Tried & True: Rustic Potato Leek Soup

What is it about the texture of potatoes that turns some kids noses up? Deep fry them and parents and kids alike are rushing to the table. Boil them up in a soup and sideways glances and last minute dinner invitations to the neighbor’s ensue! At the Goose, we have found that this Rustic Potato Leek Soup is popular across the spectrum of young choosy eaters. And, the bonus, it’s super easy and quick to make.

Ingredients:
* 4-5 pounds leeks
* 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (works fine with Earth Balance
margarine)
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 5 1/4 cups  chicken or vegetable broth
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 3/4 pound potatoes (about 5 medium), cut into 3/4-inch dice
(peeled or not peeled, red or white)
* Salt and ground black pepper

Directions:
*Cut off roots and tough dark green portion of leeks, leaving white portion and about 3 inches of light green portion. Clean leeks. Slice leeks in half lengthwise and chop into 1-inch pieces. (about 11 cups.)

*Heat butter in large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat until foaming.

*Stir in leeks, increase heat to medium, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until leeks are tender but not mushy, 15 to 20 minutes; do not brown the leeks.

*Sprinkle flour over leeks and stir to coat evenly. Cook until flour dissolves, about 2 minutes.

*Increase heat to high; whisking constantly, gradually add stock.

*Add bay leaf and potatoes, cover, and bring to a boil.

*Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until potatoes are almost tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

*Remove pot from heat and let stand, covered, until potatoes are tender and flavors meld, 10 to 15 minutes.

*Discard bay leaf and season with salt and pepper to taste.

*Serve immediately.

This soup can be refrigerated in airtight container for a day or two. Warm over low heat until hot; do not boil.

Potato Leek Soup

There you have it, a great soup to warm your kitchen and family. Let us know if you tried it out or have  your own variations. We’re on Facebook and Twitter, so don’t be shy!

-The Geese at The Goose

New Orleans Clothing Drive

Recently, The Goose partnered with local relief organization, Love Knows No Bounds, to send children’s clothing and goods to the 7th Ward of New Orleans.

Love Knows No Bounds (LKNB) sends volunteers, toys, appliances, furniture and heaps of love to New Orleans and we are thrilled that we can help with their incredible mission.
Remember the little Goose? Clothing drives could only happen for a week before our shoebox size closet  was filled to capacity and the Goose at the register had to watch her back! The extra space is useful but it’s not the only thing that makes this partnership work. Catherine Martinez, the donations coordinator and co-director of LKNB is the powerhouse behind the process.  Without fail, Catherine comes to the store several times a week for pick-ups so the Mama Goose backroom doesn’t get too piled up.  She then sorts through the donations  making sure that the useful items are organized and ready for the truck. LKNB cannot use heavy winter coats, so when Catherine finds a coat in the donations, she takes them to Angelo’s Drycleaners who cleans them and makes them available to local families.   LKNB is an effective, efficient  program that we like being a part of. Our customers also  appreciate having the option of having their leftovers go to a good cause.

Catherine at The Goose

So, here’s how the clothing drive works. You bring us your clothes to sell and any items not bought by the Goose can be donated to our friends on the Gulf Coast. It’s always up to you whether you take your leftovers or leave them for donation.

To learn more about Love Knows No Bounds visit their website or call the Volunteer Coordinator, Mike Ellis at (607) 277-6515. To donate materials contact Catherine Martinez at (607) 279-4116.

Here are several links that describe the 7th Ward and the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. 7th Ward Wiki page, August ‘09 Huffington Post article, and Pre-Katrina history of the 7th Ward.

-The Geese at The Goose

Fashion is Fun

Last winter, Mama Goose participated in a fashion show at the Ithaca mall. The fashion show was part of a philanthropic event called “The Crayon Carnival” that sought to raise public awareness about “Going Green”.  Mama Goose was invited to be a part of the event to demonstrate the sustainability of buying second-hand kids’ clothes and locally-made items.  We shared the stage with one of our favorite stores (and West End neighbor) Tuff Soul. Tuff Soul utilized Cornell student as their models and we used children of staff members and customers.

