CSA Adventures: Early Spring

In the middle of March I finally signed us up to receive a weekly produce basket from a CSA called Full Circle Farm. My labmate, Kobi, is one of the farmers. There are oodles of CSA farms around the Sacramento valley. I chose this one because it supports my labmate and two of my other labmates get their produce and always seem very happy with the variety.

The baskets are delivered to campus every Thursday afternoon, and it is just a short walk from my building to where they are located. I bring my own bag to carry home my produce goodies. It is like getting a present every time because you never know what you can expect to get. I love that!

It is also nice because I'm forced to try cooking and eating a variety of things that I wouldn't normally think to purchase at the store or farmers market. Not that I don't like certain foods (I actually love pretty much anything) but I tend to stick to what I like most. Fennel, for instance, isn't something I'd normally buy...or broccoli raab. But since they are sometimes included I always use them.

This CSA is particularly nice (from my short experience) because they make sure to include a variety of flavors during "boring" seasons like winter. Many people complain that their CSAs are stuffed full of kale week after week in the winter. But here in Davis LOTS of stuff can grow in the winter. And this farm includes goodies preserved from other seasons, too (dried fruits like tomatoes, apricots, prunes, and dried summer herbs like basil).

For the past few weeks I've been able to eat a big salad for lunch every day using the salad greens they give me. It is usually chalk-full of spicy arugula, which I simply LOVE. I make my salad with some dried fruit and chow mein noodles, plus vinagrette. Sometimes I'll include a can of mandarin oranges, half a can of tuna fish, and some capers. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Here are some other baskets we've gotten, full of greens, greens, greens: So far I haven't had a problem using up all the goodies in the basket before I get the next one. We make a lot of stir fry dinners:
I don't have a picture handy, but a favorite weekend lunch for us is sauteed greens with eggs cooked in little holes made amongst the greens.  If there isn't enough liquid in the pan when it is time to put the egg in, we'll just pour in a bit of water, stock, or apple juice so the egg has a little hot liquid around it.

And when the baskets are full of fresh spring herbs I turn them into pesto if I can't think of anything else to do with them.  My guess is that most people only think of basil when they think of "pesto" but you can grind up whatever aromatic thing you want with some garlic, nuts, oil, and possibly some cheese.  I've used various fennel and cilantro pestos in bread doughs, spread onto toast and topped with a fried egg, stirred into ramen soup...and even licked straight off the spoon.  Mmmmm, I do love me some fresh pesto.

This one was parsley, lemon zest, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt, and pepper.



And this one was fennel tops, parsely, garlic, oil, and cheese.

Potty

A few weeks ago we noticed that Eddie has become aware of and interested in the toilet. Like other parents, our child keeps us company in the bathroom more often than not. Until recently I don't think he understood what we were doing sitting there...but all of a sudden he started pointing to the toilet and say "Oh...poopy? Peepee?"

He often comes to us, pats his diaper, and says "help" or "poopy" when he needs a diaper change (only when he's poopy, he couldn't care less when he's wet). So he's obviously getting the idea of what going to the bathroom is all about.

Just to encourage his curiosity, Dave bought two potty chairs. We keep the "real" one in the bathroom so he can sit on it whenever he wants (the bowl is removable and you can set the seat part onto the big toilet once he's bigger). The smaller Ikea one will be taken in the car or stroller once he's actually trained--to be used "on the go" when he has to "go."

To be clear: we're NOT pushing him into potty training right now and plan on letting him decide when he's ready. At two years old he'll get his first big boy underpants and if he wants to wear them and try using the toilet, fine. Otherwise we'll stick to diapers for a while.

Kristin came over for dinner last week and coincidentally brought him the book Once Upon a Potty. She was happy to see that we already have a potty seat for him!

So far, Eddie only likes to sit on the potty without a diaper after his bath. It has become a ritual. Other times he'll sit on it fully dressed. I'll have to teach him that the toy cars and spoons need to be taken OUT of the potty bowl BEFORE he actually uses it...but that's a lesson for an older child.

Here are some funny pictures taken the day Dave brought the potties home. I think it is particularly funny that they are fully clothed, and wearing matching outfits!

I'm reading a book with Daddy on the pot!Here Daddy...you take my ducky book. I'm going to have a snack. After all: what goes in, must come out!Ahhhh, this is so relaxing! Are you sure we're supposed to have our pants on when we sit on the potty, Daddy?Geez, Mama! A little privacy for us guys please?!

Schwind Twins!

John and Jessica had their babies yesterday afternoon! The little munchkins were both breech so they had a scheduled C-section...and despite all the planning, their anxious parents had to wait and wait and wait as their surgery kept getting delayed. (I was checking my phone and Facebook constantly starting at about 10am for them to post a picture.)

