Scribbles and Scrambles ~ 1,000 Words?

Whenever you're ready, I'll just wait right here.

Did somebody say "Treat!"

Incognito.

Need food. NEOW!

May I help you?

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Here's How My Garden Grows

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mocha Peanut Butter Quinoa No Bakes

Mocha Peanut Butter Quinoa No Bakes

1 cup unprepared quinoa
2 cups brewed coffee

1/2 Cup plus 1 TBSP of agave or maple syrup,
1/4 Nut Butter

1 tsp salt 
2 TBSP chocolate chips
3/4 Cup Oatmeal

optional: 1/2 Cup other goodies you'd like (nuts, dried fruit, more chocolate chips)

Rinse quinoa if it has not been. Put coffee and quinoa into a saucepan and bring to boil, decrease heat then simmer covered til all the coffee is absorbed. (The same directions as on the package except you are using coffee instead of water.) 

In another saucepan mix together nut butter, syrup and salt and chocolate chips. Bring to a boil and boil one minute. Add oatmeal, quinoa and other additions as desired. Stir thoroughly then drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper, parchment paper etc. 24-30 cookies.

Scribbles and Scrambles Oooh the Twists and Turns of Farm Life...and the OXO winner.

For starters. Jillian. You da girl. Send your snail mail addy to me at kelly(dot)klepfer(at)gmail(dot)com.

And now, the rest of the story....(is that a copyright violation?) If so I apologize. 

Tuesday couldn’t have provided more perfect weather for a visit to the country. We drove with the windows down and our hair (ours and about a bazillion interwoven-into-the-upholstery-black, short-dog-hairs) blowing about. We arrived to find the pick almost done so we set to work washing and packing.

Rob went along with us. It was his first visit to the farm, and let’s just say he has a stronger appreciation for organic farmers after spending a few hours pack-pack-packing produce. We’ve picked up another member on the Tuesday pack and #1 Farmer has come up with a color coding system to get the boxes organized. 39 of them is a challenge. 39 boxes require 39 liners, and 39 bags and 39 piles PER ITEM. Creativity and organization are king,

We snagged several ounces of arugula. Last year it was not something my tastebuds cared for at the beginning of the season. By the end of the season the smell of the peppery little fronds started my mouth watering. Yum. We each got a turnip, and a deliciously sweet and perfect broccoli. More lettuces, kale and chard. The challenges of the week were spinach and carrots.

The spinach has bolted. I like to picture spinach running as if being chased, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with knuckles and flowers growing on the spinach. Once it’s entered this phase it’s done growing tender and delicious leaves. So, the farmer just harvested the whole shebang. Normally we cut above the knuckles (lettuce is the same way but without knuckles, you leave the plant and it will continue to grow, you just trim it…super green, doncha think…like reusing and reducing?) anyhoo, we cut above the knuckles and have leaves ready to go. When the whole plant is harvested you (and by you I mean me/us but don’t want you to feel left out) pluck the leaves off. Trust me, it’s a little quicker to slice and dice an unbolted spinach plant. Just saying. So no more spinach until the fall growing season.

And the carrots. Grasshopper Farmer waxed eloquent about the monster carrots vs the princess carrots. She made two piles. Perfect princess carrots were, well, perfect. And everybody got at least one of those little beauties. Unfortunately, the bigger pile of monster carrots was three times that size and well….when I say monster, I don’t mean super-sized…I mean as in “AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not Snow White's 7 little friends. No, these 7 Monsters  are Creepy, Creaky, Twisty, Octi, Floppy, Angry and Crusty

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the heck is THAT!?!?!?” #1 Farmer thinks the wet/dry condition of early spring may have caused some interesting things to happen underground. Some of the carrots look like they grew inside out, with a twist. The farmers decided that though an “UGLIEST CARROT” contest could be fun, the phone calls from parents who had to contend with the monster nightmares of the little ones might suck the fun right out of it for everyone. So bags of beasts went to volunteers instead. I’ve got to tell you, I was struggling with keeping my emotions in check while washing some of them. They was some serious ugggglaaay carrits, bettin they’d even skar some bunnies away, ya know? The teen boys who do a whole lot of dirty work every afternoon at the farm were pretty psyched though. A whole bag of deformed carrots. That’s the way to get kids to eat their veggies.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Law Lessons Unleashed...

Thursday evening, the last hands-on CPA (Citizen’s Police Academy) class, found us pulling up in front of a local Jr High school.

 

I was on high alert.

Our mission was to think like a law enforcement officer…to take what we’d learned and try it on for size in two different scenarios.

 

First, I must say the school parking lot was a bit scary. A cruiser, an officer in full gear, and dozens of concert goers who filed by as they worked their way to the other side of the school. Unbeknownst to them, they could’ve been in danger. But, we were on the scene instilling peace and a sense of calm.

