Kale & Chicken Freezer Burritos

Kale is abundant at our CSA right now. I've made kale chips, I stirfry it with apples and bacon for quick dinners but I needed to do something new. After getting some sale priced chicken breasts, I cooked the entire package and made enchiladas with half. I shredded the rest and waited for inspiration to strike. Freezer burritos went over so well last time, and the idea of a quick meal has been super handy. With it getting hot out there are days where I just don't want to turn on the oven and having these on hand will solve that problem. My husband ate a few for lunch today, pronounced them "awesome" and they were child approved as well. The trick is to use the kale as a sauce to moisten the chicken.

There is a little Vermont humor in here too. We have an entrepreneur here, Bo Muller-Moore, who makes t-shirts that say Eat More Kale. Check out his website. Chick-Fil-A is currently suing him saying he can't use that phrase because it infringes on their "Eat Mor Chikin" slogan. Crappy spelling aside- I'm sure that most people can tell the difference between chicken and kale, the fonts are completely different, and there are no Chick-Fil-A's in the state of Vermont. I used to eat at Chick-Fil-A when I lived in Texas and I can tell you I will never set foot in one ever again after seeing the way that they bully small businesses. As a business that advertises themselves as a Christian business it is very un-Christian of them, unless they're trying to pull a David vs. Goliath.

Sorry- I got sidetracked. Anyways this recipe has more chicken in it than kale but the kale is truly the star of the dish. These burritos can be made to be frozen or served for a meal.

Kale & Chicken Burritos
(makes 16)

2 lbs of shredded chicken (I had crockpot cooked mine ahead of time. Great way to use leftovers.)
2 bunches of kale (roughly 24 oz)
2 TBS oil
1/2 large shallot
8 oz shredded Cabot Pepperjack cheese (I shredded a stick of it.)
1 tsp salt
16 flour tortillas

1. In a large pot on the stove, heat 2 TBS oil. Take 2 bunches of kale, chop off the bottom stems (don't bother taking out the large piece running down the middle), and cram them into the pot.

Using tongs flip the kale around a couple of times to get a little oil on it. Let it sizzle for about 5 minutes, then add 16 oz of water. Keep it on high heat and continue to flip the kale with the tongs. The kale should start wilting. 

2. In a food processor, chop the shallot. Add the kale a little at a time, until it is all blended into a paste. Add the salt and 4-8 oz of water. You want it to be a thick sauce not runny. The shallot is important- you want to use some strong flavors when freezing items so that the taste holds up.

3. I pre-tear sections of tinfoil and plastic wrap and lay a tortilla on each one ahead of time. For photos feel free to check out my last burrito post . Dump your pureed kale sauce into the bowl of shredded chicken and mix well. 

Dose out some of the kale chicken mix onto a tortilla. I used about 4 oz for each.

Top with cheese, I used 1/2 oz. I love my kitchen scale. 

Now fold in the sides and roll it up.

Wrap the plastic wrap around the burrito, then the tinfoil. This helps to keep it fresh and to prevent freezer burn. Now label them and load your freezer! Enjoy them for quick lunches or no cook dinners on hot summer days. (3 minutes in the microwave is about right)

Refrigerator Radish Dill Pickles

Radish Dill Pickles

Early in the CSA season there are an abundance of radishes and greens to use. We eat salads nonstop and even experiment a little. My husband was NOT a fan of the mustard green juice I made :)

The ginger juice did not exactly get a "Woo-hoo" response either. 

Radish dill pickles are a new item to my lineup this year but this is now the third batch I've made. They are super simple to make as they are just refrigerator pickles. This means that I don't process them in any way- no hot water bath, no pressure canning- just good old-fashioned vinegar. I'm going to run through the steps but there will be no exact measurements. If you follow the proportions you'll be able to do this with any quantity of radishes. I had a mixing bowl full and it made 3 pint jars and one small canning jar of pickles.

You will need:
Canning jars, bands & caps
Radishes
Fresh Dill
Kosher Salt
Water
Vinegar- I use white

Soak your radishes in water for 5 minutes to remove any loose debris. Agitate the water with your hand to get dirt off of them. Dump the water and carry the bowl over to your cutting board.

