Friday Night Photos: House Renovations v. 2.1.0 (The Roof, Windows, and a Door!)

Last week I talked about roof trusses going up, so you're probably not surprised to see the roof coming along, but I'm so excited to see it. Having a roof means that the work can continue even if there's bad weather, and it also shows me how the new addition will blend in with the original house. (Very nicely, thank you Spencer!) The wire in this photo goes from an electric pole in the far corner of my back yard to the neighbor's house. We're hoping when the electric company raises the wire it won't be a problem, otherwise it's a rather expensive fix, even with my neighbor sharing the cost.

Avocado, Tomato, Edamame, and Red Onion Salad Recipe with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette

I used to look longingly at those big bags of avocados at Costco but never buy them because I couldn't use that many avocados before they went bad. Then I learned that once avocados are ripe, if you keep them in the fridge they last for days and days without getting any softer. I wish I remembered who told me about this, because that bit of avocado storage information has changed my life. Avocados are still kind of a splurge item around here, but I did buy a big bag last Friday when I was cooking for my avocado-loving dad and a few days later I had some left to make this amazing salad. This is the kind of big-flavor and not-much-fuss salad I could eat for days before I'd ever get tired of it, and luckily there are still a couple of avocados left in the fridge.

Recipe Favorites: Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce.

(Updated March 2009) This easy stir-fried recipe is one of my favorite ways to cook broccolini, a vegetable I discovered by accident in 2006 when I become obsessed with broccoli rabe and tried for weeks to get my local grocery store to order it. One of the produce managers sold me broccolini instead, which turned out to be a very good thing because I discovered I love broccolini, and I've been cooking it ever since. Broccolini is a natural hybrid between broccoli and Gai Lan or Chinese Kale. Broccolini is different than "baby broccoli" which may not have the same sweet, peppery flavor that makes broccolini so good.

Recipe for Sauteed Escarole with Parmesan and Toasted Pine Nuts

Escarole is a plant I've been fascinated by ever since I wrote What's the Role of Escarole for BlogHer over two years ago. Since then I'm embarassed to admit the number of times I've passed it up at the market, or worse, bought some and never used it. So I was determined to use this head of escarole, even though a funeral and a trip to Austin postponed it until the escarole was getting impatient. If you're not familiar with escarole, it's a type of endive that can be eaten raw or cooked. Here's more about escarole from CookThink, where they also share a lot of good ideas for cooking it.

Bread Machine Whole Wheat Bread Recipe with Bulgur Wheat, Oats, Bran, and Flax Seed Meal

Considering I'm someone who rarely bakes, there's been kind of a bread-baking frenzy going on around here for months. Who knows how I got fixated on whole wheat bread machine recipes, but I spent weeks experimenting to come up with 100% Whole Wheat Bread with Oats, Bran and Flax Seed. Once I was happy with that recipe, I wanted to try making whole wheat bread with cracked wheat, similar to Jack Spratt Bread, a type of sprouted wheat bread made in Utah that I'm very fond of.

Friday Night Photos: House Renovations v. 2.0.9 (Walls, Roof Trusses, and a Hint of the Deck!)

It's been two weeks since the last update on house renovations, and even these photos don't quite show all the progress. My neighbor Brooke keeps telling me to jump ahead and show what's happening now, but I'm resisting because I want to create a record for myself of how this all took shape. It is exciting to finally be able to show walls! This corner is where I'll be taking food photos sometime, hopefully soon!

Recipe for Split Pea Soup with Ham, Mushrooms, Carrots, and Wheatberries

A few hours ago I walked in the door from SXSW, where yesterday I participated in a panel about foodblogging with Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake, Zach from Midtown Lunch, Kathy from Not Eating Out in New York, and Addie from Relish Austin. What a talented bunch of bloggers; some of them can even Twitter while speaking intelligently in front of a large audience! (Edit: Thanks to Ryan from Nose to Tail who recorded the panel and made an mp3 of it. You can download it at his post on South-by-Southwest, Secrets of Successful Food Blogging if you want to hear it.)