Welcome to the world, sweet Jude Bryant and June Elizabeth!The night before their arrival, John and Jessica came over to drop off their fur-babies, Rudi and Daisy. For having 14 pounds of baby inside her belly, Jessica looked nothing short of amazing! She's gonna kill me for posting this picture, but I needed evidence of how amazing a pregnant lady with twins can look at 38 weeks. Lovely, right?So if you're counting, I now I have four dogs, eight chickens, and one toddler under my care. The extra pooches will stay at our house until the new parents are settled back in at home. Eddie LOVES having all the "doh-dees" in the house. He's constantly showing me how he can give them gentle "pats."

I've had our bedroom window taped off for painting the trim Dave recently installed so I can't get any fresh air at night. The top of my Eddie's-in-bed-so-I-can-do-some-housework list is to get the last coat of paint on it so I can remove the tape and open the window. Ouf, sleeping with four pups in your bed sure gets hot! It doesn't help that Rudi insists on sleeping under the covers next to my legs...

Stay tuned for my celebratory birth meal this weekend in honor of the newest additions to the Schwind clan!

Moments like this...

...make a girl forget she's a Mama. (You can't see it, but there ain't no baby seat in the back of our car. Just me and Dave on a coast drive to go to the grocery store. Ahhhhhhhh.)Ah, sweet weekend-beach-house-bachelor/bachelorette-party, I miss you so much already.

We spent the whole weekend up in Bodega Bay with some of my best friends, celebrating the impending nuptials of John and Christina. Eddie stayed at Cassie's for the weekend. It was SO NICE to be alone with our friends, to drink, eat, be merry, horse around like the kids we used to be, and catch up with folks I haven't seen in a while (like James!).

I'm not kidding when I say that I actually FORGOT about Eddie many times during the weekend. And I don't feel guilty about it at all. Hallelujah...when's our next baby-free vacation? (Answer: the wedding weekend, in only 5 short weeks!)

Which Egg is Which?

Last week I segregated our full sized hens so I could figure out who was laying which eggs (two blue and two brown, but each slightly different). I put Noodle and Tommy K together in the tractor between the garden beds.I still don't know which gal is laying those mini, yolk-less eggs (Noodle or Vindaloo). She lays these on occasion, but still lays normal eggs, too. They range in size from as small as a marble to as big as 1/5th of a normal egg. Weird.

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter weekend this year. On Saturday morning Cassie hosted a HUGE egg hunt at the park next door to our house. She invited all her friends, daycare families, etc. It was complete with a giant potluck (someone brought a griddle and made fresh blueberry pancakes!), egg dying, paper bunny ear hat making, kiddo tattoos, and of course hundreds of candy-filled plastic eggs.I think Eddie ate his weight in jelly beans on Saturday.

I got to the park at about 8:20am that morning and sat on the picnic table to reserve it for the party. Normally I guess you can reserve the picnic areas, but Cassie wasn't able to do that this time. The egg hunt started at 10 but she asked me to get there before 9 to make sure we could have that spot. I happily left Dave in charge of Eddie at home, took my blanket, hot coffee, and yarn and practiced crocheting for 40 minutes. Leila went home with me once they arrived so Cassie could have some alone time to set up. Eddie was SO EXCITED to see Leila come inside our house. He was seriously screaming and clapping his hands out of pure joy! Those two tromped around the house, read books, watched the chickens, and Dave bounced them on the yoga ball. At one point Dave came into the kitchen and said to me, "wow, I can see why Eddie comes home from Cassie's so tired every day--when he's with other big kids he just go-go-GOES!"

We got to see lots of Eddie's friends and their parents at the egg hunt. Most of the kids weren't really interested in collecting eggs, especially once they realized there was candy inside them. Jonah opened one of his eggs and was so confused to see jelly beans falling out onto the ground. He had one half of the plastic shell in each hand and still tried to pick up the beans. But his toddler-sized hands out barely hold the egg shells, let alone anything else. He was getting frustrated and then MY child swooped in, snatched up those beans, and ate them! Poor Jonah. It was sad, but so, so funny. Eddie know candy is a treat so he was stuffing it in his mouth as fast as possible, probably fearing someone would make him stop.

Our cousin Chip is a dentist and he said it is better for kids to have a TON of sugar once in a while, rather than a little bit of sugar all the time (in terms of tooth decay from sugar). This is clearly the doctrine we've established in our household, and Eddie knows it.

Eddie took a good, solid nap that afternoon while I ran downtown to Ace to buy our summer veggies. I brought a $100 bill with me as my budget and easily stuck to it (and even bought 100 pounds of chicken food). I bought starts of tomatoes, peppers, stevia, lemon verbena, and fern cilantro, plus a ton of seeds (cilantro, borage, calendula, Asian greens, chard, tomatillos, okra, dill, basil, an heirloom zucchini I can't name right now).

I spent the rest of the day finalizing the garden beds. Dave had tilled them on Friday so I had to shovel the loosened soil up from the paths and onto the tops of the beds. I also laid out the irrigation lines, tested everything for leaks, and then Dave and I hammered and wired T-posts to hold up the tomato cages. This year our 'mater cages will actually be used as bean trellises since Dave wants to try growing the tomatoes on the ground (it'll be a mess with all those vines on the ground, but that's okay once in a while).

