Friday Fragments - Thanksgiving Wrap Up

It's Black Friday - the crazy day to go out shopping and land incredible deals.  We slept in.  I do need to hit a certain store this morning, but I'm not rushing out to beat the crowds.  My husband got me to do the 4am stand in line thing a couple of times and actually it was fun.  We had a plan, each with a loaded list of must-have deals plotted out.  We'll do it again in the future, I'm sure.  Today, though, we will be retailers and I need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed, not groggy and bitchy from being awake since 3am.

On Wednesday I "surprised" my mom by bringing a birthday cake to her dance group at the mall (they meet every week for a little line dancing exercise).  I say "surprise" because she suggested this several months ago and then she acted surprised when I showed up.  To be honest, I've been so occupied with work and the shop that it never dawned on me to do anything special for her 70th birthday this year.  I feel bad that I didn't come up with this on my own, so the very least I could do is comply with her less than suble request.

Tuesday night I baked her cake - a pineapple upside-down cake, isn't it pretty?

Wednesday night I baked the rest of the stuff for Thanksgiving dinner...

Spiced apples from a recipe my son found online Monday

 -Slice and core several apples (I used up the ones left from last month's CSA box and they were getting soft).  2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, grated lemon rind,  juice from 1 lemon, 1 cinnamon stick (I didn't have one so I just used several teaspoons of ground cinnamon) and I added a teaspoon or two of ground cloves.  VERY yummy and VERY easy.

We had a second birthday to celebrate besides my mom, so I made a requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

Unfortuantely I didn't have any chocolate frosting on hand, so I made it from scratch.  I think it needed more chocolate.

Pumpkin Pie!  I love using Pillsbury pie crusts - they're easy and already rolled out AND they bake beautifully.  It's taken a bit for me to master crimping the edges, but it does look homemade.

And finally, my famous baked beans.  Even my kids who never eat anything with a bean in it, dig into this stuff.  It's incredibly sweet and could easily sit on the dessert table.

 -chopped onions, crumbled bacon (I used three strips in this batch), about two cups brown sugar, 2 cans of pork and beans (the brand doesn't matter, just don't mix brands - I've made that mistake), 1 teaspoon of barbeque sauce, 2 teaspoons of mustard, 3 or 4 tablespoons of ketchup, and several shakes of chili powder.

And finally, a little alcohol.  It didn't get added to anything, although it would be fabulous in the spiced apples.  I felt more than a little like Julia Childs with my glass in hand.  I had a tickle in my throat warning a cold was brewing so I battled it with my own brew.  Usually I seek out vodka mixed with fruit juice, but I only had a drop left so I found this in the back of the fridge.  Cured me up just fine!

We made two stops for Thanksgiving - my mom's house and my mother-in-law's house.  Usually I'm pretty good about taking enough small portions that I don't feel like I'm rolling out of the house,  but I royally failed yesterday.  Last night required a dose of Tums before I could go to sleep.

We do have some awesome leftovers for today.  I don't make anything special out of leftovers, just warm up and eat.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Squirrel Weather Report

Between the wooly caterpillers and squirrels you're supposed to be able to predict the severity of the coming winter.  I haven't seen any caterpillers to determine their wooliness, but I have plenty of squirrels romping around in my yard where, from my breakfast table, I can easily report that St. Louis is in for a cold, frigid winter.

The typically sleek brown squirrels have sprouted a thick coat.  See for yourself...

It doesn't take any coaxing to get them to play in the yard but I had the leftover chestnuts from my CSA box so I tossed those outside the kitchen.  The squirrels were funny to watch.  There were probably five different squirrels darting in and out.  Only one could be at the nut pile at a time.  He would grab his nut and then scamper off then someone else would dart in.  If one lingered too long the waiting squirrel would try to chase him off - and they were quite vocal about it.

CSA - The Last Boxes

I finally downloaded my pictures with the CSA food boxes

*Lettuce greens - I had a couple days of salad out of the bag, some ended up in the trash
*Spaghetti noodles - still in the fridge
*Salad dressing - in storage for later date
*Spaghetti sauce - in storage for later date
*Zucchini - sat in fridge for weeks, finally tossed it
*Cucumbers - mixed with cherry tomatoes (plus some yellow ones from previous week) for salad
*Turnips - still in fridge
*Peanut butter - half was mixed with Jif for peanut butter cookies this week.  Will make more.
*Cherry tomatoes

*Jumbo eggs - used in cookie recipes this week.  Still have more.
*Pecans - will be used in holiday cooking
*Wheat bread - a little too dense for my liking
*Loose tea - nobody in this house will drink it.  May end up in someone's Christmas stocking (that, Little Missy, is as close as you get to peeking in my gift closet)
*Black Beans - in the freezer with another batch.  It makes awesome black bean salsa.
*Sweet potatoes - still in the fridge
*Apples - chopped up and made into pie.  You'll see pictures later.

