The never ending green beans

A few weeks ago I discovered that I did like fresh green beans and found some good ways to prepare them. Then I got another pound of green beans at my next pick-up, and I'm starting to think they are multiplying in my fridge. I swear I've been eating them, but there's always more that need to be eaten.

When I went out to eat last weekend, the waitress said they didn't have green beans as the menu said but had asparagus instead. I was ready to make a trade to get some asparagus for my green beans. Something tells me they would not have gone for it.

Anyway, I was starting to feel like I had no other way to cook them until I did some searching on allrecipes. I found this recipe for pasta with green beans, new potatoes, pesto and yogurt, which shockingly I had all of the ingredients. (I bought the yogurt for peach smoothies.) While I would have left out the potatoes, this was actually a good way to eat my green beans, in fact I considered them the key ingredient, although I'll eat just about anything with some pesto on it.

I woke up with a cold Wednesday morning (still not sure why since it's July!), and I decided to eat more green beans for dinner last night since I couldn't taste anything anyway. I was talking with someone about preparing the green beans the same way I cooked asparagus (i.e. with olive salt in the toaster oven). I also cooked some thinly sliced new potatoes, and it actually made for a decent meal considering I wasn't that hungry to begin with.

But even after all of that, I still have green beans left, but it doesn't look like I will be getting more with my share this week, which is a relief!

My friend the freezer

I made dinner before writing this, and I had three burners on my stove going but managed to burn myself on my toaster oven. And now I'm writing about freezing things, but the thing my freezer is missing is an ice maker, which would have been useful tonight. Anyway, on to the topic for today's post.

When I first moved into my apartment in Georgia after graduating from college, everyone told me to use my freezer. But I can't say that I ever really did. Yes, I had stuff I would buy frozen (Bagel Bites were a staple in my life at that time), but I rarely froze things I made. But that's probably because I wasn't cooking.

Now, my freezer is full. Currently, I have two types of muffins, pizza dough, tomato sauce (homemade, by the way), my whole chicken (which reminds me I need to cook it before I pick up another one), chicken broth, cinnamon rolls and cakeballs. I also have some hamburger meat, bread and ice cream in there.

I haven't had a reason to freeze the produce I'm getting, and I'm still a little worried about how that would change the taste. I'm sure freezing works, but I've just been a little skeptical.

But I know that I can make a dozen blueberry or zucchini or peach muffins and freeze what I'm not going to eat right away. And the chicken broth has meant I have a staple for a lot of recipes, especially for my green beans lately. It's also nice to know I'm not going to find the broth has gone bad in my cabinet.

I made a simple tomato sauce (can of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and oregano), used it on a pizza and then divided the rest into single servings so I can pull them out for pizza or pasta. And I won't find containers with white stuff growing in them in my fridge. Now if only I could figure out a way to avoid the sour milk that comes all too quickly.

Also, before I started the co-op I discovered the convenience of frozen vegetables (yes, I realize this contradicts my earlier statement but someone else does the freezing). I found it was much easier to pull out a handful of corn, lima beans or okra and cook how much I want, rather than opening a can and having leftovers.

All of this to say, my freezer has definitely been a friend lately, and I'll say I'm considering it key to cooking for one.

A drop of golden sun...

One of the advantages of moving here last summer was getting to be within two hours of my best friend from high school. This is the closest we've lived since I graduated from high school, and it's so great to be able to visit each other for a weekend or even meet halfway to catch up in person.

The Sound of Music gave her an excuse to visit this weekend. The musical is part of series performed here in the summers. I'm not sure why or how, but it was an excellent production with very talented actors who could sing!

In addition to the play, we got to go peach picking with some friends. I had found a recipe that used the last of my blueberries and peaches, and since I hadn't gotten peaches in my share last week, I was willing to pick a couple of pounds to try some recipes. I also found some tips on pitting a peach that I have found to be successful. 

It turns out the lack of rain has meant smaller peaches, and they were still a bit hard but they are starting to ripen and taste pretty good. And my peach and blueberry muffins turned out pretty well.

(And yes, I do a lot of fruit picking here. I missed cherries but will soon have apples to pick. Come visit and with the exeception of winter, there will be fruit to pick.)

Since I've started getting my shares, I haven't been eating out as much. But having a visitor gave me a good excuse to eat out. And I found that the co-op has changed my eating out habits as well. We went to a sandwich place and I got the same sandwich I got last fall, but this time I didn't pick off the cucumbers. (The red onions and sprouts did have to go though.) And then we went to a restaurant for dinner that is known for making all of their dishes with local ingredients. Normally, I would have ordered a salad or chicken, both with ingredients that pass my pickiness test. But this time I ordered one of the day's specials (this never happens). It was veggie pasta with spinach and zucchini, and it was amazing. It also made me miss my zucchini and spinach.

Anyway it was great to get to hang out with such a good friend and enjoy what turned out to be a great weather weekend!

What a difference a year makes

1. I did not spend my Fourth of July weekend waiting on movers that never show or unpacking boxes. Instead I got to have friends over to celebrate with.

2. I was off work on July 5, no question, sorry newspaper friends.

3. My lease renewed automatically July 1, and I didn't have a meltdown. In Georgia, I seriously panicked every time my lease came up for renewal because I was just never sure I could commit to another year there. But committing to another year here barely registered with me, even though a year ago I wasn't sure if this would be a temporary stop for me or something more permanent.

