Spaghetti Squash

I saw this recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Garden Vegetables from the Eat to Live newsletter online last month and immediately bookmarked the page. When I saw spaghetti squash at the Del Val Market a couple weeks ago, I knew just what I was going to do with it!

I almost didn't post this because the photo is poor, but the dinner was so good that I had to :)

This meal turned out to be a great family-cooking recipe; Avery, Jason and I all prepared and cooked it together. We followed the recipe almost exactly, just adding more vegetables (like extra Blooming Glen cabbage - yum!) and some crushed red pepper. We also microwaved the squash instead of baking it (pierce five or six holes in the skin and cook five to ten minutes rotating a few times, until the squash gives slightly when touched). It's yummy served with parmesan not-cheese, or a parmesan-like topping.

SPAGHETTI SQUASH WITH GARDEN VEGETABLES
(From Oct. 06 Eat to Live recipe of the month)

Serves: 6

1 medium spaghetti squash
1 1/2 diagonally sliced carrots
1/2 cup diagonally sliced celery
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 small zucchini, chopped into small pieces
1 16-ounce can pinto beans, no or low salt, drained
1 14-ounce chopped tomatoes, no salt, drained
1/3 cup apple juice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup garlic pasta sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice spaghetti squash in half lengthwise; remove seeds. Place both halves upside down on a baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, cook carrots and celery in 2 tablespoons of water in a covered pan over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little more water if needed.

Add garlic, cabbage, and zucchini and cook, covered, for another 10 minutes.
Stir in rest of ingredients, except for pasta sauce, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.

When squash is done remove from oven and, using a fork, scrape spaghetti-like strands from squash into a bowl. Add pasta sauce and combine by mixing thoroughly. Mix the vegetables, beans & herbs with the squash/pasta sauce mixture and serve on a bed of romaine lettuce or place back in the hollowed out squash bowls.

Benedict Arnold

Look, ma! No party mix! :D

My girl, Miss L visited us last weekend. In addition to feeding our brains and spirits with wisdom from don Miguel Ruiz, we fed out bellies with some fantastic spicy green curry at a Thai-French place in Lansdale called Nadia, some to-die-for vegan treats at... er, Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, and some Strongbow at our local pub, the Reliance in Telford. Miss J was along for most of the ride, too :)

And, I cooked! Woot! That's L's bon voyage breakfast: chopped kale, collards, green tomatoes, sweet red peppers, leeks and onion (all Blooming Glen) stir fried/steamed in a bit of olive oil and crushed red pepper, on top of a Food for Life organic 7-grain sprouted wheat english muffin, and drizzled with Knorr hollandaise sauce (the powder mix is not vegan, but we did make it with soy milk and Earth Balance). Jase was on "keep the kitchen clean" duty, I did the veggies and L took care of the sauce (Mr. Avery was with his pops). Yummm!

The weekend was incredible :) I'll post more on my other blog, but feel free to check out the evidence here: http://photography.frekur.com/gallery/awesome.

Univest Grand Prix

(Check out that rainbow!)

Yes, the Univest Grand Prix is a world renowned bicycle race. Yes, it happens right here, in our front yard (well, a half block away from the front yard). Yes, it's sponsored by many local community-minded businesses. Yes, international professional cycling teams compete right next to beloved locals in the race each year. And yes, this gem of a race was born from the spirit of local Merrill Moyer, and has continued to grow larger, more exciting, and more challenging each of its nine years.

But really? The honest-to-goodness reason why people flock from all corners of earth to visit little Souderton each year? Yeah, it's is for the kids race. You know it :)

Avery ran into his super friend Alex during the sign up and line up for the race.


The kids race is separated into age groups, and takes place on part of the real race course (on Main Street).


I don't know if they declare an actual "winner," but I don't know that the kids even notice :)



The competitors gathered for a group photograph post race.



Avery also ran into super friends Danny and Benjamin at the race; here they're getting ready to be interviewed by a local television station (WFMZ).



