Live Green, Wear Black.

Dried Tomato Disappointment

2011-11-30T12:44:00.001-08:00

Looking for tea today, I moved my quart jar of dried Principe Borghese tomatoes - 8 lbs fresh. Full of little worms covered in webbing (not moving around). *sigh* It only cost $5.60 for the tomatoes, but it took me a while to pick them and then wash, dry, slice and dehydrate them... I guess it's good I didn't eat them. Was it one bad tomato? Were there several? I'll never know. I wonder if I should have frozen the dried tomatoes after they cooled off (just put the whole jar in the freezer, right?)

REPOST: Backyard Crop & Preserves Swap

2011-11-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

Backyard Crop and Preserved Food Swap
THIS SATURDAY
11-2 pm @ North Oakland Farmers' Market
5715 Market St, Oaklandco-sponsored by EBCA Swappers and Victory Garden Foundation

This is a special Fall Harvest edition of our monthly Backyard Crop Swaps!

Bring all your excesses from your fall harvest and swap them with your neighbors.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs, honey, etc. Anything you grow or raise yourself is fair game & totally swappable.

This time we will also have "put up" items for swap as well. Bring a few jars of that jam you just made. How about pickles or pasta sauce? Turn your mass amounts of one thing in to a bunch of different things.

Don't forget to tell your friends, family, & neighbors!

Ground Cherries!

2011-11-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

I ended up with about a gallon of ground cherries - cooked them down and finished making the jelly. I had the same issue as last year - it doesn't seem to want to set very well, but finally set with a very soft jell - just perfect for eating out of the jar!

Ground Cherry Jelly
12 - 8 oz jars

Pears!

2011-10-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

In the first week of October, a friend forwarded an e-mail to me with a photo attached of a pear tree about to break under its own weight. I made arrangements and arrived at the warehouse space near Jack London Square to investigate - the pears were different from other pears I have seen - dark brown on the outside, like a sunburn that scratches off, to a light green underneath. The pears were hard and either under-ripe or just not dessert pears - but there were a lot of them so I set to work harvesting.

I poached two dozen of them the next day, and set rest out on trays in single layers to ripen - and a week later, still not ripe, I did some research and found an interesting article on Kieffer Pears.

I think that the tree is possibly a Kieffer Pear - not so great for eating raw, but excellent for canning. The pears are usually ripe in October, just as hard as they were back in July, and the trees often grow so tall that most people can't pick all the fruit easily.

However - the pears lack the sort of rusty stipple - but look more like Passe Crassane in the picture here: http://www.frenchgardening.com/tech.html?pid=1139483932219159

An interesting tip I picked up from these articles is that you should not store any of the pears too close to tomatoes or other fruit while you're letting them ripen - the esters will cause the softer fruits to speed up too much and get moldy (I realized this with some tomatoes that were on the table with the pears!).

After about three weeks of ripening indoors - some of the pears turned into little squishy spore bombs, so I decided it was time. I decided to do a batch of canned pears in light syrup with vanilla and a batch of pickled pears (apple cider vinegar & spices). I still have 3 trays of pears with blemishes and am going to make some pear chutney - and then maybe I'll try my hand at chow-chow since I have some green tomatoes!

Canned Pears

4 quarts & 1 pint canned pears, plain
8 qts & 3 pints canned pears, with vanilla
1 qt & 9 pints pickled pears

Goodbye, Garden!

2011-10-04T19:07:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, garden! We just didn't get warm enough and you were not the most disappointing garden - last year was pretty bad. At least I got a few more tomatoes than last year but I can't believe that even the zucchini weren't even half as productive compared to last year.

Time to dump Kassenhoff and get on the ball with starting my own tomatoes in January since their tomato plants never seem to thrive or produce.

After it's done raining, I'm pulling up the sorrel and useless feral arugula (with teeny leaves) and planting some cauliflower, broccoli, mustard, radishes, daikon and stuff... probably too late to sow seeds directly into the ground with this early rain.

Fall Tomatoes

2011-10-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

After spending 4 hours at Mariquita's farms in Gilroy, exhausted from picking 160 lbs of tomatoes - I wasn't sure I'd have energy for much else. It took nearly a full week for me to process two big batches of marinara and one big batch of pottsville relish!

The part that seems to take the most time is the same regardless of equipment - the foodmill. I use the food mill attachment on my Kitchen Aid, but I am pretty sure it took a lot longer using a chinois. I have to stop and take it apart to get all the skins out - but the chinois was a lot more physical labor.

Since I often cook red wine into my pasta sauce, I decided to put it in the sauce while I was cooking it down. I made sure to add lemon juice to each quart this year and processed everything nice and hot for a good 45 minutes.

Tomato sauce

27 qts

Pottsville relish

~2 gallons (forgot to count jars!)

Tomato juice

4 qts, frozen

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 16 - Round-up

2011-09-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

Week 1 (2500 mi):

1. August 19 - Oakland to SLC
2. August 20 - SLC to Sidney NE

City Cakes & Cafe (http://www.citycakescafe.com)
Anong's Thai Cuisine in Rawlins (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=3756428376724009430)
A&G Surplus, Rawlins
Cabela's

3. August 21 - Sidney NE to Des Moines IA

Wave Pizza, Grand Island, NE http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pizza+grand+island+Nebraska&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pizza&hnear=0x87998644ec7765f7:0xa12d5b784951b17b,Grand+Island,+NE&cid=9953004828580824796
more bad pizza in IA (cute hotel tho)

4. August 22 - Des Moines IA to Mentor OH

Sullivan's Grocery, Dixon IL

5. August 23-24 - Mentor OH

Tommy's on Coventry (http://www.tommyscoventry.com/)
Ferrara's, Mayfield Heights OH
Thai Orchid, Mentor (http://www.thaiorchidmentor.com/)
High Thai'd Restaurant, Cleveland Hts (http://www.highthai.com/)

Week 2 (1694 mi):
1. August 25 - Mentor OH to Toledo OH (149 mi)

Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/midwest/ottawa/)

2. August 26 - Toledo OH to Elgin IL (325 mi)

Indiana Dunes
Karyn's on Green (http://www.karynsongreen.com/)
Burnridge Forest, Elgin IL (http://kaneforest.com/ForestPreserveView.aspx?ID=11)

3. August 27 - Elgin IL to Briggs Forest, Iowa (329 mi)

Landmark Family Restaurant
Cedar Rock (http://www.stateparks.com/cedar_rock.html)
Roots Market (http://www.rootsmarket.net/)
Briggs Woods Campground, Independence Iowa (http://www.briggswoods.com/)

4. August 28 - Independence IA to O'Neill NE (275 mi)

Barn Quilts http://develop.hamiltoncountyiowa.com/html/barn_quilts.html and http://www.barnquilts.com/
Elms Motel, O'Neill NE (two thumbs up!)

5. August 29 - O'Neill NE to Manderson SD (250 mi)

Wounded Knee Monument

6. August 30 - Manderson SD to Custer SP (226 mi)

Earth Goods (http://earthgoodsnaturalfoods.com/)
Custer SP and Wildlife Loop (http://gfp.sd.gov/state-parks/directory/custer/default.aspx)
Blue Bell Campground, Custer SP
Dakotamart, Custer SD

7. August 31 - Custer SP to Rapid City (140 mi)

Mt Rushmore
Cabela's
Crazy Horse Monument (http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/)

Week 3 (1326 mi):
8. Sept 1 - Custer SP to Buffalo WY (300 mi)

Custer Post Office
Wyoming Welcome Center on 90/14
Aladdin General Store
Devil's Tower National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm)
Blue Gables, Buffalo WY (http://www.bluegables.com/)

9. Sept 2 - Buffalo WY to Old Faithful (326 mi)

Big Horn Powersports (http://www.bighornpowersports.com/), Sheridan WY
Mountain High Natural Grocery, Cody WY (http://www.yelp.com/biz/mountain-high-health-foods-cody)
Old Faithful Snow Lodge (http://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/old-faithful-snow-lodge-cabins-131.html)
Old Faithful, Yellowstone

10. Sept 3 - Old Faithful to Mammothsite (55 mi)

Old Faithful, Yellowstone
Yellowstone Geothermal features
Mammothsite

11. Sept 4 - Mammothsite to Jackson (175 mi)

Canyon
Yellowstone egress by Tetons
Lotus Cafe (http://tetonlotuscafe.com), Jackson WY

12. Sept 5 (320 mi)

Breakfast in Jackson @Lotus Cafe
Gas in Idaho Falls, meet up with KTM of Aspen group (http://rmrwinc.com/pages/home.html)
Craters of the Moon (http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm)
Galena Summit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena_Summit)/Sawtooth Range (no camera batteries!)
Sawtooth-Idaho Scenic Byway (http://www.idahobyways.gov/byways/sawtooth.aspx)
Stanley (http://www.stanleycc.org/)
Casino Campground/hot spring

13. Sept 6

Soak in hot spring (http://www.stanleycc.org/do/hot-springs/)
Back Eddy, Stanley ID (http://www.backeddysmarket.com/)
McCoy's Tackle & Gift Shop (http://www.mccoystackleshop.com/)
Papa Brunee's Pizza place, Stanley (the BEST well water I have ever tasted! I filled up my Camelback before leaving town!)
Laundry, Stanley
Riverwear (http://www.riverwear.com/) for cool stickers!

14. Sept 7 (150 mi)

Kirkham Hot Spring (http://www.idahohotsprings.com/destinations/kirkham/)
Big Twin Power Sports, Boise (http://www.bigtwincycles.com/)
Shangri La Tea House & Cafe, Boise (http://www.shangri-latearoomandcafe.com/)

Week 4 (950 mi):
15. Sept 8 (275 mi)

Shangri La Tea House & Cafe
Willowcreek Cafe, Vale (http://www.facebook.com/WillowcreekStoreCafe)
El Dorado Ditch Co Restaurant, Unity (http://www.yelp.com/biz/eldorado-ditch-co-restaurant-unity)
Quilts & Beyond, Prairie City
John Day Quilt Show
Rory & Ryan - Burns, OR (http://www.burnsorhotel.com/)

16. Sept 9

Harney County Fair (http://www.co.harney.or.us/countyfair.html)

17. Sept 10 (325 mi)

BLM Wild Horse Corrals (http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/burns/wildhorse/corral.php)
Manzanita Lake Cottages, Lassen National Volcanic Park (http://www.lassenrecreation.com/where_to_stay/index.php)

18. Sept 11 (350 mi)

Sierra Hot Springs (http://www.sierrahotsprings.org/)

###

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 15 - Packing

2011-09-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

I just don't know how to successfully pack for multi-week, multi climate trips - I ended up sending home the sleep sack that I bought and buying a warmer sleep sack - and then even ended up sleeping indoors more than expected because I brought a bivy instead of a tent.

Packed up and leaving Ohio (2011-08-25)

Just a day out from Cleveland in Indiana (2011-08-26) - note: I'm actually wearing my Camelback, but discovered that it actually tired out my shoulders wearing it all the time over my jacket.

This is what it looked like in Wyoming (2011--09-01):

Wearing my new hi-vis jacket, above Prairie OR (2011-09-08):

This is just before getting home, in Lassen (2011-09-11):

On my way from California to Ohio, I realized that just trying to put the big stuff sacks on the back was not going to work - I wanted a waterproof duffel so that I wouldn't have to worry about stuffing things into smaller sacks. I attached it with a 6' motorcycle tiedown (double duty - in case I needed it for actually tying down the motorcycle) and a bungee through the handle on each side to the luggage rack.

I wasn't clever enough to take pictures of the contents - I am very impressed with the level of organization in some of these postings!

Basically it was like this:

Tank bag:

bandanas x2
headlamp
maps
phone
gps
Solio charger
glasses/cases (I wear separate Rx glasses & sunglasses)
sunblock (which I never used)
hairbrush

Jacket pockets:

phone
camera
wallet
lip balm, antacid, bandana, tissues

Camelback backpack:

1.5 L water bladder
a couple paperback books
charger cables for phone & camera
extra layer (or stuff in the jacket liner)

Cabela's waterproof duffel:

North Face Bivy
Sleeping bag
very small hammock
big agnes sleep pad
Keen sandals inside (cheapie flip flops clipped to the outside)
Clothing - probably took more than I should have but I didn't want to be doing laundry every two days!

Jandd cordura mountain bike panniers:

toiletries
towel
swimsuit
rain pants
pack covers (for panniers & duffel - orange for visibility)
food - lots of udon noodles & cubes of veggie stock, tea, miso, couscous, gravy packets, dried veggies, Bumble Bars
spicewheel (from http://www.ratpak.com/)
teeny stove & isopro fuel
nesting pair of pans, bowl, insulated stainless steel cup
Alite Monarch butterfly folding chair
tool kit
extra tube

I ended up making about 4 boxes back home to ship back tie downs, trinkets, gifts, broken glasses, sleeping bag, clothing & books I finished.

Next time - I'm just bringing the regular tent, not the bivy - unless it is >60 degrees at night, I just get too cold sleeping outdoors in a hammock or bivy. The bivy was fine in Illinois but in Iowa with storms coming in - it got too cold and I was up putting on all my layers at 2:30am.

That is - for a real camping trip. I think I might just take Custer SP Blue Bell Campground host Vern's suggestion and look at overnights at state parks and KOAs with cheap cabins for the next multi week road trip - there's so much less overhead in unpacking, setting up, breaking down and packing for a longer trip that it seems like it would be more fun (and lighter) that way.

Next time, I'll actually wear my sunblock on my face - or get some sort of UV block for my visor - I ended up with some solar radiation damage on my face between the bottom of my sunglasses where there is a gap above the bottom of the face opening.

I'll also make sure I have actual waterproofing on my coat!

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 14 - Lassen

2011-09-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday (9/11) morning, I awoke and realized that I had a lot more miles to put on to get home. I had a quick breakfast of tea and a now rancid Bumble bar (blech!) then headed off on Hwy 89 through Lassen. Amazing, gorgeous views but damned cameras die again!

September is alpine spring in Lassen!

The roads were gorgeous, amazing and fun - and there were not really any other cars on them!

There was still quite a lot of snow up there:

Can you see how clear that lake is?

There's a name for this rock - it's leftover from a glacier or something:

Second to last picture before my camera died on me:

The rest of the drive down Hwy 89 was just stupendous - it's absolutely beautiful there. I did see a lot more highway patrol and sheriff cars than at any other place or time on my trip, so I was very careful not to enjoy the road too much.

I arrived at Sierra Hot Springs for a soak - I was disappointed that the cafe was closed as I was counting on it for lunch. Overall, the pools did not impress me much either - the main pool was quite dirty. Some guests said that a load of folks from Burningman had been hanging out there all night (eww! nobody cleans the pool after large groups?) but that doesn't result in a heavy scummy layer of ick at the waterline and hairballs at the bottom. The sandy bottom of the hot pool was novel but also full of hair. I took a nice hot shower and got back on the bike, pinning it all the way down 80 til I got hit with a small rain squall and could not see. I powered through 200 miles, stopping once for gas, and got home to see my kitties, make dinner, sleep in my own bed!

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 13 - Wild Horses & Hwy 395 South to California

2011-09-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday (9/10) morning, I found myself almost instantly at the BLM Wild Horse pens -- I had to find a turnout and make a u-turn to go back! The gate was open but the place appeared abandoned, except for hundreds of gorgeous horses in different pens.

The first pen seemed to have the wildest bunch of horses - I suppose they get more exposure to people, cars and the rare motorcycle that way.

It was amazing to watch this first group of horses move around as a herd - it was like watching starlings or other birds moving around in big clouds. The horses shifted back and forth, quivered, waited anxiously - wondering whether something was going to happen, prepared to dart off, despite their confinement.

It seemed like the babies all looked like the mommas!

Other pens had slightly less jittery horses, some were getting to be downright friendly and came up to the fence to see if I had brought them any treats.

One of the hands at the ranch told me that there was a special type of horse that was going to be auctioned off - but the rest could be had for $125 if you had a trailer and a place to keep a horse!

