What goes down, must come up

Rain barrel

2010-10-30T15:06:00.001-07:00

Here it is in all its glory: my official Skagit Public Utility District rain barrel.

Weeded

2010-07-24T20:14:00.001-07:00

I did dig through the patch of baby weeds and pulled out everything I possibly could - LOTS of roots came out and it looks like the weeds are pretty well destroyed. More plastic is down over more weeds and I'll be going through that whole process again soon. It seems like the part I dug up had something besides clay soil in it, I'm guessing that it's manure from the faint smell. I think I'll leave that part alone but farther down there's obviously only the clay so I'll put some compost on that after digging out the weeds.

I also got the rain barrel set up, but there's been no rain (!) for about 3 weeks now. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works and how much rain I'll be able to collect. It's set up by the back of the house under the gutter that only drains a small part of the roof so I definitely won't be overwhelmed by too much water.

I seem to be really bad at taking 'before' photos. I'll try to remember that for the next round.

Inching along

2010-07-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

Yes, the backyard is still there. It's been pretty cool and rainy lately, right up until last week when we were hit with a scorching heat wave of 85 or so. Needless to say, the weeds are doing fabulously. I just pulled my 5x5 sheet of black plastic off of the place it's been for the last 2 months (maybe more?) and, while most of the area looks pretty dead, there are a few baby weeds already poking their heads up. I plan to single-dig that area and cover it up again by the end of the week. I hate the thought of spending $90-ish dollars on a giant box of black plastic, but that may be the only answer to getting this garden going sooner rather than later.

I do have the glimmerings of a garden plan and if we stay in this house (which we plan to, but there's another story there) I know what is going to go where. Which is major progress. The problem is buying fence material, PVC pipe, greenhouse sheeting, rebar, stepping stones...the funds are really not there right now, so maybe doing this - and paying for it - one step at a time is a good idea in the long run.

The amazing rolling chicken machine

2010-02-20T21:27:00.001-08:00

Due to a peculiar series of circumstances starting with me attending a "Chickens 101" class at the local food co-op last Monday and ending with me realizing that the person I was emailing was someone who I already knew from the YMCA, we ended up in the backyard of yet another person's house today, looking at their portable chicken coop. 3 women got together about a year ago and decided to have a chicken share: they built the coop and the pen next to it and designed both of them to be easily moved. The pen breaks down into pieces that will fit into the back of a truck and the coop...rolls. Down the street. Preferably at night when the chickens are asleep and don't know that anything's going on.

Each person gets the coop for a few months at a time and the others come over for eggs and to throw vegetable scraps to the birds. They even have a smaller pen so that neighbors can borrow a chicken or two for garden or yard maintenance now and then. There are 5 regular hens and a game hen that was found running through the neighborhood a few months ago.

The ramp at the left side goes up into the coop.

Nesting boxes are at the bottom front and the panel on the side comes off to make it easy to clean everything out. Sadly, we are about a mile away from this arrangement or I'd be petitioning to let us in on the deal. It's just too far (and across 2 busy streets) to wheel this thing. But...what a great solution!

Backyard

2010-01-17T18:52:00.001-08:00

This is our damp little backyard, in which one day a garden will reside. I'm planning to start on the left side of the photo along the fence and go from there. I don't actually have measurements yet but I think I can get at least 400 sq. ft. in there if not more. The extent of the gardening depends, of course, on how long we will be in this house; the entire plan involves both the front and back yards and will take at least 5 years. This photo was taken facing south and the tree is a pear tree. (UPDATE: I measured the back yard and I can fit at least five 25 x 4 ft. beds if I'm careful with the spacing.)

Biointensive Principles: Seed Propagation

2010-01-10T22:13:00.001-08:00

All seeds are started in flats, so that you can choose the strongest seedlings to transplant and so that the crops that are already growing in the beds have a few more weeks to mature before the new seedlings are put in. These are half flats, which are easier to carry that the full flats.

The little tool in Ed's right hand is called a widger: you use it to lever the seedling out of the first flat...

...and then you use it again in the new flat to open up a space in the soil for the seedling. It's not difficult but it does take some practice.

A full flat. These can weigh quite a bit when they're full of wet dirt!

Biointensive Principles: Composting

2009-12-09T10:43:00.001-08:00

More Ecology Action workshop photos from the composting class.

Start with about 4 ft. x 4 ft. of soil that has been loosened a bit, down to 12 inches if possible. They also recommend a layer of thicker sticks/branches on the bottom of the pile to help with drainage and air circulation.

A layer of dried, mature (i.e., carbon-rich) material.

Each layer gets watered after it's put down.

A layer of green, immature material.

More water.

And, a layer of soil. Repeat until the pile is about 3 or 4 ft. high, stick a compost thermometer in it, keep it moist but not soggy, and turn it in a few weeks. Then it sits around until it's ready for use. It's a slower, colder method, as opposed to the black plastic compost tumblers that heat everything up quickly and make compost in a month or so, but this way keeps the beneficial soil microbes that thrive at lower temperatures happy and healthy.

Biointensive Principles: Double-digging

2009-12-04T17:06:00.001-08:00

A few photos from the double-digging demonstration at the 3-day workshop last month. Sometime during the weekend, someone said something like, "People hear 'Biointensive' and say, oh, that's the method where you double-dig. You all need to remember that there's more to it than that". True, but this is where it all starts...after the planning and calculating and calendars, that is...

John Jeavons beginning the demonstration. He's standing on a digging board to distribute his weight over a larger area so the soil doesn't get compacted.

We should be able to balance easily and understand where our center of gravity is, in order to use the least amount of energy to the greatest effect. Acrobatics encouraged, but not required.

The spade takes a bite out of the soil, about 12 inches down...

...and the soil is moved to the other side of the trench.

Then you position the spading fork on the lower level of the trench...

...sink it another 12 inches (or as far as it goes)...

...and wiggle it around to loosen the soil.

Repeat for the length of the bed, 20 or 25 ft. Take breaks. Breathe deeply. Think happy growing thoughts, and say hello to all the earthworms you turn up as you go along.

Bees!

2009-11-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

We are currently staying in Cupertino, CA with our friend Charlotte, who has two beehives in her backyard. Charlotte was kind enough to allow me to help harvest a frame of honey last week, and of course we took some pictures. She has a fairly low-tech way of doing things: we scraped the honey off of the frame with an ice scraper and it went into a 5-gallon bucket with a paint strainer cloth in it. The honey drained out through the cloth and the wax stayed in, to be melted down and made into candles later. We got about 7-8 cups of honey from one frame. The bees were extremely mellow during the whole process, possibly because none of them got squished when Charlotte took off the top of the hive.

I think I'm definitely hooked, although I can't possibly contemplate buying all the equipment yet - maybe in 2-3 years. I did get a copy of 'Begin To Keep Bees' from Franklin Carrier, the local (San Jose) beekeeping guru, and it's fascinating reading. And, thanks to the magic of Google, I've discovered the Mt. Baker Beekeepers in Bellingham. Perhaps one of them will have extra hives/suits/etc. to loan/rent/sell cheap to a beginner? Only time will tell...

Post-workshop musings

2009-11-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm updating after over a year. Try to contain your excitement...both of you who actually know this blog exists...

I just completed the 3-day workshop at Ecology Action in Willits, CA. I plan to write down all the facts and figures at some point, including what the future garden plan will look like and what my goals for the next few years are, but I wanted to get down my thoughts and feelings while they're still fresh. It was amazing, overwhelming, thought-provoking, tedious, and transformative all at once.

The room was full of people who are looking for change and new ideas. Most were probably in their 20s, some just out of college and figuring out what to do with their lives and some who were already garden veterans who needed new input. There were a few 30- or 40-somethings, established in their careers and looking for better solutions for their lives. Many in this group were gardening for a living or partial living in one way or another. The remainder were retired or close to it and wanting to help specific populations: one man had plans to work in Afghanistan, another man is running an urban garden program in San Francisco, one woman is a nutrition expert, one couple is thinking of moving to the Willits area to garden seriously without having to deal with the high mortgage payments of Marin County.

I haven't ever been around this many people who were already convinced that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. No one seemed to need the introductory lecture on disappearing resources: water, farmable land, oil, knowledge of sustainable practices. We were all there to learn and that's exactly what we got - my head is spinning right now with random facts about Jerusalem artichokes (biomass + calories!) and the best way to transplant seedlings (don't touch the roots, unless they're onions!). A room full of people ready for change has a real buzz about it, and this is real, personal, sweaty, complicated change that you can't pawn off on a politician or a do-gooder. This is revolution...one clump of dirt at a time.

I'm inspired, and terrified. I really don't want to sit down with a calculator and figure out calories per square foot, or compost by (air-dried) weight, or the number of seedlings in a flat. But that's what we did today and what I have the tools to do in the future. Will William and I, realistically, ever grow every single thing we eat and forgo coffee and chocolate forever? Probably not...unless we have to. If we do, I have the (VERY) basic blueprints for a diet that will feed both us and the soil. Unlike the rest of the workshop participants, however, I can't go home and dig up the back yard to put all of this into practice. We won't have land of our own until early January at best, and maybe not even until next spring. I can plan endlessly but until I see the land there's not much I can be certain of. But...it's like a exile longing for home. I can already feel the soil on my fingers and smell the freshness of it, and all of my dreams are green around the edges.

October 18th, raised beds

2008-10-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

I'll actually try to keep up with the photos this season. Really! The first bed has peas, leeks, and broccoli and collard seedlings. The second will have radishes, carrots, parsnips, and mangels as soon as they come up.

Photos, as promised

2008-10-20T21:52:00.001-07:00

A couple of pictures of the Biointensive bed right before I ripped everything out, plus the many many potatoes.

