CSA pick up is Wednesday mornings and I get so excited. It is so fun to see what the box contains each week. I try to snap a photo of it all before I put it away.

I’ve not been updating the CSA thing regularly. Mostly because I don’t have anything interesting to say. I’ve made some yummy things and a few more average things. I roast a lot of veggies because I’ve found just about everything tastes decent when tossed with a little olive oil and roasted for 20-25 minutes at 425*. I’ve been eating a lot of vegetables that I’ve never been a huge fan of but if roasted or cooked in ways that involve cheese, I’ll eat it. For those who are thinking about doing one and like seeing what might be in their box every week, this might be interesting. For everyone else? Snooze fest.  I’ve been documenting for my own information as well as for some people who talked about being curious if they would like doing it themselves.

A large purple cabbage, sugar snap peas, beets, green onions, patty pan squash, blackberries, 1/2 dozen eggs, 2 packages of bratwurst, and pork chops.

I didn’t use the whole cabbage – I made a slaw type thing with 1/2 of it but it is harder to eat raw than some other cabbage (harder to shred and chew). I don’t tend to like cooked cabbage so I wasn’t sure what to do with it. The blackberries didn’t make it through the day. The brats are yummy. The chops were good but a little fatty. Roasted the beets (for Steve – blech) and the squash (which I always thought were just decorative gourds for Thanksgiving – oops). The snap peas I threw in something along the way.

Cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob, eggplant, patty pan squash, onion, eggs, dragon tongue beans, white cucumber, 2 packs of chicken breast, and italian sausage.

The dragon tongue beans were so pretty before they were cooked – whitish with purple streaks. The streaks fade when cooked and they taste a lot like green beans. We LOVE the italian sausage – so good. The chicken was good – we grilled it. The corn was fine (let’s not discuss the huge worm that I cooked in one – the world of no pesticides – eeekkk) but just isn’t as sweet as the corn up north. Sadly through a calamity of errors (aka life), the eggplant didn’t get eaten. Steve brought home a huge zucchini from someone at work and I did with it what I intended to do with the eggplant. I sliced it, breaded it with mix of 1/2 breadcrumbs and 1/2 parmesan cheese, then baked it. (Then our a/c went out in the middle of the heat wave and I didn’t cook for 4 days because it was too stinking hot so the eggplant got too soft.)

 Dragon tongue beans

2 packs of chicken quarters (with the legs attached), green beans, napa cabbage, tomato, that yellow thing is a little melon, rutabaga, red potatoes, eggs.

The chicken is in the freezer. I ate the napa cabbage as a salad with some oil and vinegar (really a fan). The tomato went into some sauce. The melon was okay but nothing to rave about. The beans and potatoes were side dishes on different nights.

Cherry tomatoes, green beans, tomatoes, dill, ground beef, onion, chuck roast, patty pan squash, red potatoes, white cucumbers, and eggs.

The roast was yummy in the crock pot. The usual treatment for everything else. The ground beef – 1 pound is in the freezer, the other went into spaghetti sauce as did the 2 big tomatoes.

We don’t eat raw tomatoes much so I was at a loss as to what to do with all of the cherry tomatoes. Then I decided to make a simple spaghetti sauce. I halved them, put in a whole bulb of garlic with the top cut off, tossed with some olive oil and some salt then put them, covered, in the oven at 400*.  Cook for 40 minutes. Remove the bulb of garlic and allow to get cool enough that you can squeeze the cloves out and into the tomatoes. Throw in some basil, red wine, a little bit of brown sugar, a dash of cayenne, some salt and pepper. Use your immersion blender (or you could throw it into food processor/blender) to smooth it into a sauce and let simmer for 10 or 15 minutes more. Steve and I decided it would be perfect with a little pancetta thrown in but it made a really nice sauce.  I didn’t take an after photo. Oops. This is before it went into the oven.

That is all of my CSA news. I forgot to take a photo of today’s box. It was more of the same with some grapes as the surprise. I will say it takes more time in the kitchen to cook with so many fresh ingredients (a lot of washing and chopping and roasting and stirring) but I’m enjoying it for the most part.

See that pony? It might have been the secret to our success. Or not.

Sabrina potty trained herself at age 2. We tried once and failed. Then we tried again a couple of months later and she has had less than a handful of accidents since that day. (Not counting night time – that is a whole other ball of wax.)  Tessa? Heh. She hasn’t been easy in any way, shape, or form. Potty training is not the exception.