Heading south on 395, the terrain changes to high desert with wide open, subtle landscapes and gorgeous skies. I guess a lot of people don't find it attractive but I quite enjoyed it and would not ever think of calling it ugly. Just when I was getting into a groove - along comes a really big lake - just one of those areas that photos don't do justice.

I stopped for gas in Lakeview - where the two teenagers on duty were very attentive, admired my Zombie hunting permit on my windscreen and sighed loudly that they were envious of my trip. Just past the shut-down downtown, I found a little Sunday lunch at a cafe with a great big motorcycle parked there. It was all pretty blue and chrome -- and the driver was just as shiny, so I sat at the counter and struck up conversation. Turns out Jason is from the East Bay but heading north!

Admire Jason's pretty motorcycle here:

After eating my iceberg lettuce, toast and ...yeah, that's pretty much all they had that was vegan at this stop - I continued south, heading for Lassen. I was out of camp stove fuel, so I thought I'd be clever and try to find some on the way down - stopping several times at places that promised outdoors/outfitter/camping/fishing supplies. I was a bit concerned about being able to have dinner or breakfast since I didn't see a restaurant in Lassen.

I arrived at Manzanita Lake just in time to get a walk-in cabin, buy isopro fuel, beer and a few vegetables before they closed the store at 5 or 6 or whatever it was. I got a cute little cabin, unloaded my gear, set up my hammock on the porch and proceeded to enjoy a cold beer, chocolate and my book for an hour or so before exploring the campground and the little chilly lake.

I had a hot shower, then returned to my cabin to make dinner (more udon noodles with curry and veg), drink beer and hang out with my neighbors at their fire, tell ghost stories to their children and acquire the brightest green laser pointer ever from the camp host.

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 12 - Rodeo & County Fair

2011-09-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

Friday (9/9), after making my intentions to stay another night official to the management, I made breakfast and then spent a couple luxurious hours reading in the hot tub all by myself. The only other occupant in the pool house was a moth that I rescued from the pool - and who disappeared after his wings dried off. It was very relaxing.

Finally, I got dressed and headed to the fair - taking little other than my camera, wallet and recommendation to try the special donut holes made by the local Lyons club - you got it - "Lyon's balls."

First, I checked out the exhibits - there was a lot of random crap there, I have to say. While there were some good photos - there were SO MANY photos - and just about everyone got a ribbon. There were crafts but there was also a huge amount of ephemera - like a pair of mason jars purporting to date to 1916 - with a blue ribbon for first place, and old books dating back to 1910 -- seriously? I am looking into this for local county fairs so I can get some ribbons for random antique or odd items.

There were some quilts - but they were all one one rack and not displayed very well:

There were also plenty of hand-sewn items - some rather odd entries but I'll leave it to your imagination.

The produce was more interesting and fun - though you can probably only look at about 12 giant zucchini before you wonder how pithy they are inside and whether they are worth eating. I think the giant cabbages were probably excellent though.

The preserves were very interesting and lots of fun to see the patterns and types of things folks made. Not a single entry for ground cherry jelly!

Someone made zucchini pickles like I do!

This area had a high number of anti-abortion billboards, and this was only one of a couple anti-abortion displays in the exhibition halls:

Finally, I went to the grandstand where they started some of the rodeo contests for roping and barrel racing - the little kids on horses were so much fun! I had a couple beers and made conversation with some local folks. Someone recommended that I check out the BLM wild horse pens just past town on my way out. There were a LOT of Clarks participating in the day's events!

The guys had a hard time catching this horse:

The race started, and the horses hadn't even gone all the way around when one horse got pushed by another into a wall, threw his rider, then freaked out and caught his leg on the fence - apparently breaking his leg all the way through. The rider did not get up and was carted off in an ambulance, the horse was sedated and taken away in a trailer, probably to his doom. It was at that point that I decided it was time to take a break and head back to make dinner and watch things not involving death and hospitalization.

The evening rodeo performance was mostly steer roping and steer riding - it was very amusing and I kept rooting for the steers! Again - lots of Clarks present. I made friends with a 3 and 4 year old who were sitting behind me and utterly fascinated with my yellow high vis jacket. I shared some of my pictures with them and they were so cute that when the rodeo ended - I said it was nice to meet them and you know what they said? "Thank you for showing us your pictures!" Mom had not even coached them - I can't even get a prompt thank you for a gift from certain younger relatives - and here these little gentlemen were thanking me for showing them pictures of groundhogs and burros!

I have firmly decided that cowboy hats only look good on cowboys under the age of 11 or so.

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 11 - Eastern Oregon

2011-09-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday (9/8) morning, stomach still bothering me, I packed up and headed out. On my way to the motorcycle, I spied a preying mantis on the ground - looking like he was having a pretty hard morning:

For breakfast, I headed back to Shangri La and took up the loveseat, enjoyed a nice tofu scramble and ordered a falafel sandwich to go for lunch later. I also found myself powerless to resist the charms of a certain necklace in the jewelry case (made by the owner's husband!). Next stop was at Co-Op in Boise for antacids, drinks & snacks. This was probably one of the best grocery stores I have been to on this trip - it was full of high quality products and piles of local produce (including golden chanterelles from Eastern Oregon!). At a red light, another motorcyclist waves at me and comes up to introduce himself as a fellow ADV Rider who had seen my request for recommendations for motorcycles with tires in stock.

As I head out of Boise, I am sad to note that one of the freeway overcrossings has a big sign for "Black Cat Road" - but there aren't any nearby offramps and I don't want to do a 15 mile detour to get a picture of the sign. The terrain becomes more agricultural and I can smell spinach and onions at the same time, like a big Greek salad!

My plan for the next several days is to stop before I think I need to - and hydrate more. My stomach is still a bit off - so I stop at a store that promises alcohol, tobacco, firearms, pawn and cold drinks for a rest stop.

After that, I go from nice rolling farm land onto Hwy 26 where the farmland is flat and hot. Lots of big big ag completely lacking places to stop to eat my sandwich. Finally, I stop at Willow Creek Cafe in Vale, OR where I get permission to eat my sandwich, order tea and find myself regaled with macabre tales of true crime and dumbassery in a charming cafe where the walls are covered with these amazing Log Cabin quilts that have rounded edges and curves (with Log Cabin?) made by Bev, the owner.

Once the tales of true crime (some dentist killed his wife by strangling her with a piano wire or something) are exhausted, talk turns to travel and "what are you doing on that motorcycle?" The farmer and his daughter (who appears to be about my age) talk about her brief time in Portland - which he thought was quite dangerous, and then he proceeds to tell me about his trip to Oakland with a load of onions, casually dropping in the word "Negroes" (which he pronounces as "NIG-rows"). We discuss my route and the three of them agree that there is absolutely nothing redeeming to see on my route - it's just not nice - and I'd be better off taking the shorter route.

After warning me how dangerous it is in eastern Oregon and that there are bad people who might cause me harm, the other two guests leave. Now that I have her to myself, I get Bev to lead me on a grand tour of her quilts, she graciously answers my questions and gives me her two instruction books so I can learn to make such awesome quilts myself!

At a stop for gas a few miles away, an old farmer in a cowboy hat exits the store as I am removing my helmet, and looks quite astonished, remarking "Why a lady motor-sickle rider!"

I've rather run out of responses - since he's right on both counts and his lack of exposure to women on motorcycles is pretty funny since I don't think he'd react like that to a woman on some big ag combine or something.

Hwy 26 features more buttes, rolling hills, antelope and antelope. It's actually quite pretty and nice, with lots of variation along the long straightaways. There's no traffic and I'm still not seeing any law enforcement - wishing I had a street bike to go ZOOM!

My next stop is at the El Dorado Restaurant in Unity where I drink iced tea and chat with owner, Kathy. After hearing my story about the quilts at Willow Creek, she suggests that I visit a quilt shop in Prarie City owned by her friends. I pop into the local post office to mail home my new quilt books - afraid they'll get wet by the dark clouds ahead and not willing to unpack the entire duffel - and notice a bunch of cute kitties across the street! Then, I get introductions by a woman named Memory to all her cute kitties.

Simba - king of the orange kittens!

Uggers

Kitties put on a show for me!

Hiding!

Baby Blue Eyes (all the cuter being crossed!)

Momma's got TWO extra toes!

Babies at play

Leaving Unity:

I have to confess that I thought the folks at Willow Creek Cafe were just having one over on me - I continued to see gorgeous scenery going into Prairie City and was glad that I pointed my wheels toward a place on the map with the words "forest" and "Malheur" - bringing to my mind the image of some forested mountains, desolate and beautiful - and so far, not disappointing. Even before I got to Unity, the skies were pink from the sun going through the haze of smoke blowing over from Central Oregon forest fires is making the sky pink - and there were also giant piles of clouds that look to threaten rain never produce anything on my route.

Just above Prairie City, I stopped to admire the views and a giant Conestoga Wagon.

My new jacket sure stands out in this weather!

Prairie City was as quaint as can be and I found my way to the quilt shop just in time to meet Viola who lead me to the John Day fairgrounds to get a sneak preview of the quilt show and buy a quilt kit so I can make gorgeous stars like those in this quilt:

I won't overwhelm with too many quilt photos - you can see them all here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennconspiracy/sets/72157627555096609/

I think this was my favorite one:

After many warnings about deer, I left the kind folks at the John Day County Fair Grounds, bought gas at Clark & Canyon City Blvd and got on my way.

Going through the Malheur Forest was gorgeous -- just all amazing - forests, prairie, mountains buttes -- I was just bummed that it was already getting dark. I did not see a single deer.

When I arrived in Burns, I soon discovered that the first few hotels were sold out! Apparently, this is because of the county fair and rodeo. I end up at Rory & Ryan's based on a a review by Super Suz and got a discount on the efficiency apartment unit with a kitchen. As soon as the pretty concierge informed me that both her brothers were going to be at the Friday night rodeo - I decided to stick around. I'd never been to a rodeo before!

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 10 - Idaho, Ho!

2011-09-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Monday (9/5) - after packing up, I headed to breakfast at Lotus Cafe and ordered for vegan reuben sandwich to go - when I was nearly done with my breakfast, I reminded the server about the rueben and got it packed up and put it on my pack.

I had fun drive over the pass - it's quite pretty and quite a quick little ride with nice broad sweepers and plenty of places to pass the slow moving Harleys. My first stop was in Idaho Falls for fuel where I met with a whole bunch of guys with KTMs on trailers and in the backs of trucks. They were not part of some special KTM event, but they were all from KTM of Aspen and also going to Stanley to camp.

The guys introduced themselves as Tino, Spencer, Mike, Dave & Joe. Tino & Spencer told me about their chosen campground and invited me to camp with them. I took them up on their offer and went into the grocery store to get some beer and other stuff to throw into Tino's cooler. We compared routes - they were planning to stay onward when I veered left at Arco to go find Craters of the Moon.

The terrain changed from rolling agricultural land with antelopes to flat desert/prairie plains as I approached "Atomic City." There were some big buttes in the middle of nowhere - and big dark clouds to my left but no rain, more windiness but it was tolerable. I got to Arco and found a little picnic bench on the side of the main road for my lunch. Sadly, I opened it up and discovered that Lotus Cafe had packed up a pastrami rather than the requested vegan rueben (grr), so handed it off to Tino for his cooler when they caught up with me.

I waved off the KTM of Aspen guys on as they head to Stanley the more direct route, and I had a chat with an Canadian ADVRider member who was doing Continental Divide (or returning home from it) - but totally am blanking on his name.

Finally, I head off to Craters of the Moon and notice that I seem to be going right into the dark storm clouds approaching me on the road. The wind really picks up and almost sweeps me off the road! This was the first time that I considered actually turning around to try to outrun the wind or a storm - I had to plant both feet on the ground and was short of anything that would look like a wind break. Then I crept along and realized that Craters of the Moon park was actually 20 feet away just past the tiny rise - so I proceeded.

As I was pulling out my maps in the parking lot, a woman and her family came up to tell me how worried they were - they were behind me and said that the last gust of wind was really scary from where they were, they were certain I was going to end up with the rubber side up. Her teenage son forgot this concern when he saw me take off my helmet and said "You're a WOMAN??" and continued to exercise his foot/mouth prerogative with various pronouncements about the badassery of being on a motorcycle and traveling "like that" and the conditions.

Needless to say - the weather conditions did not make for exciting photography, and both camera batteries died, but I did get some nice photos.

Lava fields for as far as the eye can see - looks like broken chocolate (not chocolate you dropped on the floor, but chocolate you were heating up and which had too much water in it and gets all weird and lumpy). This photo was not shot in black and white!

Nice clouds, eh?

Finally, I leave the park and head up to Stanley - via a whole bunch of dumb little towns and low speed limits - get over the Galena pass to Sawtooth Wilderness - ridiculously beautiful!

This is where I am really seriously disappointed - my batteries all died and there wasn't enough sun for my little Solio charger. I have NO photos. This area approaching and on the other side of the Galena Summit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena_Summit) was so amazingly beautiful - I just found myself smiling like a loon, laughing and giggling at the incredible, overwhelming gorgeousness of it all.

Passing through Stanley, I knew I was close and easily found Casino Campground where I was to meet up with Tino & his camp mates. Tino was still at the camp to show me the way - and I realized that I had passed the whole group at the hot spring on the side of the road on my way in. We went for a soak in the hot spring by the river, then returned to camp to make our dinners, stoke a roaring big fire, drink beer and have a raucous good time.

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Tuesday (9/6) morning couldn't arrive any sooner - my new sleeping bag was not enough for sleeping outdoors without a tent or additional blankets and I was ready for a return to the hot spring!

With all the beer dranking the previous night, Tino and Joe were a bit hung over. Since Mike was working on Dave's bike, four of us head to the hot spring and hang out for a lot longer than we intended, laughing at Joe's plumber stories.

Though I would really want to join them on the trails - everyone agreed that my rear tire did not look robust enough to go off road. With the extra weight of my gear PLUS my fat ass, it was wearing smooth. I think the rough grading going up Galena Summit and some of the roads in Wyoming helped - in addition to riding long periods of time heating up the tires.

So, when we return, the guys have to get into gear to catch up with Mike & Dave - my plans were to I hang at camp, soak in hot springs and relax while they go off to enjoy the trails. I head into Stanley for laundry, charge up my devices and find lunch at the pizza joint next door. Stanley has the most awesome views of the mountains - huge wide dirt streets where folks kick up their heels at weekly dances with live music in the summers.

While I waited for my machines, I checked out local shops. At "Back Eddy," I had a nice chat with Noelle, picked up a pretty silver chain with turquoise pendant and a recommendation for Kirkham Hot Springs.

On my way back to camp, I picked up ice for coolers, soft drinks and cool Sawtooth Recreational Area stickers for everyone. I saw more dark clouds and returned to camp in time to grab everyone's open duffel bags of clothes, bedding and other camp gear to put under cover as a storm passes over. Just as I got Tino's EZ-Up canopy assembled and was opening my bottle of wine, Mike returns towing Dave -- which was awesome because I've heard about that technique but have never seen it before! I greeted each returning rider with a cold Pellegrino limonata. Mike worked on Dave's motorcycle and I helped the guys gather wood for the fire. Dinner was a bit more subdued this evening.

Wednesday (9/7) morning, I packed up while the guys got ready to hit the trail. Mike and I talked a bit about my route - and I was starting to feel nervous about my rear tire. Plus - I was having a stomachache. I had a bit of a flare-up of queasiness the previous morning and then again after lunch - but felt fine after my udon noodles and broth after dinner. This morning, though, my stomach just started hurting and didn't stop.

So, I cruised down Hwy 21 - trying to enjoy the ride, despite stomachache and apprehension about the rear tire but there was a little matter of the air being completely grey with smoke from a nearby forestfire PLUS ongoing roadwork with the additional disgusting smell of asphalt and traffic stops (hot asphalt + hot sun = no fun!). One of the construction flaggers said she had a horrible migraine the previous day from the combination of heat, forest fire smoke and asphalt smells.

