Missing you!

You can’t imagine how very much I miss all of you! And, the fun, creativity, and camaraderie of blogging.

Where have I been? Well, the answer is quite simple. I’ve been working. A lot.

I have many passions in life. Some of you know I love to create in the kitchen, eat, and share those recipes with you. I’m passionate about my family and friends and the little dogs. And, I’m pretty passionate about work.

For a few years I worked part time and during that period I learned about my food sensitivities and started The Sensitive Pantry. 

It was a good time for me. My son was in high school and for the first time I was around when he got home from school. I started to decompress from corporate life and found that the old me—the one who was still creative, and funny, and could be calm and thoughtful about so many things—still existed.

I still worked but not as much. Fortunately for me I was able to connect with a company that was growing in a depressed economy. We started working together and one thing lead to another. I am now working within that company and I’m excited to be part of the organization that will help lead them through their continued growth.

It’s a lot of work. A lot. (Oh, yeah, I said that already.)

So, not as much time as I’d like to let the creative juices flow in the kitchen and then onto the blog. I’ve tried but my cooking mojo is just not up to par. And, I promised myself I would not stress about it. 

The plan is this. If I can I will cook up a storm and share it. If not, then I won’t. That simple. No pressure.

So, expect a new recipe from me now and again. 

My love to all of you. I have had so much fun playing in the kitchen and online with you for these past few years. I will come and play with you again when I can!

Red & Blue Herbed Potatoes

While I haven’t been here—at The Sensitive Pantry—so often lately I have been out and about with friends and family. In between we’ve been dodging (or not) hurricanes and freak October snowstorms that have left us on two occasions without power for more than 5 days each time.

Yes, life has been clipping along at a fast pace. Even so, the individual events—in snapshot form—hold good memories. Lovely images of friends walking together on the beach, meeting up at the farmers’ market with someone who gets as excited as I do about organic vegetables, and the sounds of generators humming throughout the neighborhood while we chat lazily with the folks next door.

One of the highlights of my fall weekends is coming to a close and I’m feeling blue about it. Most Sunday mornings I grab my shopping bags and head out to one of two local farmers’ markets. Most times I meet up with Stephanie from Gluten-free by Nature (and on occasion Amber from Bluebonnets and Brownies) to stroll about in the perfect weather, gushing over organic broccoli raab and San Marzano tomatoes (sigh), delighting over the fresh fish, checking out the adorable alpaca and catching up on all that’s going on in our separate worlds.

It’s pretty simple—it makes me really happy to spend a few hours this way every week. Really happy. So easy to do. So simple. So nourishing—in so many ways.

Come to find out there’s a winter market about twenty minutes away. Bazinga!

Up next—homemade roasted tomato ketchup from organic San Marzanos!

Red & Blue Herbed Potatoes

One of the organic farmers offers a great selection of potatoes. The red and blue varieties are boldly colored throughout. This quick recipe is as simple as it is beautiful.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a convection oven use the Convect Roast setting.

Scrub and dry:

About 8-10 small to medium organic red and blue potatoes

Cut them into equal sized pieces. I cut mine in half long-ways and then in about 3/8 inch strips (again cutting along the long side).

Rinse the potatoes in cold water and dry thoroughly.

(I used a ziploc bag for the next two steps.)

Toss with:

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil

Sprinkle and toss to coat with:

2 teaspoons almond flour
2 teaspoons grated pecorino romano cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons mixed dried herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano
salt and pepper

Place the potatoes in a cast iron frying pan and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until fork tender.

Makes about 4 servings.

PRINT RECIPE

Link up your farmers’ market recipes!

Stephanie and Amber created some really wonderful dishes from their farmers’ market purchases—a lovely Pumpkin Sage Cake (gluten-free and vegan) from Steph and mouth-watering Kielbasa, Apple and Kale Hash from Amber (naturally gluten-free).

Have any favorites you’d like to share?

Recipes are not restricted to allergen-free recipes. Link sharing available through December 15, 2011.