A previous box had chestnuts.  I could have sworn the email announcement said acorns, oops.  So I scored the shells and roasted them in the oven.  I think they could have gone another ten minutes.  Even so, they were too sweet for any of us.  I think the squirrels may get a treat later this week.

This ends the CSA boxes.  In some ways I'm a little sad to see this close, but I'm also glad to not have to rush to the store between 10 and 2 on Saturdays.  That really screwed with our schedules on some weeks.

CSA - Oct 15, 2011

Kinda hard to miss that bottle in the middle, isn't it?  Yes, my latest CSA box contained WINE!  Nothing in this week's box, except the broccoli, has been touched yet.  Everything is able to sit for a little bit until I can get around to using them, yes, including the wine.  I actually landed a couple bottles from someplace else last week.

*Fruit butter - flavor?  Caramel Apple.  Uh yeah, that won't last long.
*Apples - I just made a pie from other apples we received ealier.  These are destined for more pie.
*Blackberry wine - if you ever get a chance, give Missouri wine a sample, it's pretty damn good.
*Pita Bread - not something we ever eat, but I'm sure we'll find something to shove in those pockets.
*Broccoli - I wasn't home when Hubby retrieved this box.  He knew to snap a picture (he did good, didn't he?) and then he dove into the broccoli.  And you thought he plowed through the tomatoes quickly!
*Acorns - I have to laugh because there are tons of acorns laying in my front yard.  We'll see.  I'm researching recipes.

CSA - Oct 1 & 8

I'm pretty sure I've missed a week, but these are the last two we have received...

•Sweet potatoes - they are really really small.  Waiting for inspiration, sitting next to the regular potatoes.
•Happy Apples - caramel and peanut covered apples?  WIN!  They were gobbled up in a matter of days.
•Acorn Squash - see below
•Japanese Eggplant - I'm excited to use these and want to find the recipe a local Chinese restaurant uses to make garlic sauce.  I'm pretty sure these will rot before I ever get around to using them.
•Corn salsa - it's kind of sweet.  I still have frozen black beans from a few weeks ago and think mixing the two together would be awesome.
•Cheese - this is on the verge of being too stinky to enjoy.  I'm not sure what I would use it in.

 This week:
-Billy Goat chips - yummy and gone!
-Plain Yogurt - waiting for inspriation
-Pie Pumpkins - sitting on the front porch as decoration.  They will be chopped up and made into pie in a few weeks.
-Zucchini and Cucumbers - it's almost cruel to package these together because if you're expecting one and get the other you're in for a huge disappointment.  They are sitting in the fridge.
-Yellow Cherry Tomatoes - waiting to be eaten
-Beef and Bison Jerky Sticks - gobbled up
-Bell Peppers - they're beautiful but sitting unused.


So I had all of these gourds sitting in my fridge....

 I diced them up

 Sprayed them with cooking spray and roasted them

Then mushed them up, smooshed the goo through a wire strainer



 AND MADE PIE!!!!  Isn't this a gorgeous looking pie????  It was yummy too.  I need to make more.

CSA - Sept 10 & 17

•Apple Butter - We have like three jars of the stuff.  Somebody swears he loves the stuff but he sure isn't going through like the other stuff he loves.
•Bajilion Grain Bread - Okay, I don't remember how many different grains.  Who cares, right?  It was yummy
•Melons - Again, names escape me.  I don't they were honeydew, but from the same family.  Not a big hit so I dropped it off at my mom's house.
•Mini Squash and Zucchini - they were part of the shredded veggie patties I made for my mom's house guests.
•Tomatoes
•Edname - They are WEIRD.  A coworker says to eat them steamed but I never got around to that so they sort of became gross green goo

•Brown eggs - Some were boiled and used for chef salads and the rest are being used for PIE.  I like pie.
•Ground beef - sitting in the freezer
•BBQ sauce - sitting in the fridge
•Apples - sitting in the fridge waiting to be made into pie.  I like pie.
•Tomatoes - They were chopped up and used in salad and fajitas.
•Gourd squash things - seeds scooped out, toasted and eaten.  The meat was mushed up with the acorn squash and... made into pie.  I like pie.
•Eggplant - it died in the back of the fridge.
•Cantaloupe - it was a little over-ripe and was tossed out
•Honey - I'm going to have to come up with an awesome recipe to use all of this freaking honey.