I finally did make it to Kirkham - thinking that I would miss it, but it was right on the side of the road!

This was probably one of the best hot springs I have ever visited - gorgeous, pools of all different temperatures and right on the river. A man who had visited a couple times earlier in the year said that as the summer progressed and the river got lower, there were more pools.

The water was incredibly clear - with sandy bottomed pools and large boulders for backrests:

The gorgeous river:

As I got closer to Boise and descended the mountains, the ambient temperature start going up. My stomachache wasn't going away and it was already quite late in the afternoon. Neither maps or iPhone helped me out much in trying to figure out "where do I go next?" upon arriving in Boise - so I looked for the first port in a storm. What I thought was the office of a storage unit franchise turned out to be the extremely well appointed offices of a local contractor/architect.

One of the partners was a very friendly man who set me up with some cold water and I posted around trying to find a place that had a rear tire for me. I discovered Big Twin had three tire options for me - and one of the contractor's employees had arrived on his motorcycle, and offered to sherpa me to Big Twin. 4:30 pm found me cooling off in Big Twin, drinking copious amounts of water while I waited for the tire change and repair of the broken rear left turn signal. I also ended up buying a new jacket and Big Twin's Kevin offered to shop home my other jacket (which I packed up in a box to make myself useful).

Exhausted - I didn't look too far and ended up at a super spendy Holiday Inn, showered and headed to Shangri La for dinner, Boise's only vegetarian cafe. My stomach still hurt - eating food did not help (as it does for ulcers) and I went to the ER at St Luke's. The only good that came out of it was that they determined that my appendix, pancreas and gallbladder were all fine, the doctor "discovered" that I had no spleen (though it was the first thing I mentioned in my intake interview) and I was given an Rx for ulcer medication. I don't have ulcers, I think it was possibly food poisoning but am pretty sad about the wasted two hours and hundreds of dollars at St Luke's, though I did get to meet the lovely doctor who said "You can call me Brad."

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 9 - Two Days in Yellowstone

2011-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday (9/3) morning, after a breakfast of dairy-free instant oatmeal and chai, I dressed and set off to discover the next time for Old Faithful's show. Mary Ann promised to help find me a room for Saturday night - through bad timing, I was at a National Park on Labor Day Weekend and it was pretty booked up. And crowded. There were easily 400 people standing around Old Faithful waiting for the geyser to go off that morning - and I did get some pictures!

Concierge Mary Ann came through with a Saturday night reservation for me at Mammoth Site - way north in the park. I wish I had a better map of Yellowstone and had made the first night's reservation at Mammoth - I could have gone through the Beartooth Highway, then back down to Old Faithful! I packed up, got gas & added oil to the DR - then headed off through the park, stopping at geological features but getting a bit tired of hot boiling water and no hot springs for bathing. There was so much traffic - and the low speed limit made it a less than fun experience, honestly.

Cliff Geyser - it's hard to get good pictures of these things - they are active, bubbling, steaming and exploding - and they all sort of look the same after you've seen 5 or 10 of them.

Some of the pools were just deep and clear, but full of deadly hot water:

If you fall in - you're cooked, like this guy (a raccoon?):

More hot water that you can't soak in:

All very pretty scenery -

When I arrived at Mammothsite, everything was dry as a bone - I did get to see some elk very close up.

Dry travertine springs:

Elks, hanging out:

Magpie, doing what magpies do:

I still felt pretty sapped from the chilly windy drive the night before - heck, 3 days of wind adds up - and sacked out for a 4 hour nap before wandering around the hotel a bit, and returning to make noodles for dinner and tuck into more Sookie Stackhouse books. I was woken by MOOSE call below my window at 3 am!

Day 10: 55 miles

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Sunday (9/4), after another breakfast of tea & instant oatmeal, I scraped the frost off my motorcycle seat, packed up and headed out. I visited a few more geothermal features and had a nice walk down into Canyon - which was overrun with visitors, including one guy who cut off trail and when several other people confronted him about it - he insisted he was on "a trail" even if it wasn't paved and was a real jerk about denying responsibility to contributing to erosion by his actions. Some people should stay in cities.

Finally, I had enough and headed down to Jackson, enjoying the view of Tetons but confused about what the big deal is about the Tetons. I guess it's great if you just ski or hike around in them but it wasn't obvious how to get really close to them.

I made some calls at a visitor center and found a relatively cheap hotel, Alpine Inn, then headed to dinner at Lotus Cafe (http://tetonlotuscafe.com), a highly recommended vegetarian cafe. I ended up sharing a table and conversation with another woman traveler, Barri from Florida, before returning to watch True Blood and catch up on some more sleep.

Day 11: 175 miles

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 8 - More Windy Wyoming, Waterfalls & Old Faithful

2011-09-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Friday (9/2) - I woke up and Karen made me a delicious latte in the office. I made some miso for breakfast and spent more time than I should have playing with the black lab, Duchess and taking pictures of Karen's gorgeous flowers all around Blue Gables motel. Yes, I was dawdling and that was because I had no clue how long it would actually take to get to Old Faithful, obviously!

The lovely Duchess and one of her well loved, soggy toys:

The bird, Picasso (I think) - got jealous if I played with Duchess too much and would ring the bell and rattle things in the cage for attention!

Blue Gables

Finally, after packing up, I noticed that my front fender was missing a few bolts - so I got on the road with my fingers x'd that I would find a spot to pick up replacements. Not too far away, at Sheridan's Big Horn Powersports (http://www.bighornpowersports.com/), a young man named Vaughn was able to hook me up ith a couple bolts and put loc-tite on the other two bolts which were also starting to loosen up.

Given the distance to Old Faithful, I decided not to take the detour north into Montana to go over the famous Beartooth (http://www.beartoothhighway.com/) or even up to see the Medicine Wheel (http://byways.org/explore/byways/2164/) - and instead opted for the more direct route into Yellowstone.

After getting away from Sheridan, I putted along 14 and stopped when I saw a sign for an outdoor outfitters. It turns out it was now operating as a craft store in the front and a gun store in the back - something like Sonny's Gun Shop & Crafts store - I had a nice chat with the elderly gentleman who owned the shop, bought some local honey and headed off in search of lunch.

Approaching lunch time, I came upon a cafe called "The Branding Iron" in Dayton WY with a big parking lot - as good a place as any. I stopped at the same time as another motorcyclist who was (of course) on a Harley and riding without gear (of course) or a helmet (quelle surprise!). Amazingly - the Branding Iron had a salad bar (ok, that was really a surprise!).

The other motorcyclist & I struck up a conversation and while I enjoyed my lunch from the salad bar, I asked him about the whole helmet thing.

He had clearly thought this all out, without any actual statistics or facts to back him up, and was pretty sure he was right. This is what I learned from my luncheon companion:

Helmets do not save your life or prevent injury in motorcycle accidents because they are only good for speeds under 20 mph and only glancing blows at that.
A helmet will not protect you if a car runs over your head.
Most motorcycle accidents are caused by cars and you don't stand a chance.
Motorcycle racers wear gear because most of their accidents are by themselves and sliding so they don't have to worry about hitting their heads.

I did ask my dining companion if he would like to test out any of those theories with my foot in the parking lot, but he declined. When I told him that most motorcycle accidents are single vehicle accidents, he vehemently denied this and said that the only time he and anyone he knew ever had a "get off" was when they were hit by a car. Interestingly, when I related this story to someone at a Boise motorcycle shop - he said that a study had just come out about motorcyclists in South Dakota that said that 60% of reported motorcycle accidents were single vehicle accidents. I wish I had a link to that report! Someone had told me "Don't miss out on Shell!" - and since I was on 14, I realized I would be going through Shell but had no idea what to expect. Going up the pass, the road was all textured - I'm not sure if that was for upcoming construction or for icy conditions but I can only imagine that it was annoying to people on non-dual sport motorcycles! The pass was just gorgeous and along the road, there were all these signs telling you how old the rocks were that were exposed along the road way! It was really gorgeous going through those mountains - I did stop a couple of times for photos of interesting palisades, hills and rocks but my photos do not do justice to this area. As I descended from the summit, I came through an area with very fun roads but had to stop because what I saw across the canyon was so shocking: miles of downed trees. This area was the site of the highest known altitude tornado touch down - in the 1950s! It took out many trees, and though the Forest Service recovered what they could at the time, the hillsides were so steep that many of the trees are still there, rotting. It looks like a volcano blew up and knocked them down (like around Mt St Helens). Another stop, not too far from the blown-down trees - to admire some roadside geology: Finally - I got to Shell. I had no idea what I was to expect - and was perfectly delighted by the gorgeous rock canyon cut out by the river and waterfalls. Also delighted by the end-of-season sale at the National Parks gift shop where I loaded up with stuffed animals and other gifts for my family, including a Smokey the Bear coffee mug that turned into a forest fire scene when full of hot liquid. I confess - I kept the moose who whinnies when you press it in the middle but the giant squishy buffalo and the bear who roars when you press its middle went to my toddler nephew. Loaded up with goodies - I headed down to the little village of Shell (after taking a few more photos!) and popped into the Shell Post Office (seeing a pattern here?) to mail stuff home. I was beginning to regret having made a Friday night reservation at Old Faithful - the wind was a bit tiring at times, and there were interesting things to see between Buffalo and Yellowstone. It was getting quite late in the afternoon when I made a stop in Cody at Mountain High Natural foods (http://www.yelp.com/biz/mountain-high-health-foods-cody) where I stocked up on goodies for breakfasts and dinners. This is one of the nicest stores I have been in on this trip - they just moved into their new location and have so much space. The owner, Martie Clark, was super helpful and friendly.

After eating a snack, I prepared for the final leg of my trip that day into Yellowstone. Sadly, skipping Cody though friends told me there were fun museums to explore there. I saw so many police in this stretch between Cody and the East Gate of Yellowstone, that I held down my speed and kept super alert for state troopers.

I finally arrived at the Yellowstone East Gate at 6:30 - the sun was going down and the speed limit in the park is something like 30 mph. Having seen so many people pulled over before - I kept to the low speed limit but people were tailgating me and some passed me (not so safely) so they could zip along at well over twice the speed limit. The wind picked up and the temperatures dropped - it seemed like I was so close and yet so far! My fingers froze.

I arrived at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge and couldn't even unbuckle my helmet but a super nice helpful lady, Mary Ann from Tennessee, came around the front desk and did it for me. She checked me in and advised me to hop right into a hot shower, "You've got about 30 minutes before Old Faithful will be putting on the next show!" I got to my rustic cabin - more like a trailer with low ceilings - had a very nice hot shower (apologies to my neighbors if they didn't get hot water later!), made some hot tea and got out to see Old Faithful put on a show while the sky still had the fading colors of sunset. I went back to my room and made some noodles and listened to another audio book, falling asleep soundly!

Day 9: 326 miles

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 7 - Devil's Tower & Windy Wyoming

2011-09-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday (9/1) - as I packed up, I mentally reviewed my plans for the next two days on the road. Planning with Google Maps allows you to figure out actual mileage, and planning on paper makes that a bit more challenging - but you get to see more notes on the maps about features and attractions. I had imagined I would go through Deadwood, visit Devil's Tower and spend the night in Sheridan before heading into Yellowstone for a Friday night reservation at Old Faithful.

One thing I did not take into consideration was dawdling or being tired. I had to unpack my bag so I could ship off a box home from Custer - my lightweight sleep sack, my GPS, gifts and a bunch of other items - all went into a flat rate box.

While I was sorting my goods, a quartet of motorcyclists with California plates parked up along side me so that one of them could do the same thing. "When I saw you here, I thought it was a good idea to send some stuff back home" - some stuffed animals and a bat house!

I enjoyed the short distance up to Deadwood - and made a short stop at a motorcycle shop to borrow a squirt of lube for my chain before going on to check out the "historic" parts. It reminded me of what would happen if you Fisherman's Wharf'd a Sierra Gold Country town like Auburn or Colfax - same brick buildings. Actually, it was sort of like Bourbon St - most of the tourist entertainment seemed to be drinking or buying trinkets.

I made tracks for Wyoming, stopping in Spearfish to get something to drink at grocery store where a sign proudly proclaimed that jobs in the meat department were paying something south of $6/hour. The terrain was increasingly flat and when I arrived in Wyoming, I stopped at the Welcome Center where I was made to feel very welcome with loads of helpful assistance from the concierge, wi-fi, cozy chairs, air conditioning and very clean bathrooms. It was like a lodge or hotel lobby - I couldn't believe how nice it was - outside, however, was pretty desolate.

At the concierge's recommendation, I stopped in Aladdin for gas - if you're looking for a business investment, this historic general store is for sale. They had some great jewelry in a case - but I couldn't justify $600 for a silver and turquoise bracelet. It seems like many of these folks live off the tourism that passes through during Sturgis - but not much else is happening at other times.

You have to go in and tell the lady what your pump reads! This reminds me of a gas station off Orr Springs Rd...

Pretty soon - I got to whip out my National Parks Pass - yay! I was greeted by tiny furry aliens.

My plan was to get to Sheridan - but it seemed later in the day than I expected and the wind made it feel like was making no progress at all. My neck was killing me from all the wind blowing cross-wise on my helmet visor, making it vibrate and by the time I got to Gilette - I was ready for a nap! It was still very light out and seemed too early to give up for the day. As I fueled up, a woman parked a pickup truck in front of the gas station and the dog in the back was SO pretty - I had to go meet her. She was a cute little thing with one blue and one brown eye, but after letting me pet her - she got all Greta Garbo as I pulled out my camera.

Shortly, the dog's human chauffeur came out of the store and we started talking. This pup was a rescue - just the sweetest thing. Her human asked where I was going and laughed when I said I was trying to get to Sheridan - suggesting Buffalo might be more realistic given all the wind, and asked what I was looking for when I got there. I said I would look for a hotel and if I was lucky, a chiropractor. She told me she was actually a chiropractor and offered to help. I took her up on it but she had second thoughts - "How do you know I'm REALLY a chiropractor?" Well, I admitted I didn't - and asked if she had a business card. She pulled out her appointment book, opened her wallet, "Oops, that's my concealed carry permit!" and a number of other things and I just waved it off. As soon as she put her hands on me, I would know if she knew what she was doing, so after warning me "You'll get dirty!" - I was on my back on the sidewalk and she was kneeling on the parking lot by my head. She was very impressed with my tight neck muscles (ha ha!) and gave me one of the best neck adjustments - first time, each side, no pain - that I have had in ages. I swear - that quickie neck adjustment really took care of so much of the pain that had been building up my first week of travel!

Despite the exhausting wind from Gilette to Buffalo - I was really worried that it would undo the adjustment - my neck felt fine the next day. This was possibly the worst wind I have had to deal with on my motorcycle yet - just in terms of constant blowing. My fuel efficiency dropped from 50+ to 34 mpg! I had to pin it just to keep the bike upright at 70 mph! By the time I got to Buffalo, it was just after sunset and I kept going past all the chain hotels to the end of the main commercial strip - looked to either direction and on my right saw a little motel with cabins and piles of flowers - I headed there.

Blue Gables (http://www.bluegables.com/) - the lady at the front desk declared, "We're the cutest and the cheapest!" as an affable big black lab ambled up to greet me and drop toys at my feet. Sold. I'm such a sucker for cute animals, perky concierges and flowers!

I headed to my room and dropped my stuff and unloaded the bike before it got dark. I chatted with a neighbor at a nearby cabin who was working on an Earthship project (http://earthship.com/component/content/article/102-wyoming/1027-buffalo-wyoming-earthship-learning-opportunity). I drank a yummy beer he gave me and made up some miso and noodles for dinner, watching weather reports and feelng pretty fortunate that I had missed some rainstorms.