Check out some links for this awesome race:

• http://ramblings10.blogspot.com/2006/09/univest-grand-prix-2006-bike-race-in.html
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/oryl/239445760/
• http://www.univest.net/univestInTheNews_082206.asp
• http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/47-09112006-710572.html
• http://www.stmainst.org/grandprix2006.html

Then, mark your calendar and ready your cow bell for the Univest Grand Prix 2007 - we'll meet you there!

Univest Grand Prix:
http://univestgrandprix.com/

Glutonous Breakfast

Speaking of Labor day... A holiday means time to cook brunch. A BIG brunch :D

We slept in a bit. I mean we, as in us collectively, in one bed. A couple cats, a pooch, a kid and two adults. Don't you love a cuddle puddle?

So, we took our time getting out of bed, and while the boys bummed around, talking comic books, I rode my bike up to the local market to buy tofu for Tofu Scrambler, and splurged on some totally processed Morning Star breakfast patties. I countered the patties and imported kiwi with local, organic cantaloupe (from Blooming Glen), a side of roasted local, organic potatoes, red and green peppers, onions and herbs and complet toast from Bakers on Broad.

I spent a lovely and therapeutic 90 minutes in the kitchen. Cooking, organizing, cleaning up. Had the time to stop and consider inviting dad over.

Seems to me that this type of morning should be the standard, not the exception. Taking time, having conversation, slowing down, savoring, laughing, planning the day together, enjoying the time, experiencing the moment...

When did life become so rushed? Work? School? They're important and valuable, don't get me wrong. But, really. Mornings like this? It's what I live for :)

Nockamixon State Park

After the last couple dreary days, posting about our sunny Labor (not Memorial :P) Day is a nice break :)


We went to Nockamixon State Park in Upper Bucks County (between Haycock and Bedminster townships). The park is over 5,200 acres surrounding the 1,450-acre Lake Nockamixon - the largest lake in Bucks County - and it must be one of the most beautiful reasons to live in this area.

There are hiking trails, horseback riding trails, a swimming pool, rental cabins and boats, picnic areas with grills, and walking/bike paths. The Tohickon Creek runs into the lake, and you'll often find kayakers there in June and November, when water is released from the lake's dam, turning it into whitewater perfect for an aquaholic. It's a great spot for birthdays, Father's Days, and Momma's Days. There's something for everyone to do. And, it's 15 minutes from our front door :)



We've been known to pack up the Party Car* (my dad's Volvo wagon) with bikes, kayaks, frisbees, dogs, fishing poles and picnic food to spend the whole day there. Avery inherited his Grandpa Dan's high energy, hyperactive, short attention span personality, and, let's be honest, that's the real reason why we love Nocakamixon.

*please read that as "Potty Cah." We're from Rhode Island :P

The two of them can go from fishing, to a spin around the lake in the kayak, to a bike ride, to taking photographs, to sneaking off to buy an ice cream eclair from the boat rental building (yes, we saw you :P) and back again without bothering those of us who prefer a slower pace of reading the newspaper, cooking veggie burgers, playing cards and meditating on the landscape. The park is fun for the whole family, as they say :)

My pops didn't go with us this time, and we kept it low key, only bringing the bikes, Avery's fishing gear and a tote with a couple books and the newspaper for Jase and me, some water and trial mix and a blanket. And the camera, of course.

Avery "fished" a bit. He's more into the process and the different lures and the weights than he is about actually fishing. Which works out great because he never catches (read: never harms or kills) anything :) He's much more content when his hands are doing something, and so usually abandons fishing once he's organized, tested out, then reorganized his gear. He's good at finding stuff to build; this time it was a raft made of sticks, a discarded styrofoam cup and fishing line.


While Avery was building and launching his raft, Jase and I read, and we all observed bugs.

You'll notice that the stick bug and the spider are missing legs. We also saw a grasshopper with a missing leg. I don't know if this is the usual state of bugs at the end of the summer, but hey, it makes sense, right? Spending all summer battling birds, bigger bugs, little toddlers, adolescent boys and footsteps. Come August, it's like the end of a war. Note that the tank looking bug with armor and spikes has all of her appendages. I don't think that's a coincidence, kids. (More pictures here.)

