Toys Rule!!

Here's a clip of Adeline in her new Exersaucer that we got from a friend. I thought it would make a good Delafix for you grandparents out there who don't get to see her as much as grandparents would want.

**** Warning: this video contains scenes of graphic cuteness****

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 egg beaten
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla
(combine in large bowl)
1 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Combine in separate small bowl and blend into liquid mixture
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 oz chocolate chips

Stir these into other ingredients, mix well, drop onto baking sheet like every other cookie you've ever made.
Bake @ 350 degrees 10-15 minutes

BEETS!!!

What does one do with beets?

A LA CUISINE!!!

This week's secret ingredient is cabbage!!

For those of you who are thoroughly confused let me take a step back and explain.

The Hatgas' and the Mulders have joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group. Every Tuesday we walk down to Coventry and pick-up our share of veggies for the week. The great part about a CSA is that you don't always know what you are going to get. This week we got potatoes, scallions, yellow squash, zucchini, radishes a pint of blackberries and, you guessed it, a head of cabbage.

The 4 of us decided that it would be fun to take the craziest ingredient in the bag and have a cook off the following weekend using that ingredient, Iron Chef style. (I'm not going to explain that show to you but it's worth checking out sometime especially if you've never thought about turning raw blue footed chicken into ice cream)

Last night was battle cabbage. It was an interesting meal. We started with a cabbage and potato soup that Joel made (Irish) Then continued on to my favorite; Kelly's Cabbage Stir fry with shrimp (Chinese) next my Cabbage Tikkis with yellow squash Chutney (Indian) and finished with Kevin's Cabbage, bacon, barbecue pancake (Japanese). I would call all of them a success but in the end my Tikki's took home the prize. It was a lot of fun and it was a great chance to learn how to cook with a vegetable that I've never taken a second look at in the grocery store. I always thought it was for sauerkraut and coleslaw and I've never been a fan of either. I'm hoping that the next ingredient is just as challenging. Maybe some Bok choi.

In the meantime here are a few things we all learned about cabbage:

1) It gets everywhere
2) It does not freeze well

3) 1 head of cabbage will give you about 6 cups of shredded green stuff.

4) It doesn't go as well with Bacon as it does with shrimp.

5) Most Cabbage recipes also call for onions

6) It's not just for green Jell-o anymore!!!!

Adeline recommends the alligator.

A Trip North for the 4th

It was a long weekend but as always worth the trip. Joel, Dela and I drove North to the farm/lake last Thursday and spent a long weekend visiting with aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents and great-grandparents. Adeline did great. She was tired by the end and she is still catching up on sleep but we couldn't ask for a better baby.

As always when we head back to Michigan we are reminded of all the wonderful things that wait for us in "pure" Michigan and the reasons why, though Cleveland has a lot to offer, we feel the need to raise Dela there. Of course there is the "proximity to family" but beyond that there are a few less tangible reasons. Here are two, I have many...

The sunrise. When we stay at the farm, one of the things that I notice is the sunrise. It sounds silly and even a little cliche but it took me 4 years of living in the city to realize that I had missed over a thousand sunrises. Not that the sun doesn't rise in Ohio (though some maize and blue fans may suggest it) but it is obscured by row after row of house after house, building after building and instead you wake with the sense that the sun is up or perhaps, if you are lucky and travel East in the morning, you may steal a glimpse of it rising over buildings, a 5 lane road paving the way. I have sorely missed the moment that, looking out to the East, you can see the sun rise over the horizon obscured by nothing but the arc of the earth. At sunset in Cleveland you never get to see the shadow of a tree stretch on for what seems like an infinity before disappearing altogether into the shade. In the same way are lost the moonrise and the moonset.

The stars. I can count the stars in the city and within 40 miles of it. In Northern Michigan on a clear night there are more stars than dark sky. You can barely make out the constellations not because they are dim but because all the stars in between are so bright. You can see the Milky Way and sometimes the Northern lights. I want Dela to grow up knowing what a night sky should look like.

To even it out I feel i should add one reason why staying in Ohio wouldn't be all bad. The drivers. Sure when you get off the expressway and onto Chippewa Lake Road everyone waves at everyone else regardless of familiarity. It's just how it's done. However, once you hit an expressway, that is to say I-96 and South, you get the Michigan ("We invented 'em, we built 'em, we'll drive 'em into the ground") driver. This said, on this trip, I found myself as the "quintessential Michigan Driver" you have heard me talk about before. This is because at our first pit stop on the way home I opened the back door to get Adeline out to stretch and two spent shotgun shells fell to the pavement. Anyone who can help me figure out how they got in my truck will be rewarded.