Tessa will be 4 this month. We have tried countless times to start the potty training process. And each time I have cried “UNCLE!” She has had zero interest. We tried just about everything. We set the timers. We rewarded with M&Ms. We put her in panties. We let her sit in wet diapers/pullups/panties. We let her go naked. We rewarded her sister for going hoping it would egg her on. Nothing. She would go in the potty once or twice and then nothing. One time, after sitting her on the potty for 5 minutes, she promptly came out and squatted and peed on my fireplace hearth.  Finally, in a fit of irritation one day, I threatened if she didn’t start going potty I was going to make her go poop in the yard with the dog. She got fairly upset about that and started going potty. Huh. Then after some success and then a stomach flu that derailed us, we were back to nothing. So I made her go outside without pants (we have a 6 ft fence – and I had to follow through with my threat) and she proceeded to poop in the yard. She was quite proud of herself. Backfired. I told Steve I was done. I hate potty training. 2 years of trying to get this kid to go potty had broken me. I didn’t care anymore – she could go to college in Depends for all I cared.

Steve then told Tessa that we didn’t care anymore. She could go potty or not. She could wear diapers or pull ups or panties – whatever she wanted. She could go in the potty or her pull up – completely her choice. She had to change herself (she is able to do that) but we would help wipe if there was a mess. Otherwise, she was on her. And you want to know what happened the next morning? The little shit put on panties and started going potty. At the same time, I also offered the bribe of a new My Little Pony each day that she spent completely dry. I put them up high where she could see them. So it was either the choice or the ponies. Or both.  She earned 5 ponies in 6 days.  We are not accident free by any means but she is doing great. It has been 3 weeks and most days than not she is completely successful. Tessa does everything in her own time on her own terms. We are in so much trouble.

Last summer was horrible, awful, terrible. Steve was gone. I was unknowingly depressed from a medication I was on. I was constantly cleaning my house for showings and unable to make any plans. It was 1000 degrees every single day so impossible to do anything outdoors. It was a perfect storm for a horrible summer.  I am determined to make this summer better. We’ve been on summer vacation for 3 full weeks as of tomorrow. I can’t say it has been a huge success yet. Some life issues have interfered with the plan I made to schedule our days. (Imagine that. Life laughing at me making plans.) I’m still trying to get us into a summer stride/routine but it has been a pretty good start to the summer. We’ve gone to the library. We’ve had lunch with daddy during his work day. We’ve gone swimming a couple of times. We’ve gone to the summer movie series at the local theater ($2 for movie, small drink, small popcorn, and fruit snacks – can’t beat it). I really miss having a few hours, a couple of days a week to myself and am starting to get a little cranky with all of the feeding and cooking. Summer means no break for mommy other than nap/quiet time. (I make Sabrina take a quiet time in her roomwhile Tessa naps. It is best for all involved.) But I haven’t started counting the days or weeks until school starts again so I think that counts as so far, so food. I also haven’t gotten my camera out much so you’ll have to settle for a few instagrams mixed in.

 Bad attempt at self portrait with both girls. But I love Tessa’s cheeseball smile.

I haven’t been updating about my CSA as often as I should. It got a little monotonous this winter with the greens…not sure that we will do it again for the winter season but really glad we tried it because it pushed us to eat new things. Spring/summer season began 3 weeks ago. It is now a weekly delivery and I’m loving the variety. We get a 1/4 bushel (large shoebox they say) of veggies plus 1/2 dozen eggs and 2 meat shares each week. We received strawberries a couple of times which excited Sabrina and I…otherwise mostly veggies. Here was last week’s share:

There was lettuce, broccoli, purple cauliflower (gorgeous color), a choy of some sort, beets, spring onions, a kohlrabi, 1/2 dozen eggs, 2 packages of italian sausage, and a chicken. No recipes to share from this. I roasted the chicken one night and also a bunch of the veggies. A friend mentioned she roasted the kohlrabi so I thought I would try that. I roasted it with the broccoli and the beets with a little olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. It was good that way. (I hate beets. That hasn’t changed since childhood. But Steve loves them.)  I find myself just throwing veggies into things randomly now so that other things got used here and there.

This week’s share:

A chicken, ground pork sausage, 2 kohlrabi, orange cauliflower, onions, napa cabbage, beets, sugar snap peas, a zucchini, and eggs.

Tonight, I made a weird sandwich thing that was very yummy. I made my own flatbread (recipe here) which was surprisingly easy to do. Who knew you could make bread in a skillet? Then I made a loose meat concoction – ground beef from the CSA, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, some random spices. I sliced up the napa cabbage then tossed it with a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. The meat went on the flat bread and a bunch of the cabbage on top of that. It tasted surprisingly good. Steve has requested that it enter the dinner rotation somewhat regularly.

