Lavender French 75

Posted on May 16, 2014 by thekeyofkels

Before it got amazingly hot here in Los Angeles, I was really excited to find this lavender at the farmer’s market.

The best part about lavender is that it is gorgeous as flowers around your house for a while, and then – once it’s dried – it also makes things floral and fancy in the kitchen.

I had big plans for my bouquet of lavender. (i’ll be sharing with you some other projects very soon!) I was going to put these tiny little flower buds to good use.

I made myself a lavender simple syrup with the intention to jazz up some cocktails, but the syrup could also be used for all kinds of non-alcoholic things. It would be delicious added to iced tea or coffee, or you could flavor your baked goods or icings with a subtle lavender taste. Continue reading →

Hot Off the Farmer’s Market

Posted on May 14, 2014 by thekeyofkels

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I survived living in Orlando, Florida for six years.

Temperatures have been stuck right around the 90 degree mark here in Santa Monica, which is perfect if you want to hang out by a pool or on a beach or something.

But when you’ve had a serious wine night with friends until about 3am the night before and you’re hanging out at the Farmer’s Market the next morning… 90 degrees hurts a little bit.

No big deal. I just threw on my handy hangover hat and shades….

watermelon shirt

And a watermelon shirt that made me feel like it was straight up summer around here.

Brad, of course, stuck to his normal uniform. Skinny jeans, vneck tee, Chucks.

Enough about our fashion choices. The market was also full of produce that felt very summer-like… Continue reading →

Candied Grapefruit Peel

Posted on May 1, 2014 by thekeyofkels

Last week at the market, I wore my grapefruit shirt. Therefore, I bought grapefruits. Of course.

Not only was it a no-brainer to buy the fruit that I was advertising on my shirt, but I had been craving candied grapefruit peels ever since I had a greyhound a few weeks ago adorned with a little slice of the sugared candy. The actual greyhound was kind of mediocre, but that candy! The bartender ended up giving me a few extra pieces because I was raving so wildly about how much I loved it.

So this week I broke out the peeler and got to candying.

For some reason, I thought the naked grapefruits were really entertaining. It’s kind of weird how many pictures I took of them. And posted to Twitter about them…Anyway, enough with the grapefruit porn.

I found a couple of different recipes and took the best of the feedback from both of them to come up with my method. I wanted them to be sugary sweet, but to still have the bitterness that I love. Continue reading →

Colors of Spring

Posted on April 24, 2014 by thekeyofkels

Sometimes during the cold winter months of potatoes and hearty green kale, you forget how much color there is in the world.

And then weeks like this week happen. The market was drop dead gorgeous this week.

Spring here in Southern California is in full bloom. There were blossoms and flowers and blooms everywhere.

Even the herbs were flowering with spring. Continue reading →

Who Needs Flowers? Artichokes!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by thekeyofkels

Our Farmer’s Market is always introducing me to amazing new things.

This week, one of our favorite famers gave me these awesome artichokes. Except they were arranged with all of his flowers, not his other produce the way you’d think artichokes should be.

He said it was something new he was trying. They weren’t quite good enough to sell as produce, but he loved arranging them at home as decoration.

So I got home and threw those babies in a vase. And almost a week later, they’re still choking it up. Continue reading →

Coleman Farm Lunch

Posted on March 28, 2014 by thekeyofkels

I don’t know if you remember, but in September Brad was auctioned off at Weiser Farms right in front of my very eyes.

After bidding hit about $200, I realized I could no longer afford my husband. I was going to have to share.

For a good cause, of course.

A lunch for 8 at Coleman Family Farms was sold to the buyer who had $1400 for Alex’s Lemonade Stand. They scheduled and planned, and then rescheduled for after the crazy holiday season – which ended up being yesterday.

With me and the Barolo Joe guys in tow, Brad put together a 5 course lunch for what turned into a group of 16.

We drove up to Carpinteria super early (for us), explored the farm a little, and then hand-picked fresh greens, flowers and herbs for lunch.

Then, it was off to the races. We set up and prepped…