Misc Food

 romanesco + mozz

 ok pizzas, red sauce/beet greens, greens/onions/anchovies

 indian potluck w/ team fun

 beet greens, collard greens

 veggie

 machaca de res (dried beef from Baja, it reconstitutes when you cook it with veggies)

Poppies, point and shoot

 Olympus 1030 SW, not a great camera but it's macro works well. Poppies in the garden, killing a little time waiting for the bikepaths to clear before biking in to school.

Misc Lizzy Girl

cat + radio = happy me

redwood 4x4 scratching post

Kaanji

Our friend Bharat was recently visiting back home in India and posted a pic of the Kaanji that his mom made. It looked interesting, so I have it a go. It's fermented carrots and beets; you drink the liquid and eat the pickled veg. Pics are day 1,2,3. It probably could have used an extra day but was still good.

I followed this recipe, but in case the link disappears here it is:

Kaanji
3 medium carrots
1 beet
1.5 T sea salt
2T ground mustard seeds
2t chile powder
2Q water


wash, chop veggies
put in jar, toss with salt, spices
pour in water
loose lid or coffee filter + rubber bands
put in sun for 3 to 4 days

Pasta Rolling Action Shots

 pasta rolling with team fun

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder

Garden Flowers, 29 Feb 2016

 almond

 crocosmia

 coastal poppy

 peach

what's a garden post without a pic of Lizzy?

Agave/Bees II

this time i set up nice compositions and hit the shutter when a bee flew in

 same basic composition/area on the plant, one vertical, one horizontal, not sure which i like more.

 digging the stamens

really fun abstract image, shallow depth of field just for the pollen

Agave/bees

An agave that has been outside of my place ever since I moved in is finally flowering and attracting some bees. Still trying to figure out how to shoot it, these are the most interesting so far. I think I like the sharp flower and moving bees look. I also like the shallow depth of field one. The quicker shutter is interesting, but I like the blur sometimes too. So many choices. D600, 85mm macro tilt shift, tripod.

Millet Fried "Rice"

I've finally started being social again after Sara moved to Santa Cruz for her postdoc. Had Steph and Erik over for vietnamese crepes last weekend, and Erin over for this this week. I was looking through recent cookbook acquisitions for an interesting vegetarian dish, Fried Millet, hmmm. I have alot of millet as it goes on sale pretty cheap. I throw it into soupy/stewy things in small amounts. But millet is weird, it always seems really dry. Anyway, Erin was game to try it. This is what I did

Inspired by Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson
Millet Fried "Rice"

1 c millet
3 c water
salt

a couple of good sized shallots (or 1 medium onion)
2 gloves garlic, sliced
3/4" piece of ginger, minced
1 carrot
couple stalks celery
couple peppers

couple handfulls of greens - collard, chard, arugula
2 small sweet potatoes
lb tofu

2T butter
2T toasted sesame oil
1T soy sauce

Bring water to boil with a little salt, add millet, cook covered 25 min.
Cut up sweet potatoes into half moon slices, put in a pot with a little water and cook 10 min covered so they steam.
1T butter, oil in a non stick, add diced tofu, cook 5 min or so. When done add to sweet potatoes, add some soy sauce, toss.
Put greens in same skillet, dry, cook covered 5 min or so, stir into sweet potatoes.
1T butter, oil in same skillet, onion/garlic/ginger, then carrot, then celery/peppers, cook 10 min or so. Stir in millet, add some soy sauce.

 The pic is of a leftovers dinner, with everything mixed together. When we ate it fresh we had a bed of millet with the tofu/sweet potatoes/ greens on top. Either way is good.

Nice radio story about kids gardening

this brightened my day

Garden, 9 Jan 2016

 asian pear

the power of a garden hose