CSA - Sept 3

I have a whole lot of to catch up with our CSA boxes!

•Apple Cider - VERY tasty, but nobody other than me drank it.  And I can only drink so much...
•Pizza Crust - There were four thin crusts.  We each made our own version and it went over okay.  Hubby is not a fan of thin crust pizza though.
•Okra - fried it up and ate it all (I have never even TRIED okra up until we made it and I LIKED it!)
•Tomatoes - gone quickly
•Nectarines - I think I got to eat one out of the batch.  Hubby gobbled up the rest.
•Zucchini - see below
•Man Dip - it's supposed to be a cheese and meat dip.  It's still sitting in the freezer waiting for the right gathering
•Concord grapes - very delicious, but not all of them were eaten.

 
I wanted to use zucchini in a different recipe so I went surfing.  I found two recipes to try out. 

First, I found a twist on a potato pancake using shredded zucchini.  I went ahead and tossed in yellow squash, carrot, potato, and bell pepper.  For bread crumbs I used rye bread, chopped up and toasted.  I added a couple of eggs for binding and salt and pepper.  Fried it up and it came out wonderful.

Last week while we had family camped out at my mom's house I made up another batch.  It was a huge hit with the two vegetarians, both asking for the recipe.  This was definitely one of those recipes where you can get away with the "dash of this, pinch of that" approach and it was a great way to use up various veggies before they go bad.

The second recipe also used shredded zucchini with cheese and cooked italian sausage.   Then you load that into scooped out zucchini boats, cover with more cheese and toast in the broiler.

It looked impressive and smelled delicious.  The zucchini boat, however, was a bit much.  We just ate the innards and threw away the rest of the zucchini.  I can see making that again in the future, but toasting it a bowl next time.

CSA Box 8/22/11

•Watermelon
•Roma tomatoes
•Bell peppers
•White eggplant
•Pears
•Trout - sitting in the freezer
•Eggs
•Dip (this could easily rot in the back of the fridge before we decide what to do with it)
•Squash - DO YOU SEE THIS THING????  It's HUGE!  I could carve it into a jack-o-lantern!

Okay, so this bigass butternut squash had me intrigued.  I researched online and everything says to make it into soup.  I don't hate soup, but I also am not a big fan.  There was one other recipe that jumped out but I didn't need a whole bunch of squash either.

I tried to peel it with a vegetable peeler but the grooves made that a little difficult so I chopped it into big chunks and just used the knife to remove the peel.  It came down to TWO baking trays!

I also scooped out the seeds

But dumbass here left them in the oven too long.  (Son says they look like cockroaches)  I went ahead and ate most of them even the burnt ones.  I discovered that eating them with M&M's (don't ask) took away most of the charred taste.

I roasted the chunks and put nearly all of it back for soup some later date.  Good thing I have a deep freezer.  The left over peaches from last week and the strawberries I bought are also being stored away for later this year.

I warmed up the chunks in a skillet with a pear and some dried apricots.  The recipe called for dried cranberries but I didn't have any on hand, but yes, I had apricots.  The apricots were definitely a good selection!  Also added butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  I had also made wild rice (from a couple weeks ago) and this concoction tasted great on top of it.  We decided maybe the rice would be good in a soup?  We'll see.

Not pictured were the additional peaches my husband bought a few days ago.  He got a whole case for $10 so we've been sharing peaches with everyone.  I chopped a few up and tried to make smoothies with the yogurt and honey from previous boxes.  It wasn't as good as I hoped so I guess I'm going to have to make cobbler in the next couple of days.