Chop the roots and tops off of the radishes and halve or quarter them depending on their size. I keep a little bowl nearby to put the ends in so I can run them to the compost easily.

If you see any black spots on the outside just slice them off. If the spot is on the inside too discard the radish.

Bring the radishes back over to the sink in the bowl and give them one more rinse. Then pack them into your jars. You want to leave about 3/4" at the top for the dill. Wash your dill and take stalks of it off. Curl them into the top of the jar over the radishes. 

Pour vinegar through the dill until the jars are halfway full. 

Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt on the top of each jar. Fill the jars the rest of the way with water.

I top off the dill at this point. I want a lot of dill flavor so I cram as much as I can fit in there. Once your done cap and band the jars. 

Turn them upside down for about an hour on the countertop so that the dill infuses into the vinegar. After an hour put them into the fridge.

Within an hour of making them the pickles will start turning pink. I try to leave them in the fridge for at least a week before we open them to eat. They keep 3-6 months in the fridge. As a fair warning, radishes make stinky pickles. They taste delicious but they are smelly. 

Life's Lemons & Fun with the Juicer

I've been a little absent. In the most summarized version of events here is what happened:

1. Pregnant, dilated, and staying at parents with limited internet access.
2. Receive phone call from overseas. Father in law who was in Ireland on vacation has been hospitalized. While running routine bloodwork they discover he has leukemia. He will not be able to leave country until he's had a round of chemo.
3. Mad dash to renew husband's passport and buy items to ship there.
4. Have baby.
5. Get baby and toddler passport. (Just in case this takes a bad turn and I have to fly to Ireland with them.)
6. Drive husband to Montreal airport (ticket was half the price of one out of Burlington- at least everyone's passport came in handy). Kiss him goodbye.
7. Take care of the newborn and toddler for two weeks while husband is in Ireland.
8. Husband back. Return to normal life only to be struck down with stomach bug.

That about brings us to now. Since we picked up our farm share yesterday I decided to do some juicing with the toddler. Meet our juicer:

This juicer is a workhorse. My mom had it when we were little and handed it down to me. My now 8 year old developed a fear of it's loud "whirring" noise when he was 4 so we gave the juicer a face to make it "friendlier". He found this amusing. My daughter apparently does too. After initial hesitation......

she warmed up to him......

I hate waste so we juiced some apples that were getting a little squishy, some pears, and a little bit of ginger. It was a hit. 

We also juiced some mustard greens which we got from the farm in abundance. These ones are super spicy and we gave them to daddy as a joke. He made an awesome face. In the next few days we'll be juicing up some extra spinach to freeze in cubes and save for sauces. 

What's your favorite juice?

CSA Cooking

photo courtesy of Hatch Brook Gardens

This week kicks off the CSA season for us. What, you might ask, is a CSA? Community Supported Agriculture is a partnership between the consumer and the farmer. In this venture you pre-pay for a share of vegetables. This money allows the farmer to plan for their season and purchase needed items. You are taking a risk together with the farmer. If the growing season is overly abundant you share in that abundance. If a rainy season wipes out the tomato crop then you get no tomatoes. Usually the farm sponsors a weekly pickup.

We are members of a CSA called Hatch Brook Gardens located in Hyde Park VT. Last year was their first growing season. We were psyched to support a couple of young farmers and our faith was well placed. I loved their free-choice concept. This meant that we could choose what we wanted from the spread each week and take what we would use during the week. In addition, they offer work days and pot lucks so that we can really participate in the experience.

Once our CSA launches my grocery bill plummets. We eat a vegetable heavy diet during the summer and I love the challenge of cooking everything that our farmers grow. Watch for some fun recipes and canning suggestions.

If you live in the Lamoille Valley area of Vermont feel free to check out Hatch Brook Gardens website and reach out to them. They currently have about 10 shares left for the season. You won't be disappointed!

