Taster Spoon

Challah back!

This weekend went by way too fast.  Nevertheless, good times were had. 

Friday I got home from work to find Ace standing at the sink, filling a big pot of water. 

"What are you doing?"

"I bought eggs."

"You're boiling eggs?" 

Whereupon I launched into my recent scholarship on hard-boiling eggs to perfection.  (Start eggs in cold water, bring to boil, boil for 10 minutes, remove and shock immediately.)  Ace allowed me to push him aside, which in retrospect I regret, because how delightful is it to come home to someone boiling eggs for Easter?? - and then I had to go and take over his project.  (But the eggs were perfect.)

Our CSA started up again, have I mentioned?  And it's already strawberry time.  So we washed off a quart of berries and walked around the neighborhood like the old people do.  There was a guy with his garage door open with sheets of aluminum leaning up against the walls. 

"That looks like a wing," commented Ace.

So I shouted: "Are you building an airplane?"

And so we met the neighbor who is building a two seater airplane from a kit. 

The rest of the evening was a bust as Ace and I dithered about what fun thing we'd do that evening.  Would we crash the Tribe happy hour (soooo farrr awayyy)?  Would we go to the drive in (nothing good showing)?   What friends we'd go hang out with...  I went through the paper and announced that we would lace up our dancing shoes and go learn the Hustle...only to find he'd fallen asleep on the couch.   At least I got caught up on my 90210.   Silver is totally insane!  Then he woke up and we ate salad and watched Risky Business.  (He remembered all the plot points except for the prostitution ring; that's the only plot point I remembered.  I don't know why Tom Cruise ever got a nose job.)

Saturday started out cloudy with a chill breeze, so I skipped the pool and closed my ears to my bicycle and went to the gym and did a little pre-Easter laying in of foodstuffs.  Ace was thinking lamb for Easter, he who doesn't like mint, but they were out of legs so instead I got lamb leg "steaks."  I didn't really know what to do with lamb "steaks" but we recently went deluxey mid-week and had real steaks seared up in a skillet that were great - I figured we'd try the same thing.   Trader Joe's was giving out their little samples, like they do, and this time it was mashed potatoes and ham.  I don't even like ham, usually, because it's so salty, but this was so moist and mild I had to get one.   

Upon getting home Ace suggested we invite some people to join us for Easter dinner.  It's such a family occasion, plus it was so last minute - I was doubtful anyone wouldn't already be booked.  So I e-mailed probably 30 people we both really enjoy, figuring we'd be lucky if we got two takers.

Then we went to sit by the pool.  I'm reading Sally Quinn's The Party, a how-to guide for a life I'll  never lead, all about how to throw fabulous society functions among the famous and/or influential.  The implicit understanding throughout is that you have a ready supply of hired help.  She makes the point that you don't want to get a reputation as someone who just invites EVERYONE all the time, because then guests don't feel special for being invited.  Point well taken, and I felt bad about the long e-mail To: list I'd just sent.   

We jumped in the hot tub and met another neighbor who told a vivid tale of fortunes gained (Multiple homes!  World was my oyster!  Cheering throngs!) and lost (uncontested divorce).  (Message Ace took away from the encounter: I am defensive that I now live in this dump here with people like you.  My takeaway was more positive, possibly on account of the casual reference to Lionel Richie.  Oh!  What a feeling!)

We went to the Empire Tap Room for cocktails, oysters and onion rings, and then went to the Stanford Theater to see King Kong.  'Twas Beauty killed the Beast!  I persuaded Ace to stay on for the double feature, Tarzan the Ape Man, whereupon I fell asleep.  So instead of gritting it out till the end, we sneaked away for a slice. 

Sunday Ace woke up with a "Happy Easter," a glass of pink pomegranate limeade and some early morning seasonal reflection, gazing out the window and eventually turning to me to ask, "Wait.  Do bunnies lay eggs?"

Then there was a little swimming, a little tennis. 

A little egg dyeing.

I'll never buy an egg dyeing kit again.  A tablespoon of vinegar, a few squirts of food coloring, and boiling water to half-fill your little dye baths (those cheapie tea light holders from Ikea - I have a million - were the perfect size), done.  And the colors were so vivid!

Do you see these colors??

The only thing the kit is good for is the little wire dipper and the clear crayon.  Maybe you could sub with a white candle and a coat hanger.  Oh, and the drying rack.  I guess that was worth $0.99.

Ace made a variety of bunnies...

