Happy New Years Eve!

Scott and I promised to stay up till midnight - lets see if we can make it! tonight we had winter squash soup. I got the recipe out of my eating well magazine. First i roasted the squash and some garlic in the oven for 40 minutes. Then I cut up an onion and and 1 carrot and sauteed them on the stove. Then I added the squash that I had roasted and the garlic, some salt and some cumin, and a few cups of water, and let that simmer for about 45 minutes. Then I blended it and served it. It was a hair bland, but still good.

46 degrees! Its a heat wave!

well its starting to cloud up a bit, but i had to post that its up a whopping 46 degrees out! So, we broke open the new sidewalk chalk (thanks Davis family) and decorated the driveway.

So last night I made butternut squash raviolis with sage and gorgonzola. We also had asparagus on the side. I guess it falls under the pasta category, but still it felt like a break from the same old. Im not sure what we're going to have to tonight. Im thinking of making perch with some risotto on the side. We have an acorn squash, so maybe that instead of the risotto. I might make kale or broccoli, i havent decided yet.

Its a beautiful sunny day in mid Michigan. Its 43 degrees out and barely a cloud in the sky. The girls and I walked over to hannah center, then the library, then the track. All in all about 1.5 miles, but it felt good to be outdoors and not be too cold! The snow is mainly melted, except for the snow banks. But, the melting snow is causing the red cedar river to crest. Its supposed to be 7.2 feet tonight. Last September it crested at 7.3 feet and the water came up just about as high as the "rock" across from erickson. We will try to get over there to check it out and take some pics.

Merry Christmas!

Im wondering if I really need to report what we've eaten for the last three days... I think lets just say that we've had lots and lots and lots of good food at both of our parents homes! We will post some pictures over the weekend.

What strange weather! Its about 54 degrees this morning here in mid michigan. I thought I would get a run outdoors in a t-shirt and tights until the thunder and lightening started. This breaks our "snow every day" pattern I guess! We had about 20 inches of snow in our yard christmas eve, so its going to mush today. Im going to suggest we all wear fishing waders today.

Yesterday the weather was also crazy. We were driving from Columbus OH to Jackson MI and just south of Toledo we hit freezing rain and almost instantaneously the roads turned into a sheet of ice. Cars were falling off of the road left and right. The highway was shutdown and we all just had to sit in our cars on the highway for about an hour and 15 minutes waiting for the salter to come through and for the highway to be reopened. Scott took this picture of the cars and trucks waiting on the icy road. that beautiful shine on the road is pure ice! he also got out of the car to get something from the back and literally skated all the way around the car. It was amazing we could even drive as we did on that road before they shut it down.

when its super cold and snowy...

When its super cold and snowy do you know what is really yummy to eat? Fish and chips and coleslaw. So, that is what he had for supper last night! Not too exciting I guess but at least we haven't eaten that in the past two weeks.

Its only the second day of winter

this is our fourth winter storm warning in the last two weeks! .....

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon...

Snow will redevelop Tuesday morning and continue into Wednesday. Some of the snow could be locally heavy at times. There could be some freezing rain or sleet south of Interstate 96 on Wednesday. A break in the precipitation could occur Tuesday night. Storm total accumulations in excess of 8 inches are possible along and north of Interstate 96 with up to 6 further south where a wintry mix could limit amounts.

Pizza and Planetarium

Its forecast to snow every day this week, and that is coming off of a week where I think we also had snow everyday. I guess what is another 6 or 7 inches? We are also forecast for a high of 16 today, and its 16 right now, so Im not sure if that means its going to get colder as the day goes on, or the forecast is off. I sure hope that it means the forecast is off! But by Christmas eve it will be a downright balmy 34!!!! yahoo!

Yesterday we went with our neighbors to the MSU planetarium. We went to the show "holiday of lights" which was fun. Frankie loved seeing the constellations, and Bee's favorite part was the black light that lit her white shirt up super bright! Then we went over our neighbors house to have pizza together. So, i guess that is what we ate for dinner! ha ha!

