Side Note on Figs

We tried a Maple Fig Rice Pudding recipe last night and it was AMAZING! :) For those of you CSA members that are getting figs....here is the recipe from Oprah.com

• 4 cups milk
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup long-grain rice
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1 large egg , lightly beaten
• 6 Mission or Kadota or Calimyrna figs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Sweetened whipped cream , for garnish (optional)

Directions:

In a heavy 3- or 4-quart saucepan, whisk together milk, maple syrup, rice and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until rice is very tender, about 1 hour.

In a small bowl, whisk 1 cup hot rice mixture with egg. Return mixture to saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes or until thickened.

Meanwhile, slice 4 figs lengthwise into sixths. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in sliced figs, vanilla and salt. Quarter remaining 2 figs and use them to garnish pudding; serve warm. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

MN Part 1

We arrived in MN Saturday (July 31) at 10:30am. Our wonderful friends Jason and Jenessa picked us up from the airport and we headed to one of my favorite places in Minneapolis, the MN farmers market! It was packed with people and we had a lunch date with other friends so we only picked up a few things before heading leaving.

We met our other friends Tara, Brian, their son Tyler and Tara's sister Megan at a great little Pub in St. Paul called The Blue Door. We ate WAY too much friend food and felt VERY full when we were done.

After lunch with went with Jason and Jenessa to their cute apartment in a great neighborhood in St. Paul called South St. Anthony. We spent the rest of the afternoon with them hanging out, talking, and playing a little Frisbee. It was great to spend some quality time with them!

At about 5:00 Eric's family picked us up to go to their house in Zimmerman, MN. Remember, they have the beautiful log cabin home? It is still beautiful! We spent only a day there hanging out. While in Zimmerman we checked out a county park and did a short walk around it. I have to say MN really does a great job with their parks. There are always paved and unpaved trails, picnic areas and they are clean and well kept up.



Dan, Becky, Me & Eric

We are back!

What a wonderful week with our friends and family in Minnesota! I will have a lot of pictures and stories to share with you soon. First I have to unpack, do laundry, get food for the house and rest a little. :)

Off to MN!

Well folks, we are off to the beautiful land of MN!! As you know I am super excited to see our friends and family and to spend some quality time on the land of 10,000 lakes! I just checked the weather and looks like we will be enjoying temps during the day in the mid 80's and at night in the mid 60's. That means I need to pack my swimsuit and sweatshirt!

See ya'll later!!

CSA Week 13 & 14

I know I forgot to blog about last week's harvest but it was the same as the week before so nothing too exciting there. :) This week however, we got some new additions! Figs!! I had never tried fresh figs before so I was anxious to give them a try. And? I liked them! They have a small hint of plum flavor. Unfortunately, when I got home yesterday... Eric had ate them ALL! So I only got to try one bite. Oh well, I am sure we will be getting more!



Here is the complete list:

-Figs
-Melon
-Summer Squash
-Cucumbers
-Tomatoes
-Peppers (I liked these too!!)
-Basil
-Garlic
-Beans

Some of our peppers...

Peaches...Peaches....and more Peaches!

As I mentioned before, we bought some peaches on Friday from Thomas' Peach Farm. The last few days the peaches have ripened on our kitchen table so we could can, freeze, and bake them. Last night, Eric and I started processing some of our many peaches. We canned 4 large jars and 3 small jars of peaches using a recipe from Cooks.com. We will see if they turned out OK in a few days.



The rest of the peaches we pealed, sliced and froze on cookie sheets for smoothies and other fun drinks.



Tomorrow we plan on having peaches and ice cream and baking a peach pie!