Farm Share adventures

Earlier in the summer, Zach and I decided to sign up with our local CSA for a summer farm share. We thought it would be great to have fresh produce every week, and I knew that I should branch out from my normal routine (aka, canned green beans as my go-to veggie for every meal). So far, so good with what we've gotten, and I thought I'd share some discoveries:

 

1) Beets are actually delicious. I was only familiar with canned beets prior to this summer, and always hated how the juice would leak into my other food or even the taste. Roasting beets makes them pretty mild, and when you put them in foil packets, clean up is easy (I've roasted them on the grill and in the oven, both methods work great). You can also apparently do things with the beet greens, which I haven't tried, but am considering using this recipe (care of Martha):

recipe here

2) Any veggie in chip or fry form is delicious. Beet chips? Good. Kale chips? Good. Zucchini fries? Really good. Now go make these zucchini fries right now.

3) Baba ganoush is trickier than I thought it would be. First off, what the heck is tahini anyway? I had an eggplant, and thought a little dip would be good. I didn't have all the ingredients for baba ganoush, so I went with a roasted eggplant dip. It was a little meh. Since I love dip I ate it all, but I don't think I'd make it again, or if I did, I would add cheese. Cheese makes everything tastier.

Summer is over, and now I cry

I started back to work in the middle of last week, and today is my first Monday. Mondays are the worst, am I right? I'm lucky enough to be working half-time, so I only have to leave Teddy for 4 hours a day, but I still have mixed feelings. Would you want to leave this guy?

Aloooooooooooooooha!



Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my job and I love the people I work with. It's just that Ted was pretty fun to work with, too. I had this brilliant idea of laying out a weekly chore chart of the house things I need to get done so I spread out the joy of cleaning and laundry throughout the week. Monday's chores remain untouched as of this writing. We were too busy reading books and playing with toys this morning to bother with lame chores.

The silver lining to terrible Monday is that today is the first day of classes, and the energy on campus in CRAZY. Students have been in and out of the ASUW office all afternoon, and everyone is genuinely excited to be back. Next Monday could be a different story.

In other news, I'm between reads and trying to decide whether I should tackle the TBR pile in my house, or ransack the shelves when I go to the library tomorrow. I have a hard time resisting the siren song of the library. Does anyone have book recommendations for me? Preferably something easy and entertaining, because my reading takes place in the evenings when my brain is mush.

Recuperating

Tedster had his 2 month old immunizations today, and we're regrouping. The silver lining of the doctor visit is he discovered how fun and noisy the paper on the exam table is. I may need to look into buying a roll to make tummy time more fun.

My Car is Officially too Small

Zach and I are weird about cars. He loves going to look at new cars and take test drives, and I'm easily convinced that we need to trade in whatever we're driving for something different. Currently, my car is a Ford Fiesta, which I love. When we found out that Ted would be joining our zoo, we debated whether we would need a new car. I held firm on waiting to see what we would need after Ted got here, and for a few weeks, it seemed like maybe little Machete (the Fiesta) would actually work. Turns out that it works great when it's just Ted and me, is sufficient for the three of us when Zach drives (the passenger seat can't go back very far because of the car seat), and won't work at all if we need to fit in another passenger or more cargo than the diaper bag. My family has been giving me a hard time about our small car, which makes me want to dig in my heels even more and make Machete work for our family. Alas, it seems like it might be time to say goodbye. Family, if you're reading this, you were right. Jerks.

Life Lately, part 1

I've been MIA lately, for good reason, my little guy, Ted:

He's 8 weeks old, and super cute. Without further ado, here's what else is new at Casa Guier:

1) My dishwasher is broken and has been for over a week and a half. This is a total first world problem, but I'll still be psyched to see the diva appliance repair guy who books appointments 10 days out.

2) I've read a bit through my maternity leave, but not as much as I had hoped. Most recently, I finished "Ready Player One."

I liked it, but since it was about video games, I probably only really understood 80% of the gaming jargon. This was a book club selection from a few months ago that I didn't quite get to, and was also named in one of those "best of" lists recently. If you're a child of the '80s, this would be a good read for you.

To be continued...