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.

Turkey Time

As tempted as I was to start talking Christmas once we put the Halloween decorations away, this year, I am determined to not let Thanksgiving be overshadowed.  It really is an important holiday and I would like to teach Amelia about "thankfulness" early on.

Easier said than done.  We sat down to make a Thankful Turkey and talk about things we are thankful for.  She obviously did not understand what I was talking about, so I tried a different approach.  I asked her what things make her happy and we also talked about the best part of her day in an effort to come up with something more concrete.  I didn't get much, but the two things she mentioned were Truman (our dog) and Daddy.  Ouch.  I added that I was thankful for our health (since we've all been sick in the past month and we are currently all well). 

Making the turkey was the fun part.  After a recent visit from my PAT educator, I realized the importance of allowing Amelia to tear things--something I usually avoid letting her do at all costs!  We tore up brown paper for the body, added a face with googly eyes, and some scrawny turkey legs.  I cut out lots of extra feathers so that we can add more things we are thankful for daily.  Since the pictures were taken, Amelia's added "books" and her friends "Nate and Grace" who had us over for a great playdate on Friday.  I added "Amelia" for obvious reasons and also "grandparents" since they treated us to a child-free night on Saturday so that Jason and I could go to dinner and a movie.  True, we ended up deciding to rent a movie instead of seeing one at the theatre so that we could come home and build a fire.  But, Amelia spent the night with grandma and papa so we got to sleep in and get some things done around the house before she rejoined us mid-morning.

I'm on the lookout for some more Thanksgiving projects before its time to dive into Christmas.  I'll be sure to post of picture of our fully feathered Thankful Turkey!

Just a Few More Words....

I don't want to go into too much detail, as I like to keep this blog light, but suffice it to say that Tuesday's election results made me feel extremely joyful and proud of our country.  I will spare you a never-ending blog entry on this topic (that's what my journal is for), I have only a few observations to make on the topic and then I think I will return the blog to its non-partisan self--at least for the next 8 years or so.

1.  This is the third election that I have been able to vote in and it was great to finally vote for the winning candidate!

2. Its a little scary having your candidate win because if you are unhappy with what he does, you have no one to blame but yourself (I do not think this will happen, however).

3.  It was an incredible to vote in such a historic election.  I have fantasies of telling my grandchildren down the road about it.

4. I thought McCain's concession speech was well thought out and it seemed genuine.  

5.  I also enjoyed Obama's acceptance speech, although it brought me great sadness when I learned the next day that he gave it behind bullet proof glass. I also learned that he called off a fireworks display his aides had planned and wanted to keep things simple instead of gloating about his victory.

6.  I looked up Obama's polling place and my old polling place when we lived in Chicago to see if they were the same.  They were not, but they were only 2 blocks apart.  I wonder if his entourage drove by our old apartment on the way there.

7.  I missed living in Chicago briefly when I saw the celebration at Grant Park.  Although, the more I thought about it, I was pretty sure there is no way we would have drug Amelia down to the craziness that was his victory party.

8.  Unlike myself, Amelia will get to vote when she is 18 because she will become of age shortly before the 2024 election.  I missed the 1996 cut off by 2 months and wasn't able to vote until I was almost 22. I guess 2006 was a great year to have a child (given that the child was born before November).

9.  The talk of moving to Canada/Europe/Antarctica that I did when Bush was elected (and re-elected) probably sounded just as ridiculous as it does today.

10.  To borrow a quote from an incredible man who made a great speech on Tuesday, "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer".

Sound Safari

Within minutes of getting home from work on Tuesday, Amelia had earned herself a timeout.  It had been a long day for me and she decided not to nap while visiting her great-grandparents that day.  We desperately needed a new activity to try quick!  I thought this idea sounded fun and since the forecast looked like Tuesday was going to be one of the last nice days, we decided to get out and give it a try.

I copied the chart from THIS BLOG almost exactly changing out a few sounds that I thought were unlikely for us to encounter on our walk with ones I was almost sure we'd hear. Much like she did, I also started out the walk by closing the garage door, which worked like a charm to get Amelia interested in the game.

She loved being able to mark off the sounds she heard by putting a star sticker in the box next to it.  Surprisingly, we heard nearly every sound on the chart (although some of the stickers fell off during our walk).  I think next time I will add lawn mower since 3 different neighbors were also taking advantage of the nice weather by cutting the grass.

