Knitting Zeal

Spring has sprung with fun!

So now that it's starting to feel like spring weather, my family has jumped into spring mode and has been participating in fun outdoor weather activities.  Here's a little wrap up of some of the fun things we've been up to with the kiddo:

We vistited the Morris Arborteum to check out the cherry blossoms and the Big Bugs exhibit.  The trees were beautiful!!  Someone had fun climbing a few and running around.  He loved following the map to find all of the 11 bugs throughout the gardens.  From giant ants to a floating dragonfly, we found them all.  This huge ladybug was particularly cute.  All of the sculptures were made out of fallen trees and willow branches by an artist from Long Island.  They will be there all summer, so I'm sure we will be back to see them again.
We took my son's favorite form of transportaion, the train and subway, and caught a Sunday afternoon Phillies game on opening weekend.  It was a rather boring game, which they lost, but it was a nice day.  My husband even won a baseball from the opening game! My son made his own homemade sign to cheer on the team.  He loves that he has learned how to print and copies the spelling of words he doesn't know.  I can't always read what he writes, but its wonderful to see his skills emerge.

We have tickets for some summer games, so hopefully we'll see a winning game then!

We visited a local playground with a friend.  Can you see the absolute joy in his face as he ferociously rocks in that little car?

We took the train into Philadelphia for a "surprise" visit to see Daddy at work and have lunch.  We snapped a few photos at the train station for a school project.  He will be star of the week this week at school and we made a poster describing him.  For his favorite place, he said it was SEPTA's Suburban Station.  Not Disney World or Sesame Place.  No, the train station in underground Center City Philadelphia.  He wanted a photo of himself in front of the name of the station.  This is his new smile...his Lego Man smile!  (He even showed me the Lego minifigure he is trying to imitate!)

We had fun at lunch and then walked over to Sister Cities Park near the Parkway, along with a walk to Logan Square/Circle's fountain. 
He had the chance to go back to the Parkway the next day with Daddy for the Philadelphia Science Festival.  He checked out the Philadelphia CSI truck, did some science experiments and even got to climb on a real SEPTA bus, something that he has wanted to do for weeks!  (He has a planned bus route he wants to go on in our neighborhood.  He is obsessed!)

This week spring soccer starts.  It will be his first time playing for our Township.  He didn't want to do the intramural team, so I found an instructional soccer group for preschoolers.  I hope he meets some local kids that he'll be in Kindergarten with next fall!

Happy Spring!

 

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Fall morning with a friend

My son and his buddy agreed to an outing to the Morris Arboretum this morning.  I had thought it might be a bit sunnier than it was, but despite the chill, it was tolerable.  I had heard about the Scarecrow Walk there and thought it would be fun to see.  It was great!

We've been visiting the arboretum for about three years now and we discovered a new to us area today.  There was a circular Japanese garden off a path we don't usually cover when there, but today we explored it via stone steps and found a peaceful little area to rest and reflect.  Oh wait, I was with two little boys...we didn't rest or reflect! The arboretum has a discovery passport for kids to learn about different areas to the gardens.  There are embossing stamps at several locations that correspond to the passport.  Today was the first time we managed to get all of the stamps in our passport.  We always missed the redwood tree stamp, but found it today. The boys had fun and it was a great way to exercise outside with them.  They didn't realize how much ground we covered!

The Garden Railway is closed for the season, but we still explored the tracks.  We are really looking forward to seeing the holiday version after Thanksgiving.  The boys can't wait to go back!

CSA share this week

Its the end of the summer which means TONS of tomatoes from the CSA.  Two weeks ago I had about two quarts of cherry tomatoes and this week we have one quart.  I really hate that pop of seeds when biting into a cherry tomato, but they are so pretty and there are so many different varieties available to us. The black and green ones are so different looking.  I need to figure out what to do with them, aside from adding them to salads.  Also brought home were 8 pounds of heirloom and paste tomatoes.  I will make sauce out of them.  The kiddo wanted the carrots and even ate some for dinner raw.  I have about a quarter pound of basil leaves that will become pesto.  