Moving ahead

2008-10-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Never underestimate potatoes - I dug up about 12 pounds (maybe more) of Yukon Golds today, after I thought there was nothing else in there! I had to use the shovel and dig down about a foot so all of that end of the bed is mixed up now. I'm going to let things rest and start putting in the clover during the week, a little at a time. The Biointensive bed is now completely torn out - it took about two hours this weekend plus another hour for the potatoes. There is one tiny little peapod on the pea plants and it's very very cute. I did get the broccoli and collards in the ground on Thursdays, and the radishes are coming up but nothing else yet.
Photos coming soon...

Winter garden

2008-10-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

I finally moved ahead with the winter garden today. I started broccoli and collards about 2 weeks ago (I think, maybe 3) and they are coming along nicely in their little pots on the windowsill. Today I finally ripped out the tomato plants from the raised bed and put a fence around it in a futile attempt to keep the squirrels out. I planted mangels, parsnips, carrots, and radishes (all seeds) in that bed and there are some volunteer sweet basil plants already sprouting. I picked the last 2 zucchini two days ago and ripped out the last plant today. There are still 4 leeks left hanging on from the spring and the peas are coming along nicely in that bed. The broccoli and collards will go in hopefully by the end of the week. The chard is still there and I want to put in some spinach and maybe another type of green (lacinato kale?). That's the raised beds. The Biointensive bed is pretty much done for, although I got two squash this week. Next weekend I will really try to get everything ripped out (including the weeds) and if I really get with it I'll get the crimson clover cover crop in too.
Unfortunately I was too late to get into the Ecology Action 3-day workshop in November, so I've taken the dubious step of signing up for NEXT November's workshop since the March workshop is right in the middle of Certificate of Merit and right before Friday Harbor...yeah, not gonna happen. I really wanted to go but I think I've learned more from just getting out there and getting things done. I'll probably need the workshop for the 'next phase': i.e., when I've got more land and can triple or quadruple what I did this year...oh boy!

Harvest 2008

2008-09-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

Just some examples of things I've harvested in the past month or so. The potatoes were from a while back, the tomatoes and basil were probably early August, the melon was last week and the corn/squash/tomatoes are from tonight. Potatoes:Yukon Gold, squash: Yellow Straightneck, tomatoes: Green Zebra, Roma, Brandywine, Rutgers, and Better Boy (I think), basil: Genovese, corn: Golden Bantam, and the melon, 'Arizona', is an heirloom variety of canteloupe that doesn't seem to be too well known. It is SO sweet and flavorful...everything was great! This is my first year of serious gardening and I am definitely hooked...

Palak Panir

2008-07-03T22:25:00.001-07:00

Palak Panir
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Last one for the night! Angeline made this while I worked on the other things. This is basic palak panir, except we used niter kibbeh for the sauteeing part. We had a bit for dinner after we finished cooking, with some leftovers and a well-earned bottle of Samuel Smith's apple cider. Mmmmmm....

Miser Allecha

2008-07-03T22:24:00.001-07:00

Miser Allecha
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is basically just spiced lentils and onion. Also from Papa Tofu.

I bought some injera at the ethiopian market to serve with these things. I'm really looking forward to it!

Gomen

2008-07-03T22:22:00.001-07:00

Gomen
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Gomen, pretty much just as it is in Papa Tofu except I used the beet greens and kale that I had available rather than buying collards for it. We're having a 4th of July shindig tomorrow and Angeline suggested ethiopian food, so I took it as a challenge.

This and the next two dishes use generous amounts of niter kibbeh (spiced margarine), also from Papa Tofu. No photo of that but you can take my word for it.

Mei quin choy, shiitake mushrooms, young onions

2008-07-03T22:19:00.001-07:00

Mei quin choy, shiitake mushrooms, young onions
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This was inspired by a recipe in veganomicon, baby bok choy with sauteed shallots and sesame seeds. Except, I used none of those things. I used mei quin choy (there's still a bunch left...), shiitake mushrooms, and chopped "young onions," which are somewhat shallot-like in taste. Oh, and a ton of ginger. Sauteed everything but the mei quin choy for a while first, then added the MQC, a bit of soy sauce, and some apple juice. Covered to steam for a bit and then served with, you guessed it, wasabi mashed potatoes!

Mango, heirloom tomato, and fresh herb salad

2008-07-03T22:16:00.003-07:00

Mango, heirloom tomato, and fresh herb salad
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Pretty much as it says. The herbs were just basil and mint.

Grated beet and zucchini salad

2008-07-03T22:16:00.001-07:00

Grated beet and zucchini salad
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

With a bit of soy sauce, and served atop leftover wasabi mashed potatoes. The beets were from our CSA box and the zucchini was from the garden!

Wasabi mashed potatoes, mei quin choy stuff

2008-06-29T21:31:00.001-07:00

Wasabi mashed potatoes, bok choy-like stuff
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

The stuff on the left is mashed potatoes with some wasabi powder. More subtle than you'd think... Inspired by Veganomicon.

The stuff on the right is finely sliced onions, fennel, and mei quin choy sauteed with some soy sauce. Very flavorful!

Raw cashew & lemon cookies

2008-06-29T21:28:00.001-07:00

Raw cashew & lemon cookies
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Sorry for the late post, I actually made these last weekend. I soaked raw cashews overnight, let them dry, and then pureed them with fresh-squeezed meyer lemon juice. I formed them into "cookies" and dehydrated them for about 12 hours at 105 degrees. They were really nice, and I will make them again, but they didn't keep as well as I would have liked.

Grilled tofu and zucchini

2008-06-22T15:24:00.001-07:00

Grilled tofu and zucchini
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Actually, the tofu's not grilled, because there wasn't room in the grill pan with two halved zucchinis filling it. The zucchini was fresh from the garden and the tofu was fresh from San Jose Tofu, pressed to drain a bit and with light slatherings of a maple syrup/soy sauce glaze on the cooked sides. More subtle than I expected, but nice.

Corn

2008-06-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

I lived in Illinois for four years and I am fairly certain that the closest I got to an actual corn plant was helping to set up the 'Children of the Corn' room in the theatre department's annual haunted house one year. I remember driving to work every day in the summer of 1995 past acre after acre of corn and you could practically watch it growing if you were stopped at a stoplight. There's a lot in the news about corn right now and most of it isn't very optimistic.

I think it's pretty.

June 22nd, Biointensive bed

2008-06-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's been hot all week, the Internet says up to 97 but I'm pretty sure it was over 100 for a couple of days. So, this bed has pretty much doubled in size. The potatoes are starting to fall over and I'm going to try to stake them up tonight. The corn is...huge. The squash is about to flower and the canteloupe keeps wandering into the onions and carrots. The beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes are all doing beautifully as long as they're restrained.

When I first planned this garden, back in January or so, I thought it was far too big and I kept telling myself that if I only got half of it done then that would be plenty. Well...I did it! Our bedroom window looks out on the backyard and that's the first thing I look at when I get up in the morning, making sure everything's alright and just enjoying the transformation from bare dirt with occasional weeds to food, food, and more food. Almost there...

June 22nd, raised beds

2008-06-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

We've had 6 zucchini from the garden so far: 4 grilled, one given away, and one made into zucchini bread. There will be more zucchini, probably, oh, tomorrow. Maybe Tuesday. There is one little Green Zebra tomato in progress - I'm keeping a close eye on it because I had so much trouble with the tomatoes last year. I'm trying to water only the base of the plants and only when they look like they need it and so far the blossoms are hanging on...we'll see if all the plants set fruit. The bell peppers are now next to the tomatoes because, when they were between the corn and the potatoes, they got about 2 hours of sun a day. Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to move them! I need to cut the parsley and mint back and use some of it. I made pesto with the basil this week and used most of 4 plants in the process. The basil seedlings (in pots) are doing okay despite being dug up by something one night this week, but the cilantro and parsley aren't sprouting at all. The chard and arugula are coming back and I'll try to use the leaves when they're smaller this time.

Squash slaw

2008-06-16T19:45:00.001-07:00

Squash slaw
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Well, the latest batch of beer bread came out poorly. So, here's some "squash slaw" to make up for it. Two summer squash, two other unidentified green squashed, and two carrots grated into a bowl, with the juice of a meyer lemon and a bit of olive oil stirred in.

It's really good but needs something else. Raisins, maybe?

Vegan quiche closeup

2008-06-15T10:35:00.001-07:00

Vegan quiche closeup
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is more or less the same recipe as last time, but I used whole wheat flour instead of chickpea, garden-fresh zucchini rather than broccoli, and the crust contains sunflower seeds, cashews, and pine nuts. I also baked this in the regular oven, since I'd already preheated it to cook the crust and I wanted to be able to have some of this for lunch. To atone for the non-solarity, I made some beer bread again in the solar cooker, which I had already preheated anyway. I will post about that when it's done.

Looking back through the archive, it seems that I never posted about the previous one, although I did take a photo of it. Nevermind, then, this one came out better anyway :) The recipe's from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.

June 14th, Biointensive bed

2008-06-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Again, a fine example of my jerry-rigging skills: I made a trellis cage for the beans that'll probably fall down in the first strong wind, but so far it's doing its job. Everything is growing like crazy! I dug around at the base of one of the potato plants this week and knocked off a tiny little potato, so that's going well. I'm actually starting to wonder if there will be room for everything when it all starts producing...

June 14th, raised beds

2008-06-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Missed another two weeks...anyway, you can see that everything looks great. The giant squash turned out to be zucchini, with the delicata coming along nicely behind it (although you can't see it). I need to label everything when I plant it! As I type this, William is sauteing the first 2 zucchinis and 2 blossoms as well, for lunch. Hooray!
I've started various basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds in the pots that you can see in one of the photos. The cilantro is going to seed and I'll try to save some of it, although it's a quick-bolting variety. I harvested all the chard and arugula this week and we've used it in salads, along with the romaine lettuce from the CSA. The lettuce is doing well and the spinach is...not. All the herbs are fine and the tomatoes are flowering - I can't WAIT for the fresh tomatoes!

