Carrot Soup

I have been pretty lax recently about trying to use up all the carrots I get in my CSA box each week. This has resulted in a huge pile of carrots residing in my fridge. When I pulled yet another bunch of carrots out of this weeks box, I decided enough was enough and began a quick carrot ginger soup. These soups are so simple, delicious and jam packed full of vitamin A.

Carrot Soup + your choice of seasonings

carrots: peeled and cubed. Use as many carrots as you like, I have about 3-4 pounds in mine right now.    But 3 large carrots would be fine.
1-2 Onions chopped
2 tbsp butter (can sub olive oil, but butter is delicious)
1-2 medium potatoes (optional) peeled and cubed
garlic 
salt and pepper
enough vegetable/chicken broth to cover
heavy cream for garnish

Spices:
grated ginger
nutmeg and cinnamon
herbs de province and a bay leaf
any other spice combo you like! Get creative.

Melt butter in large stock pot. When it begins to bubble at the edges, add in onion and some salt and cook until translucent. Add garlic and spices (if using ginger wait to add until closer to the end). Add carrots and potatoes and enough broth to cover (roughly 5-6 cups). Cook 15-20 minutes, or until carrots and potatoes are very soft. (Add ginger if using) Blend soup in blender in small batches (fill the blender about half way), or use an immersion blender. You want the soup pretty silky, though I don't mind a few chunks left.
Garnish with salt, pepper and 1-2 tsp heavy cream. Enjoy with some warm bread and butter.

Happy Autumn, Pie Style

I can't believe it is already Friday night. I don't know where my week has gone. Time is just flying by.  Somehow, I missed the first day of Autumn, and the autumnal equinox, so here are belated wishes for a happy harvest season! On that note, I thought I would send out a delicious autumn pie suggestion: use a different squash. I know, I know, pumpkin pie is delicious, and other winter/autumn squash are scary. Take my advice though and take the plunge! I recently made a pie out of a red curry squash, and it was delicious! Dr. H thinks it might be his favorite type now, and he is a die-hard pumpkin pie fan. I can't take credit for this pie, though I would like to! Check it out, and give your taste buds a sweet surprise!

Good Times in Glacier

It is only about a four and a half hour drive from my front door to the west entrance of Glacial National Park, and you can bet your tuchas I will be going again. Though we didn't see any of the amazing wildlife in the park, (seriously, not even a deer), we did see craggy peaks jetting out of crystal clear glacial lakes. We also saw the foliage beginning to turn, and drove on moonlit roads through silent forests. This is a beautiful place! The only drawback to our trip was the weather. It rained most of the time we were there, and we were very happy that we had decided on getting a hotel room. What with the rain, and the bear scare, we didn't do too much hiking. We went on one tiny hike to a beautiful waterfall only about 1/4 mile off the road, and I was nervous the whole time. Grizzlies. Sheesh.

Trail head to Waterfall

Waterfall "Hike"

The plains on the eastern edge of the park

The Fun Never Stops

In about 16 hours I will be off on another adventure. This a  time we're taking a mini-holiday up to Glacier National Park. Soo excited. I hear tell of grizzlies, wolves, cougars and moose, and I want to see all of them from a nice safe distance. In the meantime, I'm finishing off some apple butter and making a red curry squash pie.  I'll let you all know how it turns out!

Woah. What just happenend?

So I'm back from a whirlwind trip down to Portland for my cousin Amanda's pre-release party for her concept album "Play Dead". That was a crazy-fun mid-week adventure. The show was awesome and sooo entertaining! I can say that even though I was in part of it, right? The make-up artists did a fabulous job, and all the opening acts were really really good. I saw a lot of photographing going on, so I hope to have more pictures to post soon. In the meantime, here is a little shot of some back stage action.

For a while last night I acted as unofficial bouncer for the bar (basically making sure people paid the cover) and I found myself telling frightened people not to worry because I am a vegetarian zombie and eat grains not brains. (We know, however, that that is a dirty little lie) RAR!

