Amber & Dinner

What to do with my farm share abundance of potatoes and carrots?  Beef stew.

It would have been better if I had a dutch oven, I think.  But, why are those Le Cruesete ones so darned expensive?  And are they better than the other ones?  Like, $200 better?

And then?  Delightful red chai with honey and milk served in a pretty cup.  (Thank you, well-wishing friends.)

(P.S.  I may or may not ever finish painting that wall, and I totally washed my hair today.)

Amber & Winter Sharing

Despite my fashingles, the associated skin pain, and the now four-day headache, I ventured out today to get my penultimate CSA winter share.

And it was so totally worth it.  Carrots, beets, potatoes, onions, frying greens, apples of two varieties, on-cob popcorn (you remove it before you pop it, Jimmy), a butternut squash, eggs, frozen kale, frozen squash puree, frozen blueberries, frozen golden tomatoes and frozen roma tomatoes, and a cup of coffee from Sugar Café.

My fashingles are going to be so well fed.

Also, we are calling them fashingles now, thanks to Erl.

Amber & (Wiki)Leek and Potato Soup

Today, a day where I woke up with feeling under the (cold) weather and had a so-called "lady" start a fight with me (pushing!) over a dryer at the laundromat (Oh woe that Splashing Laundromat is still not opened after the fire in the building), is the perfect day for leek and potato soup.

Thank you, CSA, for the potatoes and leeks.

Amber & Baby Kevin

It was on this day in history that baby Kevin entered the world.  He was very small and probably wrinkly, like babies are, but I imagine he looked something like this.

Only maybe he didn't have glasses then.  But that scarf is from his heritage and so it seems likely they swaddled him in that in the hospital.

Well, today we celebrate that day, long, long and almost six feet tall ago.  Several rotations of the hands of this clock have passed, anyway.

(Photo by Jimmy)

And, now Kevin is my professional colleague in addition to being my morale booster, musical entertainment, life advice coacher, and truly wonderful friend.  He is also a snappy dresser--this jacket is also heritage, so maybe this was what he wore to his Christening?

(Photo by Jimmy)

Kevin is the kind of loyal, heartful friend that you need for your first chakra.  If someone is going to pack up the contents of your life and present them to you in a U-Haul truck, you want it to be Kevin.

(Photo by Jimmy)

 Kevin will present you with the truth (maybe that you are a hoarder) with humor and caring.  Kevin understands that you're just a regular person and he respects you for it.

Thanks, Kevin, for being born, and for being one of the smartest, generous, funniest, most celebratory, best-haired, book-lovingest, tallest, most dedicated, strongest, and kitty-lovingest people I know.  Had we not met sometime in between your birth and now, I would be much, much less and not at all who I am today.

So, Happy Birthday, Baby Kevin.  And Big Kevin, too.

Amber & Farm Share Week I've Lost Count

Corn, assorted potatoes, beans, eggplant, yellow peppers, beets and their greens, amazingly fragrant basil, leeks, lettuce and partially Ginger-chewed bok choy.  And?  Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.

Did I mention tomatoes?

Amber & Not Blogged, Now Blogged

Last week's farm share (week 6, although I missed one when I was on bed rest) was particularly scoopy.

My half included squashes of yellow and green, scallions, kale, cukes, broccoli, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, turnips, cherries and eggs.  I imagine my sharer's share was pretty much the same.  Also, I got Diana & Kevin's flower share sunflowers for the week.

Most of this stuff is gone now.  And it was sure yummy.

Amber & Bunkered Down

You may be asking yourself, how is ALH surviving on bed rest?  Are the kitties scooping their own boxes and making her meals?  No, they are busy with their own lives (napping, chewing boxes, grooming my head while I am captive).  No, the answer to the success of my bed rest is:

Preparedness.

Before I bedded down yesterday, I ran errands.

These errands included: trips to two different pharmacies for three different drugs (drat the NY state law that says my doc can't call in pain pills, making me have to go pick it up), buying a pill organizer box (you should SEE the pills I have to take), picking up my work laptop for next week (I am way to stoned on pain pills today to circulate), getting my day planner (there's sooo much to plan for when you're on bed rest), buying a treat soap bar and a stop at Lush for seven bath bombs-- one for each day on bed rest.

