CSA Recipes for Week #1

So - CSA pickup was on Tuesday. Thank you Tangerini Farms for providing me with the following yumminess: Japanese turnips , beet greens, radishes, arugula, mesclun greens, green & red leaf lettuce, garlic scapes, bok choy... and some of the most delicious strawberries that I couldn't keep my mitts off of while driving home.

So - some folks were gifted some lettuce this week, b/c I simply had too much -- but I will plan better for next week to fully use it all up, I hope.

A fresh salad I made this week was accompanied by fresh sliced radishes (spicy!) and some of the turnips, which were surprisingly (to me) delicious when eaten raw. My experience with Turnip in the past is limited to mashed turnips, usually eaten on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, when my Grammy has made them.

Tuesday night, was our 8th Anniversary - so I got a night off of cooking, which I was excited about and conversely a little sad, since I knew I had a fridge full of fresh picked produce waiting for me like I was on Top Chef. We had a fabulous dinner, however, at Wellesley's The Cottage. Granola crusted Mahi-mahi for me, with a lemon buerre blanc, jasmine rice and asparagus. Eric had short ribs, which looked amazing.... oh, he also had a beer, which I looked at longingly.

Wednesday night, I busted out my Martha Stewart Living cookbook and found a simple recipe for sauteed beet greens - I tossed some olive oil in a dutch oven, and pressed 2 cloves of garlic into it and let it infuse into the oil.... heated up the oil and then sauteed the beet greens, adding a little bit of white wine and put the cover on to let it wilt down. Result: Yum. Again, not a whole lot of experience with greens, except for last summer's one-off CSA pickup for a friend who couldn't make her pickup for the week, and I made swiss chard in a similar manner.

Thursday night -- I made a Garlic Scape Pesto recipe that proved to be easy and delicious. Food processor, meet Garlic Scapes. Total BFFs. Added some olive oil, parmesan cheese and pine nuts. Dash of sea salt when all mixed and tossed with pasta. Eric approved, even if it was a bit spicy. The scapes definitely added a bite!

Leading us into tonight..... Friday night is usually pizza night, and tonight is no different. Homemade pizza - with proscuitto and arugula... Just went into the oven!

Dinner on Sunday night - Father's Day - probably a roast beef, mashed potatoes, and a salad made with the mesclun greens.

This is fun. :D

Life update!

No Barenaked Ladies Ships & Dip Cruise in 2010. We'll have to make alternate plans.

Therefore:

BabyNev 2.0 is due to join our family on or around January 7 2010. :D that's quite the update, I'd say. Especially after a lag in blogging for the past few months. I've been busy, obviously. ;) It took a few months, but persistence paid off, and I had the joy of peeing on a stick back in May to find out a positive result. Joy, fear, anxiety, and spatial planning all entered my mind at the same time. Oh, and recalling the pain of natural childbirth and recovery. I am about to embark on my 10th week, and I can report pants fitting a little tighter around the belly, along with constant cravings for bagels with cream cheese. ;) I dragged my maternity clothes from 04-05 down from the attic, and was reminded that when I was wearing those, I was working as an IBMer at John Hancock, which is business formal - so I have a lot of dress pants and shirts that will do little good to me now, besides the fact that I'm opposite seasons from last time.... I can reuse some of it, but I will need to buy some new casual wear.... Kid 2 Kid in Natick reportedly now carries consignment maternity clothes, so I'll be making a stop there, too!

On a locavore scale, we start our CSA pickup with Tangerini's Farm in Millis next week. Radishes, lettuce greens, spicy greens, mustard greens, etc. await us as we begin the summer of awesome local produce pickups! On the horizon, too -- strawberry picking!

Now if only the sun would come out....

Ships & Dip V has come and gone.   

Some links:

Calgary Reporter

A Blog

All in all -- a fabulous trip.  Spent lots of times with friends, new and old, and it felt like a reunion of sorts with all the folks I've met on the previous cruises.   The music was fabulous...   my favorite act (besides BNL themselves) has to go to Mike Evin.   He stole the stage at the Songwriters Panel, and at the third BNL mainshow.   So much fun, and my hands-down fave show on the ship was his Atrium show, with Andy Creeggan and a late appearance by Jim Creeggan.   

I'd give anything to go back to that ship right now and relive it!    I miss my friends, the music, the rum drinks....

The weather, however, left a little something to be desired:  the warmth.    We had a good start- about 80 in Cozumel, but after we left Cozumel and headed up North to Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, we found out that the ship's Captain made the call to head to Key West instead, as a cold front approaching would have made it impossible for us to tender to the island of GSC.    While it was a brisk 50 degrees in Key West, it was a lot of fun and we were glad to have a stop that was new to us!

I could go on and on.... We got home 2 weeks ago and I still miss it.    I'm looking forward to Ships & Dip 7 (will it be #7?), hopefully in 2011.   Awaiting announcements and more info from the band....   I hope BNL tours and comes out with a new album....   

Back on the homefront:

Watching the Oscars.  Michael's off to bed.   Feb. vacay is over and he's back to school tomorrow.   I made roast chicken for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert. 

Thank you, goodnight!