Angeline in her garden

2008-06-13T19:00:00.001-07:00

Angeline in her garden
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

June 2nd, Biointensive bed

2008-06-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here's where all the work's been done lately. On May 22nd, I transplanted the green onions and regular onions and some summer squash from the nursery. Then I built a fence (such as it is) to keep the rabbits out and re-seeded the carrots, which are starting to come up now. I also thinned everything since so many seeds came up and were doing well. I tried to move some healthy plants into spots left by plants that got chewed on, but I almost wish I'd left everything alone since the plants I moved almost didn't make it. Anyway, everything is going great. The potatoes are ready to be hilled and I'll try to get to that this week.

June 2nd, raised beds

2008-06-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've missed a couple of weeks. Things are going well! This weekend we used cilantro in the spanish rice, made pesto with basil, and froze a WHOLE bunch of fresh oregano, which will keep us supplied with oregano for about a year. Next time I'll dry it. Not much else to report on the raised beds...I moved the peppers to the Biointensive bed since the delicata squash was blocking almost all the sunlight. There is zucchini on the other side of the squash but you can't see it! It was slow for a while but now it looks like it might actually pull through. I'm going to start basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds this week in pots and in the ground, just to see which way works out best. I also plan to start using the chard and arugula in salads, I've let them just sit there for too long since we get a lovely salad mix from our CSA.

Solar-baked stuffed peppers

2008-06-01T22:02:00.001-07:00

Solar-baked stuffed peppers
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

And, the final assembly! Two green bell peppers stuffed with spanish rice and refried beans, topped with some colby uncheese, and cooked in the solar cooker for about 4 hours. See how the uncheese browned? Nice! I wish it had melted a bit, but you can't win them all.

Refried beans

2008-06-01T22:00:00.001-07:00

Refried beans
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Pinto beans cooked twice in the pressure cooker, with a change of water in between, as recommended on Miss Vickie's website. After draining them, I sauteed an onion in the cooker, added back the beans, some pomi, salt, and bean water, and mashed it up. This is the best version of this that I've made yet.

Spanish rice

2008-06-01T21:59:00.001-07:00

Spanish rice
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Brown rice, pomi chopped tomatoes, cilantro from the garden, and an onion. Toasted the rice, added the rest, and cooked it in the pressure cooker for about 20 minutes or so, I think. Nice rich flavor and creamy texture!

Colby "uncheese"

2008-06-01T21:57:00.001-07:00

Colby "uncheese"
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Here's the colby "uncheese" from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. We didn't have roasted red peppers so I tried the paprika variation. It's good, but too paprika-y and a bit dry, probably due to powdered paprika versus juicy roasted peppers. If I do the paprika version again, maybe I should use less agar to make it softer?

Anyway, the taste is really nice. Very cheesy, if not a dead ringer for real colby cheese. Goes well with crackers, stuffed peppers, etc...

Golden Pasta and Cauliflower Salad

2008-05-28T21:36:00.001-07:00

Golden Pasta and Cauliflower Salad
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is almost exactly as in The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, except we didn't have bell peppers or water chestnuts, so I didn't put them in. They would have been nice for a bit of extra contrast but I enjoyed this as it was.

Sauteed Cauliflower Greens, Bok Choy, and Chard
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Angeline made the greens with contents from our CSA box, to go with the salad.

I also made the "Colby Cheez" from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, which is currently chilling in the fridge. I'll post about that when it's done.

May 18th, Biointensive bed

2008-05-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Good week for this bed, except for whatever's eating the seedlings at night...I've lost nearly all of the carrot seedlings :( I've been putting crates over the beans and cucumbers at night and I put out some slug bait (the pennies are also an attempt at slug control) and things are better, but I didn't protect the carrots at all and that was a mistake. I'll re-seed them next week. Still haven't planted the onions. The tomatoes are mostly doing well, canteloupe is holding up, corn is growing like crazy, and the potatoes finally came up. No summer squash yet, though...

May 18th, raised beds

2008-05-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

It's been HOT this week, up to 100 degrees a couple of days (!) Tomatoes are doing well in the heat and everything else is hanging in there. The lettuce is coming along but the spinach is really slow. The winter squash is taking over its bed, the zucchini is just starting to get moving, and the bell peppers have hardly done anything since I transplanted them: I may need to replace them with nursery plants. The herbs are all doing well.

May 11th, Biointensive bed

2008-05-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

You can't really see anything here, but the beans, cucumbers, canteloupe, and corn are coming up, along with the basil and marigolds here and there. Tomatoes are doing well but not amazing, I put some fertilizer spikes near each one and hopefully that will help: I also picked off a few bugs from the undersides of the leaves.

May 11th, raised beds

2008-05-11T14:19:00.001-07:00

May 4th, Biointensive bed

2008-05-11T14:13:00.001-07:00

May 4th, raised beds

2008-05-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Steamed carrots, leeks, and baby turnips; sauteed baby turnip greens

2008-05-11T13:36:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by wbajzek

For lunch today I steamed the carrots, leeks, and baby turnips. The steaming water had some earl gray tea and rosemary from the yard in it; it added a subtle but nice flavor to them. When done, I poured on a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and stirred it up.

Meanwhile, I washed, chopped, and sauteed the greens from the baby turnips with a bit of grated ginger.

We still have more greens (kale, I think), so I may sautee them and serve them for dinner with the leftovers c, l, and bts from lunch.

Mac and Uncheese

2008-05-11T09:06:00.001-07:00

Mac and Uncheese
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is based on the "ultimate mac and uncheese sauce" from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, plus fresh herbs and minus the powdered onion and garlic. I don't have either, and can't handle much garlic anyway, it makes me queasy. It was definitely more cheese-like than my own improvised uncheeses. It was pretty good, but next time I will not use the garbanzo flour, which has too strong of a taste, and I may need to add more mustard or something to give it a bit more zip.

Cake Maker to the Stars: From caterpillars to caterpillar rolls...

2008-05-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

Cake Maker to the Stars: From caterpillars to caterpillar rolls...

Kittee just posted this, with lots of gorgeous photos. I only finished lunch a half hour ago, and suddenly I'm all hungry again. I'm going to have to make something like this sometime. I wonder if we already have a reasonable substitute for bamboo sushi rollers... I'd rather not buy more gear if I can avoid it.

Sauteed agretti and kale with ginger

2008-05-07T11:27:00.001-07:00

Sauteed agretti and kale with ginger
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Wednesday is delivery day from our CSA, and we have a lot leftover from last week. Since I'm working from home today, I decided to prepare some as an experiment and perhaps as lunch if it turned out well.

This is agretti and kale sauteed with ginger. Actually, I steamed them for 5 minutes or so first. I think it's pretty fantastic, the sweet/salty/savory flavor of the agretti compliments the kale well, and the ginger ties them together.

I wasn't sure what to do with the agretti at first, but the stems seem to be edible so just cut the ends off and you're good to go.

Solar-baked beer bread take two

2008-05-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

Solar-baked beer bread take two
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

The recipe is similar to the previous, except the flour is all-purpose, the beer is Oatmeal Stout, and instead of containing seeds and such, it has chopped, fresh sage and mint. I also put in some nutritional yeast which, now that I think about it, I may have put in the last one as well.

This was cooked in a black aluminum roasting pan rather than the cast-iron dutch oven like the last time I made beer bread. Something I had not posted about yet is that we had attempted to bake a focaccia roll several days ago and it was set on aluminum foil directly on the bottom of the pan. The top was well done and the bottom was not cooked at all. This time, the loaf was cooked in a pyrex dish again, which I set atop "stilts" (a pair of ramekins) to make sure the hot air circulated below.

As you can see, it has a substantial crust on the top, and none to speak of where it was in contact with the pyrex. I suspect the temperature got hotter more quickly, creating the crust and sealing in the moisture below, because the bottom has a VERY moist, almost cake-like consistency to it. When I saw it, I was sure it was going to be a failure, but in fact, it's not.

Taking a tip from someone's blog post (sorry, it was a long time ago and I forgot who), I have been keeping a jar of olive oil in the fridge, which has congealed into a somewhat spreadable glop. A little bit of that on this bread was a lovely combination.

Still here...

2008-05-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

A quick post, mostly to notate the schedule of things so far this year so I can remember what happened when. The onion seedlings got hit by fungus gnats and so they all had to be tossed out, I think I did that in the last week of February. The weekend of March 22-23 I started working on the raised beds and got the chard transplanted and the spinach and lettuce seeds into the 3x3 bed. The following week, (Spring Break, more or less) I got my seed potatoes in the mail and set them to sprout in a box, and also placed the two 3x6 beds where I wanted them in the backyard. I loosened the soil under the beds so the drainage would be better (the soil here is very thick clay) and planned out what would go where. I also started tomatoes, bell peppers, and more onions (regular and green) in pots on the porch.

The weekend of April 5-6 I filled one of the 3x6 beds with SummerWinds planting mix and put in leek seeds, zucchini seeds, and delicata squash seeds, along with nasturtiums, zinnias, and cosmos, all started as seeds. I also marked out and started double-digging the 100 sq. ft. Biointensive bed. The digging was tough at first but it was better once I established a rhythm. If I had been thinking ahead I would have done the double-digging last fall and planted buckwheat or vetch to get the soil going, but...oh well. I got about 3/4 of the bed dug that weekend and kept it watered so the soil wouldn't turn into brick. I also planted oregano, basil, marjoram, dill, tarragon, sage, and cilantro in the herb bed, to go along with the parsley, mint, oregano, sage, and thyme that survived from last year. Borage and marigold seeds, too, and there are Shasta daisies and white alyssum left over from last year that are flourishing as well. Somewhere around this time I planted some arugula in the 3x3 bed but I can't remember exactly when that was.