Also, perhaps most importantly, I picked up a the office mail and lo!  There was a package containing seven packs of M&Ms, all in different flavors.  There are plain and peanuts, classics of course.  But there are also coconut (pukey), dark chocolate, pretzel (disturbing), almond (sooo good), and peanut butter.  I ate the peanut on Day One and the peanut butter today.  Many, many thanks to my kind benefactor, Erl. This kicks the ass of the fruit basket I got that year I called in sick on Shane's birthday.  This human appreciates your resourcefulness, Erl.

And I got this cutie house dress, Le Sac.

Don't confuse it with LaPerm (which very excitingly got its own Wikipedia entry).

But, lest my mother be crying right now because I plan to survive on soap and candy, let me assure you that I have real food, too.  Thank you, Fresh Direct.

I got those 4-minute pre-made meals, juices, yogurts (probiotic!), cherries (ha! take that, farm share that I missed this week!), bread and sandwich stuff, toilet paper, paper towels, tea, pickled tomatoes, milk, cereal... and Ginger, apparently.  That boy sure was disappointed there were no fresh veggies for him to sample.

There were, however, cherries, with which he proceeded to make sahelu with his face.

That boy loves produce.  And I love him.  Even if he isn't supposed to be on the counter.

See, mom and dad?  I am FINE.

Amber & Farm Share Week 3 (Visual Edition)

This is what it looks like when it gets home.

You'll note that the bread wasn't listed on the board.  That's my bread share for the week.  And the Ginger is bonus.  The arrival of farm share is a big moment for the boy.

Especially when there are pea pods!

Amber & Farm Share Week 3

This is how I know what to take.

Amber & CSA Week 2

I ate the veggies before I remembered to blog them last week. This week's verdant offerings include scapes, scallions, kale, bok choy, arugula, turnips, some incredibly lovely spinach, sweet peas and shoots, potted sage and strawberries. Mmmm.

Amber & Due to An Earlier Incident

Just when I thought the MTA had gifted you with all the celebrity, confusing service and squishedness you could handle for a weekend, I rode the train on a Saturday.  Silly rabbit.

The purpose of my journey was to pick up my first CSA winter share of the season and then celebrate the season in fellowship with Diana and Kevin.  To begin my trek, I walked down to 168th Street since it was posted in my stop that the train wasn't going north of there this weekend (which turned out to be false-- at least on my way home).

At 168th Street, there was a bulldozer driving up and down the train platform and then crossing over a make-shift bridge and unloading boulders onto a weird flat train.  This was an ominous start to what turned out to be a two hour ride (including no D service below 34th Street and a stalled A on the F line at Second Avenue).  That is the little bulldozer thing whizzing by on that train unloading thing at seemingly unsafe speeds while I waited for the downtown A.

Then, on the way home from a delightful day (which included beef stew and persimmon pudding), I went to Brooklyn.  There was no D service running from Grand Street, so I walked to the F at Delancey.  But then, there was no uptown F.  So, I had to take the F to Jay Street in Brooklyn to transfer to the uptown A which was running on the F track into Manhattan.  (Maybe you should get out a subway map just to follow along to see what an incredibly indirect route this really was.)

At Jay Street, though, I was rewarded by celebrity in the form of the Kristen Schaal who plays "Mel" on Flight of the Conchords and is a very funny Daily Show commentator.

(I chose the photo with the bird, Diana, since you liked that birdy page in Elle.)

This is Woody and me doing our impression of Kristen and her boyfriend making smoochie on the platform.

Anywhow, then the train came, and Kristen, her boyfriend, and I all got on.  Things were going swell, although mostly local, until 103rd Street when, as the conductor described it, "Something just hit our train."  Note the train did not do the hitting.  Anyhow, we sat on the train with the doors closed until a train crew arrived to check to make sure we hadn't run anyone over or a terrorist hadn't thrown a sticky bomb (I'm picturing a Wacky WallWalker with a dirty bomb in its backpack?) at us.


