Showing posts with label potluck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potluck. Show all posts

Friday, July 16, 2010

I know

I know, I know, I've been
gone from the blogosphere
for over a month! Really, I
have excuses, as lame as
they may be: end of school
year bustle, summer school,
solo hiking trip, excessive
rain, a fire at my husband's
office, jury duty, Maia's 2nd
birthday. But most of all
it was the crashed laptop
that did me in. Yes, we have
multiple other computers, and I keep all my photos on an external harddrive as well. But what a pain to move them to a new computer. I really like them all in one place. So I waited while the sick laptop was away...and waited. Then I started getting used to being away from it. And then school was done and there were no lunches to make. The laptop was gone almost a month, but finally it returned, functional, though not much faster and still crashing from time to time.
But then the unthinkable happened...our oven broke. Now, I've wanted to replace our oven since I moved here. It's old, a non-standard size, the door handle has broken off, and it does not hold a consistent temperature.
Hopefully next week I will be announcing the arrival of a brand new oven. It remains to be seen if it will fit, so we're keeping a crowbar on standby. I'll let you know how it goes!

In the meantime, I have a backlog of photos galore!! Why don't I start back with pics from one of our favourite places, Stearns Farm CSA. I have begun to lose track...it's our 5th? 6th? year there, and it's always changing and always wonderful.

























Early in the season is the farm's Spring Festival and potluck. My husband observed that out of the dozens of dishes people brought, not a single one contained meat. None. There are no rules about what to bring, and most people label their dishes, often with a complete ingredient list. Not only was everything vegetarian, but I'd say that two-thirds of the dishes were vegan! I'd never imagined going to a potluck that was not specifically vegan and being in the majority. What a pleasant shocker! It's so great that so many people in our community make their health, the planet's health, and that of animals a priority.

Maia is
big
enough
this
year to
really
enjoy
the
festival
and the
farm
envir-
onment.
The
kids
must
have
eaten
their
weight
in water-
melon.

So be prepared for a posting
marathon while I attempt to
play catch-up. I have just shy
of 1,000 photos in one folder,
and that doesn't include any-
thing from my phone.

I try to refrain from using my
phone for food photography,
but sometimes it just happens
since carrying two devices, no
matter how small, just feels so
redundant. Problem is, I've
taken to unloading my phone
pics onto the big computer since
that's where I sync my iTunes.
Somehow I have to get more
organized!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Festival & Finances

To get your attention...












Vanilla cupcakes, with beautiful layered strawberries for the husband, and blue sprinkles for the kids and myself (I don't care for fruit desserts much).

And cute kids...the younger two...












Nate & Maia

Thank goodness for cloth
diapers! We're in major
financial purgatory at the
moment....But you say, "You
just got back from vacation!"
Yeah, that's right, but that
was paid for months ago...you
notice I didn't review a single
restaurant...that's because we
didn't eat at ANY...the Disney popsicles and cotton candy were it baby!
I'm not here to explain it all, nor whine about it. But I wanted to preface why my bentos during the last 2 weeks of school will be centered on frugality. I hope they don't disappoint!

Today was one of our favourite
events--the Stearns Farm Spring
Festival! I was going to make a
tempeh stew for the potluck, until
I realized we were out of tempeh.
So I took that recipe on a tangent
with whatever we had available...

Cashew Veg Stew

2 T. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
5-6 carrots, peeled chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
1 bell pepper (or 1 cup frozen bell pepper strips)
1 can chick peas, rinsed & drained
1 jar pasta sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/2 cup cashews
1/4 tsp. salt

Add first 6 ingredients to a large pot. Cover & cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally 5-10 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover. Reduce heat to med-low to simmer. Cook at least 1/2 hour.
Serve. Goes great over brown rice.

























In addition to the potluck
lunch, there was music,
poetry reading, rock painting,
a hay ride, and someone had
brought their pet turtles for
everyone to enjoy...















There were even the two baby turtles...they stayed in their bin though. But the big turtles were later allowed to roam the farm, followed closely by many kids.

Rock painting...













Ryan's first time climbing
the apple tree...





Forget the nice cool
grass...Maia kept crawling
back to the irrigation
access cover??

And Ryan tried the
swing.