Adventures in Vegetables

This year we joined a CSA, so for the past three weeks we've been getting some veggies I'd never tried before.  Hooray for the internet for showing me what to do with these new to me foods (and the large quantities of others not new).

Beets- I read online how to roast them.  It turned out alright.  I probably should have added more butter, salt, and pepper after removing the skins.  My husband had previous experience with the canned kind I believe, and didn't like them, but he didn't mind them prepared this way.  The big hit though was what I made with the leftovers.  I pureed it and made it into the chocolate cake recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook.  My girls knew it had beets in it and didn't care.  My oldest told me she wanted beet cake for her birthday!  I ended up making it twice, once as a cake, once as cupcakes.  Even without frosting the girls loved it.  This fudge frosting recipe was pretty darn delicious on it though.  I tweaked the cake recipe a bit.  Here's what I did.

Chocolate Beet Cake

1C brown sugar (first time we ran out, so I used white and brown)
1/4C oil or melted butter
2 large eggs
1/3C chocolate chips melted
1/2C milk
1tsp vanilla
2C flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
cocoa powder (maybe 1/3C?  I just added it in until the batter looked dark brown instead of reddish)
mix sugar and butter or oil,  beat in eggs, then melted chocolate chips, beet puree, milk, and vanilla.  Next add the remaining ingredients.  Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

This week we got another three beets and the girls asked if we could make cake :)

Kale- My only previous experiences with kale were finding it on the list of foods high in vitamin K and wrapped around the base material in an edible arrangement.  We ate some of it in this garlicky mushrooms and kale recipe.  It was pretty good despite the fact that I burned the garlic (oops).  The kids wouldn't touch it.  The rest I made into kale chips.  They were delicious!  The kids didn't like they way they looked, and I didn't care because more for me!  I tried making spinach chips with the last of the spinach we had, it wasn't the same, the spinach just kind of fell apart.

Kohlrabi with leaves removed, picture from wikipedia

Kohlrabi- I didn't even know what this was, thanks wikipedia page about vegetables for helping me figure it out.  I decided to try this kohlrabi and apple salad recipe.  I cut up the kohlrabi earlier in the day when baby gave me a few minutes and it didn't turn brown or anything.  I put lemon juice on the apple to keep it from turning brown.

Patty Pan Squash-  This picture is from www.emily-malloy.com, she's got a stuffed recipe too 

Pattypan Squash- I like squash, but I'd never had this kind before.  I decided to try a stuffed recipe because of the fun shape.  Lucky me, this recipe also called for spinach which we had in abundance.  I used parmesian cheese instead of the cheese it called for.  We got more of it this week, and this time I think I'm going to cut it up and grill it.

Spinach- I've used spinach before, but never had so much at once.  I like to use it in lasagna, we tried some chopped up and cooked with scrambled eggs (green eggs, but no ham!).  We got a bunch more this week and I'm looking forward to trying this hot spinach dip recipe from Martha Stewart.  Her site has a bunch of seasonal veggie recipes.

Green Beans- I've cooked with canned and frozen green beans, but this is the first time I've used fresh ones. We had them cooked in the microwave the other night with some butter, salt, and pepper.  Tonight I made green bean fries using this recipe baked at 375 instead of fried.  I didn't make the sauce though.  My husband and I ate them all up, the girls refused to even try them, they are nuts!

Swiss Chard- We got some swiss chard once before and made a tasty recipe that called for orange juice in it.  Of course I couldn't find it when I looked recently.  We made this very tasty Swiss Chard recipe which calls for chickpeas and tomatoes.  We just used a sweet onion instead of the shallot and green onion it called for.

We'll keep trying to get the kids to eat more of these veggies.  Hopefully our eating them every day is at least setting a good example for them.  And now through November our mission will be to eat them all up before the next Tuesday!


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Teacher Gifts

I've been a bit busy lately.   Little babies are demanding.  I saw this on pinterest while I was pregnant and it made me smile.
I'm not sure what my slogan could be now.  I'm such a DIYer I make milk?  Well moo, that is a lot of my day and night.
I do have some things I'm hoping to post soon, like the stuff I got done before the baby was born but was too tired to blog about.  I'm also currently working on a new cushion cover for a thrifted rocking chair in roughly 2 minute increments per day.  And next month we're hosting a family reunion and a very important birthday.  So there is lots to do.
One project I managed to get finished in a timely manner was making teacher gifts for my girls' teachers.  It helps a lot when you find a good idea online and can just copy it.  She even had the flags downloadable.  Thanks Lisa Storms!
Here's how mine turned out.

These were for my preschooler.  We still haven't put the oldest's together yet.  Last day for her is Friday.  I swear we are always the last ones to get out of school, despite starting in August and not having any snow days this year!  I tried to buy cups from walmart.com and have them shipped to the store weeks ago.  Who knows if they'll ever arrive.  I ended up buying these at Joanns with a coupon, which made them come out to a better deal that the walmart ones.  Inside the cups are lemonade packets, the tag that was around the cup and a note from my daughter.