cooking up the CSA share

We joined a CSA this year - bags of fresh vegetables, that are grown literally one mile down the road, have made my family very happy. Most of the time I simply roast, steam or saute them. Some days I break out a small kitchen appliance and put William up on a chair next to the counter to "help" me.  Exciting things happen in the pink kitchen - basil houses are constructed, my keyboard gets covered in a spray of flour (the space bar will never be same) and spoons are licked clean. Little Henry periodically squats down and peers into the oven to see what's going on in there and later screams at me because he can't reach the goodies on the cooling racks.

Chimichurri
I probably made about 6 batches of this. Ate it with pork chops, gifted and froze.

Ina's Pesto
Simply Recipes Pesto
I lost count of how many batches of pesto were made. Really need to try them side by side to compare.  Note to self - buy half as much cheese as you think you need or read the recipe before you go shopping. Ate with pasta, used in the Pasta, Pesto and Peas salad, gifted and froze.

Simply Recipes Basic Tomato Sauce - very sweet, double recipe next time
Ruhlman's Tomato Sauce - I liked the ease of this but not the seeds

Carrot, Zucchini, Squash Ribbons
I grated everything instead of making the ribbons - it's a quick side.

Pasta, pesto and peas
Made it on Labor Day, great pasta salad for a large group

Smitten Kitchen's Zucchini Bread 
Just plain, straight, delicious bread!
Simply Recipes Zucchini Muffins
I liked this recipe because it used melted butter.
Zucchini Carrot Bread
Great because it used a lot of veggies
Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread
I subbed carrots but want to try it with the sweet potatoes

baba ghanoush.
Ok, but i don't really like eggplant to begin with

raspberry season

So...it's been quite some time since I've written anything here and I've missed it. In the last 2 years lots of things have gone on in our lives and I'm not going try to do a recap or anything. Let's just say that we moved into a new house and are now a family of 4. WFR is getting ready for pre-school to start in a few weeks and Henry is perfecting the art of running.

That all being said, it's raspberry season and I'm going to start trying some new recipes and posting again. The boys and I are going to a family reunion this afternoon and I made these raspberry breakfast bars to take. I liked this recipe because it calls for a whole pound of berries but they turned out soggy. I have a few ideas why this happened (my errors) and will have to try them again.

Raspberry Patience

Those are the steps to my attic. Sitting on them are 3 different batches of boozy goodness - Raspberry Liqueur, Double Raspberry Treat and Righteous Raspberry. The kitchen counter has a few small stains and a couple of wooden spoons and towels were sacrificed (no worse than making jam) but the process was simple and so far everything is going smoothly. I have to swirl Righteous for 20 seconds on Wednesday. On Friday I need to strain the Liqueur into their final bottles. This is all marked on my calendar. The most difficult part is waiting a month before it's all ready to drink and share.

Here's WFR eating lunch!

the easy road

I have to admit that I am a teeny tiny bit jealous of Pillsbury Bake-Off winners' monetary prizes and kick ass ovens. Also, that I usually pride myself on making things from "scratch".

This past week I picked up a copy of their book from the library and found it had 2 raspberry recipes. Did you know that I am scouring the internet and cookery shelves for raspberry recipes? Lucky me it had TWO! And they both included canned bread!?!?! I thought to myself...Can I really serve something that I popped out of a cardboard tube? Well, when you have no more than 5 minutes in a row to do anything I decided to go for it and honestly they were delicious.

It's a shame really. Should I be amazed that I was able to "bake" twice this week? Or should I be disgusted with myself for selling out and embracing the Dough Boy? Could I be over analyzing? Maybe, but when I get a compliment I feel guilty and a almost embarrassed. I am compelled to blurt out "I didn't really bake them, the crusts are biscuits from a can". Like, no they're not really THAT good, they can't be! Then I wish I had made that Lemon Bundt, the one with the zest of 6 lemons from Cooks' Illustrated. Now there's a cake to be proud of but I probably would have to hire a babysitter to make it during the week.

These are really good and I might make them again....

raspberry-nut dreams

1/2 c. macadamia nuts
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c. frozen raspberries, thawed, drained and liquid reserved
1 can (16.3 oz) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 16 regular-sized muffin cups with cooking spray. In food processor, pulse macadamia nuts until coarsely chopped. Add brown sugar; process till combined. Place in small bowl and set aside.

2. In same food processor, process cream cheese, 2 Tbs nut mixture and 2 Tbs raspberry liquid till smooth.

3. Separate dough into 8 biscuits; separate each into 2 layers, making a total of 16 rounds. Lightly press each round in bottom and up side of muffin cup. Spoon about 1/2 Tbs cream cheese mixture into each dough lined cup. Top each evenly with raspberries and 1 Tbs remaining nut mixture.

4. Bake 14-22 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes before serving.

Nice week

Last week my sister-in-law and 2 nieces came into town from Colorado. We had a great time visiting with them. Many trips were made to Starbucks and the ice cream stand. We all helped my mother-in-law get ready for the Brooklyn Heights Garage Sale on Friday and did the selling on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was SUPER HOT and there were not many customers.





Then on Sunday my parents took WFR and I to the Valley City Frog Jumping Contest. It is some good, clean family fun! It was also SUPER HOT that day so we walked around a little then went back to their house to sit in the a/c.

Pack the moving truck

We have a new tenat on our front porch but it took her a few days to choose btwn the left and right units. I'm afraid to water the hanging baskets so they're turning a yellowish brown color and looking quite crispy. The neighbors probably think that I've just been negleting my plants (which is normally the case) but I am actually trying to save her nest. And I figure if I've stopped watering one, I might as well have a matching pair of dead baskets. Maybe something else will move into the other one. The rent is cheap!

busy week

We have a TON of stuff going on this week which is exhausting me. So much, that I played hookie from WFR's swim class last night and fell asleep on the couch by 9pm.

Tomorrow I am taking our new teenage babysitter (and her little sis) on an outing to get to know WFR a little better. I want her to come over and see the apartment and we can discuss his bedtime routine. Which is not much more than read "Goodnight Moon" while he drinks some milk, put him in the crib, shut the door and ignore anything else that happens until after 6a.m. Oh, and don't forget to turn the sound machine on! We were supposed to go to the zoo but if it rains I'm not sure what we're going to do.

Sunday we are going to the Cleveland Food Rocks Rock 'n' Roll BBQ. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. They are pretty vague on the details...bbq from "famous" Cleveland restaurants and music at the Beachland. This group is a non-profit that are raising funds to help promote the city's good eats." I don't know what that really means. But...I haven't been to anything food related in so long, I didn't want to miss out on something that could be cool. More info can be found here. Let's hope it's worth the admission!