I thought that I should finally get my act together and start taking my blog a bit more seriously. It is a bit difficult to feel inspired to post about what I've made when I don't have any sort of camera to document it with, but that will come with time.

I have started going to some of the farmers markets in Seattle, and I love them. It is a really easy way to drop a fair amount of money rather quickly. The University district one is the closest to my apartment, and I already talk about my apple man, my honey man, and so on and so forth with my roommate. Last week's purchases included hazelnuts, fresh cranberries, ground goat meat, and a poppyseed strudel for my dad. I made a quince tarte tatin from my purchases from the week before, and it was delicious. The recipe came from David Lebovitz, although I stewed mine with orange flower water instead of vanilla.

Some brussel sprouts from my parents' garden have been chilling in my fridge, and needed to be used. I sauteed some porcini, added mushroom broth, fresh cranberries, some fingerling potatoes, and a bay leaf or two, and let them simmer for a while. I then adjusted the salt/pepper ratios, added some sucanat to balance the sweetness of the cranberries, and put in the brussel sprouts, which had been sliced in half, steaming them a bit. With some crushed walnuts on top, it ended up being quite tasty. It would be a nice dish for a thanksgiving meal, although perhaps with a bit of tweaking and perhaps a bit of booze in the sauce. A turkey with chestnut stuffing wouldn't hurt much, either.