Fair Shares: Week Three

week 3 stash

We're still enjoying our membership to Fair Shares and we are always eager to find out what we get each week!  Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we had a Tuesday pick-up.  There was a special surprise this week--a Kakao Marshmallow Pie.  Jason and I split this with my parents yesterday and it was really yummy!  The Hummus is delicious too!  Much to my surprise I like Japanese turnips RAW!  They are actually pretty tasty and make a good snack.  Jason used last week's turnips in the beef stew he cooked tonight and they were excellent, too.  And to think all of this time, I thought I hated turnips, who knew?

Japanese turnips--a little different than last week's version, but still pretty nonetheless.

Week 3:

• Herbs en Route--Thyme 
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (half gone)
  
• Japanese Turnips (half gone)
  
• Blue Heron Jalapenos 
  
• Local Harvest Hummus (half gone)
  
• Heartland Chevre (this is really soft goat cheese, not too sure about it)
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs  
  
• Seven Thunder Bison-ground 
  
• Tessa's Peanut Butter (good and not as sweet as regular PB, definitely better than the natural stuff I bought at Costco, Amelia had PB&Honey sandwich today and didn't bat an eye)
  
• Lee Acorn Squash 
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes 
  
• Companion Potato Thyme Bread (interesting bread with chunks of potatoes cooked in, half gone, good with hummus)
  
• Esther's Honey 
  
• Kakao Marshmallow Pies (GONE!)
  

Here are the items from the last two weeks we still need to use:

• Chervil (still waiting, patiently)
  
• Ground Beef (frozen, so I am not too worried about this)
  
• Pie Pumpkin (turning into a pumpkin pie this weekend!)
  
• Sweet potatoes (one from last week and those from this week are going to be for our Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Sunday).
  
• Mushrooms (I need to figure something out soon, I found a risotto recipe that looks good)
  
• Mangia Tomato Vermicelli (good until 12/15--should make for an easy dinner one night)
  
• Potatoes (used 1/2 this week, will probably use the rest for mashed potatoes on Sunday)

Let's Eat the Turkey in My Big Brown Shoe!

As Adam Sandler once said, "Thanksgiving is a special night".  

And I would have to agree, although around here its been a "special month".  I don't believe I have ever reflected on the meaning of Thanksgiving as much as I have this year.  This is mostly due to the fact that I have a two year old who kind of, sort of "gets it".  But, its also because I have so much to be thankful for, it seems that things just keep getting better with each passing year.

We've read many books this month about the Thanksgiving holiday and its traditions.  Amelia, Jason, and I have had some interesting discussions about things we are thankful for during the last couple of weeks.  One day (without being prompted, I swear!) when I asked Amelia what she was thankful for, she said, "You Mommy! I am thankful for you!".  Another time when asked the same question, she said, "Me thankful for John McCain".  Regardless of the answers she gave, I was wrote them down and added them to our thankful turkey.  I am so proud that she even mentioned some of her friends by name (seriously, no prompting here people!).

These were the things Amelia mentioned as we talked about thankfulness each day:

Natalie (after seeing her at story time)

Books

Grandparents

Nate and Grace (after an awesome playdate at their house)

Andrew (after hearing a song he sang and sent to GG and Papa)

John McCain (still don't get this one??)

olives (after having them with dinner one night)

the Beast (self-explanatory)

Uncle Dave (after giving her a new set of Belle dishes)

Sean (the day after she played with him at Pump It Up)

mommy (yeah!)

Truman (our dog)

Daddy

Belle (no shocker here)

The other things from our turkey (Amelia, our health, library, and grandparents) were added by me.  I would love to keep our thankful turkey up as a reminder to focus on our blessings all year, not just around Thanksgiving time.

And so ends the turkey posts, I suppose, for another year--now THAT is something to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't Come Here if You're Sick of Turkeys!

Yes, I know, another freakin' post with a turkey. I think there is only one more.

Bear with me, Amelia can't grasp much else with this holiday just yet.  And, this is probably my favorite turkey-inspired activity so far.

I came across this idea HERE and immediately sent an email to my mom begging for her help (and scrap material and stuffing).  We doubled the material, traced Amelia's hand, cut it out and sewed it up and I already loved it so much I almost didn't do anything else to it. For the record, I did all of the sewing on the project.  Amelia's hand is so tiny that it was a little tricky for this novice sewer (hmm...is that the word?  Looks like the word that means an underground carriage system for transporting sewage).   

