It can't be good to crave time off so much

I actually have a pretty decent schedule as far as retail pharmacy is concerned. Because I work the one 14 hour day, I'm off two full days during the week. I look forward to Monday and Thursday like nobody's business. Since this past weekend was my turn to work, I didn't get a ton of fun time with the munchkin, so yesterday, we decided to ignore the chores that should get done and have a fun family day.
We started the morning

at a local supermarket/restaurant, Dutchway. They have an awesome breakfast buffet which is normally a good deal (I think it's $6.99 for adults & $0.50/year of age for children), but had a special through July that it was only $4.99 on Mondays. I'm not sure the three of us could go to even McDonald's for breakfast for less than 15 dollars, and we definitely wouldn't have eaten nearly as much or as well.
I'm really bad at showing restraint at buffets, so since we all consumed approximately 80 million calories at breakfast, we then headed to Wolf's Hollow county park for some exercise. We did a combination of the blue and yellow trails, so we're approximating that we did about 2 miles of hiking.
Overall, the terrain isn't too difficult (says the one who didn't carry the toddler), but there are some steep hills

This picture really does not give that hill justice

We saw some wildlife

Big ass spider

Bullfrog

Crazy grasshopper hanging out on my leg

and some beautiful sights

Taken at Lover's Leap, although there isn't much of a leap this far into the summer. Maybe in the winter when all the plants are dead. Yesterday, it was so dense that we could hear the creek, but couldn't see even a glimpse of it

The bullfrog was in those reeds next to the little semi island

Peter was worried about my getting over the fords with dry feet since I only had sneakers and no boots. I reminded him that it's been in the high nineties for a week. The creek was quite low

I love standing on fallen trees over water

The best thing about the hiking trails in this park is that they are all in fairly heavily wooded areas. I didn't even bother with sunscreen, and it was relatively cool. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours together.

She's not in pain, she's saying cheese

Plus, even though Peter carried her for a lot of the hike, Gabriella did walk and run a lot. There is nothing like a tuckered out child for having an easy bedtime.

A taco theory

I have a theory on taco meat. I'm very nearly convinced that as long as you use taco seasoning, you can put it on almost anything and you're going to think it's tacos. This is not an exclusive theory. Anyhow, we've often thrown some strange things into our taco meat, and it tastes just fine. Last week, I really pushed the envelope.

That is shredded kohlrabi and patty pan squash, along with some ground turkey, because I cook for Peter, and he does not share my theory. The vegetables still far outweighed the turkey in that concoction and honestly, I think we could get away with dropping the meat completely. Maybe I couldn't in good conscience call the results tacos, but they would still taste good and fill us up. Of course, I'd have to try it without telling Peter.

This could easily be a vegetarian meal

CSA Week 7

Now we're settling into the summer crops and there isn't as much variation in our shares from week to week. I'm still a week behind, so this bounty is actually from last Thursday. We got beans, patty pan squash, lots of beets, eggplant, carrots and a head of lettuce. The big zucchini is not technically from the share, it was on the "seconds" quality table which is take whatever you can use. I grabbed that one planning for a batch of zucchini bread.

Since it was an odd number week, we also got our cheese share, which was tailor made for Peter.

Habanero cheddar and and fresh mozzarella

One of the things we're kind of struggling with when it comes to the cheese CSA is using the goods. Not that they don't get eaten, but we've both kind of got a mental block against eating them in anything but their pure form. For instance, I suggested we use the mozzarella to make pizza since it doesn't have the shelf life to keep around like the aged cheeses have. However, we both kind of hesitated - is it a waste of the "special" cheese to mix it with other ingredients, even if the end result is delicious? On the other hand, isn't it pretty silly to buy crap mozzarella from the grocery store when we've already got good stuff in the fridge?

We got past the hangup about cooking with our cheese

Technically, we compromised with the hangup. We had a few tastes of the pure mozzarella and put the rest of it on a pizza. We made two pizzas actually (in the regular oven, not the woodburning one. That thing is awesome, but a ton of work for just 2 1/2 people). The mozzarella went on one with a basil pesto base and fresh tomatoes for a slight twist on a classic margherita, and the other was spinach and onions with some of the garlic and chive chedder from week 5. The spinach one was good, but the margherita was terrific. I always forget how much I like fresh tomato on pizza until I have it, and then I'm sad that I had forgotten and deprived myself of fresh tomato pizzas for any period of time.

