Wayward Seed CSA

I am so excited for our CSA to start!
Do you use a local CSA?
We are trying Wayward Seed Farm this year for our summer veg and fruit.
The farm is a bio-intensive, organic method farm specializing in heirloom vegetables.
They have the coolest veggies at the Market I always note.
(and very hip owners)
Esoteric veggies.
Gorgeous fruits.
It will make me a better chef I think.
I am going to learn to make jam this summer.
Can someone teach me? :)

photos from the wayward seed site and I heard that the lovely Lisa may have snapped these. xo

Simple Healthy EASY Family breakfast you can make the night before KID MUESLI and the kitchen stays cool in the summer!

My children get in breakfast eating ruts.
The whole winter they had the same two items:

Toast with butter (blaise)
Cinnamon brown sugar oatmeal (finn)

It got old.
For me.
SO. I started searching for simple and healthy breakfast ideas and thought about Muesli!
There are SO many recipes and ideas on the web but here is what we do:

basic recipe:
rolled oats (organic if you can)
liquid- (milk/juice/filtered water) anything here- we like whole milk.
Add Ins (think nuts/honey/dried fruit/fresh fruit/yogurt)

in a small bowl add some rolled oats (not quick kind)
top with liquid
let sit overnight in the fridge (bowls with lids are great)
top with yummy ingredients
EAT!
Seriously.
This is so simple.

The great thing is the kids can prep it the night before and all you need to do is toss on the toppings and you are ready to eat.
It is the easiest ever!

AND my kids LOVE it.
AND my kitchen stays cool.
AND it's healthy.
AND it's kinda fun to create.
(and my kids want it for a snack even!)

here are some fun ideas for add in ingredients:

Dried fruit Chips
Fresh or frozen fruit
Dried dates
Dried figs
Karob or dark chocolate chips (go easy)
Nuts
Seeds
Flaxseeds or flax meal
Wheat germ
Oat bran
Raisins
Currants

How about you?

pasta with zucchini and ricotta night

Just keeping it real with mismatched dishes and drinking water out of measuring cups and a wreck of a house. (and a big old can of CocaCola for preggers in the background) But man they ate the heck out of Pasta with Zucchini and Ricotta . (we used linguine) I am having trouble with the boys being finicky lately and it's been pissing me off. Finn is into starvation and Blaise prefers all things candy. I was shocked that they ate the pasta dish but it was lervly.

I love reading what other people have for dinner.

This is what we are eating for next 8 days:

Fri- Frozen pizza bc mum is out with Michelle and Jenn
Sat- Pork souvlakis with Big Greek Salads
Sun- Roast Chicken roast pots/veg/salad
Mon-Leftover Chicken Salad sammies w/pasta salad
Tues-Enchilada night (my first time making) any hints?
Wed-Turkey Burgers and salads
Thurs- Bean and Cheese Burritos
Fri- wildcard pantry renegade cooking night

What are you reading?

Do you read Raising Foodies?
I love it. It is the brainchild of my friend Jos and I just love it.
I love that it is real and not fussy and it makes me want to eat better with my family.

Here is what she has to say about her blog:

I want my two young daughters to love, appreciate and understand good food -- why it's important, where it comes from, how to enjoy it. Maybe it's asking for too much, but I want them to be little foodies. Desperately.

My desire is two fold: for one, I really don't want to cook two differently meals every. single. night., and there are only so many dinners of organic nuggets and Annie's mac and cheese that I can stomach. But my primary motivation is to create in my two daughters a healthier, more confident, more passionate attitude about food than I had as a teenager and young adult (for too many years, as as someone who came of age in the era of snackwells, food was the enemy.)

So this is the space where I’ll share our family's food "experiences" and where I'm hoping you'll share yours too, as I'm guessing I'm not alone here. What worked, what didn’t, what we cooked together, what we read, where we went and what we ate when we went there…

Welcome to our family food journey.

