Vanilla Icing

Where I've Been....

I've been absent from this place for a couple of weeks now but I intend to fix that now.  The last couple weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me.  Physically, I've not been doing too well and even ended up in the emergency room last week for reasons I'll not go into here.  But I received treatment and medicine and I'm on my way to recovering -- albeit a bit slower than I would like.  Another few days and I should be all better. Having great friends and family nearby to help has been a tremendous help that Rick and I have deeply appreciated all that they have done.  Thank you so much!

Time keeps marching...and things have still been happening around here despite of everything.  Things like...

....our first strawberry of the season!  Maia brought a three leaf strawberry plant home from school last year in a dixi-cup and we planted it in the front garden.  It has grown and grown and grown and now there is one big 'mother plant' surrounded by seven or eight 'baby' plants.  After the first berrying, the mama plant and her children are sending out runners to increase their ranks.  This makes us very happy.

Maia really enjoyed having several days of picking strawberries off her plants and eating them.  On the third day she began sharing.  After tasting the sweetness of the one she gave me I'm amazed at her generosity; I'd have wanted to keep them all for myself!

We have been receiving our CSA share for three weeks now.  We switched farms this year and went with Kretschmann's Organic Farm.  Our CSA the past two years was really quite lovely but it was important to me to belong to an organic farm and so this year I carefully watched for the sign-up time and didn't miss it this year.  Kretchmann's also has connected us with a local chicken grower who raises organic, free-range chickens.  We will be receiving two a month for the next five months.  Also, they have promised to put us into contact with a beef supplier in the fall who raises organic grass fed cows. We don't eat a lot of meat--perhaps two times a week--but I have an enormous freezer in my basement and I will be putting all of the overflow into it for the winter months.  

Our first box contained many fresh greens but I was most excited to see long branches of rosemary.  I've been wanting fresh rosemary ever since my rosemary didn't make it through the big snow.  I made a garlic and rosemary marinade and then used the shorn rosemary branches as a skewer on the grill. Mmmm!  The rosemary and garlic penetrated the chicken inside and out and was just perfect with arancini and fruit.

I became a cheap-wad.  Sort of.  Tristyn's birthday was coming up and one of the things that he had been wanting for a long time (besides Legos) was an Ugly Doll.  I couldn't remember seeing them in stores and I didn't want to pay the full price plus shipping for something that is really a simple design. At the local fabric shop I found some remnant fabric and a big bag of stuffing for less than six dollars. Considering I only used about a third of the stuffing and 75% of the fabric that's pretty darn good! Then, I pulled up the website and selected an ugly doll that looked relatively easy.  On a piece of folded newspaper I drew a rough pattern freehanded and cut it out.  From there it was just a matter of cutting out two pieces of the fabric, sewing them wrong sides together, turning them right side out, stuffing and finishing up the face.  It's not perfect--and it's not exactly the same as the real thing--but it IS an ugly doll...and ugly it is.

I've been finding a lot of inspiration from Sara at Happy Janssens.  Sara has a few blogs she writes including one called Happy Foody which I'm enjoying a lot.  Probably if she checks her stats she's wondering who the creepy person who has been reading her blog a LOT the last few days is but I promise I'm not creepy!  I just find her words and pictures so inspiring and I've been in need of inspiration lately--so thank you Sara!

This stack of oatcakes is from a recipe on Happy Foody.  It's a good alternative to traditional pancakes and it tastes like yummy oatmeal.  I added cinnamon and vanilla which I think makes it tastes even more like oatmeal.

Oatcakes

      adapted from Happy Foody

4 cups traditional (not quick) oatmeal — ground to a flour-like consistency in food processor
4 cups almond/soy/rice milk
4 T melted organic butter
4 large farm fresh eggs
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

-Soak oats for 12-24 hours in the milk (store in fridge overnight).
-Mix everything else into that.
-Make pancakes and be happy.

I'm still on the search for the perfect cupcake.  This one is getting closer...but not quite there.  The texture was good, the flavor was above average but not what I think would be ideal.  I topped them with vanilla buttercream and a sprinkling of coconut.  I think for now, this chocolate cupcake recipe will have to do because I've exhausted dozens of recipes in the chocolate cupcake quest.

