In the Kitchen | Veggies & Cold Brew

One of my favorite times of the year is here...

CSA season!!! Our local CSA is Good Earth Farm and they are wonderful! We get a small share since it's just the two of us, and it's usually more than enough (and then some). Our first delivery looks great and I really can't wait to gobble this up!

Did you notice the jar of dark deliciouness back behind the veggies? Yeah, I love coffee and with the warm weather... it's cold brew season!

I recently ordered some cold brew CoffeeSock filters to add to the already amazing Cuppow products we stock at Firefly Fibers and this week I finally tried one out...

In summary... The CoffeeSock is fabulous - the clean up is so easy - and the cold brew is delicious! All you need is a 64oz (half gallon) canning jar, 6 oz of ground coffee, filtered water, and 12-14 hours of patience to wait for it to be ready. Sadly, staring at it doesn't make it brew any faster.

 It's well worth the wait and I'm sure to be full caffeinated the entire summer!

I'm off to get some packing done. We're getting ready to take a vacation next week - yes, you read correctly... a vacation. My dear cousin is kind enough to let Mr. Logan stay in her home, so he needed to get cleaned up. This last week we headed off to the doggie salon...

The poor boy had no idea of what torture laid ahead, but after some kicking and screaming with mama's departure during the drop off, he sure looks and smells awesome now!

Cheers!

In the Kitchen | CSA Dreaming

With warmer weather on the horizon, I'm anxiously thinking ahead to the warmth of June - it has to warm up, right? - and the warmer weather means this deliciousness will begin:

We've been going the CSA route for a few years now and last year our farmer retired - thankfully, one of our fellow members was kind enough to find another CSA for us. Our new farmers, Nicole & Joe, are pretty fabulous and I have nothing but praise for Good Earth Farm and the amazing produce we get from them each week.

Their new logo is pretty awesome too:

If you haven't tried a CSA and love fresh produce, I highly recommend joining one. The upfront cost can seem like a lot, but over the course of the summer our grocery shopping is pretty minimal since we're not generally purchasing much - if any - produce. I love that our food is grown locally and the quality with our CSA is top-notch. This was another weekly delivery from last summer:

If you're not familiar with the CSA concept, you can read about it here on the Local Harvest website and you can even check for availability in your area. If you're local to the Beaver Dam, WI area, there are still shares available with Good Earth Farm in a variety of sizes, along with some fabulous add-on options including: bread, fruit, mushrooms, and a late season share! As of the beginning of April they are about 80% full, so there aren't many shares left.

Visit this page on the Good Earth Farm website to get details on joining.

They also have a newsletter with recipes and other great information - you can find several years of archived issues here and they're available even if you're not a member.

Do you have questions or a CSA experience to share? Just leave a comment below - I love hearing from you!

Many thanks to Nicole and Joe for everything you and your workers do to provide our family with amazing food each week! We're excited for the 2014 season to kick off!

Treats and Driver's Seats

I found this "recipe" for crock pot dolche de leche shortly before the holidays and decided to give it a try. Simply pouring sweetened condensed milk in some jars and putting them in the crock pot for a few hours with water seemed way too easy. BUT... I figured it didn't require too much effort on my part, so it was worth a try. Good news! It wasn't too good to be true and it made great holiday gifts (2 batches worth) and I made another batch last week. This is what you do:

Yup, simple. I used 3 cans of sweetened condensed milk for 4 half-pints and this leaves just a wee bit leftover (perfect for coffee or tea). After filling the jars, into the crock pot they go, cover them with water and set on low for 8-10 hours (adjust the time depending on how dark you like your dolche de leche). Tip: add a splash of vinegar to the water bath to avoid sediment adhering to the jars and crock pot. 

That's all there is to it and it's absolutely delicious! I've been enjoying in on apples and I can't wait to try it on some ice cream!

On a healthier front...

I decided it was time to use up some of the last of our CSA carrots for this Carrot Butter recipe. I used cashews instead of macadamia nuts and, of course, I used some of our precious homemade maple syrup I blogged about back in April.

After trying to patiently wait for the carrot butter to cool, we finally enjoyed it with a baguette and a healthy handful of chopped parsley. We still have quite a bit left from our late season CSA deliveries and I'm already planning something with squash for this weekend - a soup, perhaps?

And... much to the pleasure of my feet during the Wisconsin winter, I finished these socks:

They fit great and I love the longer cuff! I also made some progress on hubby's worsted weight socks that I mentioned last time. He tried on the cuff and it fits perfectly so I'm confident it will be a great fit for him (and a quick knit for me). Onto the heel!

I'll leave you with this, and hopefully my guy makes you smile:

Logan is quite the car companion and he's recently discovered that he can manage to fit his 112 lbs into his new favorite place - the driver's seat. 

Cheers!