Then, we stuffed it and sewed up the bottom.  Amelia got a big kick out of seeing it in 3D form.

Once home, I made a waddle and beak for him.  Again, I almost stopped there--it was already so cute with her little hand, I could stand it!  

After some debating, I finally broke down and made some wings, feathers, and eyes to add to our little hand turkey.  It turned out so cute!  The pictures don't do it justice.

I wasn't able to follow the exact directions listed on the site because Amelia's hand is so tiny.  So, on my turkey, you can see all of the stitches and thread, but I actually like the way it looks. I am hoping to be motivated enough to do this on a yearly basis so we will have a whole collection to show how Amelia's hands have grown each year.

Turkey Overload

I made the decision following Halloween that I would not overlook Thanksgiving this year and I would fight the urge to jump straight into Christmas.  But, we are loaded down at our house with turkeys everywhere!  We have a turkey on our front door, turkey cookies in the kitchen, our thankful turkey hanging on the basement door, and turkey books scattered throughout the house.  And, I am sorry to say that this probably won't be the last post about turkeys!

A turkey even waddled its way into lunch today. I was feeling adventurous, but not at all creative.  Seems that when I want to make something fun for Amelia to eat, I always want to put the food in the form of a smiley face (AKA the winking guy).  I turned to LITTLE NUMMIES for some motivation.  This site is incredible if you are looking for ways to make lunch fun for your toddler (or your spouse!).  I was just about to build a bunny sandwich for Amelia before I came across this turkey idea instead.  And because of our recent obsession with turkeys, I just couldn't pass it up.

This could be made an infinite number of ways, but here's what I did.  The turkey body is bread coated with pumpkin butter (Amelia's new favorite). The eyes are Cheerios with raisin middles.  The beak and legs are swiss cheese and the waddle is a stretched out fruit snack.  The feathers are pieces of bread covered in peanut butter and topped with Cheerios, raisins, Goldfish, and dried apricots.  

Amelia "gobbled" most of it up.  She ate the entire body in record time and ate about half of the feathers.  She rejected the cheese for what I think is the first time ever in her life--I guess she isn't into Swiss :)

Run, Jodi, Run

For the second year in a row, I decided to run the Jingle Bell Run!  I am ssssssssssssooooooooo NOT a runner in any sense of the word, but the 5K was for a good cause and its really a great challenge for me--3.1 miles seems to be about my limit.

Sure, I had dreams of running a half marathon sometime in my life, but in reality, I don't really think that is a reality.  At least not where I am in my life right now.  I don't have the the desire, time, or motivation.

And for the record, I didn't have much motivation on Sunday either.  I hadn't run in about a month (I'm kind of a wimp about running in the cold weather) and it was about 20 degrees outside when I woke up.  But, like last year, my goal was to finish the race without stopping.  I really did not think there wasn't going to be any way I was going to accomplish this, but I guess there is something to be said about race day endorphins because I made it!  My time was only about 2 minutes slower than last year's time, which I consider to be pretty good since I was actually training for the race last year.

And lucky for me, I got to share the experience with some of my Fit Momma workout friends and my running buddy, Susie.  The picture was taken post-race, tell me we don't look good!  There was seven of us this year from the group and everyone did a GREAT job--I was one very proud momma on Sunday.

Very proud and very sore that is.  By the time I returned home, I was in pain and beat.  Jason took one look at me and cancelled all plans for the day.  He built a nice fire and I spent most of the day near it on the couch reading Eclipse and resting.  

Reading, resting, and maybe milking it just a little bit.

Party Girl

Our weekends have been pretty low key since Halloween, but this past Friday and Saturday, things picked up again.  Parties were the theme of the weekend and Amelia enjoyed every bit of it!

On Friday, we were invited to attend a birthday party for two children of one of the moms in my playgroup.  The party was at PUMP IT UP in St. Charles and although we've been to this sort of inflatable party place once before, Amelia seemed even more excited this time!  She moved non-stop from the time we entered the play area:  climbing, sliding, and jumping all around everywhere.  

