Standing together...

Last week Mac and I adventured into the redwood forrest at Muir Woods and came away from the experience with a heightened sense of gratitude and wonder.

What stood out to me most and I am still thinking about is this one battered down burnt tree. It was charred almost to the core but still standing and hanging in there. What marveled me was how a group of younger trees grew a tight-knit circle around this lonely charred out tree. I like to think that they grew up this way to protect and surround 'the one' to give it strength.

This beautiful scene in nature humbled me. The more we stand together and help one another, the stronger we are. My heart goes out to the East Coast, I hope you and your families are all safe.

Farmer's Market Squash

Today's loot from the farmer's market. I had no idea how many types of squash there are until today. I saw tons of French varieties, heirlooms and look forward to trying out a whole new world of flavors. Here are the few I picked up...

- Dark Green : Buttercup squash
- Orange : Kabocha squash ( it grows in a green shade too)
- Beige : Butternut squash

What is your favorite squash?

Recipe 3 Ways - Mango Bean Salad

Yesterday I was in a funk, do you ever get that way? Today I decided to saddle up and spontaneously did back to back classes at the gym. A little yoga, a little spin, and it got me back to where I want to be. What do you do in a creative rut? I read excerpts from this book last night that also got me on a roll. (Thanks Russell!)

I am working really hard the next several months to shed the dreaded baby weight. I'm like come on, I have a two year old now. No excuses, right? It also makes me feel better in all areas when I put my health and eating healthy first.

Here is a quick and easy healthy recipe I made today for lunch after coming home from the gym. It is something I make often and thought it would be cool to show how you can easily whip something up in one bowl and make three different meals out of it. I really experiment along the way so I rarely make it the same way twice and use whatever I have on hand. A well stocked kitchen and fridge is key.

>> recipe after the jump...

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Turntable Kitchen

Do you know about the site Turntable Kitchen? Husband and wife duo Kasey and Matthew Hickey pair together food and music in the best of ways, I'm such a fan. Want a well-curated playlist to enjoy while preparing or eating a delicious homemade breakfast? Check out this post they've got you covered with recipes, tracks and resources. They've also got several other recipes to try and music to listen on their site that could leave any music loving foodie happy for hours.

Kasey and I briefly met at the San Francisco Kinfolk dinner and she radiated this positive vibe that was down right contagious. She kindly sent me one of their pairing boxes and it was such a blast to receive special ingredients, wonderfully photographed recipe cards, and a well-crafted music selection boxed up on my doorstep. Their clever pairing boxes change every month with seasonal ingredients and would be the perfect gift idea for food and music loving friends. Pop by their site when you get a moment, I think you'll really enjoy it. I also find it remarkable that they both have day jobs and still run their site! Wow.

Tomato recipes galore

This is my first summer season in the new area we live and tomatoes are abounding like nothing I've ever seen. Varieties of heirlooms, purple, green, yellow, orange! It is kind of insane. I guess some people really do call it Sacratomato for a reason. With the bounty I've been getting from the Farmer's Markets every week, I have been scouring the web for recipes that fit. I popped over onto the (newly updated) Martha Stewart  and was delighted to see the variety of tomato recipes they have and I hope to try many of these this week and the following. Are you indulging in the tomatoes in your area? I'm going to make #2 tonight and perhaps #4 tomorrow. Oh and don't get me started on the peach bounty! Yum.

1. Tomato and Avocado Salad

2. Tomato, Corn, and Avocado Salad

3. Spaghetti with Tomatoes and Tarragon

4. Heirloom Tomato Pizza

Inspiration Boards

Do you keep a pinboard / inspiration offline? I just tore down all the content off of my inspiration boards in my office (which I do about every season) and am rethinking what I want to put on them this go around. I've always been kind of obsessed with looking at various cool inspiration boards, and came across these two that I really love. Now to decide whether to go more orderly, or more messy! What is your flavor?

