Thanksgiving in the Mojave Preserve - Olympus 1030sw

 the Bee attacking the tiny chickens

 before and after on the pumpkin pie (about 5 min apart....)

 mornin' sunshine

 granite mountains

Quail Springs area, i think the rock on the right looks like one of those Easter Island heads

 leftovers for lunch, mashed sweet potatoes, massaged kale

Moon over Granites

juniper

Sara is better at smiling than I am...

Couple of thanksgiving food pics

 massaged Chidori kale salad

two crust apple pie

Bran Muffins

 Sara has been on a bran muffin kick lately

Cambria 1

We went up to Cambria to avoid the IV Halloween noise. Fun little area. Full album is here.

this wave looked fun, wished I had brought a board and wetsuit

 There was a ridiculous scarecrow festival where all around town different businesses had scarecrow-like or -unlike mannequins out front. The Bike shop had some moving ones if I remember correctly.

cambria 2

Cambria 2

I had fun with this photo series.We camped at the upper campground at San Simeon State Beach and drove down to the beach the 2nd night. Was using a 75-300 lens on the D200, I actually used an autofocus + zoom lens. Crazy.

Root Vegetable Miso Soup

Super Good. I harvested my sweet potatoes this past weekend and am curing the larger ones but using the smaller tubers, mostly in soup. We've made root vegetable miso soup twice, including serving it at a dinner party. It's great. Basically it's just simmered veggies with onion, garlic, ginger. Was particularly good when onion stock was the simmering liquid. To serve it you put a little miso and stock in a bowl, dissolve it/make a paste, then add more soup.

orange & yellow carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, hamburg parsley root

Random Food Pics

 zuke pickle on a buffalo burger

 potato salad with tomatillos (not a great experiment) and fish from TJs (never again unless it's hidden in a curry) with tomato pepper sauce

 garlic shrimp with rice & beans & avo

 pasta with red sauce, wilted kale, and fresh mozz medalions

 bok choy, later grilled on a grill pan by Traves

roasted grapes, neufchatel, bread grilled on a grill pan by Keely

Tomato Pepper Sauce

We are quite enjoying the tomato pepper sauce from Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich.

1lb peppers (mix of hot and sweet)
3 1/2 c vinegar
4 1/2 lbs tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
2t salt

bring to a boil and simmer till reduced by half. pass through a food mill. I have it in the fridge but you could can it.

Chumash Rock Art Movie

very cool

Melon Jam 2012

In some ways it's wrong to make jam from melons, they are so epic fresh. But melon jam, atleast the way I make is damn good. It gets very caramel-y. The batch I made this year I did 83 oz fruit (weight off of the rind), some lemon juice, and 42 oz sugar. I do it the way I do all of my jams, macerating the fruit for a day with the sugar, heating, letting it sit, heating, and so forth. Usually it takes me 4-5 days to finish a batch. Last year's post was equally short/boring/unillustrated, looks like I used a little more sugar last year.

Gazpacho

This recipe is WAY too late for this year. C'est la vie. It's from Claudia Roden's the Food of Spain. It doesn't call for cucumber in the soup, which is unusual.

1 thick slice white bread, crusts removed (we skipped this, actually)
2 1/4 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (hmmm, that's about a kilo)
1 red or green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 4 pieces (we used a fresh pimiento)
2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or wine vinegar, or more to taste
6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. sugar, or more to taste

blender. chill for an hour. divine. easy. fantastic w/ goat cheese

Canned Tomato Puree

nothing special, cooked down, but not way down. i think 1t citric acid/jar. water bath canner for 45 min