Lyn

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 15

Sep 132012

We have plans tomorrow evening, so we picked up our CSA in Beachwood today. There was quite a line when we arrived, but it moved quickly.

I love the colors this week!

Here’s what we were expecting:

1 bunch golden beets
Approx. 2.5 lbs. San Marzano Roma Tomatoes
Either heirloom tomatoes or 1 pint grape tomatoes
1 pint yummy pepper mix (all sweet peppers)
1 lb. Berkshire bacon
1/2 lb. mixed baby greens (chard, kale, arugula, mizuna, and more)
1 head cabbage
1 quarter peck Gala apples
1 head broccoli
8 oz. grass-fed smoked cheddar cheese
1 half pint of either Pappy’s pepper butter (like a sweet and tangy homemade mustard) or 1 half pint of Pappy’s Candied Jalapeños (semi-hot jalapeños in a honey syrup)
A handful of colored peppers (red long peppers probably early week and purple peppers later week)

I’m not sure what happened, but we ended up with eggs and spaghetti squash. We didn’t get broccoli. I can see the switch with broccoli and squash – but eggs? We also got lettuce, but I think that was a deliberate attempt at BLT ingredients.

I have two spaghetti squashes. I’m thinking about making it Italian style and serving it like spaghetti. I think everyone in the house will eat it like that (especially with cheese on it). The head of cabbage is pretty small. I think I’ll keep it a few days and then make some of my coleslaw.

We’ll be eating apples in our oatmeal. Also, I ordered a new dehydrator and I’m anxious to try fruit rolls, so some puree might be in order. These are really good paste tomatoes, so they’ll end up in sauce at some point. For now, the freezer will be their home, along with the heirloom tomatoes. We have an over abundance of tomatoes this year, but we aren’t getting them all at once, so it’s harder to make and can sauce.

The Pappy’s Pepper Butter is medium hot. I’m not a fan of hot things, but I’m determined to try this and a few other things that are on our shelf soon. My goal is to eat from our house as much as possible.

Delicious bacon never goes to waste around here. I didn’t get it in the freezer right away, so it’s thawing in the fridge. We’ll probably have it on Saturday or Sunday. I wasn’t expecting eggs and we have an overabundance. I’m going to gift a dozen to my mom since she’s helping with the kids tomorrow.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried this cheese, but there are very few that I don’t like. All of the peppers this week should be sweet (not hot!) and I’m happy about that.

We also got some mixed greens. This batch looks pretty good to me, so I’m going to have a big salad for lunch tomorrow. I’ve gotten away from lunch salads and need to get back to them since they are delicious.

We still have some beets from the other week, so I am going cook all of them all of them tonight or tomorrow. I’ll probably make a big batch of Harvard beets since we haven’t had them for a while. The lettuce looks very tasty and will be good in salads or maybe a BLT.

There’s 7 weeks left and I’m already getting sad that the season will be ending soon. It’s a good think there’s a winter program starting sometime in November.

The Electric Cheetah–dinner with cousins

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Sep 122012

Over the Labor Day holiday, we traveled to Michigan for an end of the summer family trip. While we were there, we had dinner with my cousin, Ed and his beautiful fiancé. It was so nice to meet Julia. We made her a welcome to the family care package with some of her favorite foods and it was fun.

The kids had a great time with them as well.

Stephen and I split two dishes, although one dish would have been plenty. We had the macaroni and cheese con pantalones. It was a bit spicy and extremely delicious. We also split a tasty sandwich called the Bueno Vista Social Club. I liked that their menu had a huge variety of items.

Their menu can be found at the website.

One of the definite highlights was their root beer menu. They have 28 different root beers. It was really fun. I had only had a couple of them before. I ended up choosing the Dang Butterscotch Root Beer. It really tasted just like those butterscotch hard candies.

The kids each received a kid’s menu along with a full 24 count box of crayons to help entertain them at the table. We didn’t let them keep the crayons, but we were impressed with the huge box of colors. It was such an improvement over the typical 4 color boxes.

We had a great evening out. I can’t wait to see Ed and Julia at Thanksgiving.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 15

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Sep 112012

Two crabby kids and I picked up our CSA today. Nick just started preschool and has a shortened schedule for the first few days. Nick’s so excited that he’s exhausted and Sally didn’t have a nap. It was a rough day. Surprising, our pick up was smooth, but I knew better than to shop for anything at Whole Foods today.

Here’s what we received:

apples, green beans

bell peppers, onions

cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

yellow squash, bok choy

leaf lettuce

I’m so happy to see apples. We love apples in our house and I’ve been waiting for them to start showing up. Most of the local PYO is sparse this year. We’ll be enjoying them in oatmeal this week. The green beans will be a side dish for a meal tomorrow or Thursday.