Day 8: 300 miles

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 6 - Custer State Park & Crazy Horse, South Dakota

2011-08-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday (8/31) morning at Custer, I awoke and made tea and enjoyed the company of my own personal squirrel and bunny rabbit who seemed to always be hanging out around my little deck. OK, it helped that I put out some squishy flatbread on the grill - and it was hilarious watching the squirrel try to drag it off the grill - I could have wrapped him up in a piece of that flatbread if I caught him, that's how small he was!

I spent a couple hours examining maps and storing data in my brain, making notes and reservations at Yellowstone for the rest of my trip.

Then, I went off to perfect my skills of exploring the dirt roads off the Custer SP Wildlife loop, avoiding being trampled by bison and sneaking up on antelopes in neutral.

Beautiful skies & pleasant dirt roads - all to myself (well, and the antelopes & bison)

Today's pleasant surprise: burros! Friendly as housecats, coming up and begging from people in cars. A momma and her baby decided I was pleasant enough to hug both of them and came right up and each one stuck a head under my arms (I am not kidding!).

Did someone say they were handing out cheese-n-peanut butter crackers down here? NOTE: the burros do NOT run as fast as the antelopes, and they are much less skittish.

As anyone who is friends with new mothers knows - nursing is okay, any time, anywhere - it's perfectly natural. You just might not want to do it in the middle of the road with traffic coming in both directions. Or, maybe you do - I guess that's a super power!

What? NO snacks?

OK, let's go check with this other human!

Someone wants a nap!

I turned back up the dirt roads and headed north, stopping for more awesome antelopes, before heading down to Rapid City.

Look! It's a very rare PAY PHONE! And a nice view.

I enjoyed some lovely views of Mt Rushmore and enjoyed going through the stone tunnels on 16A a second time around.

Rapid City was utterly forgettable - it was so ridiculously hot, it was about 110 degrees (I am not kidding). It was so hot, that even the grasshoppers were trying to hitch rides on my panniers back up into the mountains. At least Cabela's was nice and air conditioned! Oh - yeah - I went to Cabela's - AGAIN! I think this is the 4th or 5th Cabela's I visited on this trip. I bought a sleeping bag - so I could ship my 55 degree sleep sack back home.

Finally, I cruised along the north side of Custer State Park and ended up at Crazy Horse Monument just before closing, where I enjoyed a short film about the project and lovely views:

This is what it is supposed to eventually look like

The museum exhibits there are extensive and overwhelming. Fortunately, Mrs K's ginger kitty, Gracie, graciously offered to guard my motorcycle jacket.

Gracie - on the job!

Definitely a lap-kitty:

Dark clouds were gathering and I dodged fat rain drops as I headed down the hill to Custer (the town) to get more beer at the lovely local Dakotamart, returning at dusk via a lovely dirt road called Lower French Creek. There were a lot of residences and plenty of nice woods - I even got to see more bison just hanging out with horses! Bison were hanging out in the camp again - so I just enjoyed my beer and waited for them to stop blocking the path to the bathhouse so I could have a shower.

Day 7: 140 miles

Driving All Around Custer SP

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 5 - Custer State Park, South Dakota

2011-08-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday (8/30) morning, the sky scrubbed clear bright blue by the previous day of rainstorms, I headed out of Manderson to the Wounded Knee monument. It's a very small cemetery for such a big, sad story. My friend packed me off with a half-pint of homemade chokecherry jam and said "Custer is scenic."

I looked it over on the map, not knowing quite what to expect -- I had been interested in seeing what hot springs options were available in Hot Springs, and hadn't thought much about my itinerary after that. There was construction on Route 18, leading from Pine Ridge to Oglala - the entire road was torn up, with queues of cars waiting for pilot cars to lead them through, one direction at a time. I noticed a nice road leading to Route 385 which would send me up to Custer. I got to see lots of trailers and a few ranches -- and then just a few hundred feet away from a "Road Closed" sign was a wide river with no way across. A sort of scenic 10 mile loop - and I returned to Pine Ridge, fueled up and got to the head of the queue to take the torn up roads north.

Between Nebraska and South Dakota, I have seen more women operating heavy equipment on road crews than I have ever seen in my entire life. It seems like women are relegated to traffic and flag duty here - but in NE and SD - they are running the graders and the tractors. Why not, right?

The Harley Davidson I passed (he was waiting in the middle of the queue!) - seemed to be holding up traffic behind me. Once I got past the pilot car, there were more torn up areas but one look at my motorcycle and the flagger sent me ahead of the pilot car saying, "you're fine!"

The ride along Hwy 18 was full of easy rolling hills - mostly flat but compared to Nebraska, downright mountainous! There were some interesting geological features - broken away hillsides with multiple layers of color showing through.

I saw lots of antelopes and horses on this trip - the first horses and antelopes I really saw were on my way into Utah. Just before SLC, I saw 4 antelopes, standing shoulder to shoulder, in a line at about a 60 degree angle away from the side of the road ahead of me on my right - just looking at the freeway. I also saw herds of horses by a gate - like they were waiting for dinner.

I saw dogs hanging out with horses in pens on my little short cut earlier in the morning - horses in small pens don't look like they are having nearly as much fun. As I made my turn north, I saw five horses making a turn from the backside of a small rise, just running at full speed with their manes and tails streaming. They looked like they were just having fun - there was a black horse, a white horse, a palomino and two red and white horses - just running. Then, as I passed the hill - there was a Cowschwitz: hundreds of cows confined in a small area with mud up to their knees - it just smelled awful. I couldn't help but think that the horses were celebrating the fact that they had a superior set-up compared to their bovine neighbors.

Hot Springs was a cute little town with more modern buildings and gas stations at the south end, more brick "wild west" themed edifices at the north, older part of town. I found materials on the available water features - they all looked like they were big commercial developments, swim suits assumed. I decided to take a pass and get a sense of the town. It was a weekday and the town was pretty quiet. I popped into a small antiques store with a cafe in the back - kitschy and cute, but nothing compelling enough on the shelves or menu.

As started to leave town, I came upon a fantastic little natural foods grocery store called Earth Goods (http://earthgoodsnaturalfoods.com/) and bought some juice and snacks for a late breakfast. The cashier, Teresa, was totally helpful both in helping me find items I wanted (pack-type foods) and she gave me some great tips on Custer State Park, as well as a local tourist map. We debated the benefits of different attractions - she said the Wildlife Loop was definitely worth visiting, though there were animals all over - and she agreed with me, "A cave is a cave - you can see the more interesting stuff up on top (animals)."

I loaded up my new provisions and drove past the old Wild West brick buildings, and the scenery definitely changed - more altitude, more trees - it just got prettier and prettier. It seemed like I got there very quickly and found a ranger station at the entry to the Wildlife Loop. I asked about tent camping and places to swim - and the man at the gate was (again!) incredibly helpful. He told me that there were also little cabins and brought me a park brochure open to the page of accommodation options - it was like $50 for one night in a little cabin, so the man brought me a phone and dialed me into the reservations line. I got a cabin in the Blue Bell campground and made my way there to drop off my gear, so I could go drive all around without having all my stuff on the motorcycle.

The rangers at the gate to the Wildlife Loop had put a pink wristband around my handlebar, so they just smiled and waved me through when I returned. As soon as I went around the bend and through the official gate - there was a GIANT bison standing to my right, at 90 degrees to the road, looking just like the bison on the back of a buffalo nickel. There were no other cars - I wanted to take a picture but I was worried about stopping too close to that guy! He was HUGE!

I continued along and saw a few more bison dotted here and there, munching grass solo, seemingly oblivious to my passing by. Then, I saw a man on horseback along to my right - riding along into the bushes. A ranger's jeep and another vehicle passed me up and pulled over - I saw the horseback ranger come out of the woods again and raise his right arm and point. I pulled over IMMEDIATELY and freed up my camera - and was treated to the sight of about 40 antelope streaming from around a hill, down and across a creek, and over the road just about 20 or 30 feet in front of me! The ranger and his guest were also outside their vehicles - the guest had a camera with a lens the size of the Hubble telescope on it - I imagine he got better photos than I. There were a few stragglers - I got back on my motorcycle and coasted downhill on the shoulder in neutral, without turning on the engine, to get a better look.

La, la, la, la - straggler! (I love the "Wildlife at Large" sign!")

Antelopes are COOL! After the next bend, there was a BIG herd of bison just lazing about - and some very cute baby bison.

I checked out some dirt roads off the wild life loop and came across more bison and antelopes - and fewer cars (yay!). After doing a few loops around, I headed out of the Wildlife Loop area and went to find a spot to park for a swim at Legion Lake. The water was cool but not too cold and I very much enjoyed having some peaceful, quiet time soaking in the water with only 5 other people in this quite nicely sized lake.

On my way in to find a parking space, there was a big bison just hanging out on the road:

Legion Lake - with lots of backlight - that big dark shape is actually a giant rock:

After drying off, I explored more of the park - I drove up, I thought, toward Mt Rushmore but ended up taking the back way in - going through all the scenic rock formations at the Needles and Sylvan Lake. I didn't take many pictures there because I thought I'd end up returning - the traffic was pretty aggravating there, with folks driving well below the 25 mph speed limit (if you're going less than 10mph - just PULL OVER!).

After a stop at Sylvan Lake for souvenirs and a cold drink, I took a turn toward Mt Rushmore and found myself delayed by more road work - I went to the top of the queue, turned off my engine and talked to the flagger. He asked about my trip and expressed disdain for the flyover states, "What do you think IOWA stands for? 'Idiots Out Wandering Around'!"

I got a nice view of Mt Rushmore - from the toll gates - but was kind of disappointed that there was no discounted fee for motorcycles (as there are at nearly every other park or attraction I have visited) and there is no way to just walk into Mt Rushmore. It was kind of expensive and I decided to take a miss - heading down toward the center of the park and exploring more of 16A.

Pictures and words just cannot do justice to how beautiful this park is - no wonder the bison and antelope love it! I would love to live there, too - except for that snow thing.

On my second pass by Legion Lake - same bison was still hanging out eating grass.

I ended up looking for groceries in town of Custer at Dakotamart - the produce selection was once again, woefully disappointing: grown far away, wrapped in plastic on styrofoam trays. The store seemed to specialize in frozen foods - I have never seen such a crazy selection of prepared frozen foods in my life. The candy selection was poor - pretty much all slavery chocolate by Hershey's and M&M Mars.

Interestingly, the beer selection was amazing. We're talking about 100 different craft, micro and Belgian-style import beers - cold and on the shelf. They had lambics that weren't just the overly sweet variety! They had RUSSIAN beer! I was pretty surprised by this and happy to buy some nice chocolatey stout for my next two nights in camp.

On my return, the camp host was outside his RV. I pulled up and cut the engine, flipped up my visor and called out his name and a howdy. He looked at me, put his thumbs into his belt loops and smiled, walked over slowly and said in a distinctive Tennessee drawl, "you know, it has always been a fantasy of mine to have a woman come up on a motorcycle and call out my name!"

Then he burst into a gale of laughter and I introduced myself. We had a nice little chat - his wife was out of town visiting her mother, and he was on his own. He gave me tips on riding around the bison - he said, "they hate the sound of Harleys!" The mating season had just finished, so I would see larger males hanging around odd places - just trying to have some distance between them and the demands of the wimmenfolk in their herds. My camp host regaled me with stories about motorcycle travel from his younger years. He discovered that going with a group of 3 or 4 friends and seeking out state park cabins (like the one I had rented here) or at KOA campgrounds was a tremendous value - they usually are very cheap and sleep up to 4 people, all you need is bedding and cooking gear, saving lots of weight and hassle in packing gear and worrying about rainstorms. I have to say - I think the man was right! Staying in the little cabin was really a delight - though I found it a bit chilly that night in my 55 degree rated sleeping bag.

The camp host also hipped me to the correct direction for driving on 16A to Mt Rushmore - if you go toward Mt Rushmore on that road, you get to see the monument through the cool stone tunnels -- which I missed that afternoon because I went away from Mt Rushmore on that road - enjoying the tunnels and forests but not the view.

I spent the evening making my dinner, enjoying beer on my little porch and then had a hot shower. I fell asleep listening to an audiobook on my iPhone and shivered a bit, through the night.

Day 6: 126 miles to my campground + 100ish mi driving around the park

View Manderson SD to Custer State Park in a larger map

View Driving all around Custer State Park in a larger map

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 4 - Nebraska & South Dakota

2011-08-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday (8/28) morning, I breakfasted with Craig and Cindy - they shared hot water with me so I could make up a jumbo serving of instant miso soup for my breakfast. They were pulling out earlier than expected due to a change in the weather forecast: big storms. All the RVs in their company were packing up and battening the hatches. I swilled my miso and tea while I packed up and made sure I was waterproof, but not quickly enough! The sky got dark very quickly and the storm came. A neighboring camper, a 31 year old veteran named Dave, invited me to share his canopy - we rolled my bike under it so I could finish packing & getting ready and he made delicious coffee on his camp stove. We had a nice chat while we waited out the storm, and I finished off some Kaia cacao mole raw granola. Dave gave me a giant orange backpack cover to put over my waterproof duffel to increase conspicuity in the overcast weather.

The storm passed quickly, and I headed out on Hwy 20 again - there was nearly no traffic, the roads were clear and the skies cleared up very quickly to a gorgeous, cloudless blue. Cornfields and more cornfields. The barns and houses weren't even painted all that differently from each other (like in Ohio, SW Michigan and Eastern Indiana - at least there's variety in "ooh, is the house going to be white if the barn is red?"). As I got closer to the state line, I saw a billboard mentioning "barn quilts" and found myself in yet another quilts country, on a Sunday, with all the quilt shops closed! Probably a good thing or I would have ended up with way more bulky souvenirs than I could manage! Anyway, despite the billboard, I wasn't clear on what "barn quilts" were until I saw the first few and grew to be genuinely impressed with the scale of this public art project.

I only caught half a dozen of these but apparently it's a pretty big public art project - in multiple states & counties - here's the area where I traveled through: develop.hamiltoncountyiowa.com/html/barn_quilts.html and here's another area: www.barnquilts.com

Today's ride was pretty boring - lots of corn fields. There are folks who swear by the beauty of this area - I heard it called "God's Country" more than once - as an atheist, I can only observe that their god must have a mean streak - or must be a different god entirely from the one who made other more beautiful places. It's like saying white bread and mayonnaise sandwiches are the height of culinary delight!

In addition to the barn quilts, I did get to see one other completely new and delightful thing: baby miniature ponies. I actually hit the brakes and did a u-turn to go back and look at them. They were so darned cute!!

The cute baby ponies were just east of Sioux City - I stopped for gas and saw across the parking lot a grocery store that proudly proclaimed "Worker Owned" and had "co-op" in the title. I excitedly went over to find something for lunch and was dismayed to discover that it was a giant, generic, homogenous boring big grocery store with all the freaking produce wrapped in saran wrap, on styrofoam trays and nothing local! WTF? Seriously, people. How can you be in the middle of agriculture and have NO local produce in a "worker owned" co-op? Lame.

At least there was some amusing art for sale in the parking lot after I finished my Izze soda, bread & hummus:

I would have loved to have brought Miss Liberty along on my motorcycle, but, alas, she was a bit frigid. I could just see my landlord's expression if he came around and saw a 6' high replica of the Statue of Liberty in the front yard!

As I left Sioux City, I realized my good fortune in choosing Hwy 20 - flooding was evident this far south, and apparently roads and bridges had problems earlier in the day farther north.

I thought I'd get as far as Valentine, but the winds were hitting me crosswise and after not stopping at the last little town, found myself curiously far away from any place that seemed to offer fuel. I pulled off in a tiny "town" which turned out to be about 10 houses in the middle of a cornfield the size of Mendocino County, a silo and two lonely, unattended 24/7 fuel pumps that lacked clear instructions. They specified some sort of "Ag" card - but didn't have a Visa symbol. I was about to give up with 6 people crammed in the single seat of a pickup truck came by and happily informed me that the pumps did take regular credit cards. What grace!

