Bouquet Garni, Young Beans, and a Roosting Chicken

by Sue Schlabach | Aug 28, 2012 | Artisanal Living, Chickens, Eating and Cooking, Family, Farm Life, Garden, Recipes, Summer, Vermont

Tonight’s dinner of braised root vegetables was seasoned with bouquet garni—a pleasing little bundle of parsley, thyme and bay. We ate the sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets over gnocchi, drizzled with the pan juices, butter, and chopped herbs. The wind picked...

Death of a Lamb

by Sue Schlabach | Aug 26, 2012 | Artisanal Living, Eating and Cooking, Family, Farm Life, Friendship, Garden, Local Food, Summer

Oh E.B. White. You came to mind immediately yesterday. A day so long and multi-faceted that my memory of it now breaks it into chapters. More of E.B. White to come. Stay with me. Chapter 1 12:15 a.m.  Lights out. We’ve just finished watching the sad and slightly...

Heat Wave Eating

by Sue Schlabach | Aug 15, 2012 | Creativity, Eating and Cooking, Garden, Local Food, Recipes, Summer

Hey it’s hot, so sauté the watermelon. My brother-in-law first suggested this to me a few years ago. I wasn’t convinced that watermelon would cook into anything but a wet soggy mess. I was never so happy to be wrong. It’s similar to my earlier belief...

Laboring on the Fourth

by Sue Schlabach | Jul 4, 2012 | Artisanal Living, Color, Eating and Cooking, Garden, Local Food, Summer, Vermont

You’d think it was Labor Day and not the Fourth of July for all the work we did today. I suppose a sunny day off makes us put on our small farm hats and deal with the tasks at hand. Today that meant working on the electric fence to keep one lamb—who is intent on...

Breakfast Under the Sky

by Sue Schlabach | May 13, 2012 | Chickens, Color, Eating and Cooking, Family, Garden, Natural World, Photography, Spring, Vermont

I don’t ask for much on Mother’s Day. I often share it with my husband’s birthday, and so I’ve spent the day at a few ballparks over the years, and that’s okay with me. But this morning Mother’s Day dawned with a bit of overcast...

Blue and White, Anticipating Gateaux, and Simmering Onion Marmalade

by Sue Schlabach | Mar 31, 2012 | Barcelona, Color, Creativity, Design, Eating and Cooking, Garden, Handmade, Interior Design, Paris, Recipes, Travel

Thanks to Britta at MyBlackBookParis for reminding me about Sweet Paul, the beautiful on-line magazine and brainchild of food stylist Paul Lowe. The combination of blue and white seems to be popping up in a lot of places this spring and I particularly liked these...