Pizza With Piper

Piper Henderson stopped by the Pickles and Cake Kitchen to help Lillie and Sadie put together a cheese pizza. We bought the dough at Publix along with some good sauce and a giant bag of mozzarella .


After rolling out the dough, the sauce went down. Lillie couldn't keep her grubby little fingers out of the sauce and caused a power surge by not listening (it could happen!)



The girls took turns layering the cheese in just the right spots.


Careful cheese placement is key to the perfect home-baked pizza.


We used Victoria's pizza baking trick and it works like a charm. Instead of covering your entire kitchen with corn meal, Roll out and transfer pizza to pizza stone on parchment paper. Once the pie has firmed up, yank out the paper and let it finish on the stone. Preheat oven at 450 and bake for about 15 minutes.


Lillie chews with her eyes closed.


Piper was a big fan of the crust.


Sadie just pretends to eat.


It was a great visit - come back anytime, Piper!

Eat Your Lawn!

I stumbledupon an article in Time today that grabbed my attention. "The Incredible, Edible Front Lawn" is about a new trend that encourages us to evolve past the wasteful 50's inspired manicured front lawn to a more eco-friendly approach by shifting the edible garden from a small plot in the backyard to your primary landscape focus.


Here is a great quote from Fritz Haeg, the creator of Edible Estates, “The lawn devours resources while it pollutes. It is maniacally groomed with mowers and trimmers powered by the 2 stroke motors responsible for much of our greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrocarbons from mowers react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight to produce ozone. To eradicate invading plants it is drugged with pesticides which are then washed into our water supply with sprinklers and hoses dumping our increasingly rare fresh drinking resource down the gutter. Of the 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater and 23 have the ability to leach into groundwater sources.
The lawn divides and isolates us. It is the buffer of anti-social no-mans-land that we wrap ourselves with, reinforcing the suburban alienation of our sprawling communities. The mono-culture of one plant species covering our neighborhoods from coast to coast celebrates puritanical homogeneity and mindless conformity.”

Check out the Edible Estates website for more info including some amazing examples. how to guides, and resources - good stuff!


Makes sense to me. I wonder what my Homeowner's Association will think?

Being the literal person that I am, I thought they were talking about actually eating the grass growing in a traditional lawn. I was psyched to find such a thing! The organization Plants for an Edible Future has a listing of edible grasses you can grow and cut back in your lawn! Click here for the link.

I'm buying a used riding lawnmower off of Craigslist today and I'm not happy about it! Our yard is too big, grows too fast and, well, I don't want to mow that damn lawn anymore! Eating it just sounds like a better option.

Make Your Own Cheese

This is too cool not to share! I like the guys tongue in cheek approach too. I'm going to make this asap!

you say tomato

The best flavor in the world is a fresh tomato right out of the garden and there is nothing worse than a tomato that doesn't taste like a tomato. We have all suffered through those flavorless, mealy off-season tomatoes. Yuck.

Our harvest happened at the right time considering the salmonella outbreak sweeping the country. I was truly caught off guard by how much flavor these beauties are packing.


Here is a recipe inspired by the new show Chef at Home - he recently had a whole show on garden-fresh tomatoes and did a great job showcasing their flavor and versatility. His enthusiasm is a bit much at times but by the end of the show I was hooked. He squeezed a ton of information into the half hour show and had some ideas I'd never considered. The message that resonated with me the most was to not over complicate your dish - let the flavor of your key ingredient shine through.


This one is too simple not to try. Combine all ingredients in a blender (or use your immersion blender) and puree for a minute or two. Chill for an hour and serve over sliced tomato and greens.

tomato vinaigrette

1 large ripe tomato
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
zest and juice from 1 small lemon
1 tsp honey
2 basil leaves
1/2 clove garlic
1 tsp fresh shallot

Purple Haze Carrots

The first batch of Purple Haze Carrots have been harvested. I probably should have waited until they were a little bigger, but my little ravenous rabbits were chomping at the bit. They will eat anything from the garden on the spot so I had to get these carrots in the kitchen fast!


The skin is so tender I just left it on and cut carrots into small bite-sized pieces.

After steaming them for a few minutes, I tossed them with a very light drizzle of olive oil and local honey.


Lillie picked them up with her hands and ate them one by one like popcorn.