It was a great trip to Nockamixon, as usual. We were a bit sad to be saying goodbye to summer, but the lake gave our spirits a little boost and helped our heads get ready for another school year.

I'll leave you with encouragement to visit the park, with no worries that summer is nearly over. If it's too cool for picnics, there are plenty of great eating places, and check out The Wagon Wheel and The Raven's Nest for incredible music.

It's absolutely gorgeous in the fall, as you can imagine. There's the water release in November that lures river rats from all over. My dad and his buddies run the release every year, and were even featured in a photo essay in Bucks County magazine last year. We spent Thanksgiving in one of the cabins, which was just lovely - who knew family holidays could be so quiet and serene - and include hiking? In the winter you'll find cross country skiers, ice skaters and ice fishers.

And hey, let us know if you go! :)

Nockamixon State Park: http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/Parks/nockamixon.aspx

Roasted Veggie Macaroni

A rain cancelled football practice last week meant that we had some time to actually cook dinner - and together, to boot!

Now... what to cook?

Of course, we had on hand plenty of fresh local vegetables. We also had some time to cook, but only about an hour. And, we wanted to make a dish that we could all create together. This is the lovely local (from Blooming Glen and our own garden) and organic produce we had on hand:

Cafe Cyan's CSA newsletter listed a Roasted Vegetable Pasta dish that I had bookmarked earlier in the week and it seemed like a perfect fit :) Thanks Crystal and Ryan (and your CSA farm)!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

1 (6-oz.) can tomato paste
1/2 cup chopped onion
Salt and pepper
3 cups chopped tomatoes (any variety)
3 or more cloves fresh garlic, chopped
Herbs such as oregano, thyme, parsley and basil, to taste
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Honey or other sweetener as desired

Add tomatoes and garlic. Simmer until sauce reaches desired consistency, about 20 minutes. Sauté onions in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add tomato paste at the end, along with herbs and vinegar. If sauce is too tart, add a spoonful of sweetener. Lightly simmer 10 minutes longer to let flavors meld together.

Roasted Vegetables
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 eggplant, diced
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic,
sliced Fresh herbs such as basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, sage and rosemary
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini 1 jalapeno
Olive oil to coat

Mix vegetables, herbs, garlic, and onion in a bowl and lightly coat mixture with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in a large (or a couple large) roasting pans coated with olive oil. Roast for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until veggies are soft, but not burned. Toss vegetables occasionally as needed. Combine the Fresh Tomato Sauce and Roasted Vegetables and serve over pasta.

Avery and I chooped the veggies we had on hand (carrots, yellow sweet pepper, skinny red sweet pepper, OKRA!, jalepeno) and roasted them while Jason made the sauce. We cooked some whole wheat macaroni and sliced some yellow watermellon from the previous week's Bloomin Glen crop share for dessert :)





























Garnished with our own garden rosemary. Yummm, yummm!

Saturday night in D-Town

Support your local eateries, musicians and clubs!

We celebrated Jason's momma's birthday tonight. Sharon is many things, but food adventurer is not one of those. Jase asked around and found a real American restaurant right in Doylestown, aptly named, The American Kitchen; as well as a great after dinner music spot, Puck.

At the American Kitchen, Jason had the Four Cheese Pasta with Shrimp, his brother Dean had the Meatloaf, Sharon had the Salmon and I had the Goat Cheese with Spinach Salad and Beets appetizer for dinner. Yummm.

A couple blocks walk after dinner, and we were at Puck on Printers Alley. For a $7 cover charge, we were jamming to the sounds of Steve Brosky + The Big Little Band. Puck is in a basement level space, and oozes a Chicago blues funk, f the man vibe. The neon red vertical- reading Puck sign on the side of the building is the perfect avante garde backdrop to the club's outdoor seating and eating area. The patio is defined by, and centered around, a huge, phenomenally beautiful mermaid garden fountain.

Past the outside area, your drawn downstairs by a set of cement, red velvet roped stairs and into the bar. There, your sure to be met my an outgoing, friendly and hip staff. And more red velvet ropes :) Once through the lobby, the popping red and black color scheme and basement factory tone becomes lush and welcoming.


