IV

random food pics

 collards 'n' leeks, potato salad; both from garden

 good beer in cans nowadays

 garden stuff: early nectarines, loquats, apricots, chard. not sure of the origin of the oranges

Lizzy Girl

 Lizzy Girl, the garden cat, as a youngster (from George Takei).

other Tacocat imagery from the web

RIP Al Feldstein

I didn't recognize the name, but Mad Magazine was a huge part of my childhood. RIP. Also, there are some more great covers here.

Some like it hot, some don't like the heat at all

95 in the shade, 11am... the 4th day of the epic SB heatwave of May 2014

Lizzy can't wait for it to end. Though the tongue thing is her modus operandi regardless of the weather.

Shaver Lake

Sara has a pre-doc post-doc gig for about a year, doing plant physiology stuff up by Shaver Lake in the Sierra. Long hot drive, but some snow up top. Not a whole lot of artsy fartsy imagery, but some. Here's a taste:

 fluorescent mustard, Wind Caves, Gaviota

 southern central valley desolation

 Site 1

 tower at Site 2

 CADE

 ABCO

 ARPA flowers

 fisheye + either the built in orange or red filter

 dogwood a little lower elevation than town

 sucking up some aquifer

 semi-classic

you have no idea how green this appeared to us after driving through the valley

Farro with Sardines and Tomatoes

 Flipping through cookbooks, trying to find ones to bury to make room for new ones, saw an interesting recipe using farro from Lidia's Italy. To some extent it was a farro risotto cause the farro was pretty starchy. Good stuff.

Farro al tonno e pomodoro (she used canned tuna, not sardines)
2c farro
4c seafood stock
2 bay leaves
salt
olive oil
garlic
chili flakes
28 oz can tomatoes
beet greens
2 cans sardines
fresh parsley

cook the farro in stock with salt and bay leaves (takes ~40 min)
saute garlic and chili, add tomatoes and beet greens, cook ~10 min, add sardines
add farro to tomato mix, stir in parsley

Baked Falafel

Got the idea from the world famous Chocolate & Zucchini blog. I made it twice and the first time I think I had my hopes raised too high - liked them, didn't love them. The 2nd time I made them for a potluck and the other people there assumed they were fried and really liked them. So the verdict is they are somewhere between good and great tasting, and they are a million times easier to do than fried ones - all the fry oil is annoying. Therefore, a winner.

General jist is soak chickpeas 24 hours, drain them, don't cook them, grind them in a food processor with things (I happened to use sorrel for the herb), bake 350 or so, I didn't flip them but the recipe calls for it. The recipe is in the link.

Leek Flower Stalks

I finally harvested all of my old leeks in the garden to make way for new starts, but also because they sent up flower stalks - though I pulled them before the flowers opened. Being a non-food waster I tasted said flower stalks and really liked them. Good onion flavor raw. I've been slicing the stalks up thinly, then cooking them with garlic, chili, then covering with a ton of collards and letting it all steam. Really good.