Farmer's Market & Thrifting finds

Ive been spending some major QT at our local farmer's market this summer, and I am definitely hooked on the experience Ive had buying local and organic produce and other goods. This week, I scored a huge zucchini, three cabbages, and two spaghetti squash larger than anything Ive probably ever seen in the store. The bonus: they totaled 11.75.

Also a new can't-live-without? These flavored soy nuts. They come in a whole host of flavors, but my favorite is onion & garlic. Hello salads!

Im also loving the plant-life at the farmer's market again this year. This dinnerplate Dahlia is so stunning in size; I can't wait to see how long it lives.

Also, these succulents are just what I was looking for to transform the kitchen window-ledge. Also, their low maintenance will hopefully increase their chances of survival with my less-than-green thumb. Stay tuned to see my plans for re-potting these!

Lastly, farmers market this time of year is extra special because, with fall, comes a PLETHORA of pumpkins, gourds, ect, in colors, shapes, and sizes you can't even begin to explain. Last week, we scored 2 white pumpkins for CHEAP; this week, we found a good price on a handful of medium sized pumpkins and gourds. Oh, the plans I have brewing for these...

It seems like trips to the farmers market lately have also been accompanied by trips to the thrift store. It's just too convenient that there is a large one just down the road from farmers market.

Some of our recent finds:

Which, after cleaning up a bit, and adding a paint chip sample, turned into some much needed gaming cord storage:

And, after finding this vintage grater and oil dressing mixing bottle:

We dressed up the top of our fridge:

AND, found this bright red Swingline travel case which I can't wait to find a home for:

Pinterest Tried & Loved

Spring Shells & Cheese

Ingredient Roundup!

• 2 pounds medium zucchini
• Kosher salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 6 cups whole milk
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 pound medium pasta shells
• 4 shallots, minced
• 2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 4 ounces parmesan cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
• 4 ounces gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 4 ounces baby spinach

Grate the zucchini into a colander using the large holes of a box grater. Toss with 1 tablespoon salt, then place in the sink to drain, about 15 minutes. Squeeze out the excess liquid.

Meanwhile, melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, nutmeg, cayenne, 2 teaspoons salt, and black pepper to taste and mix with a wooden spoon to make a paste. Cook, stirring, until the paste puffs slightly, about 3 minutes. 

Slowly whisk in the milk, then add the thyme, bay leaves and lemon zest and bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened slightly, about 25 minutes. 

Strain into a bowl; discard the herbs.

Meanwhile, position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and add to the sauce.

Grate your two cheeses. (It was at this point of the recipe that I seriously stopped for a moment to pay homage to all of those old-world Italian ladies who spent decades grating their own cheese. This was a pretty strenuous task!)

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring, until almost tender, about 4 minutes. Add the zucchini mixture to the pasta along with the egg yolks and all but 3 tablespoons of both cheeses; stir to combine.

Then add spinach.

Transfer the mixture to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and sprinkle with the reserved cheeses.

 Bake until browned on top and heated through, 25 to 30 minutes.

 Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Creamy Turkey BLT Wraps

We teamed up with our good friends, The Albrights, for our potluck contribution to today's church picnic! Last names A-M, bring a main dish, but something simple (Easter Lake Park is apparently not equipped to handle crockpots, who knew!?). Got it! Creamy Turkey BLT Wraps!

Debbie got to work making the turkey, and Chelle did assembly. This recipe is super simple, and has a lot of room for substitutions! (who doesn't like that!?  Do you really EVER have each ingredient needed for a recipe just laying around your house. We don't..)

This recipe does not come to you with measurements, as you can really load these up however you wish. We will say, though, that our ingredients made 40 wraps, of the smallish variety.

Creamy Turkey BLT Wraps

Ingredient line-up:

• Cooked Bacon
• Hellmans
• Ranch dip
• Roma Tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Shredded Turkey
• Cheese
• Tortilla Shells

We recommend laying out all your shells at once, Assembly line style!

Mix Hellmans & Ranch dip, spread in centers of shells!

Scoop of cheese!

Lettuce, then scoop of tomato!

Bacon and Shredded Turkey!

Wrap and seal in cling wrap!

Kevin & Herky supervised this project from the dining room. One minute we looked and Herky had managed to sneak on to the chair while Kevin was pre-occupied:

And the next minute, well---

Pinterest: Tried & Loved

Since getting married, we have implemented a new house rule: 1 pinterest recipe a week. It's part of our quest to diversify our pallette, and because Kevin took a peek at Chelle's pinterest board a few months ago and FLIPPED that these goodies had not yet made an appearance in our home.

So far, we've tried something spicy and something sweet, looking to satisfy both of our taste buds!

Something Spicy:

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs *I did not add these, and opted for more sausage
• 1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
  

  1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice *I used garlic and olive oil flavored
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon Cajun or Creole spice mix
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 pound extralarge shrimp, peeled and deveined
  

  1 3/4 cups long-grain rice *COOKED!!!
• Parsley, optional

1. Combine chicken, sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, tomatoes, garlic, chicken broth, spice mix, thyme and oregano in a large (5-quart) slow cooker. Cook on low for 5 hours.
2. Add shrimp and rice; raise heat to high and cook for 30 minutes more. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, if desired.

Chelle made the rookie mistake of not cooking the rice first (which this recipe doesnt mention doing at all!), and after an hour and a half in the crockpot with no luck, we were left googling "Can I put a crockpot insert in the oven". About 30 minutes in the oven at 425 finally did the trick and it still turned out amazing! We had our good friends, The Smiths, over for dinner, and everyone loved it! Kevin rated it a 9, citing that he would love it if there were more sausage in it next time. NOTED!

