Bloom.

After Labor Day I always feel like there is a shift.

Sure, there is the whole “unofficial end of summer” thing; but, I choose to believe in summer until the true end of the season at the end of the month.  Or, at least until the the temperature dips below 80 degrees consistently.

I have heard that it’s a pretty popular time to start something new, like many of us do at the New Year.  And, I do feel like I get a burst of energy to start a new habit or try something new.

But, even with this burst of energy and new goals, our life slows down a tad. Adam’s work kicks in high gear with the start of harvest.  He begins to work six days a week with long hours keeping us at home.

Sunday’s become precious and, because of the commitments throughout the week, so we keep them pretty light.

We have learned to love to stay at home and cook something fun for brunch, put out delicious snacks throughout the day, and we get something cooking low and slow for dinner while watching football… another shift from summer’s Sunday background noise of golf and NASCAR.

This week, because it’s been Hot with a capitol “H” at the start of this September and our jalapeño peppers are doing so well in the garden, I made spicy jalapeño poppers to welcome football season.

Our backyard peppers have never been awesome.  They do well, but they have not been overwhelmingly great.   This is, until this year.  The garden’s peppers look so good, taste good and there are tons of them.  And, we have the heat of the summer to thank.

A chef I work with cooks for a fraternity and has an awesome pub food background.  Every Friday he makes major a major feast for his men.  Big handmade burgers.  Handcut fries or chips.  And, every so often bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers and they are always a hit.

A simple concept, but huge in terms of flavor, these poppers are great for tailgates outside the stadium or in the living room.  They are good hot or cooled.  And, if you are serving them hot for a party you can do much of the prep ahead of time.

Adam loves anything hot and spicy… especially while watching football, so this is the perfect seasonal game day snack!

 

Looking for more football food inspiration?  Check out this round up of recipes and be sure to enter the Colts Best Tailgate Contest!

 

I cannot believe that August 31st is already here!

I was just emailing with a local restaurant about some of Bent Arrow’s garlic and wrote “August has been a blur.”

It really has. And, it is not just because of our creation and implementation of the Bloom Challenge to consume only local food. But, time does fly when you are having fun, and we really did have a lot of fun with this challenge.

Like I mentioned when we introduced the challenge at the start of the month, eating only locally produced food and food that we grew has been something we were interested in for a while. I like to push myself and see if things are possible and, honestly, when we jumped into the challenge I didn’t think too many of our habits would change. Especially because it is August. I figured, this time of year, we already eat a lot from the backyard and we meal plan pretty well.

Turns out, a few new habits were created and we are kind of loving them.

Lunch Time:

We have meal planned really well for years… for dinner. Lunch has never really had a plan. Adam typically goes out and I would just eat any left over’s from the night before or heat up a little frozen meal.

Now, we both are eating lunch at home and need to have a plan. I had started prepping big batches of egg salad, making homemade bread for sandwiches or soups to help get us through the week at lunchtime.

Adam has enjoyed eating lunch at home (and saving the extra 7ish bucks a day) so much that he says he would like to keep this habit up. I like that because it’s kind of nice to have a midday “date.”

Snacking:

I am a snacker.

I work from home, which probably contributes to this. So, when I am taking a moment away from my office I tend to wonder into the pantry. Hummus, pita chips, nuts, candy, cookies, cheese sticks, granola bars, whatever were my favorite things to munch on in between emails.

But, because I couldn’t buy or eat any of those things this month I was staring at a very bare pantry. It made me snack on fresh things like snap peas or peaches.

And, I learned to love to make popcorn on the stove top. So much so, that I don’t think I can ever go back to processed microwave popcorn. I will write about my stove top popcorn process and favorite ways to jazz it up in the coming weeks.

… But, truth be told, I am excited to have hummus and nuts back in my life.

Shopping:

The time spent at the grocery store was very minimal. And, so was cash. We spent less than $80 on groceries and farmersmarket.com orders this month…

… Note: This is not including booze. And, my Blue Apron mishap.

Carbs:

I mean, hello.

What’s not to love?

Adam and I were talking last night and he said that he thinks we ate more carbs this month than we ever have. He might be on to something. I made 3 loaves of sandwich bread, a rosemary garlic foccacia bread, pizza dough, pie crust, a loaf of sour dough bread and a loaf of French bread in the last 31 days.

And, tonight to cap it all off? I made pasta.