We had a couple drinks at the bar, then moved to a small table toward the stage. Once the band started, a space cleared for a dance area, drinks flowed and the bodies jammed. The band was playing the crowd quite nicely and even acquiesced to Jason's hollering of "DOMINO" after they mentioned Neil Young. Of course, they made him (and his girlfriend and mom) get out onto the dance floor once they started playing his request :)

One thing about partying in Doylestown? There's no cab service. Make sure you have your designated driver process in place. We didn't. I tried calling for a cab from the closest taxi company, in Horsham (with the help of an incredibly gracious, sweet, funny and knowledgeable Puck team member), but they wouldn't pick us up. Boo. We ended up walking to Sharon's house and going back to pick up the car later.

Still, we had an awesome time. We'll absolutely be back to The American Kitchen, Puck and to see Steve Brosky + the Little Band again :)

And after dinner?

Another quickie football practice night dinner :)

This is Jason's plate: clockwise from left that's a Blooming Glen baked potato with a pat of Earth Balance, juicy slices of beautiful Blooming Glen heirloom tomato, steamed broccoli from the Delaware Valley Farmers Market and a Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger with horseradish cheese imported from a local cheese shop in Western PA via my momma's visit with her boyfriend to see his family. My plate looked the same and monster's had no tomato and extra broccoli.

And after dinner? After work and camp and rushing to practice and running home to make dinner and quick tucking Avery in and taking my dad to pick up his car and finally getting home at 10 o'clock? After all that? We relaxed by scrubbing the floors and giving Cinder an unscheduled bath. Or four.

JAM*stir fry

I think I'll rename this blog to JAM*stir fry. Seems like that's all we've been eating these days. It's never the same stir fry, not even close. In fact I don't know that I've ever made the same stir fry twice, but still... I'm kind of getting bored with cooking the same type of dish.

Besides being quick, healthy and appealing to all three of us, stir fries have been the perfect way to use up veggies before we pick up our crop share each week.

Although I'm dying to get in the kitchen to preserve some more produce for the winter, our share each week (which we split with my sister) combined with the harvest from our little garden really doesn't justify preservation. Unless of course, I wanted to preserve one jar at a time. Seems like the embodied energy of one jar of tomatoes or string beans just wouldn't reconcile, you know?

So, stir fries usually win. And seriously. What else could I have possibly made with a package of seitan and this?:
This is what we had in the fridge and on the counter. A handul of this, one of that, two of these. It's not enough to do a whole meal with just a couple ingredients - we need to use up a few of these. Stir fries are good like that :)

Last night's stir fry included some of the above, with the Blooming Glen long red sweet peppers and our own garden green string beans co-starring. Like I said, I've been getting bored with stir fries, and in order to compensate for that, I've been doing little things like cutting up the veggies in unsuspecting ways.

While I lightly fried some purple onion and the above green onion in a couple drops of olive oil, I cut the peppers and string beans into disc shapes. Once the onions were tender, I added torn up seitan strips and fried for seven or eight minutes, until the seitan was just starting to crisp on the edges.

I removed the seitan from the pan, added the pepper, beans, broccoli and some water, covered the pan and steamed everything for five or six minutes. Meanwhile, I pricked the potatoes with a fork, microwaved them for a few minutes (until tender, but not baked, so they could hold up in the pan) and diced them. I diced tomatoes as well, then added them with the potatoes, a bit more water, fresh chopped basil, some nutritional yeast and the cooked onions and seitan to the pan, covered and let simmer for a couple minutes.










Now, usually Jason eats the veg*n meals I cook exactly as they are. However, there is the rare occasion that he wants to make additions or adjustments. Such was the case for this meal. He wanted scallops. How does an omnivore and a veggiesauraus both get what they want? Like this:Separate, but together. See how we did that? :)

Jase seared his scallops in some earth balance, green onions and hot banana peppers from our garden. Once they were done, I scooped some of the veggie and seitan mix into his pan and he mixed it all together.

Tolerance, people. It's always a good lesson :)

Brocolli Rock

Since Avery Cain announced his new vegetarian status (so excited!), we've been celebrating by preparing his favorite veggie, broccoli. Yumm!

