Veggie Pics

These pictures go with the post below.

Kale, Leek, Celery Root

my cooking disaster/blessing

I went out to Full Belly Farm yesterday and took a walk with Anna, one of the owners. The fields were green and the day was perfect, perfect, perfect! We walked around the field and she kindly picked me some veggies to take home. There were three kinds of kale (one of which is only grown on that farm), a leek and a celery root. I was so curious about these because I'm kind of a carbotarian and I've been wanting to branch out.

She told me that the kale is good sauteed with olive oil, garlic and tahini sauce. The leek is similar to an onion, but milder. The celery root needs to be peeled and cubed.

I decided to make a soup last night and asked John to pick up the missing ingredients at the store (chicken broth, potatoes, and cream). I planned to make Cream of Greens soup (the recipe is on the Full Belly website). I was going to substitute the onion for my leek though and add some celery root too. So, I fried up my bacon only to discover that the bacon had gone rancid. It had the most repugnant smell ever!

I thought the soup wouldn't be the same without the bacon so I went to Plan B. I found a Spanish Tortilla recipe on the same website that called for kale and onions (which I substituted for a leek). I added some fresh Parmesan cheese to the top and it turned out quite well. The leeks created a wonderful aroma and the kale wasn't bitter (like I feared). It was a succcess! John even asked to save the leftovers for lunch the next day!

I went to clean up and put the kale and leek trimmings in the disposal. I've always thought John was paranoid because he doesn't like me to use the disposal, but this time he was right. Since John wasn't home at this point, I decided to pretend like all was well until he discovered it....which didn't take long. Three hours later we (he) pulled the last of those super tough little leek strings out of the disposal. Not. Good.

So although some (John) might term the evening a complete disaster, I had a blast yesterday out at the farm and in the kitchen!

Thanks for the Memories

One of the things about Thanksgivings are that they all tend to blur into one gluttonous binge. I must admit, the leftovers are my favorite part. Why? Because I love cold food. There is nothing better than a plate of chilled Thanksgiving side dishes.

The girls have been helping with Thanksgiving dinner longer than they can remember, I'm sure. They've always been good in the kitchen and every year they know their role.....They are in charge of the green bean casserole and the cookie buttermilk pudding.

The Thanksgivings that stand out the most are the odd ones. The first was odd because John was recovering from knee surgery. He scheduled the surgery two days before Thanksgiving so he wouldn't have to miss much work. We had Thanksgiving at home (just the four of us) and the girls helped with a lot more than the green beans and pudding that year. We had ham instead of turkey and we had funeral potatoes instead of mashed. The girls made place settings that looked like turkeys. They were made out of a fudge stripe cookie, a candy corn and a caramel. They looked a lot like this:

Cute, huh? Anyway, that was John's favorite Thanksgiving. Perhaps it was the painkillers, but I like to think that it was better because he got to spend so much concentrated time with us and that was rare back in the day. We ate and sat around watching a Christmas special put on by a certain Tulsa, Oklahoma boy band. Whenever, we got too close to John he would take a little swipe at us with his crutches. He was so worried that he would re injure his knee...I guess he wanted us close but not too close.

We spent one Thanksgiving at Disneyland with the Stapps and the Willis'. The girls loved the walkie talkies that we used in our convoy. We had a grand time. It was also my birthday and I got a surprise cake from the Stapp family right during the Christmas parade. I rode on some of the youngsters rides with Julia and Rachel. If they're reading this, I apologize for the Snow White disaster. I had forgotten how scary that witch really is. I went on "It's a Small World" with Jessica. It was her first time. I have to say that I think a lot of us really loved being together that night by the teacups, eating birthday cake and watching people come down the Matterhorn.

The other Thanksgiving that stands out is last years. It was anything but traditional because of the weather. We were at the Arizona house and the weather was ideal. We spent a lot of the weekend in the pool. When we weren't in the pool, we were eating. We didn't eat at home on Thanksgiving. We ate out...we were still settling in to the the new home. However, we did a few meals at home that weekend, including a killer raclette. We also ate at a festive Mexican restaurant that was decorated to the nines for Christmas. That night (the night after Thanksgiving), we strolled around the temple grounds that were all lit up for the holiday. Magical (See the picture on top of this post. No,that's not Disneyland). We played tennis. We went to the Tucson botanical garden. Wanna know the best part? Having our family together and having our first holiday with our brand new boys. It's enough to make you downright grateful!

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