Friday Favorite: Taza Chocolate
I’m not a chocoholic, but I do like a bit of good chocolate every now and then. Milk chocolate is not my thing, I find it much too sweet. Dark chocolate is more my speed, the darker the better. Recently, I’ve fallen in love with Taza chocolate. It’s stone ground and made without emulsifiers, so there’s no soy lecithin or other weirdness involved. The texture is different that regular chocolate, but I like it.
It’s not cheap chocolate, but it’s good quality and it’s tastes great. I don’t buy it that often, but when I do I enjoy every last bit of it. One of the things I like about buying really great chocolate is that a tiny square is enough, no need to eat the entire bar, which means a bar or round will last me a few weeks. Taza comes with different flavor additions: ginger, chipotle, coffee, cinnamon and salt & pepper (which is my favorite).
What’s your favorite brand of chocolate?
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Friday Favorite: Family Visits
For the past week, my parents have been visiting. We’ve seen a few sights, hiked, visited the ocean, chatted, walked around the garden, drank some coffee and of course we’ve eaten a respectable amount of ice cream.
My parents seemed particularly fond of the menagerie here at Chiot’s Run. They loves giving the pigs snacks and my mom kept a keen eye on the ducklings, herding them back to their pool when they wandered off into the woods.
It’s always nice to visit with family, especially now that we are separated by many miles. Usually we’re the ones that end up traveling back to Ohio where they all live, but it sure is nice to share our neck of the woods with those closest to us.
Does your family live nearby or far away?
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Friday Favorite: Blueberries
It’s wild blueberry season here in Maine and we’ve been enjoying them. I ordered 40lbs for the freezer and picked up 10lbs at the farmers market last week.
We’ve been enjoying them in our kefir daily, which is a great way to use them and maximize their healthfulness. Last week I made wild blueberry bread pudding and I’m trying to decide what to make with the remainder of the fresh ones I have.
Do you have any great blueberry recipe to recommend?
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Friday Favorite: Vanilla Rooibos Tea
I’m usually not much of one for drinking cold beverages, lukewarm works well for me. This summer however, I’ve really been enjoying glasses of iced Vanilla Rooibos Tea from Mt Rose Herbs. I started drinking regular rooibos tea last year and thought it might be good chilled in the summer. Sure enough, it is. There’s just something wonderful about the flavor profile of this tea, it works perfectly chilled.
I made a half gallon at a time, by simply adding 2 Tablespoons of tea in a half gallon of filtered water. The jar is set on the picnic table in the sun for a few hours and voila – sun tea without heating up the kitchen or using any gas.
Into the fridge the tea goes and it gets strained with a piece of cheesecloth right into the glasses when we want something to drink. If you like a sweeter tea, a little honey works well with the flavors in this tea.
What’s your favorite cooling off beverage after a hot day of gardening?
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Friday Favorite: ‘Roxy’ Lettuce
I’ve grown tons of different kinds of lettuce in my garden, probably around 30-40 different varieties. I’m always trying new ones because I haven’t found that perfect lettuce yet – until now. Meet ‘Roxy’ lettuce, voted by our taste buds as the best lettuce I’ve ever grown. Two years ago, I purchased tiny head of ‘Roxy’ at my farmers market – I knew I had to grow it in my own garden. This year, I finally ordered seed from High Mowing. I started seed in mid-May and transplanted them to the garden in mid-June.
Why is this lettuce voted best tasting? Because it’s crisp yet tender. The leaves have great structure in a salad, it’s a butterhead lettuce but has the great crunch of romaine. It holds dressing well, without becoming slimy like a leaf lettuce often does. It holds it’s own in a salad with few topping or many toppings. When Mr Chiots ate his first bite of this lettuce, he said “This would be great on a burger”.
Another reason to love this lettuce is that it’s very slow to bolt, even with some hot weather. We had temperatures in the high 80’s for almost a week when this lettuce was almost mature, not a hint of bitterness and no bolting yet. The description says that this lettuce “holds for a long time in the field”. It certainly does, I’ll be keeping a keen eye on it, but so far it’s nice because there’s not as much need to succession plant if the heads keep so well in the garden.
Do you have a favorite lettuce that you grow?
