Making Me Happy

Fresh brewed lemonade.

Homemade meatballs and sauce.

The little helper.

CSA Share, Week 6

This week: Salad greens, kale, Swiss chard, beets, turnips, squash, cucumbers, basil, dill, 1 dozen eggs plus a handfull of pickling cucumbers. Score!

I am pretty excited that there wasn’t any cabbage. Is that wrong?

Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

I had no idea what to make for dinner last night, and really I wasn’t feeling very hungry. Luckily, we had some tomatoes and mini fresh mozzarella bites hanging out in the fridge. I made some whole wheat pasta, threw in the tomatoes and cheese, and topped it all with olive oil, some of my good balsamic vinegar, some dried basil (can you believe they didn’t have any at the grocery store?) and a bit of salt and pepper. Perfect light meal with a little salad and a biscuit.

A BBQ With Friends, and a New Play Dress

We didn’t really do much to celebrate on the 4th this year. It was a pretty quiet day filled with chores and playing in the yard, chasing frogs. But yesterday, we were invited to a little BBQ at our friends’ house nearby. I made some pasta salad and away we went.

I felt like Olive needed a new dress for the occasion, so I whipped up a little July-inspired play dress. I think it came out pretty cute, and she’ll most likely be able to wear it next year as a top.

Olive had a lot of fun playing with Henry and Emma.

Emma had fun posing for photos.

Henry had fun holding tight to mama.

There was a lot of fun to be had outside in the sand, and swinging on the hammock. I preferred the comfort of a cushy chair and refills of lemon seltzer with ice.

Happy 4th!

Homemade strawberry ice cream. So very festive.

CSA Share, Week 5

This week: Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, salad greens, beets, Swiss chard, mini squash, green onions, sugar snap peas and the last of the garlic scapes, which we happily shared with friends at a lovely dinner party last night.

“Mama! I Bake the Cake, Mama!”

I had a little helper in the kitchen today. She was quite excited to be in charge of making the dump cake.

With just a little help from mama.

She even made up a song. “I’m making the cake! I’m making the cake! I share the cake! It’s Olive’s cake!”

I let her add the butter all by herself, and I can’t even begin to tell you how proud she was.

Here she is with her finished product, soaking wet from a good dance in the rain. She knows how to have a good time.

Chicken Thighs with Bok Choy & Potato and Kohlrabi Mash

I have really had to start improvising with all of the veggies that we have been acquiring through our farm share. It has definitely been a learning experience. There have been some misses.

I am happy to report that last night’s meal was half hit, half weird. I browned some boneless chicken thighs in a bit of butter and oil, then removed them from the pan and threw in some chopped bok choy. I made a thick sauce using flour and chicken stock, added the chicken back in and covered it up. The sauce was quite nice, and I seasoned it a bit with garlic powder and some thyme. It was really good – bok choy is so sweet and really does well with dark meat of the thighs.

The mash was a little weird. My experience with kohlrabi is extremely limited, but after having it roasted last week, I thought it would taste great mashed up with some potatoes. I did not realize just how stringy it is, and I didn’t cut it small enough to really mash well. So, our mash was a bit on the chunky side. Still good, but definitely needs a revamp next time around.

Now. To figure out a use for my mountain of Napa cabbage…

Library Sale Scores

Last weekend we went to the library book sale. We scored quite a few cool books.

I’m always happy to find some new-to-me cookbooks, especially the old Betty Crocker variety.

And of course, some light reading.

30 weeks + 3 days