Visiting a vegetables farmer in our new home

While I am still having plenty of projects to make our new home cosy and nice, I am using each and every opportunity to get familiar with the area around us. My special target are the local farmers, some of which I know already, but there still some more to be discovered. Last week a new farmer made it to my list, one who does sell veggies and was missing so far. 

I was not sure what to expect and what I wanted to buy on the way there, but as soon as I entered the shop and saw this super gorgeous chard (not sure you can call chard gorgeous, but this was exactly what I thought when I saw it) and I knew I won´t leave the shop without it. This gorgeous chard got some more veggies friends which made it to my shopping bag - corn, kale, pumpkin, fresh salad and more. All delighted and super happy about my new discovery I went to the farmer to pay... smiling like a crazy person, really I could not control all my happy feelings at that moment. I wonder what he was thinking of me, a crazy tourist from god knows where, who found chard in different colors!!! He was so kind and humble, exactly the way you would imagine a farmer to be... it´s a whole different shopping experience and I am always having so much fun.

As for my interior design projects, my creativity is constantly challenged, which leads to knew ideas and furniture creations. Sometimes I wonder where this all is coming from and the only explanation I came up with so far is, it must be all the fresh air, the quietness and the country simplicity around us.

Today on the blog, more pictures of my ideas how to design our new home and a healthy and delicious autumn recipe - Pasta with chard and kale.

Pablo´s new room is quite big and I had plenty of space to create different "theme areas" in it. He has now his very own library, car-play, creative, sleeping and storage areas. To create more storage space for his toys and clothes, I painted our old "ikea" dresser in grey to fit it to the remaining colors I have chosen for his room, a mix of grey, white, black and natural wood. And to make the dresser shine even more and be something special I painted some pattern on it using different color.  I am pleased with the outcome, so is Pablo and my husband. Its kind of cool to re-purpose old furniture and create something really unique and funny. I definitely had a lot of fun and this would not be the last furniture piece I have changed for sure.

Chalk paint is the answer for any furniture upgrades, if you ask me. I am not a painter and did not had much experience at that area either, but I learned that you cannot make something wrong with chalk paint. There is also no need to sand the wood before the painting, which makes the whole changing process faster and easier. 

Pasta with chard and kale

• bunch of kale
• bunch of chard
• 200 ml cooking cream
• 100 ml milk
• 2-3 gloves of garlic (crashed)
• salt, pepper
• dash of nutmeg
• bay leaf
• Parmesan cheese
• roasted pine nuts (optional)
• whole wheat pasta

Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Pour cream and milk in a saucepan, add garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg and bay leaf and let it cook for 10-15 minutes on a low heat. Wash and chop the chard and kale (remove the hard stem from the kale and use only the leaves for cooking) and cook them for 5-7 minutes in a pan with some olive oil, make sure they are not getting burned. Remove the bay leaf from the cream sauce and pour it over the kale and chard and let it cook for additional 10-15 minutes, till the liquid starts to reduce. Add the cooked pasta and give a mix till all pasta will be coated in the cream sauce. Sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese and roasted pine nuts over the pasta and serve.

Even so this dish does not contain any meat, you won´t be missing it. I really do appreciate kale and chard at this time of the year. The mix of parmesan and pine nuts makes this dish quite special too. As for the pasta, well we all love pasta and to make it a bit more healthy I used whole wheat pasta. The earthy taste of it fits perfectly with the earthy taste of kale and chard in my opinion. All in one a perfect dish with many health aspects to it, which will be appreciated by your family.

Enjoy!