Veggies for Lent - Review of our first week

OK, so it was more like 4 days, but still. We got ourselves started with 40 days of Veggies, and things did get better after the first night. Here's a synopsis of our first few days' dinner efforts. It's been important to us that all meals are easy and quick to prepare and fairly inexpensive. This lifestyle needs to be sustainable.

Day one, Ash Wednesday

Pancakes. As I noted that day, there were no veggies to be found, but no meat either. For day one, which included a teething sick child, I call that a success.

Day two, Thursday.

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas. Our own recipe.

Mix one can corn with one can black beans (both drained). Add juice of 1/4 - 1/2 lime, and 1/2 tsp. cumin. Add some cilantro and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust seasoning to preferences.

Spray nonstick pan with cooking spray and heat to medium high. Place tortilla in the pan, spoon bean mixture and some of your favorite mexican cheese into the tortilla, and top with a second tortilla. Once the bottom tortilla is brown and the cheese begins to melt, flip to brown the other side. Alternatively, spoon the mixture onto half of the bottom tortilla and fold it in half. Then flip when the bottom is brown.

Slide finished quesadilla onto a plate and serve with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, or your own favorite Mexican food toppings.

Day three, Friday. 


Meat Friday. We went out for dinner to celebrate this, and the fact that our family had attained health. I enjoyed a crabcake sandwich, the Bean had chicken fingers, and the Husband had a great big hamburger. Noms.

Day four, Saturday.


My new love is crockpot soup. You chop up the ingredients, throw them in the pot, push the button, and go on your way. Come home at the end of the day, and the house smells awesome, and your dinner is ready.

Saturday, we had vegan Minestrone, a recipe found in The Vegan Slow Cooker, one of our new favorite books. This meal was a reprise of the one I cooked for my friends last weekend at the farm. I forgot to document it this Saturday, so I am re-sharing the photo from that weekend. The results were similar and wonderful.

So far, so good. The food has been fun, delicious, and easy. I can't wait to tell you about this week! Two days in, and I'm already drooling.

Some Lovely Finds

We've got the antiquing itch, and we've got it bad! A few years ago, I started a fabulous collection of 1950s dinnerware by collecting a functional set of the Temporama pattern by Canonsburg Pottery. It's a great representation of oven-to-table dinnerware, typical of the 1950s and 60s, when serveware designers produced some great pieces that were highly versatile. Dinner could be cooked in a casserole, served on a plate, and then reheated later on that same plate. Revolutionary, considering the microwave heyday was still a few decades away. I love this set in particular because of the modern-style pattern - I've had many people ask me what modern store I purchased the set in. I also love it because it uses my favorite color palette in the whole world - dusty blues and tans. I've since painted my kitchen to match.

Once I'd completed my everyday set, however, I stopped buying. Life happened, the Bean happened, and I also lost my great Temporama hookup at the local antiques mall. I could purchase pieces to complete the set on ebay or etsy, but that's just not as much fun unless they are both super rare AND a super steal - hard to find when it comes to vintage wares these days.

Fastforward to New Year, 2012. For Christmas, I splurged and bought myself one of those rare steals I mentioned - I picked up a lovely coffee pot. Then, a deviled egg plate. Then, for Valentine's Day, the Husband and I took a day trip to a small town in PA known for its great antiques houses. And the itch caught both of us. Of course we were hunting for more Temporama, but I had also decided that some sour cream glasses and pyrex casseroles would help to flesh out my fetish for this particular era of kitchen stuffs.

On my trip to Autumn House Farm last weekend, we spent an afternoon antiquing in nearby Punxsutawney, and I scored. I found a beautiful pyrex bowl with a hot air balloon pattern - and it is MY COLOR! Simultaneously, the Husband was out with his family and the Bean, and picked up two lovely casseroles which were also in my favorite color and decorated with snowflakes - so adorable. And then, this afternoon, the Husband and I went on a lunch date to a local shop, finding some lovely "swankyswigs," collectible glasses that were created by Kraft in the 1940s to hold cream cheese. (It was just after the Depression. If people were going to splurge on cream and cheese, they'd appreciate doing so much more if they got a useful glass out of the deal.)