 

...one of which was anatomically correct.

This is my favorite one that he made:

Ace and Chad and I went to Mass at Mem Church and because it was so crowded we sat way up in the rafters.  It was fascinating to see all those mosaics up close, some of which, I was surprised to see, were in disrepair.  I also decided there were several generations' stained glass iterations.  There were a couple that were more in line with the color scheme of the tiles around them, and I thought they were more beautiful.  (What do you think?  They're the two forward-most windows on the left of the nave).  I thought I was being irreverent by joking about how many guys were wearing their Easter uniform (blue shirts and khaki pants), but I guess I was outdone by the gals in front of us who were texting throughout the entire service.

Chad came over bearing challah and marzipan treats, and on account of their having grown up among the Chosen People, he and Ace actually knew the first line of how to bless it.  

I really thought it would be just me and Ace and Chad.  A couple of people had regretted that they were committed to the Big Wheel race, or, predictably, that they had prior plans.

But then Derek showed up with a good little boy (who was totally just enduring us for the evening) and an embarrassment of fresh strawberries and Christina brought exciting stories of her upcoming trip to Texarkana and MichMad came just in time for dessert with a very welcome dessert wine. 

We had curried pumpkin soup (success!), lamb (wasn't great), hamb (eh, not as good as the sample), quinoa-based pasta in pesto (don't recommend: quinoa pasta was mushy and pesto wasn't so hot either), plain steamed broccoli (yay!), fennel/green garlic/leeks in a cream sauce (all kinds of awesome) and a shiraz-based rose wine.  Finally, strawberries, apple pie and ice cream! 

We never got around to devilling the eggs, despite a specific trip to the store by Ace for Miracle Whip.  I kind of enjoyed looking at them too much.  

Speaking purely for myself, I really really enjoyed the evening.  We sure do know some great people.

Happy Easter! 

Keeping up my end(s)

I know, this isn't the post you were waiting for as I hereby break my month-long silence.  Lotta stuff going on, that's all.  But then - and we've talked about this before - you take a little break for one reason or another and it's so hard to get back in the groove, because why post at all if it's not going to be about something significant, and as time wears on the bar inches higher.  So I'm instead going to abide by one of my life rules that has served me reasonably well: Keep Expectations Low.  (See how I put the "reasonably" in there?  The rule in action!)

So what's new? 

1. We are having a plethora of rainbows today! 

2. Because of the holiday yesterday, today is Donut Day!  There is someone who always gets to the donuts before me, who has been cutting the best donut (raised glazed) in half and leaving half.  The Dieting Donut Dissector!  I have been loving the DDD, because I feel like by taking the remaining half I am doing a public service by preventing staleness but also feel like I am getting a whole serving, but it is only half the usual guilt!

In the beginning of January, though, DDD started cutting only about a third of the donut out...leaving two thirds.  This was awkward, but manageable.  I couldn't very well continue to take my usual half, leaving 1/6 of a donut on the tray - that's like leaving a couple of bites.  Not cool.  So I have to either cut the remainder into halves and take a donut third, leaving a third to turn stale even quicker, or simply take all 2/3 of the donut.  You can imagine what I chose.  What with work and all, I've stopped exercising in any regular way, and, let's just say, you can tell.

Recently, DDD showed even further restraint, and began taking just a quarter donut.   Having increased my own consumption from a half to two thirds, it was natural that I seized upon the 3/4 donut as Mine!  But there's no virtue in taking 3/4 of a donut, so my pleasure is substantially reduced.  It's really a net loss.  

Can you see where this is heading?  Today the DDD literally cut out and removed just a bite of the best donut.  A tray full of variety sprinkles, coconuts, cinnamon sugars, chocolate dipped...and 7/8 of a raised glazed with drying edges. 

Which makes me want to say, Come on, man, we had a deal.  You take half, I take half.  You take a little less than half, I do my best for the cause.  Now you take a bite and I have to be the jerk who leaves 3/8 of a donut on the tray?  What would you do in this situation?

3. Have you heard about my haircut?  There's a topic we can sink our teeth into! 

I cut my hair somewhat less frequently than I go to the dentist, but more frequently than I go to the doctor.  I think it's been about two years.  After Ace begged me to get a Real Haircut from a Real Salon for my birthday in September, I hied me over to Yelp - and spent hours weeding out all the reviews from Asians (different hair needs) and was left with very few data points.  I asked friends with good hair.  I cut pictures out of InStyle.  I signed up to be a Hair Model at Edge and waited by the phone.  I pored over the archives at Hair Thursday. 