1: Elle Decor - Ellen Rakieten's space.
2: Refinery 23 - Linda Rodin's space.

Food Art

The idea of playing with your food takes on a whole new meaning with these food plates by Boguslaw Sliwinski, he has lots of other great ones on his site too. (via Dezeen)

Top 10 Plant-Based Diet Cookbooks

For the last month or so our family has been focusing upon eating plant-based meals. Yes, we still have some organic chicken, wild fish and shrimp in the freezer to use up, but we are moving more fully towards a plant-based diet. Normal I would infuse 2-3 meals a week that were meatless in the menu plan, but now it is turning more into like 6. We've already nixed most dairy, and we've really seen and felt the difference.

For us this movement has been a gradual process over the last few years. After recently watching Forks over Knives, along with a few other haunting documentaries about meat production, (and bouts of hot dog food poisoning) we have not been in the mood for juicy meaty burgers, well at least right now. Ask me again next year and we'll see. (I promise we aren't turning into California hippies, well maybe a little, ha). Since at home we will be working towards eating pretty clean, we are the pretty easy-going type so we won't be freaking out about things as we dine out, or over at someone's house. We are implementing the 80/20 rule. 

The main thing we've noticed so far overall is more energy, and I noticed that my skin cleared up too. (Although, sadly as I had some major slip-ups on my recent road trip my skin began to meltdown again).

I am already a huge fan of Heidi Swanson's books and she has usually been my go-to for excellent plant-based recipes but, I also wanted to explore more options. Here are the top ten plant-based cookbooks I've checked out over the last few months at our local library, are in my queue or am interested in.

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Perfect Summery Pasta

Do you ever watch the food network while doing cardio? Probably not the best combo for obvious reasons, but this time I was glad to tune in briefly because Giada was making this delicious pasta dish.

We do this silly thing in our home called meal grades especially for new recipes. After we go around the table discussing our highs and lows of the day, I ask for a rank of the meal between 1 and 10. I don't know if I shot myself in the foot by doing this, but it is helpful to see what my family really likes to eat and their individual preferences. For example, V gave me a 5 on first taste of last night's dinner (Pueblo Rice) but it slowly changed upwards to a 8 on her last bite. As for this dish, our kids gobbled it up and really enjoyed it (although V set aside the zucchini and tomatoes). It was ranked 10 by all, and a great recipe especially for the kids. Do you do meal grades at your house?

*Notes : As for this recipe I've made it twice and I think the key is the great mascarpone, I also add a bit more orange juice. Also note to cook your sausage (or protein you want to add) before you assemble the dish.

(photo : Rachel Jones)

Jar of Cake - Löffle Mich

Bright, bold and well packaged, wouldn't this Löffle Mich jar of cake be a perfect gift for someone, or a delicious surprise at a picnic? I love the fun nature of it, well I love anything mini in a jar for that matter. If you are near Austria from what I can tell from my loose rusty German 'Löffle Mich' means something along the lines of 'Spoon me', right? You can find them here.

// via Blog Milk + Dieline

Music Monday : Porcelain Raft

I came across Porcelain Raft this morning and am currently listening to their album Strange Weekend, so far so good. Mauro Remiddi is the composer/writer/musician behind the sound who is from Rome but is currently living in New York City. I heard an interview where he mentioned this album is about layers of humming noises and power station sounds that he heard outside his window while growing up in Rome. That conceptual reference offers great insight into the brilliant sound. Here is a video of the song called "Unless You Speak From Your Heart" and the track Drifting in and Out is also nice. I hope you had a nice weekend and are enjoying your Monday.

Eating our way through Seattle...

Looking back over my trip photos from Seattle a common delicious food thread was interlaced throughout. Many thanks to my good food-loving friend Stephanie who took me around and showed me her favorite places. Crazy to me is that growing up near Seattle, I had never been to any of these, my foodie side has obviously emerged since back in the day. We were able to see some of the best of Seattle in just a few short days -- I feel as if we delightfully ate our way through this rainy town!