Can’t wait to see what next week brings!

Phew. Sorry about that disappearance. About 8 hours after I declared myself the last (wo)man standing in our house, the dreaded stomach bug hit me and slapped me down HARD. We won’t go into details. Let’s just say I was out of commission for 5 days. I haven’t been that sick any time that I remember. Moving on.

I don’t do reviews very often anymore. There are a variety of reasons for that – none of which are important to anyone except me. When you see me do a review, it is because it is either a product I already love or one I really want to try out. (Most of the products I talk about aren’t sponsored…I have a “Things I’m Loving Right Now” post about half done in my drafts. That one is all me.) MomCentral sent out the invitation to do a review of Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop! Pop Up Bowls. I raised my hand and said “Me! Me! Me!”.  I love popcorn. A lot. As in don’t try and eat out of my bowl. You might lose a finger.

We observe a 90 min – 2 hour nap/quiet time around here. Tessa sleeps. Sabrina reads or plays quietly upstairs. Mommy takes a shower, grabs some lunch, and watches something on the DVR gets some work done.  After quiet time, my girls demand a snack. Snack time is deeply ingrained around here and they will accept nothing less than something yummy, crunchy, salty, and fulfilling. They often ask for crackers or pretzels but their absolute, hands-down favorite is popcorn. Popcorn makes any afternoon feel special to them. If it is raining, some popcorn and a Disney DVD turns it into the Best! Afternoon! Ever! as far as they are concerned. I feel better about giving them popcorn than a lot of other snacky foods – it is high in fiber, filling, and lower in calories than most items they request.

My oldest daughter was a cow in her school play and didn’t want to take off the costume.

The Smart Pop! Pop Up Bowls allow you to rip off the side and use the bag as a stand alone bowl. According to Orville Redenbacher’s fact sheet, Smart Pop! has the a lot of benefits:

• 6 cups of Smart Pop! has only 100 calories
• 1 serving provides 2 servings of whole grains
• A new study from ConAgra Foods found that snacking on 100-calories of low-fat healthy popcorn, like Orville Redenbacher’s SmartPop!, leads to less hunger and more satisfaction versus other snacks like almonds or pretzels
• 100% whole grain, good source of fiber, low in fat, no trans fat
• A ConAgra Foods study reveals that a daily snack of Orville Redenbacher’s 94 percent fat-free SmartPop! popcorn can help dieters maintain reduced calorie eating plans while still feeling full and satisfied
• Popcorn is a whole grain. Research shows that consumers who eat popcorn come much closer to meeting the dietary guidelines recommendation for whole grain consumption of three servings a day

As I mentioned, my girls aren’t the only one who like popcorn. I have a minor obsession with it. Don’t go to the movies with me if you want to share because I don’t share my popcorn. I love being able to pop a big bowl of popcorn and eat all the way through it without feeling horribly guilty like I would if I hit the bottom of a pretzel or chip bag. My favorite is kettle corn. I have a thing with salty/sweet and that satisfies both for me.

Now for the giveaway. I’m giving away 10 boxes of Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop! Pop Up Bowls (10 commenters will receive 1 box or coupon for a free box). Just leave me a comment and tell me when you like to eat popcorn and if you share. I will draw winners on June 1st after 2pm. There is also a $1 off coupon on their facebook page.

 I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Orville and received product samples to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

I felt quite spoiled this year and I loved it. I did ruin Steve’s surprise for me. A Sephora box arrived about a month ago and I opened it without looking at the tag. Who thinks their husband has ordered something from Sephora? And in April? It wasn’t close a gift giving occasion. But he was on the ball and had ordered some perfume I liked but was too cheap to buy for myself. I felt awful for ruining his surprise but I was excited about the perfume. I quit wearing perfume when I was pregnant with Tessa because my nose couldn’t handle it. And after I had her, she squawked if I wore it so I just fell out of the habit.

Then my mother in law arrived. And she spoiled both me and the children at Kohl’s with her much coveted 30% off coupon. Tessa got her summer wardrobe. Sabrina had her supplemented. And I got a bright, shiny new toy for Mother’s Day (I know, we should be spoiling her). It makes me happy every morning.

The only problem is that I’ve gone from drinking 1 or 2 caffeinated beverages a week to at least 2 a day. I’m going to end up with heart palpitations. See why I say spoiled?

I’m still in love with instagrams so my photos are a mix of those and from my camera. Also please forgive any weird edits or coloring in my photos from my camera. I’m trying to learn to use Lightroom and finding the learning curve large.

