These are a few of my favorite things...

It's no raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens (for those of you that know me, you know that I'm just not a cat person ;) ) but these are sure as hell a few of my favorite things!

My favorite thing I like to eat warm and fresh out of the oven is bread. Without a doubt. The difference between fresh, scratch-made bread and what you buy in a bag from the grocery store is huge. The air pockets are just wonderful, not to mention the yeasty smell that fills the kitchen and lingers for hours. One of my fondest recipes and art forms come from very simple beginnings, and bread is no exception. A little tip for anyone making bread at home, using a sponge method is a great way to increase/speed up the rising in your bread.

Sponge method just happens to be one of my favorite things I learned from baking in culinary school, and it can be applied to almost any bread recipe you're already making at home. Put simply, it just means to incorporate some of the flour in with the warmed liquid that the recipe calls for and yeast for an initial fermentation for 15-20 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients in the recipe and finish the rest of the process traditionally. Those air bubbles don't lie, it totally works even at home.

Another favorite thing: pumpkins. Obviously. I've been called punkin' head since I was a little girl by my family, and pumpkin flavored everything is amazing if you ask me. I've loved it ever since I can remember. Just wait until fall comes around and I post a seasonal menu with multiple pumpkin items on it. ;) Another fun fact, pumpkins are climbing the list of most plentiful crops in Illinois!

My garden pumpkin patch is growing so fast I can't keep up! I had to move my fence that keeps out the bunnies because the pumpkins had almost completely overtaken it! This is actually the pumpkin from under the CD that had threaded itself through the fence from a couple blog posts ago. It was very cool to see how many days the leaf stayed alive, and getting to watch it slightly ripen as it sits on the counter.

Obviously this pumpkin won't be ideal as far as flavor goes, but I'm always looking for another thing I can carve!

And, well, I guess it should be obvious that one of my favorite things is zucchini, after all, they're related to pumpkins! My zucchini plants have been barely producing for a couple weeks now, look at how much the sizes vary! I swear, one or two days of good rain can double the size of a zucchini. That's a lesson I could take from a vegetable, for sure, and that's how quickly things can change when the right variables are in play. One day the zucchinis are tiny and I'm buying supplemental squash from Whole Foods for dinner, two days later I've got a zucchini in the garden so big we'll be eating on it for days.

And my red basil is starting to go to seed it's growing so big! I wanted a little bit of basil flowers to garnish some dishes with, but I'll cut the rest down and continue to use mixed in with my salad greens and topped with my pesto vinaigrette (that you can try too by ordering from my upcoming Garden Goods menu)! I have to say, my zesty leafy green pesto vinaigrette is my absolute favorite.

Another favorite thing, and that's grill marks. And charcoal grill smell. And the smell of the food cooking on the grill. And the sizzle as the food cooks. I like to grill. :) I've got chicken and carrots on the grill over here, a little marinade on the chicken and char on the carrots makes all the difference in the turn out. Pair it with some risotto (finished picture of the dish on the far right), and that just might be in my top 5 favorite dishes.

I mean, check out Cudi my large sized golden doodle. He seems pretty excited about the grilled chicken, charred carrots, and creamy risotto topped with garden fresh herbs. Just sayin'. :)

Below in the pan I've shown you all the chef secret to deliciousness. Remember this next time you're shopping, incorporate it into any dish that you're making. It's very simple. It will literally transform your food instantly. It's .......... drum roll please... (insert clip from The Price Is Right where the announcer reveals the showcase prizes for the bids at the end...) sauteed fresh shallots, garlic, thyme, and crushed red pepper deglazed with wine! Just the smell alone should be jarred up into a candle and sold at Home Goods. They don't call shallots, garlic, and herbs 'aromats' in the kitchen for nothin'! Don't believe me? Try it yourself at home. I'm telling you it's damn good. The one I made here did turn out particularly delicious because of the garden fresh organic thyme I was able to use from my backyard! Now if I could just grow enough thyme to use fresh in all of my dishes... with how much of it we like to eat I definitely don't have time for that!!

One of my favorite things is butterflies, for sure. All the garden creatures are exciting to watch while watering and tending to plants. These adorable white butterflies are out with me every day!

And of course, a favorite thing of any gardener, and that's progress! A few progress photos for all of you, including some flowered red basil that is just as beautiful to look at as it is to eat, some cherry tomatoes that are almost ready, a butternut squash that's about halfway grown, and some beefsteak tomatoes that are coming along nicely!

Watching critters and butterflies, fencing and maintaining vines and branches, trimming and thinning plants, watering and harvesting vegetables, and of course preparing and cooking the bounty I can procure from my own corner backyard are all valuable joys in life for me.

I think it's really important that we keep grade school chorus song lyrics like this in the forefront of our thoughts through these times, "when a dog bites, when a bee stings, when I'm feeling sad... I simply remember my favorite things... and then I don't feel so bad!" Although my adorable puppies are not going to bite (unless I'm trying to feed them some of my grilled chicken with my fingers), and knock on wood I haven't been stung by a bee since I was in grade school singing this song in glee club, these crazy times can make us all feel sad sometimes. But when we simply remember all that we get excited about every single day, we can keep making progress and even sit back and enjoy a little.