I love this photo. Aren't they cute?

Every year, the kids and I (and often our friends) head to local farms for pick-you-own fun. This past weekend, that meant apple picking. The apple picking season generally starts in September and goes through early November here in Connecticut, so we are more than half-way through the season (and late by our standards). Fortunately, the day we chose was sunny, but neither too hot nor too cold.

Usually, holding the bag is a big source of contention. Everyone wants it (even though I really find it to be the worst job while picking — that bag gets seriously heavy). But, I must be getting smarter in my old age or something, because I stemmed the dispute before we even arrived at the orchard. How, you ask? Well, I told the kids the order in which we’d hold the bag … and explained the logic (the person who can hold the most weight holds it last; the person who can hold the least holds it first). As a result, passing the bag was without a single cry or screech. I can’t tell you how happy that made me.

As for the apples, usually I cook with them right away, but this time, we’ve just been eating them. Will wants to make an apple pie, which we will probably do sometime this week. But other than that, we’re snacking on them (we found some tiny apples that are the perfect size for the kids — those have been in lunchboxes all week). Turns out that I forgot how good an apple can be.

Notice Paige double fisting ... she ate so many apples.

Typically, we apple pick twice in a season (last year was an anomaly with three trips to apple orchards). I can’t say whether that will happen this year, given our late start. It’s possible that we might go again in November, if the weather is nice like last year.  But whatever ends up happening, it’s okay. The kids and I had an awesome time together at the orchard. Ultimately, that’s all that matters.

The post Apple Picking 2010: Now, With Less Stress! appeared first on Sarah's Cucina Bella.

A few years ago, I fell deeply in love with beet greens. They have a similar taste to beets, though far milder — like a beet-tinged spinach. And they are lovely served raw in salad, sauteed and more. Until learning that they were edible, I had always been in the cut-and-toss camp, though.

A similar situation popped up recently. While making roasted veggies the other night, I was left with a particularly beautiful bunch of radish greens. These looked so fresh, so green, so inviting. I couldn’t dream of tossing them away or sending them to the compost pile. While I contemplated using them, I noticed the vibrant carrot tops from a recent trip to the farmer’s market. Again, I couldn’t let them be wasted.

I did a little research to confirm that both radish greens and carrot greens are edible (answer: yes). So, then it was just a matter of how to cook them — or not. I initially planned to saute the carrot greens and radish greens, but after some contemplation, I decided to just make a salad with a lovely sundried tomato vinaigrette.

I just couldn’t stand the idea of wasting the greens. I mean if we don’t at least try to eat then, how can we know if we like them? And furthermore, if we do like them, then we are totally missing out by not eating them.

So I made a Carrot Green and Radish Green Salad with Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette.

We ate it, but the dish wasn’t a winner (mostly the fault of the carrot greens — the texture is similar to frisee and isn’t a favorite around here). Nonetheless, I was happy that we at least tried to eat them.

While we probably won’t be tossing carrot tops into our salads again anytime soon the pleasant flavor does make them prime for pureeing (hello, carrot top pesto!) or finely chopping for dips, soups and sauces. As for the radish greens? Those could be fab tossed with some Bibb lettuce in a salad.

We will definitely eat these greens again … There’s no need to just cut and toss.

PS – I need to retest the vinaigrette recipe before sharing it. It will be up soon!

The post On Carrot Greens, Radish Greens and Other Edible Wastes appeared first on Sarah's Cucina Bella.

Yesterday afternoon/evening was, in a word, stressful. I battled bumper to bumper traffic to get to Will’s daycare by 5:30 (I got there at 5:31), which always leaves me stressed. Then it took about 15 minutes to drive the one mile or so from daycare to my house.

To ease the nerves, Will and I broke out some cheese and were sampling different varieties (more on that later) when I heard Snoopy bark. Now, I know for some dogs that’s a normal occurrence – hell, Scrappy barks all the time. But Snoopy? His bark is kind of like a big foot sighting – you think you heard it but it’s so rare that you have to listen intently for more.

More came, except it was a bark I had never heard from him before – something between a yelp and a growl. I rushed to the back door and saw a gigantic deer (like HUGE) nosing Snoopy up in the air and dropping him. It looked like it was going to charge him or something, perhaps spear him with those enormous antlers.

I ran, down the stairs and across the yard, barefoot and yelling at the beast to “GET AWAY FROM HIM.” Instead of running, it turned and started to come at me. Before I could budge or find something to throw, Scrappy came dashing outside, down the stairs and got between us. The deer went after him and nosed him to the ground too. But then, amid all my yelling (because I was still yelling) and all of Scrappy’s barking (and Snoopy’s too), it finally turned and ran off into the woods.

Now I wonder, should I be concerned about playing or cooking in my yard? I wouldn’t want Will to be attacked by the monstrous deer. I hate nature.

(Don’t worry, everyone is okay.)

I did end up cooking in my yard though last night. It was in the plan, and far be it from me to deny the plan (especially when it’s MY plan).

Anyway, I had picked up a delicious twin pack of Chef Bruce Aidells’ sausage at Costco last weekend (Mango and Sun-Dried Tomato flavors). Costco had set up a little tasting station and it was good stuff, so I grabbed a pack. It’s chicken sausage, and these flavors are gluten-free and dairy-free. Though my family isn’t on the gluten- or dairy-free track, maybe yours is. I decided to cook up some Mango for dinner last night since I am not sure that Shawn will go for the Sun-Dried Tomato.

It was delicious. And since it’s precooked, it only took about 8 minutes on the grill. How easy is that? Will loved it so much that he ate two whole links. That’s my boy!

The one funny part is that I have since discovered that the links are in fact breakfast links – LOL, but served with roasted potatoes and corn, they made a good dinner. They are larger than your typical breakfast sausage, but smaller than your average dinner sausage. Ooops.

As for the roasted potatoes? Sorry no pictures. They were simple and tasty as well, but looked a little naked to me. See, Cate (of Sweetnicks fame) and I were having a conversation about organics the other night and she went off about how non-organic potatoes are ranked high (number 10, was it?) on the list of worst non-organic produce in terms of pesticide retention. These were perfect  red potatoes, but they weren’t organic and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. So I did something I NEVER do – I peeled them.

8 small (or new) red potatoes, peeled if they aren’t organic
2 tbsp olive oil
a generous amount of Kosher salt
a generous amount of pepper
a generous amount of paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Quarter the potatoes. Place all ingredients in a plastic Ziploc bag and shake until evenly coated.

Spread potatoes out on the baking sheet and cook for 30 minutes, turning once about half way through.

The post That’s It! We are Moving! appeared first on Sarah's Cucina Bella.

Someone save me…I am surrounded by nature and the circle of life.

The groundhogs and their babies seem to be spending less time in my garden, thankfully. But these deer living in the woods behind my house are persistent.

The post Nature . . . Get it off me! appeared first on Sarah's Cucina Bella.

These are the victims friend’s, family and neighbors who are demanding justice for this horrific crime. They want the culprits sent far, far away so they never can cause pain in this place, the Garden, again.

But these victims are not alone. These wily bandits have been at work for sometime, wrecking havoc among the innocent and defenseless. Other victims have gone on to gain back some of their height and mobility and hope one day to be productive plants.

These sugar snap peas, for instance, were also victimized by this group. They are still in the beginning stages of rebuilding, but hope to be flowering plants in the near future.

WANTED:

Groundhogs

CRIME: Garden mutilation

Contact Cucina Bella with any information.

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