There are lots of reasons I decided to garden this year -it's a fun hobby, makes the outside of the house look more homey, provides endless opportunities to take pictures and post them here... But ultimately, I'm gardening so we can EAT some fresh veggies.

It's been MONTHS since I planted my first seed indoors, and weeks and weeks since they were moved outside. So it came with great delight when it was time to start harvesting and eating some of the veggies.

First up, KALE.

Beautiful Kale, I love you. As I've mentioned, kale was one of two leafy greens to replace lettuce this year. I was a little nervous because lettuce was the only thing that grew well last year, but boy, am I happy with my decision. Not only has it been a hardier, healthier and heat-resistant plant, it is more versatile in the kitchen. Lettuce = salads, or maybe throw some on a sandwich. Kale is soup, and fritters, and stir-fry, and hummus, and hot dips, and all sorts of lovely things.

What's your favorite KALE RECIPE?

Farm fresh vegetables, local honey & wine, coffee, baked goods, a TROMBONE BAND...our local farmers' market has something for everyone. Take a look at some of the goodies we picked up this week. 

The best part about these types of markets is that they offer different things each week. As vegetables come into season, the selection changes and there's always something new to try. Can't wait until next weekend! 

Weaver's Chicken Croquettes were one of my favorite frozen dinner entrees growing up. 

What are croquettes? 

They're kind of like fried chicken meatballs with gravy. Crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. I had forgotten all about them until last year when one of the food blogs I read mentioned them, and I thought, "hmm I could really go for some of those." So I went to the grocery store, and looked and looked for them. When they couldn't be found, I searched online, and learned that they had been discontinued years ago.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was disappointed. More disappointed than I should have been about a frozen food. But I felt sad that I had JUST remembered this thing from my childhood, and I was so excited to relive this little experience, and now it wouldn't be happening.

Then I remembered that the internet exists. 

One Google search later, I had hundreds of copycat recipes to choose from. I looked through a bunch until I found one that I thought resembled the frozen version the best.

I put this recipe on my list of 14 recipes to make in 2014. 

Here they are, waiting to be fried up. I was so excited to be making these that I only remembered to start taking pictures at this stage.

How'd it go? It's been a long time, but damn, they tasted just like I remembered! There are a lot of steps to make these guys, but it didn't take as long as I thought, AND it makes a huge batch. I fried all of them, but we only ate 4 for dinner that night. We froze the rest of them, once they cooled, in bunches of 4 or 6. When we were ready to eat them a couple weeks later, we preheated an oven to 400 degrees, and baked the frozen croquettes for 35 minutes. They came out awesome!

We try to use up what we have in our fridge and pantry before going grocery shopping. We hate wasting food. Forcing ourselves to use what we have on hand has made us pretty creative in the kitchen.

Being lazy also makes us creative.

HUNGRY + LAZY = CAULIFLOWER QUESADILLAS

You're probably saying "Cauliflower WHAAAAAAA-...?" Tortillas?! Quesadillas?! WTF?

I saw this recipe over at the website Slim Palate.

All the recipes I found online called for fresh cauliflower, but all I had was a bag of frozen cauliflower in the freezer. I was afraid that it might get mushy, but it actually worked out pretty well. 

Empty the frozen florets into a microwave safe bowl and heat for about two minutes, just to defrost them a bit. Then use a FOOD PROCESSOR (we have one now, thanks to Matt and Krista!) and pulse it until it looks like the picture above.

Once it's all nice and "riced", heat in the microwave for two minutes, stir, and back into the microwave for a final two minutes.

Time to SQUEEZE. You want put the cauliflower onto a cheesecloth or thin dishtowel, and squeeze out as much water as possible. NOTE: the cauliflower is HOT. Use a tool or dish washing gloves to protect your hands.

Mix together 2 eggs, salt, pepper, a splash of lime juice and the cauliflower. Now you can use a spoon or scoop and make circles of the mixture on a baking sheet. I felt the batter was a little thin, so as an experiment, I scooped two tortillas onto the sheet, then added about 1/4 cup all-purpose flour to the remaining batter to thicken it a bit. If your intention is to go gluten-free, then don't be spooked by the thin batter - it will set when baked. 

This will make 6 mini tortillas.

Bake the tortillas in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then carefully flip all the tortillas and bake for another 5-7 minutes until set and golden brown. Move them to a cooling rack.

I have a whole bag of jalapenos in the fridge that I'm trying to use up, which is what gave me the idea for quesadillas in the first place. I also had a bit of leftover cheese (cheddar and mozzarella), and quarter of a tomato. I completely forgot to defrost a meat from the freezer this morning, so I opened a can of chicken (in water) and used about a quarter of the can (for two quesadillas).

Can you hear the mozzarella cubes sizzling?

Once you put all the fillin's, top it off with another "tortilla". When it's crispy, flip and wait for it all to melt together.

I was pleasantly surprised with how well these turned out. I've been seeing lots of creative cauliflower recipes online lately - everything from pizza crust to rice - but I was skeptical how they would hold together.

I preferred the tortillas with the added flour. They were more substantial and soft and tortilla-like. However, if you are gluten-free, the flour-less version was good as well. It was more egg-y, and tasted like an omelet. If I were to make it flour-less again, I would use more cauliflower to thicken the batter. Or maybe this is where the freshness of the cauliflower makes a difference.

The whole process took a lot less time then I thought it would. Ricing and squeezing cauliflower sounds involved, but it really didn't take me any longer to make this meal than it usually takes.

Happy Friday everyone!!!

If you've been following along, our friends really like having parties. Everything from Superbowl to the Olympics - we have a party to celebrate it.

Another thing we also really love...food. 

Besides the Superbowl Chili Contest that we've been hosting the last few years, we also compete during the Oscars. The category changes every year, and we try to tie in the theme with one of the picture nominees. Last year, the contest was Pie (for Life of Pi). GET IT?


This year, in honor of the animated film Frozen (2013) the challenge was FROZEN FOODS. 

Once again, our friends did not disappoint. See what we all cooked up below!

Frozen Item: Puff Pastry
I found a wonderful little recipe for Jalapeno Popper Pies, made with puff pastry. I only baked half the batch that I made and froze the other half. They freeze really well!

Frozen Item: NONE - Frozen food inspired
Jason thought outside the box with this one. Instead of making a new food using a frozen item, he made a homemade version of a usually frozen food item! Here we have homemade hot pockets. These also freeze really well.

Frozen Item: Pierogis (mini)
Rob made buffalo pierogis! Spicy, crispy and cheesy. Mini was definitely the way to go here - perfect bite sized. 

Frozen Item: Ice cream
Adam got all fancy on us and made Baked Alaska with homemade meringue! We didn't get a picture of it before we all dug in, but it was beautiful.

THE WINNER!
Frozen Item: Mini Waffles
"Dayna" made this batch of mini-waffle smores. She heated them in a 500 deg oven right before serving to give them that charred smores goodness.

Dayna's name is now on the trophy. She was very excited! Good job, Dayna.

BONUS SNACK: Cheese Porcupine
This little fella may look a bit...scary. But he was a great little beer-cheese dip! He may also be re-imagined as a football for our Superbowl party next year...

BONUS CATEGORY: Best Dressed
The Skelsies! Baby Skelskie was wearing a red Mossimo dress from Target. She was accompanied by her dad, who was very fancy in a bow tie and hat.