Right now the Lake Family is sitting in the Embassy Suites in Kansas City. We need to get packed up and then we will go down to the shuttle around 11am. Apparently my dad was advised that we need to catch the 1130 shuttle to be at the airport at the appropriate time, but it is first come first serve. And there are 8 of us!! Yikes! After we take the shuttle, we will get checked in and our flight is at 2:30ish. We will conect with our next fight in Newark and then have an 8 hour flight to Ireland! Yay!
In 24 hours we will be there!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Pottery a go go
After watching the sheep get sheared, my mom took Gavin up to Larry Matson's pottery shop in Cottonwood Falls. Gavin just had a wonderful time and it completed a great day. What is better than a little sheep shearing and wheel throwing?
Here is Mr. Matson demonstrating some pottery.
Mr. Matson sharing his craft.
More teaching.....
Gavin found out that Mr. Matson is a Presidential/history buff like he is! It is always nice to find a kindred spirit.
CSA: The sheep lose their coats
My mom took Gavin to the Farm to watch the sheep get sheared. He had a great time!
Here is a sheep losing his coat.
Here is Gavin getting in the big tub to stomp the wool. His new name is "Chief Stomping Wool".
Apparently this is what you do while you watch sheep get sheared.
Here is some wool that Gavin got to take home.
Gavin really had a great time and has a whole new appreciation from where wool comes from!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Busy Weekend
A couple of weekends ago we had a garage sale and it was so nice to downsize a little bit from "stuff". We didn't have a lot of people, but being over here so out of the way, I wasn't expecting much.
The kids had a great time with their stand they made to sell stuff. They sold cinnamon rolls first thing in the morning and then cookies later on.
After the garage sale, we took all the unsold stuff to the thrift store and then went up to KC for the weekend. Boy were we tired! The kids think that staying in a hotel is the best thing *ever*. We went to the T-Rex restaurant which they enjoy and made their own Dinosaur stuffed animals at the "Build A Dino" part. We also went to the arena foot-ball game that weekend. For those of you who have never been...it is fun! Totally different than regular football. And the kids made it on the jumbo tron! Gavin did a very serious disco rendition and Brenna did a little dance.
Here is Gavin and Brenna outside of the Sprint Center where the games are.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Spinach Manicotti
Tonight I was able to cook the manicotti that I had made last night. It made for a very easy dinner tonight and I am pleased to say it was really good!
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook spinach in a couple of tablespoons of water in a large skillet. Cook for a few minutes until wilted down. Squeeze the water out of it before using.
In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach and egg. Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft.
Note
If refrigerating overnight, do so after step 3. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
Here it is right out of the oven and all bubbly.....can you smell that?? It was divine.
The nice thing about this recipe was that you didn't cook the manicotti pasta first. From what I hear, filling slippery, fragile noodles is tricky. Tonight we had the manicotti with a fresh salad from the farm. I added some feta, olive oil and balsalmic vinegar.
It was a great way to use the spinach. Although the recipe contains quite a bit of spinach, it tasted very mild.
Proof of the mild taste of the spinach...
The verdict:
Produce: Spinach
Recipe: Spinach Manicotti
Zack: Good!
Heather: Great!
Gavin: Awesome! 5 star!
Brenna: Good (except for the green bits). Do you see a trend here?
Recipe
Spinach Manicotti
INGREDIENTS
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
A bunch of spinach. I have no idea how much I had. I filled up a medium sized bowl with the uncooked spinach. After I cooked it (see below) there was probably 1 1/2 cups -2 cups of spinach
1 egg
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley (I just pulled some parsley off the stems with my fingers and tore them. Do you really want to measure 2 tsps of parsley??)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
A bunch of spinach. I have no idea how much I had. I filled up a medium sized bowl with the uncooked spinach. After I cooked it (see below) there was probably 1 1/2 cups -2 cups of spinach
1 egg
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley (I just pulled some parsley off the stems with my fingers and tore them. Do you really want to measure 2 tsps of parsley??)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook spinach in a couple of tablespoons of water in a large skillet. Cook for a few minutes until wilted down. Squeeze the water out of it before using.
In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach and egg. Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft.
Note
If refrigerating overnight, do so after step 3. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
To fill the manicotti shells, I put the ricotta mixture in a large ziploc bag and cut a small hole. When I was almost done, I cut a bigger hole because I thought it would go faster. That was not so! It just made it messier.
Next time I am going to make two and freeze one.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Leftover Roasted Chicken
I wanted to mention that after our delicious roasted chicken the other night, I made chicken salad sandwiches with the leftovers. For someone who doesn't like to eat the dark meat outright, it is a great way to use it all up. I cut up all the leftover chicken and mixed in mayo, a little bit of lite sour cream, and just a touch of sugar. If I would have had added some grapes if I would have had them! I put the chicken salad on some wheatberry bread, but using croissants really can send a chicken salad sandwich over the edge.
Spinach
Tonight I used my spinach from the farm for spinach manicotti. We didn't have time to eat it tonight after getting home late from the farm, so I put it in the dish in the fridge and will cook it tomorrow. This recipe was nice because you didn't have to cook the pasta first. I will share the recipe if it tastes good!
The recipe called for frozen cooked spinach, so I cooked my fresh spinach and used that.
The recipe called for frozen cooked spinach, so I cooked my fresh spinach and used that.
CSA 6/3
Tonight was our CSA pickup and we were lucky enough to bring along a friend of the kids and myself. I was keeping my fingers crossed for no rain. We didn't have rain, but boy was it hot and humid. I have a lot of respect for all the work that Farmer John, his wife Ramona and his two apprentices do in this weather. This is the road that you turn on to get to the farm.