The weekend of April 26-27 I filled up the last 3x6 bed with planting mix and put in sweet and Thai basil (from the nursery) and the tomato plants that I started from seeds: Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, two Romas, and a Green Zebra (I bought that at the Farmer's Market in Mountain View, my Green Zebra seedling inexplicably died one day). I also put in seeds: Genovese basil, marigolds, and cosmos, and transplanted some of the basil and the dill from the herb bed since they weren't looking too good. Biointensive bed: I sifted in some compost over about 1/2 of the bed and loosened the top 2 inches or so of the soil to get the compost mixed in.

Yesterday I finished double-digging the Biointensive bed and planted the potatoes as I was digging. There are 5 rows of Yukon Gold potatoes. I also finished sifting compost over the rest of the bed. Today I planted seeds in that bed: corn, summer squash, canteloupe, carrots, cucumber, and beans. I put in 3 tomato plants from my seedlings - 2 Rutgers and a Brandywine - and put in some Roma seeds since the 4th tomato plant didn't survive the transplanting process. There are also some basil, marigold, and Sweet William (dianthus) seeds in there and I plan to put in more flowers. I transplanted the bell pepper seedlings into the bed with the leeks, winter squash, and zucchini and also moved a couple of other things around since I got several seedling that had come up right next to each other. The onions are still in their pots: I'll transplant them soon.

Our garage has so much stuff left by previous tenants in it that we can nearly always find something we're looking for out there. We've found nails, plywood, and plastic netting for fencing so far...today I read that the carrots should have burlap or shade netting over them (on the ground) until the seedlings come up so I went looking around and there was some burlap! I love this house.

Vegans, vegetarians, and the rest

2008-05-03T18:42:00.001-07:00

I'm not vegan. I think I would like to be, but I haven't made the leap yet. However, I believe that nearly every meal I have posted to this blog has been vegan or very nearly so... It's hard to say for sure because I know some already-prepared foods, like the beer in the beer bread, could potentially be non-vegan. Everything had been good, and some things, like tonight's dinner, I thought were really excellent. Full of flavor and texture, and quite satisfying.

Most of the time when I eat out, I go to places that I know can provide a similar experience. There are not many choices within walking distance of my office, but I know that I can get an enjoyable meal at any of the indian, japanese, and thai restaurants (relatively) nearby. Yes, I realize that thai food which claims to be vegetarian often still contains fish sauce, but to me that is not that big of a deal, as I will occasionally eat fish with no issue.

You see, I discovered several years ago that eating meat was making me sick. I've had indigestion and/or other stomach problems for as long as I could remember. One day, I decided I was going to learn to cook for myself, and as I was aware of the (perhaps exaggerated, I don't know) dangers of cross-contamination, I decided to forego the meat until I had developed some skills. A week later, at my next opportunity to eat meat, it dawned on me that I had felt so much healthier since several meatless meals had gone by. It was an epiphany. I've never gone back.

...intentionally, that is, because it turns out that meat is really hard to avoid. A large part of the population assumes that if you don't eat meat, you're a messed up freak. I can deal with that, I guess. The problem is that there's another large part of the population, possibly the largest, who is so unaware of the issue that it perhaps doesn't occur to them that chicken broth, for example, is not vegetarian. There's no "meat" in it, so it's OK, right? The problem for me is that I get sick if I eat such things. Because of this I am considering just telling people that I am allergic to animals and will get sick of I eat any part of them. This is sort of almost true, so I guess I can live with it, except I am tired of being the annoying picky eater everywhere I go. So for the most part I eat at places I know I can trust, and do my best not to be too much of a pain when I go elsewhere, unless I feel like I have no safe option unless I raise a stink about it.

The flip slide is that occasionally I encounter well-intentioned vegetarian dishes which were clearly designed by people who would never, ever consider eating a meal without meat unless they had to suffer through the creation of such a recipe. I think the big fallacy of the meat-eater's mind is that vegetables have no flavor, and so veggie meals prepared by non-veggies often seem to me to still contain more animal products than vegetables. Cheese, mayo, butter, and anything else that is rich and not-quite-meat.

I guess I've found that over my five meatless years, my need and desire for such rich food has seriously waned. I am still capable of packing in a lot of rich, heavy food at an indian buffet, I admit it, but for most meals, I get by just fine with something lighter. I have come to enjoy the flavors you find in spices, fresh herbs, organic and heirloom produce FAR more than the surprisingly-small-when-you-think-about-it variety you find in meats and cheeses. I think your average meat-centric food preparer would do well to look into these options, too. It would likely improve their own cuisine, as well as enable them to come up with something a little more creative for the rest of us than pasta alfredo with a white lettuce side salad.

Spanish rice, black beans, peppers & seitan, cilantro "pesto"

2008-05-03T18:35:00.001-07:00

Spanish rice, black beans, peppers & seitan, cilantro "pesto"
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

A multi-part preparation... Something I am not always motivated enough to do.

Item one: Spanish rice, made with brown rice, vegetable stock, and a can of stewed tomatoes, the contents of which had been run through the food processor.

Item two: black beans. soaked overnight and then cooked in the pressure cooker.

Item three: Seitan with red, yellow, and green bell peppers, all sauteed with a bit of olive oil, salt, and adobo seasoning. The adobo smelled quite strong, but the flavor was subtle. It's on the old side, so I don't think I can consider that a "rule."

Last but not least, the cilantro "pesto" that I made last night.

We assembled these things artistically into our bowls and had another nice meal on the porch, in the lovely spring cupertino weather. The leftovers were all mixed together for the sake of reducing dish usage. I think it'd make really nice burritos, but I don't think buying bunch of tortillas when we'd realistically only need two or three makes sense, because at the moment I don't expect that any of our other leftovers would make particularly appetizing burritos.

A bit of cleaning up along the way, and the kitchen is a lot less of a disaster than it could have been considering all the dishes, tools, etc involved. If only I were always so disciplined.

Believe it or not, this tastes great!

2008-05-02T21:11:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, this tastes great!
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is a "pesto"-like condiment made with cilantro, cashew butter, sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, a freshly squeezed meyer lemon, and half an avocado. It's very rich, creamy, and aromatic.

Tomorrow we're going to make some rice, beans, and sauteed vegetables. We'll layer it up in bowls, Cafe Yumm-style, and top it off with this.

Tonight I steamed broccoli, bok choy, and baby carrots while sauteeing mushrooms in soy sauce and olive oil. Then the steamed veggies were mixed with the mushrooms and a bit more soy sauce and then it was all cooked to perfection and served over brown rice with Freixenet left over from our wedding last year.

More solar cooking

2008-04-26T14:13:00.001-07:00

leeks, carrots and greens
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Since the last time I'd used the solar cooker, I bought an oval-shaped aluminum roasting pan, which is painted dark. The hope was that it would heat up more quickly than the cast iron dutch oven did and NOT impart that cast-iron flavor on everything. It did the trick, and has a pretty big capacity. WIth enough preparation, I could cook multiple dishes in it at once.

The dish in the rear of the photo consists of carrots and leeks roasted in the solar cooker with sage, mint, oregano, chopped crystalized ginger, and olive oil. They cooked for about 4 hours and came out a bit crunchier than I'd intended but still very good. I am not sure they would have been better off cooking longer, but since there was a lot of juice at the bottom, I wonder if covering them with foil or something would have caused them to be soften up a bit more.

I never would have thought to eat leeks like this before I read "Seitan a la Ficelle" from What the hell does a vegan eat anyway. I was so inspired by the photos that I decided to have leeks some way other than boiled for a long time in soup, and also to perhaps start posting more photos as well. To that end, sorry for the blurriness of this photo, the lighting was not good and I had not properly prepared for it.

The mustard greens and rapini were steamed for 5 minutes and then given a sprinkling of salt, pepper, olive oil, and fresh-squeezed meyer lemon juice. This dish came out nicely, too; the greens were a bit bitter when raw but they mellowed out nicely with the steaming.

Solar-baked beer bread

2008-04-07T18:13:00.001-07:00

Solar-baked beer bread
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Our oven broke a while back and rather than replacing it, since we're pretty sure our landlord wants to tear this whole place down, anyway, we decided to try out a "green" replacement for it.

I baked this beer bread in our (very) shiny new CooKit!

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup garbanzo flour
3tsp baking powder
1tsp salt

fennel, cumin, thyme, and marjoram
12oz Gordon Biersch WinterBock (leftover from party)

stuck it inside the cast iron dutch oven, sealed it in a plastic oven bag, and put it in the Solar CooKit at 9am, angled optimally for midday (since I'd be out all day). It spent 9 hours in there, probably longer than necessary, but it came out moist with a nice crust on top.

recent soups

2008-03-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

So far we've been dealing with the Two Small Farms deliveries by making stock with everything that we don't understand, and then using that stock to make soup with the rest. Unfortunately, I don't remember the details of the second stock, plus it contained at least a few items that I'd never heard of anyway.

The first soup contained turnip, onion, leeks, squash, and escarole. This was very good, which surprised me because I felt that the stock didn't turn out so well. A bit of salt and nutritional yeast did wonders with it. I know you think I'm weird for using the stuff, but it's pretty good. The second was a coconut curry with squash and fennel. I was rather fond of that one; it was pretty simple but came out very well.

The third is in progress now; squash, golden beets, onions, bell peppers, oyster mushrooms, and possibly some escarole as well but it's might crowded in the pot as it is.