We took a fairly long walk (I wanted to waste enough time so that Daddy would be home to help me corral this crabby toddler) and Amelia became disinterested after about 15 minutes.  This was probably because she heard nearly all of the sounds so quickly at the beginning of our walk.  Just as we were arriving back home, she heard another dog bark and wanted to add a second star to the "dog" box.  

I posted the chart on the refrigerator when we got home and she has already asked to play that "game" again.  I think it would be really fun to do a "Sight Safari" too, sort of like an outside "I Spy"!

"Wine" About the Other Guy

Finally. Election Day.

I have been looking forward to this day for, I don't know, the last 8 years or so.  But, I have a busy night of election returns to watch and just wanted to (quickly) share some pictures from our election party on Saturday.

In an effort to keep it light, we thought we would combine politics with wine-tasting hoping to keep the passionate political conversations in check. Similar to the 2004 version of this party, we titled it a "Wine About the Other Guy" party.

Given the already hectic schedule of the weekend, I didn't get a chance to do all of the politically-themed activities I had envisioned, but I did have time to come up with a few.

John McCain greeted people at the door.

Sarah Palin welcomes guests at the kitchen window.

When everyone arrived, they received a ballot and upon filling it in and returning it to the official ballot box, they received an "I Voted" sticker.  The votes were counted after everyone had a chance to participate and Barack Obama won by a landslide.  (Interestingly enough, Hillary and "John" Obama also received a tally mark).

Both candidates platforms were posted for friends and family to do some last minute cramming prior to Tuesday.

Fun facts were posted around the house about both Obama and McCain (like because Barack Obama worked at Baskin Robbins as a teen, he no longer likes ice cream and while in law school at Harvard he applied to be in a black pin-up calendar and was immediately refused).

We also played "Pin the Glasses on Sarah Palin" in which many party goers were taunted by my (somewhat intoxicated) self to play.  (Sorry about that everyone!).

There was tons of great food and drinks, some of which were election themed.  One friend even made Obama's "change" logo out of a circle pan of brownies and mini red and blue m&m's.  I failed to snag many pictures once people started to arrive, but I did get one of the super cute cookies that another friend brought (picture is at the top of this entry).  There was also star-shaped cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels with patriotic sprinkles, and even apple pie!  In addition to the great food, many people decided to support their candidate by wearing shirts and pins (including Amelia and I).  

I am sure I would get some slack if I didn't mention the fact that my own two-year old daughter outlasted me at the party.  Apparently no dinner + a few glasses of wine = a whole lot of trouble by 10:30 pm (and all the way through 5:30 the next evening).

Let's just say it was a fun party, or so I've been told....  

Halloween Extravaganza '08

I would have appreciated an entire week to celebrate Halloween this year--or at least an entire weekend, given all we tried to do to celebrate the holiday in one day.

Jason took the day off work and after we were all up and dressed, we headed over to Amelia's great grandparent's house as they were eager to see her in costume. It was a tad chilly, so she had the full ensemble at this point including turtleneck and tights. She scored an entire box of Belle fruit snacks and a ziploc bag filled with all kind of premium candy.

We goofed around inside for awhile checking out all of great grandma's Halloween decorations before deciding it was time to head outdoors and hunt around for some more.

Amelia was bribed with a treat to stand so still for this picture with everything on. In fact, this was the only time all day she actually wore the crown (which was fine with me since Belle doesn't actually have a crown in the movie and I'm about authenticity).

After lunch at every toddlers favorite spot, we headed home to rest. Unfortunately, Amelia was the only one who chose NOT to use that time to nap. At 2:30, we dressed again and headed down to Main Street in St. Charles to trick-or-treat along the stores. By this time, it was 75 degrees so we ditched the turtleneck and tights. Unfortunately, I didn't really have any other shoes for her to wear, so we had to make do with her sparkly tennies. (So much for authenticity).

We met up with Amelia's friend, Natalie and her two cousins. The girls were so cute holding hands walking down the street! It wasn't too crowded at the beginning, but as time went on it became nearly impossible to move on the sidewalk. We had quite the entourage as Amelia's godmother, Michelle, GG, Grandma, and Great-Grandma met us to join in on the fun.

After a meltdown or three, we decided it was time to head home.

Did I mention that I was the only family member who followed through on their assigned costume? Perhaps you remember me saying that when Amelia decided she was going to be Belle, she also decided to give roles to myself, Jason, her Uncle Dave, GG, and Truman. I started to feel a little guilty about it since she was so excited, that in my spare time last week (ha!), I concocted a Chip costume (it doesn't get sexier than that!).

