Great Seasonal Recipe #1: Black Bean & Sweet Potato Burritos

3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet red or green pepper, chopped (optional)
2 cups swiss chard, chopped, stems removed (also optional--save the stems for soups or stir fry)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1T cumin (or more, if you like)
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground mace
salt & pepper to taste
shredded cheddar
8 flour tortillas

Saute first 5 ingredients in 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil until they're just tender. (Add a little water or apple juice to keep it from sticking.) Add the black beans and spices and heat through. Spray a large baking dish w/non-stick spray, then roll up some bean/veggie saute and some cheese into each tortilla & bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Cover the pan w/foil if you like your burritos soft, leave uncovered if you like the tortillas to have a slight crunch.

(Recipe courtesy of Simply in Season: Recipes that celebrate fresh, local foods in the spirit of More-with-Less, by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert.)

Our Magic Pumpkin Patch

Magic?!? Why yes. We thought we planted zucchini. Then, as the garden grew, we thought, "Look! Our zucchini is watermelon!" Then, magically, they turned into pumpkins!

Actually, it's not really magic, but something a lot less glamorous--compost. We figured that some of last fall's rotten, decorative pumpkins that I threw in the compost (seeds and all), ended up getting spread into our garden.

So yes, we're only sophomores in this gardening thing. But it doesn't matter to the girls. They love whatever's growing in there (even if they have to don their winter gloves to pick it--pumpkin leaves are a little prickly.) As far as we're concerned, if we can grow something out there and consume it ourselves, that's magic!

Whatcha eatin'?

Lots of green! (Those are fruit smoothies with kale. My brother did it first. I cannot take credit. As I look at that picture I see my girls' beautiful eyes and their apparently brush-deprived heads of hair.)

Between the farmers' market and the back yard garden, we've gotten more and more into local food. This year we joined a CSA. One Straw Farm brings its produce to a couple of pick-up places in the city once a week and those of us who've joined for the year just go get it. We can walk to ours. (It's so fun to keep saying I can WALK places! Kind of makes up for the frequent sirens.)

Beyond supporting a local farm and eating seasonal food, we've been exposed to SO much food we'd never cooked or even eaten before. It started in June with a bazillion different lettuces. Yes, a bazillion. You'd excuse my exaggeration if you'd eaten it all, too.

There were a few glorious spears of asparagus--I had no idea until reading a book Courtney gave me called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" how desperately short the growing season for asparagus is. It makes me want to grow our own patch. (I'm so good at wanting things...not so good at the effort of getting them!)

Swiss chard in different colors, and summer vegetables--yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, watermelons, cantaloupe, and lovely white beets. I roasted them in thin slices and put them on a salad. Garlic, onions, and a green called purslane that I'd swear is a weed--I pulled something out from between the cracks in our front walk yesterday that looked SO much like that purslane stuff that we ate over the summer.

Kale, mustard greens , acorn squash, butternut squash, thyme, marjoram, red beets, broccoli, and different kinds of potatoes. The fun part is trying to use and eat it all before the next week's pickup. Last week I found a Potato and Mustard Green soup that we all ate rather dutifully. It was SO bland, even with my addition of the thyme and marjoram. But the next day I added sweet potatoes and mild Italian sausage to it and Evelyn was BEGGING for it. (Okay, so she's in a growth spurt...and she WAS saying, "Mommy, I want the soup with the MEAT in it!!")

Saturday night I made vegetarian chili that had mustard greens, kale, chard, eggplant, bok choy, and the usual peppers, onions, tomatoes, and garlic (you get to Saturday and you think, "If we don't eat all that produce in the frig, where are we going to put Monday's pickup?!?") Tonight we finished the leftovers of it with corn bread.

It HAS kept us from going to the grocery store as often, and it has certainly kept us eating and cooking things we'd never have tried otherwise. I'm really getting a kick out of it. Feel free to send me recipes, books on eating/cooking locally, and any other hippy-dippy thing you find. I do feel quite at home with a bandanna in my hair.

Winter Daze

Here's Evelyn making chocolate dipped pretzel rods during Phase I of last week's storm.