As I putted along, I saw a man with two amazing looking hot rod motorcycles out in front of his house and stopped to say "hi" to him and his friend. Orange. Very orange. They actually recommended that I check out a hotel in the next town, and very quickly, I found myself in an Irish themed Nebraska town - O'Neill NE seemed to have a bit of society, with a half dozen or more hotels. I drove up to the one recommended but it was a shabby, run down brick building. I turned back and ended up at The Elms Motel - I had a parking space in front of my door, HBO to watch True Blood (in 30 minutes!), a coin-op laundry room two doors over, and a grocery store just a hundred yards away (closing in 10 minutes!). I dropped my stuff, popped over to the store for beer & veggies, made up some nice curry in my room (shh!) and watched "True Blood" (twice). Got my laundry all clean and had a fantastic night's sleep.

Day 4: 275 miles

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Monday (8/29) - I made breakfast in my room, packed up and went to the O'Neil Post Office to ship back gifts & crushed glasses (poor glasses - they were in the wrong glasses case, it shifted to the bottom of my camelback and they broke after I took them off on Saturday night!).

This was one of the most friendly post office experiences I have had - not only did the nice woman help me out with packing material & tape, they even had a lost-and-found box for left keys!

There was not much to see - though, after a while, I realized that I had run out of corn and run into cows. The terrain changed subtly, not quite as flat, scrubby brush & other features were allowed to remain in their natural state, fences replaced culverts & cows replaced tractors.

The rain started gently at first - and then came down pretty steadily. I am really glad for the visor on my Arai helmet, but my 3/4 length jacket is no longer waterproof after several Northern California winters and by the time I got to Gordon, NE - the rain stopped but I was completely soaked. I popped into the local Ace Hardware, got a can of Scotchguard and headed to the local laundry. I peeled off my jacket & layers and threw everything - including my boots - into dryers. Then I liberally soaked everything with Scotchguard and put it back into the dyers. Repeat til Scotchguard is all gone.

While I was there, I made friends with a local community college professor of the Lakota language & crafts - he laughed at my intention to get to Hot Springs and offered his hospitality. I was determined, however, but took his card anyway. There were no hotels in Gordon, at least that I saw, and heading north into SD, I would be on the reservation - probably not many hotels really close to the SD/NE border. I headed off - and did not get very far when I saw a lot of storm clouds with some very scary lightening fast approaching.

I headed to Wounded Knee to check out the memorial, looked at my map and called my new friend -- I had a sofa to sleep on that night, and arrived in Manderson completely soaked (again!). That Scotchguard works just about as well as my stainless steel sieve!

Day 5: 250 miles

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Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 3 - Illinois & Iowa

2011-08-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday (8/27) - As I packed up camp, I had a Euclid Beach popcorn ball for breakfast. I think that this was the beginning of the end this day. I was still feeling pretty satisfied by the last night's dinner, and since I hadn't stopped at any farm stands yet to buy fresh veggies, I didn't have a lot of ready-to-eat stuff with me (except for a bunch of flaxseed Bumble Bars which were beginning to taste rancid from the heat in the moving truck on the way east). As I set out, I came across a man who was walking two cute Aussie Blue Merles with his little daughter and had to cut the engine to meet the cute puppies (apologize to the little girl on the bike - she was cute, too - almost as cute as the dogs!).

From Burnridge Forest, I just drove and drove. I had an early start, and when some bozo in a pickup truck started harassing me on the freeway (seriously - I think people see someone traveling and get jealous) - I just took the next exit and looked for a breakfast spot. I ended up at Landmark Family Restaurant - it was already in the low 80s and it wasn't even 9am yet! I had friendly chit chat with the guys at the next table, good brewed decaf, wheat toast and hashbrowns with veggies - my total check was $4.25! We're definitely NOT in the Bay Area, Toto!

It was not exciting terrain along Hwy 20, but the traffic was low and mellow. I could just hang out around 80-85 mph - not great for gas mileage, but efficient for getting past a lot of boring corn. And then - I saw a sign for a Frank Lloyd Wright House called "Cedar Rock" - I didn't even think twice, and headed right there!

It was pretty hot by the time I got to Cedar Rock (http://www.stateparks.com/cedar_rock.html). The next tour was at 3pm - so I removed some layers of gear, put on my flip flops and cooled my jets, perusing the silver and hand blown glass necklaces in the gift shop.

Two more people arrived and the tractor and canopied wagon returned, so I grabbed my ice water and camera and hopped aboard. The house is down a long driveway - the original owners had bought a bit of property near the river that had a right-of-way but not direct access to the road (surrounding property has since been acquired). It wasn't that far away but apparently most people think it's too far to walk!

The tour was about an hour, with a practiced retelling of story of the design and construction of the house. This is one of the few houses that Frank Lloyd Wright was able to manage top to bottom: he had veto authority on every furnishing in the house, and at this level of control - was happy to put his signature tile into the house itself. It's been preserved for decades as a tribute to this iconoclast - and it looks pretty comfortable by today's standards, though the kitchen is a bit small.

The back entrance has two doors separated by a wall - so you can bring in packages and dirty feet through the utility area - or guests into the door that goes into the living area.

Lots of big windows as walls and in the ceiling make this feel like you're walking out onto a terrace or into the woods. Great in the summer weather but apparently winter heating was not just expensive but nearly impossible, despite radiant heat in the floors.

The walls were constructed of double brick walls - so there was an intentional airspace between - which was utilized for ambient lighting by leaving out bricks and putting in chunks of slag glass with lights inside the airspace:

Lots of built in furniture and specially designed furniture that was modular - you could move around different tables to make bigger tables. Wright selected all the items you see on display here - and specifically required their arrangement (not kidding!). However, I suspect that the outdoor wall thermometer was not one of his choosing (note: 80 degrees in the shade on the east side of the building!)

The piano in the livingroom was not something Wright really wanted - but the owners insisted, so Wright agreed if they would have the legs sawn off so that the piano did not interfere with the flow of the room by being too high. The little table in the foreground is one of the smaller modular tables that could be rearranged into longer rectangular tables. Ottomans and hassocks everywhere, as well as lots of specially designed chairs (two were available for visitors to test out the fit of the special F.L. Wright designed chairs themselves).

I didn't like the kitchen much - it was almost an afterthought - there is a little utility area off one side for all the hot water heater, plumbing and gas for the radiant heat and sinks/tubs - but just closed off with a little door. The kitchen had one other item that the owners insisted upon that Wright hated but finally agreed they could put up on display - can you guess what it is (it's not the scissors!)?

Utility closets are all in one hallway - and quite narrow:

The bathrooms have these combination sink/over tub/over toilet deal that you'd see on a steamer ship - this was Wright's idea of saving space. It doesn't look much like a tub I'd want for soaking and relaxing!

Though he claimed that it was "better" for married couples to have their own beds to get appropriate sleep, the tour guide speculates that the pair of twin beds in the master bedroom was "revenge of the architect" for the clients' demands that he didn't like (you know - like the piano and the ticky tacky in the kitchen):

There was also a lovely fire pit:
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennconspiracy/6147825645/][img]http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6147825645_635c06df9c.jpg[/img][/url]

View of the bedroom/livingroom side of the house, maid's quarters on the far left were set up like an efficiency apartment, I think I'd prefer that bedroom over the rooms inside the main house!

View from the river side:

There was even a boathouse/man cave (since there wasn't a workshop or den), also set up like an efficiency apartment with small kitchenette, bed and enclosed porch on the river.

Special touches, like mitered brick corners on walls - are everywhere:

I got my gear on, and got back on the road - it was hotter, I think, than when I arrived. In need of lunch - it was already after 4pm! - I tried my luck at the first few stops but found only gas station quickie marts. I finally discovered a natural grocery in Cedar Falls called Roots Market (http://www.rootsmarket.net/) where I started hitting the wall and took refuge in the air conditioning with a chocolate bar and juice before I was able to actually pick out a ready-made sandwich I could eat. My mood was perked up right before I left by the interest of a 3 year old girl who saw my helmet and wanted to know if that was my motorcycle outside. Her momma brought her out so she could take up my offer to sit atop the bike - and she really liked it. According to her mom, this child has been fascinated with motorcycles since before she could walk and takes every opportunity to get on a motorcycle!

Mood improved, I got back on the road and headed for a campground called Briggs Woods Campground. I fueled up and stopped at Super K for some sweatpants and ibuprofen. When I arrived, the campground seemed quite full of RVs - going to up the hill above the creek, I saw there was a lot more space. As I was checking out available sites, I was flagged down by the patriarch of a partying clan next to an RV. He introduced himself as Craig and started telling me "Welcome to Iowa!" and invited me to hang out with them, introducing me to everyone in his group. It was getting dark and the company seemed pretty good, so I found a spot across the field from them, set up my hammock and went to take a shower. I spent some time with Craig and Cindy and their family - they served me a drink called "Pineapple Upside Down Cake" and regaled me with many tales of travel, fortune & foolishness.

Day 3: 329 miles

View Directions to Burnridge Forest, Elgin, IL in a larger map

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 2 - West from Ohio

2011-08-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY, 8/28

Leaving Cleveland, I went through the University area and stuck to the roads indicated for Route 2 - hoping to stay off the freeways and away from the toll road. I actually drove right along the lake and through a lot of neighborhoody areas in the west side of Cleveland - it was a bit more scenic than I intended, but I was enjoying the old houses and neighborhoods quite a lot. I did get on the freeway for a little bit - and then back on 2 along the lake.

The roads were clear and I zipped right along. Before I knew it, I was passing Davis-Besse power plant (two big nuclear reactors!) - as the two-lane road curved to the west and crossed water, I noticed something moving on my left. Like a giant black plastic bag floating in the wind. No. A bird. A giant dark bird with a white head and golden - what the hell? A bald eagle??

I craned my neck as the eagle passed 4 feet above my head over the road, toward the marsh at the edge of Lake Erie. There was no shoulder and no place to stop quickly and go look - so I just marveled at the sight for a while (and traffic behind me probably getting angry about the motorcyclist going 5 mph below speed limit!).

I started to see familiar sights - an old bait shop where an enormously fat ginger tabby used to live, parked on the counter by the cash register. Places to picnic & fish. I pulled into the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, shucked my helmet and some layers and enjoyed a veritable symphony while I had some water.

I didn't hike very far into the trails but did walk around a bit to enjoy the wildlife - and realized that I had a loose nut on my little aftermarket windshield. A ranger pulled up and I introduced myself and inquired about tools - since I brought metric and the loose item required English (of course!).

"No problem!" he said, reaching in for a big flat plastic tool kit - and then it flipped open and dumped ratchets, socket bits and tools all over the gravel parking lot. While I helped him collect and put all the pieces back into their correct spots by size and silhouette, we talked about the bald eagles. He told me that there were about 8 nests in the area, "The place is lousy with them - we make jokes about chicken-fried bald eagle but we don't really mean it!"

I had enough phone reception to contact my friends in Toledo - Cindy answered the phone and gave me perfect directions and an invitation for dinner. I got on the road, only to stop a half mile away to pick up some Ohio candy corn (yum!) thinking we'd be making dinner at Cindy and Pat's house. I found their place and met the two new (to me!) dogs -- Reggie and Nawla -- in their home, and one elderly cat - and reacquainted with their daughter (I was her babysitter for a couple years in college) and granddaughter.

Before we left for dinner - I couldn't be stopped from hitting the candy corn, and ate two ears before we went to dinner - Ohio has some of the best corn (apples, strawberries and other stuff, too!). Candy corn is super sweet corn that you just eat raw - shuck it and nibble. It is tender and so delicious.

Off we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner - it was great fun to catch up with my friends who I hadn't seen since they visited me in New Orleans when their daughter Hillary was about 5 years old! Now she's in college & has her own daughter - time flies, doesn't it?

After dinner, we pulled out maps and computers - Cindy and Pat helped me plan my route out of Ohio since I didn't want to get on the turnpike or major interstates. They recommended a route on 120 that would go west, up into Michigan for a bit and then into Indiana.

I spent the night on their enclosed porch with the elderly cat - the sliding glass doors pulled to keep the dogs from bugging us. I had a view of Lake Erie, and got to watch the lights of the ships on the water move across the horizon til I fell asleep.

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Day 1: 149 miles

Friday (8/26) morning, I had coffee with my friend Pat before she left to do her duty in her Coast Guard Reserve uniform. We had a nice visit before she left, then I showered & dressed & got packed up on the motorcycle - and realized I forgot to leave out some socks, and had to unpack the bag and repack it before I could actually leave. ZOIKS!!!

I made a quick visit to the University of Toledo campus where I found myself in luck - Seamus Metress was holding office hours, and after refreshing his memory that I was one of his work-study students (his wife remembered instantly when she called!) - we had a nice long catch-up and he promised to send me a couple of his new books.

As I drove west, out of Toledo, I passed Centennial quarry - smell of blackberries, the constant whirring sound of crickets and the moist, hot weather brought back memories of bicycle rides with Pat - jumping into the cool spring filled quarry in our bike shorts & sport bras. I once found a $20 bill plastered and dry on a rock there, lost by other swimmers. I fought an urge to pull over and go for a swim - and I'm glad I did since apparently it's now a hugely built up complex with a concert venue (http://www.centennialterrace.org/). I guess my instinct to preserve my memories of overgrown blackberry brambles and a hole in the fence!

After passing several self-serve farm stands, thinking "It's too early to buy produce!" - even biting my lip and nearly turning back when I saw a "fresh horseradish sign" - I found I totally had to stop for this iconic white barn with an historical placard in front of it - memorializing, basically, a property boundary dispute.

Despite missing out on fresh (sigh) horseradish and more candy corn, NW Ohio tomatoes (the sweetest!) - sweet air and rolling terrain dotted red barn/white house, red house/white barn was bucolic and enjoyable. I buzzed past piles of ground cherry vines overflowing the culverts and honked and waved at animals on the side of the road who regarded me with curiosity.

And then - it seemed so sudden - my lovely ride on Route 120 dead ended into the toll road! I couldn't tell on the map exactly how to get around that and just hopped on. I stopped to eat the lunch I brought at the rest stop in Rolling Prairie and saw some tourist information that showed dunes - so since I missed a whole lot of Amish country already, I thought "It would be nice to just go along the shore of Lake Michigan."

Right off the freeway, I screeched to a halt when I saw a restaurant bearing my name: Jennie Rae's (http://www.jennieraes.com). I took pictures but didn't go inside (DOH!) to see if they had tshirts.

Finding the dunes in Michigan City wasn't that easy - first, I ended up at a beach. Then I went back and tried to follow the signs through town - but ended up way past, had to turn around and finally go there - overheated - and found a gorgeous beach with view of the Chicago skyline through the haze over Lake Michigan. A real BEACH! I was tired, hot & wanted to swim but figured I needed to get more miles in before calling it a day.

I left the dunes around 2:30 or 3pm - and found that I ended up in awful rush hour traffic. It wasn't just heavy traffic as I approached Chicago - nor the tolls - which were the problem, but aggressive drivers. One guy in a big pickup truck seemed to take exception to me and repeatedly would speed up on my left to get in front of me, hit the brakes and flip me off, or box me in, and then slow down. To make it worse - his pickup truck was loaded with household goods like lamps, furniture & stuff - none of it was tied down, and I could see stuff shift toward the tailgate every time he slammed on the brakes in front of me.

I did manage to get away from him for quite a stretch - but he broke through traffic to pursue me up to a toll gate. There were several, equally empty options, I tried to fake him out and go right - but he followed me anyway. Paying tolls is a bit of a process on a motorcycle - especially when you're not from the area and not prepared for stopping to pay 40 cents or $1.10 here and there.

I talked with the toll taker and asked her to mention to the driver behind me that no motorcyclist would relish being behind his unsecured load, and his aggressive behavior was dangerous. When I told her the details - she agreed.

As I was putting my gloves on, the driver started honking and yelling "Mother F----r" out the window. The toll taker said, "Don't worry - I'll take care of this." I never saw that guy again - I hope he got a stern lecture from highway patrol!

