go local - week 8

My loot from Boise Farmer's Market

This may be the best local week I have had so far. Everything is getting ready to eat. The farmer's market was overflowing with food. I had to restrain myself or I would have had WAY too many things to try and eat. Here is a list of things I found at the market this week:
* 2 beautiful summer squash, a bag of baby eggplants, sweet corn, basil,
and rustic ciabatta bread.

Beautiful baby eggplant from Lazy Dog Farms in Caldwell

With this bounty, some leftover from my last visit to Spyglass Gardens and some of my own vegetables from my little garden I created The Summer Garden Ratatouille from the Simply in Season Cookbook recommended by my friend Heather. It was AMAZING! It is recommended that the ratatouille is served over pasta, but it was so delicious that I just served it as the main course. We also ate fresh sweet corn grilled in the husk and ciabatta bread topped with fresh tomato and basil. YUMMM! I highly recommend this meal. Almost all of the meals we ate this week (well, since we have been home) have had at least some local part to it. I can't wait to start on next week's meal!

xoxo ~ stephanie

chicago

Yes, that does say Chris Rock...no we didn't see him.

Whew! This has been a travelin' summer. We just returned late, late Wednesday from Chicago. We headed out that direction for Johnpaul's cousin's wedding. Since we were going out that direction anyway we decided to make it into a vacation. Johnpaul did some fancy scheduling at work and we spent a full week in Chicago.

The beautiful view from Museum Park

We bought a Gopass for Chicago. This is a card that allows you into many attractions - so many that you could never do all of them in the time alloted. We did so many things in the week that it would take me forever to describe each one, so I am going to make a list of amazing things we did and saw.

Millennium Park Sculpture

1. Chris and Lisa's wedding
2. Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio
3. Brookfield Zoo (amazing zoo...you should see the primate's quarters...it was crazy!)
4. Alder Planetarium
5. Shed Aquarium
6. Art Institute of Chicago
   
7. Chicago City Tour
8. Sear's Tower
9. Hancock Tower
10. Saw Wicked
11. Went to a White Sox game
12. Went to Second City Improve Theatre
13. Chicago River Architecture Tour
14. Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
15. Lincoln Park Zoo (another amazing FREE zoo!)
    
16. Millennium Park

Our reflection in the art at Millennium Park

It was so awesome. We just used the "L" train to get all around Chicago. I can't wait until Boise (hopefully...someday) gets some good public transportation. I would totally use it faithfully. I LOVE public transportation.

xoxo~stephanie

Go Local - Week 7

Although we have been eating tons of local food, I have had little to no time to post anything for many weeks. The chicks keep me constantly occupied.
However, last night Ben created such a fantastic meal, I just had to take some pictures.
We had Halibut, caught by Uncle Denny with diced potatoes and carrots, fava beans, green beans, peas and basil...All from our garden! Yeah! It is finally summer!

The chicks & the coop

Finally the coop is done and the chicks have moved in! Here are some pictures from the last month.


This is the first few minutes in the coop, the flying ace was very happy to stretch her wings.

go local - week 6

I know that I jump from week 3 to week 6 on the go local challenge this week...I missed a couple weeks with the trip to New Orleans and then the trip to Donnelly with Tracey and Mom (more on that soon.) The local eating group is now on week 6, so I think it would be easiest if we just jump ahead to week 6 also.

Our local meal

We had a local eating feast this week! Our local plate this week consisted of baked sandwiches with Parma sourdough bread (baked locally...I don't think it is made with local ingredients though), grilled ball zucchini, sauteed red onion and red, white, and blue baby potatoes, fresh basil and lettuce from the garden. Our sides were grilled red, white and blue potatoes with rosemary from the garden and sea salt, fresh red raspberries, and grilled apricots.

Beautiful red, white and blue potatoes from Lazy Dog Farms at the Edward's Market

I found our food in three different places: Edward's Greenhouse Tuesday Market, Nampa Farmer's Market, and Spyglass Gardens. I love all of these places, but if you haven't been to Spyglass Gardens you should really go check them out. It is the cutest backyard garden with the friendliest people. They happily show you around the farm and their produce prices can't be beat! I bought a pound of apricots, a zucchini, a cucumber, about two servings of green beans, and a red onion for under three dollars!

xoxo ~ stephanie

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

Let the good times roll! I know I haven't written in forever, but I have been a busy girl! I returned last week from a trip to New Orleans. My school paid for me (along with my mom and several other teachers) to attend a charter school conference there and my mom and I were lucky enough to be able to extend our tickets and have my Grandma Doris meet us there after the conference was over.

Louis Armstrong Parade Character

The conference turned out to be even better than I thought it was going to be. I learned several ideas on how to help your school be green, classroom gardens and project based learning type things. The conference even put on a little parade for us with different characters and music from several local area marching bands. It was great. We also had fun just hanging out in the evening. We took a haunted city tour. It turned out to be a great history of New Orleans and The French Quarter with a few haunted bits thrown in.

Mom and Grandma walking through live oak trees

The fun really started once my grandma got into town. We did so many amazing things and learned so much. We visited two plantations, took a city tour that showed some of the remaining damaged areas from Hurricane Katrina, took a steam boat cruise on the Mississippi, visited a great aquarium, rode the trolley through the Garden District, not to mention all the walking and eating and just looking around at the amazing buildings and plants that make up New Orleans.

The Laura Plantation House

At the plantations in New Orleans only sugarcane is grown. It is too wet to grow cotton, so they leave that for people up the river to grow. Sugarcane grows like a grass. It comes back year after year so they only have to replant when the sugarcane plant gets weak. They replant once about every three to five years. Sugarcane grows to be about 14 feet high!

The Evergreen Plantation House

Former Slave Quarters at The Evergreen Plantation

New Orleans has an amazing history that I really encourage people to read about or take a visit. I am not sure how much I would have liked New Orleans if I hadn't had the opportunity to go out and see the plantations and take the tours...there is WAY more to the city than Bourbon Street.

xoxo~ stephanie