Personal Victories, Near Escapes, and Apples

Yesterday Dr. Husband and I went on our longest-ever bike ride: 22 miles! I know true biking enthusiasts will not be impressed by that number. For me, however, it was a breakthrough. We biked on the Trail of the Couer D'Alenes, and it is beautiful! See?

On this ride we saw some interesting wildlife. I saved the life of a small turtle and almost ran over a tiny king snake. In retaliation the little snake tried to bite me, but I was too fast!

So the total mileage for the weekend was around 32 miles. Needless to say, I am a bit sore. I'm also a little behind schedule as far as apple butter goes because I had a meeting this morning out in Coeur D'Alene with the Kootenai Environmental Alliance. I am on the planning committee for their upcoming fundraiser: Junk 2 Funk fashion show. I'm doing decor (Yay!) and I'm in charge of the silent auction (slightly more subdued Yay!). In any case, this is getting me out of the house and forcing me to use my creativity for good and not evil. Anyhow,  I have peeled, cored, and cooked around 10 pounds of apples. Only 24 pounds to go :)

Thirty Four Pounds of Apples

That's right. I currently have 34 pounds of apples sitting in my kitchen just waiting to be sorted, peeled, cored and cooked. I am going to be making apple butter! I'm really excited about this. However, it is just going to have to wait until Monday because the Dr. Husband and I are going to spend our weekend biking! I'm prepared to have a very sore tuchas on Monday, and I think that making a ton of apple butter will be about all I will be up for. Tuesday I will make my way down to Portland, Oregon to practice with my cousin Amanda for her big CD release party on Wednesday the 15th.  If you are in the area you should definitely come! If not, well take a look at her website and take a listen to her rad zombie songs here: Amanda Richards 
She's awesome!

Holy Fold-Up-Grocery-Bag!

In looking over my previous posts, I get the feeling that my readers have probably formed the idea that all I do is cook and eat. Actually, that's not too far from the truth. Throw in some reading, some house cleaning (damn those never ending dishes), and a half-day of crafting here and there and you've got a pretty good idea of how I spend my time.
Today was a craft day. Well, IS a craft day. I am in the grip of the craft muse and have a craft to-do list as long as this post. Now if my equipment would only cooperate I could be very productive. Instead, my tools seem to be conspiring against me. My sewing machine has thrice, THRICE eaten my fabric, and my cat keeps stealing my pencils. There is also the tiny little issue that my construction abilities pale before my design abilities. This means that things always look better in my head than they do in real life. My stitches aren't even close to perfect and my measurements always seem to be off. Sheesh! Anyway, even with these technical difficulties I have been able to make one usable item today.

It is a reusable grocery bag.

As you have probably guessed by my previous posts, I am trying to be eco-chic. Carrying my own grocery bag when I go shopping is one of the easiest ways I have found to reduce waste. It also reduces the time I spend trying to figure our where to store all those plastic bags. (Actually I have a good craft for that. But it will have to wait for another day). Most of the time I use regular old cloth bags that I just ball up and throw into the backseat, but sometimes I am out and have not thought to bring those bags with me.

In steps this little beauty. It folds up see? And can fit inside my purse so I will never be without a bag. This design is an amalgamation of a couple different designs I have seen, so don't go hating on me for not making it up. That leaf, however, is all mine!
Now...If only I had more thread....

Apple Pie Kinda Day

I awoke this morning to a freezing house, a huge pile of laundry, and a lingering sweet tooth. So as far as I was concerned, my plan for the day was pretty clear: laundry and baking. Although I can't remember all of my dreams from last night, I do know that an apple pie had a leading role in one of them. Luckily, this week my CSA box contained quite a few apples. More apples, actually, than my little family would probably eat. Since I had all the ingredients on hand, an apple pie was born.

