What is a CSA? Simply put it is a great way for our family (and yours!) to buy fresh local produce directly from the farmer. Farmers who participate in CSA typically offer shares in their harvest and consumers (that's us!) purchase these shares and are able to partake in fresh local produce all summer long. If you are interested in learning more about CSA's and the benefits to both consumer and farmer visit Local Harvest.
The reason we decided to participate in a CSA again this year is that our family firmly believes in the benefits of organic local sustainable agriculture. It's as simple as that! Why I think this is important is a long and potentially boring explanation that I may discuss in later posts.
CSA's provide a cooking challenge because I am not in control of the produce that I will be given and I need to incorporate our share into our meals for the week. So I plan to blog how I do this!
Today's Loot
aka what we will be working with this week!
One quart strawberries
One bunch dill
One bunch cilantro
One bunch spring onions
Bok Choy
Radishes
Baby Turnips
Green Leaf Lettuce
Red Leaf Lettuce
Spring Mix
Spinach
Tonight's Dinner
Spinach/Ricotta Pizza
First: Make or buy your favorite pizza crust.
Then wilt one bunch of spinach in a teaspoon of olive oil.
Cut up one bunch of spring onions whites only sweat in a pan when onions are translucent. Add a sprinkle of brown sugar. Allow sugar to melt and onions to caramelize grate in two medium cloves of garlic (make sure your heat is on low and that you stir continuously so the garlic doesn't burn) when you can smell the garlic take the onions off the heat and mix with the spinach.
Combine the spinach mixture with 4-6 oz of ricotta and spread on the pizza. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake. I like to blind bake my pizza crust and then top and put the topped pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes until the toppings are warmed through.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Mother's Day
I have experienced Mother's Day in so many different ways as a woman.
First, as a daughter myself doing my best to honor my mother and show my gratitude for the love she poured into my life. Then as a single woman longing for a home and a family of my own and feeling that it would never happen for me. But that life I longed for did happen and I experienced mother's day as a married woman proud as a peacock at the life that was growing inside of me. The very next year I was a bereaved woman, my heart breaking and my arms aching for two beautiful little girls who spent that day in heaven. And now I sit here on the day before Mother's day with two amazing little boys and I can hardly believe how lucky I am.
But truth be told, this celebration of mothers makes my heart ache a little for the baby girls who I was only able to hold in my belly and never in my arms. I imagine that I can see them, dancing, curls bouncing knowing nothing but happiness and the fullness of Christ. But I still long for them.
Mother's Day has a cruel and funny way of transporting me back to that day not so long ago when I desired with all of my heart for one simple thing to be a mommy but instead having to settle for hope and remembrance. Hope that one day that dream would come true for me even though it seemed highly improbably at the time. And remembrance of a baby dancing in my belly and a heart full of anticipation to meet her.
Now I can somehow twist my losses into something positive because they have allowed me to become truly grateful for every second that I get to mother my little boys. My experience of being a mother is fuller because I look on the faces of my little boys and remember my beautiful little girls. But on mother's day it feels like once again I am slapped in the face with my loss and the loss of the beauty of pregnancy and I am left my face stinging and my heart heavy.
On days like these I long for the day that I no longer I have to peer through a mirror darkly but instead I will see my Savior face to face. I long for the day when I will meet my two beautiful little girls and two missing pieces of my heart will fall back into place. I long for the day when the tears that I cry will fall no more and that I will know perfection and the absence of longing. But now, I hold two babies and mourn the two I cannot hold and long for home.
First, as a daughter myself doing my best to honor my mother and show my gratitude for the love she poured into my life. Then as a single woman longing for a home and a family of my own and feeling that it would never happen for me. But that life I longed for did happen and I experienced mother's day as a married woman proud as a peacock at the life that was growing inside of me. The very next year I was a bereaved woman, my heart breaking and my arms aching for two beautiful little girls who spent that day in heaven. And now I sit here on the day before Mother's day with two amazing little boys and I can hardly believe how lucky I am.
But truth be told, this celebration of mothers makes my heart ache a little for the baby girls who I was only able to hold in my belly and never in my arms. I imagine that I can see them, dancing, curls bouncing knowing nothing but happiness and the fullness of Christ. But I still long for them.
Mother's Day has a cruel and funny way of transporting me back to that day not so long ago when I desired with all of my heart for one simple thing to be a mommy but instead having to settle for hope and remembrance. Hope that one day that dream would come true for me even though it seemed highly improbably at the time. And remembrance of a baby dancing in my belly and a heart full of anticipation to meet her.
Now I can somehow twist my losses into something positive because they have allowed me to become truly grateful for every second that I get to mother my little boys. My experience of being a mother is fuller because I look on the faces of my little boys and remember my beautiful little girls. But on mother's day it feels like once again I am slapped in the face with my loss and the loss of the beauty of pregnancy and I am left my face stinging and my heart heavy.
On days like these I long for the day that I no longer I have to peer through a mirror darkly but instead I will see my Savior face to face. I long for the day when I will meet my two beautiful little girls and two missing pieces of my heart will fall back into place. I long for the day when the tears that I cry will fall no more and that I will know perfection and the absence of longing. But now, I hold two babies and mourn the two I cannot hold and long for home.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Coming Soon
The raggy prefold/burp cloth tutorial!
It's not that exciting but I thought that I would show an idea I had to embellish my baby boy's prefolds using a raggy method. I have taken the pictures now to download them to the computer and write the tutorial.
Also the cake I promised is coming this weekend!
It's not that exciting but I thought that I would show an idea I had to embellish my baby boy's prefolds using a raggy method. I have taken the pictures now to download them to the computer and write the tutorial.