All of the pictures show her and Jason playing, but I got in there with her, too.  Its hard to pass it up when it looks like so much fun!  Of course, Jason bore the brunt of it, to give me a chance to catch up with some of my mom friends from our playgroup.

We were unsure how Amelia would do given the fact that the party started when she usually goes down for bed.  That, coupled with the sugar overload of cake and ice cream at 8:30 and we thought for sure we were in trouble.  But, much to our surprise, she came home, went to bed without any objections, fell asleep quickly, and slept until 9:00 AM Saturday morning.

There was a very similar story on Saturday night.  We attended a party--this time an annual bonfire in Millstadt, IL hosted by the parents of one of my college roommates.  We've been attending for several years, but this was Amelia's first time.  She behaved in much the same way--going non-stop the entire time we were there and attempting to fill her mouth (and stomach) with an assortment of foods and drinks, many of which were sugar filled.  Again, the party started at her exact usual bedtime and again she didn't seem to notice or mind.  She danced the night away and kept her parents on their toes insisting on switching from inside to outside and back every 4 minutes or so.  

One of the best things about these annual bonfires besides the food and drink, is that it gives us a chance to catch up with some of our college friends.  Unfortunately, Jason and I didn't get to do much catching up given Amelia's need to be chased and corralled the entire time we were there.  I can think of one less bonfire attendee next year!

I assumed she would crash during the 40 minute drive home given her demanding schedule for the previous two days, but instead she just became incredibly chatty the whole way home.  This seems to be par for the course now:  the more tired she is, the more chatty she becomes.  Again she went to bed with no objections and slept until nearly 9 AM on Sunday morning.

Much of Sunday was spent resting around the house in front of a roaring fire.  But poor Amelia seems to STILL be catching up on sleep from the weekend! 

Gobble, Gobble!

Grandma came over for a little bit on Saturday to play with Amelia, so we thought it might be fun to make some cookies together.  I found them HERE and was pretty proud of myself for choosing a recipe where I actually had to bake something, as opposed to just assembling the pieces.

For this recipe you need:

Sugar cookie dough (homemade or pre-made from the store)

white frosting

black decorating frosting

orange decorating frosting

mini M&Ms

candy corn

Amelia enjoyed decorating her cookies and making a couple of abstract turkeys.

She also liked organizing all of the M&Ms.  It seemed like a lot were put directly into her mouth.

I love these little cookies, but have you noticed a theme with our holiday celebrating?  I may need to start exploring activities outside of the food realm or we are going to all end up overweight and diabetic!

Caution: Hot (Purple) Wax

On Friday, Amelia took a super long nap.  Jason and I had already decided we were going to eat dinner out on the way to a birthday party, which left lots of time (way too much, perhaps) for me to try a crafty project.

I found this idea HERE and thought these shape crayons might make a good stocking stuffer for Amelia.  Plus I like the whole reduce, reuse, recycle aspect.  We haven't accumulated a huge stash of broken crayons just yet, so I raided my childhood crayon box last week that my mom keeps at her house.  I scored some candy molds at Michael's for 40% off ($1.20 before tax), so I was on my way....or so I thought.

I broke up the broken crayons into smaller pieces, putting about 3-4 crayons in each muffin tin.  I decided on 6 colors because I wanted to make the race car shaped ones really bad thinking they would be the perfect shape to color with and there were 6 cars in the mold.

I popped the tray into the oven and the crayons were melted in no time.  Things were going good! 

I put the mold on a cooling rack and attempted to pour the hot purple wax into it.  Well, because the mold was really for making fancy candy pretzels, some of the wax poured out of the end where they was a opening for the pretzel to slide in.  I was a little nervous when some of it landed on my beige countertop that shows EVERYTHING.  So, I reached for a paper towel and slid the cooling rack over a bit.  I got most of the wax up, but needed to move the rack just a little more to get the rest.  Apparently, I moved it too much and next thing I knew the rack, mold, and all of the hot purple wax were everywhere.  

So, the next 30 minutes were spent cleaning up the wax off of everything with the help of my iron and a half a roll of paper towels.  It was such a mess since the wax dried instantly and stuck securely to whatever it landed on.

Disgusted with myself, but too proud to ditch the project altogether, I decided to give it another go following my clean up efforts.  This time, I used the transportation mold I bought and things went much smoother.  The hot wax went right in, the crayons cooled and hardened, and then when they were ready, I popped them right out.