At Christmas I finally got around to following up on a recommendation from a co-worker whose hair has been looking pretty great over the last year or so.  Mine was dragging me down.  Long.  Droopy.  Ragged rather than wavy.  Anyway, I went to this salon where the lady freelanced, and she was...fine.  The haircut wasn't bad - she cut long layers into it so the wiggles in my hair look like curls that are meant to be there rather than just a failure to blow-dry out the messiness.  Picture Rachel Geller's before she got The Rachel.  Ace agreed that maybe it didn't look particularly glamorous, but said that at least it looked like a Haircut.

So I have no complaints about the stylist - hairwise.  Here's the thing - she is a recently-immigrated middle aged woman with mediocre English, challenging pronunciation and few shared cultural reference points who went freelance only recently but maybe didn't have the book of business she thought she did and is now clearly trying to rally a loyal following, and she oohed and enthused over my hair! my long, wavy, light brown hair! to a degree that was a little overwhelming.  Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of being fussed over but her fussing just had an air of desperation, making me feel less like she uniquely could see my inner beauty and was determined to bring it out and more like she was just buttering me up.   It was a stressful hour.

This doesn't make me excited to go back.  And maybe the reason I get a haircut so seldom is because I have yet to have a fulfilling relationship with a hairdresser.  It's always strictly a business transaction.  You know, gesture at some pictures, read a magazine, look up, cry, pay, tip sheepishly while apologizing for the crying, go home. 

You know what I want?  I want a hairdresser who says, "OMG!  Look at this MOP on your head!  Sweetheart, your hair needs some CPR.  Look at your eyes!  We need to draw some attention to these eyes!! Why are you hiding these cheekbones, honey?  You know what would look so good with your cheekbones?  You just sit back and let me bring out the gorgeous.  You know what you have, you have Jennifer Aniston hair!  Can you believe Jon Mayer?  Srsly, good riddance to Brad if you ask me.  OMG, are you seriously wearing White Musk right now?"  Someone who will flutter around and make me feel like a million bucks for $80.

Okay, fine, I want a homosexual.  Is that homophobic?  Or homophilic?  Maybe I should clarify that I don't precisely want a hairstylist because he likes dudes, but rather that I am seeking a certain set of personality characteristics.  And of course for him to have hair talent.  There was just such a hairstylist at the salon shared by Madame X.  He was cooing over and gossiping up a storm with his client and I looked at them longingly.  But I can't just go to the salon one day and hope that she is busy and he is not.  The salon is like a freelance workspace where the stylists rent their stations but have all their own clients.  You make appointments via their personal cell phones.

What to do, what to do.  Perhaps I was taking the wrong route by focusing my research on the hair angle.  I thought about asking my neighbors whether they "knew any hair stylists."  But I have a hunch they'd take it the wrong way, besides which, they don't seem like they would know any hair stylists.  I considered asking another friend who, while also not the type in question, seems like he'd be a little more up on the Scene and in the past has been a straight (ha ha) shooter about, you know, at which clubs in the Castro girls are welcomed/tolerated/discouraged, that sort of thing, and would probably not get his nose out of joint from my wishful stereotyping.   But he's moved away.

So I am adrift.  On a sea of wavy hair.

4.  I'm about to start traveling for almost three solid weeks.  I'm pretty excited that I am so deeply involved with work at the mo, what with the economy and all, but I'm also looking forward to checking in on some of my favorite ladies, one of whom I haven't seen in, gosh, three years?  She's a trapeze artist/salsa dancer/world traveler who keeps her independence as a freelance software developer.  She cannot be contained.  When you ask her where she is from, she says "Manhattan."  Actually, she says, "Manha-N." She is the New Yorkiest person I know, and she is going to go country and hike around the Appalachian Trail with me this weekend!   I wonder if she owns boots.  We have one of those relationships where, as long as I've known her (college, freshman year), I've done all the pursuing, and I don't mind a bit.

I guess Ace likes nuts

Ace has two favorite holiday cookies: Mexican Wedding Cookies, translated into American by one of my midwestern cookbooks as "Snowballs," those balls of ground almonds rolled in powdered sugar. 

The other is these, which, on inspecting the creative process, Ace renamed "Schweddy Balls."

 

 

How is an airship different from a blimp?

No, seriously - I don't know.  But apparently it's causing lots of excitement among the nerd herd.