And so it is that I share with you our latest spoils. I'm so proud of these finds, because they truly were finds - no internet involved. And they represent the rekindling of an interest that the Husband and I enjoy together and use to make our home and kitchen more beautiful. Aren't they lovely?

Three lovely Pyrex finds, and four adorable Swankyswigs

40 Days of Veggies

Ash Wednesday. Day one of Lent, a season for repentance, reflection, and - some would say - self deprivation in observance of the end of Jesus Christ's Life on Earth. He was challenged, tried, betrayed, and ultimately killed by those who had once worshipped him.

Many people take Lent as an opportunity to give something up, following the old tradition of throwing all the fat out of the house on what has become known as Fat Tuesday. Additionally, Fridays are usually days with no meat, or perhaps just fish. I have not always observed these traditions, and when I have it's been with mixed success. I'm not one for a month of somberness, so I often take Lent as an opportunity to do something to live my life in a healthier way, rather than as a time to focus solely on our lives as sinners.

Anyhoo...This year, the Beez have decided together to turn Lenten traditions on their head, giving up meat every day except Friday. (Typically, observers use Fridays as a day to give up meat, unless it's fish.) So yesterday, for Fat Tuesday, we did not eat donuts. Instead, we enjoyed a lovely quiche made with some pretty awesome prosciutto. We'll eat the leftovers on Friday this week.


Going vegetarian is not so hard for lunch. (Keep in mind that we are not giving up dairy in this experiment - one step at a time.) I had some leftover veggie minestrone from this weekend's adventures, so I had that with some Greek Yogurt. No problem - a pretty typical lunch for me. Dinner, on the other hand, presented our first challenge. Knowing that this new endeavor would require some planning, we had a pantry creation in mind - black bean and corn quesadillas. Easy, right? Not so much when your toddler has a meltdown and demands pancakes.

So, pancakes it was. No veggies on the plate, but also no meat. The meal was topped off with some lovely local maple syrup (or dip, as the Bean calls it) from MacNeal Orchards.

Hey, it's a start, right?  It'll only get better from here...

Girls Gone Crafty - A Weekend to Remember

 This past weekend, I went away by myself for the first time since Lily was born. Even better was the fact that this first journey away was with a group of "girls," rather than for work. Thanks to our one friend in common, Abbey of Knit & Wit, our group of five young women traveled West over the mountains to Autumn House Farm. We began as individuals who had never spent time together as a group, looking forward to a weekend of potential luxury, antique and yarn buying, and industrious productivity as we anticipated lounging by the fire in the farm house we were to stay in. We ended the weekend as friends, bonded together by an experience that was nothing we had expected and yet was so much better. It was the type of experience that happens rarely, and can pass you by if you don't hold onto and embrace it. It was the type of experience that you leave feeling changed. I know that I did. (And Abbey's reflections confirm that the same was true for her.) I entered the weekend with anticipation and admittedly a few shy nerves, and left feeling so confident - in this group of women, in my own values, in the promise of my family's future.

This is a story that I struggle to tell, because it's a story about discovery and knowing. And our guide on that journey was a lovely woman named Harriet. Harriet is a truly unique woman. She is an artisan, expert in the fiber arts. She is a lifelong farmer, and an encyclopedia on animal husbandry - she has been caring for sheep for many years, but before that kept cattle. She loves her husband, her children, her people. She is an historian - she tells colorful stories of the people and artifacts of her past. And she is a self-appointed role model, deliberately sharing her very strong core values and the ways of farming and self-reliance with any who would like to learn. Harriet cares deeply about the future generations that will come after her and inherit all of the rich beauty with which we have been entrusted as humans. This care colored all of the conversations we shared in with her.

So did we relax in luxury? Rustic relaxation is more like it...

So did we do any crafting? Absolutely!                                

Painted Bird Houses

Finished Duck Bib

Did we sit by the fire? Of course!

Tending the fire

Did we enjoy awesome food, wine, and company? Yes!

Vegan Minestrone

Did we get to meet the sheep? Oh yeah!

With a lovely lamb named Mouse

I have a feeling this past weekend is going to creep into more than a few future blog posts, as I share with you all that we did, saw, learned, and accomplished. One thing's for sure. I am SO glad that I went.

The five of us with Harriet and her dog, Cap