I know what you are thinking. Carbs are bad. Yadda Yadda.

But, Adam and I both weigh 8 pounds less than we did on August 1.

There’s something to be said about the nutritional value of things when they are homemade and local. Adam says he just feels better.

That’s a habit I can happily keep up with.

We really enjoyed ourselves this month and were pleasantly surprised by all we learned about new meals for our family, other local growers and producers, and local restaurants. This past week I managed to visit two locally sourced restaurants. Spoke and Steel in Indianapolis and The Crest in Columbus, Ohio. The Crest even had raised garden beds in the parking lot. Doesn’t get better than that!

Tonight we capped off a great month with my homemade pasta and just burst cherry tomatoes with garlic and basil served with some homemade toasted French bread with tomato butter. Starlight Red from Huber Winery will also help make the close to a memorable August– always my favorite month of the year- even more special.

Here is what we ate the last TWO weeks… last week’s update got away from me. I told you it was a blur!

Monday: B- Scrambled eggs with veggies; L- chicken, tomatoes and cucumber; D- steak, squash and grilled peaches with goat cheese

Tuesday: B- eggs; L- corn soup; D- Pork burgers and tomatoes
Wednesday: B- Traders Point yogurt, , D- Blue Apron Ramen Bowl with chicken, beans, cucumber and tomato
Thursday: B- Trader’s Point yogurt and peach, L- left overs from dinner, D- Blue Apron Lamb Dish
Friday: B- Eggs, L- pesto, mozzerella and tomato open face sandwich, D- Stuffed Peppers

Saturday: B- Trader’s Point Yogurt; L- Pesto, mozz and tomato sandwiches, D- out at a friend’s house
Sunday: B- Pancakes, L- burgers with sliced tomato and pickles, D- Blue Apron cod with summer succotash

Monday: B- Eggs with veggies, L- Left over stuffed pepper, D- Homemade Bucatini at spoke and steel
Tues: B- Eggs, L-Caprese Salad, D- chicken with tri colored potatoes and carrots

Wed: B- Eggs, L- left over chicken D- Short Ribs with beets and goat cheese
Thurs: B: Eggs with veggies, L- Tomato and cucumber sandwich, D- Pesto Chicken omelette and tomatoes

Friday: B- Eggs with veggies, L- egg salad and rosemary Parmesan popcorn, D- guest at my Uncle’s house
Saturday: B- at my Uncle’s house but with our eggs we had his homegrown sun dried tomatoes, L- The Crest: green salad, lox toast with cream frèche and poached egg; D- Guest at my uncle’s house
Sun: B- guest at my Uncles, No L, D- Tomato Pie (I wish I had gotten a photo… SO good!)
Monday: B- Eggs with veggies, L- Egg Salad Sandwich, Burgers with tomatoes, pickles and roasted okra

Tuesday: B- Yogurt, L- Egg Salad sandwich, D- Baked eggs with herbs and garlic with homemade french bread

Wednesday: B- French bread and butter, L- Egg Salad, D- Homemade pasta with just burst tomatoes, garlic and basil with French bread with tomato butter

Thanks so much for joining us in the fun! Get excited for the next #bloomchallenge!

Two weeks of the #bloomchallenge are under our belts and the month is cruising right along. It’s hard to believe we are just about halfway there!

I joked with Adam that this week was the week of surprises, but really, it was.

Surprise #1: Work got crazy.

I work with sorority and fraternity kitchens and with only two weeks remaining until school starts it got a little nutty.

I found myself working later and at meetings in the evenings so my menu plans kind of went by the wayside. More than a couple evenings didn’t I look up until it was nearly eight and I had not started any dinner prep. And, at lunch, I barely even had time to eat. So, this week’s meals were a little boring- lots of left over’s. (This is why Instagram was a little light…)

Surprise #2: We are losing weight.

Both Adam and I are dropping a decent amount of LB’s since the start of the month.

I am down four pounds, putting me less than two pounds away from what I was prior to my pregnancy. (Granted, I probably should have been ten pounds lighter then… So, I still have some work to do.)

But, hey. This is kind of cool. I have not worked out since the start of the month (embarrassing, but true)… And, I am not even walking with the baby because it has been so hot. So, by making the effort to eat fresh, local food I have been able to make it- kind of- okay.

… I do need to get back to that cardio thing though.