CSA Box 8/16/11

•One large ass cantaloupe - I swear it was as big as a small watermelon.  As of breakfast today it is all gone and I didn't get one bite.
•Frozen pizza - Dinner two nights ago
•Soup mix - save for later
•Sliced bread - shoved it in the fridge will use in a few days
•Six ears of corn - just finished off last weeks corn.  I'm almost getting sick of it, but have to admit it's pretty tasty.
•Tomatoes - hubby is happy
•Orange Soda - I was happy.  It was made with pure cane sugar - very light.
•Frozen black beans - I'm going to have to check what I did with the last batch.  Currently it's sitting in the freezer waiting for me to figure that out.

CSA Box 8/8/11

Our CSA box last week:

◊Watermelon - gone in two days
◊Squash - diced up with zucchini from the week before and sauteed
◊Corn - had some with dinner once, still have some left
◊Cucumbers - diced up and made into a salad, but I did the dressing wrong so it was tossed in the trash
◊BBQ sauce - waiting to be used
◊2 pork steaks - St. Louis favorite, a cut from pork butt.  I find it too fatty, but earlier this summer a friend made it low and slow like ribs so that the fat melted away.  I'm going to have to try it that way.  Most places make it on the grill, slathered in BBQ sauce, served on white bread - as if you're supposed to eat it like a sandwich.
◊Heirloom tomatoes - they were beautiful but The Husband says they taste funny.  Not sure what I'm going to do with them. 


This week's box:

◊Cantaloupe - Will be eaten by the end of the day
◊Vanilla yogurt - I'm really picky about my yogurt that I eat every day so I'm searching for a recipe
◊Wild rice - Saved for a later date
◊Jalapeno sauce - Not a chance in hell Husband or I will eat it.  Will see if youngest son likes it - otherwise we'll be sending it to his dad (jalapeno fan)
◊Green peppers - Need to use soon
◊Peaches - a full peck.  The last batch was delightful, so I can't wait to do something with them.  Maybe just eat them as is.
◊New potatoes - Probably diced up with bell peppers and onion
◊Tomatoes - This time I got to pick them out so they're all red and firm and The Husband is happy.  They'll all be eaten raw.

CSA Box 7/19/11

Wow, three weeks have gone by and I haven't posted an update on my CSA boxes.
 

 

 First week of July we had:
•Carrots - still in the fridge
•Peaches - finally used up
•Bison Burgers - ate for Dinner Sunday night, quite yummy
•Cabbage - had to throw away
•Bell pepper - threw away
•Honey wheat bread - Ate a half of loaf, other half still in fridge
•Squash - diced up and roasted on grill. 
•Shitake mushrooms - sauteed, but not nearly as good as the first batch a couple weeks prior
•Another bean soup mix - probably won't be used until fall at this rate

 Second week of July:
•8 ears of corn - shared some with his mom, ate what was left Sunday with our bison burgers
•Tomatoes - as always, gone in a matter of days (hours)
•Imo's salad dressing - local pizza chain, wildly popular with the locals but out-of-towners usually hate it.  Haven't opened it yet, but will use it all up when we do.
•Peaches - combined with previous weeks peaches many were shared with his mom, the rest were made into cobbler
•Pickling cucumbers - sliced up with onion and vinaigrette dressing.  It made a lot and I wasn't able to eat all of it
•Bell peppers - lost in the back of the fridge, will need to be thrown away
•Organic dark chocolate - finished off this afternoon

This week:
•2 eggplants - one was diced up and mixed with ground beef, tomato sauce, basil, garlic and baked in a pie shell with shredded mozzarella on top.  We unanimously agreed the pie shell sucked with this combo and scraped it out.  Otherwise was quite tasty.  Still have another eggplant to use somehow.
•Billy Goat potato chips - locally produced chips.  Broke into those today and it was hard not to finish them off.
•Fresh basil - used with eggplant mixture but still have a TON left.
•Beets - we enjoyed the last batch prepared like baked potatoes with olive oil and salt wrapped in foil, so waiting to do that again.
•Green beans - had to throw out the last batch which is sad because I love sauteed green beans.  Hoping to use these soon
•1 dozen eggs - haven't finished off our other eggs yet, but will soon
•Tomatoes - gone
•Blackberries - There isn't much, but it sure looks like something that would be good in pancake batter
•Breakfast sausage - Had eggs and sausage for breakfast on Sunday, finished off the sausage tonight in with fried potatoes and onions and a side of scrambled eggs.

Sooo... there has been a lot of thrown out food and that has not been ideal considering what we're paying for the boxes of food.  Still we're being forced to expand outside of our regular menus to find ways to incorporate more vegetables into our diet.  We love that there is more to these boxes than just vegetables.