Update, 9:43pm: This soup is excellent!

stock

2008-03-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

I'm making stock for the first time. Who knows how it'll come out? But here's what I put in it, so I don't forget in case it comes out well.

1/2 onion
5 carrots
1 large parsnip
most of a head of cabbage
1 tangerine
1 small (6 inch) butternut squash
6-8 stalks of celery

I think that's it. Oh yeah, and lots of water. Basically, I just put as much of what was available in as would fit in the pot.

Pressure cooker madness

2008-01-26T12:19:00.000-08:00

I bought an old pressure cooker a month or so ago and have been using it primarily to make rice and beans. The other day, I made some saffron rice in it and then stirred in some ginger, spices, mixed veggies, and raisins to make a pulau kind of dish. It was pretty good. I attempted the same thing today, this time with a chopped up onion added to the rice and some of Angeline's veggie stock instead of water. I also threw in some bell peppers, star anise, fennel and cumin seeds. At that point, it looked like there wasn't enough water, so I added more, perhaps totally 3.5 cups of liquid. It was WAY too much to produce the intended dish, I'm afraid, as the rice was fully cooked while the whole thing was still swimming in liquid. I tasted it and it was pretty good as it was, so I added salt and pan-roasted cashews and served myself a dish of it. Wow! It turned out very tasty in a subtle and complex sort of way. I like it enough that I will probably try to make it this way again sometime.

Angeline made a vegan lasagna, some of which I am also having for lunch. It's pretty great, too, hopefully she will write about it.

Onions...how prosaic

2008-01-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

It would be easier to make sense of all the seed charts and growing information and helpful hints if they would all just agree with each other! I was under the impression that the tomato seeds needed to be started in January to be planted in March/April, but it seems they can wait another month or so. Everyone agrees, however, that the onions should be started now, or maybe last week. I bought 2 packets of onion seeds (Seeds of Change, Valencia onions) from Common Ground yesterday and put 78 seeds into pots today, hopefully I'll end up with 30-something plants from these. The Sustainable Vegetable Garden says 67 onions for 2 sq. ft.!!!!!! I guess I have to believe them...I'll start these and then put some more directly into the ground later and it'll just be nonstop onions for a while. I hope.

I loosened the soil for the 100 sq. ft. bed yesterday and today. The spading fork goes down 8 inches in some places and 12 in others. I'm hoping that the next round of single digging will be easier since the rain will get down further into the ground and loosen things up a bit more. LOTS of earthworms in the soil already, thank goodness.

Trying to find ways to get compost and topsoil for free or cheap, instead of buying many bags of potting soil for the raised beds. I suppose it would be nice to just be able to throw money at the garden, and I probably could do that if I really wanted to, but I'd rather be creative and frugal. As usual.

Seedy musings

2008-01-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time this week with the charts in both The Sustainable Vegetable Garden and How to Grow More Vegetables... and the conclusion is that I don't HAVE to start all the seeds myself. Which is good, because I don't have room for this, and I'm not willing to build a mini-greenhouse with a heating pad on the porch. Compromise: I will start tomato seeds, if they don't work out I can always buy the seedlings. I have Green Zebra, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, and Roma. They are going to live in re-used 4-inch plastic pots...I knew I was saving them for a reason. I am trying to do this with as little actual expenditure as possible, so instead of spending $16 on the nifty redwood flats from Ecology Action, I have recycled nursery pots and 2 plastic trays from Goodwill. They will all live on the washing machine as that's the only window that gets decent south light. Stay tuned.

Yesterday I cut back all the herbs from last year and took out most of the plants that were left, for the new compost pile. The old one is a soggy mess but it's supposed to be sunny all week so I'll turn it a couple times and hope it dries out a bit. I think it's actually compost, though. I also stuck the spading fork in the ground and it went in 6 inches. Arrrggghhh....One step at a time.

I have visions of wildflowers in the front yard, the entire back yard full of happy growing herbs and vegetables, pots placed here and there, the entire back porch filled with houseplants, as much of it as possible gotten from Craigslist or friends or stuff we found in the garage when we moved in. I also have visions of the landlords deciding to knock down the house in June, just as everything's getting going. If nothing else, all the planning has been good for me.

Happy new year!

2008-01-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

I went to my second round of Grow Biointensive classes today in Palo Alto: Introduction to GB and Composting. The Introduction class was very well done and presented a large amount of information well within the class time, along with gorgeous pictures in the Powerpoint slides. It made everything sound very easy and logical. The Composting class was mostly people who didn't seem to know about GB methods so there were a lot of tangential questions to be dealt with, but answers were provided (or at least local resources to find the answers) and things moved on. Again, very straightforward, except I don't have giant piles of compost material ready-to-go...

So I picked up a copy of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden and headed home (after the thunderstorm, thankfully). And I read my new book. And I got VERY nervous...I was planning to prepare the 100 sq. ft. bed (recommended for beginners) this month and let it sit for a while, and then plant in March when I have a week off from my morning job. However, I need to start seeds (I want to do this RIGHT!) in January and February and prepare the bed right before the actual planting. Ack! I think if I get the flats and get them ready, it'll be easy to put the seeds in at the right times and then I can do all the serious work over that last week in March. So, flats and seeds on Jan 12, start sowing Jan. 19/20, continue through Feb., and so on. Hope the compost pile actually did its thing...once it stops dumping rain on us, I'll see what's at the bottom and if I can use it. Flat soil is just going to be regular potting soil, I can do it properly next year.

Also, there will be 3 raised beds with potting soil and plants from the nursery. I feel like I need a control group :)

Split pea soup

2007-12-17T20:35:00.001-08:00

I improvised some split pea soup tonight, and it came out pretty well. I boiled, then simmered the split peas for a half hour or so, and then sauteed minced shallots and ginger and mixed them in. When the peas were pretty soft, I mixed in some nutritional yeast and cashew butter to thicken it up a bit, which didn't help with that but it tasted nice. I finished it off with salt and pepper.

Butternut Squash Spice Cake

2007-12-09T16:51:00.001-08:00

So...this recipe was in the Nov. 14 CSA newsletter that comes with our box of veggies. My parents came over here for lunch today and I made it for them. It's really good!

1 small butternut squash
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, place both halves face down on a baking tray, and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. Let it cool, then scoop out the cooked squash from the peel and mash it with a fork. Reserve one cup of the squash for the cake, the rest is extra.

Preheat or turn down oven to 325. Butter an 8x8 baking pan. In a small bowl, combine flour, allspice, baking powder, salt, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each one. Stir in vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and the squah to the large bowl and mix well. Pour batter into the baking pan and bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes. Top with whipped cream or powdered sugar...we had fresh raspberries from the farmer's market with this!

Holiday stuffs

2007-11-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

Nothing surprising here. Stuffed acorn squash much like last time, but substituting replacing the channa masala spice blend with basil, oregano, and sage from the garden. It was a hit at the party we went to! Today I'm making another veggie pie/tortiere with onion, carrot, fennel, and those same garden fresh herbs sauteed together. At the end, I added cashew butter and nutritional yeast to try to make it gooify, as a "problem" with this type of dish is that it tends to fall apart when serving. This stuff lined the bottom of the pan, with a middle layer of cooked green lentils and black beans and topped with mashed potatoes from yesterday. I smeared on a bit of olive oil in hopes that the top will brown a bit.

As for the fennel, I used both the bulb and one of the stalks, which took on a surprisingly different flavor once sauteed. I think this will be one of my best dishes yet.

Stew

2007-11-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

Today's meal is a pretty nice one. I began by cooking some split chickpeas until they had softened up some. I then added water, a halved lemon, cinnamon stick, and a few chunks of star anise for seasoning. I put in some chopped standard and romanesca cauliflower, followed by chard, basil, and sage chopped fresh from the garden.

I then let it cook a while longer until the chickpeas were soft, and called it done. No oil, no salt, no powdered spices or anything. The result is a pretty tasty stew with a lot of flavor and zest to it.

another veggie pie/tortiere

2007-11-10T18:25:00.001-08:00

This time I sauteed some thinly sliced onions and celery with herbs, then thinly sliced potatoes and sunchokes. I layered those in the pan, added a can each of kidneys, pintos, and corn, then covered it in baked squash and baked it all for 30 minutes. I've made this kind of thing lots of times, but this is definitely the best.

stuffed squash

2007-10-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner was one of those "what can I make with what I have in the kitchen?" creations. It began with baking a squash of unknown variety. Then I decided to stuff the squash, so I had to see what I had. I ended up making a goo of:

margarine
channa masala spices
red onion
minced kale
cashew butter
chopped almonds
raisins
orange blossom honey
salt
nutritional yeast
water

Sounds bizarre, perhaps, but I incorporated some ideas from some past squash stuffings and followed my taste buds, and it came out well. The last steps were to add cashew butter and nutritional yeast, then stir in water little by little until it took on kindof a creamy consistency.

Reinterpreting the title of this blog

2007-10-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

So...I've decided that this blog title could just as easily apply to gardening as it could to the process of eating. Seeds go down, food comes up. Usually. I haven't had much success this year...herbs were good, but the grand total of the other produce is 1 squash, 10 tiny tomatoes, and 4 bell peppers that are still ripening, so anything could happen. Not really something you can live on for very long. I took a class at Common Ground Garden Center in Palo Alto on Saturday (we rode our bikes! yay!) on double-digging. Double-digging involves preparing the soil down to 24 inches if possible and is the first step in the Grow Biointensive method of farming. The end goal is to improve the health of the soil by putting in more nourishment than you take out of it: no chemical fertilizers, of course, and a good steady diet of compost geared to the pH needs of your particular patch of land. Sustainability, plus a little bit more...It's complicated and somewhat time-consuming but I think this is the way I want to go as far as gardening.

