Found you another

So, at last, let's talk veggies. So far this season, we've gotten the following items, various quantities of all on various weeks: bok choy, tat soi, collard greens, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, red mustard greens, arugula, green leaf lettuce, carrots, turnips, cucumbers, mixed lettuces, green beans, cucumbers, popping corn, broccoli rabe, sweet potatoes, eggplant, butternut squash, yellow crookneck squash, acorn squash, two different varieties of radish, and green onions. Fabulous variety!

But what to do with all these lettuces? We've had many salads, even accidentally eating red mustard greens in a salad because I thought they were red leaf lettuce (they are a bit bitter raw, by the way). I am not a fan of arugula, but I love the rest, so I've been on a lettuce binge each week. The husband has eaten the radishes raw, and we made a combination of grated carrots and turnips cooked in a little butter that was great while his parents were here. I've used the green peppers and cucumbers in all sorts of dishes, and I've got lots of ideas about the squash, but they are so pretty and they keep so well so long, I'm still enjoying looking at them! The husband is also planning on making more jalapeno poppers this weekend, because they were so great last time.

Last night I conquered collard greens. I began as I always do, looking around the web for recipe ideas. Imagine my chagrin to learn that virtually every recipe out there for collard greens involves either a ham hock or bacon fat. I had neither of these on hand and that's only half of it (grease, glorious grease, best from the pig)! Undaunted, I moved on. I could have looked at recipes for other, fancier, less Southern greens and then just substituted the collards, but for my first outing with this particular vegetable, I wanted to stick with a recipe that had been designed with this specific green in mind and avoid potentially distasteful experimenting. In the end, of course, I changed the recipe I did finally find, but did you expect anything less? The results, Collard Greens and Tomatoes, were yummy! And there were only three ingredients! Huzzah!

1 bunch collard greens, rinsed well, tough stems and ribs trimmed, chopped
Italian blend seasoning (or basil, oregano, etc) to taste
1 can diced tomatoes (I chose a can with balsamic vinegar, basil, and olive oil, just because it sounded good)

Saute greens in cooking spray until slightly wilted. Add seasoning. Stir in tomatoes and continue cooking until greens are thoroughly wilted and combined. Adjust seasonings to taste. Voila!

Just you wait

Keeping it real on the home front, today we did all kinds of scintillating activities: we talked to Grandeur; we went to Walmart (picture frame, night light, noise machine, freezer jam pectin, memory card, etc.); we played toys; we sat outside reading the mail; we picked up our CSA veggies (more on those later); we thought about cleaning in preparation for guests; we waited for Daddy. You'd think there would be nothing more to say about these mundane incidents, but you would be oh so WRONG! Let's take them one by one, shall we?

Talking to Grandeur and Grandma Beth are two of Baby J's favorite activities. As soon as he hears the dialing noise on Skype, his face lights up and he starts trundling over from wherever he is in the room to clamber up my lap. His enthusiasm wanes throughout extended conversations, but anytime one of them starts singing or call him by name, he's back to lapping it up. Can you be spoiled virtually??

Walmart is the mother of all evils, yes yes yes, I know. My politics say no, but my pocketbook says yes. And I know that's hypocritical and contributory negligence and all that but, well, I live on a very small island and to get anywhere, really, takes ooodles of gas, a big expense even with falling prices, while Walmart is literally within walking distance of my house. In a sense, it IS my neighborhood store. I know, a sad state of affairs, but true!

Playing toys with J actually involves you being near him while he plays. If you build a block tower, for instance, he will instantly knock it down, or if you roll a car, he will go get it to roll himself. He wants an audience more than anything, so it's really not a lot of commitment on your part at times!

It got very cold here last night and today (in the 50s...brrrrrr!), but the sun was out and our driveway was nice and toasty so we sat out for a while after we got the mail. J wasn't sure what to make of all the dead leaves and living grass but he helpfully resisted putting it all in his mouth for a good five minutes, a record!

Once again, I am very far behind in talking about our weekly veggie tales, but let me just say that today we got eggplants, among other things, and I was pleasantly surprised because I had been planning on pizza for dinner and grilled eggplants are great on pizzas, as we discovered during the summer. Look how far I've come!

