New CSA Alert

Attention those of you that live in my area (you know who you are!). I know of a new CSA that might be starting up next year. I met a farmer at the market a couple of weeks ago and he gave me some information on his potential CSA for 2009. If you might be interested, e-mail me and I will pass along his information so you can contact him to get on the list. It's still in the planning stages right now so he doesn't know the pick up times or locations or even the cost yet. That will be worked out later. Right now you wouldn't have to commit or sign a contract, just let him know you are interested.

Viva CSA!

CSA: Week 22

I got an awesome CSA share tonight! I drove out to the pick up location, got out of my car with my little bag and walked over to the CSA guy. He took one look at me and my bag and said "Uh it's not going to fit in that bag. You're gettin' a box!"

And a box I got and put in my trunk and drove home. This is what was in there:

Lettuce - a lot
Spinach - a lot
1 spaghetti squash
1 red bell pepper
2 cucumbers
1 zucchini
4 small turnips with greens
4 radishes
3 tomatoes
Sack of green beans

So much! The box was full. I really wanted to take a picture to post but I could not find my camera anywhere. And I've also been having computer issues which is why I haven't posted anything in awhile. See I usually use my work computer for blogging but a few weeks ago I had to download a new program. Ever since then I can't get on the Internet unless I'm connected to my company's network and unfortunately my company blocks Blogger. Arg!

I don't have a personal computer but my husband does have a Mac lappy (laptop). I'm a PC girl so I'm not up on all the Mac stuff. I get frustrated sometimes especially how the Mac doesn't have a right click! I need my right click.

I also don't know how to deal with pictures on the Mac so my next few posts may be without pictures sadly.

I'll try to catch up on the last two CSA weeks soon.

CSA: Week 20

A little catching up! Here's what I received during Week 20:

Cantaloupe!
4 golden zucchinis
3 tomatoes
1 cucumber
tons of green beans



The cantaloupe actually ended up being a little squishy but I was able to salvage most of it. I was intrigued by the golden zucchinis. Some people might look at that and go "it's a yellow squash." No that is not true. A golden zucchini is different from a yellow squash. First of all they are a deeper yellow color than a yellow squash. They are also shaped differently. A yellow squash has a narrow end and a fat end while the golden zucchini is more uniform. I also think that the skin of a yellow squash is a lot tougher than a golden zucchini. The four in the share were pretty small so I actually ended up buying a larger one at the market the following morning:



It was good. Tasted like...a zucchini. :) I am considering growing these next year though to add a little variety to the regular green zucchini. I don't like yellow squash as much as zucchini but I still cook with it to break up the monotony of the always green zucchini. Now that I've found the golden zucchini I can use it instead!

Note - I am actually writing this post after I wrote the post for Week 22, however I am back dating it because I have to have the weeks in order. It would drive me crazy to have Week 20 after Week 22!

New Toy! New Toy!

Look what arrived at the house yesterday:


A FREEZER! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am extremely excited about this - can you tell?

We have been shopping for a freezer for what seems like forever. Probably almost 2 months in reality. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to decide on one but there's quite a few options to consider. Upright freezer or chest freezer? Then what size of freezer do we need? Is 7 cubic feet big enough? Or should we go with 13 cubic feet? The 13 cubic foot freezer is not that much more expensive than the 7 cubic foot freezer so maybe we should just get the bigger one. But do we really NEED a freezer that big when there's only two of us? Who has the best prices on freezers? Will we be able to take it home ourselves or do we need to have it delivered? How much does delivery cost? Which freezer is going to last at least ten years? Where will we be in ten years? Will we have kids? How many? Okay maybe we do need the 13 cubic foot freezer...

Whew. See? There's lot to think about! We ended up with a Frigidaire chest freezer. It's 8.8 cubic feet with two baskets. It holds 300 and some pounds of food, and we decided that was plenty of space. We opted for a chest freezer over an upright because they are less expensive for the same amount of space, they are more energy efficient and they can keep lower temperatures.

We really needed this freezer because of the garden. We've thought about getting one before for buying in bulk but this year really sealed the deal with the garden. Our freezer in the kitchen has been completely PACKED for several weeks now. Almost everytime the door was opened, something feel out. We have not had ice for awhile either. The ice maker is broken and there was no room for ice cube trays. This is what it looked like:


Here's the inside of the new freezer:


Look at all that space!

The first thing I did when I got home was move a ton of food out of the kitchen freezer into the new deep freeze. It was four or five bags of food. I had no idea how much I had crammed in there! And there was some stuff buried that I had forgotten about including some break and bake cookies (mmmm).

Here's the freezer all full:




I label everything with masking tape and a Sharpie so I remember what it is. Even if it seems completely obvious and I think of course I will know what this is, I still label it. You never know.

There is still a lot of space left in the freezer which is great. I should be able to put up some more tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra before the first frost.

I think I'd also like to get some more baskets for the bottom of the freezer just to keep everything more organized. Right now I just threw everything in the bottom.

I also put the core to my new ice cream maker in the freezer! I got this brand new ice cream maker for Christmas last year and I still haven't used it. I have been dying to use it this summer but once the freezer got full there was no way. The core should be kept in the freezer at all times so that you can make ice cream whenever you want. Now it has a home in the new deep freeze. The core should be completely frozen sometime tomorrow and I plan to make watermelon sorbet. Look for a future post on that!

I read something interesting about freezers the other day. Freezers sales are countercyclical. When the economy is down, freezer sales go up because more people are buying in bulk, gardening and eating at home. When the economy is up, people eat out more and cook at home less, therefore they don't need the extra freezer room. It makes complete sense. I just thought that was interesting. Freezer sales are probably very high this year!

I'd like to give a special thanks to my cat Paulie in helping write this blog by laying on top of my arms while I type so that it took twice as long to write as it normally does. No matter how many times I pushed him off he just kept on coming back. I admire your determination Paulie.

Glamasaurus Rex

Term of the day:

GLAMASAURUS REX

Inferred meaning: to be completely and totally glamourous as in so glamourous that you feel like a million bucks and have extreme confidence.

Discovery of term: "I was in my Glamasaurus rex outfit earlier and I got changed out of it and I'm a little bit more comfy" as said by Anne Hathaway in this interview on MSN.

Used in a sentence: "I was a Glamasaurus rex in my little black dress and purple party shoes at the wedding last weekend."

Wedding Cupcakes

Here are a few pictures of the cupcakes I did for SIL3's wedding reception a few weeks ago. I made the little cake on top too!




I think the little cake kind of looks like a face. The flowers make the eyes and the ribbon makes the smile. Hehe.





I thought they turned out pretty good. Most importantly the bride was happy with them. Congratulations!

CSA: Week 19

Only five weeks left of the CSA! Boooooooo!

This week I received:

1 spaghetti squash
1 red pepper
2 large tomatoes
5 roma tomatoes
green beans


I'm super excited about the spaghetti squash. I've always wanted to try it. Supposedly you cook it and then stick a fork in it and it winds up like spaghetti or something. We'll see how it goes.

And a red pepper - finally something other than yellow. I might have to make roasted red pepper something.

The beans looked really good. I already washed, trimmed and blanched them and then mixed them up with chopped red onion, feta and a drizzle of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. YUM.

Previous CSA posts:
CSA: Week 18
CSA: Week 17
CSA: Week 16
CSA: Week 15
CSA: Week 14
CSA: Week 13
CSA: Week 12
CSA: Week 11
CSA: Week 10
CSA: Week 9
CSA: Week 8
CSA: Week 7
CSA: Week 6
CSA: Week 5
CSA: Week 4
CSA: Week 3
CSA: Week 2
CSA: Week 1