Something different

2007-10-08T21:08:00.001-07:00

I baked a couple of acorn squashes tonight for dinner, and reheated some mashed potatoes (made in a fairly normal way, but w/ almond milk instead of regular). We also had a bunch of green and white beans, so I sauteed those in a cast iron skillet with olive oil, minced onion, marinated tofu from the farmer's market, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds. I've done this kind of thing before and the beans never came out right, but this time I periodically deglazed the skillet with water and and put a lid over the top so the beans would get steamed. It worked well and I was pleased with how they came out.

Thai curry again

2007-10-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

I'll spare the details, other than to say I finally got galangal and lemongrass, albeit in jarred format. It is much improved, but I have found that the peppers are not hot enough and the
food processor doesn't grind the paste into, well, paste. The other thing, probably more important, is that commercial thai curry pastes and other recipes I've seen online often contain shrimp paste, and I am wondering if that's the next "magic" missing ingredient. Not that I'm going to put shrimp paste in, but perhaps I can find something with similar qualities (perhaps just a bit more salt? Would miso do it? Hmm..) to fill its void.

Thai curry

2007-09-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've never really been satisfied with my thai curry... The first time I made it, years ago, I made it from green curry paste and it was quite good, but I've never really gotten it back up to that level yet. I think it's because I got lured in by curry powder, and then later started making my own spice blends, which basically amounted to curry powder anyway. Curry powder doesn't really taste like thai curry.

Using some thai curry paste recipes for inspiration, I set out to cook some of the remaining veggies I had into a tasty dish. At this I succeeded, although it is not quite there yet... I place the blame squarely on my inability to find galangal. I will have to track some down for next time. You can substitute in ginger, but it's not the same. Also, I am not going to put shrimp/anchovy/etc paste or fish sauce into it. Or garlic, for that matter, as I think I am somewhat allergic to it. Maybe I should put in some salt to make up for the lack of these things.

I rode my bike to the market this morning and picked up some tofu, ginger, and coconut milk. Whilst boiling the tofu (cut into triangles) for texture, I threw some red chilis in the food processor with ginger, lemongrass (dried, sadly), cumin, coriander, paprika, and cayenne. In spite of the skin-burning capsaisin in the chilis, they are not all that hot, and I didn't use enough cayenne to make it really hot, although I tried. Anyway, I blended that all up into a paste and sauteed it for a bit, then added onions, carrots, and water, and cooked until the onions went translucent. Then I added two cans of coconut milk, a pile of chopped bell peppers, and the tofu. At this point, I whipped up some more curry paste, because it clearly wasn't enough. I don't think there's an exact science to the proportion, but a basic guideline I can use in the future is two chilis per can of coconut milk.

I'm eating it with some jasmine rice, and enjoying it a lot. It's still not quite right, but it's the closest I've gotten in a long time. Something that worked well once in the past was to deglaze at one point with a cup or so of crisp white whine (like chardonnay) and add in some brown sugar. I think it really needs galangal and fresh lemongrass to really sparkle.

indianish food again

2007-09-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

We got another box from the CSA the other day... It took me a while to work up the inspiration to prepare some food, but it turned out pretty well. I sauteed some some usual-suspect spices in ghee (almost gone now) and threw in a few chopped onions and the whey from my soy-yogurt cheese experiment. To this, I added chopped potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and some frozen peas. Eventually I added more water and then a bit of peanut butter and nutritional yeast to thicken it up. I have to admit that it's not immensely flavorful in spite of having a more salt and cayenne in it than I normally would put, but it is pretty good and has a nice texture to it. Panir or lemon-marinated tofu would have been a nice addition. We're eating it over rice.

Yogurt cheese? Yogurt cheese. I made some soy yogurt as I often do, and am straining it in a sieve lined with cheese cloth. I think that for the full effect, it would need to sit for a few days, but it thickened up pretty well. After I finish dinner, I'm going to mix in some sugar, saffron, and cardamom and serve it as dessert.

CSA, curry, salsa

2007-09-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a long time... Did anyone notice? A lot has happened in the time since I was posting more frequently. I have been riding my bike a lot and have lost a pretty good amount of weight... About 25 pounds so far, give or take. I bid farewell to my 6 wisdom teeth, and so far I am happy that they are gone. We just ditched Planet Organics and are trying out a CSA called Two Small Farms. They sent us corn, beautiful heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet red peppers (HOT), strawberrys, red onions, and spinach. Possibly some other stuff but that's what I remember.

The problem with PO was that most of the time, the food (supposedly picked less than 24 hours before delivery) was already spoiling, and the stuff that wasn't was going to soon. We couldn't just eat all the food in one day, so our interest in PO kinda waned and we ended up wasting food every week, which made us unhappy. It looks like the weekly portion from TSF will be a better size, and so far I am more impressed with the quantity. Also, we like the idea that we're supporting a few local farms. With PO, it was supposedly all local, but, well, that proved to be the case much less of the time than we'd hoped. Oh well. They're a good business and they try hard, I think, but perhaps they have moved in a direction that is not in line with our interest.

Anyway, tonight I made a curry with corn and potatoes. Boiled those both first. I sauteed onions, garam masala, star anise, and a cinnamon stick for a while cutting the corn off the cobs, occasionally adding water to the pot to soften and meld it all together. I used ghee, btw, mostly because I've got some I want to use up. I do like it's flavor, but I'm happy enough to just use olive oil, even when most people say its flavor is too distinct for a given recipe.

Anyway, I added the potatoes and corn to the pot and a few cups of water, and put it on about medium heat. I added a chopped red pepper (which is currently burning my thumb), some peanut butter, and some almond milk, and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes. It was pretty liquidy at that point, but after letting it sit for a while, whilst I made the salsa and assembled burritos from preexisting parts, it had thickened up to a nice consistency. I'm looking forward to eating it, although sadly I haven't been very hungry today and still am not*.

For the salsa, I just chopped and blended all the tomatillos, one onion, one heirloom tomato, and two chili peppers, which may have turned out to be too much. I added a bit of water to help with the blending but I think that was the wrong thing to do. It could be that simmering this whole mixture would be good, but I'm not planning to try it now... Just an idea for next time. Although I may try it, given that I can barely eat it as it is, due to its heat.

*Note: there is, however, a root beer float in my near future.

I don't know what to call it.

2007-06-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

For tonight's dinner, I sauteed a variety of summer squashes with dill and basil, steamed some spinach, and pureed it all with some tahini. The inspiration was a mixture of baba ganoush and palak panir, and it came out very well. I served it over rice.

Sweet english peas

2007-06-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

We got a whole bunch of these in our Planet Organics deliveries the past two weeks, and I wanted to use them before they went bad, even though I didn't know what to do with them. I ended up more or less following this recipe except I used non-dairy buttery stuff instead of butter and orange blossom honey instead of sugar. The mint came from our garden. I was ready to put the peas on the "do not send" list, because they seemed like they'd be too much work, but shelling them wasn't hard or even as slow as I expected, cooking them was easy, and they're much better than the usual frozen peas I've had.

Some meals I prepared this week

2007-05-31T22:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I made a few dishes inspired by the gujarati cuisine at Kokila's Kitchen in Cupertino. The main dish consisted of many little potatoes boiled until soft, then simmered for a half hour or so with onion, cauliflower, mustard seeds, cinnamon sticks, star anise, fresh mint, turmeric, coriander, asfoetida, a bit of salt, and a splash of wine. On the side, we had green beans sauteed in similar spices, minus the mustard seeds and add cayenne.

I was planning to make Palak Paneer tomorrow, but I was bored this evening and it occurred to me that we always say "boy, that curry tasted better the second day, after it had some time to meld." So, I went ahead and made palak paneer this evening. I used more spinach than I normally do, steamed it until wilted and then blended it rather than chopping it as usual. I sauteed the paneer (in the future I may generally use tofu, but we already had the paneer) in the cast iron skillet and some spices in the big pot for the palak... Let's see, I used curry leaves, cinnamon sticks, garam masala, turmeric, asfoetida, cayenne, and a bit of salt. I added the blended spinach back and let the whole thing simmer for about an hour, adding the paneer in part way. Usually I'd add yogurt, but this time I don't think it really needs it. I will leave that until serving time tomorrow night, because it did come out a bit on the spicey side and my wife (yes, wife! I said it again!) might like the yogurt to cut the spice a bit.

The texture is definitely a lot more like what I'd find in a restaurant... I guess the blender does work better than knife for this.

Bike fuel

2007-04-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've recently started commuting on bicycle again after a two or three year hiatus. The new commute is 12 miles each way instead of 3, but back then I used to take a 30 mile detour two or three times a week. I've noticed a big change since I was 24, which is that I can't just have a sip of water, go ride 30 miles, and be ready for a nice lunch... Now I actually seem to require some kind of sustenance before I go!

For the most part, I have been making smoothies for my morning fuel (supplemented by a double-shot of espresso a third of the way into the ride). The base is banana, soy yogurt, cashew butter, soy or almond milk, and cocoa powder from Trader Joes. The last two days, I have also thrown in an apple, and ended up with a very thick, pudding-like smoothie which tastes great and keeps me going through the bike ride all the way until lunchtime.

chocolate tofu pie

2007-04-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

I made a chocolate tofu pie the other day to serve at a party on Friday. I started with a store bought graham cracker crust, two bricks of silken tofu, and a bar of baking chocolate. I melted the chocolate and then blended it with the tofu. At that point, it wasn't chocolatey enough, so I added some cocoa powder and kept blending until it was smooth. Then I filled the crust and stuck it in the refrigerator.