Surprise #3: Blue Apron… Fail.

Last month, my sister-in-law gave us a code for a free week of Blue Apron meals. We gave it a try for the week and I thought we were done after unchecking the available weeks. Well, turns out it renews one month later and we received another week of meals on Wednesday.

So, this is not awesome because of A. The Challenge and B. Because I wasn’t excepting the delivery so it sat outside for 24 hours. We did have to pitch a a few things; but, what I like about Blue Apron is that their recipes are on point with seasonality and they were really easy to replicate with local food alongside the nonperishable (non-local) knick-knacks that we had to use up. (I have problems with food waste…)

Note: I also didn’t get in my account fast enough after receiving this order so we are getting another week this week… lesson learned. If you don’t want it anymore, cancel your account.

Surprise #4: The Four Month Sleep Regression.

… It’s so real.

Can I get a Melissa Gorga “THANK YOU JESUS!” that coffee is a freebie?

Thanks. I needed that.

Here is what we ate last week:

Monday: B- scrambled eggs; L- egg salad sandwich and cucumbers; D- pork burgers with homemade pickles, zucchini and tomatoes

Tuesday: B/L- Swiss chard and onion frittata (Made with turkey eggs!) and Rosemary Garlic bread (This meal was great. I am bummed I didn’t snap a picture.); D- Left over Pork Burgers with pickles, cucumbers and snap peas

Wednesday: B- Eggs scrambled with vegetables; L- Leftover Swiss chard frittata and tomatoes; D- Pizza with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese from Tulip Tree Creamery

Thursday: B- Last piece of the Swiss Chard Frittata; L- Egg Salad sandwich with cucumbers and tomatoes; D- Garden Grilled Cheese with lots of herbs, tomatoes and goat cheese

Friday: B- Trader’s Point Yogurt and a peach; L- Leftover Pizza; D- BBQ Beef Burgers topped with onion rings and herby corn on the cob (Blue Apron Recipe)

Saturday: B- Trader’s Point Yogurt and a piece of toast; L- Leftover Burger and big tomatoes; D- Pizza out to celebrate a friend’s Birthday (It was my Birthday too and I happily ate the scoop of ice cream they brought me at the end of the meal. You only turn 29 once!)

Sunday: B- Eggs with garden veggies and sausage from our 1/4 pig last year; S- Popcorn with Garden Rosemary; D- Spicy Chicken stir fry with corn and mushrooms (Blue Apron Recipe)

There are two questions that I get asked often behind the scenes of Bloom:

1. I want to start a garden.  What should I do?
2. I want to start a blog.  What should I do?

I love helping people so both questions are always welcome, but truth be told, I much prefer the first question because actually… I am a pretty bad blogger. 

Okay.  Okay.  Maybe not a bad blogger, but definitely a inattentive one. 

Anyone who knows even just a little bit about blogging would tell me I should be doing newsletters.  Affiliate links.  SEO.  Ads.  Redoing old post and photos.  Posting on the same day each week.  Running Facebook live and experimenting with Periscope.  Hashtagging it up on Instagram and Twitter.  And, just about 400 other things that are imperative to successful blogging.

I know about these things and know they can be game changers in terms of viewership, yet I still don’t do them.

Sure.  There is a big part of me that would love to gain more engaged readers.  (Like yourself.  Love ya.)  But, there are so many other things I would rather do than shift though old posts adding links to every ingredient or adding unnatural words making me sound like a robot just for a couple more clicks.

Not to mention, these days, just getting a new post- with photos- done feels like a major accomplishment.

I love my life, but Holy Moly… It is full.  

I recently went back to work.  So, Theo started “school.”  Together, we are getting a routine all figured out again.  In the evenings I want to spend every second with him until his bed time.  

(I really enjoy my job and because of my substantial contribution to our way of life it would be silly to walk away from… but, working mom’s… don’t ever to the math of awake hours you get with your child versus what the teacher’s get.  That is, unless you want your heart to break into a million little pieces.)

Between work and motherhood, there’s the gym, maintaining a clean(ish) home, friends, a cute husband to dote on, the farm tasks from selling products to caring for animals, occasional blogging, and… the garden.

Right now, the garden can be summed up in one word: Abundant.

After a rocky start because I spent the last half of April in the hospital, it has surprised us.  It’s a beast. Not a day goes by where we don’t pull at least ten pounds of food from it.  If not twenty. 