And finally, I'm jumping on the Green Smoothie boat.  I've been wanting to for some time now--more thanks to Happy Foody--but I've had a hard start of it.  I bought extra fruit in anticipation of last week's CSA box and it's piles and piles of fresh greens but that was the day I ended up at the hospital.  By the time I was feeling better to eat anything all the fruit had been gobbled up and the greens were starting to look funny!

Yesterday was CSA day and again I went out and purchased extra fruit (by which I mean in addition to our normal eating fruit) and picked up my CSA box.  I spent last night reading up more on green smoothies and talking at Rick about them.  He decided he would try one as well but maybe part of that was to get me to stop talking about them?  Anyways, we both had our first green smoothies this morning.  I made them with kale, strawberries, bananas and a few small clementines plus water.  We each drank a 16 ounce serving and you know what?  It was pretty good!  I did feel there was a slight bitter aftertaste but Rick didn't notice it.  I think I have an extra sensitivity to bitter things and can taste bitterness when others cannot.   It took me 43 minutes to drink it all but I did feel empowered to have drank it all down AND to have enjoyed it.  I haven't noticed any immediate benefits but I've promised myself that I will give this at least one solid week before I decide to continue or stop.

CSA Pickup

I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone the other day when I went to collect our CSA share from our pick up location:

The house is beautiful; I only wish it had been a sunny day!

Pretty V. Functional

Don't you just hate when something is prettier than it is functional?

I don't.  Not when it comes to bread.  Never mind that a braided ring of sourdough doesn't make for nice, clean slices--it sure makes a pretty display on the dinner table.  Especially, if unlike me you have the foresight to put the olive oil dipping bowl in the center of the bread ring and not leave it over on the table when you are taking the picture.

On a different note, my zucchini from CSA Boxes Two and Three are multiplying while I sleep.  I am sure of it.  We've had zucchini slices, stuffed zucchini and yesterday I made zucchini bread.  (Keep in mind, zucchini in moderate to large quantities makes me very, very ill)  I still have two zucchini on my counter top.  Every time I use one, the next morning there are two on my counter top. Despite my best efforts, There are always two on my counter top.  I think I am going mad.

I forgot to list the contents of CSA Box 3 so here it is:

2 large onions
3 tomatoes
1 big box of strawberries
3 zucchini
2 small loaves of French Bread (Ha!  And these were in the box the day I made ciabatta)
1 Broccoli

This box didn't feel quite as plentiful (hence the bread) but it was with reason.  The day before we had very bad storms in our area and a lot of people experienced flooding.  I'm not sure that our farm could have completely escaped and I think that's why we didn't have a 'full' box.

Spinach & Ricotta Pie

On Tuesday, I tried to poison my children.  I made Spinach & Ricotta Pie and it wasn't a hit. 
W---e---l---l, I liked it a lot, Rick tolerated it, Tristyn choked it down and Maia wouldn't touch it.  Now normally, this would have annoyed me but frankly this time it made me boiling with anger that nearly spilled over.

I kept it in check, because most of that anger had started bubbling when the recipe from blogland I was following was not working.  A quarter of the way through, I tossed that recipe aside and improvised.   Things got better--and tastier!--from there until I served it to my family.

It was the spinach that made everyone unhappy.  No one around here likes spinach but me--and that's only if it's cooked.  I got a lid on my anger and helped myself to a second slice.  I couldn't be too mad.

After all, two weeks in a row I've managed to use ALL of the spinach in my CSA box without any going to waste.  Three out of four of us ate it.  And that IS an improvement over last year!

Beet the Devil Muffins

When I got these suckers in my first CSA box I knew there was the possibility of being doomed.  What was I going to do with them?  The radishes in the CSA box were bad enough but....beets?   At least I had eaten radishes before.  Okay, actually, I accidentally crunched one in a salad once and spat it discretely into my napkin.  I assure it was most ladylike!  Ahh-hem!   But I have never put a beet in my mouth and had every intention of keeping it that way.

But then, I remembered the whole reason we signed up for a CSA.  Not only do we get to support local farms by eating locally and in season but it challenges me to prepare vegetables that I would not normally purchase from the store.  When you are faced with a crate full of produce that you've already paid for sight unseen it's a little bit harder to throw things away.  I could give some of it away to my neighbors but I already pass out the baked goods.  I think if I showed up at one of their doors with a handful of beets instead of a loaf of still warm bread they might never open their doors again. 

And we can't have that.