Check it out today!
What blogs do you love right now?

lambic beer is instead produced by spontaneous fermentation

The family had dinner with some new pals tonight- SUSHI dinner!
Vanessa and her awesome brood had us over for make yr own sushi night and I kinda fell in love with the process of making sushi. I think I have always been intimidated by the process before, but tonight it was simple and fun for all. (There was even some chicken nugget sushi being made!) I discovered that I love seafood salad, have a very hard time resisting Jeni's ice cream, (OMG Cherry lambic orgasm) and am a natural roller when it comes to the sushi!
OK. Hints to my family. I may like to have some sushi making tools for Christmas!
Check out Vanessa's blog. She's a keeper. xo

Thanksgiving Boot Camp at The North Market

I was super lucky to be chosen to attend
the North Market's Thanksgiving Boot camp this weekend!

I had the pleasure of being a pupil of Robin Davis (Dispatch Food Editor)!
She taught us how to roast a turkey, make perfect gravy and finish it off with a delectable pumpkin pie. (from scratch!)

I had a blast with my friend momo and met wonderful new friends at this hands-on class. It was amazing to learn how to construct a meal that seems too complicated and stressful (in my mind) at the hands of an amazing chef and teacher.
Robin hails from The California Culinary Academy and was assistant editor of Bon Appetit magazine! She was a restaurant reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and has written two cookbooks. She is smart and savvy in the kitchen and also a gorgeous person who made us all feel comfortable in the kitchen.(she also has an adorable hubby who helped us today! And she wears Doc Martins! Love!)
We learned about brining a turkey (and got to take home giant brine buckets!)
and the essential steps to creating gravy that will make you weep with love.
It was all too perfect. I made a pie crust from scratch. My granny would be proud.
We all sat down together and had a lovely meal at the end of the class. Perfect!
Local ingredients!
Local cool folks!
Local talents!
Awesome day.
Thanks for the fun!
I feel way more confidant about Turkey day now.
The North Market has awesome classes all year round. Check it out!

"I dunno. Get a pizza, watch "Degrassi Jr. High."

OMG.
OK. I found my summer go to dessert.
My pal Kate told me about this super easy and insanely good icebox pie.
Holy hell...Run to the farmer's market and grab some strawberries and make this today!
I did not use vanilla extract or a true pie crust- just whizzed some graham crackers and wee butter
in food processor and it was fine! Blueberries next time!

Strawberry Cheesecake Icebox Pie
1 cup plain fat free STONYFIELD FARM yogurt
1 8oz. package of fat free cream cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup strawberries, diced
1 9" Graham Cracker Crust

Directions:
In a medium-size mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Blend yogurt and vanilla extract into this mixture. Fold in Strawberries, and pour filling into graham cracker crust. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until set. Top with whipped cream if you like, and allow pie to warm slightly before serving.

Yields: 8 Servings

Nutrition Facts Per Serving:
Calories 150; Calories from fat 35; Carbohydrate 23g; Protein 6g; Fiber 1g
recipe from stoneyfield

title post- Chasing Amy 1997

"What the hell do you think Leona really puts in that pizza? "

We drink Woose here (water and the last of the juice), we drive down Belly Road (Cooke Road for locals and quite bumpy), Blaise is addicted to Diddies (pacifiers) and we love to eat Saladza (pizza topped with salad)
I love our little family language...

So Saladza is my go-to meal for warm weather.
For the kind of day when you have been going going going and cannot face the kitchen.
It is a great substitution for takeout fatigue syndrome.
You can even do it on the grill!
It is simple and a great 15 minute meal!




The boys eat greens so easily when they are topped on pizza!
I like to make a nice mix of greens each week for the family.
I am fully into feeding the kiddos arugula, radicchio, and endive now and getting their palate used to peppery and different kinds of greens.
We do love blue cheese and ranch round here too- I just want to make sure the kids are not growing up thinking they must smother their salads with white dressing from a bottle.
I like that they will eat olive oils and vinegar and feta now with greens.
Baby steps away from dip dip (ranch! you devil!)