Any and all of my free time that could be spent on beefing up the blog has been put towards preserving peas, freezing green beans, canning pickles, making baby food and trying what the heck to do with all the zucchini.

Zucchini is such a backyard garden staple.  It’s very summery and, because it is so easy to grow, it is the first thing I recommend when asked what to grow in a newbie garden.  I feel like it’s not just a good garden confidence booster, but also seriously versatile in the kitchen.  

You can roast it. Grill it.  Sautéed. Baked. Freeze it for later.  Make soup with it.  Put it in a baked goods.

[insert record screech here]

Baked goods?

Oh yes.

Shredded zucchini is great in cookies, brownies and breads.  As an added bonus it’s basically like getting a serving of veggies with your carbs. What’s not to like?

Note: I am not a nutritionist and you might want to consult an expert on that one…

More than the extra veg serving, I love putting zucchini in baked goods… to help use it up.  

Like I mentioned, Zucchini is easy to grow.  Without too much effort, it produces a lot of food.  

Let me say that again… A lot of food.

We are always trying to get creative and use it up so I put a little spin on herby cheese bread.  With the addition of some zucchini and it made for the perfect accompanist to a lunch time salad.  

It was fun to go the savory route with a zucchini baked good, because so often the lean towards the sweet side of things.

 

But, then again there is nothing wrong with that… So, I am off to make zucchini brownies now too.

See why I am a bad blogger? 

I get distracted by seasonal vegetables.

Oh.  My. Gosh. It’s been crazy humid this week.

So humid that the radio host joked that yesterday’s air was actually water and that we all are fish.

So humid that even with my best attempt to straighten my hair every morning, I look like Hermione Granger by noon.

So humid that afternoon ice cream is totally justified.

When pregnant with Theo I hit the ice cream… Pretty hard. I am pretty sure I had at least a scoop five to six nights a week. In fact, I hit any and all desserts pretty hard. I told myself it was fine because it’s not like I was consuming my normal wine calories…

But, now that wine is back in my life on occasion, and I am not eating for two, I have tried to watch my sweet treat intake.

It’s proving to be harder than it used to be pre-baby, so I decided that if I have a treat it has to be something I made. It can’t be something I just picked up at the store.

Fortunately (maybe unfortunately…?) for me, ice cream is one of my favorite things to make.

I learned to love making ice cream with the Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams cookbook as a newlywed. Jeni’s is an awesome ice cream shop that originated in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio.

But, Jeni’s isn’t the only great ice cream shop with Ohio roots. Graeter’s Ice Cream is based out of Cincinnati, but also has plenty of locations in Columbus to get our fix.  (Indy now has one too!)

As a teenager, I would rarely go for a fruity ice cream.  I wasn’t into berries or fruit in general and when it came to ice cream I was too preoccupied with things like… Chocolate.  Lots of it. And, rainbow sprinkles.

But, about five years ago I was back in Columbus because a great friend of mine was going through something impossible.  I headed to her house to keep her company with another one of our girl friends.  On the way, we stopped by Graeter’s to pick up a pint of her favorite flavor, Black Raspberry Chip.

We shared the pint as we caught up, cried, leaned on each other and even laughed a bit, when at first bite, I shared that I was officially a Black Raspberry Chip convert.

This week my same great friend finds herself facing another all to familiar situation again.

Even as one of her oldest friends, it’s hard to know what to say or what to do because it all makes me so sad too.

But, it made me think of that night where the three of us sat around her family’s kitchen table with a pint of Black Raspberry Chip and three spoons. As sad as that time was, I still had a little smile recalling the memory.

Food is such a powerful thing.

It elicits memories, brings people together and offers comfort.

And, after my friends sad news as well as the current events of the week, I needed a little comfort this afternoon.  Using the last of the black raspberries I picked at a local black raspberry patch late last week, I made my own black raspberry chip ice cream.

The flavors were fresh, cool and creamy.  Not to mention the purple color was absolutely dreamy.

As I pulsed the last of my delicious berries, I thought of their short season.  They are only ripe for just a couple weeks and then they are gone.  Which, if you are lucky and have the right support system, is kind of like sad times.

They happen, it’s a fact of life.

But, if we are fortunate they are temporary and overpowered by good.

Fortunately for me and my hair, humidity is like this too.

But, if all else fails, ice cream helps with both.