I wasn't kidding when I said I was born 200 years after my time

As I mentioned previously, SuperFresh had a great sale going on blueberries a couple of weeks ago. Between baking and eating, we went through most of our first 6 pints before the week was out, so I stopped by on my way home from work and got more. It was a crazy amount of blueberries for 3 people, but there aren't many things that Gabriella likes more than blueberries and peanut butter and jelly, so I wanted to make some blueberry jam.
I love making canned goods, it's really not THAT hard, but people don't do it, so when you do the general public seems to think you're amazing. I look for any opportunity to stoke my ego, trust me.
Anyhow, to make this jam you need

Fruit

Sugar

Acid (either lemon or lime juice)

Jars. Maybe. More on that in a minute

I decided to make one batch of blueberry jam and one batch of mixed blueberry and strawberry jam. For each one you need 6 cups of berries (the mixed I did in a 1:1 ratio, so 3 cups of each), 3 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of the acid. Easy peasy recipe, just like I told Peter when he was concerned that I be able to remember and duplicate the results in the future.
For the actual jam making, you combine the fruit and sugar and cook over medium heat until it reaches the gelling point.

You then add the acid and cook for a few minutes. If you're afraid of canning, you could just refrigerate it and use it quickly, but since it makes a decent amount, it would make more sense to suck it up and learn how to can things safely.

Obviously, the big enemy with preserving food is bacteria. No one wants botulism. There are tons of resources out there which detail the correct methods to follow, so I'll sum up with clean equipment and a proper processing time at a full rolling boil if using a hot water bath method.

After boiling to sterilize, you keep the jars in hot water until the jam is ready to fill them

 After filling the jars, I boiled them for 15 minutes, then let them cool for  before taking them out of the bath. I'm pretty sure that every jar sealed as I lifted them out of the water.

The strawberry-blueberry mix set up a little better than the straight blueberry, but they are both definitely firm enough to use as jelly. I ended up with 5 half pint jars of mixed berry and 4 half pints of blueberry. We've enjoyed the mixed with peanut butter and on some delicious crepes stuffed with nutella and banana.

CSA Week 6

Since it has come to my attention that someone other than Peter and Jen is reading this (Hi Gigi!!) I am going to ignore the fact that I stood in one spot for 14 hours today with only 2 quick pee breaks and update on last week's pick up.

Eggplant, red cabbage, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, patty pan squash, a crapload of cucumbers and carrots.

The day of this pick up, Peter suggested I take Lil G out so that he could do some much needed straightening around the house. I am not really one to suggest otherwise when someone else is offering to clean, so we hightailed it out on a Mommy and Me adventure. We hit the Indian Market, the super big branch of the library, and my mecca - Joann's. We also stopped for lunch at my most favorite fast food establishment, Chik-fil-a. One of the side effects of only rarely eating fast food, is that when you do indulge, it kind of sits in your stomach like a rock for a day. Even after a nice visit with my parents after we got our veggies, I still wasn't really hungry, so it became a fend for yourself evening.

I have no clue what Peter ate (probably cereal), but I made myself a hummus and cucumber sandwich and ate it with a handful of peas and nice thick slices of tomato. Light, delicious and just what my spicy chicken filled tummy could handle. 

CSA Week 5

Yes, I realize that today was the pick up for week 6. I never was a) a prolific writer or b) good with deadlines.

So, last week here's what we got at our pick up

It's huge, right? I actually asked Lisa if the signs meant we got one head of lettuce or one head of each kind because holy crap that is a lot of produce. Luckily she confirmed, it was one head of each type. Plus a monster bunch of swiss chard, eggplant, sugar snap peas, carrots, potatoes, beets, summer squash and dill.
This is perhaps a perfect opportunity to mention the costs associated with the CSA. Previously, North Star had offered two different size shares, but this year they simplified things and just made every share the same size and cost. The share cost 500 dollars for 22 weeks of veggies. That works out to just under 23 dollars a week. Now look at that pile above and realize that this farm grows using organic practices, although they are not certified as organic. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what that would have cost at a regular grocery store? Actually, that might be a fun thing for me to do one week.
Peter also pointed out that I have neglected to talk about our cheese CSA. This is merely a consequence of it being a million and five degrees outside and things like cheese going into the refrigerator the second I walk in the door and therefore not being photographed in the moment. We did get a pick up in week 3 and 5.

Week 3

2 weeks out from pick up, so quite a bit has been enjoyed, but here is Citrus Sunrise fresh cheese (my favorite, it tasted like a danish and was amazing on toasted baked goods like blueberry bread), fresh cheese with peppercorn, and a block of colby.

Week 5

A block of garlic and chive chedder and a wedge of Westbrook, which I don't think is a "real" cheese name (at least google doesn't seem to think it is). It's pretty mild, but has a tangy aftertaste, kind of like a not sharp provolone.

Ok there's week 5, will it take me a week to get up week 6?