2009 begins....

I think I broke a record in lack of blogging.  

Anyway.  Let's sum up 2008:

A good year for me.   I lost 10lbs.  I made lots of healthy changes in my lifestyle - working out more frequently, using the Y, riding my bike, diet changes - eating organically when possible, less processed foods, more "natural" ingredients, eliminating ingredients like GMOs and HFCS, drinking more herbal tea, etc.    So it's been a good year. 

I'm welcoming in 2009 by keeping up that lifestyle as much as possible... and most importantly, we're about to embark on Ships & Dip V, in just 3 days, out of Miami, heading to Cozumel & NCL's Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas.   Excursions are booked - Segways/Snorkeling, and Parasailing.   Concert schedules are being pored over, along with the deck maps of the Norwegian Jewel.   We're coordinating with friends from all over to meet up and enjoy the week of a lifetime. 

Bands we'll see:    Barenaked Ladies, Sarah MacLachlan, Gaelic Storm, The New Odds, Great Big Sea, The Weakerthans, The Mountain Goats, Mike Evin, Brothers Creeggan, etc. etc. etc.    Kids in the Hall members Dave Foley & Kevin McDonald for comedy, along with Sean Cullen!   We are great excited for both the bands and friends from afar that we only see on this week where we all gather together.   

Needless to say :  I CANNOT WAIT!    After shoveling probably about 50" of snow so far this winter, I am more than ready for some warm Caribbean air and sunshine! 

Stories to follow......

Another Day, Another Lollypop

Thomas the Tank Engine, I mean, my son Michael, had a great Halloween!  We attended a really fun kid party, and there were a lot of fun adult beverages and activities.   Long live the Donut-on-a-String contest !!!   

Michael is wearing underpants.   To school.   Everywhere!   Nighttime pullups are still required, even though he mostly wakes up dry...but a few nights out of the week we wake up to a wet bed.  I am pleased as punch - as I think a lot of it is b/c he's ready, and also b/c he's seeing the kids in his class at school who are potty trained and he's modeling their good potty behavior!   Yay Michael! 

I am counting down to Ships & Dip - we are at the 90 day mark!   Looking forward to the fabulous vacation that we think about all year long! 

That's it for now - hopefully a longer entry later this week! 

I gave in.

*sigh* ...  I turned the heat on today.  I couldn't stand it any longer.  I tried to make it until Nov.1, but I couldn't let the house temperature drop any further below 64 degrees.   It was 63 in our bedroom, and I made the call, especially when it's going to be 29 degrees here tonight.

Welcome to Fall in New England!

Here's a Tree Man, whom I saw at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA today.  I had brunch with Karen and Shannon at the restaurant there, and then we toured the grounds.    Very cool!

Thinking ahead...

I have Michael registered for "Pre-K" for the 2009-2010 school year, again at ECDC.   I am happy about this!   That was an easy decision.

And because I am a planner, I attended an open house for a Catholic school in Wellesley for Kindergarten in 2010.   It is weighing heavily on my mind whether or not to send Michael to Catholic school, versus the local neighborhood public school.     I, personally, attended Catholic school from Kindergarten all the way through High School, and I'd like to think that  I benefitted from the discipline and inclusion of all matters religion on my daily school life.  Eric went to public school until he attended the same Catholic high school as me, so he is leaning more towards public school.    And, of course, the price of it all isn't helping -- he's the one who works full time, so he is thinking about how we'll pay for it.   I am the one who isn't working, so I'm thinking about all the things I'd be willing to give up to send him to the private school.     Ships & Dip crossed my mind.   If it came down to it, I started thinking about it how I'd skip the BNL cruise just to be able to send him to this school.   I teared up from the thought that I was fully entrenched in parenthood where I was more concerned with my child's education and I was willing to give up my most favorite week of the year, just to be able to send him there.    THAT's how much I loved it, and that's how important it is to me.   

So, as you can guess, I loved the school -- from the minute I pulled into the parking lot, I loved it.   It reminded me of the schools I attended - brick buildings in the parking lot of the Parish, and polite, uniformed children holding the door for me and welcoming me inside.   We sat in the cafeteria, welcomed with coffee and homemade muffins, and listened to the principal talk about the school and its students.    We got a tour of the Kindergarten class, where the kids were prepping for recess -- sweatshirts and jackets were being put on and they were lining up by the windows.   Kids were talking amongst themselves, and the teacher put her hand up, counted to 3 and rang some chimes.  The kids stopped talking and marched outside to recess.   I paged through some of the workbooks they used and inspected the academics.  Spanish starts in grade 3.     I saw the list of afterschool activities.  Piano lessons!   Flute lessons!     I met students and moms of some of the students who volunteered their time to answer questions at the Open House.  I even met a mom from Natick who went to Coyle, the same HS we attended in Taunton.  Small world!        Positive impressions all around.  I didn't see or hear anything I didn't like.   I think the discipline and focus on academics would be very good for Michael. 

So I have a year to think about it and figure out how we can do it.   I'm sure I'll attend the Open House again next year...   And I hope I can attend an Open House for the public school in our district - I'd love to see how the schools compare so that I can make an informed decision.