Our poor guest will be lucky if they get clean sheets, at this point. Sorry guys!

And all we do all day long, really, is wait for the husband to come home. J has become a daddy's boy and can think of nothing more fun than being held by the husband and getting to play with his work ID, which is conveniently attached to his collar by a stretchy cord that holds endless fascination for Baby J. Tonight they're on their own, as I have a church meeting, and they won't miss me a bit. Huzzah!

Love, love me do

Once upon a time, I had more conversation topics than a small boy's sleep habits. No longer!

No, I am studiously going to avoid talking about J's sleep or lack thereof today. I have a life outside of infant slumber, I swear! Umm, well...there's my class! Yeah, my class. We are a week into our four week stint, and their first paper is due on Monday. I read their first paragraphs during "peer" editing (in principle, I support this concept wholeheartedly, but in practice it only works well about a quarter of the time. The rest of the time, they read their work out loud, they sit there and stare off into space, and the whole thing takes about 20 minutes for three essays. No good) and those first paragraphs were, on the whole, a little alarming. I've got some good writers and some...not so good. My personal favorite was the earnest young woman (an English major, even, though Lord knows why she's in this class at this late stage in her major) who wrote her paper on Emily Dickinson and decided to capitalize words randomly throughout her essay "to mimic the effect of the poem." However, as I pointed out, she is writing an analytical essay, not a poem, and she's not Dickinson, of course, so the only "effect" she needs is clarity of argument. She was not impressed. But then, neither was I! I was also amused by the sad econ major who kept wanting to know how many "points" certain errors were worth. Oh, sad little boy, welcome to the world of holistic and subjective grading. I don't trouble myself with things like points! Hahahahaha!

Beyond that, the husband is in the kitchen right now making jalapeno poppers. He's got several recipes he's trying out, and I'm letting him run wild because poppers are a combination of hot and cheese so not really my thing. (He just told me that capsesin-sp?-apparently gets under your rings, too, so under his wedding band is a little ring of fire right now! He's so clever, that husband of mine!) I'd tell you where the baby is but then I'd break my vow not to talk about baby sleep. And I'm watching Big Brother 10 in the background, wherein they have just revealed that one of the contestants is "a star on the gay rodeo circuit." Who knew there was such a thing?? I thought Erasure was wearing chaps ironically! There's also a Hooter's girl, of course, and a woman who is in a mixed race marriage and has 5 month old twins, one of whom is white and one of whom is black. That's supposed to be shocking, but I'm more shocked that she left her 5 month olds! Couldn't do it. A final one is a mixologist, "not a bartender" he says emphatically, and CBS keeps putting "mixologist" in quotation marks, a not so subtle jab at his "profession." This show really is horrid, but it's summer, people, and the original programming is slim. After Last Comic Standing refused to let the absolutely hilarious Israeli prop comic in, I've had to move on to some other mindless TV to fill the void!

In other news, I've finally gotten over my lingering sickness. After I left, more siblings fell victim to the nasty flu, but the rest of the babies who hadn't already gotten sick stayed well, thank goodness. The family that lives together gets sick together, sadly! And that's all I got for now. Must go, you know, wash some bottles or something.

Singing all the day

I've fallen shockingly behind on our veggie tales and I should update everyone since this week is our last CSA delivery for the summer (boohoo!). We got the usual suspects this time, including white eggplants, bell pepper, jalapenos, corn, yellow squash, and tomatoes. New to the offerings were basil (yay!) and a huge cantaloupe (boo!), our first fruit. Sadly, I am not a melon fan so the husband has had to eat the ginormous thing all by himself. But so far, we've used the basil (which came roots and all, strangely) and tomatoes to make basil, tomato, and fresh mozzarella pizza (mine minus the cheese, of course).

And while I was gone, the husband made a summer salsa out of onion, yellow tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno, corn, and white beans. It was really quite tasty and looked lovely and fresh (there was still some left for me to try when I got home). And the rest of our vegetables helped our friend entertain the masses at a 4th of July party, so they went to good use.

I will miss getting these veggies and coming up with creative and healthy uses for my fresh fare. The next CSA offerings begin in October (pumpkin, anyone?) so we will be in withdrawal for a while, sadly. But I still have to use up this week's order, so more recipes will follow.

Yummy!