Iceland Time Lapse

This is freaking sweet, watch it all the way to the end. On a sidenote, Frank from the garden has rigged up a Nikon such that it moves on a track and fires pics every however you want seconds, DIY-style. So while Goleta lacks northern lights maybe I'll link to his stuff some day.

Qupe / Au Bon Climat Open House

We're in the Qupe (Chumash for Poppy) wine club. One of the perks are the biannual open houses at the winery/vineyard that Qupe shares with Au Bon Climat. We went in the spring, but I didn't take a camera, this time I was prepared. Full album here. I had a great time with the camera, interesting shapes a plenty. Food was good, wine was good.

 silhouette

 rack focus action

 we had lunch in the vineyard

winery mascot, he covered alot of ground

Sam Elliott / Random Roles

could have been a little better considering he's in Roadhouse and Lebowski, but entirely respectable.

Home Decor

 Sara's dad made the mug rack. All pottery by Sara

 we got the vase at the Ventura County Potters Guild; shells and whatnot from Baja and SB

summer bounty. loon with baby NWC art in the back right

Roasted Salsa 2013

My second year making this. So damn good. We're doing 1.5x the proportions cause lime juice comes in a 1.5 cup bottle, so 12 lbs romas, 3 lbs of mixed peppers, etc, etc. Takes a while to roast everything when the batch is that big. Anchos, anaheims, jalapenos, hot orange chilies all from the garden. Pimientos from Givens Farm.

Update: I ended up making 5 batches of this. Canned alot, maybe 6 quarts? The later batches I used up some canned tomato puree from the pantry from last year's efforts.

 looks boring but so tasty

Red Sauce 2013

couple of pics. 5 gallon pot for halved tomatoes, other pot for boiling down juicy seeds.

Fermented Chile Pickle

Chilies in salt. Specifically 1/2 lb chilies in each jar mixed with 1T salt in each jar and a brine of 1T salt + 1 pint water in a ziploc bag in each jar. It goes for 3 weeks. Green jar = jalapeno, serrano, green cayenne, underripe orange chile (i forget). Red jar = pimiento, anaheim, cayenne, fresno, cherry bomb, orange.

purty-ish pimientos

final product

Recipe from the Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

ferment chilies for 3 weeks

1/4 c brown mustard seeds, ground

1" piece ginger, minced

1t turmeric

3T lime juice

2T mustard oil

drain chilies, mix in the rest. simple. pretty good.

keeps atleast a year in the fridge

Visit From Snoopy

 This dude showed up meowing one night and checked us out. About a month later I saw him with a collar on about 3 blocks from our place... Sara thought he looked like Snoopy with his color patterning. I thought he had a rat face; it takes all kinds.

Random Food Pics

 watermelon from Gathering Together Farm in Philomath, from the late summer Oregon trip. super good

 chinook salmon, stewed leeks, tabbouleh, tzatziki. colors not great but flavor was

 Sara's plate was nicer looking than mine

 barley, red rice, white rice mix. cooking barley and rice together is super good

 sushi action, jade pearl rice, tuna from Nikka market