Fun Fall Foods!

We have developed a new tradition in our house to invite friends over for Friday night potlucks! My roommate Emily has a friend named Pieter who came over one Friday night to make homemade pesto from a few huge bundles of basil that he picked. We had such a good time cooking the long way together (making almost everything by hand) and eating good food together, that we decided to make it a tradition!

Now Pieter, who I call Petey, and an assortment of other friends join us for Friday night potlucks! Another favorite recipe from last week was homemade curry.  We used potatoes, chick peas, tomato paste, coconut milk, onions, garlic, tomatoes, cardimum pods and curry powder. Emily made fresh naan to eat it with... it was fabulous!

 

Potlucks are now usually followed by a game night. Our favorites are Settlers of Catan, Telephone pictionary (seriously, this game never gets old for me!) and Apples to Apples.

Our garden is producing lots of very colorful and delicious vegetables that inspire some fun new recipe ideas!

 

Pizza night! We made homemade pizza dough, cooked down tomatoes from our garden to make sauce, and used lots of other veggies from our garden and the farmers market to top our pizza!

 

It was SO good.

 A fun part of my job at Open Arms is getting to make occasional Saturday visits to our organic farm: Open Farms (clever name, huh?!) My first visit, my coworker/fellow volunteer Ellen and I (pictured above) helped harvest 600 pounds of cucumbers to bring back, and in total brought in 1200 pounds of organic vegetables to use for our meals at Open Arms that week.  The second time I went, we picked spinach for 2 hours and only yielded about 15 pounds...not as impressive in regards to poundage!   Remember to appreciate your salad when you eat it--harvesting is hard work.

 

I enjoyed a surprise visit from camp friend, Ben Batz at the farm that Saturday!

A beautiful Friday afternoon turned our potluck into a picnic at Powderhorn Park, 4 blocks from my house.

 

Fridays are also the day that I am the lucky receiver of leftover food from Open Arms that will go bad over the weekend, and therefore can't be recycled for meal delivery.  My roommates love this aspect of my job, as it means lots of free delicious food! This Friday we got enough to furnish our entire picnic at the park.  The sunset was beautiful that afternoon.

 

Emily and Petey whipped out the slack line...

 

...so I gave it a try! Ignore the fact that Rebecca and Emily are darting out of the way- I did balance for a good 2 seconds.

I think a highlight of my year might be these Friday food and community nights!