As I got closer to downtown Chicago - the traffic just became a 99 degrees Fahrenheit parking lot - not knowing the local regulations, and, in the heat - not caring much - I started lanesharing and just went through a lot of traffic. I didn't know where I was exactly - but it seemed like 4:30 in the afternoon was way too early for this kind of traffic!

I finally just decided to pull off before I got heat stroke - and as fortune would have it, ended up 3 blocks from a highly rated gourmet vegan restaurant called Karyn's on Green (http://www.karynsongreen.com/) which opened at 5pm.

While I sipped my Blueberry Mint Fizz, I was able to charge my iPhone, review the maps & figure out where I was camping for the night. I had the most delicious meal:

Roasted Foraged Mushrooms truffle chive polenta cake, scallions a la plancha, taro (pictured) - delicious oyster mushrooms and a very tasty polent cake, the grilled scallions were delicious but the crispy charred parts were mostly decorative, I think.
Barbeque Pork house-made seitan, cornbread stuffing, braised collard greens, sweet barbeque sauce - this surprised me because it was presented on a rectangular plate and each of the three items was arranged as a trio of rectangles across the width of the plate - the cornbread was actually little nuggets (yum!) and the bbq seitan was just perfect with a Tennessee-style sweet-sour sauce on the thin (vs jammy) side.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie - rich chocolate & peanut butter, pretzel-agave crust, cashew coconut cream - it was more delicious than it sounds - and totally decadent!

After such a relaxing and filling meal, I felt ready to hit the road again. I couldn't believe that at 7pm - the traffic was still really horrible. And there were like 4 more tolls (yay!). I accidentally ran through one - and at the last one - I had no change.

Fortunately, this was an unmanned toll gate at the offramp in Elgin, and in the twilight, my headlights picked up the glint of coins ALL OVER THE FREAKING GROUND!

Apparently, people just throw handfuls of change at the funnel til it opens - and there aren't any homeless people standing there begging (they probably already collected enough for beer & shelter by 2pm!).

So, I put down my kickstand and picked up coins to pay for my toll - and threw in enough for the people behind me - the driver looked very entertained by my own amusement, but her passenger was engrossed in his blue glowing smartphone.

I got gas then made my way to Burnridge Forest. The non-RV spots were all completely empty, so for $15 I had my choice: woods full of mosquitos or open field with high grasses with 10x more mosquitoes.

No showers, so I put on my swim suit and refreshed myself by the spigot near the bathrooms, then settled into my bivy with a Sookie Stackhouse book, while teenagers ran screaming through the dark woods for an hour.

Day 2: 325 mi (would've been 300 without the extra 25 mi or so) View Larger Map

Jenn's Big Summer Adventure: Part 1 - California to Ohio

2011-08-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Originally, I wanted to do this trip last year - and return via a more southerly route to take advantage of some TransAm Trail pieces - or maybe just visit friends and family in Memphis, New Orleans and West Texas. Due to the bad heat wave in Texas - I decided to avoid going through there. It just didn't sound like fun.

Additionally, to offset the cost of my fuel for the 16' moving truck going east - I put an ad on craigslist and transported a scooter to Salt Lake city, storage unit stuff to Toledo, and a KLR to Cleveland - in addition to my own motorcycle and my mom's stuff that I was bringing back to her.

A BARF/ADVRider friend named Harry helped me out a lot with going over the DR and sorting out various little issues that needed to be addressed - he noticed that my choke cable was frozen, so that got added to the list. He even found something in my rear tire - but it wasn't puncturing the tube and it came out alright. The front sprocket got changed from 14 back to stock 15 (wow - what a difference! I need to change it back so I don't get speeding tickets).

Day before departure, I had everything organized and out on the driveway when Gary and Jerry arrived to help load the truck. Gary has lots of motorcycle tying-down experience and between the three of us, we were done in about 30 minutes. There was still a LOT of space in that truck!

DAYS 1 - 4 (8/19 - 8/22)

I left on Friday (8/19) morning, a bit later than planned but that seemed to work well for traffic. I got to see pretty much all the scenery that is to be seen on 80 in daylight, arriving on the outskirts of Salt Lake City just after dark. We unloaded the scooter in the driveway - I felt very woozy and light headed while removing the tie-downs from the scooter. It took me a minute to realize that it was from gas fumes - well, I guess I won't be sleeping in the BACK of the truck on this trip!

The next morning, I went to City Cakes & Cafe (http://www.citycakescafe.com) - a vegan bakery with very delicious cupcakes, cookies and other goodies - so I got a lot of yummy things: chocolate peanut butter bar, lemon bar, peanut butter cookies, ginger-molasses something muffin and a few other items for the road. I figured - breakfast on this road trip is easy!

Saturday morning's drive out of Salt Lake City was gorgeous - and the rest of the day was alright. The scenery into Wyoming was ok - I got to see antelopes and loads of wild looking horses all over the place. After seeing billboards for a thai place and for a place offering to "meet all your camouflage needs" - I decided that had to be the lunch stop.

Anong's Thai Cuisine in Rawlins (http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=3756428376724009430) served me thai food that was just as good as the Bay Area - so I was optimistic: if I can find a decent Thai place for lunch every day, I'll be set!

After a very delicious lunch, I pulled away from the curb and noticed - I was RIGHT by that army surplus place - so had to go in and have a look around. Sadly, I did not have any current camouflage needs, so didn't buy anything.

I did, however, have some camping needs and since I wasn't too far from a Cabela's - I headed there. I saw a big storm off in the distance - and a rainbow:

And had a nice stroll through Cabela's - but they didn't have quite what I was looking for, though I was tempted to pick up one of these as a passenger seat for the DR:

After racing the storm on 80 - I won - I decided to spend the night at a place on Jennifer Drive in Sidney NE. There weren't a lot of good options for hotels, or restaurants - so I whipped up some miso & udon noodles on my camp stove in my room. Yum!

Sunday (8/21) morning, I noted and then clean forgot that there was another Cabela's near Sidney. You ever notice that there are nearly as many Cabela's as Target or Wal-Mart stores on I-80? I stopped in TWO Cabela's that day - finding what I wanted in La Vista. A nice waterproof duffel for the gear & clothing on the back of the DR - indispensable! Not much scenery in that part of Nebraska - or Iowa - so I kept pressing on and spent the night at a very nice moose/lodge themed hotel in the Des Moines area and ordered mediocre pizza from "the best pizza in town." At least I got to take a shower and watch True Blood!

Monday (8/22) morning, I heard the news that I just missed massive showers and flooding in La Vista and Council Bluffs - if I had left a day later - I would be looking for another route! I stopped in Dixon IL for gas - at Clark & Main!

I saw a grocery to see if I could come up with some healthy local produce for lunch later - and was shocked: not only was most of the stuff in the store packaged, including the fresh produce, there was not a single item in the produce section (that I could see) that was local. Seriously? We're in Illinois in AUGUST and you can't tell me that they aren't growing fresh, delicious tomatoes somewhere around there - right? Most of the produce was from Chile (isn't it WINTER there?), Mexico and California. You couldn't just buy a handful of greenbeans - they were swathed in shrink wrap on a styrofoam tray.

The kids at the cash register told me that Sullivan's is the last grocery store in town - the others have all folded due to competition from Wal-Mart for grocery dollars. There is a farmer's market, but they weren't sure when it was or where it was - but they were pretty sure that there was something. Little did I realize that this was just the tip of the iceberg of my grocery store/local produce experiences on this trip.

Lunch on Monday was hard to find - I ended up in Grand Island at a Maui/Hawaiian Islands sort of pizza place - with quite mediocre pizza. Don't go there. I pressed on -- amazed at the number of toll stops on 80 as I got closer to Chicago. I couldn't believe the crazy McMansion developments along the turnpike west of Toledo - giant houses on an artificial pond with big SUVs in every driveway. It looked like the gated communities outside of Sacramento in Roseville. Despite Google maps giving me directions for a freeway exit that NO LONGER EXISTED and sending me the wrong way, east toward Cleveland, away from Mentor, I made it to my mom's later on Monday night.

DAYS 5 - 7 (8/22-8/25)

Tuesday (8/23) morning, I unloaded the boxes from the truck to the spare bedroom. My mom & I headed for brunch at Tommy's down on Coventry (http://www.tommyscoventry.com/). We stopped in Mayfield Heights along the way to do a bit of Italian grocery store shopping at Ferrara's.

After brunch, I took my mom shopping for groceries, pet supplies and a dehumidifier for her place. Friends came by later and helped us unload both bikes - yay! Empty truck!

Wednesday (8/24) was a day of more unpacking, errands and de-flea-ing my mom's place. We went for lunch at the nearby Thai place (super yum!) and then I took off to collect, Dan, the owner of the KLR, from a Greyhound stop about 40 miles east. We stopped at AAA so we could take advantage of his membership to get a lot of maps - that was super helpful for my trip! I wish I had got the maps before I got on the road - it's so much different looking at paper maps than just trying to plan with Google maps or searching on the internet.

After returning to my mom's, we set him up with ice cubes and water in his bottles while he got organized and on the road. We had a big laundry night and I got my duffel packed and organized for the trip, all my stuff set up and ready to go. Dinner and TV then bed -- only to be awoken by a horrific storm that seemed to tear open the sky with light and sound.

Thursday (8/25), I drove the moving truck to drop it off - finding that it was in a totally unsupported industrial park. I started walking and stuck out my thumb - managing to catch a lift with an arborist back to Mentor Ave. Apparently, he was having a busy morning - power was out all around the area - trees were blocking driveways. The University area in downtown Cleveland was hit pretty hard, as were areas really close to the lake. Power outages, downed trees, limbs, leaves and debris were everywhere. The forecast, however, was clear and sunny!

It took me about an hour to get my old cordura mountain bike panniers and new waterproof duffel attached and packed (for the former) and packed and attacked (for the latter). I was on the road before noon, heading down to meet my friend Eric for lunch in Cleveland Heights. I stopped by Ferrara's to show my motorcycle to the elderly lady who was amazed that I would be riding a motorcycle - she wasn't there but all the guys behind the deli counter all came out to have a look at my set-up and kindly appreciative, wishing me luck before returning to what they were doing before my interruption.

Lunch at Tommy's with Eric was thwarted - they had no power when they opened, so didn't open. Power returned to the neighborhood but Tommy's employees did not - so we had thai food up the street. Every single 20 year old young man who worked there made a trip out to look at my motorcycle and wish me luck and express envy at my trip. As soon as Eric and I finished - I got on the road west!

More photos!

Week 1, West-to-East: 2,650 miles

Garden Update!

2011-07-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

The garden is looking pretty fabulous - I put in 18 plants from Kassenhoff, and I have volunteers all over the garden as well as other random places such as next to the driveway, by the trash cans in the front yard and such. I think the birds and squirrels were busier than last year. I have decided this year to do stakes - though I am putting cages on some of the tomato plants, esp the volunteers which I know are going to be cherry tomatoes.

I planted some broccoli - late, I know - but with our late rain (it poured all day on July 5th!) and overcast skies, it is thriving. I had about 800 ground cherry volunteers - some were potted up and many handed off to local folk who responded to my Freecycle post.

James turned me onto Annie's in Richmond - I got a spaghetti squash plant there which is just going absolutely nuts. There are about 10 softball size spaghetti squash. My cocozelle is doing well, having already produced one 18" long squash (oops! I blinked!) though some are false starts, indicating that I need to digitally facilitate pollination again (or get bees). Cucumber plants are doing well -- but none of the squash or cucumbers are following the lines I staked down around the leaves to make them climb UP to the trellis (dammit!). The small honeydew I got from Annie's - supposed to be softball sized - is NOT thriving. Neither are my two bell pepper plants which probably want way more sunlight.

Parsley & chard are both going to seed, following cilantro and arugula. I'm waiting for the seeds to shape more maturely so I can pull them off and sow them back in the ground. The fresh cilantro seeds, however, might get eaten. I have been quite lazy and haven't yet planted the half wine barrels - but they will soon be planted with some radishes, basil and lettuces. I know - basil likes hot weather and radishes cool but this *is* July in Oakland afterall.

Pictures coming - I promise! My neighbor gave me a zinnia start which just opened its first red blossom today and it is stunning!

Plum Jelly 2011

2011-07-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

The plum jelly report for 2011:

Plum Habanero jelly

9 half pints

Plain Old Plum jelly

3 12 oz
4 half pint
1 quarter pint

4 cups puree for plum ginger jelly or plum sauce

James' Art

2011-07-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

My friend James is having an art show at Berkeley Potters' Studio - so I made up a lot of yummy food to provision the visitors -big thanks to Serafine & Lara for their help in putting together:

2 pans spanakopita (served with apricot and persimmon chutney)
summer rolls (served with homemade plum sauce)
Mediterranean trays - dolmas, hummus, olives (2 kinds), cherry tomatoes, pita, baguette, cucumber

The spanakopita went fast! They also had some great sangria there and James' drummer friends did a couple sets of traditional Cuban rumba - great party!

Strawberry addiction

2011-06-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

I keep buying flats of strawberries from Mariquita! Today I finished up another batch of strawberry balsamic jam - I have decided that macerating the strawberries in sugar for 24 hours is the best way - I've got about 15 pints. I am freezing lots of strawberries (3 gallon bags of frozen whole berries now!).

First Date: Kohlrabi

2011-06-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

I got Kohlrabi in my Mariquita box and after reading up on all sortso f recipes - was very careful to peel & trim it and it still came out woody, not exciting or interesting for flavor or texture. I'm pretty sure I'm not going out of my way to grow this in the garden or to buy it again.

Do you have a passion for kohlrabi? How do you prepare it?

Cardoon Pot Pies

2011-06-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

First date with cardoon from Mariquita box - made into pot pies, along with english peas, new potatoes, cardoon, red onion, spring garlic, carrots, sweet potato and seitan. I also made a cardoon and new potato bisque. Both dishes came out fabulous - reminding me how much I enjoy both pot pies and new potatoes. Cardoon has a delicious artichoke-like flavor but without all the leaves! I'll definitely try cardoon again, esp for soups and pot pies.

A Photo Opportunity Missed: Goat Mower

2011-05-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went for a little hike in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills near Temescal Recreation Area. I saw a very pretty dog and then was shocked to see a bunch of goats - and then even more goats! I had a chat with Martin, Bolivian goat herder hired by the city to clean up the grass on steep hillsides with his crew of 300 goats and goat herding dog Willie. The goats were all very small goats - and some had big curly horns - but they were all very hungry goats!

He said that they will spend the night - he moves around an electrified mesh gate (he uses a car battery) to keep the goats from wandering out of the target area.

Martin also had a mouth full of the most amazing bling that I have seen up close! He recommended that I visit his hometown of Oruro, Bolivia (see the wiki entry) and the Parque Nacional Sajama which has a biiiiiiiiiig mountain that is well worth visiting. From Flickr:

Gracias Madre & Cha-Ya

2011-05-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

In the space of one day - I took two people for their first visits to two different restaurants! I met Captain Marty, a pilot of private aircraft, via Twitter. He publishes reviews of vegan restaurants he encounters in his travels in his blog, Marty's NYC Veggie Review.

We met up for lunch at Gracias Madre and talked our way through a delicious meal. He had been at Millennium the night before and had noted that the recent death of sous chef Jason Dunbar had, indeed, cast a shadow over the quality of his experience though he had not heard the news.

Our lunch at Gracias Madre was in a mostly empty (!) restaurant and our service was impeccable - all the servers were friendly and chatted with us. We shared scrumptious small plates:

- empanada del dia: on a small puddle of delicious mole, crispy and filled with sweet, caramelized plantain
- sweet potato quesadillas: perfect tortillas - just enough crispy/soft and filled with sweet mashed sweet potatoes
- gorditas: potato & masa Mexican version of a latke, served crispy on the outside and topped with shredded lettuce, green salsa, avocado and cashew creme
- guacamole & corn tortillas

We were pretty well stuffed on good food and very large horchatas (I think we each had 2!), then headed across the street to Duc Lo vietnamese market where Marty stocked up on all sorts of things he can't find in NYC (imagine!) such as Thai basil, curry leaves, key limes and other delicacies. Marty has all the pictures so hopefully he'll get his blog posting up now that mine is up!