Our tasks for the night. As teams we would take on an unknown number of assailants who had broken into the school and were possibly hiding in the darkened multi-room school wing. Our goal, to make it out alive, and apprehend the criminals. The second assignment, equally challenging, enter an unknown situation where there had been a report of an intense fight. Goal. Assess the scene and secure it (Make sure all weapons are out of the reach of out of control suspects.) Determine if an assault occurred, if it was between domestic partners and to apprehend the primary aggressor. Cake. Right? Ha. Ha. Not so much little Grasshopper.

My Domestic Violence scenario ended with me making a false arrest. The man was a complete jerk, controlling his wife, intimidating her, throwing out sickly sweet excuses, while she cowered in the corner. They were married. One of three criteria met, found out through questioning the suspects. My partner and I each took a party and questioned them. Then we switched. We were told to keep an eye on our partner and try to minimize eye contact between the parties (this is really important cuz controllers is going to control...and they use whatever means they have, and it's really difficult to pull off, too). This is where my partner and I started to slide south. The woman had a bruise on the side of her face. The story was that she slipped and fell hitting her face on the floor. When I got her turned so she faced me, not him, she told me she was afraid…that she’d never be able to get away from him. He acted super concerned and just wanted to take care of his sweet, clumsy wife. Based on the evidence we arrested him. And then the actors, who were cops, asked us why we made the decision to arrest.

Because he was a controlling, abusive, jerk I told the detective who had played the controlling, abusive jerk. (I may actually have said he was a jackass). It was a J-word. Wrong. She never once told either of us that he’d hit her. She told the same story about falling. Lie? Yes. Jerk? Yes. Danger? Yes. But, we had nothing to go on. Frustrating? Yes. Based on a real scenario? Yes. The comic relief scenario was the couple who were loudly celebrating their anniversary by playing quarters. She had dropped one and fell off the chair retrieving it. When the officers arrived she was a mess. But there was no abuse going on, just a “good” time. I’m guessing til the morning anyway.

Then we were taken to the hallway where, two by two we entered a dark bank of offices. While waiting we heard a lot of screaming from classmates who were trying out their investigative knowledge. A lot of screaming. We were the third group in. When we entered we had to choose left or right. As we did so, way back in the dark, dark hallway a man screamed. “Come on! Come and get me!” He threw a knife at us and disappeared into the darkest room I’ve ever seen. While we decided whether to move forward to capture him, or back to look for other bad guys another man jumped us from behind and stabbed us. Apparently we did some screaming, or so the officer who was our tour guide hooted, several times.

Since we’d barely gotten through the door, the overseeing police officer, after laughing hysterically for several moments, resurrected us so we could apprehend ourselves a crazy bad guy. Yeah. Thanks, Officer Ron. So we stealthily checked each room. High and low. In and under. Finally. No one else jumped out at us, and faced the last room. The darkest room had to be the place the crazy guy hid. We opened cupboards, looked under the table, crept around the outside parameter. Finally, we faced the midnight black double door closet. One door yawned open spilling the inky darkness that nibbled up all the light from our feeble flashlights. I looked carefully over my shoulder and gripped my rubber gun a bit tighter. A clang rang out from the silence followed immediately by a couple of blood curdling screams and snickers. Glad someone was having fun. I took charge and motioned my partner right and I went left and tried to jerk the door open. Locked. She screamed, “Come out with your hands up!” More clanging and the closet spilled the knife throwing monster. “Get down! Down on the floor!” Thankfully, he complied. I shrieked “Is that a knife hanging out of his pants?!?” The helpful Officer Ron, AKA Officer Giggle, said, "Secure the suspect, search him for weapons!"

Poor & started patting him down. After removing the obvious large knife in his jeans she found a switchblade. Finally, when the suspect groaned. “I’m not a bongo.” she stopped. Success…except for the unfortunate knifing early in the incident…and the screaming like little girls...at least I didn’t wet my pants. I can hold my head up.

So, citizen’s of my city and the surrounding ones. Be very grateful that I am not one of the city’s finest, and be grateful for the ones you have.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Kitchen Sink Burger

Serendipitous burger of yumminess

I'm going to dub this burger the Kitchen Sink Burger...because I think you could put just about anything but the kitchen sink into it and end with a tasty result.

I had some sauteed vegetables on hand. And a soup. The soup was a fail. Okay. That's strong. It wasn't a fail, it just wasn't the best. A little sour but kind of lacking in taste. It contained potatoes, sweet potatoes, lemon, chard, white beans, garlic, cauliflower and vegetable broth. And it was actually a recipe I followed that was so-so. And I added several bits of leftovers to it to increase the flavor...and it just wasn't happening. I've frozen soups like that in the past for future use, hoping to revive them with more flavor down the road. But this time I had a brain storm. I was starving and I wondered if it couldn't be a building block for a burger.

KITCHEN SINK BURGER
 

1 cup of creamed soup. Take whatever chunky soup (or sauce) you want to use up, dump it in the food processor or Vitamix and liquefy it. I ended up with several cups which I froze for future use. Think along the lines of the flavor family in your soup because with that flavor base you will pick your bean..
 