CSA Box 6/27/11

I'm sorry I missed posting last week's CSA box.

There was a ginormous head of cauliflower that actually took a few days to polish off.  It's not something I will eat but The Husband gladly snacks on it so I had it all chopped up ready to grab.  Roma tomatoes, not yet used.  Squash and zucchini were diced up and I added potatoes and red bell pepper to roast and mixed in diced up chicken.  It made a ton of food, but it was enough for a meal for the 3 of us.  Cucumbers got a little use being added to sandwiches.  Seriously if you've never added a cucumber to a sandwich you've got to try it (provided you like cucumbers).  We didn't use very much of what we had so it's possible the rest will be thrown away.  There are makings for a great pasta dinner including fresh pasta, sesame bread and spaghetti sauce.  The bread was gone in 24 hours, but the pasta and sauce are still waiting to be used, probably in the next few days.  The brown paper is wrapped around a small wedge of soft cheese and in the very back is a mix for bean soup that I exchanged for the head of lettuce we were supposed to get.

This week I exchanged a bag of mixed lettuce greens for a packet of rice soup mix.  We received another jar of apple butter and a bag of vanilla granola.  I'm sure I'll plow through that granola in no time - yum.  We got a couple of sticks of honey.  I don't have any fancy plans for them, but I did use one already in baked beans.  The sticks are great for small or pre-measured use.  I guess you could suck on them like pixie sticks, but I don't like the straight taste of honey.  We also got tomatoes and peaches - haven't touched those yet, but they'll surely be gone in the next day or two.  We also got beets and turnips.  I hate beets.  Hate them.  But everyone has been raving about roasting them, enough that I'm curious.  Funny enough that on Friday we actually saw a cooking show that highlighted roasting beets.  So last night I roasted them.  They weren't ready in time for dinner, but we'll have them tonight.  My first stab to test doneness, I sampled the juice on the fork and it wasn't too bad.  So I may be a convert.  For the turnips I made them like mashed potatoes.  We agreed that we could mix it in with regular mashed potatoes.  I also think having them steamed with carrots would be good.

Getting me to eat turnips and beets is a huge feat.  This is the purpose of joining a CSA for me, testing foods I've resisted in the past, adding variety to our diet.  We certainly would not have sought out these foods in the past, but I can guarantee we have additions to our shopping list in the future.

Beets:  Rinse, place inside a square of foil, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.  Wrap the foil securely around the beet and roast in the oven for 1 hour. 

CSA Box 6/13/11

Multi-colored tortilla chips, red onion, cauliflower, salsa, cabbage, white radishes, zucchini, lettuce, green beans and tomatoes.  The salsa was a little too sweet for my tastes and will be given away.  The cauliflower is going to be chopped up today for hubby's munching - one of the foods I will never eat no matter how it's prepared.

We still had english cucumber left from last week so I sliced it up with onion and added the sweet onion dressing we got in the first box.  Absolutely wonderful.  I'm thinking of doing the same with the zucchini with this week.

CSA Box 6/6/11

Last week's box had english cucumbers, long grain brown rice, pork chops, shitaki mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli, and strawberries. 

The rice and pork chops have been put back for later.  The mushrooms were made into gravy.  The tomatoes disappear quickly every time since that is The Husband's favorite food.  The broccoli were chopped up and put in a bowl for random munching.  The cucumbers are still getting consumed.  I found I LOVE them sliced up like pickles on turkey sandwiches.

This week's box had onion rolls, romaine lettuce (hidden in the back), broccoli, apple butter, bacon, strawberries, tomatoes and a plant (not pictured, we chose a tomato plant).

Broccoli is chopped up ready for munching.  Strawberries were sliced last night and are soaking in sugar for dessert tonight.  Only one tomato is left.  I fried up all of the bacon yesterday morning, something we started doing recently storing the cooked slices in ziplocks in the fridge so we can add it to sandwiches and other recipes through the week.  We ate a couple of slices with eggs then added some to last night's mashed potatoes. 

We're a little weary from the lettuce we keep getting in these boxes.  I'll be using some today with another turkey and cucumber sandwich on the last onion roll.  We found we love these rolls toasted with our sandwiches.  A little tip if you don't have a toaster oven for your rolls, slap them on top of a regular toaster.  It's amazing how well it works.