I’m done with tomatoes, peppers and onions. We planted a community garden this year and our tomatoes are out of control – and I don’t like tomatoes. Actually, we’re ok on peppers since I didn’t pick them this year. We’ll be chopping and freezing them along with the onions. I love having local ones available throughout the winter. I’m mostly just freezing tomatoes right now. We have tons of sauce and I’m not sure what we’ll need next. I did make some great enchilada sauce this week. I don’t think I’ll ever buy store bought again.

One lonely squash will just get eaten in a stir fry with the bok choy and maybe some garlic and onion. Bok choy isn’t my favorite, but luckily Stephen likes the Asian flavors.

We’ll use the lettuce in salad. We might even have BLTs this week with some local bacon. I think everyone would like them as long as we hold the T for Sally and I.

I’m hoping for fewer tomatoes next week.

Nick’s First Day of Preschool

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Sep 102012

Nick started preschool today. He’s four and a half and will have one year of preschool before kindergarten. Nick’s been counting down the days until preschool for weeks. He has been super excited to start. He’s really super excited to not have to take naps, since he’ll be in school from 12-3PM. He’s also very interested in snack time.

I took a few obligatory photos outside of the school.

Today, he went for an hour and a half, tomorrow is 2 hrs. and then on Wednesday, he’ll go the full 3 hours. There’s no separation anxiety with him. He’s very used to being away from me for a few hours at a time. I think Sally will have the bigger adjustment. Today, she had a play date since siblings weren’t supposed to come. Hopefully, she’ll be in a good routine to nap while he’s at school by the end of the week.

Fulton Street Market, Grand Rapids Michigan

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Farmer's Market No Responses »

Sep 092012

While we were out of town for the Labor Day holiday, we found a Farmers’ Market to visit. This was the Fulton Street Market, the oldest and largest in Grand Rapids. It came recommended by my cousins who live near there. There’s a campaign going on to raise money for restrooms, but the port-a-jons are welcome whenever you are traveling with kids.

This pepper display was the most colorful stand at the whole market.

The kids enjoyed dancing. Nick looks like a chicken.

Sally was glad that she talked Stephen into a ride on his shoulders.

Markets that are under cover tend to be pretty nice. It’s a bit more community like since all of the stands are set up the same. We didn’t buy much since we were traveling, but it was sure fun to stop by.

We ended up with a fabulous granola bar that I wish I could duplicate, some jerky and a loaf of bread. It was a great way to start our Saturday.

Little Free Library

Adventures with Nick and Sally No Responses »

Sep 082012

While traveling last week, we ran across a “Little Free Library” I had never seen or heard of them before. Basically, any person or group can buy or build a box and make books available to others. There are over 2000 of these around the world. I was surprised to see one in the Cleveland area. I’ll have to go visit it.

The mission of the libraries is to promote literacy. We are very lucky in this area to have a great library system. Not all areas in the world have these services available.

I think this would be a great project for a preschool or church group. The possibilities are endless.

Here’s what the box we saw looked like. It was near a few shops and a parking lot in Michigan.

When you register a box, you get an official sign and number.

I’ve just started reading about the organization, but I really like the concept. I’m not sure my construction skills are up to the test. I’m reminded of some not so square boxes that I built for an 8th grade science fair. Maybe Nick will be better at making containers with Stephen.

Fresh Fork Market 2012 Summer CSA–week 14

CSA 1 Response »

Sep 072012

We were back to our regular pick up this week at Mayfield High School. It’s the time of the year where there’s a changing of the guard with the truck staff. Today, we were greeted by Kirsten. It was nice to see her, but it was busy and we didn’t have time to chat. We can expect to see her at Mayfield for the rest of the season. That will be very nice.

Here’s an overview of what we received (minus the watermelon):

Here’s what we were expecting:

1 large watermelon
1 head green leaf lettuce
Approx. 2 eggplant
1 bunch carrots with tops
1 pint grape tomatoes or Approx. 1.5 lbs. heirloom tomatoes
1 quart concord grapes
Approx. 1 lb. red slicing tomatoes
1-2 onions depending on size
1 bulb garlic
1 lb. beans
1 lb. roasted red pepper linguini
Red peppers
1 lb. bacon breakfast patties
1 bunch leeks
3 lb. bag potatoes

The green beans are dark and rich in color. I think I’ll pull a roast out of the freezer for Sunday and serve them as a side dish. I’m tired of tomato season. It’s nice that farmers are figuring out ways to grow them longer during the growing season using hoop houses and such, but I don’t really care for tomatoes and I’ve been spending my energy elsewhere, so I have tons of frozen tomatoes in the freezer for chili, soup and other dishes and I’m looking forward to the end of adding to it.

