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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

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

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Lizzy Girl

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

other Tacocat imagery from the web

Thursday, May 15, 2014

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.


Friday, May 9, 2014

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

Thursday, May 8, 2014

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.