Something Sweet:

Energy Bites

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)

1/3 cup honey

1 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (or any other nuts/seeds/flaxseed/wheat germ/chia seeds)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (or any other "chip", dried friut, ect)

1 tsp vanilla (or any other extract of choice)

(We add 1 tsp to Almond extract in addition to the vanilla because we are a household of all things almond!)

Mix everything above in a medium bowl until thoroughly incorporated.  Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls and enjoy!  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week. These will last in the freezer pretty much indefinately! They dont freeze solid, and we love them SUPER cold, so this is our method.

We've ALL seen/pinned/read blogs about these guys, so there was some initial hesitation about joining the bandwagon, but these things--well, they're game-changers my friends. Chelle made these for a food day at work, and barely made it to the front door before Kevin yelled from the shower "HEY! Will you leave me some of those magic balls!?" Yes, Magic balls. This is the term of endearment these little oatmeal bites have been given in our house, and Kevin has been more than happy to inform our entire friend group anyone within a 10 mile radius that he has a new favorite food. And magic balls are it. He's been eating them every day, and although Chelle is excited to try the ENDLESS possibilities for mix-ins, we're a little apprehensive to stray too far from what's quickly become a house favorite.

Some combos we'd love to try:

• sub cookie butter for peanut butter
• add white choco chips and dried cranberries
• make a smores version using crushed graham's and those little marshmallows you put in your hot cocoa

Toffee Pumpkin Fluff

Toffee should be incorporated into all things. At least thats how we feel. So when Chelle found (and ultimately had to tinker with) this recipe from Pinterest, it was only appropriate that toffee chips were involved.

This dip is pretty common and easy to find online, so we'll just post our version (which we're sure is the best) here! :)

Pumpkin Fluff

Ingredients

1 8oz container of French Vanilla flavored cool-whip

1 8oz container of Cinnamon flavored cool-whip

1 15oz can pumpkin

1 box French vanilla pudding powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. Then, top with Toffee chips and serve in a hollowed out pumpkin with graham cracker sticks and ginger snaps.



Banana Cookies

What to do with those over-ripe bananas...?

Cookies

3/4 Butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 medium (1 cup) ripe bananas, mashed

1 Egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Frosting

12 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups brown sugar
20 tsp. milk

Cook in sauce pan until dissolved. Cool.

Then add:
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tsp. vanilla

Mix well and ice.

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add bananas, egg, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat until well mixed.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool completely.

Frost and let the frosting “set” --the more frosting the better!

Fourth Of July weekend

Fourth of July party was a SUCCESS!! The house got cleaned up and things are coming together nicely with Chelle's projects! She took this weekend to do some long over-due spray-painting: a shutter, a mirror, some picture frames--all for DIY projects to be posted soon! We also attacked those crazy Ikea shelves for the office....Kevin was QUITE the master of the allen wrench. :)

With almost all of the rooms in the house almost complete, Chelle is looking forward to posting a before/after blog to show you how we've personalized our new home!

For the party yesterday, Chelle made a dessert table that left our guests coming back for 4th's and 5th's: Red Velvet cookies with white chocolate chunks, chocolate covered pretzel rods, and chocolate dipped rice crispie treats! Unfortunately, as the guests started arriving and things got hectic, she didnt get a chance to take pictures to share. After some MAJOR disappointment and four letter words over this discovery, we just decided to post these close re-creations to give you all an idea:

Chelle also got some sweet printables from Twig & Thistle and created these:

Thanks to everyone who came; we had an amazing time and hope you did too!

Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip

Chelle made this dip for Kevin's food day at work and it was a hit!! She modified a recipe she had pinned on Pinterest, and after some careful thought on what to pair it with, she came up with this:

Recipe as follows:

1 cup strawberry yogurt
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1-2 cups powdered sugar  (add until it gets to the consistancy that you want) *modified from original recipe
1/2 cup choc/peanut butter chocolate chips *modified from original recipe
1 TBL thick caramel syrup *modified from original recipe

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and put into your serving dish. Top with additional chocolate chips and drizzle with more caramel. Refrigerate to let this "set" overnight.

This dip is very rich, and although the original recipe suggests pairing it with strawberries and bananas, Chelle did NOT like the idea of cutting up a bunch of bananas that were going to soon turn brown and be hard to handle. She opted on using strawberries as the only fruit (any suggestions on other fruits this dip could be paired with??), and using mini chips-ahoy cookies, animal crackers, and honey wheat pretzel sticks!

First cooking adventure in the new house!

Food days are pretty universal in work-settings, and when you're the "new guy", you really have to aim to please. With all of Chelle's cupcake garb not fully unpacked, she opted for a previously popular food-day staple: Marshmallow Peanut Butter Truffles--formerly known as "Boker Balls" (Aparently Chelle felt compelled to class up the name a bit). The recipe is simple:

Mix 1 cup PB with 1 (7oz) jar of Marshmallow fluff.

Stir in 1/4-1/2 cups of any flavor "chips"--I did two batches, one with butterscotch, one with chocolate PB.

Add to that, 1/2 cup of Rice crispies.

Roll into little truffle balls, like so:

Chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes, and melt white and/or chocolate almond bark. Once chilled, dip in the melted chocolate!

While Chelle waited for the balls to chill, we discovered that perhaps we need to cool it on the peanut butter for a while... <3



Thanks!!! Happy Fooding!