DIY Cloth Diaper Doublers (AKA "Soakers")

Finished Stack of Doublers

We started cloth diapering our daughter when she was a wee little baby. Our motivation for choosing to cloth diaper was twofold: we wanted to reduce our "waste" and not contribute diapers to a landfill for hundreds of years and second cloth was going to be cheaper for us. We use Flip diapers, prefolds, and doublers and the set up was fairly inexpensive. With the new baby coming and the 20 month old teetering on the edge of potty training we knew we needed more supplies but didn't want to go overboard. Prefolds were cheap to buy more of, the covers I am currently experimenting with making, and I was incredibly pleased with the way my DIY doublers came out.

After researching extensively on materials I determined that most doublers use a cotton batting type "soaking" material on the inside. Be sure to get the quilting style batting which is absorbent but much thinner. You don't want the fluffy pillow-style batting.  After much deliberation I decided to use cotton flannel for the outside layer. Cotton flannel wicks moisture away from the baby and is affordable. Other options are microfleece (make sure you use micro and not regular fleece which "pills" water on it's surface) or a brushed microsuede but fabric for those other two options is pricey. I find that the cotton flannel works perfectly for us. In addition, the doublers I made that are pictured are white but I also found some sale pink polkadot cotton flannel and when I finish that batch our daughter will be peeing in style. Feel free to experiment with colors. 

You will need:

Cotton batting (look for the prepackaged quilt batting- alot of times they go on sale in the spring and you can use a coupon as well- if you purchase by the yard batting is $10.99, I purchased this queen sized batting on sale for $19.99 plus I had a 20% off coupon- the size was roughly 6 yards which means that I spent $2.67/yd)

Cotton Flannel (I purchased a yard for $4.99 plus 20% off= 4.00, a yard will make roughly 10 doublers depending on how you lay out the template.)

Two templates traced on cardboard or paper

Thread

1. The first thing you will need to do is trace the doubler that you wish to replicate onto a sturdy piece of paper. I used an old calendar. Cut this out. This is your batting template. Now trace the doubler again adding about a half inch to the edges. This will be your cotton flannel template. (For the sake of clarity and sanity use a different type of paper so you can tell the two templates apart at a glance.) You'll want to cut the cotton flannel slightly larger than the batting to make it easier to sew the seams, that's why we make two different templates. My doublers were roughly 4" wide by 12" long. 

Cotton Flannel Template & cut piece of cotton flannel

2. Cut all your pieces. You will need two pieces of cotton flannel for each doubler and 3 pieces of cotton batting. It is your choice if you want to add more layers of batting for a thicker doubler but 3 layers replicates a traditional doublers soaking strength. Lay a piece of flannel fuzzy side down on the table and put the 3 batting layers on top. Top it off with a piece of flannel fuzzy side up. (The "wrong" sides of the flannel should be facing the batting.)

3. Sew around the edge of the doubler. I triple seam it and do reverse stitching at the beginning and end of the run to reinforce the seams. You want a strong solid edging because these will be washed frequently. If you had a serger you could serge the edges, however, that is a toy that I don't have yet!

4. Sew a seam down the middle of each doubler to hold all the batting layers together and in place. If you skip this step the doublers will bunch in the wash. 

Trim the edges for a neater look being sure not to cut the stitching. And that's it! You're done. It probably took me less than 7 minutes to sew each doubler. These cost $4.95 each new and in 30 minutes I had made 4 at a cost of roughly .67/each. That is what I call a good investment!

It was almost a little sad how much I beamed with pride over this stack of doublers. Especially considering they are now peed on daily!

Baby's Best Friend

I grew up in a pet-free household. Unless you count some outdoor rabbits that lived in a hutch across the yard and the occasional goldfish my mother did not believe in indoor pets. This meant that by the time I left the house all I wanted was a pet.
I had one mini dachsund who was the love of my life but a cross country move to a small apartment sadly left her rehomed. After my husband and I married we started counting down the days until we moved out of our condo and got a house. My husband had grown up with dogs around and is the type of bleeding heart dog lover who walks into a shelter and wants to bring them all home. During our dog-free condo time we adopted a gigantic rabbit named Zeus who thinks he's a dog. He has many strange habits including an affinity for eating meat.

