I opened my little treat from Higashiya today.

I had purchased some candied kumquat peel, which came wrapped with paper and leather twine in this darling ceramic bowl.



Wouldn't it be lovely if all candied treats were served with a side of ceramics?

[1-4. c. lynn]

I'm having so much fun having breakfast with my dad every morning and watching the birds visit the feeder for a sunflower snack. We've seen chickadees, sparrows, cardinals, mourning doves, blue-headed vireos, and finches stop by.

I'd love to get my dad these snowflake millet treats for the wild birds in his backyard, but I don't think they'd last very long! 

Doesn't the bird in the photo remind you of a Charley Harper painting?

[1. Jen Goellnitz; 2. Charley Harper]

Earlier this week we purchased one of the best blenders on the market, and so lately I've been experimenting with a new frontier of culinary pursuits that was impossible to reach before with my mini food processor alone. Sure, it could macerate big juicy canned whole tomatoes, but it would always leave chunks of garlic in pesto or do a mediocre job at creating a small dice. Plus it was really tiny and I would have to process chunky soups ladle by ladle leaving a very messy counter space to clean up afterward.

With our new blender muscle in the kitchen, I've been trying out different types of fruit smoothies in the morning and venturing into a variety of soups as well. So far, I've made a tortilla soup that was quick and easy (no waiting for the vegetables to boil apart in the soup) and a chilled cucumber, yogurt soup that worked well for lunch during a hot day last week.

However, one of the best experiments was to try to make a frosty yogurt-fruit ice pop. I worked off of a recipe from Bon Appetit, which could be tailored to anything you have on hand. I chose to alter the original recipe with agave syrup (instead of simple syrup), strawberries (you can use any fruit that would be complementary with yogurt), and adjusted everything else to taste to yield six strawberry-yogurt honey pops.

Our cute ice pop molds were sourced online; here are some other great options: standard pop shape, a grooved pop, rocket-shaped pops, star-shaped pops, jewel-shaped pops or simply use a shooter glass with a popsicle stick. 

[1. c. lynn]

The results are in:

Van Leeuwen chocolate ice cream is my very favorite.

It's so hard to walk by their truck without indulging. Their ice cream is made with the very best, down to the chocolate. They source from Michel Cluizel—the same chocolatier that A and I visited on rue Saint-Honoré in Paris on one of our most memorable walks.