THEN I was invited to Tessa’s school for Muffins with Mommy. And they did a cute little program which Tessa didn’t participate in because my child doesn’t do anything the she is expected to do. But it was cute and I got my first real made at school mother’s day gift. The stems are her fingers and the flowers are her fingerprints. It is a marigold. How sweet is that?

Because my mother in law was in town, Steve and I even managed a date night. We went to a BBQ joint that was super yummy and so smoky (the hickory kind not the cigarette kind) that I had to wash our clothes after to get the scent off of us.

Over my shoulder, you can see the big smoker with a whole pig in it. I know. We so fancy.

For mother’s day, the girls made me blueberry muffins.

Steve is so much better at letting them actually help than I am. I get all twitchy about the mess they will make. It is one of my great flaws as a mother. You should see me during easter egg dying or painting – GAH!

End result:

Unfortunately, Saturday night just moments after we arrived home from our date, Sabrina threw up all over the bathroom. Then Sunday night, my Mother in law got sick moments after finishing dinner. Monday morning, Tessa threw up 7 times. Monday night, Steve started feeling less than stellar. He is home from work today. I’m the last (wo)man standing.

My poor mother in law – every time we see her, the kids make her sick. She left this morning and seemed to be on the mend but not 100%. Up until the end, we had a great visit.

Stay tuned…I have a giveaway later this week!

See that face? I’m going to be 40 in 4 months. I’m not quite sure how that happened. I distinctly remember my mother turning 40 – I can’t quite wrap my brain around it being my turn. I’ve been thinking about working myself up into quite a funk about it but then remembered my 30th birthday. I was all prepared to be dramatic and depressed about turning 30. But it turned out my 30th birthday was the first anniversary of 9/11. How could I be depressed at turning 30 when so many didn’t get that opportunity because of those acts of terrorism? (Stupid terrorists. They ruin everything.) So instead, I went to work as usual. It was the day of the week that I co-facilitated a partial hospitalization group for middle school kids with several behavioral issues. In an attempt to help them build empathy, we all planted a bush to commemorate the day. Then they all “surprised” me with a cake and called me grandma for the rest of the day. Later, my girlfriend took me to our favorite bar and made me drink out of a punch bowl with a straw. All in all – not a bad day.

As 40 looms, I started thinking about how I would like to celebrate this milestone. I’ve told my husband he should take me to Vegas or whisk me away to a beach somewhere – either venue would allow me to drink enough to pretend I’m still 22 like I am in my head. Odds are, neither of those will happen. We have other budgetary priorities this year. I’ve decided that much like my 30th, my 40th birthday might be easier to accept if I focus on something other than myself. In the next 4 months, I will commit 40 random acts of kindness. I will do my best to document them and share them here.

I miss Picnik. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it was a photo editing site. It was free for basic tools and you could pay an annual membership for more advanced tools. I didn’t use it a lot. I usually pulled it out for photos of myself to soften the dark circles I am always sporting under my eyes. I’ve always had them but since having children they are so much worse – probably because I’ve been tired for 5 1/2 years.  I usually don’t do much else to photos other than maybe frame them – any other effects I’ve played with look so obvious so I stick with airbrushing my dark circles. Picnik closed its site in April so I’ve played around with some of the other sites that do similar things. Ipiccy seems the best for the light editing I do. Give it a try if you are looking to fill the hole picnik left. (Instagram filters are also great for making photos a little more flattering.) I’ve realized that I am in almost no photos with my children. Like ever. Partially because I’m usually the one taking the photos. And partially because I cringe when I see photos of myself. So I need to get over it. Or they will look like orphans when they look back at photos. Here is one with my littlest baby today. She has been a little clingy and quiet.

I have no idea what to call this dish. And honestly, I’m mainly blogging it because we liked it and Steve said he will be all sad panda if I can’t replicate so I need to commit it to blog before I forget. Because like many things around here, I made it up. And it isn’t really a cassoulet because that is slow cooked and has duck parts and pork skin and other things we don’t keep in the fridge at Chez Smiles. And you all think I’m fancy because I insist you use real garlic. But because it had pork sausage and white beans cassoulet came to mind so there you have it. How about Cassoulet-ish?

Cassoulet-ish

1 lb smoked pork sausage links (you know everything is interchangeable in my recipes what what you have – this was from my CSA)

1 bell pepper – whatever color you prefer…I used red

1/2 sweet onion, sliced thin or diced

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes (I used muir glen brand – and if you are a regular, you know I hate chunks and pureed them)

1 cup chicken broth

1 can cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

1 box frozen, chopped spinach, cooked and water squeezed out – or 1 bag fresh spinach

3 cloves garlic

2 shakes Italian seasoning

Slice sausage into bite sized pieces. Saute. Add onions and peppers. Cook 2 – 3 minutes. Add everything else. Allow to simmer on the stove for 15 minutes. Done.

