Musings

Today’s highlight was taking a long lunch and going to the State Farmers’ Market, a 150-acre installation south of town that’s also touted as the “World’s Largest Roadside Fruit and Vegetable Stand,” an excursion we shared with our neighbors.

We first lunched at the Oakwood Café on the premises. Once sated, we commenced our wander. Most of the stands (actually bigger than stands, if you ask me) that were open seemed to be attended by Mexican-American entrepreneurs, and I had great fun chatting with them. Two (guys) told me that I spoke very good Spanish! The only reponse is to say, “¡Usted, también!“*

I even saw guaje pods, which Wiki-Pee says are Leucaena leucocephala, “a mimosoid tropical tree.” These are not commonly seen on this side of the border; some people say that the name Oaxaca is derived from guaje (say gwah-hay). What fun!

Upon our return, we became immersed in a small financial morass, making this and that payment and deciding with the CPA to apply for an “automatic” extension of time to file (as we often do). Bleh.

BTW, no rhubarb. And no vendors who really knew what it is, either….

Extra points if you’ve read H. Allen Smith’s humor novel Rhubarb, about an orange-red cat who owned a baseball club (if I remember correctly)….

* It means “you, too!,” if you didn’t guess….

Posted at 6:23 PM | 2 Comments »

I haven’t been paying attention. The herbs that I rescued last year from under The Tree mostly survived the winter in fine fettle. The sage is so nourished from the spring rains and recent warmth that it’s blooming—well, almost!

Title does not refer to me….

Posted at 7:43 PM | Comments Off on Budding sage

Nancy discussed gluten-free as a dietary maneuver, possibly unrelated to a “real” allergy, this morning. The NYTimes discussed the joys of eating goatmeat today.

Me, I tend to crave chocolate (say: cliche!). No gluten. No cabrito. To split the difference, our dinner menu: BBQ tofu. Made sorta like the version I posted.

Posted at 8:42 PM | Comments Off on Food confusion

Visited a working sheep farm today, and saw the new crop of lambs and some of the milking process. My conclusion about the shift to pastoralism (from gathering and hunting): you get to deal with a lot of crap.

Posted at 7:52 PM | 1 Comment »

The more I think about it, the more I think I’d better go back and get a sample of the one on the left: the post modern* classic pale ale (product of Scotland).

It just plain sounds interesting.

Regarding the one on the right, do you really want to drink a physic for fun? For a whole evening? It sure might make you a whole lot more than laid back!

BTW, speaking of sounds right, I realized today that if I had the barest smidgeon (and a bit more) of musical talent, I’d think about starting a band just so I could call it Uktena.

* Postmodernism is not one of my favorites….

Posted at 4:11 PM | 4 Comments »

I have never seen raisins (uvas secas in Spanish) sold on the vine. Why would you buy ’em this way? Do some people consider them “fresher” on the vine (haha, dried fruit fresh, haha)? Or cook with them on the vine? Sold in an international market….

Instead of giving you my thoughts, here’re links to some internet places I’ve been recently.

“New Think for Old Publishers“—about how participatory culture* and the online world interact with old-fashioned, traditional book publishing. So they say.

Data scraping methods and advice; this is a powerful data import feature Google offers. If you can find a use for it.

Open knowledge and CKAN—the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network. Hmm.

I think that’s enough….

* Or, the opposite of consumer culture, in which participants are also producers, and thus participate, instead of just consuming—so the Wikipedia says. Me, I think consumers must also produce and participate or they wouldn’t be consumers for long. But maybe I took a hypercritical cynic pill today by mistake.

Posted at 4:09 PM | Comments Off on New think(s)

You end up with these rings from taking the rounds of orange out. They’re essential to the punch of this dish….

I saw this recipe yesterday (from Mr. Bittman, in the NYTimes), and have made it two days in a row; it’s a raving success! Yummy. Of course, I make it with only a smidge of olive oil, compared to the recipe.

It’s simple; throw some pitted black olives into the food processor. Add a bunch of fresh thyme leaves. Pour in a couple of teaspoons (or more, depending on how many olives you used) of olive oil. Whirr for just a short bit. Serve over orange slices.

Bittman says he got the recipe from Marco Folicaldi, who says it’s an olive purée, not a tapenade (no anchovies).

Posted at 10:34 PM | 1 Comment »

There’re two major things wrong with this: 1) it’s February (and a lo-o-o-ng way from watermelon season); and 2) half the fun of eating watermelon is doing it as a group thing, including seed spitting contests!

Maybe other people looked at this display with similar thoughts—the piles of melons looked rather orphaned….

Posted at 8:01 PM | Comments Off on No seed spitting potential

Juice of three blood oranges cooking down; I later added about a half-teaspoon of sugar—it’s still pretty tart….

I never have made a sauce of blood orange juice before; I have eaten it maybe once, in a restaurant long ago.

I’m not sure why, on a night seven will be sitting down at the table (guests! company! and 82nd birthday celebration—not mine!), I decide to give it a try—maybe because I saw the oranges glowing quietly among the other citrus at the store, almost beckoning me with their rich, almost coppery colored skins?

Posted at 4:55 PM | 1 Comment »

Perfect way to sell Girl Scout cookies: grin like this!

Hmm. I went through approximately this stage during late summer, when the sweet corn was coming in, and darned if I was going to eat my corn any other way than off the cob. Made a heck of a mess, with the cob rubbing my cheek so I could get some purchase on the goodie, but I was happ-ee!

Posted at 9:42 PM | 1 Comment »