Our CSA has bee hives and had some honey for sale this week.  It is such amazingly good honey, we (the kid and I) were sampling it out of the jar in the parking lot!  I should have bought more than one jar!  This will be our "special" honey to be enjoyed slowly.  I also picked up some pastured chicken from a farm that works with the CSA to sell poultry and pork to members.  It was really expensive, so it won't be a regular purchase, but I wanted to try it.  

My cooking/baking energy has been kaput lately.  I need to get back into formulating menu plans weekly.  I think I am in denial that our very busy and fun summer is almost over!  Preschool starts in two weeks!  Yikes! At least with fall almost here I will get back into cooking soups and fall themed things.  We have a busy couple of months up ahead...it should prove to be fun!

Canna Lillies in the garden

 

Red Canna Lily

 

This summer is the first time I've ever grown Canna Lillies in the garden.  Now that they have grown, I'm discovering them EVERYWHERE!  

My parents's next door neighbor shared some of the rhizomes from the plants in his yard.  My mom gave me a bag full of these strange tuber looking things.  I guessed on how to plant them, and picked a really sunny and open location in the front yard.  Last year we had a large tree removed from our front lawn and now that the area gets sun, I can grow flowers there.  I wasn't sure exactly how big the Canna Lillies would grow.  I wasn't sure they would grow at all, really, they were just so odd looking.  Within weeks of planting I saw green shoots and quickly the plants resembled the beginnings of a hosta plant.  But then they just kept growing up!  They have been fun to watch, especially now that they are blooming these bright red flowers.  They remind me of the ginger plant, which they are related to, as well as a banana leaf. 

Since they are a tropical plant, I'll have to remember to dig them up in the fall and put them away in a warm and protected area to replant next spring.  I have lost many gladiolas because of forgetting to retrieve them!  Hopefully that won't be an issue this year.  

Cooking with CSA veggies: Eggplant

I am really enjoying being a member of a CSA, Community Susstained Agriculture, this summer.  It has given us an opportunity to support a local farm, Pennypack Farm and Education Center, as well as enjoy all sorts of veggies.  I am learning to cook with produce I normally would not use and it has been fun. 

Last week I spent a lot of time cooking.  This week will probably be the same!  I've made a commitment to myself to preserve as much fresh summer produce as possible for the winter.  So I started with jam....!  I'm hoping to have enough cucumbers to make pickles and I have enough tomatoes, heirloom variety, to make sauce this week.  If I can successfull produce a sauce recipe that I like, I will make a mass quantity of it and preserve via canning.  It's a lofty goal, since it is so time consuming.

So in my CSA share one week I had two large-ish eggplants.  Honestly, it's not a veggie I really care for, although I have enjoyed a few dishes made with it.  I did learn how to make a really good eggplant parm dish from my childhood best friend's mom years ago.  My husband also loves eggplant parmesan, so it was well recieved. I did use panko bread crumbs instead of regular ones, and it seems to give it a nice crispness.  I also decided to not add as much sauce as usual and I liked it that way.  I served it with a side of pasta and it was really good.  The key to it, according to my recipe source, is to pack the sliced eggplant in Kosher salt to draw out bitterness and some moisture.   I used a three step coating: seasoned flour, egg wash, then panko.  Then I cooked them in some oil and layered them in a baking dish.  Covered with aobut a cup of tomato sauce on top and sprinkled with shredded mozerrella cheese and baked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.  It was not the healthiest way to eat eggplant, but it was tasty!  

Eggplant Parmesan

 

 

Blueberries, from harvest to jam!

Last week the kiddo and I spent a fun week in Maryland on the Eastern Shore with our favorite girls.  The kids had a week long playdate while the moms had a week of constant chatting, lots of wine drinking, and coparenting!

One of our favorite activities to do when on the Eastern Shore is to go blueberry picking at a fantastic orchard in Salisbury, Maryland called Garden of Eden.  They have a beautiful field of blueberry bushes that were overflowing with fruit.  It was hot the day we went, really hot.  The kiddo said he was melting.  His picking time was limited, but I was able to fill my berry bucket and end up with about 4 pounds of fresh blueberries.  We snacked on them for several days until I finally got around to deciding to make jam with them. 
I've made strawberry freezer jam several times before, but for the blueberries I wanted to make a cooked jam and can/process it so that I wouldn't take up valuable freezer space.  I searched the books I have about canning as well as the internet, but I could not find a recipe that I completely loved.  The one that came the closest to what I wanted had nutmeg and cinnamon added to it, but I really did not want a spice component to my jam.  I knew I wanted to add some lemon juice to it too. I really like how my jam turned out, although I did taste it pre-canning and before it was jelled. 

