He ate half of one last week but the rest of the bunch has been sitting in the fruit basket getting riper and riper. I thought about making some smoothies, but of course I never got around to it. I moved the almost completely brown bananas to the fridge and figured I’d make muffins or banana bread. But I was uninspired by the thought of banana quick bread and remembered a recipe I’d seen online for Elvis cake- a peanut butter banana cake with chocolate chips.

I made it last night and it’s fantastic, but the icing was overly sweet. Here’s the recipe slightly modified- I plan on making it again.

Elvis Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1 cup milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
2-3 mashed bananas
1/2 tsp banana extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips, more for sprinkling on the finished cake

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine. Stir in vanilla, mashed bananas, and banana extract. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter evenly between two greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup of smooth peanut butter.
2 cups of powdered sugar
Up to 2 Tbs milk

In an electric mixer cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and fully incorporated. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and use milk to adjust the consistency to your liking. Using natural peanut butter will result in a frosting that’s not quite as sweet but it may be a little grainy.

This was Sam’s third trip to the orchard- fourth if you count a trip when I was pregnant. Last summer we picked blackberries, tomatoes, and peaches. In the fall we went with a group of friends and skipped the apple picking but we went for a hayride, drank apple cider and walked through the pumpkin patch. Sam remembered the place and kept insisting that he was picking strawberries in the pumpkin patch.

We got there later than we’d hoped and ate lunch at a picnic table before taking the hayride out to the strawberry patch. It was hot and humid and Sam hadn’t had a nap. Ben was strapped to my chest in a wrap with built in SPF. The rest of us were slathered in sunscreen and sweaty. Sam didn’t know where to find the strawberries so I picked up the leaves and showed him how to find them. We got to work with our separate boxes. Sam preferred to “pick” strawberries from mama and dada’s boxes, transfer them to his box, and eat them immediately. He was soon covered in strawberry juice.

Three quarts (and about a thousand strawberries consumed later) we took the hayride back to the raspberry bushes, adjacent to the parking lot. Sam was still in good spirits but he was tired. The raspberry picking appealed to him because the raspberries were at a good height where he could pick them without bending or searching. He ate a ton and ran up and down the rows before asking to go home. We got about two quarts of raspberries before paying and heading home.

It’s been a week and we’ve consumed all five quarts of fruit. I planned on freezing some of it, but I never got around to it and it was so good we just kept eating it. I’ve been eating granola with yogurt and berries every morning for breakfast and eating berries every time I open the fridge.

A few ideas for berry storage:
Berries should be washed before storing. Rinse them in 3 cups of water mixed with 1 cup of vinegar then run under fresh water from the tap. Drain in a colander. Line a salad spinner with several layers of paper towels and spin the berries until dry.

Store the berries loosely covered at the front of the refrigerator. They are cold sensitive and will last longer.

To freeze, put the berries on a baking sheet in rows so they’re not touching. Freeze, then transfer berries to freezer bags for storage.

The problem was what to make. The strawberries were so perfectly ripe and sweet we ate one of the two quarts in the car on the ride home. I am not a pie person and strawberry rhubarb pie is the most popular dessert using the two ingredients. But once again, Smitten Kitchen came to the rescue with this fantastic crumble. It’s easy to make and it used ingredients I had in the kitchen except for the Demerara sugar which I substituted with dark brown sugar. Serve it with ice cream.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble
For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Demerara sugar (or turbinado sugar, or Sugar in the Raw)
Zest of one lemon
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
For the filling:
1 ½ cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
Pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugars and lemon zest and add the melted butter. Mix until small and large clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Prepare filling: Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, flour and pinch of salt in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
3. Remove topping from refrigerator and cover fruit thickly and evenly with topping. Place pie plate on a baking sheet, and bake until crumble topping is golden brown in places and fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 to 50 minutes.

To make sure I’m using all of the vegetables in a timely manner I’ve been making a list on the fridge and crossing the vegetables I use off as I go. We didn’t do too badly last summer and so far we’ve only lost a bit of lettuce to the compost bin. Two heads of lettuce is more than we can eat in a week, but since that box was farmer’s choice I don’t blame myself.

The two year old has become quite the picky eater as of late, subsisting mainly on fruit and noodles. I’m not too concerned. I know that this will pass and until it does I’ll just keep offering. I don’t cook him a separate meal (though we do cook more pasta then we need so we’ll have leftovers at the ready) so he gets what we eat on his plate and if he doesn’t eat it I’ll bring out something from the fridge or cabinet so he won’t go to bed hungry.