Once they opened the doors, there was a mass exodus.  But, as the lady next to me said, "How else would I get home?  The bus?  Puhleeze."  We even had one very angry fellow patron yell at us, "What are you bitches doing?  The train is broked.  Get your asses off."  Our decision to wait it out upset him.  But, another train wouldn't come since we were in its way.  And I just am not aggressive to fight an entire train's worth of folks for a spot on an uptown bus.  And who wants to go 70 blocks on a bus?  Puh-leeze.

Anyway, we started moving again after they determined that it was a soda can tossed off the platform at the incoming train.  And then we went express!  Whoooo!

So, two hours and 14 minutes later, I am home.  Still?  The persimmon pudding and the company of friends were worth the over four hours total time spent on trains underground.

Amber & Farm Share Week 14 (I think? maybe 15?)

Guess who got to write the chalk board today? And guess what our seasonal bread share delicacy was? Challah!

Amber & Corn & Potato Chowder

Yum! CSA poatoes, corn, onion, pepper plus carrot with bread share
toast.

Amber & Wrap Up

As regular Amber & readers already learned, my trip to Windflower Farm, birth place of my CSA vegetables and flowers, and visit with Farmers Ted and Jan, was awesome. It started with saying farewell to the kitties, including Ginger who has decided that peaches are his momma and likes to milk tread and suckle their fuzzy skin.

(You can't tell, but he's purring like a happy motor here just being next to his fruit momma.)

The weekend ended with some animal visits, including his Cotswold sheep buddy who liked to have his ear scratched.

(You can't tell but he's super scratchy and scruffy.)

I've upload some more photos, including ones I took of the farm trip and some from Kevin taken during our visit to Elihu Farm (where our egg share comes from) and then at the Washington County Fair.

There's even this one from Kevin of me live blogging the tractor pull.

I think it really captures my journalistic process.

Amber & Farm Share Week 11

Assorted tomatoes and peppers and peaches. Also (not pictured on account of how I put it all away before I remembered to take a snapshot and am too lazy to pull it all out again): leaf lettuce, cabbage, fennel, cucumbers, red onions, garlic, beets, parsley, and summer squash. Flower share ended last week with lovely roses.

Amber & She Is Away Again So I Took This Picture Of Paul & The Vegetables

[Thanks again to CRD for this guest post. This week's share: three varieties of tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, green beans, cukes, cobbed corn, green peppers, a frying pepper, celery, and some other leafy thing tbd hiding behind Paul's head. Eggs. Flowers. Lavash
crackers, multigrain loaf, and, this weeks seasonal delicacy for the bread share queso flautas.]

Amber & Farm Share of the Week

Plum tomatoes, green beans, whit onions, cobbed corn, clipped basil,
broccoli, bok choy, pickling cukes, two red lettuce, eggs, lavash
crackers, multigrain loaf, Shephardic challah, apricots, tortillas,
mystery pink flowers (Diana?), and one regular tomato. Thanks to CRD
for picking it up while I was pooped.

Amber & She Is At The River House So I Took This Picture Of The Vegetables

[CRD actually remote blogged this. Haul this week included: cabbage, potatoes, garlic, slicing cucumbers, lettuce, tomato tease, summer squash, red Russian kale, bok choy, basil to pot, peaches, eggs, orange flowers. Thanks for remote blogging, CRD!]

Amber & Summer Fridays

Today feels so, so hard. My neck hurts from hauling around 26 lbs of meat yesterday. It's really, really humid out. I have a TON of work to do. Vacation is just out of reach, but close enough to distract me. And, I forgot to bring the salad I assembled this morning to eat for lunch.

But really, it's almost the weekend, I have some lovely lovey kitties waiting for me at home along with a salad I forgot to bring to work, vacation is right around the corner, and I have a jungle growing on my desk.

Sigh.

Amber & Week 5 Farm Share

Green chard, scallions, slicing and diva cucumbers, juliet tomatoes, peaches (!), new potatoes, red and white turnips, romaine lettuce, bok choy, and a kholrabi stem. Plus, eggs and flowers (photo of flowers TK so Diana can identify their breed). Extras: sheeps milk yogurt, granola, kielbasa, italian sweet sausage, hot dogs, chicken breasts and thighs (meat for River House).