Today I cracked open a fresh coconut. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

First, poke holes in the three hole-shaped areas at the bottom of the coconut.

The directions in Joy of Cooking say to use a hammer and screwdriver. That led to my first question … Phillips or flathead? I went with the Phillips. Continue reading “Coconuts” →

…but the whole point of Notes from Aunt Jim is to keep my niece and nephews up-to-date on what their Aunt Jim is doing. And now I’m cooking. Tonight I made sweet potato fries:

I cut up two medium sweet potatoes (the last from my previous week’s CSA shipment) and tossed them with a little olive oil and seasonings. Twenty-five minutes later in a 425-degree oven and I had yummy baked sweet potato wedges, which I’m calling fries:

I like ’em crunchy and brown. Don’t be hating! And they are wonderful … I’m finishing them up while I blog.

My niece called while I was cooking. I hated to cut you off, D., but I had to get those in the oven and go! Looking forward to getting my almond/nut/cranberry mix.

Here’s where I got the idea: Tasty Kitchen. Take a look and then give The Pioneer Woman‘s site a look … she developed Tasty Kitchen. Her original site is wonderful!

Yesterday I got my first weekly allotment of veggies from Pinckney’s Produce as one of their Community Supported Agriculture members (CSA). Tonight  I was busy chopping and dicing, and in about 10 minutes I’ll be enjoying my first dish: a ratatouille.

But first, a picture of my beautiful new cast-iron Dutch oven:

And now a picture of my ratatouille in progress:

In just a few minutes I’ll be serving this along a side of egg noodles. Yum!