Preschool - V is for Vegetable

 For Preschool we are in the midst of a farm theme. I will do a post very soon on exactly what I am doing for preschool.  I will say though that at this point the purpose of the preschool activities is more to give Elijah some structure in the day also so that he can feel included in "school" when his sister has her school work.  We were learning V is for vegetable this week.  Sadly I was feeling under the weather so we didn't do everything planned and I often forgot to get the camera out. Some times I wish we had our own papparazi just to document our day.

Anyway....like i was saying....vegetables....we raided our play food stash and separated out all the vegetables from the fruit.  I was pretty surprised that he knew the difference between most of them.  Then for some creative play we "planted a vegetable garden.

 I'm not sure where I got this green blanket, but it has been the best thing ever.  It is often used for different imaginative play, a mountain side, a field or in this case a garden plot.  First he planted the seeds which were little blue stones, which you can see below.  The wherever the seed was he would place a different veggie for his garden. He really enjoyed this.

We also made salt dough veggies.

Here a a few pumpkins, lettuces and a pea pod.  I would have shown you more since the plan was to paint them but the kids were too excited to wait and snagged them before we could pain and picture them.  

I also brought out this barn I had bought during a yard sale this summer.  Again lots of great play came out of this. 

 We did have one more non vegetable, learning experience this week.  Be warned the next pictures do include an animal that is no longer alive.  We had just learned about moles in our Sunday School class (even though you can't see them they leave behind evidence of their existence, just like God). Well, my father is devoted to his lawn and has been trying all summer long to catch a mole in the yard.  I will confess I was rooting for the mole! But he did succeed in getting one so I figured its rare to see a mole up close so we did a little unplanned scientific study.  It was really cool!

This guy was HUGE.  I've seen moles before but this was a monster one. I was amazed by how large his front feet were.  We noted that he had long nails kind of like small shovels on each toe and that his feet faced outward instead of inward like ours.  Also for an animal that live underground his fur was quite clean and silky looking.  We deduced that there must be something like an oil on its coat that helps keep it clean, but I haven't found anything that supports this theory yet.

That's it for preschool this week.  We'll be back next week with tractors.

You Know Who You Are...

So, I have recently been chastised for my lack of posts by a friend.  Though she may go nameless here, she will have to put up with a bit of rib jabbing.  Actually I had planned on coming back this week anyway, it has been way too long.  Things had been CRAZY busy here for a while.   You know that kind of busy where you are lucky to be wearing clean clothes and sometimes you actually forget to eat a meal.  Haven't been that busy ever?  Good for you!  I don't like it and am glad it is over.  But I figured if I don't have the time or energy to do my laundry then I have no business blogging.  Plus I figured you guys didn't want to see pictures of my dirty laundry.

So...moving on...this past week has been a good one.  We have started back into our routine of school (yes that was sacrificed as well) and I have pics and stories to share later this week.  This week was also a big one in that last night was our first freeze.  I hurried to salvage anything I could out of my garden. I also helped my friend, yep the same one named above.  She and her family own a farm and I have had the insane crazy exhausting wonderful privilege of working once a week with her in the field as she grew produce for a CSA she has. This was my third and last year being a part of this.  I have learned much, laughed a lot and made a wonderful friend. It is in honor of this friend that I have written this post.  While we were harvesting some of her beautiful produce I shared with her one of my favorite fall recipes, and I thought I would share it with all of you too!

So I present:

 Bountiful Fall Tortelini Dinner 

(with veggies from Nature's Bounty Farm)

You will need a variety of root vegetables, tortellini and Italian Dressing

Here's My line up: parsnip, rutabaga, carrot, sweet potato, white potato, red onion and garlic.

You can use any selection of root veggie you want.  Just depend on what you like or what you have on hand.  But I find the more variety, the tastier the dish.

You need to wash, peel, trim and slice all the veggies into french fry size pieces.  Toss them in a bit of oil of your choice and some salt.

After Roasting them at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, they will be slightly caramelized and yummy.  While they were roasting you should boil some water and cook the tortellini so that it is done around the same time.

When both are done, place the still hot and steamy tortellini in a LARGE bowl.

Add in the root veggies and 1/4 - 1/2 cup Italian dressing, depending on your taste.  You can also add in some parmesan cheese if you want. The heat form the tortellini warms up the dressing giving it an amazing aroma.

Mix all together.  Serve with salad or crusty bread and you will be sure to have happy smiles all around the table.

So Amy I hope you are satisfied, not only did you get a new post, but my recipe to go with it.  Enjoy the harvest everyone!