Hello everyone!
The warm weather is hanging on and allowing for perfect outdoor temperatures, beautiful foliage and a lush fall season of fruits and veggies. Please join us for a quick walk through our kitchens for the “honorable mentions” of the week.
First, we’ll take a peek at Jess’ week, which seems to have inadvertently highlighted a lot of kale:
My three year-old and I went to pick up our CSA at Springdell after his Karate class earlier this week, and we were fortunate to run into folks from the Farm Bureau who were visiting the farm. We had a chance to share about this blog and why we feel it’s important to be a part of the local food movement, as well as why we love what Farmer Jamie is doing over at Springdell. Nothing I could tell them quite brought it home like their witnessing my little guy actively and willingly munching on a piece of raw kale as we all spoke.
Speaking of kale, don’t forget that the stems are great frozen for smoothies, or even in Kale Stem Pesto!
After enjoying some stuffed peppers this week, we had a little bit of stuffing left over which I mixed in with some kale, egg, breadcrumbs and a tiny bit more onion. With Halloween in the air, green meatballs can be a convincing meal for the little guys!
I stopped by to feed some of this week’s veggie scraps to the chickens at the coop of my friend Farmer Elizabeth (of Fat Moon fame). She invited us in for an impromptu lunch and we chatted about local food while the kids played.
These sumptuous apples and interesting spikey cucumbers (I apologize that the varietal escapes me) were on the lunch menu at Elizabeth’s house. The main course was some veggie mac and cheese that had my kids going back for seconds and thirds!
The beginnings of a quick apple crisp for our dessert. It’s wonderful how quick and easy these are to throw together. So delicious!
Elizabeth makes me want to invest in a food dehydrator with these scrumptious apple ring chips. The ones I make in the oven on low temperature are wonderful, but just don’t seem to compare texture-wise. I think I’ll put a dehydrator on my wish list.
Back at the Anderson Household, I finished a Kale Apple Cake with Apple Icing from Kate at VeggieDesserts, which was quite intriguing in flavor and texture. If you try this recipe, be sure to measure the packed kale before you steam it. I feel like not doing so altered the consistency a bit, but the taste was good. This one is definitely a do-over.
Heres what’s been coking in Sarah’s kitchen this week:
My smoothie of the week was a bit of an experiment. I decided to add squash to the mix! It worked out pretty well I would say. 1/4 delicata squash, strawberries, a frozen banana, a scoop of protein powder, and a splash of honey.
Not a pretty picture but a pretty good meal. This was butternut squash pizza and sliced beets with balsamic glaze.
I saw in a magazine about cutting your eggplant like you would a mango, so I gave it a try. I seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic. Roasted them in a hot oven and drizzled it with balsamic when they came out. It was really nice how the flavor really sinks into the cuts while roasting.
This just finished up in my crock pot tonight. It is a slow cooker chai spiced apple butter. Ummm, what can I say, YUM! I think I will use this in a quick recipe and sneak it into my post on Friday. Something to look forward to!
Thank you for reading, and we look forward to seeing you back here tomorrow for the “tell” (and a quick and easy pressure cooker recipe that you’ll love!)