We're estimating "the first zeppelin in U.S. skies for more than 70 years" to land at Moffet this evening.  I guess enthusiasts have been tracking it.  I'm sure we'll go over and look at it.  They're offering balloon rides, oops, I mean airship tours, for $500 an hour.  Worth it?

My window looks south, but I don't see anything yet.  We've had summer-hot weather all week, and it's hazy.

Also this weekend, I hope to hit the haunted Toys R Us.

And the house of that guy in Redwood City. 

Ace got himself a costume yesterday.  It's so him.  But he tells me mine is so me, so that's cool.  WB had the great idea to recycle the chicken once again and go as Yes on Prop 2, but I felt it was time to change it up. 

Really, I was just walking through Wal-Mart (I literally went in to buy just a spool of white thread!) when it totally jumped out at me.  It's the first time either of us has outright bought a costume in at least four years, but boy what a load off.  Remember when I was sewing a stingray on that flight to Hawaii?  Talk about a vacation killer. 

I'm falling way behind in my crafting.  I tried making the most of a car trip to Yoshi's on Monday by getting my embroidery on in the back seat, but all I got was carsick.   I'm going to have to reel my gifting plans way back in.  Sorry!

Last night I made those savory leaf pastries everyone is talking about, only my bucket of 100 cookie cutters didn't include any leaves (!) so I made them pumpkin and moon shaped.  They could have been anything.  (Seriously - no leaves, but you do include a football helmet?  What kind of shape is that?  Are football players really into decorated cookies?)  The pastries, though, were kind of awesome, mainly just in that they worked out as filled pastries.  They weren't bricks, and they didn't leak too badly.

I used this recipe for pastry, switching out some of the white flour for whole wheat, and switching out the water for vodka.  (I keep hearing about the Cook's Illustrated obsession with vodka pie dough, and I don't really know their recipe, so I guessed.) 

What I think really worked well was cutting the butter into quarter inch squares before freezing it.  Making pastry after that, even by hand, took no more than three minutes.  Genius!

They had good flavor and were flakey, but they were sturdy enough that the health conscious among us could roll them quite thin.

I made up a batch of sweet pastry too, but I'm reluctant to turn one of the many pumpkins scattered throughout our living room (I think we're up to about 24) into a pie yet.  Need something to throw at the sixteen year old punks in sweatshirts pretending to be trick or treaters.

Do you have plans for the holiday?  What are you going as?

This, that, and the other.

This might just be my first meme ever.  Why this one?  I have no idea.  Maybe it has topical relevance to my user name?  Maybe I'm desperate for a procrastination tool?

I know I still owe Vaguely Urban my six-word life summary, but seriously, I have trouble enough coming up with my Facebook status reports.  I think of funny ones in the shower, and then they slip away by the time I'm in front of a computer.  And Angela has indicated her weariness of unsolicited political commentary, so I'll let the droll one I was smirking about this morning slip away as well.

Here are the instructions - jump in!

Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions.
Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison - I feel like my dad went hunting with my brother at some point when we lived in the midwest and brought back deer.  But I could be imagining it - maybe it was just a fishing trip.  In any event, Tied House has a game burger that rotates among deer, buffalo, moose and ostrich, so I'm pretty sure I'm covered.
2. Nettle tea- no, but people talk about it all the time on Sharon's blog, so I need to find some nettles.
3. Huevos rancheros - nothing against them, but if I'm getting two eggs sunny side up, I'd rather have Eggs Benedict.  I've had a breakfast burrito, though, which I think has all the same constituent parts.
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile - Navy Pier, Chicago.  It was dry.
6.  Black pudding - I avoided it when I was in the U.K. - it struck me as akin to chewing on a scab.  But then they had it at the college debate world championships at Princeton and I made like I was cosmopolitan. 
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht - I made my own and was throwing up all night.
10. Baba ghanoush 
 11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich - So this is the UK version of the list.  Is this meant to be a foreign novelty? (See: Krispy Kreme.)  I remember when we first moved to Japan and my mom hadn't yet found the Western grocery store.  She looked all over for peanut butter to make us school lunches and finally came home with "peanut cream" from a drug store.  I'm still not sure what that was.
14. Aloo gobi.  Ace's favorite.  I prefer the paneers. 
15. Hot dog from a street cart 
16. Epoisses - the picture sure looks like stuff I've gotten from the Milk Pail, but I couldn't confirm.  Ace would prefer to ban all stinky cheeses from the house.
17. Black truffle - I have black truffle olive oil in the cupboard, and I've gotten stuff with it shaved on top.  It tastes distinctive, sure, but I don't know what all the fuss is about.
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns - My brother's and my favorite treat when we were children in HK.  Ace and I have three bags of frozen ones in the freezer right now.  He will accept only one brand of frozen BBQ pork buns: O'Tasty brand.  Because they're Irish.
20. Pistachio ice cream - my grandmother's favorite flavor when we'd buy scoops, but not one she ever kept at home.  So it tastes of family trips to me.
21. Heirloom tomatoes - I am buried in heirloom tomatoes right now. 
22. Fresh wild berries - most recently, last year in Oregon while exploring the USAT nationals bike course.  They were tart.  But the roadside berries in Oregon were amazing.
23. Foie gras - at Miho's wedding.  Again - what's the hype?  It's just a big slice of fat.
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese  - This was on the menu at Cafe des Artistes, and I'd always wondered.  So we asked our waiter, who opined that it was available just for people who wanted to pretend to have rarified tastes but was basically a bunch of boiled trash.  I was tempted so I could 'check it off my list,' but he advised pretty strongly against. 
26.  Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper.  Oh.  It's a habanero?  Why didn't you say so?  I feel no need to eat one raw. 
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda 
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi - Mango lassi, though. 
34. Sauerkraut - it's all the rage right now!  Fermentation is totally in.  I have half a cabbage in the fridge and wonder if it's worth the bother.
35. Root beer float - a.k.a. a "Black Cow" 
36. Cognac with a fat cigar - Not at the same time.  Just a couple of puffs.  Worst morning breath ever.
37. Clotted cream tea - Did you see the Girls Next Door when they went to London and ate the clotted cream?  Hilarious. 
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43.  Phaal.   
44. Goat’s milk.  Goat cheese is fine. Goat yogurt is nasty to the max. 
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - I guess it depends where you buy it!
46. Fugu 
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut - I have so far purposedly resisted the "Hot Now" ones, however, because I assume I'd fall in love with them. 
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear - you mean tunas?  I bought a couple from the Milk Pail once but didn't figure out what to do with them before they went bad.
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - I'm such a liberal elitist.
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine - see # 55.
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads  - why?
63.Kaolin - The Chinese warrior monks?  Oh.  Isn't that like asking whether I've been exposed to asbestos?  I have to assume so.
64. Currywurst - I'm going to have to go do the U.S. version.
65. Durian - like with the truffles, I'm not sure what all the hype is about.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette 
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe - our neighbors keep saying they have it, but have yet to put out.  
74. Gjetost, or brunost  - sounds intriguing
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu 
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail 
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini 
81. Tom yum 
82. Eggs Benedict 
83. Pocky - there seems to be a preponderance of Japanesey foods on this list, wouldn't you say?
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant - I'm cheap.  Remember?
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare - oh, rabbit.   Can you believe I looked that up?  I'm pronouncing it "ha-ray," and thinking it's some middle eastern curry or something.  Hare.  I always think of that scene in the Michael Moore movie about Flint, what was it called?
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse - arbitrary, I know, but I'd feel bad.
90. Criollo chocolate - what an odd website that was.  "Efficient" chocolate?
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa. 
94. Catfish
95. Mole Poblano - get the chicken mole burrito here.
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor - see # 55.
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - yes!  I have had Tia Maria! 
100. Snake 

67%.  Now I have to see how I do on the U.S. version...hm, only 63.   I'm so very continental!

Hannah Montana

I've been wanting to go backcountry camping for YEARS (honestly, I just want to play Clan of the Cave Bear - Jondalarrrrrr!) and Ace wants to see a glacier before they all melt. 

So this weekend, Ace and I head to Glacier National Park. 

For me, anticipation is about 80% of the pleasure of any activity.  So, I've been shopping and researching survivalist websites and imagining what I'll do if I meet a bear.  I prepared emergency kits; I broke in my boots (oh - I wore them for a five-mile "run" at Rancho San Antonio Wednesday and worked up some sweet blisters - those turn into callouses, right?).   

The most engrossing part of the preparations for me has been planning our meals.  Although we don't have campgrounds reserved for the entire 6 nights (just 4, I think), I wanted to be entirely self sufficient for the duration.  I'm assuming the main, car-accessible areas of the park sell overpriced nachos and BLTs, but there's always the chance we'll have so much fun in the backcountry that we'll wander over to the area where there aren't even designated campgrounds for the balance of our time.  'Be Prepared' is the Boy Scout Motto, what's the Girl Scout one?

