Summer Fun: The Drive-In

For me, the quintessential summer experience is going to a drive-in movie theater.  I remember going with my family when I was only three or four and we had a tiny blue Dodge Omni.  I have continually struggled to adjust to life as a Minnesotan, both in high school and now, but one thing that makes it an awesome place is the ability to go see a movie at a drive-in during the summer.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

This year our family is doing something new-to-us.  We joined a CSA.  If you're not familiar, click on the link.  Basically, we will be getting vegetables, herbs, and some fruit once a week during the Minnesota growing season of June through August.  We pay the farm up-front, and we can go work on the farm and join in Festivals and other activities that our farm offers.

Over the past few years, we have been making an effort to eat more thoughtfully.  This can be very overwhelming, and I tend to beat myself up over not doing enough.  I'm trying to remember that every little step we take is progress down the road to purposeful and healthful eating.  Joining the CSA was a big step for us to eat food that is grown locally and naturally.

Last week we picked up our first box.  It was so exciting to get the electronic newsletter telling us what would be in the box, and even more fun to match up the items we were taking out of the box with their description.  I have a feeling that it'll be like opening a present every week.  The hard part will be learning to use all that we receive. 

Here are the goods all spread out on the counter.  We filled up the sink with water and some vinegar to rinse everything, then dried it in a salad spinner (one of my favorite kitchen inventions ever).  Since we are novices, we weren't quite sure how to store all of our unpackaged fresh food.  For this week, we put everything into Ziplock bags with a paper towel.  I'm cringing as I write that because Ziplock bags aren't the most Earth-friendly solution, but that's what we had for this week.  I don't like to re-use them because it's so hard to dry them enough after they are washed.  If anyone has any ideas on what they use to store their CSA goods, PLEASE leave a comment! 

Our CSA sends a newsletter with some great ideas for using what we get, but I wanted to compile some more ideas.

IN OUR BOX THIS WEEK:

lettuce-  This one's pretty easy:  salad, salad, and more salad!  We also put it on sandwiches, tacos, wraps, etc. I've read some lettuce soup recipes, but so far that does not appeal to me at all so I think we'll skip it for now.

spinach- Salads using spinach are always good for me.  You can also cook it with some garlic and olive oil for a side dish.  If you want to save it for later- to use in eggs or other dishes- steam or saute the de-stalked leaves, squeeze out the moisture, chop and freeze.  

My favorite Spinach & Strawberry Salad: Wash and take the stems off of the spinach.  Toss with clean, sliced strawberries.  Cut the brie into smallish bite-size chunks (including the rind) and add to the spinach and strawberries.  Make the following dressing and dress the salad with about HALF the amount you end up with.  Or just make a half-recipe.

radishes & greens:  The radishes themselves I like sliced in salad or dipped in dressing as a snack.  I'm going to try to use the greens in the same way as spinach, although just added into salads and not used as a stand-alone salad base.  For supper tonight, we are going to saute the radish greens in butter and the garlic scapes from our box. 

kohlrabi:  This is a new one for me.  One suggestion from our CSA newsletter was to make coleslaw.  Here's the good-looking recipe from allrecipes.com that I'm going to try;  I'll also be able to use some of the other items from our box like Chinese cabbage and the herb lovage in place of celery.  Here's an excerpt straight from the newsletter:

"Kohlrabi Tips:

* Kohlrabi is excellent cooked or raw. Try it both ways to familiarize yourself with its flavor. If using raw, peel them. If cooking just trim away any woody or tough portions of skin.

* Grate kohlrabi raw into salads, or make a non-traditional coleslaw.

* Try kohlrabi, thinly sliced, alone or with a dip.

*Steam kohlrabi whole 25-30 minutes or thinly sliced 5-10 minutes. Dress slices simply with oil, lemon juice, and fresh dill weed, or dip in flour and briefly fry.

* Saute grated kohlrabi in butter; add herbs or curry for enhanced flavor.

*Add sliced or cubed kohlrabi to hearty soups, stews, or a mixed vegetable stir-fry.

*Chill and marinate cooked kohlrabi for a summer salad. Add fresh herbs.

*Mash cooked kohlrabi, mix with cooked potato, form into patties, and fry in butter.

*Larger, older kohlrabi are good stuffed. Scoop out center, fill with chosen stuffing mixture, and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

*Kohlrabi leaves can be used like other greens. You may want to remove center rib.

FROM ASPARAGUS TO ZUCCHINI  A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce, 3^rd Edition, Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition

strawberries:  This one's pretty easy.  We've already eaten all of them plain!  Otherwise I was going to use them in my spinach strawberry salad.  Or with yogurt. Or make a pie. 

broccoli:  We've also used up almost all of the broccoli already in salads for lunch.  Broccoli is my favorite veggie to have in stir fry, and broccoli salad is one of my husband's favorite foods.

