November's Harvest

From the co-op garden

From the co-op garden

Honey-comb: its amazing how perfectly each hole is shaped! We checked this out with a magnifying glass and also read "The Magic Schoolbus Inside a Beehive".

Levi showing off what he helped to grow! Potatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant.. made a tasty dinner!

And of course we got some more fresh made honey too... its a lot lighter in color this time!

Baked Onion Rings

Chef No Pants

Baked Onion Rings

panko

mojave seasoning (or whatever seasoning you'd like)

1 egg

milk (we use almond)

1 sweet onion

Cut the onion into rings. Mix the egg with a little milk. Mix the panko with seasoning, to taste.

Dip in the egg, 'shake shake shake' to get the drip off. Dip in panko mixture and pat more on as needed. Put on cookie sheet.

Bake 400 degrees, about 10min, flip and 10min more.

Levi could do every step of this process, I just had to remind him to shake the egg off! These were yummy and healthier than the fried kind!

County Fair

First of all, I won FIRST PLACE for my muffins! I randomly decided to enter, and won! I also won 2nd place for my brownies, and 3rd for my pasta sauce. Next year I want to enter the sewing competition as well, I KNOW I could beat the items I saw on display! Here is the recipe for you to enjoy!

Blueberry lemon muffins with Crumble Topping

Makes 12 regular muffins

Ingredients

Lemon Curd (you can also just buy a jar kind)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 TBS lemon zest
• ¾ Cup white sugar
• 4 TBS butter (we use earth’s balance)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Muffins (this is a great base recipe, you can add whatever you want to it, berries, cut up apple and cinnamon, raisins, etc)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup almond milk (or whatever kind of milk you like)
• 1 cup fresh organic blueberries

Topping
• 1/4 cup white sugar + ¼ cup organic brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed (again, we use earth’s balance)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
Lemon curd: In double boiler wisk eggs sugar and lemon juice and zest until thick, cool slightly and strain. Allow to cool to room temperature. Can be stored in a jar in the fridge for up to 3months

Muffins: Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups ½ way, add a teaspoon of lemon curd and top with more batter, fill nearly to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes in preheated oven until done.

At the County Fair, Levi got to meet some animals! 4-H was there, and he got to pet a chicken, goats (including cute babies!), and milk a pretend cow (which had water in it, not real milk!). They also had eggs there that were just hatching. Levi loves animals so it was great to be able to see them up close and ask questions to the 4-H club kids.

Produce from our garden

We get a lot of our organic produce delivered to our house, but latley have been thinking about trying to find more locally grown foods. Less transportation of food means less environmental impact on its way to our table, and it will be fresher too!
Levi and Nai Nai (my mom) have a small garden in the back yard, where they grow whatever happens to sprout when they plant seeds. This is a brocoli they grew, it tasted great and was as fresh as could be, cut, cooked and served right away!

Cookies with Grammy

Grammy is a great cook, and every year she makes lots of christmas cookies! (and chocolate chip cookies year round). Levi is helping with the process by turning the bowl for Grammy. There is a lot to be learned from helping out in the kitchen!

Peeling vegetables

This skill requires close supervision and a little talk about how to use kitchen tools safely (sitting down at the table, only when an adult is with you, etc). We used sweet potatoes because they are easy to hold onto, and easy to peel. After some practice, Levi was able to peel all on his own.

Brussle Sprouts

Here is a way to encourage kids to eat something new - make it interesting and have them help prepare it!

We found this giant brussle sprout stalk at Trader Joe's and Levi had a great time pulling off the sprouts. He was more than willing to taste the final result once we cooked it, and even liked it! (welll this is a kid who's favorite food is brocoli...)

Stone Soup

We read the story ‘Stone soup’ and then made some of our own using leftover veggies from our Organic Produce delivery. Levi loves soup, it’s a good way to get him to eat veggies he wouldn’t otherwise eat!