So I used recommendations from nutritionists re how many calories (2000 for me, 3000 for him) and grams of protein (40/day for me, 55/day for him) we should allot for each day as a starting point, and filled in full meals from there, keeping an eye on vitamins, fiber (21 g/day), Calcium, Iron and even Sodium (with abandon!).

I ended up with five breakfasts, four complete lunches, four complete dinners and an extensive assortment of snacks and desserts that will ensure that we hit our targets each day - all without relying on beef jerky, which apparently attracts bears.  (There's plenty of food for a fifth lunch and dinner, plus I'm assuming the first day and last day we'll be buying sandwiches on the road.)

Would you like to see our menu?

A Passage to India (dinner): Bengal Eggplant, Saag Paneer, brown rice, white rice, orange lassi (740 cals, 22 g protein, 5g fiber, 22g fat, 126% C, 62% Iron)

Diner Delight (dinner): Roast beef in brown gravy, mashed potatoes 'loaded' with cheese and bacon, Peach Melba (560 cals, 27 g protein, 6g fiber, 8g fat, 22% C, 36% Iron)

The Inscrutable East (dinner): Miso soup with shiitake mushrooms, agedashi tofu with seaweed, marinated soybeans in whole wheat couscous (560 cals, 32g protein, 10g fiber, 8g fat, 19% C, 16% Iron)

Thanksgiving Groaner (dinner): Chicken breast, garlic mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce (800 cals, 29 g protein, 2g fiber, 10g fat, 60% C, 24% Iron)

Fruit & Cheese basket (lunch): Oranges, apple sauce, swiss cheese wedges, herb crackers, V-8 (410 cals, 13 g protein, 3g fiber, 16g fat, 130% C, 2% Iron)

Nut'n Honey! (lunch): Honey peanut butter, honey wheat pretzel fingers, roasted chestnuts, Tang (550 cals, 13 g protein, 6g fiber, 18g fat, 108% C, 16 Iron)

Lesbian Lunch (lunch): bagel chips, hummus, trout fillets, tapioca pudding, V-8 (520 cals, 17 g protein, 6g fiber, 19g fat, 110% C, 4% Iron)

Euro Picnic (lunch): baked Yukon gold and blue potatoes, garlic and herb cheese wedges, Chianti salami, Tang (500 cals, 23 g protein, 6g fiber, 16g fat, 100% C, 4% Iron)

Breakfast # 1: Maple and brown sugar oatmeal with wheat germ and milk, Tang, hot chocolate (400 cals, 14 g protein, 6 g fiber, 4 g fat, 100% C, 60% calcium, 4% Iron)

Breakfast # 2: Cheese omelettes with crackers and jam, Tang, Constant Comment tea (400 cals, 10 g protein, 1 g fiber, 10g fat, 100% C, 4% Iron)

Breakfast #3: Strawberry oatmeal with dehydrated strawberries, wheat germ and milk, Tang, hot chocolate (400 cals, 14 g protein, 8 g fiber, 4 g fat, 130% C, 60% calcium, 4% Iron)

Breakfast #4: Salami omelettes with crackers and jam, Tang, Earl Grey tea (450 cals, 20 g protein, 1g fiber, 20g fat, 100% C, 8% Iron)

Evening treats include s'mores, Nutella, cookies and hot chocolate. 

Snacks are loads of assorted dried fruits and nuts: dragon fruit, peaches, sugared walnuts, raw almonds, you name it.

I divided the 10,000+ calories into individual packets for each meal, with preparation instructions (i.e. "boil 2/3 cup water; add packet # 3; stir"), and piled them onto the dining room table, very pleased with myself.

Then Ace went to REI and came home with freeze dried beef stew and about fifteen Luna and Clif Bars. 

...

It goes without saying that I won't be blogging live next week, but I'll try to springload a couple of random items just for giggles.

When two heads are not better than one

I subscribed for a share in the Two Small Farms CSA this year.  It costs about $20/week, and you can pick up your box at some thirty locations all up and down the Peninsula on varying days - easy peasy.  Last Wednesday I picked up the first box.