Later, I took a friend visiting from Florida to Cha-Ya where we had all manner of yumminess - he loves Japanese food and was totally stoked to try all the dishes. He picked out some rolls in addition to my recommended avocado urumaki, agadeshi tofu and we shared a nice bottle of sake. He was stuffed and glowing with pleasure as we strolled out of Cha-Ya -- I guarantee both friends will be back to visit those restaurants again!

A Tale of Two Lemon Cakes

2011-05-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

As a special treat for a wine tasting trip with Matt, Aaron, Selina, Z-man, Richie - I made up two cakes - done with lemon instead of orange as specified:

Olive Oil Rosemary Semolina cake

Fran Costigan's Orange Almond Olive Oil Cake

The first cake required that the batter proof - it wanted yeast and I found myself up late late at night before I was supposed to be getting in the limo with my friends! It had a drier, bouncier crumb - downright springy.

The second cake just came out perfectly the first time - it was very moist and dense. Subsequent attempts to make it find it to be - terribly fickle - and it just collapeses into a globby heap (not sure if it is because I tried using key lime juice instead of orange or lemon and if there is a difference).

And, of course - I made chocolate peanut butter cups, for which Matthew nearly murdered Aaron (who also enjoyed them).

Spice Blends: Baharat, Herbes de Provence and more

2011-05-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Today was spice blend refresh day in my kitchen. From Matt's first experiments with tagines, I have been intrigued by baharat - there are apparently two predominant types of this spice blend: Turkish vs Northern African/Tunisian. The difference is that Turkish baharat recipes are all over the internet and feature cumin and a lot of other spices while Tunisian is basically black pepper, rose petals & cinnamon. I found a great article on Chow with recipes for both: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10562-baharat

Here's a link to the Turkish version I made: whole black peppercorn, whole coriander seed, cassia or cinnamon bark, whole cloves, cumin seed, cardamom seeds, whole nutmeg, ground paprika.

I also put together my favorite version of Herbes de Provence - I love lavender in this blend, though it is not typically something that appears on Southern French cooking - great history on the herb blend on Wiki.

Last but not least, I made up my favorite Za'atar blend - usually sumac, thyme, sesame seeds and salt, but you might include oregano and marjoram. Wiki offers a great history of za'atar and there are tons of recipes out there - figure out what you like best and enjoy!

Garden 2011

2011-05-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Sadly no pictures - just news that I picked up plants from Kassenhoff (at the Farmer's Market) and Annie's in Richmond and put some plants:

12 Tomatoes (in addition to the volunteers)
4 peppers
2 squash
1 cucumber
1 giant ground cherry (to keep the smaller ground cherries company)

Seems early enough - let's see how it goes this year!

Product Review: Nacheez - It Even Fools the Cats!

2011-04-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

At Berkeley Vegan Earth Day, I had the opportunity to sample and bring home two jars of Nacheez - a vegan "queso" style cheese to pour over nachos. I had all sorts of ideas about steamed broccoli and mac-n-cheese but to be honest - both jars of Nacheez Spicy ended up on Nachos. My friend Scott (an omnivore) & I had nachos with 1 bag of organic tortilla chips, 4 chopped up spring onions and some spicy organic salsa - that made a pretty good dinner. The Nacheez is mostly nutritional yeast based, and pretty low calorie - 1 jar is 7 servings, at 20 calories per serving that's 140 calories per jar.

To be honest - I didn't even sample the mild version. The spicy version isn't too spicy but it has a nice flavor with bits of peppers in it, smoky, cheesy and rich. My cats went loco when I heated up the nachos and while my friend & I were eating them. George, especially, was all over my lap, begging for cheesy goodness.

Right now, it's available at Never Felt Better Vegan Boutique and at Food Fight! (they do online orders).

This is totally NOT the sort of thing that I would have bought based on anyone's review or seeing it on a shelf. I never bought the non-vegan versions but this stuff is way better in flavor than the horribly oily orange non-vegan queso stuff that gets slopped on tortilla chips.

I'm all over Nacheez - looking forward to getting my hands on some more - but it does seem kind of silly for me to order it from a Portland store when it is made 100 miles away in Sacramento... so I guess I'll have to wait for it to show up here.

Plant Sale in Oakland on May 7!

2011-04-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Girl on Bike for excellent news about an upcoming North Oakland plant sale

Spring Plant Swap in the North Oakland Golden Gate Community.

Have plants you need to prune? Extras that don't seem to fit in with your home or garden? Started too many seeds this year? Why not bring them all down to the North Oakland Plant Swap and trade them with your neighbors for some new-to-you plants and gardening supplies.

At the plant swap you can bring plants, cuttings, seedlings, starts, foraged plants, and seeds of edible & non edible plants.
This is also a great place to bring any extra gardening supplies you have: pots, natural fertilizers, vermicompost/worms, garden tools, stepping stones, etc.
Pass them all on to a new home and come pick up some new-to-you plants for your garden and home.

Need to donate your plants earlier than the swap date? No problem. We will be accepting donations at the swap location May 4th, 5th, & 6th.

The only entrance fee is something brought to add to the swap.
*Please remember to label each of your plants with these Plant Information Sheets

Spring Swap:

Saturday May 7th

12-3pm

5927 San Pablo Ave.

Oakland, CA 94608

(on the Berkeley/Emeryville border)

Marshmallows

2011-04-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

Vegan marshmallows are the height of decadent vegan junk food, right? I've always been a big Sweet & Sara marshmallow fan since they are easily picked up at Whole Foods. Vegan Essentials had a discount, so I picked up some Dandies with my last order. I also took advantage of a Groupon for Sweet & Sara and bought a bunch of stuff I haven't tried yet from them.

There are some distinct differences between the two marshallows -- the Dandies are big, round & puffy like their gelatin-derived cousins. Perfect for putting onto a stick and melting. They are lighter and fluffier. The Sweet & Sara marshmallows are denser, chewier & have a richer vanilla flavor - their strawberry marshmallow is pretty fantastic, too!

THE S'MORES TEST: The shape of Sweet & Sara's marshmallows makes it really easy to use scissors to cut it in half across the middle for two flat squares to lay out on a graham cracker, with chocolate on the other side. I just slide that into the toaster oven on "broil" and by the time the marshmallows are puffing up, the chocolate is melted just enough and I snap the cracker in the middle and press the two sides together. The lower profile of the Sweet & Sara marshmallow works better in the toaster oven.

The Dandies marshmallow got kind of crispy (still delicious) and works better for the outdoors s'smores, toasted on a stick version.

THE FONDUE TEST: Since they are so big, I usually find myself snipping up the Sweet & Sara marshmallows into little squares to dip into melted chocolate & chill as a super yummy treat! They are just too big to eat whole with fondue. As they are fluffier and not quite as rich, the Dandies work really well in fondue.

RECOMMENDATION: Buy them both! I like Sweet & Sara for toaster s'mores and Dandies for fondue, but both have excellent & distinct flavors.

Other Sweet & Sarah treats I tried included the Cinnamon & Hazelnut biscotti - they were delicious - they had a rich crumbly texture like pecan sandies, weren't too busted up in shipping and went really well with my coffee. I'm half-Italian by heritage, so that makes me a dunker - these cookies stand up pretty well to the dunking test (just don't dunk the same area more than twice or you will have mushy coffee). I also tried a sample of the Rocky Road - that was quite delicious but I prefer making that kind of treat at home since it's so easy to toast some pecans/almonds, chop up marshmallows and melt chocolate.

Singer Sewing Machine Table

2011-03-24T14:59:00.001-07:00

Singer Sewing Machine Table, a photo by jennconspiracy on Flickr.

I am so happy to share a picture of my new table! My grandmother had an old Singer treadle operated sewing machine - which worked (I used it often as a child). Unfortunately, I didn't acquire it in the break-down of her household (or my mom's) but have always harbored an interest in having an old treadle machine base for a table.

A few weeks ago, I found this gorgeous slab of cocoa-colored granite streaked with caramel and flecks of chocolate/espresso - already mounted on plywood with a slab of particle board on the back. It was so heavy that it was all I could do to wrangle the thing into the back of my friend's Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and it stayed there for nearly a month while I fantasized about making it into a table.

Two days ago, someone offered a Singer treadle sewing machine base on Freecycle and I happened to have use of my friend's truck and went out and got it. Since I had left the table top in the truck for so long - the particle board was ruined and it took me 2 hours to pry and chip it off, but after much work, a little sanding and four #16 1.25" screws, I made my new table! Click through for more pictures of the nice slab of stone. This goes so well with my antiques!

Happy Birthday!

2011-03-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Happy 64th Birthday day to my Mother -- she's reading my presents to her: "Eating Animals" "Becoming Vegan" on her Kindle, and "The Vegan Diet as Chronic Disease Prevention" in paper. She says that it's not easy to read "Eating Animals" and she may just go more vegetarian (cheese!) but she's finding that she's buying more for her money by not buying meat at the grocery store, and eating very well! Yay mom!

Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole

2011-03-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

A conversation with my mom yesterday gave me a brilliant idea that pulled together the Daiya cheese I picked up to try for the first time a couple weeks ago and the giant bag of broccoli crowns from last week's Mariquita Mystery Box. This is a recipe in development as I didn't exactly measure everything and it worked out perfectly!

Before throwing this together, I looked up some recipes for Broccoli Rice casserole - most of them use the same basic ingredients: broccoli, rice, cheddar cheese, a can of UBI (universal binding ingredient aka Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup). Being the snob that my brother accuses me - I don't have any Campbell's (or any other packaged soup) in the house. I do, however, have a variety of dried wild mushrooms and Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy packets. As always - save the water that you use to soak the dried mushrooms - don't worry if they still feel firm - they will soften up after they are mixed in and baked.

INGREDIENTS:

4-5 cups cooked rice - I used brown basmati & Louisiana wild rice cooked w/veggie stock
1 qt stock/mushroom water
EVOO or untoasted sesame oil, as needed
1.5 c white wine
1/2 c nutritional yeast
8 oz package Daiya cheddar shreds
3 to 4 c raw broccoli crowns cut up into tiny florets, thinly slice the stalks
1 red onion, quartered & thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced & roughly chopped
1/2 red bell pepper in 1/2" dice
2.5 cups mushrooms, fresh or dried
1 Tb dried thyme
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
2 packets Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy (you could possibly substitute this by making a little almond butter gravy or mixing up flour/tapioca starch/corn starch to gravy-fy the mushrooms & onions)

PROCESS:

I used my two largest cast iron skillets (10" and 11 3/4"), a large stainless still mixing bowl for combining everything and a big Pyrex casserole dish.

Using the smaller skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil and add the onions, cook until transluscent. Add the garlic.
While the onions & garlic cook, use scissors or a knife to cut up the dried mushrooms into small dice. You can leave fresh mushrooms in larger pieces but I think dried mushrooms turn out better if you cut them smaller. I used scissors to cut up dried porcini pieces into little bits, and a knife to cut up the dried shitakes (which come whole).
After the garlic starts to soften and liquid in the pan is reduced, add the mushrooms. Cook until reduced and then deglaze with a generous amount of wine. Continue cooking until the wine reduces then add more until you have added all the wine.
Remove mushrooms & onions from heat, stir in thyme, nutritional yeast & contents of gravy packets, stir until well mixed.
Put the larger skillet on high heat with enough olive oil to coat - add broccoli stalk pieces first, stir fry til bright green, add florets and red pepper flakes. Squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon if desired.
Once florets are bright green, start adding the quart of stock - about 1/4 of the quantity at a time to simmer/steam the broccoli a bit. Even better if you are using the mushroom soaking water!
After using 1 qt of stock and reducing to about 1/2 c liquid, turn off flame.
Transfer rice to large stainless steel mixing bowl and break up any lumps.
Transfer broccoli to mixing bowl and toss with rice.
Add Daiya cheddar shreds and toss with broccoli & rice.
Spoon in raw diced red bell pepper along with the mushrooms & onion mixture and toss gently.
Taste and season with salt, black or white pepper, or Nama Shoyu as needed. A little vegan worcestershire or peanut sauce might not hurt either.
Transfer to your lightly oiled Pyrex casserole dish, bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool before you eat it and burn your fool mouth!

It tastes even better the next day and slices into servings wonderfully! The Daiya cheddar shreds tasted really good out of the package and melted really well. The edge along the casserole dish got crispy chewy cheesy, making me wish I had saved some of the shreds to put on top to make it more bubbly & cheesy.

Tonight, I'm going to make garlic cheese bread with the Daiya mozzarella shreds that are in the fridge.

Tiny Bubbles

2011-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure that the USDA home canning website would NOT approve of the "funghi trifolati" recipe that I received a while back from another mushroom forager. Last December, after picking a small amount of chanterelles & blewits, I decided I wanted to try my hand at it.

First - here's the recipe as I received it:

With all the chantrelles you have, I thought I would pass on my favorite way to store them. I learned this from my Italian friend's mom. It is a variation of funghi trifolati. This stuff goes fast!

You need basic glass jar canning supplies.
Ingredients:
A LOT of rough-chopped chanterelles (or other mushrooms--honey mushrooms, porcini and oyster are great). It is cool when you get little ones to leave them as whole as possible.
thinly sliced garlic
chopped flat-leaf parsley
chopped thyme
a lot of good olive oil
pickling brine:
Fill a very large stock pot (big enough to accommodate this brine and a good quantity of your mushrooms) about half-full of water. Add enough quality salt so it tastes about like sea water (saltier than you think). Add quality cider or white wine vinegar to equal about half the volume of the water. Add bay leaf, peppercorns and whatever else you like to taste.

Method:
Sterilize jars.
Bring brine to a strong simmer.
Add mushrooms and let them cook for two minutes after the brine comes back to a strong simmer. Strain the mushrooms from the brine as you jar them (you want them hot). Keep the brine, it is awesome in salad dressings.
With a sterilized slotted spoon or tongs add a layer of mushrooms, straight from the hot brine, to the bottom of a jar.
Add a layer of your chopped herbs and garlic.
Then add a layer of olive oil. repeat this process until you are about half-inch fro the top of the jar and fill this space with olive oil.
Tap the jars on a hard surface to try and coax excess air to the top.
Put the lid on the jar and store for at least a couple of weeks in a cool, dark place.
The mushrooms take on an amazing, oily-crunchy texture after time and all the flavors blend. the stored mushrooms are beautiful, in layers of gold and green. I have kept them like this for over a year. Some people worry about the addition of raw herbs and garlic and blanch them.

After reading a bunch of recipes, looking at the Ball Blue Book for canning mushrooms, this is basically what I did:

Prepare brine of vinegar & salt with spices, bring to a boil.
Add peeled & coarsely chopped garlic to brine, return to simmer for several minutes
Once garlic is soft, add mushrooms and simmer til liquid seems to be released from the mushrooms (several minutes).
Strain mushrooms & layer mushrooms in sterilized quart jar with steam blanched chopped green herbs (parsley, oregano, rosemary) and olive oil. Cover with olive oil.

I let the jars sit on the counter for about 6 weeks, opening them up to try them in late January - delicious! I shared some with other friends, the mushrooms were delicious and nobody suffered any ill effects. Two nights ago, when I opened the jar the lid made a slight "pop" like there was a build up of gases when I opened the chanterelles and it made a slight pop when I opened the jar. My friend and I ate some anyway and they tasted good, we didn't get sick.

Today when I was cleaning in the kitchen, I noticed that the gas had built up again in the chanterelles. I also noticed some very tiny tiny bubbles coming up, continuously, through the top layer of olive oil which had turned a darker color.

On closer inspection (and in daylight, not like two nights ago), I noticed that there was some milky white sediment in the bottom. There also seemed to be a LOT of air bubbles, pea size and bigger. I had carefully used a butter knife to remove air bubbles and a fork/spoon to press down the contents when I filled the jars.

