1st CSA Bag

We picked up our first CSA bag today. We're splitting the share with our friends so we'll be picking up the bag every other Friday at a local farm. Unfortunately it was too rainly to pick strawberries today, but we did get 2 quarts in our bag.. We got 3 HUGE heads of lettuce - one red leaf, one green leaf, and one romaine. We also got radishes, what I think are collard greens, a bag of what I think is baby chard and some rhubarb. Shelagh and I washed all the lettuce (bugs and dirt galore) and got it into 3 gallon sized ziploc bags...salad for days I predict.

Shelagh also tried lettuce and decided to have a salad tonight - GLORY! We did a salad dressing taste test after which she concluded that she just wanted a bit of water on her lettuce. Rory pitched a fit that there was a salad on his placemat. At least he tried a single mushroom.

Tomato Debate

I love tomatoes cold. I love tomato sauce. But something about a warm tomato just doesn't work for me. I decided, however, to try again and made this Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables from Everyday Food. It came out really good. The cut up cherry tomatoes helped to create a really nice sauce for the pasta. I added salt, more parmesean and less tomatoes and it hit the spot.

Orange Twins

Joe and Kelly looked so cute yesterday while I was prepping for the dinner party.

Supper Club Success

I think it went well overall. I was pleased with almost all the dishes with a few exceptions. They always say you shouldn't cook anything new when you are entertaining. I say if you can't experiment on your friends then who the hell can you experiment on??? Here's the frig beforehand with everything prepped..

Here's the table beforehand...

Appetizers

The cheddar-scallion toasts were yummy. I wanted something gooey-cheesy, but didn't feel like making my artichoke dip or baked stuffed camembert, which are my normal go-to rich, cheesy apps. The mozzarella, salami, tomato skewers were pretty good - I made a sherry vinagrette...I think I'll stick with balsamic next time. I wanted to try something new, but mixed with the mustard it was a little too strong. The avocado, crumbled bacon app was interesting but didn't look very good. I got the idea from an avocado-bacon-vinagrette salad, but I didn't want people to have to use plates and forks. I toasted some of the tortillas and used those as a base instead, but it didn't work for me. I think it was shapes - triangular tortillas and blobs of avocado. Didn't taste bad though.

Dinner

Black Beans with onions, garlic, and cumin were good. Basmati rice with chopped onion, red pepper, and zucchini was good. The Seafood saute marinated in tequila, cumin, shallot, garlic, and lime juice came out really tasty - I didn't dry off the scallops so they didn't sear like I would have liked, but they tasted ok - they should have been more carmelized. The avocado-mango salsa was yummy with it, but the avocado was mushy and not browned unfortunately, but it tasted good! The chicken, mushroom, asparagus dish was just ok. I just thought I needed some meat or bulk or something, but I probably could have skipped it altogether.

Drink & Dessert

The White Sangria was my favorite, as can be judged by the 5 glasses of it I drank followed by my eating a ton of the fruit at the bottom of the pitcher! It was equal parts rose wine, pineapple juice and apricot nectar, chopped pineapple and sliced oranges with 4 cinnamon sticks. Yummy. The chocolate mousse was the same I had made at Xmas, from Everyday Food, but with some added cinnamon in the mousse.

Late night by the time we cleaned up and I nursed Kelly. We sort of slept in if you call 815 good time. We went to an awesome diner in Lowell for breakfast and then picked up the kids. They had fun at their grandmothers and we're lounging around today while I avoid all I have to do for this week.

Supper Club Preparations

We're hosting for our Supper Club tomorrow night. I managed to clean 2 rooms, shop, and do some prep today. The big kids are going to my mother in laws tomorrow for lunch and to sleep over so I should be okay, with some help from Joe. I have a wicked schedule typed out so that I have everything as organized as possible and can actually have very little to do once everyone arrives. Here's the menu...I was inspired from one of the recent issues of Bon Appetit. It's a modern take on Mexican. I'm doing the main seafood dish and the rose sangria, but loosely borrowed from the rice and bean side dishes and added some stuff of my own.

Appetizers

• Cheese Scallion Toasts
• Mozzarella, Tomato, Salami skewers marinated in Sherry Vinagrette
• Avocado bites w/ crumbled bacon and Sherry Vinagrette
• Rose Sangria w/ Pineapple & Apricot Juices

Dinner

• Shrimp & Scallop Saute w/ Avocado-Mango Salsa
• Chicken sauteed w/ Mushrooms & Asparagus
• Rice w/ chopped vegetables (onions, red peppers, zucchini)
• Black Beans w/ sauteed onions & cumin
• Sliced Tomato Salad

Dessert

• Chocolate Mousse w/ Whipped Cream & Raspberries (going to try to get some cinnamon in here to make it lean more Mexican)

Good Luck to me!!

Bribes Work

For about 2-3 months now, I've attempted to bribe Rory to eat some vegetables. I told him he could have Bling Bling McQueen (yes, CARS movie) and Darryl Cartrip (again, CARS movie) if he would try 3 new foods (ie vegetables).

Left: Bling Bling McQueen (notice the shiny hubcaps - or his CAPS as Rory likes to call them)

Right: Darryl Cartrip (cool flames)

He whined and complained and eventually told me he didn't want them (lie) and called my bluff to return them to the store. Newman. Well, a few weeks ago he was in a good mood and tried yellow peppers. And liked them. And has eaten them many times since. Partly, I think this is because he helped me pick them out and mostly because they are yellow and he loves all things yellow.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, last night he finished items 2 and 3 after some coaxing by me and by Shelagh - corn on the cob and a snow pea. Incoming Bling Bling! Tonight, shockingly, he did it again and tried green beans (and then proceeded to eat 6 of them one after the other so I could take pictures) and both cooked and raw carrots. He also ate his turkey without a fight - this is huge b/c he's been anti-meat, - other than chicken nuggets and Trader Joes pesto sausage, for awhile now too. Incoming Darryl Cartrip. The kid is ecstatic. See below the shot of proud sister and overwhelmed boy.

Roasted Turkey Breast and Carrots, Smashed Potatoes and Green Beans

In my quest to lower my cholesterol below 300 (seriously) and avoid being prematurely medicated, I have tried to incorporate at least 2 fish meals per week and more white meat poultry (ugh). Needless to say there have been a few disasters (poached salmon from Everyday Food for a start - blah, blah).

They had a split turkey breast on the bone at the grocery store this past week so I roasted it a la Martha (only brined for a couple of hours) and it came out perfectly - very juicy and no gravy needed (which is a bold statement for me where I don't prefer white meat). Along side the turkey was some carrots and onions just tossed in olive oil and salt. So good. I also made smashed potatoes. Not roughly mashed, but literally smashed with a meat pounder. I boiled small white potatoes until they were just done, smashed them and then sauteed them in some oil and salt in a pan for 20 minutes - again a la Martha - topping them with parmesean at the end. Here's the finished meal with some cranberry applesauce.