They turned out pretty good.  I would probably try to add another broken crayon or two next time to make the molds a little fuller.  If I am in a brave kind of mood, I might attempt this project again--assuming I can track down some more broken crayons somewhere....

Turnip Pic

Wanted to post a picture of my beautiful turnips. Everytime I attempted to add it to the previous post, it changed the format in the most annoying way!  Sometimes blogger can be so frustrating!

Fair Shares: Week Two

We are into week two of our Fair Shares membership and have been very, very happy with everything so far.  There is definitely an addition in week 2's bag that makes me a little nervous, but before I get into that, I want to talk about the week one food and the progress we made getting through it. (I'm sorry if this bores you to tears, this is the best way to track what we've finished and what we still need to consume).

To recap, week one included the following:

• Herbs en Route Chervil (haven't touched it, not sure what to do with it.  Its waiting patiently in the fridge for us to figure it out).
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (I was a little skeptical as organic apples aren't very attractive and they are rather small, BUT these tasted excellent, were the perfect size, and we've consumed them all)
  
• Biver Farm Lettuce Mix (finished this tonight, love this BEAUTIFUL lettuce! Yay!)
  
• Rutherford Farm Pea shoots (I like these too, they've worked well in the salads we've been eating.  We are about halfway through the bag--there was a lot! These would be great for sandwiches, but we haven't had any sandwiches this week) 
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs (I was naive and thought these brown eggs might taste different than the white variety we are used to.  Nope, couldn't tell a difference.  We are exactly half way through the dozen).
  
• Heartland Legacy Cheese (Yummy!  This was the first thing gone--it took about 3 days.  Amelia was a big help with this).
  
• Local Harvest Black Bean Dip (Um, in all my excitement last week, I seem to have missed picking this up--oops!) 
  
• American Grassfed Ground Beef (Haven't tried it yet, not thrilled that it is 80/20, but I'm sure we'll use it at some point).
  
• Lee Acorn Squash (made this tonight!  I liked it!  Amelia didn't want to try it and Jason wasn't sure of the texture.  Good thing it was only a small serving.  I ended up following the advice of a commenter and cut it in half, put it cut side down in a little water, covered with foil and baked at 350 F until soft.  Added a little butter and brown sugar--turned out great, or at least I thought so!).
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes (made one early in the week, mashed with carrots and raisins--was delicious!  Amelia ate a huge bowl of it and then ate the leftovers two days later.  I still have another sweet potato left to use).
  
• Biver Farm Pie Pumpkins (hoping to tackle this over the weekend.  Will most likely become a pie or pumpkin soup. I am cautiously optimistic about cooking it.  We will be roasting the seeds too).
  
• Companion Miller's 5 grain (Yummy!  Great with the cheese and the second thing to go).
  
• San Luis Tortilla Chips (ate these all week and finished them last night when we made nachos/tacos.  Really good and a lot!).
  
• Chef Mel's Salsa (Unusual taste and is actually a little sweet.  Its pretty spicy, but the more I have it, the more I like it.  Was especially good on the taco I had last night.  We are about halfway through the jar--we've been eating it a lot with the chips).

I feel pretty good about week one, we are definitely eating better already.  Amelia has tried most of the things we've tried and liked almost everything.  Let's hope we can keep this up!

Here's week two's stash:

• Yellow Wood Farm Lettuce Mix 
  
• Ozark Forest Mushrooms 
  
• Biver Farm Japanese Turnips 
  
• Mangia Tomato Vermicelli 
  
• American Grassfed Beef--Stew Meat 
  
• NW Coffee 
  
• Schwarz Farm Kennebec Potatoes 
  
• Black Bear Bakery Rosemary Olive Bread 
  

I am pretty happy with our selection here as well.  We started eating the lettuce mix tonight and also enjoyed some of the Rosemary Olive Bread--both were good.  Since we don't drink coffee (at home anyway), we swapped it for two good sized chunks of cheese.  I was a little nervous at how the swapping process would go down, but it couldn't be easier.  I have no clue what I will be doing with the turnips, but they sure are pretty!  The mushrooms are an interesting assortment, not sure what to do with those either since Jason can be a little squeamish with them, but I am sure we will find something!  Also, other than a quick trip to get an item or two, I haven't had to go grocery shopping!  That's the best news of all!