I served it over cheesy grits (made with some sharp cheddar and smoked paprika). But we decided it would also taste good over brown rice or quinoa. Steve also suggested cous cous but I was less excited by that idea.

It isn’t pretty but was yummy, could be easily made gluten free if you buy GF sausage, and was pretty darn easy to throw together.

**And before someone gets her panties in a twist that I am serving my family gigantic portions (yes, people have commented on those kinds of things), please notice the beans for scale. This is a dessert plate, not a dinner plate.

I actually don’t do much cleaning at all. Just enough that we don’t live in total filth. I don’t like to clean. I don’t even do it very well. I do the regular required things but the above and beyond spring cleaning stuff? Nope. Base boards only get scrubbed when they start looking like a different color than they were meant to be. Walls never get scrubbed – I just vacuum cobwebs when they become apparent. Windows get cleaned when I notice they exist (meaning dirty enough that they are slightly obscuring my view of the outside world). But I do occasionally make up for those short falls by doing other things. I’ve been tackling neglected projects this week.

It all started when we finally got our TV off the end table it had been perched on for the past 18 months. The DVR, Xbox, and DVD player were piled underneath. It was klassy. But when we moved the TV, we couldn’t decide what to put on the wall above the TV. None of our art worked. We looked at some wrought iron pieces and some metal scutlpure but none were It. We still haven’t found The Piece…but we will some day. For now, I found some mirrors at Ikea that will work as a place holder. BUT. But. They required a t-square, level, and math to hang. Steve didn’t get to it as fast as I wanted so I did it. And now they are driving me insane. The top left one is just a smidge too low. And the third one on the bottom won’t stay straight on its nail. All I do is stare at them. (And there will be some major spackle required when we take them down. I might have had to redo several. Or a lot.)

(I’m also currently in love with Instagram which was finally released for Android.)

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One my friends and board members for Small Comforts, Joy, organized a yard sale to benefit Small Comforts – we made $1000! So exciting! We will put some of it toward our IRS 501c3 application fees. The rest will likely go toward some initial printing costs and getting some bags going. The yard sale and a small shopping trip to Old Navy prompted me to start cleaning out our walk in closet which has been clogged with boxes since we moved in. Just when I was about to get them unpacked, we decided we were moving. Now that the move is off, we can finally start living here. So our closet is lovely! Just need to install a few more shelves on 1 wall for shoes and sweaters.

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I’ve hated our door since we moved in. The screen doors are ugly and don’t fit well. The front door was ok but the grid on the windows was never painted and had turned a funky yellowish color and the door was putty white. Just blah. We are in the process of ordering new storm doors for the front and back doors (goodbye tax return). And it is a process. You can buy a gun faster than a screen door. I picked out the door I wanted. It had bright, shiny, ugly brass hardware but the picture showed brushed nickel was available. The guy tells us that nickel hardware is a custom order and an extra $40. Custom? Really? For the only option that is slightly in fashion at this point? No one has wanted shiny brass since 1989. And the custom factor means they have to come our and measure for the door before they will order it – another $35. After they come out and measure, we have to return to the store to order the door and sign a contract. So because I don’t want my door to look like I ordered it in the 80’s, it will cost me another $75, require another trip to the store, and take an additional 2-3 weeks. Thanks Pella and Lowe’s. That makes me a happy customer (where is that damned sarcasm font when I need it?).

I decided new storm doors deserved a decent looking front door. I was going to paint it white but our house is rather blah outside – pale grey with white trim. I wanted the door to pop. I thought about red but everyone has a red door now. So I went deep purple. I still have to do another coast and touch up the white.

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Around Thanksgiving, the cold water faucet in my powder room started dripping. I knew what the problem was – a part that was impossible to track down for a cheap builder’s faucet. Another faucet did the same thing last year. That time, I called the handyman we use for repairs and he replaced it. He is fabulous but I try to have a list of things for him to do when he comes since he charges by the hour and the first hour is pretty steep. I decided we could do it ourselves. We bought a faucet and it sat in the closet. The drip became a stream and I had to turn the cold water off completely. Steve didn’t want anything to do with it so I finally decided it was up to me. I watched You Tube videos and read the directions in the box. I bought a basin wrench and new supply lines. I started the job. No one told me how much of plumbing is brute strength. I did the faucet without any real problem but the supply lines weren’t come loose for anything. Steve tried. Not budging. So old supply lines stayed and were connected to new faucet. It works. No leaks. I was ridiculously proud.