fall harvest stew

every week i like to make a meal or two that can be frozen or used as left overs for future meals.  this week i made a delightful fall stew, brimming with the season's colors: yellow, red, orange, and green. the soup freezes well and will make a nice quick meal for a lazy winter day.  i was inspired by the kale we gleaned from our farm in zeeland!  

this meal is fairly fast to prepare, it was ready to eat by song #4 on side b of a 90 minute mix tape.  i was listening to the mix i made last autumn for suki's birth.  

we saved most of the squash from our csa plus collected more from groundswell late in the season at the saturday farmers market.  we used them to decorate for the birthday party, and now we finally get to start eating them!  you will need two pounds of any kind of squash for the stew, this is what i used; one acorn and one heirloom (i don't know the name of the variety).

the ingredients needed are:

one large onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 tbsp. coconut oil

2lbs. squash cut in to small cubes

1/4 cup white wine

1-2 cups kale chopped small

1 cup of corn kernels (fresh or frozen will work)

2 cups of veggie stock

1 1/2 cup of stewed tomatoes (or 4 fresh tomatoes chopped small)

dash of salt and pepper 

first, cook the onions in the oil for about 3 minutes on medium high heat.  

add the garlic and cook for another few minutes.  once the onions begin to turn soft mix in the squash.  add salt, pepper and white wine and cook for 5-10 minutes stirring often.  add the kale, veggie broth, tomatoes and corn.  bring to a boil then lower heat to a simmer and cover for about 20 minutes or until squash is tender.

enjoy!

birthday party

earlier this month we celebrated suki's first birthday!

                 her godmother, dorrey, came in to town for the celebration and to help
                                                 us get ready for the party.

i made many decorations but the finger puppet party favors were the most fun to make. 

laura prepared a delectable squash tart while the kitchen here was busy the morning of the party preparing kale chips, blistered almonds, muenster style vegan cheese, grapes, crackers, flautas, savory bread pudding, chili, and apple cider cranberry-ginger punch.  

 suki's granny made the delicious sweet potato cookie bars from "vegan cookies invade your cookie jar" and carrot cake cupcakes from "vegan cupcakes take over the world".  a party is not complete without a recipe by the amazing ladies of the post punk kitchen.  

suki loved her first dessert ever, adam made her raw pumpkin pie from "sweet gratitude"!

suki learned to walk only days before the party so she had to show off for all of her friends.  her party dress was made with kokka fabric using the playdate pattern by 

oliver + s. it is unfortunate this pattern is no longer in print i loved working with it, 

the sleeve detail is so lovely.

thank you to colin wade photography for some great pics and a special

thank you to all of our friends who were here celebrating with us. we love you!

onnellinen Isänpäivä!

rakkaudella, suki & e

raggedy kids

one of my most recent projects has been making these little costumes for suki and beedle.  i was inspired by my first halloween costume and a fantastic collection of all sorts of things raggedy ann and andy.  peek at the collection on mister mushroom's flickr.
for the costumes i used a variety of patterns, three pieces are from oliver + s and the rest of the pieces are from a combination of two raggedy ann and andy patterns on loan from mister mushroom himself.  my friend susan made the wig for ann!