Food Glorious Food

***Wednesday, March 30th, 2011***

Dale keeps saying "In like a lion, out like a lamb", but I wasn't buying it until the last couple of days. It's cold, but it is sunny out and I see new buds everywhere!!

Last weekend I had the delicious pleasure of attending a Brookside Farm cooking class. I and two friends joined Barbara in her country kitchen and were taught how to cook an amazing and healthy meal. Best of all, almost all the ingredients came out of Barbara's backyard.

I find that while most of us feel pleased when we don't heat up an instant meal for dinner, we still are not cooking from scratch. Things still come out of cans and boxes in our "home cooked meals". I felt like a cooking star that day. We even made our own bread.

Take a look at this:

SUNDAYS @ THE FARM

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cooking a family feast

BROOKSIDE FARM offers hands-on cooking classes, where you learn to prepare a four-course meal for your family, using local, seasonal, organic ingredients. The Farm Kitchen has room for three "cooks" and their partners and kids to join us for the dinner.

MENU FOR MARCH

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winter squash strudel

roasted parsnip & cider soup

roasted beet salad

braised lamb shanks

potato & onion bread

apple-cranberry galette

with vanilla ice cream

I never thought I'd cook lamb! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and there was a lot of activity going on when our combined 7 kids made it to the table!!

Barbara's home is a great place to host a dinner or party. Contact her for more information. She has a wonderful place that she is kind enough to share with the rest of us.

PUFF BALL

***Monday September 27th, 2010***

One thing about my old place that made it really hard to leave it, was the morel mushrooms growing in the backyard. I love mushrooms, especially morals. So, when Lone and I discovered this monster puff ball in our new yard, I was quite pleased. I felt sort of rustic and was glad that we still have some fungi nature in our lives.

The plan was to eat it. Dale's not a big fan of the taste of puff ball though, having had a bad experience in the past. So I planned to make it into a quiche, as my sister Kim suggested. But the next day we were out all day, including dinner. So by the third day, I wasn't confident about using it anymore and ended up just tossing it in the little forest behind our house. It's laying out there right now, with the dead mouse Dale pulled from the pool's filter and I am feeling awful for both of them :(

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD

Now for some of the food....

Ask if you would like to know what it is...

A German Broad bean dish...yum

It was all so delicious. I don't know how she does it.

DESERT!

And of course, this little girl's favorite.......

And maybe theirs too....

Desert!

I loved the melted cheese with Barbara's own sweet pepper jam!

Dale liked the currant meringue!

And Lone was in love with the vegan, chocolate brownies.

It was a beautiful day of food and friends.

Popsicles

***Tuesday July 20th, 2010***

My daughter loves freezies and constantly asks for them. I can't stand all the garbage that goes into a store bought popsicles, so I make my own. It's really easy!

All you need is a blender, fruit and either honey or maple syrup. You can also add sugar, but I try to avoid it when real maple syrup has so much good stuff in it. Just blend the fruit, I also add a bit of plain yogurt, and then add as much of the sweet stuff as you need, then freeze.

Currently, we are picking raspberries from our garden and then turning them into popsicles. It makes a fun activity out of making the popsicles. Next, we are going to go pick strawberries locally and make strawberry popsicles.

Try it, I'm sure your little one will love it. Also, Ikea has great popsicle molds, if you need them.