On Monday, we had some baked barbecue-style tofu, quinoa, and a barbecue stirfry:


(I cooked the quinoa in butternut squash soup and added caribbean seasonings. For the stirfry, I fried some onions, then added broccoli and what I had in the fridge: mini yellow squash and zucchini, diced eggplant, and spinach. I put a bit of water and caribbean seasoning in the pan, covered it and steamed everything for about seven or eight minutes. To finish it all off, I added chickpeas, stirred in a bit of barbecue sauce and cooked for a couple more minutes.)

Tuesday was steamed string beans and broccoli with broccoli fillo pie, and yellow watermelon:

This meal got rave reviews from the new vegetarian. The broccoli and beans were picked right before dinner from our garden and were positively heavenly. The watermelon (from the CSA last week) was super-flavorful and deee-lish, as well. This meal was also a shining example of how well Jason, Avery and I can work together:

After work and camp, Avery and I went home, he changed into his gear for football practice and I filled his water bottle, grabbed him a snack, got myself a blanket and a magazine, and we headed up to the field. When Jase got home a little while later, he picked the broccoli and beans, put them in the pot for steaming, cut up and refrigerated the melon, started the fillo pie in the oven, and headed out to play volleyball with a friend. Avery and I got home around 8:30pm, and he hopped in the shower while I started the veggies and set the table. After we ate, Avery got ready for bed and I went upstairs to tuck him in. Jase came home shortly after and we were all able to hang out in bed and talk for a bit before Avery went to sleep.

Whew. I can't imagine if I had another child to take to a different lesson or practice. How do you mommas with multiple children do it? Super powers?

So yeah, we've been busy the last couple weeks weeks, leaving me very little time to cook (hence the quick, "convenient" foods like fillo pie). Kind of a bummer, but hopefully things will settle down once school starts (and football practice goes from four nights a week to two).

Sowing the Seeds of Love

After much anticipation and hope, Jason's seed update!

This is my first year collecting seeds, hoping to germinate them for the coming season. I've labeled them so I won't have to guess what they are next season. Clever, right?

First, I started to hear my favorite songs in elevators, now I'm collecting seeds. I think I'm officially old.

So far, it's been easy to gather seeds (from various peppers, string beans and tomatoes), but I'm having difficulty discovering how to collect broccoli seeds. Any broccoli heads out there with advice? Also, any drying out and/or storage tips would be greatly appreciated.

A/C + TV = Happy M

I'm off to a conference in North Carolina for a few days. I say "conference" lightly, as I can't be sure that I'll actually leave the space from in front of the television in the air conditioned hotel room to go to any workshops. We'll see.

Cross your fingers and hope that Jason will post some notes about his recent seed collecting :)

Blooming Glen Farm, by AC

At Blooming Glen this week, Avery took photographs. Tonight, we went through the pictures, and as we uploaded them to the blog, he dictated the captions. There's a lot of photos - Avery likes the camera, and took his first close-up shots :) As always, click the photos to make them larger.

This week, I was in charge of the Blooming Glen pictures for our blog. If you look down more [previous post], you will see vegetables and flowers. These vegetables and flowers are from Blooming Glen farm.

This diorama is of the house and the farm at Blooming Glen. I didn't see the name of the person who did it. Do you know who made it?










This is my mom picking tomatoes. These are tomatoes, we picked these ourselves. Tom the farmer told about the tomatoes, and showed us Black Pearl tomatoes.










This is Tom eating a cherry tomato.


The first tractor picture is a John Deere. You can tell because it's green and yellow. The yellow and red tractor was from 1952. Isn't that old? In the close up pictures, you see one that has six wired wheels that are yellow, they are for weeding the farm.



















This is my dog Cinder, she is the prettiest dog in the world. Her favorite sport is baseball, her favorite color is black, she is eight years old and her favorite person is me. The other picture is the pond near the CSA. I guess it has fish, frogs, ducks and other pond animals. Dragonflies probably live there because I think they put their eggs in water.











This is the sign for the Blooming Glen Farm. This is the aisle of tomatoes. I saved this picture for last because it's my favorite!











Love,
Avery