This morning we were able to make it out to church, and it felt both exhilarating and awkward to do something normal.

Evelyn & Amelia are in the same Sunday School class this year, and the teacher must have had some class time left over after the lesson, because the girls came bounding out of the room waving paper octopi. (I know, I tried re-wording it so that I didn't have to use the plural of "octopus," but it didn't work and I gave up.)

Evelyn was probably feeling exhilarated and awkward to be back at church after all this cabin fever, too, because her octopus had 11 legs.

Barbie Cabbages, Anyone?

Aunt Betty gave me an organic gardening magazine for my birthday in July, and one of the articles was about how the woman who founded the magazine came to love Brussels Sprouts. Her mom called them "Barbie Cabbages" and even gave her a tiny basket in which her Barbie could harvest them out of the garden. She also included some pretty awesome recipes (helps that I've always LOVED Brussels Sprouts.)

We used Brussels Sprouts & other farmers' market vegetables in a stir fry last week & Evelyn TOTALLY got into the "Barbie Cabbages." And while she finished her portion at dinner, admitted, "Mommy, I'm not sure I like how the Barbie Cabbages TASTE."

Hamiltopia

Life is at warp speed and I am falling behind at the absolute worst time of year. So I'm just going to post a picture of a recent Hamiltopia as a reminder of the gathering that inspired the name of the blog, and of a pot of the most colorful soup. It was a vegetable curry that included purple cauliflower I discovered at the Farmer's Market. It's just like regular cauliflower but has all the anti-oxidants of other purple and blue foods. How cool! Of course I've put it in everything since then, including the salad I made for Thanksgiving.

More pictures are to come...there have been some wonderful family times lately. Just tonight the girls and I met Mom & Dad and Courtney & the cousins at the mall to have pictures taken with the grandparents. It was the most successful attempt yet--some great pictures and great fun (if the dozen trips up and down the three floors of escalators were any indication. The best part was that the four kids did it wearing bright, striped pajamas in which they'd just been photographed. We were quite the sight!)

And he COOKS, too!

I came home from work Monday and Evelyn ran up saying, "Daddy made TORTILLAS!" I walked into the kitchen and he was sauteing a bunch of vegetables to go with the filet strips he'd already cooked for our fajita dinner. Crazy thing was, I doubted for a second that he'd made homemade tortillas because the kitchen was so CLEAN. But out of respect for all the scrubbing I'd done on Friday, he'd already done away with his mess. What a guy! The dinner was fabulous.

And speaking of the clean house, walking back into that clutter-free, sparkling place upon returning from Deep Creek, it honestly looked like one of us had moved out. We have our countertops back! :) Not that it will stay that way, but it's nice to have those moments, and nice to have a husband that helps with it and cooks such great dinners!

Deep Creek pictures to come...

Hamiltopia Delivers!

Recently the girls had colds and a note came home from their school about a student in Amelia's class having the swine flu. While I'm not a worrier, I still didn't want to be the parent spreading it irresponsibly if my kids DID have it, so we opted to remain home on a Hamiltopia night.

The Smiths were hosting, and when I called Jess to say we were bowing out, she insisted that Andy would still bring us dinner. (See why I love these people?) And then, when he came to the door dressed like THIS, I just fell over laughing. I made him stand out there (and it was rather warm that day) while I ran for the camera. (Note the "quirky" references in the "About Me" section.)

We did NOT have the swine flu, but we did get a lot of laughs (and dinner delivered) thanks to our Hamiltopia friends. If you click on their link, you'll see a picture of the Singapore Crab Soup I lapped up that night.

Hamiltopia and Harvest

Today Evelyn took a basket of our own garden harvest to school as "Show and Tell." She said it was exciting for all the kids to touch the watermelon. It was exciting for US to GROW four of them! Maddie and Liv picked two at the last Hamitopia at our house and we enjoyed them for dessert. Maddie and Liv generously left the other two in the garden for Amelia and Evelyn (who'd gone to bed), so that they could get the thrill the next day.

