Posts Tagged ‘csa’

Sunday Funday

Monday, October 24th, 2011

We had a super busy day planned for Sunday so of course both of my children went completely insane. Caroline woke at 3 am all HAI GUISE I’M HERE LET’S PARTY. We took turns trying to get her back to sleep for two hours, until I gave up and brought her downstairs so I could at least watch TV while she boogied. We were on our second Law & Order rerun when I watched her nod off to sleep sitting on the floor and fall right over onto her head. I’m not gonna lie, I laughed pretty hard. I blame the exhaustion and also the hilarious look on her face.

Luckily, she forgave me and we took a little couch nap before we had to head out to our friend Thomas’s 3rd birthday party.

Unluckily, Little Evan took one look at the karate studio where the party was being held and ran away shouting “NO THANK YOU MAMA NO THANK YOU”. I eventually coaxed him into the room where he stood in a corner fake sobbing (he is TERRIBLE at fake sobbing, which is how I know it is fake) until the instructors got out a giant box of balls and encouraged the kids to throw them at each other. Apparently that’s just too much fun to pass up.

In the mean time, I gave up on trying to keep Caroline in my lap and let her enjoy the party in her own 10 month old way.

I LOVE YOU BABY IN THE MIRROR

Probably not what this guy signed up for when he agreed to work at the party

I can't stop laughing at this face

Pizza makes all his nervousness disappear

Oh! And! Because our attendance was sort of a last minute decision I was scrambling for a 3rd birthday gift. After having awesome success with the glow stick bath tub thing on Saturday night (here’s the whole scoop: turn down the lights and give your kid glow sticks to play with in the tub) I came up with this:

All found at Target in the $1 section or in the baby shampoo aisle. No risk of giving the birthday boy a toy he already has or a piece of junk that breaks after 5 minutes, and hey, every kid takes baths!

After the party we ran home for a quick nap, threw my gnocchi casserole in the oven and headed over to our CSA for an end-of-season potluck.

Evan was obsessed with the apple cider.

Caroline was obsessed with our cups of wine.

Trying to blow out the fire

It was a super fun, super busy, super exhausting, super long day but I can’t really complain. Having too many friends is the kind of problem everyone ought to have.

Wordless Wednesday: Last Farm Day 2011

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

My Week(49) in iPhone Photos

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

E had this past week off, but instead of doing tons of super fun stuff I made a list of every single I-should-really-get-that-done-but-I’m-exhausted-from-chasing-the-kids chore I’ve been putting off for the past 3 years and started crossing them off. Hang pictures! Sort clothes! Organize the attic AND the basement! Get a new eyeglasses prescription! Wind and store all the yarn I’ve been hiding behind the elliptical trainer in the guest room! Do ALL the laundry!

I’ve got today and tomorrow to finish the rest of the list plus give the house a once-over cleaning, decorate for Halloween and finally make the loaf of almond bread and the pear-gorgonzola tart I’ve had bookmarked for weeks.

Sunday:

What do you MEAN this is the only picture you took all day? I'm freakin' ADORABLE!

Monday:

Friends who hold your baby enough that your baby likes them are the best friends

Dino nuggets taste way better than regular nuggets. Just ask my toddler.

I restarted C25K and felt like I was going to die

Tuesday:

Second to last CSA pick up makes me a sad panda

Giant carrot for lunch. Gotta keep that hair orange.

Obviously, she's mine

Day 1 of act like a grown up and take care of my skin. I even bought EYE CREAM.

Wednesday:

Breakfast of Champions: egg wrap-up with hot sauce, banana, Diet Dr. Pepper

Sleepy girl

Epic Michael's trip for Halloween decor. I decided the terrifying skeletons would be a poor choice for a kid's party.

Thursday:

I patched, sanded, and painted the walls going up the stairs.

Pair on the left cost $300. Pair on the right was free. I got both.

Picture gallery on the upstairs stairs

Friday:

I thought this baby looked like Caroline so I bought this book. I'm going to knit the crap out of that sweater.

Chilling at the yarn store

The ice cream stand was shockingly uncrowded on a Friday night. Maybe because it was only 60 degrees out.

Saturday:

Stop lookin' at my waffles like that.

My friend from @CostaFarms sent me a giant box of houseplants because she thought I'd like them. My goal is to keep them alive at least a week.

Bye-bye Back-yard-gans! Sing song! Bye-bye!

Time to go finish knitting Caroline’s fall coat, bake, mop the floors, play legos with my kid, catch up on this week’s TV and read all my friend’s blogs that I’ve been neglecting all week. I’m looking forward to all of it.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

Homemade Sriracha

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

One of the most bountiful but most unused items in my CSA bag each week has been the hot peppers. I made the mistake of thinking one was a mild pepper a few weeks ago and ended up crying into the sink as I scrubbed under my nails and sprayed water into my burning eyes. Today’s free tip: ALWAYS ASSUME PEPPERS ARE HOT.

Since that incident, I’ve been stockpiling my peppers in hopes of coming up with a better plan than Horrible Pain A La Face. So when I found myself adding my beloved sriracha to an omelet for the third time in a week, a red hot little light bulb went off over my head.

In case you are unfamiliar, this is what sriracha looks like:

I would show you a picture of what it tastes like, but that might be to racy for this website. Let’s just say it’s like sassy little angels dancing on my tongue and making my diet food tastes a lot less like diet food.

So what better to do with my abundance of hot peppers than make my own hot sauce?

