Disclaimer: I am actually not a huge baker. I like to bake, but I seldom do it for many reasons.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (I used 3/4 cup King Arthur All Purpose Flour and 3/4 cup KAF 9 Grain Flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup raspberries, blueberries, or a mix of both (optional)

Directions:

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter.

Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener.Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes, while the griddle is heating; it’ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 350°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle (with butter, vegetable oil or non-stick spray) The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately.

Drop 1/3 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break. If you are using berries, carefully add them now to the pancakes. Turn the pancakes and cook the other side till brown. Turn over only once. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 200 degree oven until ready to serve.

About three years ago, as I was watching an episode of the Martha Stewart Show, I had my own mini-epiphany. I was watching a young, self-taught baker school Martha in the ways of organic, all-natural, vegan baking. Martha, the expert at basically everything, was being nudged around by a slight and slightly spicy Erin McKenna, a woman who had only been cooking a few years. Erin wasn’t in charge; Martha was certainly the chief in her television kitchen. But Erin wasn’t frightened either, or, if she was, she sure did retain her composure and humor.

For a moment or two, I was embarrassed for Erin, thinking she should have bowed to the domestic goddess before her. Who was she to tell Martha to “move on” now? But as the segment ended, I puffed up a bit, becoming proud of the quirky Erin McKenna. She owned her story, her business and her cooking approach, and showed Martha a thing or two. With very little experience under her belt, she stood up to the Goliath before her. As the commercial faded in, I marched over to my husband to say, “Hell, if Erin can do it, I can do it! I’m going to start a site and call it Eat Boutique. I love everything boutique, small, teeny, local – especially food – so I’m going to do it right now.”

My husband bought the domain and the rest is, well, my own personal history. This site has encouraged me to travel regularly, to eat everything and to meet people I would have never met otherwise. It grows bit by bit and, in fact, my biggest personal accomplishment launches in just a week or two. After scouting out food and producers across New England, I’m finally going to offer up a little gift-box of some amazing sweet and savory delights. It may seem small, but it’s a big step for me. The mini-entrepreneur in me is finally doing something for me. It’s a labor of love and while it may never pay the bills, it’s fun and deeply satisfying.

I hope you’ll visit the moment my shopping cart launches, just after Thanksgiving. Til then, I finally picked up Erin’s BabyCakes cookbook, and made this recipe a few weeks ago. Instead of muffins, I poured the batter into mini-paper loaf forms. So cute and so delicious and so healthful. Thanks, Erin.

Pumpkin-Spice Muffins

[Recipe adapted from BabyCakes cookbook]

Ingredients

• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, plus more for the pan
• 2/3 cup agave nectar
• 2/3 cup rice milk
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the first 7 ingredients. Add the next 4 ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth and thick. Fold in the pumpkin and hot water until both are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it. Bake the muffins on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tin 180 degrees after 10 minutes. The finished muffins will be soft to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let the muffins stand in the tin for 15 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely. Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Similarly delightful recipes elsewhere, at sites I love:

• Brown Sugar and Peach Muffins at Vegan Yum Yum
• Vegan Pumpkin Muffins at Foodista
• Vegan Pumpkin Muffins at Nosh With Me

My fridge is full, bursting at the seams with too many farm-stand delights – beets, greens, leeks, fresh eggs – and a new batch of grocery store staples. Yesterday’s pumpkin cheesecake experiments are also taking up at least half of a shelf, forcing big pile-ups of mushrooms, cheeses, and leftover spaghetti, all teetering and tall. My fridge desperately needed some pruning this morning, a perfect excuse for a big breakfast.

I think Sundays are made for big, egg-filled breakfasts. Eggs are just fine on their own, but how about eggs with all those other ingredients that need freedom from my fridge like mushrooms, greens and spaghetti? And, frankly, eggs are simply better with pasta. My husband would argue that everything is better with pasta. He’s wrong. Pasta in chocolate pudding? Um, no.

Today we’re cooking a frittata of spaghetti, eggs, greens, shitake mushrooms and a touch of Parmesan. When you cook eggs with pasta, there’s no need for toast, just a nice cup of strong coffee. Or wine. If you serve it for dinner, of course!

I should add, this may not be the first time you’ve seen pasta in a frittata. But most pasta-frittata dishes hide the pasta in gallons of eggs. I love the beautiful craters between the spaghetti strands, vegetables and eggs.

