Sunday, March 14, 2010

Finally an Update (Thanks to a Lazy Sunday)

Wow. It's been more than a month since I last wrote something.There were many times where I planned to post something to this blog, but then I was too tired or didn't have time to upload the photos to my computer or *cough cough* AmericanIdolwason. What was that? Huh? Anyway...Here's what's been happenin'.

Come to me, veggies!

Thanks to a super cool and thoughtful birthday gift from a friend, this week we received our first delivery of locally sourced veggies (and more!) from a local company called Arganica. A description from their web site:
"Arganica is Washington DC's premier local-source food club providing year-round delivery direct to your doorstep once a week. ... Arganica's goal is to provide a healthy, locally-sourced variety of great foods from the best small-scale and artisan producers we can find, at competitive prices, while creating a better market—and thus income—for the producers involved. We put our efforts into supporting the local economy, family farms, and small batch kitchens by seeking them out and bringing their products directly to you."
Does that sound like it's right up my alley or what?

Wait, you may be thinking. Isn't that called a CSA? (Or maybe you weren't thinking that because you have no clue what the hell a CSA is. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. By joining a CSA you sign up to receive a share of a farm's goods each week or each month. Click here to find out if there's one in your area.)

But Arganica is different from a CSA because they allow you to pick the items you want to have delivered to your doorstep. That way, you're not receiving a basket of mystery veggies - where there's inevitably some item that rots while you figure out what the heck to make with it.

So I signed up for a free trial, which means that for one month I can buy items from Arganica without paying the membership fee that allows them to keep this business up and running. I was able to use the gift certificate from my awesome friend to pay for the products I decided to try out:

2 lbs each of:
    - red onions
    - yellow onions
    - red potatoes
    - white potatoes
    - sweet potatoes
1 lb of white mushrooms
1 dozen free range eggs
2 bottles of seltzer water in antique bottles
1 package of tofu
1 pint of butter pecan ice cream

The produce was gorgeous! The onions were the largest I've ever seen; the potatoes were firmer than the ones we got from our local farmer's market; the mushrooms were perfect and plentiful. The seltzer water has remained perfectly carbonated day after day; the butter pecan ice cream was a delicious dessert as we watched a movie on the couch Friday night.



Good eatin' for Tater Tot

The dog has been eating as well as we have been for quite some time now. He used to constantly have an upset stomach and had lots of skin issues. After one particularly bad tummy problem, our vet told us to feed him bland food - boiled chicken and rice. We did and Tater loved it. So we decided to keep it up. He eased him back onto his dry kibble but switched it to a brand that has limited ingredients in attempt to avoid as many potential allergens as possible, and then we continued to sprinkle it with boiled chicken, ground turkey, peas and carrots, and/or green beans. The dog's digestive system is now 100% awesome and he drools while we portion out his meals. Not so great for the cleanliness of the kitchen floor, but I'm glad he's so pumped about his meals!

Today, I took Tater's food choices to a new level: I made him treats from scratch. When we're talking to him, our word for treat is "cookie" and now it's actually an accurate description!

The recipe comes from a book that I bought when I was waiting in the checkout line at HomeGoods (or Marshall's or T.J. Maxx - I can't remember). I bought brown rice and oat flour at Whole Foods recently for this purpose, and so working with those and what I had sitting around the house, I made him "Snickerdoodle Poodle Poos". He loooooves them! I personally think they're a bit bland. (What? The ingredients are the same as making human cookies minus the butter, sugar and salt!)

The garden starts to take shape

Last weekend, we worked outside in the yard preparing it for spring. We got two of our three raised garden beds into the ground. (We have to wait to put the third one in until the pool construction is finished.) Now the only thing I'm waiting on is for my seeds to arrive in the mail! I ordered them over a month ago but the company that I ordered them from was without power for 10 days during the snow storms we had on the east coast, so their shipping schedule was delayed even further. *sigh* The second they show up, I'm going to have to get the broccoli and spinach seeds planted, and start the onion seeds inside!

I also received the strawberry plants that I ordered through Amazon.com and would have planted them in their strawberry pot today if the dirt weren't totally soaked from the several days of rain that we've had.

I can't wait for things to start growing!

2 comments:

Papa Bradstein said...

I thought I was done eating for the day, but now I'm hungry again.

JHDC said...

Thought I'd let you know that 3 month Arganica Farm Club memberships are 50% off on www.dealsfordeeds.com until the end of the weekend.