It contained

• a few bunches of spring garlic (looks like green onions, but smells and tastes like garlic)
• LOTS of parsnips
• 2 small butternut squashes
• 2 petite bunches of celery
• multicolored carrots - an enormous orange ones, and pink and white ones, too
• a little bunch of hot-pink radishes
• a tight, crisp green cabbage
• more escarole than you can possibly imagine.

For about six extra dollars a week, you can (and I did) also receive a bouquet of local, organic flowers.  I was skeptical of these, expecting buggy, spindly wildflowers, but the bunch was gorgeous - enormous pink tulips and two colors of iris and branches of flowering rosemary and bay leaves (whose leaves I'm going to dry and save when they're done being colorful) and a number of other bright orange and pink flowers I don't know the name of.  I enjoyed them as a bunch for several days, then separated them out into four different, smaller bouquets I put around the house, and which are still going strong.  Six dollars well spent.  If they're still looking good when the next box comes in tomorrow, we're going to have an embarrassment of flowers.  (But if they're organic, maybe we can eat them.)

I'm accustomed to organic produce costing an arm and a leg (and, truthfully, don't buy it when it does), so I'm amazed how much eating $20 provides.

So far, I've used the veggies in:

3 meals' worth of cream of vegetable soup (celery, parsnips, spring garlic)

4 meals' worth of honey glazed root veggies (multicolored carrots, parsnips, radishes)

2 servings of Asian-style cole slaw (cabbage, radishes, spring garlic)

1 serving of stir fried radish greens (radishes)

1 wilted salad (escarole, spring garlic)

1 serving of smoked salmon dip-filled crudite (celery and radishes).

I'm not crazy about celery, but I'm chastened by the idea that food dislikes are to some extent acquired, and have managed to get through it all, by seasoning highly the above (mostly celery) soup, filling raw stalks of it with crazy delicious salmon-dip, hiding chopped celery as a base layer in a mushroom risotto and freezing the small amount that remained for stock.  Very pleased with myself.  I suspect that at least one item a week will be my 'challenge' item, which I will have to really push on through.

I am NOT pleased with myself re the escarole.  There is a ridiculous amount.  I guess it's just two heads, but it's a little bitter, so it doesn't make for an inviting salad, so I don't know what to do.  I stir fried some on the weekend, but can't say I enjoyed it.  But they're looking at me, wiltingly, and I know I need to make some headway before tomorrow's box comes in. 

Anyway, I've only gone shopping once - a last minute run on Good Friday to grab some mussels and frozen fish filets for dinner.  Ace picked up some milk and cereal and OJ, and bread at the farmer's market.  So, financially, this CSA thing is not as much of a hit as I thought it might be, now that I'm forced (by the threat of waste) to build most meals around the produce. 

The threat of waste is no small thing.  I have a few things remaining, besides one and a half HUUGE heads of floppy escarole, but they don't bother me yet.  Three quarters of a cabbage (we can blow through this in a couple of stirfries and slaws), a handful of parsnips and carrots (just enough for one roasted dinner) and the butternut squashes, which I've refrained from cracking into in favor of the perishables.

It's a challenge, for sure, but I'm looking forward to the year. 

Tomorrow, I'm expecting to get a bunch of greens that are mysterious to me - Italian greens I've never heard of, tumbleweed.  The farm is kind enough to include some recipe ideas in their weekly newsletter, which they send in advance so we can plan ahead.  They manage to make a lot of the vegetables that intimidate me (bitter greens, chard) seem, instead, sophisticated and refreshing.   So I'm going to hew closely to their recommendations on these - I feel like I'm being thrown into an area of cooking that's completely new to me, dealing with mystery produce, and it's exciting. 

I think I'll learn a lot this year.

By the flicker, by the light of the TV set

So my Dove chocolate wrapper today said this:

"Watch reruns, they replay your memories."

Dove chocolate wrappers have a tendency to depress me anyway, but this one really bothered me. 

Seriously?  My memories comprise sitcoms?  Reminding myself that that's where my spent youth went - squandered in front of the boob tube - that's supposed to make me feel good?  That youth we were talking about, can I find it again, somewhere in the cracks of the couch?

I think I need another chocolate.

"Go to your special place."

Oh yeah.  Much better.

Debbie Downer

So I knew about the beef recall and I shook my head and tsk tsked and grumbled that my tax dollars are paying for industries that I want nothing to do with and a largely effed up lunch program, but it wasn't till yesterday that I saw the videos that started it all over at the Humane Society website. 