Egg-Pasta Frittata

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and extra for finishing
• 2 cups of wild mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cups of leftover pasta (spaghetti, in this case)
• 2 handfuls of greens (spinach, arugula, chard)
• 5 eggs, whisked a splash of cream
• Heavy sprinkle of Parmesan
• Pinches of salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven’s broiler.

On the stove, saute mushrooms in the olive oil over medium-high heat until soft, about 4 minutes. Add pasta and cook until slightly golden. Add in greens, salt and pepper, and cook until the greens wilt slightly. Pour the egg-cream blend and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Let the eggs firm up in the pan for a minute and then slide the pan under the broiler for a few minutes, until the top firms up and gets a slightly golden color. Serve with an extra sprinkle of cheese and a splash of really good olive oil.

I hate to sound cliche but a summer vacation in Maine wouldn’t be complete without blueberries. That said, I didn’t get sucked into cliche cooking by making blueberry pies or tarts or muffins. Oh my no! I get so bored with the same old berry recipes. There may be nothing quite like a blueberry pie, but there’s a lot to be said for using these little gems in a new way.

There’s a great little co-op up in Blue Hill, Maine called, appropriately enough, the Blue Hill Co-op Community Market & Cafe. During my stay, I drifted back and forth between this co-op and all the local farmers markets. I’d get an idea for a dish from the area farmers and then fill in with products from the co-op to jazz it up. I returned home to our sweet cottage with lots of new items, including a nice, thick slab of Italian gorgonzola.

I’m an early riser on vacation and when you rise with the sun, you need lots of coffee and sustenance to make it through to 11 am. Each morning, I indulged in a European continental breakfast – except for that blueberry pancake morning – laying out plates of meats, cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, preserves and toasted breads. One morning, we decided to spread some grilled bread with that creamy, tangy gorgonzola and top it with ripe, sliced fruit. Peaches and gorgonzola were a lovely pair, but with buckets of blueberries towering over in our fridge, I had to give it a shot. In short, it worked!

In fact, it was so beautiful I convinced myself to preserve that taste well beyond our short time in Maine. With pectin in hand, I boiled and jarred some local blueberry jam for my cupboards. This winter, I can’t wait for that moment when I fork into a gorgonzola and blueberry jam tart or bite into a grilled gorgonzola and blueberry jam sandwich, sprinkled with powdered sugar. The taste will most certainly warm me through what’s certain to be a chilly, long New England winter.

Okay, what’s wrong with this photo? A few things:

1. I broke the yoke before I took the photo, damn it. I was hungry!
2. I could have taken the shot from a better angle, frankly.
3. The egg is a little, slightly, a teeny bit over-cooked.
4. The fact that we had leftover pizza at all is just a shame. Always embarrassed when we cannot finish an entire pie. The husband and I are stronger than that.

All that said… Despite how ugly the photo may be… Despite how gross it may sound to you… This is the most perfect breakfast in the entire world and I’ll argue that fact with anyone. It truly works for me, always makes me happy and full. And while you may say it’s fairly rudimentary, I say it’s the sort of American breakfast that can get you through the day, to an early dinner.

Warm up leftover slices in the oven for 10-15 minutes and place an egg, fried as you like, gently on top. Serve with lots of coffee, orange juice and love.

Do you hate this? Do you LOVE this?

This was one of those mornings when nothing but pancakes would do. We don’t eat pancakes all that often any more; we’ve regimented our exercise and eating habits and breakfast typically consists of eggs, sprouted wheat toast and some coffee or juice, if time permits. But on the weekends, especially this holiday weekend when there’s energy in the air anticipating family, pies and turkeys, we needed a little extra comfort.

But yikes! There was no pancake mix buried anywhere in my cupboards, so I had to do a little quick thinking (terribly difficult on a Sunday morning!) and make the mix from scratch. Pancake mix is actually fairly easy – just flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Alton Brown has a great recipe that gets major kudos.

I was going to make Alton’s easy recipe, but I had no fresh baking soda and thought better about grabbing a couple teaspoons from the old box in the fridge. Instead I stumbled upon a recipe for PB & J pancakes by Sunny Anderson. She may seem to be a fairly hum-drum Food Network Chef, but this recipe was too easy and potentially very rewarding – my husband loves peanut butter, maybe more than he loves me, seriously. And I figured a short stack of these pancakes might make him eternally grateful and convince him to be my sous chef during Thanksgiving preparation day (or, rather, days).