I froze the grapes from last week in hopes that we would get them again. I’m going to make grape sorbet or jam with them.

Onion and garlic is status quo at this point. They’ll end up in soup or fajitas this week.

I’ll probably use the carrot and leek in our tomato soup. Nick had fun making it last time, so I thought I’d let him cut up veggies for it again.

I’m going to roast the peppers and add them into a white sauce to serve over the pasta. It’s red pepper linguini, so that should mesh nicely.

I’ll be cooking the breakfast patties soon since we let them thaw when we were out this evening. I’m always at a loss for egg plant. I’ll probably roast it with onions, beets and other veggies tomorrow and see if something else inspires me.

The potatoes will go great with our roast. The lettuce will make a couple of good salads.

I’m glad to see that melon season isn’t quite over. This will be great to have around this weekend. It’s on the larger size, but I suspect it will be gone by Monday.

I’m hoping to cook at home a lot this weekend. We have lots of great looking stuff to use this week.

Capitol Reef National Park UVU Field Station

Capitol Reef National Park 1 Response »

Sep 062012

This is my final post about the Capitol Reef trip. I thought I would talk about the field station and housing.

There were two dorm type buildings. Each one had 4 bedrooms and each room could sleep 3 or 4 people. Each bedroom had it’s own bathroom. These rooms are fairly new since the station is about 4 years old. Everything was in great shape and well-maintained. I’ve stayed in plenty of hotel rooms that weren’t nearly as nice and certainly did not come with the amazing views.

The vehicles parked in a carport. The roof of the carport consisted of solar panels. Besides the two dorm buildings, there was also a multipurpose building that included a kitchen, office, sleeping quarters for the manager and a classroom.

Jane, the field station manager gave us a talk about the facility. She also showed us the solar shades on the buildings.

There are two propane tanks and the facility does utilize some propane for heat in the winter. The building on the right houses the batteries for power and the water treatment facility.

As you go into the building, you notice the weather station outside. All of the data is recorded and displayed in the classroom. Once inside, it’s hard not to be impressed by the batteries that are storing the solar power.

It was so fun to see. It reminded me of a plant tour. The facility is truly off grid. They produce all of their power.

Next up was the water treatment room. This is a photo of a used filter. It’s gross to think about all of the crud that starts out in the water. On the right, a photo of some of the filters and pipes that the water travels through.

We were challenged to conserve water as much as possible. It’s expensive and a long process to pump and treat the water.

I had an awesome time (even with the clouds). The trip leaders were great.

Thanks to Jane, Michelle, Jason and Nathan.

Siblings and Creativity

Adventures with Nick and Sally, Turning off the TV No Responses »

Sep 052012

Sometimes Nick and Sally fight like cats and dogs. Most of the time, they truly enjoy each other. The other day at breakfast, they decided to share a chair. I don’t even remember why. I remember Nick saying, “It’s better than getting kicked!” Apparently when Sally sits next to him, he gets kicked a lot.

Yesterday, they asked us to come in and see their TV. They were sitting on the couch watching their crazy looking, creative TV.

They had a toy tool box lid up on a box. The blue thing is a music player that was on. There were test tubes in the container next to the box. The creativity the kids display is amazing.

On a typical day, our living room is filled with cardboard, boxes, craft sticks, tape and much more. It’s so much better for them than TV.

Geauga Family Farms CSA–summer week 14

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Sep 042012

We picked up on share in the rain today. It was pouring as we went into Whole Foods. Luckily, it had calmed down a bit when we were leaving. The store was in much better shape than last week, but they still have some work to be done. I picked up some blue cheese, grass fed beef and sandwich buns. I wasn’t sure what we’d have with the burgers until we picked up our share.

Here’s what we received:

sweet snacking peppers, lettuce

corn, green beans

zucchini, bell peppers

cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes

eggplant

So, we ended up having the corn and green beans with dinner. They were easy to fix and are bulky in the fridge.

I’ll be making chili this week. The peppers and slicing tomatoes will go into it. The lettuce and snacking peppers will make a nice salad. My husband and son will eat the cherry tomatoes. I have a recipe for pancakes that uses zucchini, so I’m going try it out with the squash.

It really comes down to the eggplant. Last time I had eggplant, I cooked it with onion, olive oil and some garlic until it was mushy and made a dip. I intend to use it as a layer in lasagna, but that hasn’t happened yet. It’s currently frozen in my freezer.

I’m ready for tomato season to end and I’m missing fruit. I’m happy with our share, but I am excited for winter squash and apple seasons to begin.

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