I’m madly in love with the flats of mixed berries currently in the stores. We picked up a half-flat of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries and had to use them up quickly. Chris did his best, eating them at breakfast and lunch, but they needed to get into a cobbler pronto!

I was excited to put my new Carbquik mix to good use so I adapted a recipe from Cooks.com. I’ll admit I do a lot of things half-ass, and this was no exception. If I’d actually measured my pan, I would have realized it was a 9″ and not an 8″. In this case, the cobbler turned out only about an inch tall, but we all know that size doesn’t matter. It was delish!

Topped with unsweetened real whipped cream

Low-Carb Mixed Berry Cobbler

1/2 stick butter

1 pint fresh mixed berries (I eyeballed this part and used all the berries that were fading fast)

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/4 cup water

Pure Liquid Vanilla Stevia

Scant 1 cup NuStevia Baking Blend

1 cup Carbquik mix

1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Melt butter (in oven) in a square baking pan.

In a saucepan, combine berries, lemon juice, water and a couple of drops of the Vanilla Stevia. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

For the batter, combine remaining ingredients, mixing until smooth. Spoon batter over the melted butter in the baking pan. Top with the berry mixture.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until top is golden brown and crusty .

Serve with fresh-whipped cream! Tastes like summer!

Look who swung through town! It’s Elise, the Hungry Hungry Hippie! How cute is she?

(Despite appearances, we did not phone each other and say “Make sure you where blue to lunch!” )

She and her charming fiancé, Kyle, were making their way back down the west coast to start their “real lives” in LA. This is a super exciting time for them, what with a wedding coming up and everything. We had a lot to talk about, especially since we’d both lived in LA and NYC.

True story: after reading one of her blog posts about an exasperating day at the hospital, I had a flash of her running on a sunny beach. (This happens to me every once in a while. Never lottery numbers though, darnit) I told her this, and she let me in on a little secret – they were moving back to Los Angeles! I knew right away that was exactly where they were meant to be. Spooky cool, right?

We met up at Chaco Canyon, my favorite organic Vegetarian café, where I knew she’d have plenty of yummy Vegan options to choose from. I had Chris’ recommendation, the Thai Peanut bowl:Fresh spinach, cabbage, brown rice, and sesame veggies with housemade peanut sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and spicy peanuts. Gluten and soy free.

Before we knew it, Elise and Kyle had to hit the road, but not without taking a Black Bean Brownie – can’t wait to read her review of that – and a small local treat I brought her: chocolate chip cookies from Skydottir. I sampled a cookie at the small green market where I got them, and they are delish. A little skimpy on the packaging (3 tiny cookies) but maybe that’s a good thing. They are not sugar-free so I won’t be making a regular habit of buying them, but good going for a local girl!

Thanks Elise and Kyle for meeting up! I have to say that this was probably the highlight of my week as I wait to hear about a job prospect and a new hearing date for my unemployment benefits. My massage tomorrow is going to rank right up there too!

How’s everybody’s week going? Meeting up with anybody soon?

It was a spectacular sunny weekend here in the PNW, and you better believe we stayed out in it at every opportunity. It helps to keep the moss off.

As mentioned, we went to Anderson Island, but I was remiss in describing the cute town of Steilacoom where you catch the ferry. It may not be worth a whole day trip on its own, but it’s a nice place to spend an hour or so. Plus I got to indulge my cottage fantasies:

You would enter my garden through here...

Could those watering cans be any more clever? LOVE!Prior to our island getaway, I visited not one, but two Farmers’ Markets last week. The first was on Queen Anne where I met up with my photographer friend, Valentina.Hmmm, lesson learned: shadows from late afternoon sun can sure wreak havoc on a photo.

Anyway, Valentina knows EVERYONE at this market, and she’s fabulous at introductions. It made the day super fun! But I did work up an appetite so I grabbed a Veraci pizza from the wood-burning oven there to bring home for me and Chris.

Ah, mushrooms. How I love thee!

Here’s the coolest thing I saw at the market: The Juice Peddler! You pick your juice combo and then you can blend it yourself (or have them do it) with bicycle power! How cool is that? I wish everything in my house ran that way.The day before she left, I took MOC to the Phinney Ridge Farmers’ Market where she bought ingredients for what would turn out to be a very expensive sandwich. Then, she almost accidentally stole the toothpick holder from the fruit farmers who were giving out samples, but we got that straightened out. Can’t take her anywhere!

Meanwhile, back at home, our own farm is progressing:That’s our corn next to our sunflower. I wanted to show the progress so we’ve put Cady in for scale. If we can ever get her to sit there again, it will be a miracle. What’s miraculous is how much the corn and sunflower grow every day. It’s like they’re racing.

I have a super fun blogger meet-up planned tomorrow, but, in the meantime, my beloved Kodiak mix reappeared in the store so I have a date with some pancakes! Happy Monday!

Yesterday morning I did something quite unusual. I popped out of bed and rattled the pots and pans to make a “fancy” breakfast for the household since it was MOC’s last morning in Seattle. Behold, Zucchini Pie! It’s basically a Weight Watchers’ recipe, but I used my new Carbquik baking mix that I ordered from CarbSmart. Veggies, eggs, parmesan cheese, almond milk, baking mix, and voilá! I also gave everyone a crumbled bacon option – I told you this was a fancy breakfast!

Our plan was to put MOC on the train to Portland and then continue south to catch the ferry to Anderson Island. Chris and I have a fantasy of having a small waterfront cabin somewhere to get away to on the weekends, but for a while all we can afford to do is look. It was a fine day for looking!There’s nothing more fun than driving off a ferry and having no idea where you’re going or what you’re looking for. After all, when it’s a small island you can’t get too lost or into too much trouble. Plus you get to discover cool things like hidden dog parks and hear hawks tracking their prey. We saw plenty of houses we couldn’t afford and even drove by the one we could:Before you Oooooh and Ahhhhh and break out your calendar to plan a stay with us, let me point out that behind that lattice is a 1940′s travel trailer that the house is built “onto” (and not in a good way). Normally we’d be all about the travel trailer, as we were totally jazzed about the idea of living on this when we saw it:That, my friends, is a grounded ferry. Sorry for the blurry photo but it was across the bay from us. If you look closely, you can see that there’s a travel trailer ON the ferry deck! We figured if that travel trailer had a 1950′s Airstream inside of it, it would be the Turducken of recreational vehicles. Can you imagine living on an old ferry? We were giddy with the possibility, but it was not for sale.

Photographing car eats was not easy since Cady was with us, but while waiting for the ferry I had one of the best hot dogs I’d ever had. I’m sure it would have gone missing if I’d set it down to get out my camera. I wish I knew what kind of hot dog it was since it tasted maple-y. A rare delicious treat! That and Smart Food got us through the day.

This week brings a Blogger meet-up and only one more week of Amber’s July BFC challenge. How did it get to be August already?