CSA Recipes and a Treat

Concord Grape Muffins-Concord Grapes are a bit of a pain because you have to seed them but they are super delicious! I used ours in these muffins and they were a big hit. I'm saving this recipe but will probably use it with different fruits in the future. (Changes to recipe-halved the sugar, used 1/2 wheat flour, used 1% milk instead of whole, no sugar on top, no salt)

Summer Stew-I think this recipe would have gone over better with the kids if the sausage hadn't been quite so spicy but I liked it and it incorporated a lot of ingredients I was looking to use up. (Changes-no chicken, used chicken sausage instead of chorizo)

Roasted Veggies-Nothing crazy here but I'm putting it up as a reminder of an easy, yummy way to use up random veggies. Here I used kohlrabi, potatoes and rainbow carrots.

The treat- I didn't make these but I definitely helped eat them. We went to a new donut shop the other week and each chose one. Pat picked Raspberry Lemonade (everyone's favorite!), I chose a Samoa flavor and the kids both went with a white icing sprinkled with fruity pebbles (it had a fun name that I've since forgotten).

Patterson's!

We had our official apple orchard/pie making day over the weekend! The weather was terrible so we really just went in, ate a lot of apple samples, chose apples and bought doughnuts and a fritter from the bakery. I said last year when the kids chose doughnuts instead of a fritter that they wouldn't do it again but they proved me wrong! Apparently I'm the only one who enjoys a good fritter. We headed back and made our apple pies. The kids helped dispose of trash by eating all the apple peels. I like to think of them as little compost bins now.

Doughnut.

Doughnut.

Doughnut.

FRITTER! (I didn't eat this whole thing. I shared it later. But I could have eaten it.)

Paige and Hippo

April 2010

December 2010

April 2011

December 2012

September 2013

Artfest!

After I ran my half-marathon and after we ate some Jimmy John's, we headed to our local artfest to see what was happening. I love our city, they do an amazing job with community events and I was pretty impressed with this one. We've gone before but I don't remember it being this interactive and a lot of the stuff was free. There was a photobooth, a caricature artist, lots of kid crafts, the opportunity to do chalk art and more (much more!). There was a living statue that was fun to watch and then totally scared Owen when he suddenly moved and reached out to shake Owen's hand. 

On our way!

This artist was painting our city and doing a mighty fine job of it.

Mom and Dad posing for the caricature artist. He was doing them all in 60 seconds so I wouldn't say they were super accurate representations but impressive nonetheless.

Chalk art!

Another 13.1

I like to say things about being burnt out from training for half marathons but then I sign up for them anyway and I'm always glad I did! I beat my time from May by about two minutes. That's two less minutes my family needs to wait by the finish line for me! You're welcome, family. My parents were nice enough to come out to enjoy the day with us and of course Pat and the kids were there to support me. Now I need to go get in shape for soccer so I don't injure myself when it starts up in November!

I borrowed this picture. 

Still Dancing!

I posted some pictures last week of Paige's first dance class but I know what you're really wondering. How good is she? Does she have what it takes? Can she be disciplined enough for ballet and tap? Well here is a short video so you can be the judge. 

(Yes, of course I'm being silly. But I actually did hear some other moms discussing their children's form while we were watching the class...they must have taken dance class when they were younger? My comments usually range from, "They're so cute!" to "Look at how cute they are!")

Sewing

It's National Sewing Month! This is very convenient news because I decided to take up sewing again. I think it all started when I casually mentioned something to Paige about maybe being able to make a dress for her doll...well, she latched on to that idea pretty quickly and a billion hours later I had sewn an "easy" dress and Paige was very proud (and super patient while I figured out how to use my sewing machine again). After that I jumped in and made Paige a gingham circle skirt. I think I actually did a pretty good/mediocre job on it. Paige received a couple different compliments on it when we were out one day which I thought were out of pity because it looked very obviously homemade but the people were surprised when I mentioned it! 

Oktoberfest 2013

This was the Oktoberfest trip that almost didn't happen. It was on our list of possible excursions for last weekend and we decided Monday afternoon to go for it. Then we parked the car, got out and it started drizzling and we almost turned back around to leave. I'm glad we didn't, we carried around umbrellas but didn't need them and ended up having a lot of fun! We saw wiener dog races (Larry vs Schnitzel in the finals! Schnitzel won.), checked out the sand sculpture, ate our strudel, and watched the Glockenspiel show among other things. 

Checking out the senior division of the races.

There was a Red Riding Hood theme for the sand sculpture this year. The wolf was around the back!

Paige loved dancing to a catchy German song.

Pat loved pretending he wasn't having a good time. He was. Maybe he just didn't realize he was going to be in these pictures?

Dance!

We've been going back and forth trying to decide if signing Paige up for a dance class was a good idea. She loves dancing around the house but I didn't know if that translated to wanting instruction on how she could do it. I finally signed her up the night before the class and a week after it started. It might be too soon to say but I'm pretty sure Paige is totally in her element. The first set of pictures below are what happened when we walked out the door to go to dance class. She began doing some of her own dancing and the joy she was emanating was amazing and contagious.The rest of the pictures are from the actual class. It was adorable. Later, while we were eating lunch she asked me if she could go again and then she kept her leotard on for the rest of the day!

Preschool!

Paige went to her first day of preschool this morning! She was pretty excited but I was still a little worried about how she would react when we had to leave. We all walked her there and she spent most of the time sprinting ahead of us. Then we gave her big hugs, waved and she was off! The only tears were my own. I can't wait to hear about her day!

New Foods!

This was just called Israeli Couscous in the recipe and it was supposed to be prepared with clams. I needed to use up some fennel so I thought I would try this. Yummy comfort food! I was surprised by how tasty this was, now I have a reason to buy more fennel.

Posole-I needed a recipe that used hominy and settled on this. This was another one that wowed me when I wasn't expecting it. I left out the hot ingredients but it still had a ton of flavor.

Almond-Crisped Peaches-I was worried everyone was getting a little burnt out on peaches and I wanted a simple recipe to use some up.This had a good flavor but next time I'll cut the peaches into chunks and sprinkle the topping over. It's too much work to have kids cut through a hot, slippery peach!

Homemade Pizza!

Grilled Cherry Tomato and Corn Pizza-this was also supposed to have goat cheese on it which I think it could have used. Mediocre so if I made it again I would want the extra cheese! I also added some red onion.

Paige picking through our multi-colored CSA tomatoes to see which color to try first. This summer I've discovered that yellow tomatoes are my favorite!