Also the cake I promised is coming this weekend!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Homemade Marshmallow Fondant
I have always wanted to make a cake from scratch and cover it in fondant just to see if I would possibly enjoy cake decorating. So this weekend I was inspired to finally try my hand at it! I wanted to share this jaunt into cake decorating with you!
I performed an amateurish experiment this morning in the kitchen. I've looked up several marshmallow fondant recipes. After reading the recipes I thought that maybe I could tweak it just a bit and make the base of the fondant a homemade Marshmallow. And so far it has worked (it is currently cooling in the refrigerator). So I wanted to share this journey with you.
The base of my fondant is Alton Brown's homemade marshmallow recipe which can be found here Alton Brown's Homemade Marshmallow Recipe I took the recipe to the point where the vanilla is added after I add the vanilla I simple changed the attachment on my kitchen aide mixer to then kneading attachment and added one lb of 10x sugar until it was well incorporated then slowly added in another lb of 10x (which makes 2lbs of total sugar) into the mix. I coated my hands in crisco and coated the mixture in crisco and double wrapped the fondant and placed in in the refrigerator. I plan on using it tomorrow morning to frost a cake (I'll be baking the cake tonight so there will probably be another post!)
Warning you will have 10x sugar all over your kitchen aide mixer the counter tops and the floor if you are anything like me!
I performed an amateurish experiment this morning in the kitchen. I've looked up several marshmallow fondant recipes. After reading the recipes I thought that maybe I could tweak it just a bit and make the base of the fondant a homemade Marshmallow. And so far it has worked (it is currently cooling in the refrigerator). So I wanted to share this journey with you.
The base of my fondant is Alton Brown's homemade marshmallow recipe which can be found here Alton Brown's Homemade Marshmallow Recipe I took the recipe to the point where the vanilla is added after I add the vanilla I simple changed the attachment on my kitchen aide mixer to then kneading attachment and added one lb of 10x sugar until it was well incorporated then slowly added in another lb of 10x (which makes 2lbs of total sugar) into the mix. I coated my hands in crisco and coated the mixture in crisco and double wrapped the fondant and placed in in the refrigerator. I plan on using it tomorrow morning to frost a cake (I'll be baking the cake tonight so there will probably be another post!)
Warning you will have 10x sugar all over your kitchen aide mixer the counter tops and the floor if you are anything like me!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Time
I feel like time is constantly slipping away from me. There is this looming guilt that hangs over me that I'm not doing enough with the time I've been given. After all the boys are only this size for a brief moment and then time has passed and my opportunity to impart all that I want to is gone. I'm lucky that I get to be a mommy but am I wasting this time I have with them? How can you truly live every day completely in the moment and savor every second of life without getting caught up in the past or the future? I wish I knew that secret. For now it is my ever pressing goal to consciously take the time every day to be thankful to enjoy them and to store up those ever fleeting memories.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
This mommy's ode to naps!
It is my firm belief that naps are the oasis for the mom's soul. That delicious 1-3 hours (on a good day) when both of my babies are in an alternate state of consciousness and the house is quiet (sigh). The weight of responsibility is lifted and everything within me just loosens and relaxes. It is wonderful.
It is in those moments I am able to mend the scattered pieces of my focus and sanity that have been scattered during the previous hours of mommy-hood and I gain new courage for the craziness ahead. Somehow the fact that the plunger is my toddler's new favorite toy and so he feels the need to place it in my son's crib while I'm running across the room yelling "Stop, stop!" in vain, seems, not so bad.
During naps I have moments of great ambition when I believe that I will finish that day's to-do list. Somehow, by the end of nap time I actually miss my babies and the fact that naps transform cranky toddlers back into angels is just an added bonus.
Naps are such beautiful things! So here is my wish sent to all the mommies in cyber land and beyond that today is a good nap day and that you find renewed energy and perspective during today's nap time!! And give your babies a hug and an extra kiss when they come out of dream land!
It is in those moments I am able to mend the scattered pieces of my focus and sanity that have been scattered during the previous hours of mommy-hood and I gain new courage for the craziness ahead. Somehow the fact that the plunger is my toddler's new favorite toy and so he feels the need to place it in my son's crib while I'm running across the room yelling "Stop, stop!" in vain, seems, not so bad.
During naps I have moments of great ambition when I believe that I will finish that day's to-do list. Somehow, by the end of nap time I actually miss my babies and the fact that naps transform cranky toddlers back into angels is just an added bonus.
Naps are such beautiful things! So here is my wish sent to all the mommies in cyber land and beyond that today is a good nap day and that you find renewed energy and perspective during today's nap time!! And give your babies a hug and an extra kiss when they come out of dream land!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Twas the Night Before Discharge
Here I sit knowing that tomorrow my life is going to change forever. Oh my goodness it is my job to form and shape another life. I think almost all moms have this feeling right before their child arrives. The difference for me is that he has been here for a month and a half and I feel like a barely know him. It is a crazy feeling.
My early baby's NICU journey will be over tomorrow and he will start a new journey here at home. I am so excited to have him meet his big brother and for us to come together as a family all together in one place.
I am thankful that I serve a God who is concerned with every detail of my life. I'm thankful that he has cared for my little boy since his conception and through every day in the NICU. I am most thankful that he will care for him every day of his life until we see him face to face. May he know the love of our savior and have a personal relationship with him that will carry him through all the days of his life.
My early baby's NICU journey will be over tomorrow and he will start a new journey here at home. I am so excited to have him meet his big brother and for us to come together as a family all together in one place.
I am thankful that I serve a God who is concerned with every detail of my life. I'm thankful that he has cared for my little boy since his conception and through every day in the NICU. I am most thankful that he will care for him every day of his life until we see him face to face. May he know the love of our savior and have a personal relationship with him that will carry him through all the days of his life.
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