Introductions and reflections have no shadows: Weekend Blog Reading

Here you are now.  Your weekend reading. A few sites for you to visit.  As usual I have a few that some of us know well, and also a few new ones who have popped up in my comments this week.  Have fun snooping about.

Everybody Likes Sandwiches Jeanette aka Kickpleat has been writing this blog for years.  The fact that she is a designer shines in her images, her food uses loads of vegetables and good proteins and sometimes is more a suggestion than a recipe (which as you know is right up my alley) but with that little twist to her work that will keep us interested. Lovely food and photographs.

movita beaucoup. Movita is new to my pages. She teaches ballet AND dances through her kitchen throwing lovely ingredients into bowls. I think she is primarily a baker and though I am not into cakes and things, I KNOW that many of YOU are.  So if you want a moist chocolate oozy yummy cake.. go there today.. 

Taste Food . Lynda at Taste Food has pages that I return to again and again, I have successfully cooked a number of her dishes and her recipes are precise, balanced and eminently cookable. The result I get looks just like her picture – now you know how hard that is to do! I have introduced my father to her  French Onion Soup and Third Son and his wife frequently make the Tart Tartine  (the pear one but with apples too). We are actually regulars  at Taste Food.  This one is for you Connie!

Pease Pudding. Now here we have an English Girl who is now a New Zealand Girl who surfs and cooks. Although a trained chef she is just as happy mooching about her own kitchen (probably in her bare sandy feet) making gorgeous feeds for us. She has a light almost effervescent touch with food. She brings an international influence to Kiwi tucker and Oh My I can smell the scent of the beach in her work.. Wonderful. 

Saffron and Honey Ksenia is a lovely and generous food blogger. She travels and as far as I can make out has an international background. She will often bring us food from all over the world. Ksenia is not about the pictures or fancy pancy -she is about taste.  Really good taste. She has a team of fellow foodies that she works with and often she will let us choose an ingredient for the month and then she is away, leading us through a complex and perfectly balanced myriad of menus using this ingredient. Her combinations show an educated imagination and a genuine care for our health.

Just a Smidgeon.  Barbara’s work is quite simply beautiful. Her images are always so peaceful and full of such (.. what is the word.) Thought, care, passion, amazing attention to detail. She builds her images.  The results are feminine, rich and startling.  A poet, a cellist and a very good cook.  I think she must live in a beautiful house. A house I would like to visit. 

This morning is dawning clear, it is 6.16 am, I am ready to post this to you and already the sky has that predawn blue with those washes of the most poignant of pinks, awaiting the sun.  Thank you so much for all your kind thoughts and words for the Old Codger. He came through his surgery OK and will soon commence his long recovery.  I am working on registering TonTon as a therapy dog so that we can visit  together. Though there will have to be some work done. Not the least of which is  teaching him to wear a harness. He has never even had a collar on his neck, let alone a leash.   Ever.  But this is a requirement. Can you imagine the horrified look on that dogs face when I leash him.

Yesterday evening a hawk chased the pigeons into the barn and proceeded to dive bomb them from his lofty perch. (With Our John cheering him on I might add). The cats went into a high state of agitation and the guineas decided to sleep outside on the fence (after a protracted screeching protest.)  They hate hawks with a passion. The image of him (above) is terrible because I had to use a flash to catch the moving target so far up  in the rafters.  But hopefully we can identify him.

Of course the chickens with their bird brains took no notice of the drama at all and stood about introducing themselves to their own reflections in a puddle.

Today is poopy scooping day in the barn! A job I do not actively dislike as every shovel full goes into the compost pile and I love compost!  All gardeners love compost!

Good morning!

celi