As you can see, it looks much cuter on Amelia than it did on me. (She loved trying it on). I was pleasantly surprised, though, at how many people knew what I was supposed to be. Several people thought I was Mrs. Potts--which was close enough for me!

GG, Papa, and Grandma joined us back at the house for dinner. We normally make a big batch of chili every Halloween, but since it was 75 degrees, we opted for Italian Beef sandwiches instead and some scary cookies. Jason made Amelia a special "mummy dog" that I had seen in a magazine. She had about half of it finished, when she the first trick-or-treaters rang the doorbell.

At that point, Amelia got dressed for the third time in her Belle costume and Jason, Grandma, and I decided to take her out trick-or-treating while GG and Papa handed out candy. It was so warm that Amelia didn't have to wear her turtleneck or tights! She was none too thrilled at first saying it was "too scary", but soon after seeing other kids on the street, she quickly caught on and could be heard saying, "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" all the way down the driveway. On occasion, she would throw in a "not me, no sir". What? You don't know that line? It isa line from Beauty and the Beast, of course. Belle says it ONE TIME when she is singing about not wanting to marry Gaston and for whatever reason, Amelia says that when she wants people to know she is Belle--silly girl! I should really try to get that on tape because its pretty funny!

After visiting the neighbors, Amelia requested "me go more houses", so we ended up visiting about 15 more before calling it a night. She had tons of candy from her two trick-or-treating adventures, including two giant pixie sticks and some play doh.

Once we were home, Amelia stayed up for a bit and handed out candy before crashing around 8:30. It was really a fun filled day!

On an interesting note, Halloween will be quite different for her next year. Amelia's godmother, Michelle, has chosen Halloween 2009 as her wedding date and since Amelia is the flower girl, there may not be a lot of time for trick-or-treating! I am trying to talk Michelle into letting Amelia wear a witch costume while going down the aisle so we can immediately head to Main Street post ceremony! Needless to say, we are still in negotiating all of the details.

Third time's a charm

You may remember my ramblings a few months ago about the lovely pillowcase dresses my mom has been making for Amelia and my desire to make one myself.  Back in July when I was discussing this, I thought a Halloween version of this beloved dress was a safe bet.  

I bought the fabric in late August giving me 2 full months to complete said dress.  Little did I know that in the meantime, Amelia would decide on being Belle for Halloween and my mom and I would come up with the brilliant idea to make the costume ourselves.  Needless to say, the pillowcase dress was put on the back burner in favor of finishing Miss Amelia's Halloween attire.

Late one night, after working on the costume for several hours, my mom convinced me into starting the pillowcase dress as well.  It was basically my last chance since Halloween was quickly approaching.  Much to my surprise, I finished the majority of the dress in about an hour and a half.  This, of course, includes the two parts I had to tear out and redo.  

While my mom put the finishing touches on the costume, she also added the ribbon straps and the ric rac along the bottom of the pillow case dress.  And, despite only having poor pictures of the dress due to a toddler that refused to slow down so her mom could snap a picture, it is the cutest pillow case dress yet!  Of course, I could be biased since I actually made the majority of it!

(As a side note to Carrie:  I feel terrible that we didn't get together to make these dresses.  The decision was made late one night to start the dress and one night is really all it took.  Shall we plan to try out a winter/Christmas one?) 

Carve, Baby, Carve

Jason and I spent lots of time and effort figuring out which night we would be able to carve our pumpkins as a family since we missed our opportunity over the weekend, given our drugged up state around here. Between a business dinner, volunteer meeting, and softball game, things were a little tight last week. We both wanted to be home to carve them with Amelia since we were so sure she was going to love it.

Yeah, not so much.

We decided Wednesday was our best bet, so Jason came home from work a little early and I made a quick dinner. Because I had a meeting that night at 7 pm, we ate quickly and got right to work.

Amelia LOVED the washing part.

Then, she used the spoon once to get the seeds out.

After that, she was done and off reading a book while Jason and I finished up gutting the pumpkins. She rejoined us when it was time to carve the face and told us what kind of eyes, nose, and mouth we should make. She also helped Jason pick out a shape to carve on his pumpkin. She picked a ghost, but was sure to tell us it was a "happy" ghost, not a scary one.

Interestingly, Amelia was pretty ho-hum about the whole experience. The peak for her was definitely the washing part!