when I get older I will eat purple ...

Purple potatoes that is! I will eat purple potatoes later this summer!

These beauties and some asparagus were planted this weekend in our garden plot. And since I am new to the purple potato scene I am quite excited to see if they taste sweeter than the yukon golds that we just planted. We all know everything gets sweeter with age - even purple potatoes right?! :)

holding onto the simple ...

This week one of us (us being the parents of the house) watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/news-content/food-revolution-season-2-returns-to-abc. And a couple of days later the other one of us watched the movie Food Inc. http://www.foodincmovie.com/. Now both of us are worried about the state of our food. By this I do not mean what state are we eating our food in, but WHAT is happening to our food?! Where did it come from?! What is it made of? What have we been doing wrong?! Then the thoughts of how in the world can we afford to feed our family with ingredients that are clean and healthy? Do we feed beef ever again? Do we stick to rice and beans? 

We have always taught our children to love and appreciate the outdoors and nature but our food well, it is expected to be OK and now it is not.. So what do we do? In this house we make bread and then, we break it with the family that we love, adore and cherish. Maybe if we all held onto the simple ways of the past in preparing food we could feel less fearful... Maybe, just maybe... 

Thanks B. for the delicious and perfect recipe!

Directions to the simple bread we made:

Mix in a bowl 6 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 TBSP yeast, 1 1/2 TBSP salt, 3 cups warm water. 

Only stir until the ingredients are mixed together.  

Then just set it aside with a dish towel over the bowl for a few hours.  It'll double in size.  

*We mixed it in the morning and then baked it right before dinner.  

How to bake:

preheat the oven to 500F with the dutch oven in the oven at the same time.  

use cast iron dutch oven 

Recipe yields 2 nice sized loafs (so split the dough in half and plop one in the pan)  

Bake it for 30 minutes with the lid on the dutch oven and then remove the lid and bake 5 more minutes to brown the top. 

*we sprinkled cracked wheat on the top for the extra crunch

it all has to start somewhere ...

And here is where it starts:

This must win an award for the most beautiful blog picture ever posted!

By now you must be thinking that we are a little nutty to pay for the above dirt and weeds! Well if you don't think "we" are nutty maybe you will think "he" is nutty! Because to him this is decadence:

And that decadence is going to provide us with oodles of yummy fresh fruits and veggies. Like those potatoes I told you about earlier:

Did you know that 1 potato can produce between 2-5lbs of potatoes?!

And there is really no better way to teach the kids where their food comes from than to start from the beginning and dig right in! Because with a little or A LOT of TLC something nutty turns into something wonderful:

something wonderful

ps (do you even "ps" in a blog post?): I need to find some good recipes for Swiss Chard, fennel and chives. Our new community garden friends have shared treasures with us that I do not usually cook with! If you have any suggestions please do share!

it is really funny in the newly expanded chicken house ....

OK, I had to share the hilarious happenings in the newly expanded chicken house (still under my counter). Let me tell you that feathers are flying! Yup, feathers! New beautiful feathers are forming on Lizzie, Maxine and Samantha and with that comes the loss of those beautiful, soft, downy feathers.

So here is what happens, the chicks flap their wings and run around to stir up the little downy feathers that have fallen off.   When those feathers fly the chicks start to argue (in the best chick way) over who gets to catch the feather in the sky. It is hilarious to watch them peck at each other and insist "that feather is mine, back off!" OK, I added the back off part, but the "that feather is mine" is TOTALLY happening in the newly expanded chicken house under my kitchen counter.

See for yourself:

attention...

I think I am going to be finding myself writing quite often the words "I never thought" because again, I have to say it! I NEVER THOUGHT chicks would want attention, but they do!! In fact, I almost didn't realize this switch was happening.

We are all so used to entering the door and being greeted with a wagging tail and leaps of love from our doggies. But who knew chicks would also insist on love and attention when you hadn't given it to them in many hours. And in fact if you try to ignore their beautiful chirps of love you might just find them perched on top of their home ready to walk the grounds to find you!

Let me tell you, this wasn't an isolated event! It turns out that the chicks sleep until I come downstairs to start breakfast. Then once they see me or someone else from the family they try to leave the box to play with us. They don't do this unless we are close to their box. Seems they like us.

I guess everyone even chicks like attention. In fact, on our way back out the door that night my daughter noticed that our neighbor had a bouquet of flowers delivered to her house. We all thought that was so neat and then kept our night moving forward. At the end of that night my son came to me and said "Mom, I made something for you." Well, I have to say that the attention he gave me that night melted my heart! :)

Origami Roses

one cute chick ... let's make that three cute chicks..

It is hard to believe that it has been almost 2 weeks since our little feathered family members came home. They definitely continue to entertain us.

We are sure Samantha is going to be the cutest of the bunch with her black and white feathers. She has a boyfriend and I should probably be jealous because he is also my handsome husband. Let's just say when he is around she is quick to hop up on his hand and look deep into his eyes. She doesn't seem to like me much, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Samantha

Oh what can I say about Lizzie other than she is quite the character. She can fly for short spurts and if it didn't look so silly I would post the picture of her first flight. She loves her wings and attention from everyone.

Lizzie

And then there is Maxine. She is the walker of the family. If you put your hand or even your foot in their house she will walk right up. Not much stops her once she is on the move which makes for some silly times especially when she stops on top of your head.

Maxine

The family seems to be getting along well, but I can tell that a new/larger home is going to be needed soon. In fact I wonder each morning if I will come downstairs to find them walking around the house. That is definitely going to be a funny morning. 

To learn more about our feathered family members I thought I would check out a really neat place in Portland. Here is the link: http://www.pistilsnursery.com/chicken-keeping

high hopes ....

OK, I admit it. I have very high hopes for each and every weekend of my life. Why weekends you ask? Well the weekends are the time that my family is ALL together. This is the time that we do not always have to worry about the "time." We can plan our life based upon what we want to do and what makes us truly happy.

So this weekend we had planned to visit a rummage sale and then join a good friend at our community garden for a garden party which marked the beginning of the gardening season. Instead one of mine held a bucket, rest against a pillow and said often "Mom my tummy hurts." This meant it was handsome husband who spent his hours in our garden plot ripping out large weeds and mending the soil alone.

Since I felt so badly, I thought I would surprise him at the garden with a delicious Italian Meatloaf. Friends, if you want your house to smell delicious you have to prepare this recipe. And boy with all those yummy aromas floating through my house my hopes of bringing a smile to my handsome husband's face when we surprised him at the garden plot were quite high. ONLY.... one slip of the hand and my masterpiece made its way into the kitchen sink and shattered everywhere. Very quickly specks of glass sparkled amongst the delicious pork, beef, garlic and red peppers. :( ...

It seems sometimes life takes a few clicks of the shutter to get all your chicks in a row:

Ladies the camera is over here

Because we all know perfection takes time and effort. 

See that wasn't hard

      Now how many days until next weekend? Just the thought of it makes me smile.

If you happen to want to try to and fix a delicious meatloaf, here is the recipe:
Italian Meatloaf:
2  ounces pancetta
1tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup shredded carrots
1 large egg
3 Tbsps milk
1 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1Tbsp herbs de Provence
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1/4 cup roasted red peppers
1/2 cup shredded mozarella cheese

Simplified directions: (because we all know how to make meatloaf, it is just the ingredients that matter). So brown the pancetta. Save the grease, add olive oil. Saute the onions and garlic then set aside. Combine remaining ingredients including the cooled veggies. Bake at 350 degrees for 1.15 hrs.