We joined the CSA

I’m so excited that we took the plunge and joined a CSA here in Charlotte.  Do you know what a CSA is?  I didn’t at first either – so no worries.  I’m here to keep you peeps informed! A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture.  The way it works is this:  you sign up for a season (summer, winter, spring, etc.) and every week you get a portion of the goods growing at the farm.  You don’t know what’s going to be in your box until that week.  So if you’re not open to trying new things it may not be the best fit.  But if you all about supporting your local farmers, like trying different veggies and fruits and like to save money this could be a great option!!

My farm delivers every week on Wednesday in Plaza Midwood, which is very convenient to us.  We decided to split a large box with some friends but they have a small box option as well.  The Fall Share is $357.00 for 10 weeks of deliveries and then we divide that in half since we’re splitting the share.  So for $19.50 a week we have all the produce we need and support our local farmers instead of someone in California or Mexico or really who knows where.

There are multiple farms in the Charlotte area that participate in CSA’s.  We chose to go with Know Your Farms.  The cool thing about going with this CSA is they are a combination of lots of different farms that come together to make up your weekly box.  And you can also add eggs, beef, pork or flowers on to your weekly delivery.

This is what we got this first week:

    

                      BASIL                                                  GREENS

    

                     SALAD GREENS                                            PARSNIPS

    

                       RADISHES                                                BUTTERNUT SQUASH

     

                        THYME                                                          APPLE

    

                          GARLIC                                                 WHITE POTATOES

The other cool thing about Know Your Farms is every week on their blog they let you know what to expect in the box and which farm it is coming from.  Here’s the list from this week:

Mixed Lettuce [RB]  (Barbee Farms)
White Potatoes  (Barbee Farms) 
Garlic  (Barbee Farms)
Kale ** [RB] (KC Farms)
Winesap Apples (Davis & Son Orchard)
Thyme [RB] (Landis Gourmet Mushrooms)
Items also in the large share:
Basil ** [RO] (Commonwealth Farm)
Radishes * [RO] (Rowland's Row Farm)
Hot Pepper Mix * [RB] (All Season's Farm)
Butternut Squash  (Barbee Farms)
Turnips [RB] (Barbee Farms)
* Certified organic.
** Raised without pesticides, organic or otherwise.
RO - Refrigerate Open
RB - Refrigerate in bag/closed container/crisper

I’ll try and share with ya how we use the different items during the week.  And hopefully keep ya in the loop our weekly shipments!

Banana Bread with a kick!

I love bananas.  I eat one almost every day.  But sometimes I can’t keep up with the ones in my fruit basket, so I am always looking for a new banana bread recipe to use my over-ripped bananas.  I was checking out Cooking Light’s All Time Favorite Recipes for Banana Bread and came upon a recipe for Bananas Foster Bread.  I love Banana’s Fosters and combine that with a cake.  Yes please!

Here’s the recipe from Cooking Light:

• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
• 1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
• 1/4 cup cognac or dark rum, divided ( I had neither so just used normal light rum)
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt (didn’t have plain so used vanilla flavored)
• 2 large eggs
• 6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°.
• 2. Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tablespoons butter, and 3 tablespoons cognac in a nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool. Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.
• 3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; place on wire rack.
• 4. Combine remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter, remaining 1 tablespoon cognac, and powdered sugar; stir until well blended. Drizzle over the warm bread

     

     

     

I have to say this banana bread was SUPER yummy!  Incredibly moist.  I love any excuse to eat banana “bread” when really it’s cake in a loaf pan.  Hey… I’m not complaining.

Oh and just to keep it real.  When I was making the glaze, I had a slight problem with the powdered sugar.  Oops.  That was a bit more than we needed… ☺

I would definitely recommend this recipe if you’ve got some leftover bananas hanging around.  And if you don’t I’d find some!  Have you made any yummy treats lately?  Do tell!

Fall is here

and I’m excited.  Here are just some of the reasons why…

Campfires

Warm fuzzy sweaters

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Fall Decor

Aspen Mulling Spice – the BEST cider evah!

What are you looking forward to as the weather changes to cool & crisp?

**please click on link to go to original source **

Room to Room–September

Cottage & Vine is hosting a “Room to Room” party and each month there’s a different room to focus on.  This month’s room:

Living/Family Room 

Welcome to our Living Room!  This is the first room you enter through our front door.  We used this room for years as our TV room but now we use it more for a traditional Living Room.  I love the fact that it’s typically straight and neat if we have un-announced guests. 

