Farm Fresh Veggie Roast

I chopped up some fresh veggies and threw them into the roasting pan to cook them up. Yum Yum Yum!! I added some of the green wisps from the fennel bulb, chili powder, S& P and EVOO. The veggies included:

• fennel
• yellow squash
• green zucchini
• onion
• garlic
• carrot
• potatoes
• radish
• kohlrabi
• maybe a few other tasty things I'm forgetting!

Roasted Fennel

Roasted Fennel Recipe

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_fennel/

INGREDIENTS

• 2 fennel bulbs (thick base of stalk), stalks cut off, bulbs halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise in 1-inch thick pieces
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.

2 Rub just enough olive oil over the fennel to coat. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar, also to coat. Line baking dish with Silpat or aluminum foil. Lay out the pieces of fennel and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until the fennel is cooked through and beginning to caramelize.

Yield: Serves 4.

Empty the fridge Salad

 With all the fresh veggies from the CSA farm delivery, I decided to just combine them all and make a nice summer salad. I crumbled some tofu on top. I added some kidney beans I had in the fridge. I cut up a bit of the green part of the fennel bulb I had. The other veggies are listed below with pictures to accompany them! A wonderful salad I look forward to making again with new veggies with my next veggie delivery!

Sweet snap peas that Britney and I just snacked on. Didn't want them to be lost in the salad!

White radishes. Threw away the greens (well I cut a few into the salad) and chopped up radishes and threw into salad.

Fresh red and yellow potatoes that I boiled, cut up and threw into my salad!

Such a fresh white onion, it's more like a mixture of green onion AND white onion!

Kohlrabi: tastes like cabbage, looks like alien produce. Delicious raw! NOT the leaves though

Homemade dressing with lime, miso, honey and sesame oil. Quite tasty!

Miso-Lime Dressing

Salad dressing version

Please note: quantities are highly, highly experimental - i have no idea how much i actually use. Adjust to taste. Let me know what actually works.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp miso
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1-2 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp ginger, crushed or juiced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Shake all ingredients together. Serve over, well, salad!

Roasted Lettuce Head

Tasted yummy fresh out of oven, warm and crispy. Later on I couldn't stomach trying it after it was refrigerated. Had to throw it out. Next time, don't roast the entire head!

Dinner and a Concert---Thank you Groupon!!

Aubree and I had a fantastic night this week all thanks to Groupon! We went to dinner at the Hornet, a local restaurant on Broadway near my house. Then we went to a concert at the Filmore. Mat Kearney opened, with his new song "Hey Mama" http://grooveshark.com/#/search?q=mat+kearney+hey+mama Then Owl City came on and played, among countless others, their hit song "Fireflies", http://grooveshark.com/#/search?q=owl+city+fireflies. At the end of the concert, Aubree and I had to run over three blocks in a torrential downpour. We were soaked and I even took off my flip flops and ran bare foot. What a great evening regardless of the rain!! 

Dinner at The Hornet

 http://hornetrestaurant.com/mobile/

It was my first time there at this restaurant and I learned that they have an outstanding Happy Hour: 1/2 off Appetizers.

A side of fried plantains!

Salvadoran Pupusas
corn pancakes with black beans, cheddar, spicy slaw, salsa and sour cream add carnitas 

I got this dish for $3.50!! It was on the app menu.

Mojito: my favorite!!

Aubree's dish: 

Rickshaw Panini: chicken, fried onion and jalapeno strings, swiss, coconut curry, mayo, lettuce and tomato

Almond and cherry-blossom cupcakes from a bakery up the street--super yummy!!

Owl City performing with all their lights and talent!

Such a fun night!!

GROUPON:


Aubree noticed that in small print at the bottom of our Groupon was this opportunity to send in pictures/movies with the hopes of getting some money from them. Aubree had an idea to make a little "MasterCard"-like advertisement about Groupon. We wrote the messages on our hands and tapes it at the concert. Details below:

Send Us Your Pictures!

Want to win $100? Email creative pictures (or videos!) of you redeeming your Groupon to pictures@groupon.com. Each month we'll award $100 in Groupon credit for our favorite photo! Keep in mind, by submitting a photo, you are giving us permission to use it on our Flickrstream, in our promotions, or on our website.