Check out the second shift of the Hamiltopia crowd a few weeks ago. This new school schedule has meant we and the Smiths--with our young children--have to eat and run and get kids in bed when Hamiltopia's not at our own homes. We're glad the Walshes, Sung Ko, and (did you notice her??) AMY, keep the fellowship lingering. (Sigh. She's already back in Portland. But I'm sure glad we got to see her. As the girls said, "The REAL Aunt Amy was here!")

What's Cookin'?

Well, Evelyn and Amelia are! Diana gave us some kids' cookbooks, and the girls have LOVED going through them and picking out recipes to make. "Spaghetti Pie" went over well a few weeks ago, and these flower cookies were (is this surprising??) a gigantic HIT. They had a lot of steps but were relatively easy to make and, I admit, I had fun cutting marshmallows with scissors to make those petals. Yes, those are sticks from our back yard, which we scrubbed and dried. The recipe called for popsicle sticks, but after three stops at local stores to no avail, I decided that "real" sticks would work perfectly instead.

Our night to host Hamiltopia--"Look, Ma, NORMAL food!"

Sloppy joes, roasted winter vegetables, and salad fed the lively locals. I didn't even make any substitutions in the recipes!! Unfortunately, not everyone is in the picture, because when folks are comfortably spread everywhere, it's a shame to make them stop and pose.

With five kids four and under, it's always lively (even without the beans--this is a running joke from the "It's a Wonderful Life" blog). Here's Josh making sure Evelyn's "got a heart."


Finally, we've added Andy since we know how much he likes pictures of himself. (He is never inconvenienced by being asked to pose.) If I had the skills, I would have super-imposed him around the table, but this will have to do. His job has him out on the ship again, so we send greetings from Hamiltopia to all Andy's sea-faring buddies! He missed a bean-free meal at the Blackmans'! (That is to say, there was no after-dinner music.)

Soybean pie, anyone?

Here might be a good spot to define "Hamiltopia." For nearly 2 years, friends of ours who all live in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood have gathered weekly for a community meal. The host family prepares a simple dish, maybe with an accompanying vegetable or salad, and folks show up any time after 5:30 to partake. No table is set, people help themselves, sit anywhere, and enjoy the important part--fellowship and conversation.

We've had great discussions over these 2 years--how to encourage one another, parenting, living joyfully and contentedly through the inevitable struggles of life, our society's pressure to have more & buy more (promoting a lot of sharing of our resources), Scriptural discussions, and political discourses. We've simplified the way we eat and have experimented with foods from other parts of the world.

A month or so ago, my friend Di had a "lentil week." She thoughtfully prepared various lentil dishes, and her family did very well until the lentil version of meatloaf was served. Her husband, Tim, while scooping some onto 13-year-old Alex's plate, wryly said, "Some dog food, Alex?" They had a good laugh--Di included--but I will say I tried the lentil-loaf and it tasted great. (Tim was, however, spot-on in describing its appearance.)

Not long after this, I tried a recipe for soybean pie. Soybeans are an excellent, cheap source of protein that lots of people in other countries eat as a staple. (I say things like this a lot.)

In spite of its healthy benefits, the soybean pie was hard to eat, even with lots of ketchup. The only way Evelyn could swallow it was to close her eyes and flap her arms wildly while chewing. The girls had large bowls of ice cream for dessert, and Alan & I spent the rest of the week empathizing with much of the third world. He really does eat pretty much everything I cook--amazing guy.

I thought I'd make it up to him, though, with a recipe called "Beer Cheese Soup" (he likes beer...he likes cheese...sounded like a winner)--and though he tried valiantly, he could not finish one serving (he'd even bought Heineken in cans just for the recipe. It's uncertain he'll ever be able to drink a Heineken again.) Di suggested I might enjoy it as a fondue, and in the Hamiltopian ideal of not wasting anything, I dutifully ate it for lunch for week over "toast points."

The final comment here is that now, whenever Di's kids are prone to complaining about what's on the healthy menu at their house, Di now says, "Do you want me to call Tina and Alan and see what THEY'RE eating? Maybe you can have dinner with THEM."