We got the sectional when I worked at Storehouse Furniture.  It has a nice nubby orange fabric.  And I ♥ the chaise! It’s the perfect spot to snuggle up and read a book.  The cocktail table is actually a side table that I thought would be good as a tea table height.  The polka-dot pillows were also from Storehouse and Geisha girls were a super duper find at a yard sale!

      

I love my sunburst mirror – it was a “gift” from a designer friend, for working at a designer house one year.  The vintage chair is from Habitat Re-store that I recently had re-upholstered.

       

This dresser was my Mom & Dad’s.  I remember this being in their bedroom growing up.  I love having all this storage – I use this for our “gift storage.” 

And here are some more details:

So that’s our Living Room!  You need to hop over to Cottage & Vine and go on the Room by Room tour!  And maybe share yours too!  Let me know if you do, I would love to see it!

Mail ♥ Packages

I got a super exciting package in the mail…

It's the Garmin 210 - GPS Forerunner

You're probably thinking, "Katy, what does this watch have to do with eating, drinking or decorating??"  Well nothing really...  but I haven't really been keeping y'all in the loop on what I've gotten myself into.  Wait for it...  a HALF marathon!  What!?!?  Am I mad?  Crazy?  Overzealous?  Well maybe.  No probably.  Okay – YES!

I told y'all about a 5K I did last November and ever since then I have been slowly but surely trying this running thing again.  The longest race I've ever done is the Cooper Bridge 10K Run earlier this year.

Cooper Bridge Run 2011 - Daina, Natalie & Me

I've also done a 4 miler a couple months ago and then we did an obstacle race that was a lot of fun.  But HARD!!

Team Headstrong - Jump & Run 2011 - Kim, Elizabeth, Natalie & Me

 
So back to the exciting package in the mail.  I have been really wanting this GPS watch for running.  It's a great tool to have when training.  It keeps up with your pace, your route, heart rate and more!  It almost runs for you but not quite.  The only challenge was this watch ain't cheap - people!  Typically it retails for $299 but I found an awesome deal on Amazon for $185 and then I did a little bartering with a client so he put $140 towards the watch.  So for $45 I have a GPS watch!!  YIPPEE SKIPPEE!!  I hit the pavement this morning with my new toy and ENJOYED watching the progress of my 5 mile run.  After your run you hook up the watch to your computer and it uploads all your data and stores your runs:

 

It will be so nice to see my progress and keep up with my training.

Are you a gadget girl like me?  What are some of your favorite gadgets?  Any other runners out there?  Do tell!

Sister Pickin’

Ok…  so you know how I was telling y’all about my new obsession with Pinterest.  Well I have another addiction to admit…

The Picker Sisters!  They’re not actually sisters but best bud’s.  These girls are HEE-larious!  They go around the deep South picking junk and their minds are just running! They find all these different items that they take back to L.A. and re-develop the items into chic décor.  I love watching them bouncing ideas off of each other – it reminds me of my days with my design girls (Cindy, Shannon & Courtney). 

I found this show this past weekend. Joe and I were totally engrossed in a Marathon – show after show after show.  What really makes this show good are Tracy and Tanya.  The way they banter back and forth trip us out! 

The other part I love about this show is you see them pick the JUNK and then by the end of the show you see the transformed item!  For instance check out the girls in the picture above.  That’s a silo cut into a slice and made into a hanging seat.  Funky = YES!

Let’s check out some other things they’ve turned from TRASH to TREASURE

Metal rings and rope used to create a gorgeous chandelier

Old rusted truck fenders become:

Super funky swivel chairs!  WHAT?!?!  So cool!

So bottom line – you’ve just got to check these chickies out!  They’re on Tuesday nights @ 10 pm on Lifetime.  Let me know what you think!  It’s a good time!

Something else that happened over the long weekend…  I got an AWARD!!  Woot!  Woot!  A friend from high school has a blog, The Lint Trap.  I love her candid description as life as a new mom and all that it entails.  You need to check her out!  But back to the award…  Y’all have the distinct pleasure of learning 7 random facts about moi…  Can you handle it??

1.  I can recite almost every word of Steel Magnolias.  And one of my favorite lines is from the doctor after Shelby’s transplant…  “Looks good, looks real real good.”

2.  I love shoes.  I always have.  My mother loves to tell the story of how as a child I would throw one shoe away when I didn’t like them.  That way it looked more likely to have been “lost.”  What can I say – I’m sneaky!