It came out tasting great, but it was more pudding-like than I'd hoped. Actually, it'd make a fantastic pudding, but I was trying to make pie. I either need to put something in to thicken it up, or (as a friend suggested) try a different brand of tofu which may have a lower water content.

Also, next time I will go with my original gut (ha ha) instinct and get an extra bar of chocolate, in case the one is not enough for the amount of tofu.

Tonight's adventures: burritos & muffins

2007-04-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

First, I made stuff to put in burritos... Leftover brown rice, a rinsed can of pinto beans, salsa, and "sour cream uncheez sauce," which basically consists of cashew butter, fresh lemon juice, and a touch of nutritional yeast. This mixture really hit the spot for me.

Unfortunately, the tortillas were a flat out (ha ha) disaster. I think I got the dough to the right consistency, but the recipe (basically 2 to 1 and a bit masa harina and water) said to roll them out between two sheets of wax paper, and I found it to be nearly impossible to transfer them from the wax paper to the skillet without them falling apart. I got ONE good one, which of course wasn't really ideal for a burrito anyway, because it was too crispy. I might try this again to make gorditas or crispy tacos, but it really didn't work for the burritos, so I guess I will have to get some store-bought flour tortillas to finish the burritos... It's too bad, because I was hoping to share them with a gluten-allergic friend.

I made some muffins, too, partly because I was annoyed at my defeat at the hands of the tortillas. Roughly 2 cups of flour, all purpose, brown rice, and almond, in some reasonable proportion favoring the first two, combined with some cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and soda, all vaguely like a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I put a banana, some soy yogurt, soy milk, oil, and cashew butter in the blender and pureed it, and then stirred all that in to the batter. Filled the muffin cups and baked for 20 minutes at 400 and they came out quite nice... A little on the dense side, but tasty... I couldn't bring myself to use as much sugar as the recipe called for, so they're not as sweet as they could be, but I think with the banana and the cocoa they have a very good flavor. They stick to the muffin cups a bit too much; I'm not sure what to do about that.

I will probably edit this in the future and put in some links, but for now I'm off to bed. Tomorrow morning I plan to ride my bike at least part of the way to work, for the first time in a long time. It's an awful long and dangerous commute entirely by bike (15 miles each way, give or take) but I am excited about it... I need the exercise, I miss riding, and I will be burning less gasoline.

Dosa

2007-03-29T19:30:00.000-07:00

I felt really inspired tonight; I had some leftover squash and I wanted to make a dosa to have with it. I used a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's book as a guide and it turned out pretty well, although not flawlessly, as I attemped to flip it too soon and it sortof fell apart... But it wasn't yet cooked enough that I couldn't stick it back together!

I combined equal parts all purpose flour, brown rice flour, yogurt, grated coconut, and water with a bit of salt in the food processor, toasted some mustard seeds and then blended it all again. I spread it around in my cast iron skillet and (should have) let it cook about 5-7 minutes over a medium flame, flip it and cook probably 3 or 4 more minutes.

When it was done, I folded it in half over the squash and ate it with some yogurt on the side. That's it! This one was a knockout success in the flavor department, and I'm anxious to make it again.

Pancakes, Pupusas, Soup

2007-03-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

Quick post:

Saturday morning, I made pancakes for breakfast. Whole wheat flour, brown rice flour, baking powder, soymilk, vanilla extract. Awesome! Angeline chopped up mango and banana for the topping.

Made pupusas using masa harina and loosely following this recipe. For the filling, I made refried black beans and mixed them with leftover cooked acorn squash. Again, I felt it was lacking something, although the bean/squash mixture is extremely tasty on its own. I think cheese was the missing ingredient, so maybe I will try again in a few weeks and make an interesting sounding uncheese.

Finally, I made some soup. I boiled asparagus, broccoli, and chives until soft in broth with thyme and marjoram. Pureed that and set it aside, and made a roux with brown rice flour and olive oil, added almond milk and then mixed the puree back in. I thought it was too sweet at this point, because of the almond milk, so I added a bit of salt, more spices, and some basil. It was nice, a sweetish soup with an herbal finish to it.

Pseudopusas

2007-03-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a recent post in Vegan Lunch Box, I modified the banana flop idea into pseudo pupusas. I made a batter of corn meal, chickpea and brown rice flours, baking powder, and soymilk and made a thick pancake-like object. Before flipping them, I put (previously cooked) sweet potato and mango on top and layered on more batter.

I'll be honest, it needs something. Salsa? Cheese? Spices? I'm really not sure, probably any of them would have done the trick. In spite of the sweet potato and mango, it came out a bit on the bland side. Actually, bland's not the right word. The flavor was good, it just needed to feature something.

Still, it was a worthy experiment. I'll be attempting it again at some point, but probably not before I try to make a more authentic version.

Risotto Rules!

2007-03-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight I plan to use some of the great asparagus we received to make risotto. As a reminder to myself, I used this article from Arbor Food as my guide last time I made risotto and I was thrilled with the outcome.

I'm back! With broccoli!

2007-03-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

I just made cream of broccoli soup, following the gist of a recipe from Savvy Vegetarian. I boiled the broccoli and some herbs in 4 cups of stock until it softened, and then pureed it. Then I made a roux with olive oil, brown rice flour, a bit of nutritional yeast, and almond milk. There wasn't enough of that, so I had to resort to regular milk to finish off the sauce. Then I stirred the puree back in, added salt & pepper to taste, and called it done. Verdict: delicious. And another mysterious food has become ... less mysterious.

Rice pudding

2007-02-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

We're going away for a week, and I decided to try to use up the leftovers & whatnot in the fridge. On Monday night, I made rice pudding from some leftover brown rice. I put 2:1 rice-to-soymilk or so on the stove with a little bit of buttery stuff, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, and let it simmer for for a while. A little brown sugar is nice, too.

I don't have exact proportions for this; I just cook it longer or add more liquid until the consistency comes out more or less like you'd find at an Indian restaurant.

Acorn squash, yogurt

2007-02-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

Last night before bed, I baked an acorn squash for today's lunch. Split it in half, put it on a baking sheet, and bake for 45 minutes at 350. I brought some yogurt into which I stirred some channa masala spice blend, and dipped spoonfuls of squash into it. It was awesome!

The yogurt I brought today was Trader Joe's goat milk yogurt, which tastes OK but is another American style custardy pectin-y yogurt, which really doesn't do it for me. My commercial yogurt of choice is Pavel's Russian Style yogurt, but they didn't have it this time for some reason.

For a few months last year, I was making my own soy yogurt, and I plan to get into that again. I tried recently using Almond Breeze almond milk, but I wasn't happy with the result... Rather than a jar of yogurt, I ended up with a jar of water with yogurt-like pellets floating in it. It actually tasted OK, but was rather repulsive.

My quicky method for making soy yogurt:

Fill a clean, sterile jar with soy milk and microwave for two minutes
Let cool until luke warm
Stir in a spoonful or two of starter
Put lid on jar
Store in warm place for a few hours, then refrigerate.

Often I'd warm the oven to just over 100 degrees, turn it off, and leave the jar in there overnight. It seems to set more quickly and has a firmer texture if the temperature is higher, but beware of killing the cultures with too high a temperature.

That's all it takes... Maybe about two minutes of actual effort. My starter was Pavel's the first time, and from then on I'd reserve the bit at the bottom of the jar to start the next batch. Using Trader Joe's unsweetened soymilk, it produced a consistently good yogurt which tasted like Pavel's but was much easier on my stomach than any dairy product ever is.

Initially I followed the method from Vegan On A Shoestring then I relaxed&simplified my method a bit after reading Madhur Jaffrey's book.

Experimenting in the kitchen 2

2007-02-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

"If you understand your painting beforehand, you may as well not paint it at all." - Salvador Dali

Guacamole and belgian endive "chips"

2007-02-26T18:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight's (light) dinner is guacamole and belgian endive "chips." I've never had endive before, and I like it more than I expected... Which is good, because I have two more to figure out how to use the remainder. Angeline was in a hurry to get somewhere, so I pre-scooped guac into the endive leaves and poked them into the bowl going around the edges from tallest to smallest. It made for a nice presentation.

Fill-to lines; cooking in bulk; chinese food

2007-02-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

Conceptually, I like the idea of making a big pot of something to eat throughout the week, from a convenience point of view. But I reach a point where I just can't take it anymore. No matter how much I like the thing that I made, after my 4th or 5th helping of it throughout the week, I am desperate for something new. I joked recently that I should draw "fill to" lines on our pots so I don't make too much of one thing.

So, how to deal with this? If I don't have materials to prepare lunch for the day in 5 minutes or so, I will often just skip it and go out to lunch. I do so much less often than I used to, but it's still not ideal. I'm sick of mysterious food. I want to know what goes into my food!

Well, I have a few ideas.

One, a friend of ours is a brown rice fanatic and will often cook thw whole of it at once and then freeze it in meal-portion-sized zip-locks so it is readily available every day. Rice is a good staple ingredient, because it's healthy, filling, and it goes well with most things.

Two, well, I have long been anti-chinesefood. The reason is that most chinese food you get at restaurants consists of slimey, oily glops of homogenous food. Even when I ate meat, I didn't like the fact that most chicken dishes (for example) at chinese restaurants would be NOTHING but chicken in slime. Deep-fried chicken, at that. Most of the time you couldn't even get a floret of broccoli with it. On the other hand, I work (and lunch) with many chinese people, and what I've noticed is that their food is almost always a nice portion of rice topped with equal small portions of meat and vegetables. I'm sure there's some sauce, but I've never seen the kind of oil slick that comes on most restaurant-bought chinese food, and I've never seen any of it deep-fried. I'm getting the feeling that what you find at most chinese restaurants is a very americanized version of the cuisine.