Made me super sad - I'm totally face-ist, but cows really do have sweet faces, unlike, say, fish and chickens, which made their treatment like dumb objects particularly wrenching.  So my position against factory farming has hardened from a preference to stance.  I really should go vegetarian, and that wouldn't be a big deal, because I've been vegetarian before.  But if it's a question of principle, even that would just be a half measure, because what do we suppose happens to all those dairy cows when they're all squeezed out?  And it's not like laying hens are having such a great time.  So really I should go vegan. 

Giving up milk wouldn't be a problem; I had none while we were in Asia for two weeks (except for a tablespoon in my coffee) and didn't miss it.  Giving up cheese, though, wow.  But it would be doable - Ace encouraged me to give up cheese for the four weeks before the trip when I was trying to lose 5 lbs for bikini purposes and it was only hard the first few days.

Giving up eggs, though, that would be a problem.  Not because I eat them solo so much, but because they're so amazing in cooking and I love cooking.  Veganism just seems like a bunch of chopping and stirring and heating.  Cooking with eggs and dairy, though, that's alchemy.

I'm still wrestling with my conscience on this one, but I've determined that I won't be lured by anything factory farmed, anything originating with "big dairy", or any chickeny items that aren't free range and all that jazz.  I know it's not much, but at least it's a line I can be firm about drawing, even if it does mean I'm paying $10 per cubic inch of melty deliciousness.

Stupid people.

What does KFC stand for, again?

Fun food fact: microwaved cauliflower smells exactly like fried chicken. 

It must be cauliflower season.  All kinds of varieties, from those fun, tinted ones to the organic type to the fractal one are on sale for 99 cents a head.  (All totally local, I'm sure.)  Last week I got an orange one; today I got the organic one.  I note that organic cauliflower is much less stressful than organic broccoli - there's nowhere for the bugs to hide.  Or else it's so compact they can't get in in the first place.

I swung by the Milk Pail on the way to work this morning because I had no lunch makings at home and picked up various fruits and veggies to munch throughout the day.  I also saw a two pound container of Organic Goat Yogurt from Napa.  Local!  The shelf said it was $2.99, which seemed totally comparable to the other yogurts, so I added it to my basket.  When it rang up - $6.59!!  I thought about returning it, but I've never had goat yogurt before so figured I could shell out four extra bucks to be adventuresome but mainly just didn't want to be that annoying customer.  Jeez.  $7 for yogurt.  And it isn't even nonfat.  I'm paying $$ for fat.

I'm eating my cauliflower interspersed with little bites of aged asiago - also totally local.  Well, USA anyway.  Do you feel like I'm beating this local thing to death?  I know.   I was just going to meditate on cauliflower for a short minute and then got all defensive.  WHEN will this month END??

Jacques Pepin did a salad with cauliflower a few weeks ago on Fast Food My Way (my favorite cooking show at the moment - I love the way he chops through that quesadilla with such gusto in the opening credits - it almost makes me flinch, like, what if my finger were under there?) and quoted somebody as saying it was "cabbage with an education" and talked about how much he loved it.  He cooked it up in a pan with, I don't know, tomatoes or capers or anchovies - I don't even remember, but he motivated me to give it a try.  I usually just ignore it as a presumably less nutritious cousin to broccoli (because it's so pale).  Also because I never seem to cook it right in a pan - bits are burned while other sections are still raw. 

But nuking it for two minutes (or steaming it) gets it nice and consistently 'done' and then you can sauce it as you will.  I put it in leftover curry sauce (from a restaurant) recently and couldn't believe how good and weirdly rich it was.   

Beth C makes an awesome low-carb (if you're into that) "mashed potatoes" with cauliflower.  It's incredibly delicious and surprisingly creamy.  That may have something to do with vast quantities of cheese, so I don't know that it really qualifies as health food, but I want to try that again.  (Speaking of low-carbing and cauliflower and fakery, I made that faux "rice" out of cauliflower once and didn't find it satisfying at all, and kind of burpy.)   

I don't know where I was headed with this.  I was just struck by the fried chicken aspect.  I knew a bartender who had a neat trick where he combined a lemon wedge, frangelico and sugar (take it like a tequila shot) to taste just like chocolate cake!  Do you know any foods that combine to make an unexpected flavor or to taste like something else entirely?  I'm not counting those Jelly Belly "recipes."

(Ha - I was going to put this image up because it's so pretty, but noted that it had a "signed model release" and looked like it cost money, but got a giggle out of the thought of a cauliflower being a supermodel and signing off on its headshots.  Sashay!)