So what do you do as an adult if you’re stuck with something in the CSA box you don’t like? I don’t like radishes and last summer our radishes (I ordered them once on a whim) ended up in the compost after a month or two in the fridge. This time I did a search and found a recipe for radish sandwiches. It sounded pretty awful- just baguettes, butter and thinly sliced radishes, but the reviews said they worked. And sure enough they did.

Here’s the recipe from epicurious.com

2 1/2 bunches radishes, trimmed
Unsalted butter, room temperature
20 1/4-inch-thick diagonal slices baguette
Maldon sea salt or coarse kosher salt

Place radishes in medium bowl of ice water and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Drain radishes and slice thinly. (use a mandoline or v-slicer if you have one)
Spread butter generously over baguette slices and sprinkle lightly with sea salt or coarse kosher salt. Arrange radish slices atop buttered baguette slices and serve.

I skipped the chilling, used 3 large radishes and salted butter. I also toasted the baguette. If you have radishes to use up this is a palatable way to do it.

He still spends the majority of the day sleeping, but when he’s awake he spends his time looking around with those dark blue eyes. He’s mostly calm and content and very rarely cries for reasons I can’t figure out immediately. He’s a good sleeper and naps on his own for hours at a time in his crib, the pack n play in my bedroom, or on a mat on the floor. At night he wakes to eat twice between 11 and 6 but generally goes back to sleep immediately after nursing for a few minutes. Last night he pleased me by sleeping for a good six-hour stretch. I am grateful.

He nurses quickly and efficiently and doesn’t spend a lot of time just hanging out on the breast, which I really appreciate. The quick and efficient nursing makes him pretty gassy which leads to spectacular spit ups once or twice a day. It’s astounding how much liquid can spew from a newborn’s mouth without them really noticing or caring. The pooping seems to have slowed down, and while there’s still plenty of poop (one of the downsides of parenting) I no longer have to change three diapers in a 30-minute period because of it.

The poor little guy hasn’t had the best health so far. He’s already had a staph infection, a nasty yeast rash (which the other pediatrician in the office told me was not yeast when I brought him in the first time. Two days later she wrote me the prescription for the yeast cream and it promptly went away), and now he’s got a cough. The same cough his brother and I both have. It’s awful to hear his little body coughing, especially since I know how much it hurts. But it hasn’t seemed to affect his mood and it hasn’t affected his sleep.

He’s really pretty strong. He surprised everyone by lifting his head and looking around immediately after his birth and he’s continued to show off his impressive head control since. When he’s on his belly he pushes up on his arms and looks around. He’s also got strong legs. Sometimes when he sleeps he’ll push himself several inches forward. One day he turned a full 90 degrees. I’ve also seen him turn from his back to his side. He’s so advanced. (doesn’t every parent say that about their kid?)

My little baby is growing up. It’s amazing how easily and how immediately we loved him. I’ll miss the newborn stage when it’s over. I love how soft and cuddly he is and how perfectly he fits under my chin. But I can’t wait to see what he’ll be like as he grows.

The good news is that last week was the first week of the Red Earth Farm CSA share for the season. We signed up for a partial share this season, since with a newborn in hand and a toddler underfoot I didn’t think I’d be able to preserve all of the extras we’d be unable to eat. My partial share included a bunch of pak choi, a bag of perpetual spinach, a head each of red leaf and green leaf lettuce, a bunch of radishes and green onions.

The CSA is also offering fruit, egg, herb/flower shares and yogurt shares this season. The herb/flower share is new this season and all flowers and herbs are organically grown on the farm. The yogurt share, also new, is a partnership with Pequea Valley Farm in Lancaster. The cows on the Lancaster farm are grass fed and hormone and antibiotic free. CSA members can choose from a plain share and a variety flavor share that includes two quarts of yogurt biweekly. The buying club through the farm is currently offering cheese from Oak Shade Cheese and medicines and other herbal products from Avena Botanicals.

I’m sort of sad that we didn’t go ahead and buy a fruit share, but last summer’s fruit share just wasn’t worth it until late summer/early fall when each share had tons of apples and pears. I guess there’s always the buying club and the farmer’s market up the street. No shortage of local produce, it just requires some extra legwork on my part.

My thoughts have turned to things that are rumored to start labor. I’ve been using Evening Primrose Oil for two weeks and drinking lots of Raspberry Leaf Tea. The tea has brought on contractions but nothing that’s caused me to think the baby may actually want out. I’ve been walking up and down the stairs in my house repeatedly- usually with a very vacuum cleaner in tow, and aside from today when the weather just wouldn’t support it, I’ve been walking as much as I can. I’m not crazy enough to try castor oil but there are foods that are supposed to bring on labor.

