Ice Cream (and Sorbet) Maker!

WATERMELON SORBET!!!

I am sooo in love with this new find from Craig's list!  I have made a lot of home made ice cream (now sorbet too).  This watermelon one was awesome, and at the end I added some mini chocolate chips (to resemble watermelon seeds).  We served this to friends who loved it.  So far I've made vanilla bean, strawberry banana, peach, pistachio, and peanut butter chocolate chip!  Cheers to our ice cream maker what a beautiful summer gift it is.  Frank, Lia and I have really enjoyed it - as well as friends and family that we've shared our frozen treats with!

GREEK FEST!

So this is all we have to show of the Greek Fest, a favorite summer event, kind of pathetic to just have these pictures, but we were just too busy connecting with friends (my high school friends and other friends we know who come to this fun festival), keeping Lia busy, eating great food, going on more rides, enjoying the Greek music and dancing, etc.  Lia LOVED the slide...immediately after finishing she was about to march right back up the (big steep) stairs to go AGAIN. 

Our challenging "ladies"

The latest on the ladies: they were eating my vegetables in my gardens so we needed to re-think how to let them have their own space but not eat our treasured vegetable plants.  Frank came up with a fence from the back shed across the yard (to the metal fence).  He spent a lot of time installing this nice-looking fence.  That evening I spotted one of the girls strutting on top of the 2 x 4 that stretched from the posts across the length of it.  Hey Karla, I thought you said 4 feet was a safe bet!  ;)  But, we didn't realize that they would see this as a fabulous roost.  So....to add to Frank's work....he built up on the posts with metal poles and put more fencing/wiring around this so not only is it higher, but they will not find it a comfortable spot to walk on.  Thanks for all of your hard work Frankie baby! 

Fabulous Fermenting 101

Tonight I took at class at Turner's Organic Farm in Indian Hill.  The class was a hands-on introduction to the basic fundamentals to make raw cultered veggies (what I will call my kraut class).   Did you know how good fermented foods are for you?  More digestable and also more nutritious for you and it is a dieing art and lost tradition that I'm happy to embrace.  Not only is it declious but a fun way to preserve my garden vegetables!

This is Jen from Fab Ferments, who taught the class.

Above it my creation, which includes green & red cabbage, kohrabi, red & orange carrots, green onions, radishes, swiss chard, dill, basil, sea salt, caraway seeds & cayenne.  We picked all of the veggies right there on the farm and assembled our krauts on picnic tables outside.  I can't wait to try it in about 5 weeks!  My next attempt is a Greek Kraut using my chard & kale with cabbage....

June 24th just finished my Greek Kraut!  Hopefully this will turn out b/c I did add something that wasn't raw - kalamata olives.  Other than that it's all from my garden except for the cabbage, garlic & cucumber that I got from Turner Farm: chard, kale, arugula, onions, dill, oregano & parsley.

Boating!!!

We went boating with Merideth, Tony & Jaxson (the little fellow I watch on Tuesdays & Thursdays).  It was super fun, the kids were great - Lia loved the boat - hot but great wind from the speed of the boat!  Here's a shot of us girls and Jax.

Pork Tamales

I have always wanted to make tamales, and finally did.  It was a great way to use up a local pork loin roast I had gotten.  Above I am making the red sauce that coats the meat, which I used 3 different types of peppers, recommended by a local Mexican woman. 

After making the masa dough I thought filling them was fun and didn't take all the time I had thought they might.

The finished product - before steaming!  We really enjoyed these and I am happy that I was able to share them with friends and family!

Yummy yummy shrimp and pasta

Creamy Gruyere Shrimp and Pasta - we LOVE this dish!  Although we are concerned about the availability of shrimp in the  future with the oil disaster in the gulf right now.

Cooked Goose!

This was DELICIOUS!  Thanks Karla for you amazing food gift (again) of your free range-happy goose breasts.  Luckily they were not too overcooked, although next time I will cook them to be more rare.  Frank also (me too) thought these potatoes cooked in bacon fat were the very best potatoes we ever ate - I wish I knew the secret b/c that is how I always make them.  Maybe they were so good b/c we were so excited about the goose food gift?