bartender

the other night we were at our favorite sushi place and Caleb's favorite all time restaurant - Cuisine Malaya - or 'Robert's.' because the sushi bar seats were full (didn't they know it was Tuesday? And we almost always come on Tuesday after swimming??), we sat at the real bar. on these occasions, caleb is usually allowed to have a sprite or a gingerale and because of where we were sitting, he even got to see them pour it in to his cup. So this my friends? THIS is what Caleb has decided he wants for his birthday:

stuff white people do

when erik was a little boy, he thought what most little white boys thought - all asian people knew karate and all black people knew each other. such innocence, such hilarity.

so the other night we rented the animated Clone Wars movie for Caleb and at one point during the action the character Mace Windu is introduced. and Caleb quietly turned to me and said, "is that Barack Obama?"

dinner woes

kids are inevitably going to like and/or dislike something that you love and/or abhor. when caleb was born, we wondered what it was going to be - boys bands and a hatred for metal? that was our best guess.

should have known all along it was going to be food related. but this is not the common rant that he will only eat chicken nuggets (in fact he has never had one and maybe we should keep it that way). it is sort of a no vegetable eating thing, though every now and then he will surprise us be announcing he wants brussel sprouts (yes, really...) so i can't even complain about that.

what it is - is baffling. one day he will scarf something down, just weeks later he won't touch that very same thing. all of the sudden he doesn't like popcorn? and eggs? yet that boy will eat $30 of sushi NO PROBLEM. and not sissy sushi - I'm talking ikura, nigiri - the real deal. please don't let it happen to butter beans - my go-to veggie.

and SO - the battle tonight was over pasta with red sauce (as he requested). nary a green vegetable on that plate (also requested). and NOT the green noodles, the white - no YELLOW - ones. and sausage because he hasn't really met a pork product he doesn't like. and yet - we battle. thankfully we ended up with a clean plate - eventually and reluctantly.

oh, and i bribed him with a lollipop.

week one - csa

we did it! we used almost every bit of our first week's delivery. for people with great eating habits, time to plan meals and an unconditional love for vegetables - a CSA is for you. We, however, have not-perfect habits (but in the grand scheme of things I would say they are 'quite good'), little to no time for planning and well, more often than not i end up composting the last quarter or so of the veggies we have bought. so wasteful. i do love veggies - but i love pork more. and ice cream - it NEVER goes bad.

i vowed to change once we got on the new town CSA (after a 7 year wait). so this week:

pick up was tuesday so we made a delicious green salad that night with the lettuces and arugula. it was a clean out the fridge meal using some things that would be of questionable use the rest of the week and in a few cases the following day. basil with brown spots, last 2 eggs in the carton, leftover grilled beets from last week, some bendy carrots. put it all together with a quick mustard vinaigrette and viola! a perfectly tasty - in fact delicious - salad. caleb even proclaimed it a 'feast' - but of course ate nothing green.

so then the bin of veggies sat in the fridge - I put it front & center so every time I opened the fridge there was the constant reminder and ensuing guilt. but still - wednesday & thursday went by with life getting in the way of my best intentions. and then friday. we HAD to use them saturday. so i picked through - admittedly i had to sacrifice some - but ended up with some of the tastiest cooked greens I have ever had. here is how it was done:

we had kale, turnip greens and what i think was swiss chard - in terms of quantity, it filled up the salad spinner. started by sauteeing about a half package of bacon until it was pretty crispy - took that off and dumped in a diced onion and cooked until it just started to brown/caramelize. added quartered baby white oriental turnips and sauteed until all had nice color. piled in the greens, flipped them around with the tongs until they were just barely cooked down. I was supposed to finish the greens with some salt & pepper and apple cider vinegar. but i forgot all of those things and I am sort of glad i did because it needed nothing!

so tonight - the eve of our next delivery - you will find me chomping on the last of the radishes (try them with a bit of butter) and hoping to salvage the last few pieces of bok choy and we will have had a completely successful week one!