My Crunchy Little Friends

I am a leaf lover, I admit it.  No kidding, I am!  I love the fragile, brand new ones that come with spring, the strong, waxy, green ones of mid-summer, and the beautifully colored ones that grace us each fall.  The only form of the leaf I don't care for is the one that shows up right before winter.  The dried, brown crunchy variety that cover the ground when the first snowfall comes.   The kind that my dog and my kid and my husband track into the house on a daily basis.  The kind that as soon as you touch them, they fall into a billion pieces.  The kind that you hear on every horror flick as the boogeyman tracks down his victim in the woods.  

Today we were stuck at home waiting for the delivery of our new stove.  I thought this was the perfect chance to try this craft using these annoying little brown monsters.  So, I headed out and collected a bucket full of dried leaves from my backyard.

I brought them in and Amelia instinctively knew what to do with them.  She immediately began to crunch them up into tiny pieces.  And despite my pleas to "keep them in the bowl please!", they soon spread to the table, the chair where she was sitting, the chair where I was sitting, the floor, the dog's food bowl, the kitchen sink, and in her freakin' bed, one story up.  Before my very eyes, these things were multiplying!

After they were all scrunched up, Amelia decided she was "all done", so we took a break.  Essentially, that meant that the leaves were then spread throughout the family room and playroom as well.  She was soon ready to return to the craft, I can only assume she was looking for more opportunities to distribute the leaves throughout the house.

I drew some leaf shapes on the paper with glue and then she slowly sprinkled the dry leaves on top of the outline.  

I really wish I knew the website where I got this idea because they turned out WAY better than ours!  

We tried two leaves before deciding that maybe a tree would be a better bet.  Amelia was eager to fill in the tree (I think she was relieved that I was drawing something she could actually recognize) and we even made a big leaf pile too!

Then, we went about the process of de-leafing the house.  Which apparently is going to be an ongoing project.  After vacuuming the entire house this evening, I found no less than 13 leaf fragments after the vacuum was safely returned to the closet and I have a feeling those aren't the last I will be seeing.

But just for the record--it was totally worth it!

Kaitlyn is Sick

This story was brought to my attention by a fellow mom from one of my playgroups.  Its the story of a little girl named Kaitlyn from St. Peters.  She is a four year old with a disease called Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome (OMS).  It is so incredibly rare, that only 1 in 10,000,000 children have it.  Only 80 other children in the world have it and as of right now that is no cure.  Apparently, the OMS thinks the back of her brain is a tumor and is trying to kill it.  Needless to say, she is on multiple medications, has monthly IV treatments, daily shots, and numerous painful and invasive tests.

You can read more about Kaitlyn HERE.

Although none of us know Kaitlyn personally, our group has learned that she enjoys receiving mail.  She apparently waits for the mailman everyday and her family even has a bed set up near the window so that she can watch even when she isn't feeling well.

The charity organizer in our playgroup does an incredible job and set up a sign up sheet for people to take turns sending Kaitlyn mail.  Our week was this week, so Amelia and I had a blast coloring pictures for her and making a sign with her name on it.  Amelia also picked out stickers to send to her in the envelope.  She obviously didn't grasp exactly what we were doing, but she kept saying things like "Kaitlyn is sick" and "This sticker help Kaitlyn feel better".

My real point to posting all of this is that I am hoping others who read this blog would want to send Kaitlyn some mail and brighten her day.  If you are interested, you can email me for her address or check her WEBSITE, where it is posted.  

The Magic of the Kabob

Much like the novelty of eating from a muffin tin, eating food skewered onto a plastic spear seems to also yield admirable results.  

Okay, so the word spear may be pushing it a bit.  I actually use a plastic stick that came from a popsicle making kit I scored at Target for like 74 cents.  Regardless, any food that I make into a kebob (seriously, did you know this word has like 6 different spellings?), Amelia will consume.

Being Tuesday (the day I work), dinner is usually either always something super easy like spaghetti or it is something one of us can pick up on the way home.  Tonight, Jason arrived home 15 minutes early and had 'Breakfast for Dinner' night nearly fully prepared by the time Amelia and I walked through the door.

