Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble...

Growing up in Sutton, I have fond memories of going out and picking fresh rhubarb from the garden, mostly I remember the massive leaves but I do remember going to pick it up for Mum.  So I was excited to see a recipe for a pork sandwich that used rhubarb jam as a topping and had been eager to try it...this week I finally had the perfect opportunity to add it to the meal plan, in addition strawberries were on sale so I picked up some extra stalks, this then turned into a crumble.  Isabel helped by adding ingredients into the bowl and then did a great job rubbing in the butter...and I mean a great job.  She is so good in the kitchen and I mean good, they both know to not touch knives, often put ingredients into bowls and I've often had her add spices etc to the meals.  Now if only I can get her to actually eat more veggies everything will be perfect!

Oh and farewell to one of my RR bubble and browns...it had a cracked handle and really fell apart last night.  Guess we will be looking to get a replacement /sigh.

The foods that baffle me with my girls...

So I am always struggling with Isabel to get her to eat veggies, and I mean always.  People suggest a lot of tricks to me but I can tell ya a lot of those ideas just won't fly with her.  Puree you ask?  Nope tried that makes not difference, pureed carrot, cooked carrot she will not touch, however peel a carrot for dinner and she will steal it off the counter and eat it, shred it put it raw in salad and again she is unlikely to touch it, stir fry, not a chance...potatoes, only way she will eat them is as fries...no mash, no potato salad not mixed in and hidden in stews, this goes for sweet potatoes too.  Red cabbage, again like carrots same deal.  A lot of times I will just put some salad on her plate just to get her to eat something green.  Yet she eats the plants from my garden go figure.  Then again she will eat poppadoms, cilantro chutney, and tamarind, date chutney that makes even my tongue tingle!

It just boggles my mind it really does but it makes life interesting.

Trying to get organized!!!

It's been crazy since my last blog posting, and this week has been particularly trying.  We are in the throws of work for installing central air in our house, can I say YAY!!!   However, weekend work to prepare for the arrival didn't quite go as planned and we have a hole that needs stuccoing, oops, that repair has been a challenge due to the wonderful CA spring weather, i.e, rain rain and more rain.  Tuesday in other prep work (I was weeding, I discovered a bumblebee colony under the 'man cave'...joy that meant on the one dry morning of the week we had to vacate the garden due to wildlife, the nest has been removed (thank you!) and the side is a bit wild still but in good enough shape with a little weeding work they should be able to do the work necessary down there (I hope).  I also have this problem of being routinely interrupted whenever I try to do something productive.  Ah well, such is life.

Anyway tonight I get to try a new recipe from a wonderful cookbook all about clay-pot and one pot cooking, sausage potato casserole, looking forward to it as we get to try the butcher sausages I purchased from a local shop in Pleasanton, I'm hoping...I am going to try to use this store even tho it's pricey but at least I get the meat I want!  A nice change from the stuff that we have to use from the supermarket.  I'm thinking special occasions and nice cuts of meats I'll try it, plus I can get speciality meats rather than the chicken, pork, beef and lamb.  They also tend to be organic and locally raised which is a nice plus, I'll reserve judgement but every so often I think I will try to indulge just to support local business like this.