emily audette.com

You may notice my blog looks different.  Hopefully you like this better.  Hopefully it’s more “consumer” friendly.  It’s just for you my friend.

I have a new favorite snack.  It’s the best cracker on the planet (bold statement I know). It’s all good ingredients, nothing bad or overly processed.  Plus it fits perfectly with my renewed dedication to eating clean!

Enough anticipation, my new favorite cracker is…

FLACKERS!

Ok, so I suppose technically they are not a cracker.  What qualifies as a cracker anyway?  These babies are flax seeds smashed together with nothing but spices.  Sounds weird, but they are utterly delicious.

Here comes the bad part:  they are holy expensive!  $5 a box, and a box only contains 18 crackers which is 6 servings.  Yikes.  But in this case it’s definitely you get what you pay for:  amazingness.  They have been on sale for $3.50 a box at Whole Foods all month which is what led me to finally try them.  I had been admiring them on the shelf for awhile.  Since trying them I’ve been picking up a box every time I’m in the store (about once a week, sometimes more) since they’re still on sale.

This evening I was reading the box while I was waiting for my pot pie (clean from scratch) to bake and I noticed they are made in Minneapolis.  ”Huh that’s cool.”  I thought, BUT THEN I had a mini panic attack.  What if they don’t sell these in Tennessee?!  What am I going to do?  I had to go grocery shopping tonight anyway so I picked up 2 boxes instead of one.  I should chill out and not be a hoarder right?  

Ohhhhh no.  I looked up their website just now and they most certainly are not in distribution near Nashville!  Well there’s 4 days left in the month with the sale still on so I know what I have to do.

The movers are going to take one look at my cupboard and say “man this girl is crazy (and maybe a hoarder)!”

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.  And you gotta try these!

PS:  I got so wrapped up in my soon to be distance from flackers I forgot to tell you what they’re great with:  peanut butter (soynut in my case), hummus, cheese, plain, you name it.

I have a new year’s resolution for you:  how about trying a new fresh veggie or fruit once a month?  Sounds fun to me, I’ll do it with you!

This month (ok today) I bought a fresh pomegranate for the first time.  I love pomegranate arils, but they are expensive and seem to spoil quickly.  I was surprised how easy it was to seed the pomegranate, and it had a zillion arils!  I’m definitely going to begin eating pomegranate arils all winter long, what a treat!

I used them tonight for this Quinoa, Fennel, and Pomegranate salad from Bon Appetite.  It was quite delicious.  The fennel roasted up nicely in my cast iron skillet.  Maybe fennel is a new veggie for you to try?  It was new last year for me.

As for my real new year’s resolution I plan on being a better friend.  I’m terrible at keeping in touch and remembering birthdays (I don’t look at birthdays on facebook, sorry).  I promise to get better this year!  In fact, send me your address now so I can actually surprise you with a birthday card!

xoxo happy 2012, I feel like it’s going to be a good one!

Remember how much I loved my mustard colored dutch oven from Macy’s Martha Stewart line?  I blogged about it and all the awesome things you could use it for.

Well it’s gone now.  Macy’s recalled the dutch ovens because apparently the enamel coating could crack under high heat and explode in the oven.  That doesn’t sound like a safe product to me.  I hauled my well-loved dutch oven back to the store and got a $75 refund since they weren’t offering replacements.  To be honest I just wanted a new dutch oven, but I guess $75 (which is probably more than I paid to begin with) will have to do.

I think I might save up for a bit and just go for the real deal with a Le Creuset in cobalt to be exact.  But at $250, ugh!  I tell myself it will last forever, but still.

In the meantime I have a new love:  my new (old) cast-iron skillet!  While I was home for Christmas my mom was giving up on her various cast iron skillets and let me have what I wanted.  Obviously, I could only bring back one in my carry-on since they are so heavy.  I chose the 9” skillet and intend to go back for the others someday!  

I’m using the cast iron skillet for everything:  eggs, roasting vegetables, reheating leftovers, veggies, and more veggies.  It’s so fun, gives the food a nice sear and color, and other than the over easy egg I tried to make for Emily doesn’t stick one bit!  And who doesn’t love a pan you don’t really have to clean?

Get yourself one, better yet steal one from a family member that’s not using theirs.  The best part about that is that it comes already seasoned with years of cooking.  For me that probably included lots of savory meaty cooking flavors which I could never reproduce (since I don’t eat red meat).