So, the idea I'm getting from this is to prepare rice as above, and then cook (or not cook) our weekly shipments of food in several dishes that are either one or two ingredients, rather than trying to turn it into one or two large dishes. Lunch ends up being a portion of rice and a selection from two to four options, plus some raw fruit and veggies. It can probably all be done in the same time it takes to make the big dishes, and the result is a more diverse menu throughout the week which can be quickly gathered before heading out in the morning.

Idealized food

2007-02-18T17:34:00.000-08:00

livescience.com has an interestingly look at the top ten "Good foods gone bad." A common theme, paraphrased, is the American food industry's attempts to idealize most things into a variation on cake (cereal, bread, etc) or frosting (like our custardy, gelatinous yogurts) because, well, everyone wants everything to taste good, and I guess sweet is an easy form of "good" as far as flavors go. Just add high fructose corn syrup.

I think the fact that even we Americans don't subsist on Twinkies alone should be a hint that sweet, sweet cake and cream are not everything to everyone. Maybe we could give SOME of the sugars and preservatives a miss?

Whole Foods

2007-02-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

I used to shop at Whole Foods a lot, mostly because at the time they seemed to be the best option for organic and/or unusual foods. Well, I take that back, they were after the little mom&pop health food store a half mile away was competed out of business by the mega WF.

More recently, I have generally avoided them, or gone just for specific ingredients that I can't find elsewhere or need to have soon. I really do appreciate the variety they offer and the quality of the products, but I just can't get over their pretentiousness. In reality, they are a large corporation packaging and selling components of a (allegedly, at least) healthy lifestyle at high prices to make as big a profit for their shareholders as possible. No matter what principals they were founded upon, as a publicly traded company, that is their goal.

In my estimation, they are in many ways they are a big step above, say, Safeway, but I don't expect it to last. The last few times I've been there, I've encountered the same hyperartificial politeness from their employees that says nothing but, "I really don't want to be here, but I have to be nice to you because it's company policy." This is all in stark contrast to my (former) neighborhood market, Cosentinos. They offer superb quality, reasonable (though not bargain) prices, and employees who seem to genuinely enjoy taking care of their customers' needs. I wish I still lived close to them, because I really felt like they were committed the wellbeing of the community.

When shopping at Whole Foods, I feel the same way I do when shopping at a place like Walmart (which, thankfully, has not happened in years) or Starbucks, who also claim to contribute to the local community.

Experimenting in the kitchen

2007-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Something in Season has an interesting post about how to experiment with recipes. A lot of his advice centers around following recipes carefully, which helps learn to predict how things will go, I suppose. It's interesting to me because it's pretty much opposite from my philosophy... I personally follow the "banana flop philosophy" by Helium (aka God around Hippycore HQ) in my favorite cookbook, Soy, Not Oi!, although ironically(?) I have yet to make the banana flop recipe.

So what kind of a vegan are you, having to read a book to cook or prepare food! You are a pitiful person. You have been socialized. You think that 1/2 cup less of this or 1/2 cup more of that will render your dish inedible. You think that a written recipe is the optimum balance of the ingredients... you are bummed. [The banana flop recipe does not include exact measurements, temperatures, times, etc]

Natural foods have the wonderful property of being able to be blended with each other in any manner or proportion and still always give a minimum total nutritional value equal to the sum of their parts, so nutritionally speaking you can't go wrong. Different combinations will bring different tastes and different textures; a wonderful array of tastebud experiences that will bring you joyful, romantic, painful, funny, gratifying, and humiliating memories... the merging of the soul and the pallet.

So my friend, break free from the rigid limit of your food habits and turn your kitchen into a playground of creativity... Welcome to the BANANA FLOP philosophy!

Since reading this, I have rarely worked from recipes unless it's something mysterious, like NYC, a grain-to-liquid ratio, something Chinese, or ... anything that's to be baked. I'm also generally pretty happy with how my cooking turns out.

In my case, I USED to rigidly follow recipes, and eventually came to the conclusion that cooking doesn't have to be an exact science. Sure, there are some things that can easily be over- or undercooked, but most things provide leeway in terms of cooking time, ingredients, etc. A friend came over a while back with a semi-improvised persimmon bread which included several whole grains (and was quite awesome, in my opinion!)... I think the key to success is to combine flavors you like, and if any are especially distinctive, don't feature more than one.

Update 2/18/2007: Inspired from writing this post, I made the banana flops this morning. Everyone should have a copy of Soy, Not Oi!

Hmmm...

2007-02-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

You'd think that after not one, but TWO, outbreaks of salmonella in a week, someone would realize that there's something wrong with processing food in giant batches using machines. ConAgra Foods recalled peanut butter, and Dole recalled canteloupes. We're going to the Farmer's Market in Mountain View this weekend and I'm really glad!

Growing food in small spaces

2007-02-15T09:55:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea for growing salad greens and other vegetables even if you have poor soil or your driveway is the only place that gets good sunlight.

http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/strawbales.htm

Tree tea?

2007-02-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

This is dredged up from memories of the people who lived in tipis up in Northern Michigan, that I was hanging out with about 10-11 years ago. PINE NEEDLE TEA is a terrific source of Vitamin C. All you need is a handful of pine needles (the long skinny ones: evergreens with short brushy needles like redwood and hemlock are NOT good for you!) and some hot water. Twist or crush the pine needles, or you can chop them up, pour the hot water over them, wait a few minutes, and drink. It's pretty good. Here's more information on living off pine trees.

More NYC

2007-02-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

I went to Good Karma again tonight, but they didn't have the mac & "cheese" because they weren't pleased without how it came out last time. I encouraged them to keep working on it, because frankly, if someone had told me I'd enjoy eating a bunch of yeasty goo, I'd have told them they were crazy, but I trusted the GK folks and I thought it was great. I told them I'd made some of said goo and put it on potatoes, and it was really nice.

One of them recommended using kamut flour for making hearty cookies or other floury things. I have never knowingly had kamut, so I'm curious. I have some friends who are allergic to gluten, and I have tasted pancakes and birthday cakes prepared by/for them with alternative flours, and so far have been very impressed. As far as I know, I'm only allergic to papaya and cats, but why make everything with the same old bleached white flour? I always have my favorites, but I really enjoy variety occasionally going through phases where I explore different cuisines, unfamiliar veggies, almond milk instead of soy, etc.

I admit I'm still dumbfounded by my meat-eating friends who can't bear to eat a meal that didn't have meat in it. Their diets are often based around 3-5 varieties of meat, prepared in two or three different ways, with insignificant amounts of anything else. BORING!

Fingerlings!

2007-02-13T23:47:00.000-08:00

Fingerlings potatoes have been some of my favorites ever since I used to get them at my local farmers' market and roast them with some carrots and whatever else looked good. I used to walk or bike to the market, but alas that's not really possible where I live now. We got some organic "russian banana" fingerling potatoes in our last Planet Organics shipment and a bundle of herbs (mostly rosemary and time), so I smeared some olive oil on the potatoes, sprinkled on a bit of salt and pepper, put the herbs on top and roasted it all for 20 minutes at about 500 degrees.

The smoke detector went off! It must have been the high heat because it wasn't really smoking, that I could see.

Food as activism

2007-02-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Here's my inaugural post: this was previously posted to Livejournal and is cross-posted here to illustrate what's been on my mind lately.

The day after we came back from the holiday excursion to Tulsa, OK and Pittsburgh, PA, we stopped at Barefoot and William noticed a new book on their reading shelf, "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved". Having some time to kill, I picked it up and glanced at the first chapter. Then I settled down for a serious read. When we left, I insisted on going to Barnes and Noble to buy my own copy (note: I do not buy books, generally. I borrow, trade, and use up credit at Book Buyers, but I rarely BUY A BOOK). And I read it. Twice.

And now I have A CAUSE. But, it's a cause that does not divide into red states and blue states, or Bible Belt vs. Islam, or whatever else is out there to argue about. Who can argue with food? We all need it. We all prefer good food to bad food. Plus, in my humble experience, the best representatives of A CAUSE are those who simply do it, without talking about how great they are and how wrong the rest of us are. So. I hereby speak up for good food. Take it or leave it.

However, since even the Bush Administration has just grudgingly admitted that there may well be something to this global warming...'scuse me..."Climate Change"...claptrap, good food may not be available for much longer. I doubt that the American public at large will willingly give up all their comforts: cut down on driving and air travel, buy less plastic, eat less meat, use less lumber, waste less water, dump less chemicals, go without heat or A/C. Etc. Water is running out. Fossil fuels, which drive energy production, which support the vast commercial food conglomerates that convert corn into beef, are running out. Cropland is running out.

So, vat-grown food? Hydroponics? Soylent Green...? The possibilities are, presumably, endless. However, there is one thing that one person can do to take on The Man here: Grow your own food. So, since I will most likely be relocating to Oklahoma later this year, the home of my dad and his fishing buddy and their 1-acre vegetable garden just outside Tulsa, I'll be spending a lot of time there learning to grow my own organic produce. Because I don't want to be sitting around when I'm 65 or so telling the neighborhood kids about when I was their age, we had REAL food.

mysterious root veggie pt 2

2007-02-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

I think it's some sort of radish thing. I peeled it and took a bite, and while I was temporarily overcome with horror at that "you really don't want to eat this" radish smell, I actually ended up liking it. Like most vegetables, I would have totally dreaded this thing as a kid, but now I'm able to get over the unpleasant stinky first impression and appreciate it as a very different flavor from the norm. I suspect this would be interesting grated and mixed into a salad or used in a sandwich as one might use a pickle or onion. It was surprisingly spicey, in a way similar to raw garlic, but more intense.

Update: It was a Black Spanish Radish.