Elsewhere (when creativity eludes me)

I swear. We've been cooking and baking (even canning) up a storm here in the Cameron household. The decidedly autumnal turn the weather's taken in the Twin Cities has facilitated a domestic streak.

Wait. Maybe by "domestic streak" I mean homeboundedness (a word, do you think?) and by "decidedly autumnal turn in the weather" I mean stomach flu. Ugh. The least sexy food blog intro ever.

We still get food on the table during these periods of malaise, but that food is at best inspired by someone else's creativity rather than my own, and at worst delivered to our condo in a large cardboard box.

Here are some of the successes we've had relying on the brilliance of others in the foodblogosphere (oh and Ms. Garten, of course). Notwithstanding the commentary below, (you'll see), I believe I'd recommend them all.

White Chocolate Baguette - Maybe if you've vacationed at Club Med you're familiar with this? At any rate, it's even better than it sounds, and I assure you it sounded REALLY good to me. My breadmaker husband adapted the recipe so that it was a 2-day process, there was a soaker/biga/whatever, and the bread ended up much airier than the one in the Love & Olive Oil pictures.

Rori's Potato Chips made with some cute little purple potatoes. I basically used the recipe on p. 77 of Barefoot Contessa Parties, only with half the oil and a lot more spice. They were good.

Not as good but nearly: Kale Chips. I used Joy the Baker's recipe, though there are a million out there. It worked. As evidenced by toddler consumption. I seasoned with cinnamon-salt and a cayenne-tellicherry pepper blend.

Butternut Squash-crusted Quiche - Inspired by my friend Nicole (hey, maybe if I link to her blog she'll blog again?), I made this when we went gluten free for five minutes. I butchered the recipe in a valiant yet misguided effort to be resourceful. I also was trying to be considerate of my husband's preferences, which exclude mushrooms. The recipe is excellent. I am sure it is excellent. What is not excellent is cabbage in a quiche. This is probably why you don't often find cabbage in quiche. I wasn't expecting to create the next big culinary thing here. But still, I was thrown by how strong the cabbage flavor was after such a long time in the oven. Despite its cabbaginess, I (mostly singlemouthedly) ate the whole thing and (mostly) enjoyed it.

Japanese Pizza - This is what I should have done with ALL the cabbage, since Heidi never lets me down. This is delicious. My 2-year-old liked it. I liked it. I want it again. It's like a giant cabbage fritter. But surprisingly delicious, and then even more delicious with 101 Cookbook's Magic Sauce.

Quark Cookies - compromised Cream Cheese Cookies, because I can't leave well enough alone. These were tasty, with quite a tang to them - but then quark is tangier than cream cheese. I feel they got better on days 2 and 3 of their short lives. They ended up quite flat, so not as pretty as in the Food 52 picture, but still lovely.

Godspeed.

Until I get my act together, hopefully soon,

Edith xoxo