CSA, Pesto, and Fall!

Bech's brother Josh is running an organic farm right now, called the Flying M farm. It's located in Canton. There are several other organic farms in the area and Josh knows the other farmers. Recently Bech met Tony Woods, another farmer who is running a fall CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, its just a way individuals and families can support and enjoy an organic farm. We pay $25 a week for 13 weeks, and each week we receive a box full of good things that were freshly picked that week.

Last Wednesday was our first pick up day. First of all we had lots of different types of peppers, along with some squash (green, yellow, and gem squash) and cucumbers.

We also had some tomatoes. Bech made an amazing cucumber and tomato salad with these little tomatoes...so good!

Also included were micro-greens, arugula, and lots of fresh basil. I love homemade pesto, so I decided to put the basil to good use. Here is everything set up...I use Giada's pesto recipe:

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

1 garlic clove (I like to use two, but I also LOVE garlic)

1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

about 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

I used my food processor, but you can also use a blender. Pulse the basil, pine nts, garlic, salt, and pepper. Then stream in enough oil to get it to a consistency you like (I like mine a little thicker, so I probably only use about 1/2 cup of olive oil). Finally add the parmesan and enough salt to get it tasting good.

I made a whole jar like this to put in the freezer, then had this jar left over. Bech and I love to make homemade pizza, and pesto is so good on pizza!

Finally, fall has come to Mississippi. Usually it takes a while for cool weather down south. We have been having rainy, humid, kinda hot days. But yesterday and today the weather has been amazing! I just looked on the weather channel website, and its currently 59 degrees here. I am so happy! I absolutely love fall and fall weather. I decided to make a fun table arrangement yesterday because of the cold weather.

things are good here. well except i really wanted to make meringues tonight for mcf, but it is pouring down rain right now (which it has been doing for seriously the past week or two)...and you can't make meringues if its humid (which is about 90% of the time in mississippi). oh and bech's car broke down and got broken into (they didn't really take anything, but still...and whoever the guy was, he got blood all over the seats...um, gross). i did want to share about two new things i am obsessed with.

the first thing is derek webb. well i have loved derek webb for a while, but he has a new cd out, Stockholm Syndrome. i really like caedmon's call when i was younger, because my counselors would always play it at kamp. and then derek webb broke away from caedmon's to do solo stuff. he came to millsaps my freshman year to play a concert (which is really crazy...i mean millsaps is not the kind of school that attracts christian artists, very strange).

i bought his solo cd that night, She Must and Shall Go Free. each of his cds has a central theme to it. the first cd is about the church and Christ's love for her. i actually got to hear him again a few months later at summer RUF in Panama City. Courtney totally humored me by going early to his "suprise concert" and meeting him with me. i would share the picture of courtney and me with derek, but we are not looking so hot, seeing as we just came off of the beach. plus he's a little guy, so my head looks twice the size of him...not such a cute picture.

since then he has realized 4 more cds (well not counting House Show), and each has had a very specific theme. also, each has been musically very unique. derek is really talented at both lyrics and music. the words on this latest cd are really convicting. he is selling it via his site for a great price, so i would check it out.

the second thing i am loving right now is The Help. this book is about the relationship between black housekeepers/maids ("the help") and their white employers during the early 1960's. the book is set in Jackson, MS (and the author grew up here, so almost everything she mentions specific to Jackson is true). i absolutely loved this book. i couldn't put it down. it gives a great view into the mid-desegregation world. i think lots of people here about segregation in the south, and just want to judge the south. but everything is complicated and hard, and this book helps to explain it all. seriously, though...you should all read it...it is an amazing book!

When I was in 8th grade, I had a teacher for math who I loved. I thought he was wonderful. He taught us math, but he also talked to us a lot about other things in life. The summer after 8th grade, it came out that he had, over the course of several years, been molesting teenage boys from our schools. I was devastated. I feel like it was a defining moment in my life, of realizing that people aren't always who you believe them to be, that sometimes your heros have totally screwed up their lives.

I'm not as naive as that anymore, but yesterday was still really hard. Go here to read about it. Pete's first year as a counselor was my second year as a kamper (Barn 4, K-Kountry). I loved Pete and thought he was amazing. It's just hard to realize that he wasn't who I thought he was. So please pray for the boys involved in the investigation. Pray for his wife, Katie, who is wonderful. Pray for his daughter Riley. And pray for the many, many, many kids (and even people my age) who are feeling totally betrayed. I can't even begin to describe the amount of kids who would claim Pete as being someone who impacted their life. I know they are probably going through so many emotions right now. And also pray for Kanakuk. Kanakuk is an amazing place. The fact that Pete was able to do this while working for Kanakuk does not show the kamp as being lax, but rather Pete as being pretty crafty. Because Kanakuk is an amazing place and it changes the lives of so many kids. I don't want parents not to send their kids to kamp because of this (although I know it will be hard as a parent to trust Kanakuk after this).

...

It's finally done with...we sold the car!!! We heard that the people wanted it for sure last week, but we waited til everything had been transfered to put it on the blog. We had just been jilted (okay, so maybe jilted is way too strong of a word to use!) so many times last minute, that we wanted to have it all done just to feel sure. But the couple we sold it to is the sweetest couple!

So here is one last look at our Toyota Carina, called, "the Shaba." (after Alan Shaba, the man who helped us find it)

And here is the couple who bought it. This is Josh and Rebecca Harper. Josh's mom works at the ABC office in Clinton and basically is amazing. She takes care of getting all of the missionaries their money each month plus a bajillion other things!

We got to meet Josh and Rebecca when they came last spring to visit Malawi. They decided to come spend the next year in Malawi. Josh is teaching many of my old classes and Rebecca is teaching the 4 year old preschool (called Reception over there). Anyway, we think they are both just great, and are excited that they have bought our car.

It's amazing to see what God's plans are. We were so stressed and upset to have not sold our car before we left. But now I wouldn't have wanted to sell it to anyone else and in any other way. God is good...if I have learned anything this year, its that God is good.

p.s. Josh and Rebecca, if ya'll are reading this...I stole this picture off Rebecca's facebook...sorry!

p.p.s. My brother has the flu/swine flu...not sure which one :( So pray for him, and pray that the rest of my family doesn't get it. Katy, Mom, Bech, and I have all been around him.

almost christmas...

Okay, so, no, its not really almost Christmas. I mean, not technically. But yesterday, I was in Michaels and I saw the Christmas ribbon! It's already out!

Christmas is my favorite holiday...I absolutely love everything about Christmas. And I know decorations aren't everything, but it was hard to go from this tree every year:

(tree at my parents house)

to this tree this past year:

(tree bought for MK2000 at Shoprite)

I am just ready for everything about Christmas. So I have decided to go ahead and make my blog Christmas themed. Because I'm ready for Christmas and you should be too!