Hello All-

Happy Independence Day!

I hope this is the year you find independence from the monotony of your kitchen and cooking for the BBQ or other July 4th celebrations.

Along with the meal plan is also some suggestions for your 4th of July celebration.
I will happily toil away in the kitchen, so your celebration can be just that!

The Domestic Diva Does Dinner Order is due on Monday July 2nd by 5 pm for deliver on July 3rd.

Fourth of July orders must be placed with 24 hours notice of the requested delivery time.

Please note- So that I can enjoy the Holiday as well, there will be no deliveries on July 4th or 7th. I have reserved these days for family activities.

Okay here goes-

July Fourth!

Peanut Noodle Salad- Rice Noodles, Peppers, Onions, Pea Pods in a Delicious Coconut Peanut Sauce. Gluten Free.

Potato Salad- Your choice of creamy with eggs or German with bacon. Made with Red, White and Blue Potatoes. The talk of every picnic.

Macaroni Salad- Macaroni, Tuna, Celery, Onions and Eggs. Available gluten free.

Pasta Salad- Pasta, Assorted Vegetables, Olives, Cheeses with my new amazing Sweet Basil Vinaigrette. Available gluten free. My Personal Favorite!

Baked Beans- Baked beans in a maple sauce that are super tasty. Available vegetarian and gluten free.

Fruit Salad- Chunks of fruit, all tossed together for a divine experience. Nothing beats the feeling and flavor of cold watermelon bursting in your mouth. Great for breakfast. Make it super special- I’ll create a beautiful watermelon basket. A great center piece for $40.00

Red, White and Blue Shortcake- Blueberries, Strawberries and Raspberries sugared and served with Your choice of gluten free or classic baking powder biscuits and whip cream.

Patriotic Sugar Cookies- The amazing sugar cookies with red, white and blue sprinkles!

The Fruit Tart- Amazing Crust topped with decadent pastry cream and red and blue berries!

These salads, side and desserts are available in small, medium and large containers.

A large will feed a small army, the medium a normal family for a meal or two, the small will feed two for a couple of meals.

The Rules-

Pricing- $10/20/40 unless other wise stated.

Remember all orders must be placed 24 hours in advance!

There is a delivery fee of $5.00 and these items are subject to tax.

If you have special dietary requirements, please let me know. It will be my pleasure to accommodate them.

Call 802-353-5000 or e-mail hilaryadamspaul@hotmail.com to order or if you have any questions.

The Domestic Diva Does Dinner!

Starters-

Your choice of Chilled Sweet Pea or Blueberry Soup- Creamy, Delightful and Cool.

Local Green, Sprouts and Shoots- This is amazing! Local Greens ans every kind of sprout ans shoot found at the market. Pea, Sunflower, Alfalfa and Dill. Cucumbers, Sunflower Seeds and Rainbow Carrots round out this beauty! Your choice of Creamy Ranch or Sweet Basil vinaigrette Dressings.

For additional sides see the July 4th Menu!

* Duet $15 Small Family $20 Large Family $30*

Dinner-

Nectarine Risotto- This Amazing Risotto is a surprise to the senses. Creamy vegetable risotto studded with juicy bites of nectarine. Simply Delish! Add Local Chicken for an extra $6.00.

Gnocchi- Classic style unless I change my mind.. I have the thought of blueberry basil gnocchi rolling through my mind. Let me know if the blueberry sounds good!

Meat Loaf- Local Beef and all the other yumminess found in meatloaf. This is available gluten free, too! Served with fresh peas and mashed potatoes.

Grilled Beef, Fresh dug roasted Red Potatoes and Fresh Peas. Served with Caramelized onions!

*Duet $30 Small Family $50 Large Family$70

*Garlic Scape Pesto Tart- Gluten free tart crust topped with garlic scape
pesto, ricotta and fresh mozzarella cheese.
*$20

*Sides-
Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Red Potatoes and Fresh Peas
$5 each

Dessert-
See the July 4th Menu for these options!

*Duet $15 Small Family $20 Large Family $30

Record Breaking Heat Wave to Hit Rutland Area!
This may be an exaggeration, but what headline isn’t?

When I was a kid my Mom would beat the heat by making potato salad, fruit salad and baked beans. This worked well, because week night dinners where simple, hardy, cool and refreshing. The other choice of course was pizza. Since I have spent many a 100 degree day- sweltering in the 160 degree kitchen sweating and feeling pretty miserable. I can no longer bear to order in anything during these heat waves. So I have learned to fall back on Mom’s practical wisdom. Cook before the heat arrives and stay away from the stove till the heat breaks.