3.  Ketchup is my condiment of choice.  I like it in my spaghetti and my chef husband thinks it disgusting / rude to put ketchup in his perfectly tasty marinara.  Sorry honey.

4.  I signed up for this really cool thing the other day.  It’s called Birchbox.  Every month they send you a box of all kinds of fun samples of hair care, skin care, perfume, etc. samples.  I ♥ samples.  I can’t wait to get my first box!

5.  Cyndi Lauper’s “Don’t Want to be your Friend” was a song that I played over and over when Joe and I broke up in high school.  It’s one of the only songs I’ve never gotten tired of.  It’s good stuff… check it out here

6.  I cry a lot in movies.  Well in TV shows too.  And even some commercials. I cried in the first scene of Finding Nemo when his Mommy gets eaten.  Oops.  Sorry if I gave that away.  But normally I lighten the mood.  I cry so much that people typically start laughing at me cause I’m sobbing in the middle of the theater.  A.bit.embarrassing.

7.  I have a HORRIBLE memory.  I keep my bestie, Julie around just to remind me of the things I’ve done in my life.  It’s a blessing and a curse. 

Menu Planning

We are trying to work on eating at home instead of eating out so much.  As you know, I love a restaurant!  But to be able to watch what we’re eating and be better about the budget, we’ve decided to focus on cooking at home. 

I find if we have a menu and are prepared were much more likely to stick with the plan.  So Sundays have become our menu planning & grocery shopping day.  It’s nice because we can go together and make it more of an outing than a chore.

See why I “pinned” this cool menu board over on Pinterest…  I think it would be perfect on the side of the bookshelf in the mudroom!

source

This week’s menu:

m:	PW’s Vegetable Lasagna
t:	Ground Turkey Tacos ~ Black Beans
w:	Breakfast for Dinner – Eggs, bacon & grits
th:	PW’s Orange Whiskey Chicken Thighs ~ Roasted Broccoli
f:	Pork Chops ~ Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Yes I know there’s a theme of Pioneer Woman’s recipes.  What can I say.  I love that woman  And speaking of the illustrious P-Dub…  did you know her cooking show is starting this Saturday on the Food Network??  Well it is!  I highly suggest you tune in – cause the girl can cook!

Here’s a little trailer for ya…

Looks like some tasty treats to me!  I can’t wait to watch and get to know PW’s even more! 

Well we will need some more recipes so I don’t copy Ree every week!  What are y’all having at your house these days?  Any great recipes we need to try?  I would love to hear your input!

Joe’s at work right now on the Lasagna and it’s smelling pretty dang tasty in here!  I’ll let you know how it turns out – I’m sure it will be DEE-licious, my man can COOK too!

Pin your Interest

So I know this has been all over blogland but I feel like a few of my peeps a.k.a. readers may not be all up in blogland and they may enjoy learning about this wonder phenomenon known as Pinterest.  Now I will admit I was totally pronouncing this all wrong initially.  It’s like “interest” with a “P” = Pinterest. 

Pinterest is a site you can use to catalog all the wonderful things you see on the web.  Whether it’s recipes, design ideas, projects to make, outfits that inspire, birthday wish lists and the list could go on and on.

Remember back in the day when you would get a magazine and you’d pull out the page with whatever wonderful idea was on it.  You’d put in a stack to “file” in your “idea file.”  Well Pinterest is just that but digitally. You add this snazzy little button on your internet toolbar and any time you’re on a website where you want to catalog that image – you click on “pinterest.”  It will pull up every image on that page and you decide which one you want to pin.  Now where this is even more exciting…  it automatically links that image to the url address.  So when you want to go back and make those super yummy looking cookies, you go to your “food” board, click on the image and voila!  Your back at that site with the recipe.  Each pin you can notate as you like so you’ll know exactly why you pinned it!

Genius!!!

So let me show you what I’ve been pinning recently…

Inspiring Spaces:

    

Projects to do:

     

Yummy things to cook:

    

Pretty things to buy:

    

Funky ideas:

Please click on the picture to take you to the original source

I’m telling you Pinterest is addictive and productive ALL at the same time!  You must check it out.  Oh and by the way you need an “invite” to get an account.  So let me know if you want to join with me in my addiction!

Oh and we can follow each other’s boards too!  Follow me here!  Do you already have an account?  I’d love to follow you.