Yeah, I have time for another hobby

So for his birthday last year, my lovely in-laws got Peter a complete set of homebrewing equipment. We were quite excited to try making both beer and wine at home, and demonstrated our excitement but putting the kit in our closet and letting it rest for a year. Seriously, why does time move so quickly when I'm not at work? A couple of weeks ago, we finally got it together to visit a brew store and get a couple of ingredient kits. Since my first choice (Pumpkin Spice Porter) is a seasonal beer, not available until the summer, we decided to start with Imperial Nut Brown Ale and Red Ale. Less than a month later, and we've got the nut brown ale conditioning in a secondary fermenter, red ale beginning to ferment in a primary bucket, and a growing list of recipes we can't wait to try. As Peter says, "we're beer people now"

According to the owners of more than 1 brew store, the most important part of the process is sanitation. Accordingly, my kitchen got a good scrub down with bleach before we started. I will let Peter brew anything legal if it means I get to live in this environment. Look, you can see counter space!

Ah, that's more what I'm used to

Preparing the grains to go into the water to steep for 20 minutes. See my monster new brewing pot? 24 quarts, that thing is HEAVY when full.

Making sure the temperature doesn't get too high. Over 170 and tannins can start to come out.

Even though it looks like she's giving her daddy a rather rude gesture, Gabriella was actually being such a good girl, keeping herself occupied while we worked. Side note, know which game she's playing? OREGON TRAIL!!! Love the Nook!

Also, she's a good helper.

MMmm hop pellets!

After boiling for an hour, you've got to get the wort cooled down quickly so that bacteria don't have a chance to establish. Filling our sink with ice water did it in about 20 minutes.

The only time in the process that you want to aerate the mixture. Gotta get some oxygen in there for the yeasties!

Yeast ready for pitching. Ladies, I married the man who takes these pictures of me. I know you're jealous

Time to leave the yeast alone to enjoy their feast!

Valentine's dinner

So I kind of dropped off the face of the earth there. Sorry about that. I'm back now.

So, it's February, which may seem like the absolute worst time for a blog that is supposed to be about our adventures in local farm wares, but our CSA is actually STILL going on. Technically, it's not the same share that we paid for last winter, but the farm that we use decided to attempt a winter share this year, and we were lucky enough to catch the email in time to sign up. The terms changed slightly, we know have pick up only twice a month instead of every week, but the cost was adjusted accordingly, and the veggies are just as yummy. We've been getting a great variety of winter hardy vegetables, such as kale, spinach, winter squash, turnips and carrots. I'm still supplementing somewhat with things from the grocery store, but that's just because we eat so healthily, right? Well, a girl can try to fool herself at least.

Tonight, I wanted to make something somewhat special for my valentines. I mean, how else would they know how much I love them, if i didn't show it on this particular day??

Hallmark guilt aside, we did have a pretty yummy meal, while managing to be at least marginally good for us. My parents had given us some ham (no, they're not now raising swine, they had just found a good sale) and my go to for leftover ham is good old-fashioned homemade macaroni and cheese. Unfortunately, my mommy guilt kicks in when I start to plan meals without vegetation, no matter how delicious, so I decided to add in some greens (and oranges and whites)

Mac and cheese with ham,broccoli, cauliflower, kale and butternut squash

And you know what? It was DELICIOUS! It's not that you can't taste the veggies in there. I'm not really into the idea of hiding veggies so that kids don't know that they're eating them. Of course, I'm lucky enough to have a kid who will eat just about anything, my stance on hiding them may change.

The first of two servings

Of course, it IS a holiday, and I'm not a health tyrant. Gabriella has been wanting to make cupcakes for WEEKS, and we finally got it together today.

I've had some heart shaped cupcake cups for ages, and never broke them out of the packaging until today. This is one of those simple little things that I just love doing with the little Miss. She can definitely be a nudge, and scares the beejezus out of me with sticking her fingers near the mixer while it's running, but it's worth it.

I mean, how can you resist that "cheese" face?

And you may think that the cupcake that is super duper covered in sprinkles was Bella's doing, but you'd be wrong. The massive sugar overload was Peter's doing.

In which I reveal just how impressionable I can be

I work in a retail setting, and although my current store is far to busy to allow me to keep up with celebrity gossip the way some of my former stores did, I do have a clear view of the magazine display at our checkout counter. For the last month, the cover of Martha Stewart Living has been teasing me, especially on the days that I don't get a chance to eat.

That deliciousness is marinated heirloom tomatoes with pasta, and it is damn near perfection for a summer dinner.

We threw this dinner together Tuesday night after I got home from work, so it's a good thing it's a quick and easy meal. It wasn't as garlicky as I thought it would be after reading the recipe, but it had a really great flavor, and it's just so pretty!

We used a mix of heirloom tomatoes from the CSA and our garden. Definitely going into the arsenal of recipes to use up tomatoes without making the typical pasta sauce.

CSA Week 11

So apparently I've skipped a couple of weeks of the CSA. There hasn't been much variety in the pick ups, so while delicious, things have not been overly interesting. Gabriella is fingerpainting at the moment though, so we can chat a bit about yesterday's pick-up.

Lettuce, two huge sweet onions, green beans, potatoes from North Star's potato breeding project, tomatillos, and a couple zucchini and eggplant.
Think it looks a little light for a farm share in the height of the growing season? You're right, it is.

Well, it's August, which means ...

TOMATOES!!

Seven pounds of tomatoes in fact. Did I mention that we have 7 purposely planted and a few volunteer plants of our own and we're swimming in tomatoes. Yeah, there will be some sauce making in the near future.

Here's the actual bounty picture from yesterday

Since last night was the official return of football, even if it was just preseason, we needed an easy to eat in front of the TV meal. Add in 7 pounds of tomatoes, and we opted for pizza again.

One of my favorite things about pizza is just how versatile it is. Start with the same simple dough and you can end up with a ton of different meals. Of course, Peter is a traditionalist, so we made another margherita for him. 

Basil pesto, fresh tomato slices and mozzarella

We piled quite a few things on "my" pizza. Yes, it was a more labor intensive preparation, but I think it was worth it

Whoa, scary hand there.

Roasted eggplant and cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, green peppers with ricotta and mozzarella

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.