Let me help you with our Heat Wave Special-

Peanut Noodle Salad- Rice Noodles, Peppers, Onions, Pea Pods in a Delicious Coconut Peanut Sauce. Gluten Free.

Potato Salad- Your choice of creamy with eggs or German with bacon.

Macaroni Salad- Macaroni, Tuna, Celery, Onions and Eggs. Available gluten free.

Pasta Salad- Pasta, Assorted Vegetables, Olives, Cheeses and Meats with an Italian Dressing. Available vegetarian and gluten free.

Baked Beans- Baked beans in a maple sauce that are super tasty. Available vegetarian and gluten free.

Fruit Salad- Chunks of fruit, all tossed together for a divine experience. Nothing beats the feeling and flavor of cold watermelon bursting in your mouth. Great for breakfast.

Strawberry Shortcake- Sugared Strawberries, homemade baking powder biscuits and whip cream make up this delight. (My Dads favorite beat the heat meal.) Available vegetarian and gluten free.

These salad are available in small, medium and large containers.
A large will feed a small army, the medium a normal family for a meal or two, the small will feed two for a couple of meals.

The Rules-

Pricing- $10/20/40

There is a delivery fee of $5.00 and these items are subject to tax.

Ordering is open until the daily temperature falls below 80 degrees.
If the heat wave misses us… This offer is good until Friday evening.

All orders need to be placed by 6:00 pm the day before you want it delivered.

If you have special dietary requirements, please let me know. It will be my pleasure to accommodate them.

Call 802-353-5000 or e-mail hilaryadamspaul@hotmail.com to order or if you have any questions.

As many, if not all, of you know: home renovation never goes as planned. Never. Even the easiest thing gets hijacked by Murphy and his Laws. My kitchen renovation has had more than its share of hold ups, pauses, stops. It has taken much longer than originally anticipated, and I am on the verge of it being almost done. Almost. This might be the hardest word of all. I am so close- yet so far away from the reality: a working, organized kitchen. One where I can find things in the same spot more than once. Where my pots and pans will have a home. One home, not three or four. I will be able to finally locate all of my knives. I know they will turn up; they have just been tucked away. Probably somewhere I determined as being “safe”. I bought paint this weekend. Just the primer for the sheet rock, but the plan was to apply it with great gusto and be ready to apply the finish coats later this week.

Somehow, it didn’t work that way.

I woke up, totally lacking any ambition. I had taken the weekend off from the Farmers Market to paint, and with a rare Saturday off, I found myself with no motivation, waiting for the contractor and looking for something to do. Feeling listless and not used to having nothing to do, I decided to paint the cabinets. Reggie, my contractor, took the farmhouse cabinets from the old kitchen and fashioned me a beautiful, built-in hutch of sorts. A great place to keep plates and glasses. I had decided to leave the color yellow I painted them for my Mom years back. So, I went looking for the paint. I inherited a paint closet with the house…can upon can of pain stacked up, oh so neatly, covered in dust and cobwebs. I went to work removing the webs and dust and began pulling the paint cans from the shelves. After opening probably 30 cans of pain, I found myself inspired. No yellow for the cabinets..but some of the most amazing colors in high gloss enamel. My Mom must have purchased them for the front door.

Many months ago, my most recent love interest inspired the idea of painting my front door based on a Tarot card. The moment I saw the card, I knew I was going to paint that design and no other. It was a way of welcoming many people and much possibility into my home. I was constantly drawn to the card, hunting for it, until I held it in my hands. Dreaming of its appearance on my house.

So there I was with can upon can of cool paint, a creative urge, and a front door in need of love. Less than a minute later, the most amazing purple found its way to my door, and I planned out where the 8 of Pentacles flowers would go. I was also going to utilize the near 100 different shades of green (my Father’s favorite color) to create a trunk for my flowering tree. As I was painting, I kept thinking about the love interest gone awry by this time, with my infantile need to find myself. I’ve heard about this, but never thought it would happen to me, until it did.

Hours I spent thinking about the front door and what it means. The first thing opened when a guest arrives. The first thing slammed shut after a lovers’ quarrel. Something opened to enjoy the sun shine and let in the fresh air. The gateway to the great outdoors or the path to a warm fire with a friend by your side. With the opening of that door, memories can assail you in a moment’s notice. Scents can fill your nostrils and send you to another time and place, where things were different; maybe better, maybe not. Sometimes the opening or closing of a door can change your life forever, irrevocably. In ways you could never imagine.

