Live. Laugh. Love.: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What's For Dinner? Week 5

I've been pretty bad about taking pictures lately. In lots of areas.

This week's meals {November 26 - December 1} included steak on the grill and Anderson's natural casing hot dogs... neither of which merited a photo. ;-)

But I do have one sorta' fancy meal that I will share, even though I was the only one to eat it. ;)

Before I do, here is the FINAL veggie bag we received on November 22nd. I will write another brief post about the harvest dinner we attended that night for our final pick up, because I just have so much good to say about our CSA farmers. Wonderful, wonderful people.

Contents: kohlrabi, cabbage, leeks, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, lettuce, bok choy, an orange and a white cauliflower and green bunching onions.

Over the long Thanksgiving break, we made a LOT of yummy, hot breakfasts. Here's one with Wee Cottage Cheese Pancakes. But I also made lemon sour cream pancakes and oatmeal in the crock pot.

I tried a creamy cauliflower soup recipe (made entirely in the microwave!) from our CSA newsletter.

And also an Italian Stuffed Squash recipe. I will try to get back on later to share these two recipes because this is a CSA newsletter recipe too and I don't have that in front of me right now. But you could really use whatever your favorite ziti-type pasta recipe is. I just baked the halved, cleaned acorn squashes for an hour with a little oil, salt and pepper.

Then stuffed them with a homemade sausage pasta and fresh mozzarella cubes and put back in oven to warm for 20 minutes.

Tossed salads/raw veggies and some clementines to go with. Craig's pasta was baked in a ramekin 'cause no way would he touch an acorn squash [rolls eyes] but this meal was not the biggest hit with my family. I gave a stuffed squash "to go" to my mom who stopped by that evening and she raved over it. So I know it's a good recipe. I just have finicky eaters. ;)

Another night: breakfast for dinner. More lemon sour cream pancakes and dressed up scrambled eggs. (Will hates eggs.)

Happy eating, friends!

What's For Dinner? Week 4

I know I've mentioned her before, but she's worth mentioning again... I just adore reading food posts/articles written by Jenny Rosenstrach (or her husband, who chimes in from time to time) over at Dinner: A Love Story. She's real. She's funny. And she's a meal time warrior, like me (fighting to preserve family meals)... only on a much bigger scale. She and her husband have kids and jobs and juggle life just like the rest of us. And they share their meal time trials and humor in a witty blog that is on my daily reader list. She's the one I told you has written a "dinner diary" of every single dinner meal she's eaten since February of 1998. She's also a food editor for Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple. Jenny is mostly wine-braised-pork-and-lentil-stew... and a little bit tater-tots ;-) as you will see in her latest blog entry. She's just so entertaining and she makes me want to keep on getting my hands dirty in the kitchen even on those tired nights when all I want to do is put my feet up. I actually don't use recipes from her blog all that often (maybe once or twice ever?) but you can be sure as shootin' I will have her upcoming cookbook on my shelves as soon as it comes out, if only for the inspiration it provides. (Okay, I'll probably make a few of the recipes too, just so I can justify the purchase. The girl knows food so I'm sure the food she makes is delicious.) I mean... look at the cover! It says (just like her blog heading) "It all begins at the family table". I love that! Check her out.

Here's our 2nd to last CSA veggie bag for the season:

Contents: cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, bok choy, green bunching onions, a zucchini, 2 tomatoes, 3 sweet potatoes and 2 acorn squash.

{Menu for November 19th-25th.}

This was Thanksgiving week so I have two dinners to share with you and then it was potlucks and fill-ins after that for the week.

One easy side dish I made with my cauliflower was lightly steamed and then baked cauliflower florets that were topped with a mixture of fresh Parmesan, Panko bread crumbs and melted butter. Plus a little salt, pepper and garlic powder. It was tasty, if a little salty. Parmesan is already salty so I think I'll skip the salt next time.

This week I also tried a couple recipes from a new blog called Many Makings, written by my friend Melissa and her friend Casey. There are so many yummy looking recipes over there and I'd been eyeing several of the ones involving pineapple. So I bought a big pineapple and tried out two (almost three -the quesadillas are going to have to wait for another time) recipes.

The first is their Chili-Rubbed Pork Chops with Pineapple Mango Salsa. It's right up our alley since we are die-hard fans of our staple grilled chicken with peach salsa. Loved it!

The other recipe I tried was their Pineapple Chicken Salad. I made this on karate night and I don't know if I was just starving or what, but it tasted like the best thing ever when I tried it before setting the table. I could hardly wait till Craig and Will returned from class. Probably had several bites of it before dinner even started. I love the addition of pineapple into your average chicken salad!

Delicious!

I didn't have rolls or pitas, but it tasted really good on bread.

Also on Monday morning, Sophie and I spent a little time in the morning (before Will's Thanksgiving program) making Weelicious Pumpkin Pear Bread. Only instead of pumpkin, I used the cooked puree from my buttercup squash. I had no idea what to do with buttercup squash, but I'd seen a buttercup tea bread recipe in an old Martha Stewart magazine shortly before seeing this Weelicious recipe and thought I might just substitute. Turned out pretty good! And we took slices of this to one of our Thanksgiving parties along with a fruit tray.

I took a fruit tray to Maumee Bay for my family Thanksgiving party as well and then brought my griddle and some pancake batter with homemade syrup the next morning to help feed the crew breakfast. :)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

We Are Thankful

It is my hope that our family be ever mindful of the blessings we share all through the year. We remember them in our daily prayer, we pause to give thanks for them amidst our busy lives and we talk about them in our dinner conversation with our ritual of "highs/lows" for the day. I believe that a grateful heart is a powerful tool for happiness. So when we take time to express and be conscious of our blessings, we are hopefully giving our children (and ourselves!) the tools to lead a happy life. Or, as Will puts it: "we are filling our buckets!"

We have much to be thankful for this year. Our family is healthy, our bodies are nourished, our home is comfortable and our hearts are filled to the brim with love, both received and shared.

On a smaller scale though, I am appreciative of what they count as blessings...

...like books, baby calves, Indian corn, games, chameleons etc. :)

(I'm relieved to see Will included God and each of our family members in there. I'm also relieved to find another excuse to practice writing, as practice is clearly needed...)

We are thankful for "gratitude chains" to decorate for Thanksgiving...

...for wonderful babysitters who send home a handmade card just for us...

...and for the daughter of our sitter who sets up "school" for our kids in the afternoon and is bound to become a teacher one day...

{Thanks, Megan! I love this!}

...for preschool crafts to decorate our dining room...

(Who knew bubble wrap could make such festive Indian corn?)

...for preschool parties...

...and handsome boys...

...for wonderful teachers who work so hard to give our children valuable experiences (like preparing a feast for their families: homemade applesauce, chicken & rice casserole and pumpkin cake... all prepared by little hands!)