"Karly and Aubree's DENVER adventure"

Concert: originally $35/ ticket --nope, actually $18 each!

Dinner: Originally $40 total, with groupon: $15

Groupon Deals: Priceless

Here's the video Aubree sent in. It was too large to email so she uploaded it on youtube. It's a combination of all the pictures above put together into a movie-format. Keep your fingers crossed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPd9wr6ur7g

CSA Love

Britney and I are members of a farm this summer (Monroe Family Farms) as part of a CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) and we get to pick up our produce each week at a local drop-off. We have a single share that is a good amount of produce for us. Yesterday (every Wednesday) I went and picked up our third delivery of vegetables. We received 3 large heads of lettuce, 2 zucchini, a few radishes, a few red potatoes, 2 white onions, a bulb of fennel and a few more things I'm probably forgetting. 

This morning I got back from yoga and thought I should put the cleaned veggies into the fridge (I heavily rinsed them last night because they come all dirty to preserve their freshness) and decided to make a glorious salad for breakfast. I cut up some very flavorful lettuce (kind of peppery and bitter) with some tofu, cashews, radishes, cilantro, green onion, garlic scapes and probably a few other things! So delicious topped with salt, pepper, chili powder, balsamic vinegar and EVOO. 

Breakfast!!

Super healthy, right?

Name this veggie. I don't know what it is but I chopped up the greens and the purple bulb really small and threw it all into my salad--more vitamins is how I see it!

Day 4: 4th of July!!!

 The final day of the awesome trip! We went to Target (twice), Snooze for brunch, home to rest and then off to Red Rocks for a concert and picnic with firework shows up the wazoo!

Robyn being goofy in the most beautiful hat ever seen. We later returned it. Yes, that means I bought it!

SNOOZE!

http://www.snoozeeatery.com/

Snooze Spuds Deluxe A heaping portion of our hash browns, covered with melted cheddar & jack cheese,scallions plus two veggies , meats, or combo of your choice (spinach, mushrooms, bell pepper)

Tuna Melt Wild albacore tuna blended with roasted tomato mayo, cheddar cheese & pea sprouts sandwiched in rustic white bread.

 So good Robyn wants me to mail her one! :)

Pancake Flight choose three pancake flavors from above and get the best of all worlds

Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes Caramelized pineapple chunks with housemade vanilla crème anglaise and cinnamon butter

Sweet Potato Pancakes Our signature sweet potato buttermilk pancakes topped with homemade caramel, pecans and ginger butter. ***WE VOTED IT THE BEST***

Blueberry Lemon Bar Pancakes Our legendary buttermilk pancakes griddled with fresh blueberries and oatmeal, topped with Noosa honey yogurt sauce and whipped lemon butter. Smile included.

It was very hot outside but we made it!

Lovin' breakfast/lunch

SHISHTERS! :D

RED ROCKS

View from line

Just waiting

I love summer weather! Even if it is a bit hot

Still waiting

and waiting

and waiting some more!

Finally, we made it to our seats and hung out as we listened to. I'd definitely you look up these three bands on grooveshark.com. Very chill, one (matisyahu) is reggae. The three bands are: Matisyahu (best song is "King without a Crown"--not mom's favorite!), Toad the Wet Sprocket (best song is "Walk on the Ocean") and Blues Traveler (best song is "Run Around"). 

So beautiful even if we didn't know the music so well, the show and scenery was wonderful!

Cheers: lemon water (me), pickle (Robyn), spiked lemonade (Mom). 

Robyn's new favorite snack: mustard on pickles! She sure loved her pickles this trip. A jar we bought had 13 spears and she ate all but 4 in one sitting. No worries about not having enough sodium in Denver!

The view at nighttime as Blue's Traveler played. We could see countless (literally, Robyn forbid me to try and keep track) fireworks shows. That was my favorite part of the show: being everywhere while standing still. 

Totally diggin' the show, right?!

What a great way to end an even greater trip! I don't know what will be in store for their next visit but I'm already excited (or for my trip home in a few weeks!! YAHOO!!!) Love you Mom and Robyn, thanks for visiting when it was so stinkin' hot!