Last night we had pasta y fagioli (or bean soup as we like to say). a family staple. I made it with more onion and tomato than I usually do because i wanted to use those up, but it turned out OK. I just sauteed an onion in olive oil on low for about 15 min, then added two tomatos diced and sauteed that for about 2 more min. then I added water and salt, and a can of pinto beans. Then I let that simmer for 2 hours. Then I added some ditilini at the very end (that we had cooked the other day). A friend from work had given me a loaf of brown bread she baked, so we had it with that. Yummy! Perfect meal between snow storms and the blustery cold.

We had our first official "snow day" of the year! All schools around here were canceled and we ended up with about 9-12 inches of snow. the official report is 9.5 but is seems a little more to me! Now, the scary, sad, or cool thing depending upon how you look at it is that we already have another winter storm warning posted for saturday night. I guess that is what happens when you live in michigan.

I forgot to post on supper last night. We had San Su. I had my usual salmon roll. Scott had eel roll. Its been a hard week to say the least. I lost a dear friend of mine to breast cancer at such a young age. But the world keeps turning I guess.

I took the girls for hair cuts today so we had fun at the salon. I got my haircut too! Pics later!

Vegetable stew

So, Scott's sister, Colleen, offered a recipe on her blog for us to try. So, we gave it whirl last night. We did not have apple cider, so we skipped that. It was delicious, especially served with yummy bread. The recipe was perfect for using up our CSA share, too, and easy to make.

In other news, we are forecast for a major winter storm tonight. If it comes to pass we are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow. The rain/ice/snow line is supposed to be about a half hour south of us, which should make for a lot of fun in jackson!

Barbara on stage

Here's the view from the balcony of last night's "Marble Muskrats Making Music" concert. Barbara was super-excited to be on stage singing with the kindergarteners.

Here is Bee and her classmates singing (and signing) "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". (If you crank up the sound you may actually hear them.)

The full-size video is here, with more video here and here if you just need to see more.

Did I mention we were in the balcony? Front row in fact. Frankie took advantage of that by losing here shoe over the railing. (No one was hurt as far as we know.) Here's a shot of the actual shoe sitting in an actual lap below us.

Last night we had veggie burritos with an egg on top. I dont know what that is officially called, but we learned it down in texas and have loved it ever since. I drenched mine with salsa, so you might say that I had a bowl of salsa with a burrito and egg on the side. ha ha. Bee preferred an "english muffin pizza" which was fine by us because she had her big performance last night (school concert).

brrrrrrrr

this morning when i got up around 5.30 it was 44 degrees out. its now 10.30 am and its 21!! ouch, its cold! Oh, and by the way, we had pasta last night...

Frankie climbed into bed with us a little after 6 this morning, and we are laying there and she turns to me and says, "Mommy what school do skeletons go to?" Anyhow she was totally serious and I thought that was kind of funny since it came out of the blue. Oh, and we had penne pasta with tomato sauce for supper last night.

All CSA, all the time

that is what we named our supper last night. Honestly, having to blog  what we eat persuaded us to cook last night. Besides we were too tired to go out. So, "all CSA, all the time" turned out pretty well. In fact, I might even make it again.

• 3 med. potatoes, boiled (I used purply-pink potatoes from the CSA)
  
• 1/4 c. milk
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 1 onion, chopped (from the CSA!)
  
• 1 tbsp. oil
  
• 1 lb. broccoli (from the CSA!)
  
• 4 med. carrots, diced (from the CSA!)
  
• 1 fresh tomatoes
  
• 2 bunches Swiss chard (from the CSA!)
  
• 1 tsp. salt
  

So basically, you mash the potatoes with the milk and some salt. Then in a pan you sautee the onion in the olive oil, then add salt, then when that looks good, you add the carrots and the broccoli and let that sautee for a good 10 minutes. then I added the tomatoe and all
of the swiss chard and let that sit for about 3 minutes. Then I dumped it in a baking dish and covered the top with the potatoes, then baked it in the over for about 15 min to get the potatoes brown on top. Its the CSA version of shepards pie. I think I would add some cooked lentils next time. Scott made due with a sausage on the side.

