For all you Lionel lovers

Lionel's fan club have been clamoring for more kitty-pictures. To appease the cat-lovers amongst you, here's Lionel in all of his relaxed, "I could kill you with this claw - if I wanted to" glory.

















"Vicious" comes to mind.

Saturday Dinner

Dinner Saturday was excellent, especially because it featured three experiments in one meal. We had stuffed CSA bell peppers, home-made gnocchi and dandelion greens with caramelized onions.

First, a picture of the final result, then the recipe for gnocchi:

Kimball Street Home-Made Gnocchi

makes 4 servings

1/2 lb. potatoes (or other starchy, root vegetable)
1 cup + 2 T white, all-purpose flour, divided
1 medium egg
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1 T salt and 1 T salt, divided
1 t olive oil


1.) Cut potatoes into small pieces. Boil until soft. Mash. Put in fridge to cool.
2.) Put large stock pot, dutch oven, or other pot (with decent vertical height) on stove to start heating (it takes a while to bring to boil). Add 1 T salt and oil.
3.) Take cooled potatoes from fridge, add egg, garlic and onion powder and salt. Mix.
4.) Add the 1 cup flour to the bowel and mix. The mixture should not be overly sticky on the outside - it should completely disengage the sides of the bowl, easily.
5.) Divide flour/potato/egg mixture into three sections. Flour work surface with remaining 2 T of flour. Roll out one section into a long, thin roll (think: clay snake). Cut into small rounds (which will end up looking like little pillows) with pastry scraper or well-floured knife. Store on parchment paper or well-floured plate. Repeat for other two sections of dough.
6.) Prepare a strainer/colander and slotted spoon near the boiling water.
7.) When the water has reached boiling, and depending on the size of the pot, place half or all of the cut gnocchi into the boiling water. They will sink to the bottom for about 30 - 90 seconds, at which point they will rise to the surface (like knefflies!) and should be immediately scooped out and placed into the colander.
8.) Serve or freeze. Enjoy.

It certainly is tasty!

NASA Rocks!

Check out how cool NASA is! They've launched (in 2006, so I'm clearly waaaay behind) a new exploration program called Constellation. It's supposed to pick up where Apollo left off. That's right - people on the moon! For six months! And Mars!

Just when I decided to not be an astronaut, too. Lousy timing is what that is. Guess I'll have to go back to school. Although, if there's a secret cache of medieval wool on the moon, then NASA, I'm your man.

Here's a cool video from NASA about the program.

CSA Fun

So this summer we subscribed to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) called Zephyr Farm. They and many other small farms around Rhode Island are indexed online so that any consumer who wants to try and eat locally and in season can have easy access to types of food, CSAs, farmer's markets and more.

Each Tuesday we go to a designated pickup location and gather our veggies and fruit for the week. It's spread on tables with a quantity above each bin saying, "1 bunch dandelion greens" or "5 lbs. tomatoes." This year we've had eggplants, squashes, basil, sage, tomatoes (cherry and heirloom), carrots, fennel, broccoli, TONS of cucumber (more about that in another post), green beans, melons, onions, garlic, various lettuces, and peppers (and more that I can't remember). We also get a dozen eggs every other week. All this for only $30/wk for 20 weeks! Amazing!

To the left here is the haul from last week, artfully arrayed in the kitchen sink after we washed them. Our vegetable wash is just a simple white vinegar/filtered water mixture in a spray bottle. We've found that if we wash all the veggies at the beginning of the week, and then store them in most paper towels and plastic Ziploc bags (all are reusable!) that they last much longer. Also, we are more willing to just, say, munch on a carrot if it is already washed.

Of course, all this farm-fresh produce is spoiling us just in time for winter. We're hunting for a winter CSA, but I'm not sure how prevalent those are. Stay tuned.