Archive for ‘September, 2012’

Swallow Crest Farm CSA 2012

Last Thursday, I picked up the final distribution from my CSA.

Beautiful!

And most of it is long lasting.

Except for that head of red leaf lettuce which was part of a BLT with Mozz breakfast sandwich.

And today’s (Sunday) salad.

The week prior included the last of the kale and chard, a nice amount of potatoes and carrots, beautiful leeks and some onions.

Green eggs and goat cheese! I would have added ham if I’d had any :) !!

As disclosed previously, I have been making Bear’s food. Usually it is brown rice, yogurt and hamburger (from Costco’s organic ground beef), but on occasion, for our breakfast, I whiz some kale and eggs in the Vita-mix and then scramble them, ie. green eggs.

This morning, I added red pepper to mine.

To Bear’s, I added his usual brown rice, yogurt and a bit of burger.

I continue to use the fresh chard in place of bread for sammies and taco/tortilla wraps. This morning a nice leaf of chard held salmon, goat cheese and capers…with a side of cherry tomatoes.

Not very much from the CSA, but these tamale pies…oh, so good – had to share!

There are some onions from the CSA in the pulled pork mix that sat under the corn bread topping. And the fresh corn in the topping is local sweet corn!

I’ve not yet made homemade tamales, but this pie was so good and so easy…maybe I won’t! I topped a pulled pork tamale “filling” with my standard Mexican Cornbread (muffins). That’s it.

Another leaf of chard for a tomato-mozzerella burger and a side of late summer potato salad. The potato salad is CSA potatoes and organic celery dressed with homemade mayo, pickle juice, greek yogurt, sugar and mustard dressing.

Leeks… The leeks were the basis for soup two weeks in a row. I made a leek-sweet potato soup and a leek-cauliflower soup.

I’m getting a bit smarter…although I ended up with a LARGE pot of soup each time, I froze 1/2-2/3 each time…YEA for me. I have two containers of leek soup in the freezer awaiting some dark Fall-Winter day when soup MUST be had!

My freezer this year…it is stocked! More than any year in my entire 57 years on this earth…I have things to eat that only need defrosting. Again…YEA for me.

Because I live 30-45 minutes from town/supplies and because I live in a place where the roads become treacherous (actually, it is the other drivers…) – I have always made sure my pantry is stocked by October 1. But this year, courtesy of my CSA subscription and just thinking and LOVING fresh fruits and veg…my freezer has become part of the Fall-Winter food stocking.

So, when the snow flies and the roads freeze, I will thaw a bit of the soup as you see above and be thankful for my freezer, for my forethought and for Swallow Crest Farm CSA!

The Last Frontier

The bed… Bob and Bear both LOVE the bed (me too :)!! )

I have hoped and dreamed, especially lately – that one day…they would be ok being together on the bed.

The bed: the last frontier in the Bob and Bear relationship.

We’ve had a few togetherness times but Bear has always voiced an objection…no kidding…it is an entire paragraph of concern. voiced as only a beardog can…about sharing the bed with Bob. (Seriously…I need to get it on video. Bear vocalizes sentences and expression – it is fairly clear what he’s ‘saying’!)

Bob is more of a pouter…

I backed off.

I left the room to get the camera.

They considered.

Surprise!! The bed is big enough for everyone!!

They relaxed. I moved out of sight. All was well.

Progress.

And later…

…around the water bowl…more socialization.

It warms my heart, tickles my fancy…makes me laugh with JOY…these boys!! Such fun to see them figuring this out.

Mobile Office

Bear and I went to Arcturus’ house today.

The plan was walks (Bear and Arcturus), lunch (me) and then working from the yard for a bit (me)…giving Arcturus some company, Bear and Arcturus some more time to see each other and Bear some diversity from the woods leash walks that we’ve been doing while resting his leg.

My office is mobile…

The setup.

VERY pleasant working conditions.

Hard to see the lake below with the reflection, but it is there! It was cool, slight breeze, good company and the house wi-fi was strong and fast.

Two beardogs for company. A girl couldn’t ask for much more :)!!

Well, it will be nice when Bear is comfortable joining Arcturus in his yard, but meantime the variety in routine for all of us…it rocks!

Smokin’

The above NOAA forecast is what it has looked like here for the past two weeks…except temps a bit higher last week and the week before: 75-82F.

But, that forecast does not tell the entire story…

The valley has been home to Montana and Idaho smoke for a little over two weeks.

Thankfully, except for 2 or 3 days, the smoke has been high, i.e. no smoky smell. And there has been no ash. The primary annoyance is the appearance.

NOAA has been advertising and warning that we are to go direct to full FALL cool/cold and damp/rainy…sometime next week.

Meanwhile, we are smokin’.

Downtime

Could you close the curtains??? It’s a little bright in here!

I’m trying to take a nap.

Srsly…you can leave now.

Mr. Sweet Feet is still resting as ordered.