The sheep were let out to graze.
Farmer John let the kids gather eggs today which was a great experience. Whenever I would watch "Little House on the Prairie" when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be able to gather eggs! Specifically I wanted to put them into the fold of my apron while I wore a bonnet, but business casual attire and a wire basket worked just fine!
Next, we played by the creek. Brenna got to ride in the tire swing for the first time.
The kids went up to the tree house with Farmer John's watchful eye while mother kept her feet on the ground!
Kids walking across the log
This was my share for this week. It is actually a quarter of a share as my mother and I are getting half a share. This is mixed lettuces, swiss chard and broccoli. For the swiss chard, I found a recipe for swiss chard gnocchi that looks really good. I might be trying that in the next several days. I also found an interesting dessert recipe using swiss chard. It has a long French name, so I can't think of it now!
Here are the some of the veggies that are growing. Farmer John showed the kids the potato and sweet potato that was growing and taught them the difference between how the two grow.
Sweet corn starting to grow.
Visiting the sheep. They were all panting because they are so hot with their heavy coats. They will be sheared soon.
The sheep were let out to graze.
Farmer John let the kids gather eggs today which was a great experience. Whenever I would watch "Little House on the Prairie" when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be able to gather eggs! Specifically I wanted to put them into the fold of my apron while I wore a bonnet, but business casual attire and a wire basket worked just fine!
Next, we played by the creek. Brenna got to ride in the tire swing for the first time.
The kids went up to the tree house with Farmer John's watchful eye while mother kept her feet on the ground!
Kids walking across the log
This was my share for this week. It is actually a quarter of a share as my mother and I are getting half a share. This is mixed lettuces, swiss chard and broccoli. For the swiss chard, I found a recipe for swiss chard gnocchi that looks really good. I might be trying that in the next several days. I also found an interesting dessert recipe using swiss chard. It has a long French name, so I can't think of it now!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Roasted chicken
Tonight I made my very first roasted chicken. I got the chicken from the CSA and I was so excited to try it out. I have always heard how easy it is to roast a chicken, but had never tried it. Getting the chicken from the CSA was the perfect opportunity to try it out. I had planned on making it this weekend and it worked out well because we ended up eating with my mother in law and grandmother in law.
I googled some recipes, but I wanted to do something really simple. I ended up brining it for several hours first. I put the chicken in a big bowl, filled it with water and added about 1/4 cup kosher salt. The chicken was brined for about 3 hours. Afterwards, I rinsed it well. I rubbed melted butter all over the outside and inside of the chicken and then salted and peppered it inside and out. I also put some butter and seasoning under the skin, over the breasts. I roasted it at 425 for 20 min and then 375 for 1 more hour. I turned it upside to rest so that the juices would run into the breasts.
Now, I had found a recipe for a sauce reduction that looked pretty easy, so I wanted to give it a try. This ended up being the hit of the dinner! After I took the chicken out of the pan, I took out the big pieces of anything and then took out as much fat as I could with a spoon. Next I deglazed with some white wine. I put the pan right on a burner and added 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and boiled it down until it was syrupy. Added another 1 1/2 cups of stock and boiled it down until it was about 3/4 cups. As a reduction it is different from a gravy in that it is very intense in flavor....and really good. Zack wants me to make another chicken just so he could have that sauce again!
I also got to share some of our farm fresh produce with my mother in law and grandmother in law. We made a nice big salad with some of the black seeded simpson and spinach. A little blue cheese, olive oil and balsalmic vinegar and we had us one tasty salad.
The roasted chicken was incredibly easy and very very good. We also had bread out of the oven, corn, garlic mashed potatoes (roasted a bulb of garlic for an hour in the oven with the chicken, squeeze the garlic out of the bulb like toothpaste right into the potatoes), salad and mother in law made some really good brownies for dessert! It was a great meal.
I googled some recipes, but I wanted to do something really simple. I ended up brining it for several hours first. I put the chicken in a big bowl, filled it with water and added about 1/4 cup kosher salt. The chicken was brined for about 3 hours. Afterwards, I rinsed it well. I rubbed melted butter all over the outside and inside of the chicken and then salted and peppered it inside and out. I also put some butter and seasoning under the skin, over the breasts. I roasted it at 425 for 20 min and then 375 for 1 more hour. I turned it upside to rest so that the juices would run into the breasts.
Now, I had found a recipe for a sauce reduction that looked pretty easy, so I wanted to give it a try. This ended up being the hit of the dinner! After I took the chicken out of the pan, I took out the big pieces of anything and then took out as much fat as I could with a spoon. Next I deglazed with some white wine. I put the pan right on a burner and added 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and boiled it down until it was syrupy. Added another 1 1/2 cups of stock and boiled it down until it was about 3/4 cups. As a reduction it is different from a gravy in that it is very intense in flavor....and really good. Zack wants me to make another chicken just so he could have that sauce again!
I also got to share some of our farm fresh produce with my mother in law and grandmother in law. We made a nice big salad with some of the black seeded simpson and spinach. A little blue cheese, olive oil and balsalmic vinegar and we had us one tasty salad.
The roasted chicken was incredibly easy and very very good. We also had bread out of the oven, corn, garlic mashed potatoes (roasted a bulb of garlic for an hour in the oven with the chicken, squeeze the garlic out of the bulb like toothpaste right into the potatoes), salad and mother in law made some really good brownies for dessert! It was a great meal.
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