Just a quick share of my husband’s pickled eggs and beets. He grew up with this Pennsylvania Dutch traditional snack. It is usually made with red beets, but since we had both golden beets and red in the garden, the last round he made a jar of both. I love how the colors turned out. We will share his recipe for pickled beets and eggs soon!
We had so much fun picking strawberries at Suzie’s Farm this spring. So when the opportunity came up for more kid-friendly activities and lunch at the farm, I cleared out my schedule. The little Birds and I joined a small group of bloggers and were treated to a tour and hanging out with Melissa, the director of education at Suzie’s Farm. “Doctor Carrot,” as she is known there, told us all about their summer camps.
Ever wonder who the “Suzie” in Suzie’s Farm is? A sweet doggie! Melissa and Abby of Suzie’s Farm told us all about the dog that adopted the founding farmers as they led Little Bird and her new friends in acting like dogs and other animals on the farm. We sang a song about plants, took a tour of the garden and picked leaves for an art project.
As the tour was ending, the unmistakable fragrance of strawberries filled the air. Abby told us we could each pick three, and only three, strawberries to eat on the spot. Little Bird and I had no problem finding sweet, beautiful red strawberries. In fact, we kept finding them. I figured she must have meant three strawberries each per person, not per child, right? Soon we fell behind the tour, unable to stop! I felt a bit like Charlie and his grandpa in the Chocolate Factory as we stole a few more sun-warmed strawberries.
After the tour we were treated to lunch by the young and talented chefs of Salt & Cleaver. For a sausage restaurant (“sausage” is in their url), they prepared a surprisingly plant based and delicious meal. Highlights for me included Padron peppers with a beet and goat cheese sauce, finished with orange zest; a zucchini based “mac and cheese’ (no noodles but plenty of cheese); and a watermelon and feta salad with house made pickles. The restaurant is in Hillcrest and looks like a fun night out. Next mamas’ night out??
Full disclosure, Little Bird and I were treated (and treated well) to lunch, three strawberries and the tour. (Baby Bird stuck to milk.) Regardless of the delicious bribery, I fully recommend exploring past the CSA. You can experience Suzie’s Farms in one of the following ways:
Click on any of the images below to see more of our day.
Posted in Crafts for Kids, Green Parenting, Parenting
Tagged farm life, suzie's farm, urban agriculture, urban farming
Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls, or gỏi cuốn, are also called salad rolls or summer rolls. They are light and refreshing, and much healthier than fried spring rolls. Over ten years ago my friend, Quentin, invited me over to dinner at his mother’s house. She is originally from Vietnam* and put out a spread of delicious ingredients for us to roll our own fresh spring rolls. I’ve never forgotten it. (*Similar to how I’ve learned a lot of Mexican sweets living in San Diego, we also benefit from a large Vietnamese population here.)
I think “Salad Rolls” is a better description for fresh spring rolls, as they are light and fresh with lot’s of greens, herbs and lean proteins. Many restaurants also put in rice vermicelli noodles. I took it one step healthier and used raw zucchini “noodles” made from cutting an enormous garden zucchini with a julienne peeler. Handy gadget. The wrappers are made from rice. The rice paper comes in hard discs that are softened in a few seconds in warm water.
You can’t get more straightforward instructions than the back of the packaging!
That’s it! Warm in a sauce pan over low heat to mix easier. You can add a little water to thin, if needed.
True story: When I first made these rolls at home, I went to a Vietnamese market in search of peanut dipping sauce. I asked the young man stocking where it was. He didn’t think they had it and asked his grandmother. She laughed and (with her grandson translating) explained they always made it. She swore all you needed was these two ingredients. I usually can’t restrain myself from throwing in a little sriracha and nước mắm, but try it as is!
The best prices are in Asian markets. These ingredients are pretty common, so you can usually find them on the “ethnic” aisle of big grocery stores. If you can’t find them easily, I’ve included some affiliate links to Amazon. Have fun and let me know if you have any questions!
I was craving an alternative to the corn bread or corn muffins I usually make with chili. I love the creamy corn pudding at Indigo Grill (a popular San Diego restaurant) and searched for a similar recipe. Unfortunately, all the recipes I found were the same one, using processed, packaged and canned foods. If you follow my recipes, then you may have noticed we prefer to eat whole, real foods that have not been processed. I even found the Indigo Grill recipe published and, strangely, it claimed to be the same processed mix. One intrepid blogger made it from scratch, but first she recreated the cornbread mix, the creamed corn concoction, etc. and then followed the same recipe. There had to be a simpler way! So, I whipped up my own version with corn meal, flour, eggs, milk, butter and yogurt. It was very moist and delicious, but slightly more “cake” then “pudding.” Maybe somewhere in between. It was a keeper!
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Use the end of the stick of butter to grease a round soufflé pan or baking dish.
In a small sauce pan, melt the rest of the butter. Take off heat and allow to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, add to the milk, yogurt, eggs and a liquid sweetener, such as honey, if using.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Include sugar if you are using it, but not honey or a wet sweetener.
Combine the dry and wet ingredients until just mixed. Add the corn kernels and any additional ingredients. Have fun and make it your own recipe!
Bake in greased dish for about an hour, just until the middle is set and not liquid.
Serve warm as an appetizer or along chili. (I promise to share my chili recipe, soon.)
Posted in Food, Restaurant Recreations
Tagged easy entertaining, meals for the whole family, vegetarian
Hopefully you saw my recent post on The Best Meals to Freeze Before Baby Arrives. I had so many ideas that I wrote up a follow-up post for the Ergobaby Blog. Please hop over there to read up on my favorite way to nest: with food! My article on Stocking Up On Food Before Birth is now live.
Click on the image above to read about:
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