Foods We've Been Loving

Apple Pie

Behold, my very first 2 crust pie!

It's a little shaggy around the edges, but the taste & texture are what pie is all about. Everyone says the crust is the worst part of making pies, but if you ask me, it's all the chopping/peeling. As you can see if you look closely at the picture, many of my apple slices still had peels on them. I did a haphazard peeling, mostly because I hate doing it, but also because the skins hold so many of the nutrients. I hate to throw them into the compost!

I followed a Betty Crocker recipe from an old cookbook I got at our church bazaar. The apples came from trees around our cabin. Most of them got made into applesauce for a grand total of 65 pints & 6 quarts of applesauce.

[Almost Chipotle Burritos]

Enchiladas

After my Chipotle burrito remake last week, I was still hungry for more beans & tortillas. I had a link saved for Roasted Butternut Squash & Black Bean Enchiladas from Daily Garnish that I was anxious to try, so I made it for dinner with my parents. I made a few changes & additions, as usual, but not as many as I do for some recipes. These were SO good. All of the textures & flavors just blended together perfectly. The prep time was long, with cutting & roasting the squash & cooking the sauce, but it was completely worth it!

Green Smoothies

Our kale crop is seriously out of control, and this is the fastest way of ingesting it (kale chips rank right up there, though!). Kale is pure health food, nourishing our bodies in so many ways. Just a few examples include Vitamins A,C & K, manganese, fiber & calcium. With the addition of the VitaMix to our lives, we're especially loving these thick & creamy smoothies.

Fresh Tomato Soup

The tomato crop is slowing down, but they're still coming in. With all the rain we've had lately, they're a little ragged & split, so I've had to use them quickly. The best use we've found so far is tomato soup. We can't stop eating it! I've made it several times already, with plans to make it again this weekend. I just chop & core the tomatoes, add a few handfuls of basil, and puree it in the VitaMix. (Can you tell I'm obsessed with this thing? It's crazy!)

Recipe coming soon!

What are you loving right now?

All Worked Out

Can we talk about how it's suddenly September? What happened to summer?

• Happy Labor Day weekend! This is my first offical one since joining the work world, as my office is actually closed on Monday. Before, it was hit or miss whether I'd work or not, so its been a treat to know in advance that I have a 3-day weekend coming up!

• We turned off the A/C over a week ago & are enjoying the breezes through our windows. Anyone else love that as much as I do?

• Every night we try to eat on the patio. It's hard to believe that for awhile it was too hot to eat out there. We were sweating into our food!

{source}
Love these! What would I do without them?!

• I switched from tank tops to t-shirts for my morning roller blading. I actually wore gloves on Wed. morning because on Tues. my hands hurt from the cold (just picture that...shorts, t-shirt, gloves. I'm stylin'). What am I going to do when it's snowy and I can't roller blade? I've gone at least 4 times a week this whole summer. I know it's old school, but it's so freeing to glide along. I used to figure skate and this is the closest I come now.

• September & October are my favorite months now that I'm out of school. I love the crisp air, the falling leaves, and the warm clothes that come with fall. Here's a post of what I was up to last September.

 

• Fall also means it's pumpkin & apple time! Cinnamon is my favorite spice and all the fall foods just beg for lots of it. Plus pumpkin beer will be back!

• I'm sure my love of fall has nothing to do with my birthday being in October. Nothing at all. But before that is my dad's birthday.

I'm pretty sure this was the night of my first demo derby. Laura & I fueled up with a bowl of black olives, our traditional appetizer. Later, I ripped my pants on the bumper of one of the demo cars.


• Tomorrow evening we'll be at the Sullivan County Fair Demolition Derby. Wooo! Totally hick, and totally fun. If you've never been to one, you must go. Just don't forget to bring earplugs.

We're all packed to leave for the cabin as soon as we get home from work. By the time you're reading this, we'll be on the way or there.

Have a wonderful weekend!!


I need to keep this in mind:

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.  ~J. Lubbock



Kale Chip Tips

If you've never eaten kale before, my Dad will tell you that you're lucky. But deep down, he loves it.

If you've never eaten kale before, I will tell you that I'm very sorry for you. Go eat some.

Look at it! Crazy curly leaves, pretty blue-green color...what's not to love?

Our favorite thing to make with kale is kale chips. In the winter, when I'm buying kale, I try to ration it. One big bunch = 3 times of eating kale chips. That's sad. Right now, I cut as many big leaves as fit into my garden basket and squeeze them all onto a tray, or two trays if I get crazy with picking it.

There are a lot of recipes on the web for kale chips, so this is not an original idea. It's just a really great one. I'll post our method here, because we (and by that I mean the Bup) have figured out some tips and tricks. He's the master of kale chips. I almost always burn them because I'm busy doing other stuff.

See? Squeezed. Spilling over the edges. Delicious bites of green.

Look how much it cooks down! This is why it's okay to squeeze it on there. The more the better.

When they're done, they should look about like this. Not brown, but less blue than before. The biggest test is to just pick up a piece and see if it's crispy. If not, put them back in for 1 minute and check again.

Do not, under any circumstances, put them back in for longer than 1 minute when they're just about done. You'll be sorry.

Ignore the chipped nail polish & focus on the chipped kale. It's crispy but not burnt & has a little crystal of sea salt on the edge.

It didn't last long after I snapped the picture. 

Bonus for all of you protein lovers out there - kale has protein! Check out The Stone Soup for several other surprise sources of protein.

Kale Chips

Serves 2

Bup's tips are in blue.

1 large bunch of organic kale

olive oil spray

~1/2 tsp sea salt crystals

Preheat oven to 400*. Lightly (VERY lightly) spray a baking sheet with olive oil spray (4 quick passes usually does it). Wash kale and shake dry. Rip leaves away from stem into large pieces. Reserve any small pieces for other use* & discard stems. Lay leaves on tray in a single layer, pushing together as closely as possible ( I usually fold them in half and set just the edges on the tray. You want as little of the piece of kale to be touching the tray as possible, but each leaf does need to touch the tray. Don't pile them up). Very lightly spray leaves (Too much spray will cause them to wilt. Use even less than you used on the pan.) & then sprinkle with sea salt. Go light on the salt - a little goes a long way. Bake for 5 minutes and then check leaves. If the leaves are laying flat on the tray or are brown in color, flip them with a spatula (This is caused when there is too much oil or they were laid flat on the oil). Otherwise just shake the tray to make sure they're not sticking. Return to oven for 1 minute and check again. If the leaves are still limp, it needs another minute. If the leaves are crisp, they are done. Remove from oven and eat. (Try not to be sad when they're all gone!)

*Green smoothies!!! Post coming soon.

Harvest

I really can't get over how beautiful this purple basil is.

I tried to make the Basil Almond Pesto with just it, though, and it's just an ugly shade of brown. So sad. It would've been so fun to have purple pesto!

Our first bell peppers! We wanted to wait for them to change colors, but one was being eaten by insects and the other was making the poor plant lean to the side.

Please note the potato. We must have missed it laying there in our haste to get away from the yellow jackets on Friday.

On a separate note, I have a Facebook page for the blog! Check it out and "like" me, please! :-)