Spicy foods are often rumored to jumpstart labor and today I ate the majority of a can of pineapple hoping that would start things. The eggplant Parmesan I made a week and a half ago didn’t do its job but I’ve heard great things about this recipe for Scalini’s Eggplant Parmigiana. Apparently 300 women have gone into labor within days of eating it. Sadly, I don’t think it will work until my due date has come and gone, but I may have to give it a try later in the week.

* 1 9”x 13” pan of eggplant parmesan
* 3/4 of a large baked ziti in three portions
* 2 8-cup containers vegetable soup
* 1 3-quart and 1 4-cup container of beef stew
* 1 9″x13″ pan of rotini with goat cheese, spinach and red pepper sauce divided into individual servings
* 6 bean and sausage enchiladas (1 dinner and leftovers if Boyfiend doesn’t gorge himself)
* 1 tray (3 meals) chicken enchiladas
* 2 8-cup containers of chicken soup
* half a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough
* 6 cranberry muffins
* 6 strawberry mango muffins
* 18 blueberry pancakes

I’ve also got a bunch of chocolate ricotta muffins I baked tonight that still need to be wrapped and frozen, one more chicken defrosting in the fridge, and three more cups of shredded zucchini. I may just make zucchini cakes for dinner one night instead of more bread or muffins.

The chocolate ricotta muffins were not on the list of things to freeze. I had a huge tub of ricotta and ended up with a few cups left. I made yet another baked pasta dish to get us through dinner for the rest of the week and still had over a cup of ricotta that needed to be used by the 30th of this month, something unlikely to happen if this baby ever pops out. So I turned to Mr. Google and found a lovely recipe for Lemon Ricotta muffins that called for 3/4 cup of ricotta. The recipe called for blueberries which I have and lime zest, which I don’t, but would replace with orange. I was ready to make them but thought I’d quickly look for a recipe that called for a bit more ricotta. When I saw chocolate and ricotta together along with the phrase “chocolate cheesecake,” looked at the recipe and saw it called for more ricotta, I was sold and looked no further.

Chocolate Ricotta Muffins
from Joy of Baking.com

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

The Perfect, Potent Margarita
3 oz Tequila
2 oz triple sec
1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
shake with ice until the shaker is frosty. Serve in a glass with a salted rim with wedge of lime. This is not a drink for amateurs. Serve in a glass with lots of ice and let it get melty before drinking if you’re unsure of your ability to handle it.

Sparkling Limeade
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
10-12 limes, juiced and strained
zest of one lime
sparkling water or club soda
lime wedges

To make limeade you’ll need to make a simple syrup. Bring one cup of water to boil and add two cups of sugar. Stir until dissolved then stir in the lime juice and zest. Let cool and set in the fridge.

For each glass of limeade you’ll need about half an ounce of syrup topped with the sparkling or fizzy water of your choice. Adjust the ratio of syrup and fizz to taste. Serve with a wedge of lime

Guacamole
3 ripe avacodos, halved, pitted and peeled
one small onion, chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
one small tomato, chopped
juice of 1 1/2 limes
slightly more than half a cup of fresh cilantro, cut into smallish pieces (Do not substitute with dried. Yuck. It is better to omit the cilantro entirely if you can’t get fresh.)
salt and pepper to taste

Mash the avocado with a potato masher or fork then add the remaining ingredients, mixing until everything’s combined. Serve with tortilla chips.

Speaking of tortilla chips, I see no reason not to buy a bag (I’m not affiliated in any way, but on the east coast Tostitos brand are the lightest and crispiest), but if you’re by chance some health nut, feel free to bake your own. You’ll need a package of tortillas, some vegetable oil, salt and chili pepper

Cut the tortillas into 8 wedges, brush with the oil, sprinkle with salt and chili pepper to taste and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until chips are lightly browned.

I have an unspecified amount of chicken stock in the fridge. I need to skim the fat from the top and decide exactly what I what to do with it. I’ll leave some out for risotto for tomorrow night’s dinner, but the rest is going to soup I’ll make and freeze for later. Also in the fridge, I have about four cups of shredded chicken, a by-product of the chicken stock. Two cups will probably go to another pasta dish- probably baked rotini with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach. The other two cups might go towards more enchiladas. Or maybe I’ll just use it for chicken noodle soup so I don’t have to buy any more tortillas. It’s a tough call.

The good news is that I’m feeling prepared. I no longer fear that we’ll be forced to eat pizza and cheesesteaks for weeks after the baby is born. I still have three cups of zucchini to make bread or muffins with, a small 2 lb roast and two whole chickens I should cook in the next week or two to make more room in the freezer for meals.

I placed a fairly large meat order for May that included a 10 lb value pack of ground beef so we’ll have no shortage of ground beef for burgers as well as steaks, and a couple of whole chickens for when we run out of frozen dinners. My CSA starts in early June which means plenty of veggies.