I had no blackberries so couldn’t make Sunny’s Blackberry Syrup, so I simply warmed up 1/2 cup of blackberry jam (freshly made by our favorite faux niece, Celie, from some gorgeous blackberries she picked in her Seattle neighborhood) and 1/4 cup of real maple syrup. It worked nicely! (That said, I’m including Sunny’s recipe for the real thing below.)

Peanut Butter Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, plus extra if needed to thin
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons oil
• Canola oil cooking spray (Sunny uses butter)
• Blackberry Syrup, recipe follows

Preheat a griddle. In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Slowly mix in egg, milk, peanut butter and oil until combined. Add a little extra milk if batter feels too thick. Let mixture sit five minutes. Spray griddle with canola oil cooking spray. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake on griddle to form 5-inch pancakes. The batter spreads as it cooks. Fill griddle without crowding pancakes – I managed to squeeze in three per batch. Flip when air pockets start to pop on the top and a quick peak on the underside reveals a golden pancake. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve pancakes with Blackberry Syrup.

Blackberry Syrup

Ingredients

• 2 pints blackberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 lemon, zested

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until liquid is reduced to a syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to break up blackberries as they cook. Strain syrup to remove seeds and serve warm.

I’m in the midst of breaking in the new camera over a Mozzarella & Swiss Chard Frittata and Garden Tomato Salad. The frittata is like all my other ones – a great mixture of eggs, cream, salt and pepper piled on top of sauteed vegetables. In this case, I cooked up some swiss chard and garlic from the farm. After pouring in the egg mixture, I ripped big hunks of fresh whole milk mozzarella into the pan and popped the entire thing into the oven.

While it cooked just until set, I sliced up some “seconds” tomatoes from the farm. (Seconds mean that they weren’t quite pretty enough to charge for due to blemishes on the skin. I love seconds as they’re oozing and dripping with goodness, and I don’t mind the blemishes. No one, or no thing, is perfect!)

After slicing the tomatoes into large hunks, I tossed them with sea salt, pepper, torn basil leaves, red wine vinegar and good lemon-flavored olive oil. I opted to christen the camera with these gorgeous tomato shots, and so, piled the tomatoes on top of the frittata. It all looked so luscious, I invited the Mom over and we all devoured the entire thing.

The photos aren’t perfect, but I’m just getting used to the camera. In time, I’ll be producing glamorous food shots again. Enjoy!

There’s little that makes me happier than a reliable sweet treat. Located on the cutest side street just outside Harvard Square, BerryLine has been serving creamy, tangy frozen yogurt since 2007.

My favorite combination involves the tangy original flavored yogurt, which feels like thick, sweet, bright Greek yogurt on the palate, smothered on each side by chocolate chips and Fruity Pebbles cereal.

Fruity Pebbles is most certainly a blast from the past. As my absolute favorite cereal as a child, I’d eat it at any hour for any meal, happy as the cartoon character it was named after. The tang of the cereal meshes well with the tang of the yogurt. The chocolate chips provide a sweet divide between the two.

BerryLine is quite the community experience, so do try to visit. The little spot on Arrow Street is mobbed most evenings, and the street curbs fill up with vibrant conversation, all completely complimentary to BerryLine. I try to hit this little shop once per week, because the yogurt truly is healthy and nutritious, unless you top it with sugary, sweet ingredients.

Uh, it’s really good with Fruity Pebbles anyway.

Twenty million things to do before my next business trip, to Las Vegas. I’ve never been, ever, and am getting very excited about the sites I’ll see. As I prepare to get wide-eyed and awed, I want to leave a clean fridge and pantry at home, so the husband and I get to whipping up an early morning breakfast.

We’ve been on this fairly new eating plan that encourages consumption of loads of vegetables at each sitting, along with a touch of protein, fat, grain and fruit. While he gently fries a couple fresh farm eggs, I get to chopping the organic produce. We had a perfectly ripe avocado, ready for the smooshing. The pineapple is sweet and juicy beyond belief. The cucumber crisp and ready for a little salt. (I should add that all this organic produce came to me via our CSA at Green Meadows, but during these still chilly Spring months, most of it is still shipped in.)

The cutting board looked so full and gorgeous, I had to quickly share before I zoom off to work. I love using every little piece of food in the house, never wanting to waste anything we spent hard-earned dollars on nor anything that some hard-working farmer grew with care. Always remember the love that births your food, as while we love avocado, we know someone else loved it to creaminess in order to grace our table.