I've Fallen In Love With Farro

My exciting Friday night 

This is by no means a food blog, I didn't set out to write anything even close.

I don't consider myself all that great at creating culinary masterpieces. 

I can make a solid pasta dish and bake a great cake, but I'm no Julia Childs 

nor am I trying to be the next best food blogger. 

I just really love food, and I really love eating it. 

I love reading about food and looking at fabulous foodie pictures. 

And so I have a roll of food blogs that I've fallen in love with, 

where I can get lost for hours, 

getting ideas and inspiring me to cook an endless amount of deliciousness. 

But unfortunately, due to time and energy, 

I have only made a handful of these salivating recipes.

But when I do, I get really excited. 

And I want to eat a lot of said dish and tell everyone. 

And so this brings me back 

to what started this whole foodie rambling in the first place: 

I made a damn good farro salad Friday night 

and the leftovers I had for lunch were absolutely awesome, 

maybe even better than the original serving.

I've come to realize that I adore pretty much every grain out there, 

and when some veggies are tossed into the mix, 

it's not only incredibly satisfying 

but makes me feel pretty healthy too. 

Inspired by this farro salad of red peppers, red onions, carrots, celery and feta, 

I've been brainstorming other grain salad concoctions...

Quinoa with avocado, corn and tomatoes?

Brown rice with edamame, carrots and shredded chicken with a dash of soy sauce?

Cous cous with walnuts, cucumbers, tomatoes and feta? 

Toss in some olive oil dressing variation, salt, pepper 

and I have several days worth of meals. 

But back to the recipe that got this all going: 

Farro Salad courtesy of Shutterbean 

View the full, super easy to follow recipe here 

recipe photo courtesy of Shutterbean 

top photo via my Instagram 

Foodie Blog Crushes

As I spend this glorious week between Christmas and New Years 

lounging at my family’s home in snowy upstate New York, 

I’m finally having the time to catch up with the many blogs 

that I so thoroughly enjoy, 

yet fell behind with reading during the past few crazy weeks.

And as I do so, 

I’m reminded of just how deeply these blogs inspire and influence me. 

As I work on creating my own little space in the blogosphere, 

these sites that I enjoy are my constant sources of inspiration; 

for my personal blog, 

for my home, for the clothes I wear, 

the food I eat, and more.

So as we wrap up 2012, 

I’d like to give some little shout outs to the blogs that helped to make my year 

more fantastic and fabulous, 

starting with the food blogs that get me excited to create in the kitchen

...and make me think I too can make something 

so deliciously good (looking):

Joy the Baker, 

for her witty, relatable writing 

and for aiding in the growth of my sweet tooth

Sara, at the Sprouted Kitchen, 

with her wise, beautiful words 

and for helping me feel better 

after I’ve indulged in too many of Joy’s cookies

Clara from Channeling Contessa, 

for giving me that middle ground between Joy and Sara 

 (the two gorgeous pasta shots probably aren’t the best representation but I love my carbs) 

and making everything seem doable for someone like me 

all photos from their respective sites