I remember the first time I brought Mackenzie home through that front door, the last time my Dad walked me to the car, carrying flowers with his arm around my shoulder, giving me a hug and kiss, calling me Nut as the dog runs in and out. The feel of snow slipping in when I’d get wood as a child. The look of my Mom silhouetted in the front door waving good-bye! The bouncing of Maddie through the door- hat askew, walking stick in hand, cheeks rosy from the brisk winter air.

As I sat and stretched painting my way to a more beautiful door, I realized how magical it is, more than just a gateway to a house. It is magical, giving life, dreams, love. Protecting you even if you don’t know it. Holding memories, traces of the people who came before you and who will come after you.

Years from now, someone will wonder who painted the front door Bordeaux Purple?

And what about those flowers?

What was the person thinking?

But for now….

It is there to welcome the good, keep the bad at bay and bless anyone who walks through it.

I woke up this morning to find a great chill settling over Vermont. After having slept with the windows open last week, it was nice to want to snuggle under the blankets for an extra minute or two. The Dog didn’t want to go out, but with much discussion finally ended up doing a lap around the house before bursting in the back door, disturbing the sleeping cats and demanding to be let in for breakfast. It was a warm greeting full of chilly paws and warm puppy kisses as I shuffled around the kitchen shoving kibble in his bowl, waiting for the water to become hot for coffee.

Coffee: my elixir, my muse, one of the few thing that can pull me cheerily from bed morning after morning! Thank you, Vermont Coffee Company, for the best beans on the planet!

I got a text asking what I was up to today… and without a thought, I replied… “cooking”.

I smiled. A big goofy grin, accompanied by a chuckle.

I am cooking. My passion . . .how lucky am I? AND it’s Tuesday!

The Domestic Diva Does Dinner Day!

I have fallen in love with the days I cook for my DDDD clients. It is rare that a professional cook/chef has the opportunity to know exactly who they are cooking for. In a restaurant, the dinners are white tickets with table and seat numbers. Sometimes, you get to know a Diner based on their special requests.

The lady who like extra greens, dressing on the side, no carrots.

The person who likes their steak black and blue with mashed potatoes and vegetables (not asparagus) AND it needs to be neatly laid out with nothing touching. All sauces on the side.

We get to know these diners; give them pet names and probably know more about their eating habits than their own life mate. These are good names, nothing mean, just ways of identifying folks. But we would never recognize them. We could be introduced to one another, and they would never know the hand they shook was the one that prepared and arranged their food several times a week. They would never knowing the hand they clasp is the one who helps nourish them on a cellular level. 

At the market, I get to know my clients/patrons after the fact. Yes, I have regulars that I keep in mind every week while planning my menu and make sure to included something they’d enjoy. For the most part my Market Folks are people I recognize walking down the street. I have an inkling of what they like to eat, sometimes what they can’t. These folks become categorized in my head based on food affiliations, like a good waitress who always remembers your favorite drink, how you like your steak cooked, and if you always want extra pickles on your burger. 

{I am sure the people at Panera know me as the “The crazy, Chai latte with soy milk and an M&M cookie lady with the cute dog”.}

After having done this for so many years, many of the people I see week after week have become a psudo-family of sorts.
So, when I am away from the Farmers Market stand, I check in with my Diva crew for catch up.

“Did the hat lady stop by? Did you know she’s gluten-free now? Yup, as of last week.”
“The soup lady stopped in. She would like strawberry soup. I told her, of course!”
“The man with the white dog came by. He really enjoyed the cake, and is hoping we will have it again soon. His birthday is in three weeks.”

When I don’t see them for a while, I wonder about them, hoping they are well.

Then there are the DDDD clients. I wake up on Tuesday mornings, eager to look at my to do list of all the people for whom I will cook. It’s like a family list. I know them. I know what they look like, know their names, their kids, their mates. I know what they like and don’t like, what they can and can’t eat. As I begin to pull out ingredients, it feels like cooking for family. I get to cook with unbridled love and passion.  Two families ordering the same meal will still end up with something totally customized. This is the glory of knowing, really knowing, the people you work with.

As I stack ingredients into piles, I mentally envision who gets what and how it’s all going to come together. Most importantly, I visualize them eating it. Becoming nourished by it. Feeling my love through every bite.

Having the opportunity to follow my passion and do what I love in a place where I can hear my little one calling from the other room while filling my food with the love and care everyone can dine on, is truly amazing. Thank you for allowing me to nourish, your body, mind and soul!

I LOVE TUESDAYS!!!!