This Week's CSA Box

I am eager to get our CSA box this week, and not just because we are almost out of bay leaves!

Here is what we are getting in our box this week:

Box Contents
Avocados, Organic - 2 each
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Broccolette, Organic - 1 bunch
Cilantro, Organic - 1 bunch
Ruby Grapefruit - 3 each
Snap Peas, Organic - 0.75 pound
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Yellow Onions, Organic - 3 each
Navel Oranges, Organic - 5 each
Strawberries, Organic - 1 pint.
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each

Qty.	Item	Price	Total
1	Bay Leaves, Organic - Approx. 1 oz/order.
1	Half & Half, Organic - 1 pint/order.

Yes, more half and half - my dear husband gave me a half pound of my favorite coffee that he had to have a friend pick up when he was on business because it is that hard to get and they don't ship. It is great with milk, but it is delicious with half and half!

The tomatoes, half an onion, avacadoes and cilantro will be made into pico de gallo, guacamole and served over soft tacos on Saturday...that is also were some lettuce will go.

That leaves lots of yumminess for salads, fruit desserts!

What is your favorite Mexican food? Does your family love pico de gallo too or is it just my family that makes it vanish?

Free Copy of 31 Days to Clean!

Sarah over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee wrote an ebook just recently that sounds DELIGHTFUL and got some great reviews called 31 Days to Clean...why do I tell you this? She is giving it away today!

Bloggy Goodness

There have been a few posts that I liked a lot today, and because I am watching cartoons with the girls (we finished school already...except for math, but mama needed a break), I thought I would share them with you.

Lindsay has had an excellent series about hospitality, but I particularly enjoyed this post about keeping meals easy when having company.

Erin has Quesadillas 5 Ways, and these are one of our favorite quick lunches or appetizers! Plus there are more great ideas on the comments section! I am thinking pizza quesadillas for Saturday....

Kate has a great post that has a simple formula for making Soup from Scratch. I love making soup from scratch, and am always surprised when people think this is difficult! Plus I love a simple formula that you can work to make new versions!

Sandy is one of my new favorite bloggers...at least, new to me. I love her book Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality! She has a great post about how friends showed hospitality to her college aged son through a care package! Great ideas here!

Have any posts caught your eye lately?

Moving Slowly

We are slowly making progress, with each emptied box making things more like home.

Things are moving a bit slower with lack of sleep for mama (I have no idea why, everyone else is asleep!), and the girls still settling in.

So it will likely be fairly quiet here again this week, but making a house a home takes time.

I am reminded of this as I watch a foreclosed home be cleared out on our street. It is sad to watch all the possessions left behind being thrown into a dumpster.

I wonder how many meals were fed to a family on those dishes, now many books were read cuddled up in that chair, and how many treasures were in those plastic tubs.

So often life is measured by what we can count and measure like possessions and bank account balances and size of houses.

I just want to live and breathe for an audience of One, blessing and caring for the family He has given me.

All Done

I am thrilled to report that we are completely done with our rental. Our lease ended yesterday and we had the walk through today. We are getting back our full deposit.

Such a blessing from the Lord!

It makes me very happy.

Making Home

It seems like the past week has rushed by and I cannot quite figure out how it is already Thursday night. The big accomplishes for this week were getting rid of the last kitchen and family room boxes, unpacking all our homeschool supplies and making serious headway in unpacking the pantry I keep in the garage (all our canned goods and a few other odds and ends) and organizing one one upstairs (anything that would attract critters in the garage).

I also found and washed our bedroom curtains and we put them up for color. That helped make things seem more like our home.

Basically we just keep plugging along! Progress is slow but steady. As I see our home taking shape it makes me very happy.

Even though this is Easter weekend we do hope to make more headway in a few areas that require two sets of adult hands!

How has your week been?

Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

So they put radishes in the CSA box, and I kind of like them in salads in small amounts, and figured I could just make it work because they last this side of forever, so no swap.

Then the fridge froze my lettuce.

And while I learned a valuable lesson and adjusted the fridge, I still have these radishes.