I just use a quick Trader Joe's or Whole Foods dough ball and top it with any leftover yummy veg and meat and cheese. Sometimes I use mozzarella and basil and pepperoni. Sometimes I do fancy pants goat cheese and vegetables. Tonight I used chicken sausage, tomatoes, and mozzarella and I topped the pizza with a quick green mix and homemade vinaigrette dressing.
(I would love to know any quick and delicious homemade salad dressing)
We drank big glasses of orange juice and talked endlessly about the hot weather and all of our plans for the summer. We missed our daddy as he was at the workshop all day and thought about what we might do for the rest of the weekend.
Saladza Night! Love it!

title post- Mystic Pizza 1988

sleeping while smiling/pretending to be so alive

I found out about this book called SPENT via my pal Maya.
She wrote a post on it here.
I found myself thinking about the concept of being "spent" and how it applies to me right now.
It is so much a part of how I feel that I am certain when I walk out in the sun there are giant letters S P E N T that appear on my forehead and announce to the world that I am a hot mess.

I know I am tired.
I know I am busy and stressed and working too much.
I am topping that off with trying to be super mom and not let these kids down.
It is a lot and frankly my eating habits were shit this past year.
Overweight or not I am the veggie queen.
I am a very good eater. I eat very good foods for the most part.
I just eat massive volume of food! :)
This past year though I relied on take away and pizza and meals that were sub par too many times. I could feel my nutrition peel away like a skin.
I just knew it was happening, but too tired to do anything about it.

I read "Spent" and then the day after I read it Dr. Frank Lipman 's PR person contacts me and I am all thinking they have my library lending list and am freaked out! But it turns out it was random and we chatted and normally I just don't respond to PR folks in my email, but this felt different. It felt different because I asked to speak to the doctor and she made it happen. I asked to be sent some information and some products and it happened. Dr. Frank Lipman is an amazing man and HELLO I am now two degrees from Kevin Bacon as I see that Dr Lipman treats the Bacon family too!
I digress.
So the doctor is telling me things and chatting to me and I am able to ask him questions.
I like this. I feel way more involved and important in the big machine this way.
So, the book-It really makes sense. It is a lifestyle. It is a kinda detox at first, but it is a lifestyle that calls for care of the body. I know- nothing groundbreaking here, but I felt so much better only after one week of smoothie breakfast with green powder. Honest!
I like it that is has zero to do with weight and all health.
I am not going to type little lies and say my family is doing the program.
Joe and I are not following it to the letter. We are taking a lot of the information and bending it to suit our needs. We went zero processed food and no sugar the week before last. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THIS IS? Hello agave! Hello no condiments!
It was hard and we thought we were already eating minimal processed foods.
We thought we were kicking ass and it looks like sugar was kicking our ass!
This week was not so good as one time we may have gone to Dunkin Donuts- BUT!!!!
It can be work for us- we know this.
We are using less sugar and zero condiments
(save ketchup- help people? sugar free ketchup? Is it real?)
I am unsure of how the rest of the few weeks will go as we try and work the program to fit our life. I am working on some whole body lifestyle things as I talked about a few months back .
I want to be healthier on all levels.
I think it is important to gain back yr energy as a parent and self employed person.
Most of us are sapped. Even my fit and trim buddies are working too much and forgetting to nurture. The world is out there everyday waiting to be explored and I don't want to be tired.
The doctor talks about Ubuntu. Love this- look it up.

We depend on us.
We need to be ready and able to work and parent and live.
I think that this book will give me some good ideas and some ways to step up my pep.
The Dr. is wicked cool and will take questions if you have any for him.
I plan on writing a follow up post soon about how I feel and I can post any questions then.
Just shoot me an email.

What do you feel like? What helps you? Yoga? Wheatgrass? meditation? Sleep? Diet? The laugh of yr child? Yr lover? Sunshine?