Now apple pies are one of the few baked items that I don't usually use a true recipe for. The ingredients are pretty basic, and the proportions really depend on a couple of variables; 1. what type of apples are you baking? This will change the amount of sugar to use, and 2. what type of crust? Double crust, lattice top, single crust, or dutch topping? Today I chose to make a Dutch apple pie. I have to admit I cheated and used a frozen pie crust for the bottom. Pie crusts are tricky, and until I have treated myself with a pastry cutter I don't intend to make any. Actually, I should have thought of my current lack of a pastry cutter before I decided to make a dutch apple pie, since the topping really requires the use of this tool. I was forced to resort to using a fork and a whisk which made the job about 1000 times harder. Anyway, for my pie I had a mix of a couple of different types of heirloom apples, all of which were pretty sweet, so I used only about 1/4 cup sugar in the filling. The topping uses 1/2 cup, so overall this pie should be plenty sweet.

Apple Pie
 1 thaw pie crust, either home made or store bought.

Filling:
Around 6 cups apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar (adjust amount depending on sweetness of apples)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I like the clove and nutmeg in this)
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp lemon

Mix apples and lemon juice in a large bowl and let sit. The lemon juice helps the apples "sweat" some of their juice out. This will help keep the bottom pie crust from getting too soggy. Drain out excess liquid. Mix in remaining ingredients and fill pie crust.

Topping:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup salted butter, cold (if using unsalted add a pinch of salt to dry ingredients)
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix together four and sugar and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter, cut cold butter into the mixture until it looks crumbly. Mix in chopped walnuts and oats. If you want to get fancy shred some sharp chedder cheese into the topping. YUM!

Crumble struesel topping onto pie.  Cook for around 50 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Done!

Farmers Market Bounty

Yesterday I went on my weekly pilgrimage to the farmer's market to pick up my CSA box. For those of you who haven't heard of it, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is a program where consumers purchase a certain share of a farmer's harvest early in the season. This helps the farmers have the capital they need to get things going, and it helps the consumer have access to super fresh local veggies. I heart CSAs. If you happen to be interested in this, here is a site where you can look up CSAs in your neighborhood. Local Harvest

In this weeks box we got a bunch of heirloom apples and pears, corn, heirloom tomatoes, celery, potatoes, bell peppers, cabbage, onions, garlic, lettuce, green beans (Dr. H's favorite!), Thai basil and a couple other things I'm forgetting right now. Yum!

At the market I also always pick up some locally roasted coffee that is Delicious! I have happily just learned the people who roast the coffee live just down the street, and that I will be able to continue to get this coffee through the winter. Yay!

A Novel Idea

I'm kind of ashamed to admit this, but it is 10:45 on a Thursday and I have just barely gotten out of bed. That is not to say that I haven't been awake for a while now. Not quite up with the sun, but not up at the crack of noon either. At around 8 this morning I was roused by the gentle meowing of my cat at my bedroom door. After a few minutes of cursing on my side, and pitiful mewing on his, I decided to count my losses and resigned myself to the waking world. So I rolled over and grabbed the book on my nightstand.

Now this is the true reason for this post. Some blogs have special days of the week where they do something a little out of the ordinary in an effort to keep things fresh. Think "wordless Wednesday" or "Finders Friday". I give myself no pretensions to that kind of ongoing diligence with the order of my posts. Instead I have decided that every once in a while, I will write up a little something about whatever book I happen to be reading. Don't count on this every week. Some weeks I may not be able to find the time to read a new book. Other weeks, I may not want to share the lurid title of my trashy novel with the world.

So on to today's book. The hours of 8-10:45 this morning were spent reading "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

For me, this book is extremely interesting. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for Michael Pollan anyway. I have read most of his other books, and if I haven't quite been able to enjoy them (who enjoys learning about the corruptness of our food system?) I have at least found them very education and influential. If you're interested in the whole food movement, and/or sustainable eating give this book a read. If not, well you should read it anyway :)

If you pick up a copy of this book and start to read it, comment on here and we can have a kind of virtual book club! Happy eating!

Baking and Breaking Bread

Today I made my first whole wheat bread. I have made various types of pan breads (white, sweet white) and artisan breads, but this is the first time I have used whole wheat in a yeast bread. I must say, it was about time! To make this bread even better, the whole wheat flour came from my local farmers market. This is the first time I have ever been able to find a local source for flour. Yay for being in wheat country! This bread is soft, sweet, and pretty easy to make. Dr. H and I ate a piece for dessert slathered with a local blackberry jam. Yum!