So a little research and I found this delicious recipe, but now am out of radishes, which is too bad because it is all gone:

Red Radish and Cucumber Salad

1 lb red radishes, cleaned and thinly sliced in circles

1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

1Tbsp white onion, thinly sliced

3Tbsp sugar

2Tbsp olive oil

2tsp fresh dill, chopped (I skipped this)

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1tsp lemon zest

1 lemon, juiced (I used a Meyer lemon)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place thinly sliced onions in a small bowl of ice water while you prepare the other ingredients, this will take away some of the bite.

In a small bowl, mix sugar, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, zest and dill. Add radishes, onions and cucumbers. Toss all until evenly coated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve as a side to grilled meats or spicy dishes.

Medicine Cabinet Confliction

If you have been reading around here for a while you know that my girls are very blessed, but they have not always had it easy. Our oldest is almost 6 and had open heart surgery last winter. Our youngest is 2 and a half and at 7 weeks was in the hospital for viral meningitis, shortly after that she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia that required Pavlik harness treatment, and a year ago this past November had a cyst removed from her mouth. Our medicine cabinet is well stocked, and my preferred children's pain and fever medication has been Tylenol.

My husband subscribes to Bloomburg Business week, and he brought home the issue from March 31, 2011 where the feature story is Johnson and Johnson's Quality Catastrophe and their Recall Rap Sheet.

After reading the article I feel shocked! When my children were born I used many Johnson and Johnson products, thinking they were a trusted name, and yes, I would cite the Tylenol recall of the 1980's to support my claim that they had a culture of quality and care for consumers within their company. But now I just don't know what to think, and I seriously doubt I will be buying Johnson and Johnson products when they return to the market of another alternative is available.

Unfortunately I don't know of an alternative for Children's Benedryl!

What are your thoughts on this?

And why do you think this story did not get more play in the media because it seems like a huge deal when you connect all the dots like this?

This Week's CSA Box

I am excited to get my CSA box this week - the fridge is looking a little bare after missing an extra week with the move (plus we lost a couple things, like our 2 beautiful mangoes due to moving induced forgetfulness!)

This week I did a bit of swapping and a bit of shopping in the green grocer section, so now my box looks like this:

Box Contents
Cucumbers, Organic - 1 each
Italian Parsley, Organic - 1 bunch
Snap Peas, Organic - 0.75 pound
Yellow Onions, Organic - 3 each
Zucchini, Organic - 1.75 pounds
Tomatoes, Organic - 2 each
Green Leaf Lettuce, Organic - 1 bunch
Radishes, Organic - 1 bunch
Minneola Tangelos, Organic - 6 each
Navel Oranges, Organic - 6 each
Mangos, Organic - 2 each
Braeburn Apples, Organic - 5 each

Green Grocer:

Qty.	Item
1	Golden Guernsey Vanilla Yogurt - One quart/order.
1	Green Beans, Organic - Approximately 1 lb/ order.
1	Half & Half, Organic - 1 pint/order. .

Okay, I confess the half and half is a special treat for me to help me unpack my desk. Did I mention it is a huge roll top that was a gift from my grandparents?

I am planning a wonderful salad, and spiced green beans with the addition of a bell pepper I will pick up at Costco before the box arrives.

The yogurt will go in with some granola I really need to make for breakfast.

The fruit will be lunch desserts for us and I will pick up some bananas to round it all out.

I am still trying to think of what to do with the parsley and zucchini.

What would you be making if you were receiving this box this week? I am always looking for new ideas!

Boxes

Do you need some?

You can have mine!

Just be sure to empty them and put the contents where they belong before you take the boxes out the door.

Happy Monday from our NEW HOME!

We moved on Friday, and it was crazy! And Wonderful!

3 weeks before our move my husband had a freak accident and separated his rib. That slowed down our painting plans...a lot! But we kept going and were doing great!

The Tuesday before the move I was taking out the garbage and fell and hurt my hand and badly skinned my knee. Okay, that kind of slowed me down, but we kept going.

Thursday a deacon and his son came and helped us take apart all our furniture so we would be ready.

Friday the movers showed up and did a wonderful job moving us to our new home. They were done shortly after 3!

Our new home is wonderful, we love it, and it has a great sized yard! Not huge for up here, but huge when you are 5 and have grown up in California! And when you have to cut it! :-)

We are slowly working on the boxes, and are down to 3 boxes in the kitchen, so that counts as some success!

I am so grateful to be in our own home again.

What did I miss while I was packing and moving?