At first Jason was going to make Amelia a "pancake sandwich", which I myself was eager to see.  But, in the end, he opted for the ever popular skewer instead.  Tonight's kebab was made up of pineapple, sausage, pancake, and apples alternating along the plastic rod.  It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but I certainly wasn't complaining and neither was Amelia!  She stepped it up and ate two skewers full of food AND an ENTIRE piece of toast spread with pumpkin butter.  She then was allowed to eat the candy bracelet GG so kindly gave her today before she left.  After she finished the bracelet, she reached across the table and swiped another entire sausage link and polished that off in about 60 seconds.  

I'm thinking a growth spurt may be to blame..or maybe it was just the magic of the kabab.

Happy Fall!

Thought I better throw this fall picture up on the blog before winter fully sets in.  I, for one, am already counting down to summer.  Brrrr.

Fair Shares

If you are a regular reader, I am sure you get sick of hearing me talk about how ideal our life was in Chicago.  Many of the benefits were health related.  Even though Chicago is considered the Fattest City in America, I was skinnier and healthier there than I am now.  

Aside from living in a walking neighborhood (the one we shared with Barack Obama which by the way was featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch "Explore" section this weekend.  They featured one of our favorite restaurants--Medici AND 57th Street Bookstore where Amelia and I used to head for story time), we were a block away from an incredible produce market and our neighborhood had a weekly Farmer's Market 3 blocks from our apartment.

As if that wasn't enough, a HUGE farmer's market was set up in Lincoln Park each weekend--a short ride for us on a train.  Many of our friends and neighbors opted to become involved in a food co-op where they would receive bags of fresh produce each week, most of which was organic.  

I have always been interested in these Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Cooperatives. I figured once we left a progressive city like Chicago, we also left our opportunity to be involved in a program like this. We had ventured out to the St. Charles Farmer's market last summer and were extremely disappointed with what we found.  Perhaps it had to do with the widespread flooding in our area or maybe we witnessed a typical Saturday at the market. Either way, we decided it wasn't really even worth the drive down to the river to check it out again.

Then, a month or so later, I came across FAIR SHARES, which is a combined CSA that has a goal of getting "fresh, local, seasonal food into the hands of more St. Louisians".  They support sustainable farming techniques and much of the food is organic.  This program not only provides fresh produce, but also includes meat, bread, eggs, cheese, and various other goodies each week.

So, I joined the waiting list months ago and last week I got an email informing me of an opening for the remaining 18 weeks of this year's schedule.  The organizers offered a one-week trial and we jumped at the chance.  We had our first pick-up on Wednesday and this is what was included:

• Herbs en Route Chervil 
  
• Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix 
  
• Biver Farm Lettuce Mix 
  
• StC only-Rutherford Farm Pea shoots 
  
• River Hills Poultry Alliance Eggs 
  
• Heartland Legacy Cheese 
  
• Local Harvest Black Bean Dip 
  
• American Grassfed Ground Beef 
  
• Lee Acorn Squash 
  
• Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes 
  
• Biver Farm Pie Pumpkins 
  
• Companion Miller's 5 grain 
  
• San Luis Tortilla Chips 
• Chef Mel's Salsa

We weren't really sure what to expect as we are quite new at this whole experience, but we were pleasantly surprised.  It feels like we got good, quality food and a good amount of it.  My favorite so far has been the cheese and the lettuce mix (which I know doesn't sound too exciting, but it is really great!).  Jason's favorite is the bread.  We decided to commit for the remaining 17 weeks. (I realize this post would be WAY MORE exciting if I had a picture of our goods, but I just accidentally deleted it from my camera...ugh).

One of the best parts of joining a program like this is also one of the scariest parts.  We have no control over the items we get each week and some of the items that could come our way make me a little nervous because I do not know what to do with them (radishes, lamb, trout, match meat), but luckily Jason is not a bit concerned and he really is the chef in the family.  We have already been thinking creatively about how to use items like the pumpkin and the acorn squash--items we wouldn't normally pick up to eat ourselves.  We've also enjoyed getting to know the pea shoots and this week we are hoping to have Mashed Sweet Potatoes! The Fair Shares newsletters include recipes to demonstrate how to use some of the more obscure items and the website has a forum where members can also offer recipes, tips, and ask questions. I (think) I am looking forward to the challenge.

