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Parsnips

Thursday is approaching fast and I still have most of the CSA veggies from last week. So tonight I decided to try and use them up. Here's what I came up with...

Parsnips, Ramps and Gorgonzola Cheese

Boil the parsnips to soften them up and then brown them in some butter.

Crumb the gorgonzola cheese and ramps on top and baked for about 10min.

Enjoy!

Starburst

I have been working on this quilt since this fall and it is finally done!
My goal for this quilt was to make a quilt with my husband in mind. His favorite color is orange, bright orange, and I wanted to make something that he might like. Now according to him "quilts are girly" so how could a make a quilt that he might like? Well I can't... because quilts are girly, but what I can do is add his favorite color and show him how much time and effort I put into making it for him and I'm sure he will really appreciate it.

I found this beautiful red fabric one day and I fell in love with it. I knew I wanted to make a quilt with it but I didn't know what pattern I was going to use. So I just bought a few yards of it just in case.

I also really wanted orange in the blanket because it's Jon's favorite and this quilt was going to be a quilt for us so I wanted to keep us in mind. I found a perfect shade or orange to tie into the red.

Now the last color was really important to me. I wanted a color that would bring out the orange but also not overshadow the red. Plus with the red having so much design in it I wanted a plan design so the red design would stand out. I chose Yellow. It really brightened up the quilt and made it bold and firey.

This quilt has two main blocks.

Alternated each block and I think it looks pretty cool.

All Done!

Basement - Part 6 Carpet

We've come to a point in our project where it actually feels like it's getting done. Today the guys from Big Bob's Flooring came out and put in the carpet. They were by far the cheapest place we found. And since we got such a good deal on the basement we decided to do the living room too.

Living Room Before

To save a little more money we ripped up the carpet in the living room ourselves.
Sweetie helped.

Living Room After

Stairwell Before

Stairwell After

Basement Before

Basement After

Now all we have to do it put the trim up, decorate and get some furniture.

Gnocchi

Last week's CSA newsletter came with a recipe on making Gnocchi. Since Jon loves gnocchi, I thought I would give it a try.

Basically you just make mashed potatoes but add flour and egg to make it into a dough. Shape into little balls and chill till hard.

Then boil them till they float and you're done!

Now my gnocchi actually tasted like mashed potatoes and they are time consuming so I will probably never make them again but they were fun to try. :-)

Basement - Part 5 Painting

My Favorite part of the project!

We took two days to paint the basement and it is finally done!

I pick out a medium brown color for the walls and a white for the ceiling and hallway. Check out what we did...

Basement - Part 4 First Coat

We are finally onto painting!!!

Since the walls have never been painted before we primed everything. It looks really sterile at the moment with everything being white but tonight we pick up paint and will hopefully start painting within the next day or two.

PS it's really handy to have a husband tall enough to paint the ceiling. So he painted the ceiling while I painted the walls.

Basement - Part 3 Mud & Sand

Mudding and sanding = done

Dinner tonight

So for dinner tonight I decided to use more of our CSA veggies. And since I am not creative when it comes to cooking I used the recipe that came with this week's CSA newsletter.

Springtime Pasta Primavera

It uses most of the stuff that came in our box this week. Overall I have to say that this recipe is AWESOME. It's full of flavor and tastes so fresh (probably because my veggies were fresh) It's light but filling at the same time. I highly recommend it.

I served mine over a bed of Whole Wheat Rotini Pasta... Yum!

More CSA Stuff

My brother made a comment yesterday that we get to pick up more veggies on Thursday and I felt like that was coming up fast and that I should use more of the stuff we got.

Last night I made quesdillas and instead of using lettuce I used Sorrel. According to the Harmony Valley Newsletter, Sorrel is a "tart lemony green".

It has way more flavor than lettuce and I LOVED it on our quesdillas. Probably because it has more flavor and is different than I am use to.

Mother's Day

Mother's day is another one of those days that reminds me of my mother and makes me miss her even more. But thankfully I have a wonderful family that is full of support and who I think are in the same boat I am in.

So for the last two years my family has celebrated Mother's Day by walking the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure around the Mall of America. We do this in memory of Mom. It's hard because I wish Mom was with us so we don't have to do something in memory of her but we walk with a ton of other people who have lost their loved ones and we somehow support each other... if that makes any sense.

This year I was able to do the walk with Jon, dad and my brother. Here are some pictures

CSA

Yesterday was the first day of our CSA and we got all sorts of stuff that I don't know what to do with.

Our CSA is through Harmony Valley. So far they seem really organized and have done a great job. Over half of the stuff in this box I had never heard of before, so this summer is going to be interesting in trying to figure out what to make and what we are actually eating.

So my first attempt at cooking our fresh new veggies is:

SUNCHOKE HASH

1 pound sunchokes

1 medium yellow onion

¼ pound ham
¼ pound carrots

¼ pound parsnips

¼ teaspoon cayenne

4 tablespoons oil

salt and pepper to taste

1.Heat the oil on medium heat in a heavy bottomed frying pan such as a cast iron. Add the onions when the oil starts to ribbon in the pan.

2.Stir onions occasionally, so not to burn, till they are soft. When soft, add the sunchokes, meat, carrots and parsnip.

3.Continue cooking and for 15 minutes stirring every three minutes. Cook the hash till the roots are tender then add the cayenne, salt and pepper.

Sunchokes and Parsnips are the root-looking things in the first picture.



I served this with some scrambled eggs. A nice hearty breakfast to start our busy Saturday off.

Leashes

My sister-in-law has a lot of babies, seriously. So because she has so many, she has a ton of toys/bottles to keep track of. (I'm sure you know how much babies love to throw their toys on the floor) She asked me to help make her life a little easier and make some sort of leash she can put around a toy or bottle so that when her kids throw them, they don't go very far.

I found some ribbon and Velcro to make the leashes out of.

I made a few different sizes cause I didn't know exactly what she wanted. And hopefully once they have been tested I can make improvements for the next time I make them.

Here's what I came up with. They all have two loops. One side is big enough for a stuff animal or bottle and the other is slightly smaller to fit around a stroller or highchair.



I also found some small belt loops that create a wider range of loop sizes.