Everything is in bloom here, our yard is looking so nice! (And yes, this is a picture of Eddie with one boot on, playing with an empty distilled water squirt bottle by filling it up with gravel. Isn't this how all 20-month-olds entertain themselves in the suburbs?)

On Sunday I got up and started cooking our Easter meal. We had ham, bunny buns, hot crossed buns, greens, black-eyed peas, fruit and green salads, and deviled eggs. Everything except the ham was vegetarian so Jessica could eat it. Normally we cook the greens and beans with a ham hock, but this time I just used seasonings that are "meaty." For the greens I sauteed some green onions and then reduced a bottle of pilsner beer with the onions until it was all caramelized and delicious. I added two drops of liquid smoke, too. For the beans I used Spike seasoning and more sauteed green onion. No one missed the meat in either dish.

Once Eddie went down for his nap, Dave and I got busy sweeping/vacuuming/moping the floors, dusting, and setting up the patio for our guests.

Around 2pm my mom and Gayla arrived and by 4pm John and Jessica came with a "dirty pudding" and Lucas bought too many delicious desserts from Nugget. It was a fun, yummy meal! After we'd all eaten, my mom and I brought out the Easter treats: Palmer's hallow chocolate bunnies, sacks of little candies made by my mom, and a bucket of goodies for Eddie. The Easter bunny brought Eddie some candies, chalk, and fizzy dinosaur eggs for the bath (he thought they were giant candies...sorry to disappoint you, kid...). Gayla brought him a cool Diego safari truck toy, which he has really enjoyed playing with.

I think Eddie ate his weight in chocolate that evening.

John and Jessica are scheduled to have their babies in about a week. I can't believe their much-anticipated darlings will be here so soon! And that in two years they'll be dealing with two times the chaos that I have to deal with right now. But I'm sure they'll handle it with more grace than I ever could. (I need to plan the Schwind twins birth celebratory meal! It'll be a feast of epic proportions considering there are TWO babies! John is Italian and Jessica is a Georgia Peach. I should do a Yankee/Rebel themed dinner!)

That night as I was putting laundry away in our room, I found two little insulated cups I had bought for Eddie's Easter bucket. I was SO bummed that I'd forgotten to include them because I know he'll absolutely love them (he loves anything with a straw that remotely resembles something adults use). I was really looking forward to seeing his face when he opened them up. They are in the dishwasher now so once I know they are clean I'll give them to him.

Food Budget

My friend Mariah wanted to know what other families' food budgets looked like because she's having issues paring hers down. So I got to thinking about how much we actually spend on food, where we buy it, and how much our resulting meals tend to cost. I am a little surprised it is so high! (These numbers are my estimate based on what I am used to forking over at the cash register...and includes non-food household items like cleaners, toiletries, etc.)
From these numbers I can make "per meal" calculations based on my eating at home roughly 19 times per week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), Dave eating there 8 times per week, and Eddie 16 times per week. This food budget does NOT include: coffees, cookies, and lunches I buy at school a few times a week or any weekend eating out we do.

These tallies seem like a lot. In fact, from all the home economics reading I've done over the last several years, $3/home cooked meal IS a lot. Most people aim for under $2. But since I make all our own food from scratch, we're heavy on produce, AND our meals are super flavorful/inventive I'm actually okay with it. I could probably cut this expenditure by at least half if we ate really boring meals (Moneysavingmom.com touts this practice as a money-saving tactic...but her family doesn't mind "plain" food. I just can't handle that, since cooking is a passion/hobby of mine.)

So here's what we actually spent last year, according to our online records (with our estimated non-food costs deducted from the Costco category and what is hopefully an over-estimate for the cash category).Not too surprisingly, we spent about $31 a week at cafes and restaurants. I bet the 2011 amount for this category will be a lot less than this since we really don't go out much anymore because it is just too hard to do with Eddie. Honestly, we avoid eating out with Eddie at all costs these days. He doesn't sit still so one of us ends up entertaining him outside while the other one eats alone. So when we do eat out together, it is usually Costco pizza once a week. Who knew a toddler could curb your dining habits so much?
One caveat to all this is that we live in Northern California where everything is relatively expensive.

• A gallon of non-rBST milk is $2.89 at the regular store or as low as $2.30 at Costco in a two pack.
  
• "Good" apples range from $0.99-1.20/pound on sale.
  
• A pound of sharp cheddar is about $8.
  
• Our favorite (cheap) cut of beef steak is Chateaubriand and runs about $3/pound at the regular grocery store.)

I could also squeeze in junk food like crackers, chips, sodas, etc. for almost nothing if I used coupons and haunted stores for sales...but we don't like those foods AND I don't have time to clip coupons at this point in my life. Actually, if I didn't force Eddie to eat so much fruit and cheese for his snacks and instead gave him crackers all the time, our budget would probably drop noticeably!

And speaking of which: my "per meal" is artificially high here since I didn't deduct the cost of the snacks we eat (fruit, cheese, occasional crackers, etc.).

How much do YOU spend on food each month?