Unfortunately, our oven has some serious poor timing.  Last Sunday, when Jason was attempting to make a pot roast, he noticed that despite the oven being set to a very high temperature, the roast was not cooking.  After further investigation, we decided that our oven, in fact, was on its last leg.  We ordered a new one over the weekend, which will be here on Wednesday--just in time for our next Fair Shares pick-up and the adventures it will bring in the kitchen!

Take Your Pick

My little lady can be a bit of a picky eater at times.  Granted, she is two, and I think it is a typical trait of children her age more than anything.  She will put down any fruit I put in front of her, some vegetables, every cereal known to man, pancakes, and a handful of other things.  Most of the time she is content with what we serve her, but there are times that it is a downright chore to get anything down her little throat.

Its during those times that I have to become creative.  Sometimes that involves pulling out the bottle of sprinkles (because she will seriously eat ANYTHING with sprinkles on it!), making her food into shapes of well liked objects like the "winking guy", giving ultimatums (To get movie time, you have to eat three more bites), eating bites together as a family (yes, this actually works for whatever reason--I don't question these things), and pretending her food is a favorite character needing her help ( in a distressed voice, I may say "Amelia, its me, Belle.  I need your help!  I have to hide from the Beast" at which time she will open her mouth and eat the food/Belle.  I feel absolutely ridiculous doing it, but it works, so I will continue to do it).

So, although Amelia hasn't been in a particular food funk, per se, I have been wanting to try these muffin tin meals that I keep seeing all over the internet.  There is a whole gang of moms who hold "muffin tin Mondays" where they serve their child's meal in a muffin tin, take pictures of it, and then blog each Monday about what they served and how it went over.  These women and culinary creations are incredible!  Some even make shapes with the food, some follow themes each week, and a select talented few base their Muffin Tin meal on a favorite book loved by their child.  I am certainly not that creative, but have been wanting to see if serving lunch in a muffin tin would be a new stunt I could add to my current bag o' tricks for when Amelia is being picky.

As a note, I have been wanting to try this for a looooonnnnnnggggg time, but I only have two muffin tins.  One I would never dream of using to serve ANYTHING to ANYONE and the other is a mini muffin pan which means I would have to come up with 12 things to serve instead of just an already difficult six items.

When I got out all of the fall decorations, I came across this brand new 6-cup muffin tin I bought on super clearance last year after Halloween.  The fact that the "cups" are pumpkin shaped only made it all the more exciting for Amelia.  She exceeded my expectations and ate NEARLY EVERY MORSEL of food I put in for her.  (I should have taken an "after" picture, but I was in too much shock).  Granted, the things I served were all tried and true favorites of hers, but still!

Our first Muffin Tin Lunch included peas, cheese, applesauce (with sprinkles of course), pineapple chunks, turkey dogs, and ketchup.  It was a huge success and I plan on using it lots more, especially during those picky eating phases.  

Hats Off!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been scouting out some Thanksgiving activities to do with Amelia this year.  It is not all that easy to find something fun to do, as many of the sights I check seemed to have skipped over Thanksgiving and are moving on to Christmas already.

Thanks to FAMILY FUN, though for coming to the rescue with this Pilgrim Hat cookie idea.  I had some leftover chocolate almond bark from dipping pretzels a few weekends ago which worked out perfectly.  This was a great "recipe" because Amelia could do just about every step!

You need:

24 chocolate striped cookies

12 oz of chocolate chips

24 marshmallows

yellow decorating icing (we just dyed plain vanilla icing and piped it through a ziploc bag)

First, set the cookies stripes down on a cookie sheet.  Melt the chocolate chips (or in my case almond bark) on the microwave.

One at a time, stick a wooden toothpick into each marshmallow and dip it into the melted chocolate.  Immediately place the dipped marshmallow in the center of the cookie.  Use a second toothpick to help in getting the marshmallow off of the first toothpick.

Chill the hats until the chocolate sets and then pipe a yellow buckle on the front of each hat.

  

Fun and easy and when Amelia lost interest, she just helped herself to a chocolate dipped marshmallow!  And then when they were all finished, she wanted to try one on..which is, of course, where I drew the line.