Blueberry Jam by Diane

• 8 cups of fresh blueberries
• 6 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup organic bottled lemon juice
• zest of one lemon
• cinnamon stick, 3 inches
• 2 pouches (3 ounces each) of liquid pectin (Ball brand)

In a large pot, smash blueberries with a potato masher until well smushed and the juices are released.  Do this a few cups at a time, adding more berries until they are all in the pot.
Add in sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick to the blueberries and stir to combine.  Heat the berry mixture over medium heat until it comes to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Add the liquid pectin and let the mixture boil for one more minute, still stirring.  Then turn off the heat.  Remove the cinnamon stick before filling the sterilized jam jars. This recipe filled nine 8 ounce jam jars for me. 

Follow the manufacturers directions for using a water bath canning method for the jars of jam.  Process for ten minutes in boiling water then let sit for five more minutes with the heat turned off.  Canning is relatively easy, but must be done precisely to prevent contamination of your jam.  I like the info found for water bath canning on pickyourown.org, as it is easy to understand.  If you have never canned before, it is really helpful to research the process and even take a class in it.  My son helped me label the jars the next day using cute labels I found at Target.  Half of the jars will be saved for our own use, while the others have recipients in mind already! 

Preserving the Harvest

Since we are splitting a CSA share with my friend, most weeks we have a manageable amount of fresh produce.  There have been a few instances where I didn't get a chance to use everything, like the weekend we entertained and had tons of leftovers from the party to use up.  Barb from A Life in Balance inspired me to cook and freeze some veggies, such as broccoli.  I was able to blanche a big bag of fresh broccoli and freeze it.  It was enough for two meals, and when I needed to use some for a meal, I was able to easily steam some up from the freezer and it came out great. 

To preserve the fresh broccoli, I boiled a pot of water and added the cleaned broccoli for about three minutes, just enough time to green it up a bit (and kill any possible worms!  I didn't find any this time, but have in the past.) Removing the broccoli quickly and submerging it in an ice bath helps stop the cooking immediately.  I found a great chart on how to either blanche or steam veggies to preserve them on the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  I will definitely be referring to it this summer to preserve our farm fresh veggies!

Our veggie garden

Our little raised bed veggie garden is chugging along.  This heat has been brutal, but I've managed to keep it alive with daily watering.  So far we've had lots of peas harvested and about three grape tomatoes.  Today we picked another bigger tomato of a species I forget.  I used a different type of soil this year and it is obvious.  Last year I used Miracle Grow enriched soil.  The tomato plants were huge!  This year I used a non-enhanced soil and the plants are noticeably smaller.  I have been adding an organic fertilizer every two weeks or so.  

I'm now noticing baby cucumbers growing and the carrot tops are really getting bigger.  Last year I planted carrots, but they did not amount to anything.  I'm hoping that the ones growing this year will actually be edible.  The cucumbers are tiny with one that is about gherkin pickle size.  They are a favorite veg here, even the kiddo will gobble them up, so I'm hoping for lots of them in about a month.  The kiddo has been enjoying the peas.  He will eat the whole pod, despite it technically not being edible.  They are really sweet.  The only things that haven't flowered yet but are growing like mad are the green beans.  They are twisting and twining all over the place, but no flowers or beans yet.

the kitchen herb garden

The basil I planted in my herb garden has been eaten by something.  I'm not sure if it's insects or critters, but it isn't doing well.  I finally decided to try planting one basil plant in the raised bed, near the tomatoes.  It is doing beautifully.  Nothing has nibbled it at all.  So, hopefully I'll get at least a batch of pesto out of it later this summer.  I did discover a very tiny green worm or caterpillar eating some of my herbs, mainly the dill, that did not survive.  Something always eats the cilantro too, but I still have a small plant of that left.  I had to fence in the veg bed, but I cannot fence in the herb garden. Since they are mostly edible herbs, I do not use pesticides.  Hopefully some of the herbs will survive the summer.