Mama Goose staffers, Julie and Sandy, coordinated the clothes for the kids which turned out to be a huge job.  Each outfit (including shoes and accessories) was assembled straight off the racks and a lot of effort was put into representing the wide variety of styles that can be achieved by shopping at Mama Goose.  The kids were amazing and brave, and put on a great show for a crowd of beaming onlookers.  After the high of the performance, the kids were happy to shed their carefully ironed outfits and take a stroll up the mall where Kelly was heard ordering twenty-two ice cream cones!

-The Geese at The Goose

The Geese Visit Wild Apples

On a windy October day in Central NY, 2 Geese from Mama Goose followed the Art Trail up the West side of Cayuga Lake to visit Wild Apples, the studio of master crafter, Gunther Keil.

We love Gunther’s wooden toys, and we know you will too! Mama Goose sells most of his toys, including pull toys, banks, puzzles, play sets and the ever-popular “opportunity bags”.  We just put in a big order for the upcoming holiday season which Gunther should be delivering to the store any day. Wild Apples is on the Ithaca Art Trail and participated in Open Studio Weekend this past weekend. If you missed it, his studio is open all year round by appointment.

Bunny pull toy

Dragon pull toy

-The Geese From The Goose

Labels for Layers

Labeled sweaters and jacket.

Cold weather came on us quickly this year! Chilly mornings and warm afternoons mean several wardrobe changes for your little ones and more opportunity to lose an odd mitten or scarf. Sewing labels in your kids’ jackets, sweaters, scarves and hats can help minimize the loss a bit.

A quick google search brings up an assortment of options. I chose these from namemaker.com because they are made in the USA and they look good!

One benefit of sewing labels, rather than ironing or using marker, is you can easily take the stitches out before passing the clothes on or selling them.  If you stick with minimal information, you can use the labels for all your kids and using your cell phone number might be helpful when traveling.
Once you’ve done this chore, the safe keeping of your families’ layers is really out of your hands. You just have to take a big sigh as you watch your children and their layers go off into the great unknown.

-Kelly Goose

Coop Dinners

Imagine, 2 nights a week, a fully-prepared home cooked dinner arrives at your door for you and your family to enjoy.  It’s what our family calls The Dinner Coop.
Here’s how our coop works: Three families, including ours, have agreed to share the responsibility of nightly dinner preparation. Each family cooks one night a week for all three coop families (five adults and six kids). Then, two nights a week each coop family receives a delicious meal!

Our Dinner Coop is vegetarian and we limit cheese for one of the children. Other than that, I let my burgeoning produce drawer* be my inspiration and motivator.  This week, Chard poked out of every drawer in the fridge so I made Chard Cheese Pie from Laurel’s Kitchen.

Laurel's Chard Cheese Pie

I don’t know what possessed me, but I felt the perfect accompaniment to this dish was veggie pigs in a blanket. Yes, I did consider making the biscuits from scratch, but cut myself a break and bought the cans. They’re just so fun to open.

Vegie Pigs in a Blanket!

I absolutely love finishing off scraps and space hogs in the refrigerator so already I feel good about this coop. Currently, we’re making piping hot deliveries by car or on foot, but I’m dreaming of a large sturdy wagon.  And there goes the delivery service now …

Delivering dinner for 8.

Cooking for eleven people takes some adjusting. I found the easiest way for me to pull it off was to carve out one morning, or an entire slow moving day, for cooking. While I have everything out, I try to make a soup or something else for us to get through the weekend.  I bet we’re all over-cooking in an effort not to wind up short. I’m finding that I have a lot of leftovers to choose from when packing lunches. But, that’s a plus!

-Kelly Goose

*You too can have a burgeoning produce drawer. Check out this link for a CSA near you.  http://www.localharvest.org/

“Can I help ANYONE with ANYTHING?!”

Thank-you to everyone who made Mama Goose’s Third Annual Coat Sale so memorable.

Kelly and the geese.

We were pumped for the sale after a long month of preparing, planning, scheduling…. And then, two days of last minute shopping, scheduling, pricing, and more planning! Late nights didn’t harm our spirits though. At one point, new hire, Alisha, undaunted by the sea of elbow-to-elbow shoppers,  jumped up on a bench and yelled to the crowd, “Can I help Anyone with Anything?!”