As for me, i dumped hot sauce on top. Yum!

Also, the mashed potato on top was a pretty light pink, so Bee thought it was princess pie. She ate the broccoli picked out from the middle but otherwise wasn't impressed with much but the color.

Well, last night continued our slide. We had San Su (sushi place).  Scott picked it up, and it was delicious! I just love San Su. But last night was also pick up day at the CSA and we are loaded with swiss chard, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, brussel sprouts (yuck), parsnip, and rutabega. We also have some mixed greens grown in the hoop house, some fresh eggs, and a few other things. 

So, hopefully we will make something interesting tonight! Then again, it is friday....

off the wagon already!

Ok, I will spill the crap, i mean beans. Well, last night, as is evidenced by Bee's "hat" we broke down and had pizza delivered. But, we did cook up our own eggplant to put on top, if that counts for anything! And we made broccoli on the side. 

OK, we will try to get back on the wagon tonight..... or not.

Quick quiz: What did we have for dinner last night?

Bonus pic: here we are getting cozy with Sparty at the UM-MSU hockey game last Saturday night.

We got to sit in the Dean's box to see the Spartans blow a 3-2 lead with 2 minutes in the 3rd, losing 5-2. We had fun though!

so maybe this isnt a great idea

Im starting to get bored writing about what we eat for dinner, so i
imagine if anyone is reading this then you are bored too. Well last
night we had huevos rancheros. Yummy and easy. I made an egg for
everyone, made some refried beans (from a can), heated up some
tortillas and open a jar of yummy salsa a colleague sent me from
texas. then put out the leftover broccoli from yesterday. I think the
only interesting thing here is part way through dinner Bee says, Hey
mom did you ever notice that beans look like crap? She was totally
serious as she munched away on her tortilla and beans. Well, there
you have it. Dinner time at the calabrese barton household.

close call

We almost ate spaghetti. But we held firm and had lentil bean soup.
It was pretty simple. Chopped up an onion and some garlic (both from
the CSA) and sauteed in olive oil. Added 3 carrots and 1 potato (also
from the CSA) and let that cook for a few minutes. Then I added some
salt, some ginger, and some cumin, and let that cook. Finally, I
added 1.5 cups of dry lentil beans and a ton of water. Let that cook
for a good while. We had some bread on the side and some broccoli.

Bee and Frankie didnt realize what they were getting themselves into
when we made this pact. I think getting out of this rut might be
better for them than for us. They both ate the lentils tonight, so we
were proud of them. We did let them have some leftover spaghetti with
the lentils though.

whats cookin'

I think we are going to start up blogging again after a 5 week
hiatus. We've decided we're in a rut with respect to dinner. We eat
about 3 meals: Pasta, spaghetti, and noodles. Sad thing is, I dont
think Im exaggerating! Well, that is if you dont count the san su or
pizza house orders. So, Scott and I made a pact. We were going to
start making new meals (well, that is, new to us). And, to keep us
honest, we are also going to report what we've had for supper here at
bartobreezy. A little boring i know but, but Im hoping some of you
might have good suggestions or maybe you will find a fun recipe or
maybe you can just laugh at how often we do eat pasta, although we
are honestly trying not to do that. Also we seem to be getting into
the root vegetable season of our CSA and i need to figure out how we
can eat all of those roots. I do think my friend Judy will be getting
her rutabega deliveries from me because we tried on those last year,
but couldnt quite eat them as fast and furious as they came in.

So last night we had salmon. I ground up some almonds, coconut,
garlic, salt, and bread, and the rolled the salmon in it. Then I
baked it for 20 minutes at 475. Then I cooked up a squash (I dont
know what kind it was... Bee picked it out from many from the CSA so
we figured it was edible), and then chopped that up, sauteed it with
garlic and olive oil, and then added it to some risotto, water and a
little milk, and cooked that also for about 20 minutes. Then we made
broccoli rabe on the side. So, that marks our getting out of a rut.
How long will it last? Stay tuned!