House Pic

Well, I haven't posted in quite a while (too busy posting for the cafe)...but here is a house picture from last night that I just had to share (at a fundraiser for Groundwork Lawrence).

Trees!

We've been dreaming about trees lately...so we went to look at some and fell in love with some very nicely priced fruit trees: granny smith apple, cherry, peach, and plum...so we bought them, brought them home, and planted them :-)...and we LOVE them!

It's spring! time for yardwork

We do live in an urban area, but have found a few patches of dirt to call our own yard (even though we don't quite own it all)

I cleaned up our little area with flowers next to the front steps:And in the little grass area next to the house austin put some grass seed down (it's a long story, but last summer the church next door got re-roofed and the roofers just threw down all the slate ito the side yard killing a lot of the grass and a lot of our little garden) we hope this year we can actually fill it back in with grass and then next summer austin has a few more plans involving hedges and trees... :-)

Compost Tumbler

We haven't composted in a while because our bin was broken by the roofers next door and also we just were not maintaining it well. I've had my thoughts on the tumbling kind of bins for a while where you just give it a little twirl and everything gets mixed up. But, the tumbers range in price from about $200 to $300, so austin and I figured we could make one...so we did...and here it is :-) we had to buy a trash barrel, but already had a lot of wood we'd gotten on freecycle, so I think the total cost was about $30

Sprouts!

I've recently been experimenting with lentil sprouts. The lentils have been sprouting at my kitchen sink in an old honey jar :-)Here's the full jar of sprouts after about a week.

Cooking in Season: Baked Potatoes

I just couldn't help but make some baked potatoes this week since we got a 50# bag of potatoes from Maine (in a local farm store) for $12. Part of the great part about cooking in season is that things are usually very affordable! So here's my meal this Monday:

Baked Potatoes with yummy toppings:

Ingredients:
-1 medium/large potato per person
-sour cream
-chives or green onions
-cheddar cheese
-Ingredients for chili to top potatoes:
-2 cans kidney beans
-1 lb ground beef from Twist of fate farm
-2 cans diced tomatoes (I would have used my frozen ones, but I've used them all up already!)
-chili seasoning mix
-1 small onion

Directions:
Bake Potatoes in oven: I covered them in foil and baked at 375 for 1hr 20 min. Make chili: saute the onion, add ground beef until browned, add chili seasoning, beans, and diced tomatoes and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes or more. When potatoes are done, cut open on a plate and cover with all your favorite toppings.

...total cost for feeding 6 adults and one preschooler: $13.10 or $1.87 per person (potats $1.50, sour cream $2, beef $4, beans $1, tomatoes $1.50, onion $.10, green onions $1, cheese $2)

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burritos

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burritos
yields 8 burritos

Ingredients:
3 Cups/750 ml sweet potatoes (peeled and diced)
1/2 onion (chopped)
2 cups/500ml cooked black beans
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups/375 ml cheddar cheese (shredded).

Directions:
-Saute sweet potatoes and onion in a large frypan and in 1 tablespoon oil until just tender. Add water or apple juice as needed to prevent sticking.
-Add black beans, cumin, cinnamon, and salt and cook until heated through.
-Divide bean mixture and cheese among the tortillas and roll up. Place in a 9x13 baking pan. Lightly spray with olive oil if desired. Bake at 350F/180C for 20-25 min. Garnish with sour cream, salsa, and fresh cilantro.

I also sprinkled cheese on top of all the burritos before putting it in the oven and the meal was a big hit at my house!

Cooking in Season

I've been reading a lot about food lately (is it obvious from my posts?) and I've decided to make a concentrated effort to eat more locally and in season (for the sake of the economy, local farmers, my carbon footprint, my health, and cause it's just plain fun). So, I bought an AWESOME cookbook to help me out...it's called "Simply in Season" which is a book comissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to promote the understanding of how the food choices we make affect our lives and the lives of those who produce food. MCC also created the "More-with-Less" cookbook which you may have heard of. I am really enjoying this cookbook for the recipies are simple and yet really yummy.

So, since it is very obviously winter here in Massachusetts, I'm trying to cook with the suggested items of: apples, beets, cabbage, carrots, citrus, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, and turnips. We also still have a lot of winter squash.

So far in the local spirit I've made butternut squash soup, leg of lamb (from a local farm) with cabbage, whole chicken, roasted root vegetables, and guiness pie with beef and root veggies. To help me remember what I've made, I'm going to start posting recipies to my blog...please feel free to share your favorite seasonal recipies with me as well!

House Christmas Pictures

Here is the 2nd annual Garden St House Christmas Picture...and an extra one of austin and Missy...enjoy...