The rabbit sneaks a bite of a quarter pounder. We also can't leave the dog food on the floor because he eats it.

He likes to keep me company while I work by napping on the bottom shelf of my desk.

Once we bought a house and bought a truck the dog was the next natural addition. Among our criteria a patient dog who would be friendly but intimidating to intruders and no hounds who would attempt to eat the rabbit. My 6 year old and I went to the shelter and fell in love with a boxer mastiff mix who was patiently allowing all his brothers and sisters to climb all over him with no complaints. Our daughter was 6 months old at the time and doesn't remember life without her furry brother. Sometimes I think he's her favorite family member. 

(Yes this is a shameless ploy to share adorable pictures.)

Walks in our woods.

He even got along with the rabbit. 

Her favorite person to kiss.... even when she refuses to hug the rest of us the dog always gets love.

They're starting to share facial expressions. 

He cuddled her through the chicken pox. 

After a morning of terrrorizing mommy the partners in crime take a nap break.

As someone who didn't grow up with a dog I don't fully understand the bond that my daughter and her dog share but I'm so happy that they have each other. :)

Starting Seeds

Normally April is seed-starting season for me, because realistically you don't plant anything outside in a home garden in Vermont until Memorial Day. Until then who knows- it might snow! However, with our 80 degree "heat wave" I got the itch to start things early. This was also a great project for the toddler to do with me. She's in her "helping" stage and loved being my assistant.

First things first. Gather many egg cartons. Why? They're free and they're great for planting in. Some folks say they're not deep enough but I just poke holes in the bottom. This way if my plants get too big before it's time to put them outside I just rip the bottoms off so the roots can poke through and I put them in a cardboard flat of soil. The great thing about egg cartons is you can cut them into individual cups when it's time to plant outside and then plant the entire thing since the carton will eventually decompose. Cut the tops off. I save them because I cut toilet paper tubes in half and set them on the flat top of the egg carton to plant cucumbers in, but that'll have to be the subject of another days blog.

My stash.

I poked a little hole in the bottom of each  in case the root pack needs an escape route.

Next, gather your seeds and your soil. I use High Mowing Seeds for a couple of reasons. One they're located only a few towns away from me, their seeds are 100% organic, and they test the lots multiple times to ensure germination. Plus the added benefit of knowing the items will grow in Vermont makes me pick varieties more freely. They also have a great blog and Facebook page so you should check them out! Since we belong to a CSA I tend to grow what I plan on canning or items we eat a lot of. Today we started San Marzano tomatoes (for sauce), cherry tomatoes (to sun dry), basil (I love it!), arugula (an addiction), habaneros & jalapenos (my husband makes hot sauce), and cauliflower (it was cheap & stores well). I'll start cucumbers, pumpkins, and cushaw squash in larger containers this weekend. We'll wait to do root veggies like carrots, onion, and beets outside since they do not transplant well. Potatoes are going in potato towers so those will be done closer to May when it is consistently warmer. 

We use Green Mountain Compost Seed Starter Mix (formerly Intervale Compost), another local Vermont product that is organic. 

After dumping a small amount into a bucket I mixed in some eggshells that I had saved. I find that my plants just come out a little better with the addition of eggshells, plus in the summer once they are planted in the garden the eggshells help prevent slug and snail infestations. 

Soil with eggshells in it.

No here's where my "helper" got involved. We took spoons and she assisted me in filling the egg cartons with dirt. 

Next, I poked little holes in the middle of each egg cup and added seeds.

Add seeds into each cup.

If you tap the carton gently after that the seeds will all get covered with loose dirt. I then add a bit more soil on top.

I had intended to have the little lady help me spray the soil after planting but she fell in love with the spray bottle and ran off with it. 

She figured out how to squirt herself.

This made her very happy (and very wet).

I labeled each carton with a sharpie marker and then also clothespinned the seed packet to it. I place them on boot trays. They're great for when we water the plants and we have an abundance of boot trays that are in use during the winter season and then are not as needed come spring. I set the seedlings on a high windowsill out of the dog and toddlers reach downstairs. It gets very sunny down there during the day.

 

What are you starting for your garden?