CSA is Colorful this week!

Cabbage, Carrots (apparantly Danvers, MA is famous for their carrots????), Pickling cucumbers (yes, I'm going to try making pickles but first I have to buy 2-3 spices I'll not use for anything else...how annoying), Zucchini, Yellow Squash (blah), Peaches, Basil, and a dozen ears of Corn. Now I'm thinking about the uber-buttered corn I had at my sisters a few weeks ago. SERIOUSLY buttered, people. Still dreaming about it.

Shelagh and I made some pesto as well as a nice blueberry bread for our neighbor that had surgery and is laid up. I had to explain why their was a huge piece lobbed off the end (because of course we had to keep some of it so she could taste it and there was NO way Joe was letting it all go either).

Ukranian Borscht...and No I'm not 90

I had beets in the CSA bag and a friend of mine from work gave me her moms recipe. I was really surprised how good it was. It's more like a cabbage/slaw stew that's pink and tastes very dill-y. Like good Jewish Chicken Soup. Look how colorful it came out. Yes, I will still put a blob of sour cream on top - why the hell not???

Veggies, Fruit, & Spit

"These apples are sour...take THAT"
(Spit flies all over the bib, moms legs, and the wall)

"What? Was it something I said?
I'm still cute and really have no idea what I am doing"

New Driveway

So exciting...I just want to put on roller skates and zoom around on the fresh black top. Okay, flash forward to the 2000's and leave the headbands and wristbands behind. Rory and Shelagh want to go cruising "Cars" Movie-style. I can't wait for that and a grand sidewalk chalk celebration. Adios ant hills, weeds, cracks, and falling children. Hello, burning feet and smooth sailing.

I don't have "before", but here's "during" and "after"...

It was a hot, very humid, and 11-hr work day for these guys...please note the shirt removal and the view I was able to admire while working from home today. Yum-yum, sir. Thank you for the lovely display of manliness. I will be kind and leave it at that. Oh, also I will add "Ewww".

Cradle Cap, Be Gone!

Doesn't this kind of look like a mug shot? This is after a warm olive oil cradle cap treatment. I couldn't help but give her a "Something About Mary".

Carrots!! She had the cutest look of surprise on her face when she tried carrots for the first time. I would too after eating that bland ass Rice cereal.

So Tired

Rory was so wiped out from the Childrens Museum today he fell asleep on the floor playing. How cute is this?

Sitting Up (Almost)

Look who's sitting up today!! With a little help from the Boppy...Her eyes were on the cat for a solid 5 minutes and caused many a tip over, but overall she did great holding her self up!

I Love Cereal

What is this strange substance in my mouth?

Hmmm...I don't know what to think...

Ok, I like it. Bring on the veggies!!

Moving on to Baby Food

Miss Kelly is 5 1/2 months now and we're done with our every weekend July travel schedule, so I started Rice Cereal on Monday night. The kid WOLFED it down! I could tell by how she was swallowing the Tylenol for her teething that she'd be fine to take food without thrusting it back out too much. So I've done cereal morning and night for the last few days and she's loving it. Pictures will be posted tonight when I get home. Shelagh and I are both gagging on the smell of the formula and cereal, but whatever. We'll move her on to veggies and oatmeal soon. Maybe this weekend?

I made a stop at Whole Foods yesterday to get some organic carrots, squash, apples and pears. Last night, after a particularly frustrating and tough day at home and with Joe away until late, I spent some time relaxing in the kitchen and making Kelly some veggies. I steamed and pureed the carrots and squash and they are freezing in the ice cube trays now. I can't wait to give them to her! I love making baby food. Shelaghs going to help me with the apples and pears this weekend also. Project-Clean-out-Space-in-the-Freezer-to-make-room-for-ziplocs-full-of-baby-food has begun.

Candy Anticipation Anxiety

You know that feeling when you put money into a vending machine and there is that moment when your money is in but the coil hasn't started moving yet and you have that instant fear that you won't get your candy? We need a sniglet for that.

In case you were wondering...Twizzlers. And FRESH Twizzlers, at that. Just the right amount of chewy, not-break-your-teeth pull that you want in your strawberry licorice. "As Always: A Low Fat Candy". Twizzlers, Peppermint Patties...you have to love "low-fat" candy. Until you eat 100 of them.

Rory Love

This is the email I read first when I got to work today...it's from Joe telling me what transpired between the kids this morning after I left the house. My heart is so full I just want to gobble them up.

"When we sat down for Sunscreen, Rory starting singing Shelagh a song that went "Wherever you go, I love you..."

I asked Rory what song he was singing, and he said "it's a love song for Shelagh"

He wrote it."

Confession

I ate a huge lump of cookie dough today in the name of cleaning out the freezer. I ate it slowly all afternoon while "working from home". Slowly enough so that I convinced myself it wasn't too bad. I am now sufficiently horrified.

CSA: More Greens!

Look at my refrigerator!!

Almost all greens again this week...2 heads of lettuce, collards, chard, beets, and a credit for Pick Your Own which we used. I had to give the lettuce away. L takes the next 2 weeks so I'll have a greens break. I have a Ukranian borchst (sp?) recipe from a work friend that I'll try with the beets. Nothing else exciting though.