Lucky for me, one of my favorite bloggers, Laura, from Little Orange Kitchen, reminded me of her recipe for a Red Velvet beet cake.  I thought that it sounded interesting and was planning on making it.  But--then I remembered it was Tristyn's birthday this Saturday.  He's already put in his request for his birthday cake and I think he wouldn't appreciate it if I swapped out that cake for a Red Velvet style beet cake.   The beet cake will have to wait until I get another bunch of beets in my CSA box but I still had this week's beets to use.  With Laura's cake in mind, it set me to thinking of ways I could incorporate the beets into something baked that wasn't cake.

May I present to you....

                                        Beet the Devil Muffins

This not-too-sweet moist chocolate muffin is perfect for breakfast.  After all--it's got beets in it!  Beets are healthy, right?  No reason not to eat chocolate for breakfast.  I promise you, all you'll taste is chocolate and almonds.  The only business the beets have in this muffin is their health benefits and the reddish tinge not unlike Devil's Food Cake. 


Beet the Devil Muffins
                by Michelle

3/4 cups pureed beets*
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 cups of flour
1 cup toasted slivered almonds

1.  Preheat the oven to 375.  In a bowl, combine the butter, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder.  Beat until light and fluffy. 

2.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well combined.  Stir in vanilla.  Quickly whisk together the flour and cocoa.  Add the flour mixture and milk  alternately until everything has been combined.  Stir in almonds.

3.  Spoon the batter into 12 lined muffin cups.   The muffin cups will be very full.  The mixture is thick and will hold its shape.

4.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Be careful not to over bake!

5.  Serve warm or room temperature.

* Roasting the beets in a lightly greased oven dish is a fantastic way to cook the beets for these muffins.  It prevents the beets from taking in water like they would if you boiled or steamed them.  Roast in a 350 oven for 60-90 minutes or until tender.  Cool, peel and puree!

Forgive Me?

You'll forgive me, right?  I haven't posted any knitting since May 14.  That's pretty good!  And I still have a few other things finished that I'm not sharing yet.   The knitting is a good thing to have as back up for when the food pictures didn't turn out so well.

Like those Spinach and Ricotta Crepes I made last night for dinner.  They were delicious AND they used ALL of the spinach out of first CSA box (a first!) but they just didn't photograph well.  Hmmm...well I guess they could have; doing a quick google search right now provided plenty of nice pictures.  Too bad I didn't think to tuck the crepe around the filling differently.  Smearing white and green filling on half a circle and then folding it in half so that it resembles a very flat and funny looking taco does not yield a nice picture.  Also, I suspect that they double-stuffed the one in the cookbook I used to make it look nicer.  Cheaters.

Once again, lack of food presentation skills and photography skills has left you with a pair of socks to look at that I knitted for Tristyn.  The yarn isn't anything special.  It's just whatever in-house, inexpensive brand Michaels had when I picked it out.  I've thrown the label away and can't remember the type of yarn but I think it started with a 'K.'  It's also completely washable and dryable which I think is a good thing with children's socks.

On an unrelated note--my first CSA box of the season was yesterday.  In it I received:

Honey
Cheese
Spring Greens
Spinach --  all used up in Spinach & Ricotta Crepes
Carrots
Tomatoes
Radishes
Beets

What on earth should I do with the radishes and beets?  I'd love any suggestions with these few thoughts kept in mind:

1.  I've tried radishes on my salad.  Let's just say I don't like raw radishes
2.  If it involves cabbage -- just no.  So no borscht. 
3.  Vinegar, mayonaise, mustard and salad dressings are no good either.  ESPECIALLY the vinegar.

If I've left you with any thing in your recipe repertoire please let me know!  I don't want to throw them away and I'm pretty sure Bob the dog won't eat them raw or cooked.

CSA Week 7

Cherries, Lettuce, Kohlrabi, Red Potatoes, Snap Peas, Sweet Onions.

CSA Week 6

A little late...but here's what was in our basket for Week 6:  Cabbage, Lettuce, Zucchini, Basil, Spinach, Tomatoes, Stawberries, Broccoli and Snap Peas.

CSA Week 5

Red Potatoes, Broccoli, Kale, Lettuce, Kohlrabi, Strawberries, Vine Ripened Tomatoes

CSA Week 4

This week's box brings us tomatoes, sugar snap peas, romaine, lettuce, MORE spinach (when will it end?), strawberries, and asparagus.