CSA Fun Continues...

So far so good... I have not wasted any food, but this week was a lot of lettuce and there is a limit to how much salad a girl can eat.... So I fear, this may be the week I don't use it all... but I am trying.

So this is what I got for week two and week three...
 Spinach - 1 bunch Red Romaine Lettuce - 1 head Green Boston Lettuce - 1 head Red Boston Lettuce - 1 head Strawberries - 1 quart Swiss Chard - 1 bunch
 Lettuce Mix - .5 lb bag (not washed) Salad Turnips - 1 bunch Bok Choi - several pieces Red Kale - 1 bunch Arugula - 1 bunch Romaine Lettuce - 1 head

 

I had an extra bunch of spinach and some arugula, so I blended it together with some toasted walnuts and lemon zest and fresh squeezed lemon juice... and it was yummy, zesty and so fresh tasting.

As you can see, I tossed it over whole wheat pasta the first night.  The next night I had some extra chicken cutlets around and I layered the pesto on that with some sliced mozzarella and toasted it and it was even better!

 

I have never in my life cooked a radish...in fact, I never ever thought you could.  But this has been part of the fun of getting the CSA shipment each week.  I cut the radishes on my mandolin and then sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil and some dill from my yard.Then at the last minute I added in the greens to wilt.  I was surprised how much I liked them.  Cooking them mellowed out the bite and actually brought out a sweetness. 

On Father's Day I decided to use up the beets I had roasted earlier in the week.  I paired them with sliced ripe avocado and layered it on a bed of arugula.  I also had these baby arugula micro greens, which just looked so pretty.  I put a light lemon vinaigrette over the top, which not only helped from keeping the avocado from turning brown, but brought out the earthiness of the beets. 

 

For our Father's Day BBQ I also decided to make the rainbow Swiss chard as a side dish. I started by sauteing the stems first (since they take longer to cook).    When those were tender, I added in some toasted pine nuts and golden raisins and garlic.  Then I added in the leaves of the Swiss chard and covered and let it meld together and wilt down.  I took it off the heat and then added just a splash of balsamic vinegar.  It was DELICIOUS!

The finished product- it was so good and it looked so pretty too!

 

And of course I used up some more of the lettuce (did I mention there was a lot of lettuce in this weeks box?!) and made a salad.  I got fancy and cut the carrots into hearts... but I tossed it with a vinaigrette that I made with the chive blossom vinegar I made from the first batch from the CSA.  

 

Up next... white salad turnips... I know these are meant to be eaten raw, but I actually roasted them in the oven to bring out the sweetness.  I just coated with olive oil and pepper and let it roast in the oven while I was roasting some beets for the boy.  At the end, I added in the turnip greens to wilt.  It was a huge hit in our house- in fact... my daughter who will NOT eat a vegetable, declared it was delicious... she is all on board with trying new veggies now... of course her "trying" is taking a very teeny bit and making faces, but it's a start! 

I also made yummy radish sandwiches.  I made a quick dill butter, slathered that on some crunchy bread and added sliced radishes.  It was crisp and delicious. 

And last, but not least, I made Brazillian collard greens.  We go to a great Radizio place by us that has this as a side dish.  I thought I would give it a try and I was surprised how easy it was and how good it was!  I started by cutting the collards into thin strips (removing the stem).  Then I made a paste of minced garlic, and good sea salt.  Then I heated a pan super hot with olive oil, added the garlic paste I made and then added the collards.  Tossed to coat and covered with a lid to wilt.  They were yummy and such a bright green. 

 

Can't wait to see what is in this weeks box! 

Winding Down the School Year...

I cannot believe that an entire school year has gone by!!!

My daughter is finishing up kindergarten and my son finishes nursery school this week.  I know it is cliche but it does feel like we just started the year!!  I made a goal to try and do my daughters hair each day... she was a willing participant for much of it, but there were many morning she just wanted to wear a simple headband... that was no fun.  But she did say she loved the attention she got, especially for super fun hair styles like when I made her hair into a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.  I will post a bunch of the highlights of the year later.   I also set a goal to make fun lunches for her each day.  She LOVED them and quite a few moms made fun of me for it, but they thought it was cute too.  My daughter got more adventurous as the year went on and she actually bought lunch more than I thought she would... but it was fun coming up with ideas each day.  I will also post some highlights of her lunches at some point.

Anyway... As the school year winds down, the end I the year festivities pick up.  So far I have successfully made luau inspired cake pops for the PTA installation dinner and an earth cake for a teacher appreciation/retirement party for my sons school.... That was quite a week, in a heat wave no less!

Now I have been switching gears to end of the year gifts.  I wanted to do something fun and cute for each of their classes and this is what I came up with...

For my son's class I found these cute Crayola coloring book rolls at Target.  I made up a little tag that reads "Have a colorful summer!" and wrapped them up for the kids.  

For my daughter's class I found these cute colorful high bounce balls at Five Below.  I made a tag that reads "Have a Ball this summer"  I added the tag to a heavy stock and had her sign it.  I think they came out adorable.

What's Behind Box Number 1?

It's been a busy few weeks , especially with the kids winding down their school year... But I wanted to share quickly that yesterday we picked up our first box from the CSA we joined.

Just staring at the box was like Christmas morning for me.  I loved the anticipation of what was inside and it didn't disappoint.
  This week's shipment is a "pre-week" so it seemed a little light, but it was still full of fun things... 

This is what I got:

Lettuce Mix - 1 bag (not washed) Spinach - 1 bag (not washed)
Mustard Mix - 1 bunch Radishes - 1 bunch
Collards - 1 bunch
Chive Blossoms - 1 bunch
Oregano - 1 bunch Toscano Kale - 1 bunch

**isn't it SO pretty!

 

Now the fun begins...what to make?  I haven't made anything yet, but I decided to make a chive blossom vinaigrette right away.  I wanted to get that going, because it is best to let it sit for a few days.  I am thinking that will be delicious over the salad greens and some sliced radishes!

Since there wasn't a ton of blossoms, I only used half of the jar size of vinegar.   I snipped off the blossom and added them to the vinegar.   Then I closed up the lid and will leave it in a cool place to sit for a few days. 

Update....This is day three of the vinegar...it's getting a really lovely purple color.   

A Tree Grows...

I started this post a LONG time ago...and then got busy and in writing a new post, I realized I never finished this one...so here it is. 

We had a fundraiser for my daughter's school recently.  It was the pretty standard dinner dance with raffle baskets.  This year however I wanted to introduce a new element we called the "treat tree."  The basic concept is that you buy an ornament off the tree ($10.00).  Each ornament has a number on it and that number corresponded to a gift.  So you buy your ornament and then get a gift.  The best part is that each "gift" is worth $10.00 or more, so everyone is a winner.  It was a huge hit and because we really pushed we had 100 ornaments and sold them all- I am so happy!

I used branches that I put into a planter.  I used spray foam to hold it all in place... I didn't realize how much it would grow and grow and grow... it literally grew for three days!  Next time I would use less and wait it out...I put this together the day before and it grew a little too much! 

To help it stay upright until it was hard, I tied the branches to my fence. 

After it was all done, I spray painted the foam black and then added some tissue paper at the bottom.    I forgot to take a close up of the ornaments, but I used two different scallop punches and Tiffany blue ribbon to make them- they looked so pretty all hanging on the tree.

Sorry this is blurry...but here is the final tree at the event.  Behind the tree are all the gift bags that were numbered and corresponded to the various numbers on the tree.  It was so much fun watching people picking numbers and opening their gift!