Peonies.

Peonies, my all time favorite. My husband brought home the most beautiful and aromatic bunch of white peonies this evening. I will cherish them.

Spice it Up

I have recently become enamored with Monica Bhide's third cookbook, Modern Spice. A food writer in the D.C. area, I first heard of her while listening to a weekend favorite - The Splendid Table on NPR. She described the food she loves with such passion and intensity it made me salivate at the thought of actually cooking one of her recipes. As soon as my library put it on the "New" shelves I snatched it up and got to work. I enjoyed the cookbook so much, my husband purchased a copy for me that week. The book has simple to make recipes with easy-to-find ingredients, which make the most divine meals. Not to mention they are all incredibly healthy. Lots of good whole ingredients made special with various infusions of spices. Got 20 minutes? Try the tamarind chicken curry, your guests will be begging for more. A huge fan of Indian food, I am so happy to have found an accessible cookbook. It's my go to cookbook for spicing up bland weeknight dinners.

Check it out on Amazon.com

Faux Frappuccinos

I have recently re-discovered the Starbuck's Frappuccino. I know many coffeehouse snobs turn up their nose at the idea, but I cannot deny my love for them. Sweet, cold, delicious coffee - perfect to begin a hot sunny day. They do, however, put quite the dent in the wallet. In order to slim down expenses, I decided to set myself up to make them at home. Cheap, easy, and best of all, I control the ingredients!

The only problem was, I didn't have a coffee maker! And those dern espresso machines are prohibitively expensive. I mean, someday it will be worth the investment, but that day is not today. As a compromise I purchased an inexpensive Bodum French Press. It's small, easy to use, and it makes a pretty decent faux espresso! Plus, it only cost the equivalent of three frappuccinos. Double win.

Tomorrow morning I plan on starting my day with a home made frappuccino. I brewed 8oz. of espresso coffee tonight, and froze plenty of ice cubes. Tomorrow I will pop the ingredients in the blender, add my fave vanilla almond milk and perhaps some almond extract. I can't wait to experiment with different flavors!

Thisfrench press might prove to be one of my favorite kitchen accessories.

Here is (my fvorite) Alton Brown explaining how to make a faux latte with a french press.