Picking Raspberries

We went picking last Friday at the farm when we went up to get the newest CSA bag. It's just at the beginning of raspberry picking, so they weren't the best and you had to be selective to get the ripe ones, but it was productive. By the time I had picked a full container, Shelagh had 4 berries in hers, Rory had maybe 6 and Kelly had a fistful of leaves and a welt on her lip (I'm wondering if she mouthed a berry or leaf and might have an allergy???). Anyhoo, we brought some to my MIL and we're eating the rest. I don't think they are sweet enough for jam and we have plenty of jam at this point! Here are some pics from the day...It was beautiful and sunny out and we all had a great time wandering around the farm and having our lunch next to the pond.

Same Picture, Different Kid

How crazy is it that I have almost the same picture with all 3 kids at around the same age????

Shelagh -4 Mos

Rory - 4+ Mos

Kelly - 5 Mos

There are some similarities, but I think they are more different than the same...hair, coloring, head shape, mouth, eyes, volume of chunkiness. They seem so different at this age, but now I think Rory and Shelagh look much more alike at least.

CSA Progress: Beets

Per some ideas from friends at work, I took the 4 beets I got in last weeks CSA bag and did 2 things with them: 1) Beet & Carrot Slaw and 2) Roasted Beets.

Beet & Carrot Slaw: This came out really nice. I boiled 2 beets for about 30 minutes (a bit too long) and then combined them with a handful of shredded carrots, some sherry vinagrette, and salt. It was really good. The only thing I would change would be to blanch or lightly cook the carrots so they were more like the consistency of the beets. Otherwise, good stuff. I ate it all for a snack this morning.

Roasted Beets: I peeled and wrapped each beet in tin foil with olive oil, salt, and a shallot. For some odd reason I ran out of garlic, which is just ridiculous and frustrating. These were just okay. They weren't bad, but I think garlic and more salt would have improved them.

CSA Last Weeks Bag

With the holiday last Friday I completely spaced on picking up my CSA bag. I went on Monday and here's what was included for last week:

1. 1 head Romaine lettuce
2. 1 head Red Leaf lettuce
3. Beets
4. Cilantro (YUCK! I gave it away at work already)
5. Parsley (now I want Linguine and Clam Sauce!)
6. Kale (with white beans as suggested by my friend L who shares the CSA with us)
7. Peas (yay! We had fun shelling them and eating them raw, but they were delicious cooked as well).
8. Zucchini

I've never cooked beets before so I asked some friends at work that cook and they gave me 2 ideas. I only got 4 beets, but I'll try both recipes.

Beet & Carrot Slaw: Boil beets like you would a potato - about 20+ minutes. Remove outer skin and either julienne into sticks or chop. Mix with shredded carrots (thank you Trader Joes for doing this work for me cheaply) and vinagrette (way to finish the extra Sherry vinagrette from the dinner party).

Roasted Beets: Peel beets first. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and wrap each one up in tin foil with a smashed garlic clove. Roast for an hour like you would a baked potato. Slice and serve.

Both sound interesting...Shelagh is intrigued by the idea of a pink vegetable and Rory is only 2 new foods away from getting Smashed up Mr-The-King.

The last CSA bag was mostly eaten, but it was inevitable that I wouldn't be able to finish 4 ginormous heads of lettuce. I ended up throwing out 1 of the 3 large ziploc bags of washed greens. It was a bummer, but what can you do. There is only so much salad you can eat.

L is away this weekend so I'm going again on Friday. I hope to get some blueberries and raspberries since their UPick for these are open now. They aren't 100% ready yet as of Monday, but maybe by Friday they will be good enough.

Kellys 1st Tooth!

Tooth #1 popped out today!! I felt the bottom 2 middle teeth making their way over the last couple of weeks. It's hard to see in there b/c she smiles ALL the time and is constantly sticking her tongue out and covering them up. But, this morning, when I dropped her off I had mentioned she didn't sleep well yesterday/last night and her caregiver suggested that maybe her tooth had popped through. Lo and behold, 1 of the 2 broke out! I will TRY to get a photo later, but who knows if that is even possible. I'm sure the 2nd one is not far behind. Shelagh didn't get her first tooth until 7 mos, but Rory got his at 4 mos and was finished with all but his 2nd year molars by the time he turned 1. Yeah Kelly!!

I haven't started food yet, but I'm thinking I'll start cereal in a few weeks after our next 2 weekends of trips are done. She'll be justs shy of 6 mos, which is later than I started cereal for the other 2, but she's doing fine without it, my little sausage legs.

This is Kelly not letting me see her tooth. By the way, the 2nd one popped by the time I picked her up at the end of the day!

Happy 4th!

Block Party

With 3 kids, a part time job, and an endless to-do list of things I never do, I've taken on the neighborhood block party. Thankfully, we have a committee of 5 as of now and more volunteers coming, I'm sure. We had a meeting at my place last night to discuss the general plans and it went well. I'm so glad we're doing it...there are a ton of young families on our street and surrounding and it would be cool to actually get to know some of the neighbors better.

Plus, it gave me an excuse to run last minute to Trader Joes again - Maple Leaf cookies and Shortbread cookies with Apricot or Raspberry jam. Yum. While I was there I sampled a nitrate-free beef hot dog (delish!) and Salt & Pepper potato chips (also yum). I finally bought the brownie mix that L was recommending and NO WONDER it's so good - it calls for a STICK of melted butter. I'll report how they are...I'm sure they won't last long in the house now.