1 can cooked beans (drained) (1 2/3 cups of cooked beans if you make and freeze your own. I used white with this recipe. (If your soup/sauce is salsa style, use black, Middle-eastern based soup, use lentils...etc.)
 

1 cup leftover or sauteed veggies. (I used onions, garlic, mushrooms, spinach)
 

1/2 cup oatmeal (or grain of choice either cooked or soaked if you aren't using oatmeal)
 

1/2 cup nuts of choice
 

1/2 cup gluten flour
 

(If your soup was flavorless you could add a bit more spice now. Like a teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, fresh ground pepper, cumin)


The soup is already in your food processor. Add all the other ingredients except the gluten flour. Whir. Not too much, but so it's a nice even texture. Add the flour and knead for a few minutes. 

Form into patties. 6-8 regular burgers, 10 mini burgers.

Grease a pan and fry each side until crusty. Serve with lettuce, mustard, sauteed veggies, onions, lettuce, tomato, sauce, BBQ sauce.

If you need an easy and delish bun recipe, here's one.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Mysterious Farm Fun

Late breaking farm report. 

Ha. Ha. Just call me Les Nessman. If you don’t get that, WKRP in Cincinnati. If that doesn’t do anything for you, then just move on, there’s nothing for you to see in this paragraph, folks.

The farm was abounding in a plethora of produce once again. (Yes. Blew through two vocab words there.) This time there was no picking for us. We jumped into the washing/packing mode immediately. We were a bit short-staffed. The CSA has grown considerably since last year. Tuesdays of 2011 involved 12 or 13 whole shares and 12 or 13 half shares depending on the day. We had three/four packers/pickers working most Tuesdays.

2012 brings 12 whole shares and 27 half shares. Uh, yeah. Let me break down what a share is. A community supported or sustained agriculture share (CSA) is a fixed price and a fixed number of weeks. A purchaser buys a full share which costs our subscribers $550 for the season or a half share which is $300. (I may be slightly off, but those are the numbers I’m using. So deal. Ha. Ha.) This fee is paid upon entering into the relationship and guarantees the farmer a seasonal income and gives her some upfront money to buy seeds, pay staff, buy wood chips, fencing, all that stuff that goes into running a farm.) In exchange the purchaser gets a box (or a box+ during produce busting weeks). The half share is exactly half of a full share. So if a full share gets a pound of asparagus, the half share gets ½.  Our share is a volunteer share which means we work our little fingers to the bone for our goodie box. (If you want this kind of arrangement in your neck of the woods google CSA in your town and ask if they do volunteer shares, so worth it especially if you love getting dirty etc.)  Another benefit to our arrangement is that sometimes we have extras that we can take like mildly bruised, misshapen or superabundant goodies.) The full shares work out to about 25 bucks a week. This prepurchases pounds of produce. Example last Tuesday = a pound of asparagus. ½ pound of spinach, lettuce (each), a handful of radishes and green garlic. A Napa cabbage that weighed about three pounds, kale and chard and some rosemary and sage. And all of this is as fresh and local as it gets and ORGANIC. Yeah. Definitely worth the price. Especially when it works out to about $4.00 a pound. And this was a light week.

Okay back to my original story. So washing, packing and sorting for 39 boxes. Oy. Let’s just say it took awhile. Oh. We get a trail mix snack that is lovingly put together by one of the Farmers, I am going to call her Grasshopper because she learns well from #1 Farmer (another cultural/media  reference…) And sun tea. :  ). We expect this. Trust me. And she delivers.

While we were packing away the #1 Farmer came in from the field and dropped into a chair. She picked the entire five hours that we little mice prepped. She ate her snack.

And then we entered the Twilight Zone. Strange things began to happen.

#1 Farmer suddenly noticed little grubs on her hand. We see bugs. Every week. Some are good bugs like the Lady Bugs who are escorted back out into the big outdoors. Others are quickly dispatched. Most items are immersed in water, spun dried, handled several times and packed. So these mystery bugs? None of us had seen them, knew from whence they came or what their mission was. Like they just materialized from the air. Mystery #1. Then as we began closing up the boxes and loading them into their proper place, #1 Farmer lifted one and water poured out of it. Not dripped, poured. Everything stopped. We stared at it. I think each of us kind of wondered if the water might turn into blood or pea soup or grubs or something equally disturbing. Being a practical woman, the farmer opened the box, took out the contents and looked at the bags. Nothing. Mystery #2.

Driving home we scanned the horizon for unfamiliar landmarks and reoccurring visuals of black cats. (media reference...Matrix – again, if you don’t get it, just move forward.)

On Wednesday Mystery #2 was solved when & picked up a peeing carton. The Napa cabbage...the little buggars held their water well. Actually, not so well. But with comic timing and slightly awkward results.