"Bite your teeth into the ass of life."

I was a big slacker at Christmas and did not make that one thing he wanted. Mincemeat pie.
I really do not even know what it is right. Is it meat or is it like nasty fruitcake? Dunno.

Anyhoo. I got this book out of the library yesterday to try and make amends for my craptastic wifey ways. I thought I would start now and perhaps by December be able to create the pie. (I have learned that often proper British foods take weeks to prepare and involve ingredients sitting around in tins and such so I really made an effort you see.)

So this book, "Great British Cooking" by Jane Garmey looks pretty good and I bring it home and the first thing I notice while flipping through it is that someone had really strong feelings about the crumpets on page 210. I swear to God there is post it note on page 211 describing in detail the authors mistake. I swear to God that the post it note has been typed.
This is freaking serious crumpet love.
have you ever seen something so mad?!
I may start leaving love notes in library books...
Today.


title post- Big Night 1996

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" Yeah but bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good."

I want to read this book.
It seems perfect in these sluggish economic times.
I feel kinda drawn to this writer.
She seemed kinda fierce.

"Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg until it is broken."
M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992)

title post- Pulp Fiction 1994

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Love is a banquet on which we feed

So our friends Michelle and Arge sent Joe a box of English chocolate today. He nearly wept with joy. It was one of those moments where you can just see joy spread right across a face. We were out with friends last weekend and Joe was talking about being a little boy and getting Thornton's chocolates and how he hasn't had that chocolate in over a decade and how when he was small he hardly had it anyway bc it was pricey and he was quite poor. But he loved it. He loved it so much.

It was just a moment in a conversation, but someone listened and made a mental note and made Joe's day. How often do we do this for one another? Not often enough. It rocked. And now that the three boys are off running an errand I am so dipping into the chocolate.

The shop is busy busy. If you have any shopping for wee one's to do there is still time to shop! And Seriously...thank you for the sweet emails and comments about the new site and newsletter subscriptions. I love you down to my stinky feet. xo

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Sing with me/if it's just for today

This weekend is the time to recreate the sandwich of my dreams. I love the Brown Bag Deli and this sammie that they make is divine.

All the food is insanely good, but this Village Addiction makes me curl my toes in a real good way. I ate this like 32 times last Spring when we were rehabbing a home down the street.

I must get there soon. I miss the place.

turkey, harvarti, cranberry mayo, grilled on sourdough

be still my beating heart
What leftovers are you digging?

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All my life you're haunting me/I loved you so

Bacon Candy!

Yeah, that's right. Bacon candy!
I mean come on!
Did a tiny bit of drool just mix with repulsion in yr mouth?
Finn and I have been working on recipes from
Kids Cook 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold
and he has been dying to make bacon candy!

From what I gather this may be a Southern thing, but this Yankee loves it.
I think it would be great with eggs and pancakes or even some meat and beans.
It made the house smell like a Yankee frickin candle and as I type this
I am overcome by the sensations of Autumn and leaves and scarecrows and such.
The spice blend rocks.

You need bacon, confectioner's sugar, and a five spice blend ( clove, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, and coriander)
sprinkle it on bacon- roast about 15 mins/drain fat/roast till crisp.
Eat and feel a bit sick but deliriously happy.

I cannot believe I ate this after going with My friend Michelle to this last night
where I consumed well over 5,000 calories in an hour and a half.
I was so moved last night by the March of Dimes.
I will do the walk next year. I swear.

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where somebody shines the light/I'll be coming on home tonight

Joe has been doing so much. He is pushing up against the verge of too much. We both are really, but he is truly tired lately from his own business and the wood company. I get all guilty about taking a spare few moments for me and then feel like a miserable partner.

I wish we both had a day off from real life to relax. I wish we could run away together from all the grown up realities for just 24 hours. I wish we could be in a darkish old pub in England or the sandy beaches of the Greek Isles or the Westin downtown.
I wish I had a new sheer nightthing and a bottle of Veuve clicquot.
But, I don't. I have a few precious hours in the evening and a heart that beats fast when I look at this man who does it all.
Finn believes his dad has powers and I tell him he does. He really does.