Chinese cabbage:  AKA Napa cabbage.  I've never done anything with this before, so I plan to use some in the kohlrabi slaw I'm making just as if it's regular cabbage.  The other really cool idea I found was to use it to make quick kimchi- I got the idea here, along with a bunch of other great napa cabbage ideas.

lovage:  This is an herb that tastes strongly like celery.  Beware,  after washing it my hands smelled like celery for the next day!  I chopped a little bit up to put in my buffalo chicken salad this afternoon and it was perfect for me.  I like the celery flavor but can't stand the texture of regular celery.  Apparently you can use it in other things that call for celery- potato salads, bloody marys, etc.

garlic scapes: "These grow on the top of the garlic plants, cutting them off helps the plant grow a bigger bulb, and the scapes are good to chop & use like garlic (Blackberry Community Farm email)."  So that's how we're going to use it- chopped up with our sauteed radish greens tonight.

arugula:  We've been adding it to our salads. 

Joy’s Healing Salve: We got a small jar of this, and I knew nothing about it.  I've used it on every "owie" that we've had since we've gotten it, and smeared it all over Ezra's chest and stomach to combat his exzema patches.  I tried that last night and have yet to see a change, but I'll keep trying and we'll see how that goes.  Here's a link to the website of Mary Joy, who makes it.

So that was our box for this week!  We are so excited.  I'm sure I'll be looking for new ways to use produce all summer, so if anyone has any great ideas or resources, please share!

And for those who are wondering, our CSA is Blackberry Community Farms.  They still have shares available, pro-rated for the weeks that you've missed!  We've been so happy thus far.

The Big Salad

Somewhere along the line, I got the reputation for making a great lettuce salad. Now I feel nervous whenever I'm asked or volunteer to bring a salad to something... what if it doesn't live up to the hype?  {The hype that's probably all in my head anyway!}

So I was making a Big Salad for lunch today, and it was SPECTACULAR. 

Here's what I like in a salad:

1.  My leaf base of choice is either spinach or romaine, sometimes Boston butter lettuce.  I used romaine today because it's what I had and it lasts the longest in the fridge so it's what I buy most often.  I chop it up into bite sized pieces; it drives me nuts when the lettuce is bigger than my mouth and dressing is constantly wiping off onto my face.

2.  Other vegetables in my salad today were snow peas for crunch (again cut into bite size pieces), some broccoli, and tomatoes.  Tomatoes are my favorite veggie- I know I know, technically a fruit- and they add the perfect juiciness and flavor.  I also added little bit of diced red onion, something I've haven't been able to do since I've been pregnant, but it sounded good today.  Non-pregnant, I always add onion in some form, be it green onions, shallots, red onions, chives... 

3.  Meat and cheese are additional elements I always try to incorporate.  I don't like big old chunks of meat so I usually dice it pretty small.  Today was bacon.  Other times it's leftover from supper the night before- chicken or pork- or I like ham.  As for the cheese, blue is my favorite but another thing I bypass while pregnant, so today was shaved romano.  Other favorites are feta, parmesan, even brie if it's mixed with spinach and strawberries or mandarin oranges.  I was fortunate to have some leftover cheese tortellini to throw in this time, too.

4.  Dressing the salad is the final touch.  My favorite is one I whip up with balsamic, olive oil, a little dijon or honey mustard, and maybe garlic or shallots.  In a pinch, just balsamic and olive oil is still oh-so-delicious.  Today, however, Ken's Steakhouse Italian was good enough. 

So that's my formula for an awesome salad. 

New Life

Spring... used to be my second-favorite season after summer.  But I really am a spring person now.  We've had an unusually warm winter and spring here in Minnesota, and I love every minute of it.  I spend most of the day outside with the kids, gardening, laying in the lawn, building a small structure on the side of the garage to house our over-abundance of trikes, bikes, and toys.

The peonies -the best- are getting ready to bloom.  I love the buds almost as much as the flowers.  Little green strawberries are hidden by the delicate white petals.  Our front-step planter is filled with FLOWERS rather than spruce tips and dogwood branches.

This year we've found new-found freedom while working in the yard thanks to the addition of a trampoline in the back of the yard and a gate that keeps them out of the neighboring yards.

A short distance from the trampline is a little clearing in the middle of a big jumble of volunteer trees and plants called "the hideout".  And did I mention the gate that keeps them in our yard?  Huge peace of mind!

And the biggest sign of new life around here...

I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant with a baby girl- or so the ultrasound seems to indicate.  For some reason I'm having trouble believing it.  Wachholz Child #4 is expected to make an appearance in mid-October.  Praise the Lord and give me strength!

Lost time

"The days are long but the years are short."

I've heard this saying- and its variations- a lot.  How true.  I think back a month... Hawaii seems like years ago, but what has happened in the meantime?  Time is flying, yet each day seems to last forever.  And what is filling that time?

Sometimes I think back to my first blog, started in 2007, lasting only a couple of months.  Sometimes I wish that I would have kept at it consistently.  It would be a trip to look back over my life and times back then, and how different they are from now!

I waiver back and forth in this whole blogging thing.  Why am I doing it?  To sell something?  To keep friends and family up-to-date?  To give others ideas or instruction?

I think I'm finally figuring it out.  I want a record for myself.  To see where I've been, where I (think) I'm going, remember the little things that slip my mind.  Mainly for myself and my family.  But if anyone else wants to know, that's great too.