Things I've Been Loving Lately

I can't help but post about some things that I have been enjoying lately!

Annelise's Crocs: I really can't stand the style of these in general, but they are SOOOO practical for a little kid. She has gone creek walking and out in the puddles in them (it was over 70 degrees). I love that they slip on and they seem really comfortable. She has grape cayman Crocs.

My crockpot: I have this one, but have used others. I've always enjoyed my crockpot, but stumbling on this wonderful blog about a woman and her New Year's Resolution has changed the way I use mine. There are dessert recipes (I haven't tried those yet, because I'm really watching what I eat), pasta recipes, and I have even cooked salmon in my crockpot. I love throwing stuff in and being done (especially because from 4:30 until the kids' bedtime it is pretty much madness around here).

My rice cooker: This is a new purchase. I actually bought it only 6 weeks ago and have never used one before. Whenever we wanted rice, I would cook it on the stove-top (I rarely use the instant stuff). I love brown rice, basmati rice, couscous and quinoa... all of which cook so much better in the rice cooker. I bought the cheapest one available, but someday I may splurge and buy one with a timer. Then I can have the rice cooker and crockpot getting all of my meal ready, without me even being home! Annelise has been on the BRAT diet for two weeks now (a whole other story!), so making white rice for her has been an every other day affair! I'm so glad we have the rice cooker.

Strawberries: The strawberries are now in the markets, although the local ones aren't ripe, yet. We have to hide them from Annelise (because of her issues), but I have been snacking so much on these in the last two weeks. Speaking of local...

Farmer's Markets and CSA subscription: Our close (College Park) farmer's market opened up last Saturday. (Oh, how I long for Irvine's year-round farmer's market!) Our own town's very first farmer's market will open in a couple of weekends. I am so excited. The price is usually good, but the quality is so much better than what can be found in the store. Also our spring/summer CSA subscription starts on May 22nd. Yipee! If you haven't heard about CSAs, you should definitely check them out. It took me my whole first year of being in Maryland to get over my disappointment in the produce available here. Living in California for 30 years did have me so spoiled. But last fall I subscribed to a local farm's vegetable service. My box of local, organic vegetables got delivered every week, and I got to learn how to cook all kinds of new things! I'm looking forward to squash and tomatoes this summer. Yum!

Yael Naim on iTunes: Finally (a couple of months ago) Yael Naim got some songs posted on iTunes! Yippee! You might remember that I loved this video.

Well I could probably think of 30 more things to add to this list, but I don't need to bore you.