Recipe for Agave-Sweetened 100% Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

When you're going through rough times, it's interesting how your normal routine can feel very comforting. My stepmother passed away on Tuesday, so I've been taking a break from blogging. But today there wasn't much on the family schedule, and I woke up wanting to post this recipe for Agave-Sweetened Irish Soda Bread so readers could make it for St. Patrick's Day. Actually, the routine of writing a blog post sounded rather nice after days on hold waiting for family members to arrive for funeral services on Monday. I'll only be able to attend SXSW one day, but I'm still going to be part of the panel on food blogging, so I won't get back to the blog until later next week. Thanks to readers and friends who have left supportive comments or sent notes. Your kind words have been greatly appreciated.

There Are Times when Life Becomes Much More Important Than Blogging . . .

My lovely and gracious step-mother, Norma Noel Denny, passed away yesterday. She was a wonderful companion to my father, and much loved by all of our family. I will be taking time off from the blog so I can be with my family during this time.

(Since I was already going to be away part of next week to participate in a panel on foodblogging at the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, it might be more than a week before I manage to update the blog, but I'll be back as soon as I can.)

Breakfast Casserole Recipe with Sweet Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, and Cheese

I've never been the most frugal of cooks, but now that I'm in the middle of house renovations, I'm more conscious lately about cooking what's in the fridge. Over the weekend I found two sweet Italian sausages, some leftover mushrooms, eggs, and cheese, and came up with this new version of breakfast casserole. As soon as I tasted it, I wondered why it took me so long to think of putting turkey Italian sausage in a breakfast casserole. With fewer eggs than my usual South Beach Diet friendly breakfast casseroles, this was like a baked frittata with eggs just binding the mixture together, letting the flavor of the sweet Italian sausage be the main attraction here.

Crockpot Recipe for Black Bean Stew with Roasted Red Pepper, Chicken, and Cilantro

With the recent braces on the lower teeth completing the set, soft foods have become a hot menu item around here, and this black bean stew is something soft that I made with leftover roast chicken and the rest of the jar of roasted red peppers from Caper Vinaigrette. I always feel proud of myself when I can manage to use ingredients that are leftover from another recipe, so I had a good feeling about this. I decided to call it stew because it seemed too thick to be soup, but does anyone really know where exactly the line is drawn between soup and stew? If soup is more your style, it's fine with me if you add an extra cup of chicken stock and call it soup. Whatever you call it, if you happen to have new braces, this will be soft and comforting.

Friday Night Photos: House Renovations v.2.0.8 (A floor and walls framed!)

Last time we checked in on the house renovations, there was just a glimpse of a floor-to-come, and now as you see, the floor joists are done (and I'm still showing off that word, which I just learned!) The progress is getting exciting, and if you use your imagination, you can visualize sitting in the new room cranking out a blog post.

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Whole Grain Flat-Out Flatbread with Flax

A few weeks ago I wrote about using this Flatout Multi-Grain Flatbread to make South Beach Diet Friendly Flatbread Pizza. Since then I've been loving this flatbread so much I decided it belongs in Kalyn's Kitchen Picks, the collection of products I love and rave about on the blog. And I do love this flatbread, and not only because it's made with 100% stone ground whole wheat, has lots of fiber, very little fat or sugar, and is loaded with other healthful ingredients like flax seed and whole grains. Of course the flatbread makes delicious pizza (why aren't you already in the kitchen making some?) but it's got lots of other uses. This flatbread is becoming a standard item in my freezer, so I thought I'd share a few ideas I had for using it.

Recipe for Curried Lentil Soup with Cilantro

I was talking about soup in September when I got braces on my upper teeth, and last week I got the lower braces on, so it's soft foods and soup on the menu again around here. Lentils are one of my favorite things to use in soup, and this version of curried lentil soup in Fine Cooking Annual Volume 3 was really delicious and unusual. I have to admit, taking the braces thing to the next level has been kind of rough, but this soup made a great dinner on a day I didn't want to chew!

South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Up for February 2009

Kalyn's favorite phase one recipe for February 2009
is Pinto Bean and Beef Stew with Cumin and Cilantro.

It's that time again when the calendar flips over and I round up phase one recipes I've posted on Kalyn's Kitchen or spotted on other blogs during the previous month. These phase one recipes round-ups for the South Beach diet are my little campaign to show people that phase one isn't really that difficult, and I do hear from people who tell me they use the round-ups when they 're doing phase one. This has been a hectic month for me, with house renovations, parent-teacher conferences, and family issues taking me away from the blog, but even if this round-up is a bit lighter than usual, but I still managed to find some pretty interesting and delicious-looking phase one recipes to pass along.