We’ve all gone to large sales and immediately wished we hadn’t. Either the crowds were awful, or the store was so messy it was impossible to find anything, including staff. Not at the coat sale. The Geese were eager to help and easy to find in our team shirts! Families smiled, laughed, and showed off new coats and costumes as they made their way to the Wheel of Savings.

Spinning the savings wheel.

What a great way to kick off the season, with community and thrifty purchases. Of course, we were blessed with the sweetest weather, so that even when the late afternoon showers moved us inside, the crowds had thinned out leaving plenty of room for exploring the racks.

We know that for a lot of you our Coat Sale extravaganza was just the wake-up call you needed to get you to your storage bins to take stock of your coats and boots. No worries. The Geese will continue to buy outerwear all season and look forward to seeing you in the next couple of weeks.
Remember to check us out on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

-The Geese at The Goose

Third Annual Winter Coat Sale

This Saturday, September 26, from 9a-6p @ Mama Goose!

New York parents know to buy the best winter outerwear, and Mama Goose makes that possible. All year we buy and carefully store the best outerwear in brands, style, and condition. Then, just as Autumn begins, we bring it all out, set up a tent or two, pull out the *Wheel of Savings and sell! sell! sell! Trust Mama, there are amazing deals to be found at the Mama Goose Winter Coat Sale.

Remember when the parking lot was bigger than the store?

Winter Coat Sale at the "Little Goose".

*At the register, you can spin the Wheel of Savings for 10 – 25% off the ticket price!

And this year the Coat Sale coincides with so many family fun activities, so rest up! The Apple Harvest Festival starts Friday and goes through the weekend, the Kitchen Theatre is presenting an original  family play (“Park Play”) on Saturday and Sunday,  and Laurie Berkner is at the State Theatre on Saturday.

Rhiner Fest '09

Last weekend, we participated in the first annual Rhiner Festival held on the  waterfront here in Ithaca’s West End. Thank-you to those of you who stopped by the Goose Booth! It was a beautiful day on the Waterfront. We sold handmade eye patches and made paper pirate hats with young and old pirates, we demonstrated the Ergo baby carrier, talked up cloth diapers and  generally avoided being pillaged by roving bandits. If you missed it, you can still find eye patches and more at the store.

We are so happy be a part of the exciting changes happening in the West End and always love events that bring together the arts, history, and families.

-The Geese at The Goose

First Day of School & more!

Back-to-School Tompkins County: Wednesday, September 9, 2009

BJM Elementary, Ithaca, NY

The first day of school often brings up some reflection on milestones. The first year to ride their bike to school, the last year to share a hallway with a sibling until High School, the first upstairs classroom, and so on. As you reflect on your family’s milestones, get a snapshot of your milestone kid (wearing their  favorite school outfit from the Goose!)  and email it to info@mamagooseithaca.com. We’d love to post it on our Facebook photo album. And, now you can follow @MamaGooseIthaca on Twitter, so tweet us your milestones!

We just started following @PBS after researching their great back-to-school pages here.

The First Annual Rhiner Festival is coming right up, Saturday, September 19, 2009. We are very excited to participate and will have a table set up at the event. Larkin (our very well-informed Store Manager) will be at the table all afternoon answering cloth diapering questions & demonstrating baby-wearing. We’ll have a sampling of other new items we carry, such as recycled fabric dolls and twig crayons. In addition to our table, we’re going to be hosting a pirate craft for the kids at 3PM (On the Greenspace behind Island Fitness) . If that’s not enough excitement for you, the store will be open our regular Saturday hours (9a-6p).

MamaGoose

And, finally, the Fourth Annual Winter Coat Sale is Saturday, September 26, 2009. We share this big day with The State Theatre as they host Laurie Berkner and her band! There will be time before and after the show for coat (and Halloween) shopping, so make your plans today. We also invite you to enter our in-store drawing before September 13th to win four Laurie Berkner tickets. The odds are quite good. As of today, the fishbowl is not that full!

-The Geese at The Goose