Local Meat

I've been dying to get my hands on some locally raised meat since reading about big meat factory farms where most of our supermarket meat comes from. I've been researching local farms with cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep and the main factor preventing me from buying any thus far was the price and the distance (most farms with meat are a good hour's drive from here since we are in the suburbs...). But, I came across a farm near Manchester, NH that had all of the above meats and a farm store open on weekends and was a small little family farm. On Sunday, Austin, David, and Alison and I went up there and were pleased to see some sheep and horses grazing and the owner told us stories of the pigs running around the woods and the difficulty of catching them to bring them to the butcher. The farm is not certified organic or 100% pasture fed, but I feel confident that the practices there represent a way of farming that the term "organic" just doesn't cover- a family caring for their animals, selecting a butcher based on the treatment of the animals, and letting animals do what animals do- run around the woods and pasture. And, best of all, they have some GREAT prices! We got some whole chickens, ground and cubed beef, a pork shoulder, sausages, and eggs. I think we'll be making monthly trips up there to replentish our chest freezer. If you're interested in getting local meat, check out http://www.localharvest.org/ and if you live near us, you can also check out the farm we went to: http://www.twistoffatefarm.com/ .

Coffee Roasting

My housemates David and Alison wrote a great post about how we've started roasting our own coffee, so instead of writing about the same thing, I'll send you to their post:
http://thegingertimes.blogspot.com/2008/11/coffee-roasting.html

Law-town Rocks the Vote!

The Garden St House had an Election Watch party last night, and it sure was incredible. I sat and looked around and saw a room made up of Latinos, African-Americans, Caucasians, 1st and 2nd generation immigrants, singles, married folks, people in their twenties to people in their fifties, first time voters, and people with decades of voting behind them. We had probably over 30 people, all brought together by our involvement in this city. I just couldn't help but think, "this is exactly why I moved to Lawrence". I love that I have met such great group of diverse and awesome people here, and I was so happy to share with them in the historic night last night. The night involved great conversation, great snacks (including american flag cookies I made), much cheering, and even a spontaneous outburst in song to bongo drums. And, before Barak's speech, we even had 4 of our own give some mini-speaches on how much voting in the election meant to them. What a night...

Thoughts in the dark

Tonight I had to walk home from work in the dark. You see, usually it's only dark when I leave 2 days a week and I just have Austin pick me up those two days, but with the time change I didn't realize that it would be pitch black out at 5pm tonight, but it was. And, yes, I was a bit fearful as I walked- I do this walk 4 times a day, but in the dark it feels much scarier- I carried my umbrella in my hand "just in case" and I thought about my fear as I walked. I was actually quite ashamed to feel fear since I am quite proud of my decision to move into the poorest city in the state and get quite irritated when people say I live in a bad place. Because, truth is, I don't think there is anything to be afraid of here, and even if there is, what right to I have to move far away from it just because I make enough money that I could choose to separate myself from this place? And yet, the fear was a welcomed emotion and brought me a little reality... the people who live in the apartments I walked by don't have the choice to move away because they are too poor and the rent here is cheap; they don't have the choice to be picked up from work to skip walking past this section of houses, because this is where they live. Their apartments are small and crowded and their tiny front yards are dirty and there is a lot of trash on the street, and I'm sure many of them would like to live somewhere nicer. But, they live here because they are poor, unlike me; I live here because I chose to, and that will always separate us. But why should I stay? Why shouldn't I just move to a nicer area that's "safer" and leave this place behind? Why should I care about these people? I suppose it's the thing that keeps tugging on me and keeping me caring when I hear their stories at work: because in the words of Bart Campolo that I read the other day: "God cares about the poor. Because we're human beings; we're made in the image of God. It is our nature to love, to respond."

And as my life in Lawrence goes on: may I love, and may I respond, that is my hope and that is my prayer...

An Eventful Day!

What a crazy day for the House! Today we welcomed our newest member into the world: Caleb Steven, weighing in at 5lbs 13oz, and a month early! So we were quite surprised to say the least, but very excited. We should be welcoming the new Mom and Dad and baby home on Thursday and we can't wait!
And, as if that wasn't exciting enough, David decided to get into the action by getting hit by a SUV while riding his bike to work. He's OK, but he did get his left arm run over! Nothing showed up broken (no bones at least), but he's got a nice HUGE arm that's quite black and blue.

Whew, what craziness!

More Tomatoes

So, we've been using up those tomatoes I froze like mad so I just couldn't resist freezing some more. I bought another 50lbs on Sunday and will be freezing them all this week. Austin's folks gave us a their chest freezer on Sunday which makes all this madness possible (I think it will be 1/2 full of tomatoes after this week!). Now we just need some pasture-fed meat to add to the mix :-)

Currently Reading

I'm currently reading:WOW! I'll never eat the same again... I highly recommend it!

