Friday night, Bob held a potluck at his house, which was really nice because I hadn't been to the farm since November, and I really have been missing it (even though now everything is covered in snow and the only things growing are salad greens in the hoop house). Hope and Lyca came with me, and brought coconut milk rice pudding and fire toys to perform with. I brought a soup/stew/chili without the chili powder kind of dish, which turned out to be really delicious.
1 yellow onion
a bunch of cloves of garlic
1 large red pepper
Saute the onion, garlic, and red pepper on the stove until onions are translucent and pepper is soft. Remove from heat.
28 oz. can organic diced tomatoes
16 oz. package organic creamy butternut squash soup
1/2 sweet potato
a handful of crimini mushrooms
3 carrots
about a cup and a half each of red kidney beans and black beans (you can either use rinsed canned beans, or rehydrate the beans ahead of time)
thyme
oregano
basil
a couple of bay leaves
salt
pepper
Chop the vegetables up and throw everything (season with your own preference for spices, I used thyme, oregano, basil, a couple of bay leaves, salt, and pepper, but wanted to throw some sage in there too) into a crock pot and cook on low forever. I put everything in my crock pot around 8:00 am and removed everything around 4:45 p.m. after I got home from classes. When I got home, I cooked some red quinoa really quickly and steamed some kale and spinach to throw in also. I added a huge bunch of kale and spinach and probably a cup and a half of cooked quinoa to the stew.
The potluck was a success! We had good food (Bob and Laura made homemade pizza;
there was also another soup made with Bob's frozen veggies from earlier on in the farming season, apple crisp, Hope's coconut milk rice pudding, ice cream, and a fresh salad from Bob's hoop house), fire-spinning, and I was very entertained by watching all of the children (I think there were 6 of them) running around the house with never-ending energy (although they were way too loud and the adults had to temporarily break up their fun throughout the night to settle things down). Bob showed us a ripped-apart carcass of a deer that had been seemingly attacked by coyotes, and the dead mink which had gone on a mass killing rampage in his chicken house (Bob hung the mink in a tree so he can get the bones once all of the fur and meat decomposes).
On Saturday, Lyca and I braved the horrible, 50 mph wind gusts to stop by the winter Farmers' Market and wander around the Ithaca Commons before Galumpha. The market was nice, but we were a little disappointed because we had been planning on eating breakfast there, but there were no ready-made food stands so we had to go to Waffle Frolic to eat (which was delicious but very expensive).
The State Theater was gorgeous and impressive, and the show was very lighthearted and entertaining. There were many, many children there with their families, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the dancing and acrobatics of the performers.
It is now Monday, which means the start of a new week of school, work, and homework. I need to start studying for my prelims because my first exam is a week away. I have two potlucks this week to attend (Thursday for class and Friday with the gluten-free meetup group on campus), which means I will definitely be making some good food in the near future!
