December 11th

 our Meyer lemon tree - last year's Christmas tree.

 Lizzy girl

Preserving Round-up 2013

 Bombay chile pickle

 cilantro chutney 2.0, fermented chile pickle (back row), roasted salsa, zhoug, Emeril hot sauces (front row)

 purty

fermented chile pickle

Cilantro Chutney 2.0

 Gooooood. I made a different recipe before. This is better. It's from My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichaporia King. It's supposed to also have a little fresh mint and cumin, but I didn't use them.

~3/4 c coconut cream (top of can of coconut milk) (she calls for fresh grated coconut)
1 bunch cilantro
3 green chilies
2 cloves garlic
1t salt
1/2 c lime juice
1/2 T palm sugar

blend.

keeps a couple of weeks in the fridge

40

I'm 40. Whatever. I cooked alot that day. We had a party a couple of days later. Sweet

 steel cut oats

 straining the turkey stock from the thanksgiving carcass

 yogurt + Oregon blackberry jam

 roasted salsa, batch #4 this year

 mac and cheese with cauliflower

 party. there are pics with other people but I decided to leave them out, privacy crap and all. really fun, though; and Sara made the pizzas so I was forced out of the kitchen and interacted with everyone ;) Sara also made carrot cake, my fave, and there were lots of lovely sides and drinks. good night!

 ginger beer + whiskey. good

Ojai interlude

 a little artsy-fartsy

Thanksgiving 2013

We stayed local. Beach was nice, I over cooked the turkey, but bagel stuffing was amazing, sweet potatoes from the garden were good, and Sara made apple pie and 2+ pumpkin pies. Bagel stuffing seemed like a fun/funny idea given the overlapping Hannukah/Thanksgiving thing, but it was superb and I think it should always be done! Only changes made were no carrots and doubled celery, and dried porcinis in the stock rather than fresh muchrooms.

 Sands beach, pre-food

 out of focus, but you get the idea. Sara is good at making pie from scratch.

 my plate

 lots of food, not alot of space

 finished apple pie

 damn auto-focus choosing the wrong subject, but I like the expression

 apple pie in apple bowl

 a la mode

Sara also made 2 full sized pumpkin pies and a couple of baby ones with extra custard and dough. Oh! This was fully from scratch, she baked a kabocha squash to get 'pumpkin' puree.

Bagel Stuffing (in case the link dies)
3/4 c onion
1/2 T garlic
1/3 c carrots
1/3 c celery
olive oil
2c mushrooms
rosemary
oregano
2 whole wheat bagels
3/4 c stock

saute first 4, then add mushrooms and herbs, then bagels and stock. let sit for at least 2 hours. reheat.

RIP Nelson Mandela

I lived in SA 1987-1989. I remember talking to the other kids in school about apartheid. Everyone agreed it was wrong, but they were worried that a switch to black rule would result in mass killing of whites (as had happened in Zimbabwe), so didn't know how/when apartheid could end. It amazed me that he was released from prison less than a year after we left. And not such a bad transition to full democracy given the history of SA...

two nice NPR remembrances of him. one, two

Patagonia Worn Wear

They've been doing nice things with encouraging people to buy less new stuff. I'm not sure how that works with them sending out catalogs once a month but whatever.... Here's a link to a nice little movie about some people and their old used Patagonia clothing.