4. I renewed my car tags online in about five minutes. Definitely beats the hours I spent at the DMV and on the phone getting my new license plate this time last year just to park on my street.

5. Just after I moved here last year I went to a church picnic. After standing there awkwardly for what seemed like forever (but was probably only a minute or two) hoping someone would talk to me, I turned around and left. I started doubting this big church I was going to and missed the small Georgia church where I knew everyone. A couple of weeks ago I went to a very similar picnic (same church), but this time I went with a friend and actually knew several people there. I left just thinking what a difference a year makes.

Pick-up #6

I did pick up a share this week, I just haven't had a chance to get a post up. I got some of the usual suspects: Bibb lettuce, green beans and cucumbers. But I got a few new things too.

Blackberries, these are amazing. I have eaten all of them, just plain. I had recipes to try, but these were so sweet and good, I just ate them all.

Blueberries. These are good blueberries, but I've learned I don't really like just plain blueberries. So I've made blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes and even a blueberry sauce to put on some ice cream. And the blueberries were amazing for all of those things, apparently I just need my blueberries warm. 

New potatoes. I've made some of these stuffed potatoes and then these roasted potatoes.

Corn. I picked up a few extra ears and served corn on the cob when I had people over on the Fourth. I'm not sure if I had Kroger corn or some from the co-op, but either way it was really good.


I picked up my share early, so I feel like I'm going through it quickly, but I still have a lot of green beans left. And I pretty much live on cucumber and tomato sandwiches for lunch.

Small-town America

One of the great things about the Fourth of July is finding those celebrations that seem to fit the stereotypical small-town America experience. This weekend I found exactly that. I went with a friend and her mom over to a small town about 30 minutes away where there was a big parade. 

The parade definitely had character and was an interesting snapshot of the town we were in; as my friend said, "you drive 30 minutes away and you are often in whole other worlds." Here are a few of the highlights of the parade.

Revolutionary War re-enactors, they actually shot blanks out of those guns.
 

The Confederacy was not far behind.

Gotta have bagpipes.
 

They had a "Miss" everything for two-year-olds to college-aged beauty queens.

And I know a certain someone who would have made the perfect t-ball princess when she was younger, if only my hometown had parades like this.

These cars cracked me up especially since the cars are so small but they are driven by full-grown men.

And what else says America but a good mullet.

After my small-town America experience, I decided on a whim to host my own cookout before the fireworks in my town. It wasn't really a "cookout" since I was cooking hot dogs and hamburgers on my grill pan, but several friends gathered here for dinner and then we walked over to enjoy an excellent fireworks show.


And now I'm soaking up an extra day off. Hope everyone had a good Fourth!

A random one

I am told by some you don't mind the randomness of these posts, so here are some random tidbits from my life: 

The weather here the past two days has been phenomenal and much like how it was when I first moved here last summer (which I assumed always applied, not so it seems). June was a rude awakening when it was close to 90 degrees when I stepped outside to walk to work in the mornings. Needless to say minus the last two days, I've been a sweaty mess by the time I walked the five blocks to work. I realize the low temperatures are not going to last, but I've tried to soak it in and enjoy the good hair days! (Note: You might think because I spent almost four years in south Georgia and grew up in the South, this heat should not be a big deal to me. But in the Deep South, you learn the art of moving quickly from an air-conditioned building to your car, which you've hopefully parked in the shade, where you blast the A/C while you drive to your air-conditioned destination. Walking five blocks in Georgia in the summer is never advised.)

Last weekend I pretty much crossed into crazy with these cake pops:

It was for my Sunday afternoon polo league, hence the attempt at horses. I can't begin to explain, but it's proof that I have some pretty great friends that will come up with any excuse to gather people together. And if you're curious, search Stribling Avenue Polo League on Facebook (and join us if you live nearby).


I signed up for a Netflix trial a couple of months ago after they started offering streaming Netflix on the Wii. I was ready to cancel it because I wasn't overly impressed with my options. But then I watched an episode of Friday Night Lights. I'm not sure how I have missed watching this show before now (maybe it was the whole working during primetime thing), but I am seriously addicted. I sit down to watch one episode and three episodes later I have to force myself to come out of my Dillon football haze.

When I'm not sucked into Friday Night Lights, I am reading Eat, Pray, Love. There's nothing like a movie preview to get me to read a book; of course reading the book guarantees frustration with the movie but anyway... I'm still in the Italy section, and it just makes me want to pick up and go back to Europe. I'm thinking a trip in 2011, any takers? If only I could drop everything and travel for four months!
 
My schedule at work changes today. I'm going in later which translates to coming home later. It's definitely not second shift like I had before, but it is going to be a change. I'm trying to set some goals for myself so I don't fall back into old habits of sleeping late and not eating on a normal schedule. But I'm going to have to learn to cook faster, so I'm not eating dinner at 10 p.m. every night. Or else find some recipes that transport and reheat well.

My life at work functions on quarters, as in the year is divided into four three-month intervals. And I've found that three months is just enough time to forget what the end of one quarter and the beginning of another is like. The transition from June to July was rough, and I am starting to feel like I deserve this three-day weekend.