Garlic & Shallots

Simmering

My homemade sauce is surprisingly similar to the bottle sriracha in taste, although it has the pepper seeds in it (like the chili sauce version I also have in my fridge). You could seed the peppers before cooking and run it back through the food processor post-cooking to get a smoother texture, but it would be less spicy.

Homemade Sriracha
Based on the recipe found here

Ingredients:

Approximately 16 hot red peppers*
5 cloves of garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 T vegetable oil
15 oz can tomato sauce (I used Hunts)
1 small can tomato paste
1 T fish sauce
2 T soy sauce (I used low sodium)
3 T rice vinegar
3 T sugar

Cut the stems off the hot peppers. Be sure to wear gloves when you’re using them, or at least scrub your hands REALLY REALLY WELL afterward. Mince them well (I used my mini food processor, but don’t put your face right over it when you take the lid off because the fumes are STRONG) and set them aside.

Add the oil, minced garlic and minced shallots to a saucepan over medium heat and saute for about 3 minutes until fragrant. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste and peppers and stir it all up well. Increase the heat a little bit and add the rest of the ingredients. Cook for approximated 8-10 minutes until sauce is saucy and well combined. The bits of pepper will start to fall apart a little.

Remove from heat and let hot sauce cool completely.

*I don’t know exactly what KIND of peppers these are, but you could use whatever you want. Just remember you’re making sriracha, not the kind of terrifying sauce they put on wings for Man vs. Food. Don’t kill anyone.

Enjoy on eggs, potatoes, pizza, french fries, fish, chicken, steak, tacos, or any food served on a Navy submarine (says my husband). It’s pleasantly hot in small quantities, mouth burning spicy by the tablespoon, and I love it so much I plan to take my jar with me on vacation. I’m not even joking.

Galette Obsessed

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Galette: n, a general term used in the French cuisine to designate various types of flat, round or free form crusty cakes. But it’s not really a cake. It’s like an unemployed pie that’s stopped brushing its hair in the morning. A tart that’s had four tequila shots and is getting sloppy. A pastry getting a liberal arts degree in underwater basket-weaving and whose mother keeps asking what it really wants to DO with its life.

It’s easy-going, is what I’m saying. And easy to make – no lattice tops or fancy crimped edges here.

Up until about a month ago I had no idea what a galette even was. And then damn Martha Stewart went and mentioned them on TV and ever since I’ve been stalking recipes like it was my job. But it’s been a zillion plus degrees and baking is hard with two babies trying to crawl into the oven so this weekend was my first chance to attempt one.

But because I’m an overachiever, we had a galettefest on Sunday and I made (and invented recipes for!) both a savory galette and a sweet galette. One from scratch, one the easy way. One was husband approved (I’ll let you guess which one) but both were delicious.

Farmer’s Market Galette

Ingredients:

1 ready-made pizza crust
2 ½ cups ricotta
1 medium squash
1 small eggplant
½ onion (red or white)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoon tarragon, chopped
2 Tablespoon dill, chopped
2 Tablespoon parsley, chopped
3 Tablespoon milk
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet or pizza stone with cooking spray & roll out pizza crust. Spread 2 cups of the ricotta over the crust (like pizza sauce) leaving about 2 inches around all the edges. Thinly slice the squash, eggplant and onion (a mandolin makes this extra easy, but a knife works too) and put it in a medium sized bowl. Toss in the garlic and herbs and stir to combine.

Spread the veggie mixture out evenly over the ricotta and fold the 2 inch edge up over the filling. Beat the milk, egg and last 1/2 cup of ricotta in a small bowl and drizzle it over the veggies, starting near the edge (too much liquid in the middle will make your crust soggy)(trust me on this). Top the galette with the Parmesan and pop it in the oven for 25-35 minutes until the crust is browned and the middle is firm. Let it cool a little before shoving it into your face parts.

(Notes: This would be even MORE DELICIOUS with goat cheese, but E is anti-goat cheese so I made it with ricotta. He still didn’t eat it, so next time it’s goat cheese all the way. If you’ve never had fresh tarragon before, smell it/taste it before tossing it into your galette. I love it but it’s got a very distinctive flavor. Feel free to use whatever herbs you have sitting around. Same with the veggies: anything you love and can slice would be great.)

 Berry Almond Galette

Crust

3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup water

Filling

1 pint blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp almond extract

Topping

½ cup almonds
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

For the crust, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and use a fork to press it into the flour mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs (or use a food processor, but you won’t get the awesome arm workout). Add the almond extract then the water a little at a time until you can press the dough together to make a ball. Try to touch it as little as possible. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for a few minutes.

Toss all the filling ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. Let it sit while you make the topping.

Combine almonds, brown sugar and butter in a food processor. Process until almonds are finely ground and topping looks all crumbly.

Get your chilled dough from the fridge. On a well-floured surface using a well flowered rolling pin, roll out the dough into a big circle. Roll it up around your rolling pin, transfer it to a cookie sheet and spread it out again. Pour the filling into the middle of the circle and fold up at least 2-3 inches of the edge all the way around and press the pieces together so none of the filling leaks out (or you’ll have to scrub it off the bottom of your oven after it’s burnt on)(trust me on this).

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle almond-sugar mixture over the berries. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes until golden brown. Let it cool for at least 20 minutes or you’ll burn yourself. Top with whipped cream or ice cream for extra bonus yum.

(Notes: I had too much dough when I folded up the edges so I tore some of it off to make sure I had enough berries showing to top with the almonds. Pretty much ANY fruit combination would be delicious in this recipe. ANYTHING.)

I’m adding the recipes to the Tasty Kitchen site tonight, so you can save them to your recipe box over there (if you’re a member) and find other amazing galette recipes for your summer produce.