Gazpacho Recipe

With all those tomatoes I knew it was the perfect time to make some Gazpacho: a cold Spanish soup with fresh and raw summer veggies. Here's the recipe I used that our friend Chris gave us several years ago. I think the recipe serves about 6 people.

Ingredients:
-2 ears corn, shucked
-1/2 cup chopped onion
-7 medium round tomatoes or 14 plum tomatoes, cut into chunks
-3 Tbls. of minced onion
-3 Tbls. lime juice (1.5 limes)
-1 Tbls. olive oil
-3 scallions, green part only, minced (optional)
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. black pepper
-1/4 cup chopped cilantro
-1 1/2 cups water
-2 (or 1) red bell peppers chopped
-1 peelec cucumber, chopped into little bits
-2 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed
-1/2 tsp ground corriander (maybe 1 tsp)

Directions:
Boil salted water and drop in corn. Boil corn for 2 minutes. Rince in cold water. Cut kernals off the cob. In a food processer, combine chopped onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, salt, pepper, and garlic. Blend! Put in large bowl. Add minced onion, lime juice, olive oil, scallions, corn kernals, cucumber, and water. Stir!

Canning Tomatoes (well freezing)!

I was at Mann's Orchards on Sunday getting the produce for the week for the house when I stumbled across something that struck my eye, a sign that said "Canning Tomatoes". I walked over and saw HUGE boxes of tomatoes, all with some sort of blemish and saw that they were $12 for a 25 lb box! I couldn't believe it. After paying $3.99/pound at the farmers market I couldn't believe that local, Methuen grown tomatoes were available for 50 cents a pound! So, I bought 3 boxes! (yup, 75 lbs of tomatoes!). I didn't have the time or supplies to actually can them, so I decided to dice the tomatoes and freeze them (which I did on Tuesday).

Here's one of the boxes... Not all of the tomatoes were ripe yet, so I picked out the ripe ones and put them out on the counter
I read in my new book "Preserving Summer's Bounty" that I could blanch the tomatoes for 30 seconds then plunge them into ice water to help get the skins off.I then removed all the blemishes and skins which was actually amazingly easyI measured out 2 cups of the dice tomatoes and put them in freezer bagsand ended up with about 25 bags (and I only did 1/3 of the tomatoes so far!!!)
So, the work continues, I'll finish up the rest this weekend and we'll have diced tomatoes to last all winter and spring!!!

Visitors from the Land of Leprechauns

What a great time we all had on Tuesday night when we had our long time friends from afar visit. Too bad these Irish friends had to move back to the homeland or maybe they would have moved in as well: for as we say with our buds from the old connection group phase I: you either move or move in :-). It was awesome to see you guys and maybe we'll even make it to your place one of these days... Pictured from Left: the "W's", "D's", "C's" and "S's", including little W 1 and 2 and little S :-)

Summer Food is here!

Unfortunately I haven't taken any pictures to go with this post, but I wanted to write about some new exciting food we've been eating since summer started.

We changed CSA's this year to the Lawrence one (http://www.groundworklawrence.org/programs/CSA%202008%20Nwsltr1.pdf) and we have been very pleased. We just got a bit overwhelmed last year with all the leafy greens and our hearts ached for zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, corn, and all that kind of stuff. We have not been disappointed by our 3 weeks so far of shares from Farmer Dave. We've gotten green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, green peppers, corn, and collard greens.

I've decided to change my cooking night to Thursdays so I can cook every week from the farm share, supplemented by what I get at the Lawrence Farmers Market on Wednesdays. The week before last I made salad with romaine lettuce and home-made croutons; a plate of fresh cucumbers and tomato slices with fresh basil and olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette; corn on the cob, and sauteed summer squash and zucchini with cheese on top (http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/06/cheesy-zucchini-with-garlic-and-parsley.html). And what a lovely dinner it was. I wish I had taken pictures. I'll work on that in the weeks to come :-)

Also, we got collard greens this week so I decided to eat them for lunch Thursday. Having never made them in my life, I looked up some recipes and made a great lunch: I made the stems following this recipe using swiss chard stems: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/baked-swiss-chard-stems-recipe-with.html and I made the leaves using this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/SAUTEED-COLLARD-GREENS-15805. The stems were interesting, but I enjoyed them and the greens were really good. Ah, wouldn't my mother be proud of how I'm learning to cook... I must say, cooking from scratch sure does take a lot of time though! But I think my body will thank me in the future.

Now I just have to learn how to can and freeze this stuff so I can cook like this in the long New England Winter....