Here is the top ten (not in any particular order):

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Kinfolk comes to San Francisco

Kinfolk Magazine is a breath of fresh air in every way. Their overall philosophy for their website and publication celebrates the joy of living through intimate small gatherings.

Over the weekend I attended the Kinfolk Dinner Series -- which happened to be a brunch at Heirloom Cafe in San Francisco and I was delighted to be in a room full of such creative and genuine people. The whole event focus was to sit down to share a delicious meal with people that you have never met before and I did just that (the 2nd photo above is actually a polaroid shot of our table by Heidi from 101 Cookbooks). Between a recent move, my line of work, and being a mother of young children, I often find myself having more virtual conversations than the face to face kind. This event reminded me of the radiant energy you can draw from strangers who after a beautiful meal and nice conversation become more familiar. Everything from the food, to the gorgeous florals and delightful farmer's market like experience were top notch. All of the event partners knocked my socks of and it was meaningful to see such support for experiences like this. I look forward to seeing more from Kinfolk and their dinners across the country.

(photos // by me except - the top polaorid by Heidi )

Music Monday: The Lumineers

I hope you had a wonderful weekend, one of the highlights of mine was attending the lovely Kinfolk Dinner/Brunch in San Francisco that I hope to share more of later today. To kick of Monday with a little music I wanted to share a band I recently came across called the Lumineers, with their song called Ho Hey which is a sweet little ditty about being someone's sweetheart. I am enjoying their overall sound, it's pretty nice. Enjoy.

Week no. 17

1. Goodness gracious, the continual stream of beautiful photographs from Peggy Wong constantly blows my mind, these are of the Met.

2. Yummy recipe to try from Martha.

3. I bought a lemon tree to keep inside, but now need to learn good care tips.
4. Came across the work of Natasha Mead - a gorgeous DIY Fashion App called Milk will be coming to the iPad soon. (via Design Milk)

Have a fantastic last week of April weekend. See you Monday.

Music Monday : Scissor Sisters

Our five year old daughter has been seriously obsessed with horses for a few years. The other day she expressed again how excited she is to grow up so she can live on a farm with horses and be a real cowgirl. This "Only the Horses" by Scissor Sisters suits her well, I am excited to share it with her and I hope you will enjoy it too. Here's to a little upbeat Music Monday happiness.

Paris In Color

If you are not already dreaming of moving to a magical place such as Paris, Nichole Robertson's book, Paris in Color will entice you even further. Her beautiful photographs that she has been taking, sharing, and even selling on her blog of the city of lights for the past few years come even more alive when you see them compiled together in this lovely book. Her extremely well-written introduction gave me the chills in a good way and had me instantly want to drop everything and hop on a plane with our family and move to one of my favorite destinations. Although that isn't possible for us now, I am inspired by her words to cultivate even more flâneur wherever I am. If you love Paris, photography, and things organized in color like me you will love this book. Bravo Nichole, your book is a sheer delight!

Music Monday : Bahamas

This acoustic version of the song 'Lost in the Light' by Bahamas is helping my Monday morning get going in a soothing way. I just bought the album Barchords and can't wait to listen to it all the way through. Toronto-based Afie Jurvanen has such an amazing sound, I can't wait to hear more. Hope you had a nice weekend, and you are off to a great start!

Seattle...

We are still hanging out in the Pacific Northwest for spring break and having a great time. The girls were pretty giddy about their first Ferry ride today, they couldn't have loved it more.

Bonjour Spring!

Yesterday was the first day of Spring! Here are a few things currently inspiring me. Yahoo, for my favorite season of the year.

1 The Art of Instruction
2 Katie Ermilio via From Me to You
3 Pierre Terrarium 
4 Market Bag
5 Roasted Asparagus and Egg

*Bonus points : if you know where the quote is from... I will reveal it in the comments tomorrow.