I am trying to think of small things I can do to show him my appreciation.(and remind him that although I may not be very good at showing it that I am the bomb!) I tried to treat him this weekend.
I made him Guinness Stew and it worked. He fell right into that relaxed face and was putty in my hands. This is some good stew folks. I think it may have healing properties. One thing in particular that I like is that it calls for two cups of Guinness and when you purchase a large bottle at the market it leaves plenty to drink while you cook.


I heart the Irish Pub Cookbook by Margaret M. Johnson

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Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself

So when writer Jane Daniels Lear tells me in this month's issue of Gourmet that a Charlotte Mold "is arguably one of the most alluring pieces of culinary equipment in the world." I want one.

I am smitten with it's sweet heart handles and the fancy idea of piping ladyfingers onto baking sheets and really impressing my family and friends this holiday season. I was once at a party with fancy Charlotte de Pommes, but I didn't eat any because well at parties I tend to just drink. But that is neither here nor there.

Um, I really think I just want the fancy pan with heart handles.
Why can't I just admit it.
It's lovely.
It was made for a queen.
I would put fruit in it.
I would use it to carry things to dinner parties.
It would hold my keys on the counter...

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I can teach you/But I have to charge

I was flipping through some magazines last week and saw a bottle of Huy Fong Sriracha hot sauce on a list of favorite things and immediately had to buy some. My love! I forgot about you!
I used to eat this in college and loved it for it's sweet hot lover taste. I can remember when I discovered I loved the heat. I grew up in a bland little family who had nary a spicy spice in the house. When I tasted hot sauce I was hooked. I often would eat jalapenos from the jar just for the rush. I loved the sweat and the thrill. I still love eating hot sauce, that feeling of flush gets me every time. The heart rate, the breathing, the flow. Sounds kinda like a sexy time huh? Love it.
I am going out with the gals tonight to a Mexican joint. You know I'm gonna have some flushed cheeks. Lucky Joe.

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And when you find me there you'll search no more

Sometimes I only skim Gourmet magazine. I finger the shiny paper and lust a bit at the foods. I flip through it and then place it back on the giant pile of periodicals that live in my hallway. I do love the magazine but between a grocery budget that is more peasant than gourmet and little time I am often just saving recipes and passing the mags on to someone else. This month though is fabulous! I had time to read it from cover to cover while sitting in my parents big ass Lazy Boy chair. (Oh my god those chairs would turn me into a sloth!)

There was a simple picnic article about using layered meals in glass containers for yr picnic and I just loved it! How chic? How simple and portable? I am planning a little picnic this weekend for the boys and we are going to try and recreate Gourmet's gorgeous picnic!
One of the recipes I loved is here.


The magazine also had a terrific article on beekeeping that was beautifully written. Photo via Gourmet magazine...

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Show 'em how we do it

Making butter is so simple and fun!
Finn, Blaise, and pal Jack spent some time making butter this weekend and it was a huge success!
I had no idea that you could pour heavy whipping cream in a container with a lid and shake it for 20 minutes and butter would form!!!!
(And I am from Appalachia! )
I was delighted!
Seriously- need a break?
(Make butter-They have to shake for about 20 minutes to form the butter ball!)
It was awesome!
Check out a video clip of the shake shake here!
I just sat back and lounged a bit on the couch while they went crazy with shaking!
After the butter ball forms (and it is like so cool to see that!) simply drain off the liquid (buttermilk) and run cold water over the ball in the jar until the water runs clear and then pop in the fridge for a wonderful treat!
We had butter and crackers and juice and the whole table was pleased!

If I were a chicken I'd lay the most beautiful eggs

whoo whoo loves the crafty crow?, originally uploaded by turnsharp.

can you guys vote for Finn's owl please in the breakfast category?
GO HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!