I pulled out a bamboo chopstick to explore and release some bubbles and noticed some of the larger pieces of garlic felt a bit firm and when I pushed on them - they released alot of milky goo. I also noticed, much to my surprise, that the bottom 2-3" of the jar was not olive oil but liquid (brine? juice?).

Not wanting to risk botulism, I chucked just over 1/2 jar each of chanterelle & blewit pickle. Very sad.

Has this ever happened to you with this process? What did I do wrong? Was I wrong to chuck the mushrooms? Is this an issue with the garlic?

I had a similar experience with some tomato sauce I made last fall -- unlike the previous 20 years, I decided to put in some herbs and garlic. The sauce cooked at a simmer for over 12 hours - it was damned hot! I canned it in a hot water bath for 30 minutes. However, when I opened the jars from that batch - there were tiny rising continuous bubbles in the sauce. I reheated the sauce and simmered it for over an hour, after it cooled - it still had these weird bubbles (so I chucked it).

What's up with the carbonation? Any canning mavens out there got any ideas?

The Raw & The Cooked

2011-03-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Hey ~~Stalkers!~~ Bay Area! If you haven't yet tried a RawDaddy cone, I want to encourage you to come look for me at the Temescal Farmer's Market on Sundays! After trying RawDaddy last fall at the Eat Real Festival, I was hooked. I was very excited about RawDaddy being at the East Bay Raw MeetUp in January, and jumped in to help out - now, I'm helping out every Sunday at the Temescal Farmer's Market. You can come and try a delicious RawDaddy cone and meet moi.

MARCH: "An Evening With Colleen Patrick Goudreau" at Millennium Restaurant on March 20! Great opportunity to meet the author of "The Joy of Vegan Baking" and enjoy Chef Eric Tucker's vegan snackies at a book release party for the author's new book "Vegan's Daily Companion."

APRIL: Berkeley Vegan Earth Day! What a great idea, right? It'll be a great time - catered vegan food, a film & speakers. Go sign up and meet me there!

REVIEW: "Eating Animals"

2011-02-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

"Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer is a fantastic book with critical information presented well. The author doesn't overload you with statistics and figures, and writes with a very easy to read style that flows well - resulting in retention of important facts that he uncovered in his research. Could you imagine a label on a pound of shrimp that says "26 pounds of other animals were killed for each pound of this shrimp"? That's a tremendous image.

His discussion of fish revealed a lot that I did not know about the industry - and added to my recently acquired information The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi recently. What was particularly highlighted to me was that there is absolutely no requirement for humane killing of fish.

There are also no standards for chickens, turkeys and pigs. The author uses great images to convey information about numbers of animals and their confinement.

As a vegan for 5 years, a vegetarian eating fish only occasionally to rarely for the previous 10, and only eating "white" meat when socially compelled or required by personal relationships for the previous 20 -- I rather thought I was doing my part. I write a food blog that provides recipes for friends and strangers, feed everyone I know, help provide information about how to eat compassionately and do what I can to support others in this choice. After reading this book, I am thinking that perhaps that isn't enough - though there are so many problems in the world, one might think that working to educate people about veganism is low on the list of priorities.

However, if you look at it like this - 1/3 of all available surface land on our planet is dedicated to animal agriculture, and 30% of global warming is due to animal agriculture. This doesn't even address issues of pollution & contamination caused by animal agriculture or the devastation of species diversity in the ocean.

If our increased demand for more & cheaper animal flesh as food products is one of the largest leading causes of the destruction of our planet - what sort of legacy is that for future generations? I think the future generations can live better without a steak, hamburger, ham or turkey if it means more equitably distributed nutrition and less disease - and a better, more well fed, happier & healthier planet - for all animals, including humans. Now I just have to figure out my role in all this better than just changing my own diet and encouraging folks in my limited sphere of influence.

Green Smoothies

2011-02-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, a friend who has a kitchen that consists of a mini-fridge & microwave (I'm not sure she has a stove!) asked me how she could get more vegetables, especially leafy greens, into her diet without all that pesky cooking & eating of solid food. Since I am a huge fan of green smoothies, I put together my notes on green smoothies for her and after a few weeks she reports that she wakes up craving her green smoothie and her day is not the same without it!

There's a TON of information on the internet about green smoothies - lots of "recipes" and recommendations for the "correct" proportions of leafy greens and fruit and lots of information on the correct "order" to put things into the blender.

Here's my take on the Green Smoothie:

Put 1 cup of cold water into the blender.
Depending on size, add 3-6 leaves of kale, chard, collards and/or a handful of spinach, parsley or cilantro.
Process until all the green stuff is pulverized.
Add fresh or frozen raw fruit/avocado/zucchini.
Process til pulverized, adding enough water to bring up to 4 or 5 cups.
(optional) Add some freshly squeezed lemon or other citrus juice (I usually keep a jar of lemon juice in the fridge)
(optional) raw cacao powder, raw protein powder, psyllium husk powder

You might say "I hate kale, I can barely eat it!" but the truth is - once you make a smoothie - you won't notice the taste of the greens because they blend right in with whatever fruit or other veggies you make. If you want it creamier, use some frozen fruit or a small zucchini/courgette. Zucchini adds some good protein and makes anything creamy when blended.

My favorite fruits are fresh mangos and strawberries (which I froze last fall on cookie sheets). Here in California, mangos are cheap - you can get them 5 for $5 at Whole Foods, even. Avocados are pretty cheap out here too - sometimes you can find the little small avocados for under $1 each, just the right size for a smoothie. Avocados are a healthy source of fat (and you do not have to buy organic because the skins are very thick - just try to get California avos, or Mexico but stay away from stuff imported from other continents generally). Personally - I stay away from most tropical fruit. Fresh pineapples hurt my mouth, bananas just don't taste as good here as they do in the places where they are grown.

I try to put mostly greens into my smoothies - and I have a ton of parsley growing in the yard, so this morning is probably going to be: chard, parsley, 1/4 avo, 3-4 frozen persimmon cubes (about 1/2 c persimmon puree) and 1 scoop raw vegan protein powder (brown rice based).

Most smoothie recipes don't include protein powder because you are getting all the natural enzymes from the raw greens to make protein - but I do this personally about every other smoothie or when I am going to make the smoothie all I eat for most of the day (and then I make more than 1 qt and drink it while I am working).

Take advantage of your raw dessert recipe leftovers for smoothies! Recently, I made a key lime green smoothie the other day after making up the filling for a raw key lime pie (which I was making with a recipe from the Cafe Gratitude dessert book "Sweet Gratitude") - with young coconut milk & water, avocado, lime and collard greens, plus a handful of locally harvested pineapple guava that someone gifted me at an East Bay Raw Foods MeetUp. It was incredibly delicious!

Green smoothie keeps well in the fridge - so you could drink half and bring the other half to work to have for a mid-morning snack. Unlike fresh green juice, it doesn't oxidize and become some awful unappetizing color.

Here are a couple of my favorite green smoothie websites -- get some ideas but don't get hung up on details, just throw some good greens into your blender, add water, whiz & enjoy!

Green Smoothie Recipies by Victoria Boutenko http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes
Green Smoothie Recipes http://www.greensmoothie.com/blend/green.html

Two Vegan Bake Sales!

2011-02-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

VEGAN BAKE SALE #1
Coming up this Saturday, Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary is having a vegan bake sale. Find them on Saturday from 11 to 2, on the Front Sidewalk of PETA Office, 554 Grand Avenue, Oakland.

VEGAN BAKE SALE #2
The next EBVB is coming Saturday, February 26th! It will be held, as usual, in front of Issues Shop in Oakland, and run from 11am to 3pm.

If you're interested in doing any of these, please email ebveganbakesale@gmail.com.

Vegan Dining, out and about

2011-02-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks I have used up my Groupons, taken advantage of discounts and felt like I totally went off my raw vegan diet (still having green smoothies for breakfast). In truth, I'm still sticking to a mostly raw diet - lots of delicious salads, green smoothies, and other tasty things. And, somehow, I haven't managed to gain weight. Yay, me!

Here are some of my favorite places that I have visited in the last couple of weeks:

DONUT FARM: first and foremost, you need to go buy your coupon for 2-for-1 salt caramel vegan donut from the Pepple's Ferry Building kiosk. Saturday - go to the Donut Farm on San Pablo for vegan brunch (9-2:30) - the most scrumptious and tasty vegan brunch out there. Best. Hashbrowns. Ever.

RAW DADDY FOODS: delicious raw, organic & vegan "fast" food from proprietor James Hall. I'll be helping him out at the Temescal Farmer's market beginning Sunday (fair weather only!), so please come look me up and give these delicious treats a try.

GRACIAS MADRE: this place is no joke. I am in love with the gorditas de papa topped with creamy cashew sauce, avocado, sprouts and green salsa, the sweet potato chipotle empanadas enveloped in chewy flaky dough on a perfect puddle of fantastic mole sauce, awesome tortillas and killer mole enchiladas (love the kale). Quite possibly the best Mexican food in the Bay Area, no kidding.

LEGION OF HONOR CAFE: most amazing frites & best view from any restaurant in the Bay Area. Those frites were totally worth six bucks, though I do wish I had a slightly larger portion, my ass thanks you for not American-sizing it. Also be sure to get there before June to check out the "Pulp Fashion" exhibit - I'll be back to see it at least a few more times, so send me an e-mail if you want to go with me (I'm a member!).

SATURN CAFE: some very good vegan options, lots of vegetarian options - but seriously: BEST FREAKING GARLIC FRIES EVER! I am so not kidding. They do not mess around with the deep fryer.

MILLENNIUM: I want to marry the dessert chef for coming up with peanut butter chocolate chip bread pudding with roasted banana ice cream. No joke. She's cute and likes cats, too!

ENCUENTRO: most fantastic & economical wine tasting event for Make Work Winery - 3 glasses & 3 tapas for $25, but I could not resist getting the chocolate cake. Chef Eric, Chef Lacey & Bosslady Linda do a great job - say hi to the most awesome server Liz when you go in.

WAT MONGKOLRATANARUM (aka "Berkeley Thai Brunch"): best yellow curry in existence, giant chunks of potato and tofu puffs. Get there early before the coeds snarf it all down.

MEZZE: I bought their Groupon because their menu specifically said "can be made vegan" on several items. used one of my two coupons with a friend on Friday - and was very impressed by their mushroom risotto, wines by the glass selection and very tasty frites (not as good as the Legion Cafe, but I'm seeing a bad pattern here - french fries are, indeed, my achilles heel). Looking forward to my next visit.

I haven't been to Cha-Ya on Shattuck since their remodel, but am very saddened to see that they have removed the chairs from the sushi bar, one of my favorite places to eat there. I'm also dying to return to the Imperial Tea Court in the food mall on Shattuck -- most awesome hand pulled noodles and green onion pancake (tea is pretty good, too). The hand pulled noodles are not available at the Ferry Bldg, so save your appetite for the Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto.

Roasted Parsnip & Escarole Salad

2011-02-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

After 4 weeks of 100% raw, I have started reintroducing cooked foods - and decided I want to stay more "high raw" for the next 3 months. I picked up a Mystery Box from Mariquita last week - had some incredible Castelfranco & Treviso radicchio, and two large heads of escarole. I made a great big romaine & radicchio salad last night - but it only reminded me how much I dearly love seared or grilled radicchio (and other bitter greens).

So, for tonight's dinner - I roasted the ginormous parsnip that came in the box and put together a delicious salad, inspired by a recipe provided by Julia in the newsletter, but modified (as always). Feel free to take inspiration and make your own version!

Roasted Parsnip & Escarole Salad

Ingredients:

1 large parsnip, scrubbed, chopped into 1" pieces (remove fibrous center near large end if necessary)
1/4 c lemon juice
1 small handful of parsley (enough for 1/4-1/3 chopped)
2 tsp mustard
2 Tb white wine vinegar
1.5 c sourdough croutons (stale sourdough bread cut into 1.5" chunks works, too!)
1 cup small cremini or shitaki mushrooms, halved
1/4 c small capers
3-4 stems of green garlic
1 bunch of chinese garlic
1 large head of escarole, coarsely chopped, washed & spun dry, 4-6 leaves escarole (also coarse chopped)
1/3 c kalamata olives - or - grapes - halved
1/3 c pine nuts
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS

Toss the parsnip pieces with olive oil to coat, sprinkle with salt & pepper, toss, arrange in single layer on cookie sheet or large cast iron skillet and roast at 400 till tender & chewy. Remove from heat when done.
In cuisinart or blender, combine parsley, lemon, mustard, vinegar and 2-3 Tb of olive oil (take it easy here because there's plenty of olive oil coming up!) - reserve in a dish or measuring cup once fully blended & thickened.
In a large cast iron skillet, toss the croutons to coat with olive oil and toast well. Put aside.
Add mushrooms to hot skillet and sear - don't let them get too soft! Add capers, green garlic & chinese garlic. Once the garlic & parsnips have gotten bright grene, add parsnips and toss to warm - transfer to another dish and reserve.
Put your chopped escarole in the skillet, drizzle with olive oil, a pinch of salt & pepper. Cook on high heat -- keep it moving by tossing gently with wooden spoons - just to wilting.
Toss escarole, reserved veggies, dressing, pine nuts, croutons and olives/grapes (depending on whether you are in a salty/sweet mood).

Yum!

Kale Chips & Other Dehydrator Treats

2011-02-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

Recently on the MSSF list, someone asked about dehydrators. As part of the vegetarian minority in the mycology world, I had a sense that a lot of folks only use the dehydrators for drying mushrooms. When I looked at dehydrators, I wanted to make sure that I got one that was the most versatile and useful for many different uses. I mentioned all the different sorts of things that I make in my dehydrator and had plenty of positive responses from folks who wanted some ideas for kale chips and flax seed crackers.

I started off with a round dehydrator with a warming element in the bottom, no fan - and realized that it didn't work very well for a lot of things. Probably if I was just drying slices of mushrooms cut to fit in the shelves, it would be ok but it just didn't dry evenly and couldn't dry faster than mold could grown on some wetter fruits.

About three years ago, I bought my Excalibur Dehydrator as a factory refurb from E-bay, and I have never regretted it. It can handle so much more than just drying mushrooms, fruits & veggies!

Jenn's Dehydrator Treats Primer

Teriyaki Almonds

Sprout some raw almonds - make sure you rinse & change the water a couple times; of course it is better to use distilled water or water that has been boiled & cooled (I use what's in my teakettle) than straight tap but use what you have.
In your Cuisinart with an S-blade - mix up a nice batter of raw dates, ginger, garlic and nama shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce)
Mix that onto the almonds, put them on a teflex sheet (or parchment paper)
Dry at 105 for several hours. That's similar to the "I Am Spirit" recipe from Cafe Gratitude (super yummy teriyaki almonds - heck yeah!)

Kale chips:

Use any kind of kale - I prefer lacinato/dino kale; you can also use other greens like spigariello or chard - wash the kale and spin dry or spread on towels
Using scissors, trim out the biggest part of the stem/rib, then cut the kale into 2" pieces (more or less)
Put all kale into a bowl, drizzle with a few tsp of olive oil and massage with your fingers til softened
Mix up your "batter" - I do it in the blender - and it varies depending on what I have in the house, usually I will throw a small red onion, half a red bell pepper, several cloves of garlic, some minced ginger - all into the blender. Add nutritional yeast & raw tahini, the juice of 1 or 2 lemons (or limes). Taste the batter - it should be something you want to keep licking off your fingers - if it is too thin, add more nutritional yeast or tahini (raw cashew butter also works).
Taste and adjust spices - when the batter tastes FINGER LICKING GOOD (I am not kidding!) - pour it over the kale chips - not all at once. Use a rubber spatula to gently mix and work it in with your fingers so that both sides of all kale gets covered.
Spread out the kale onto teflex sheets (or parchment paper) - in as much a single layer as you can.
Dehydrate on 115 for the first half hour or so, then reduce to 105 - or just leave at 105.

If you have any batter left over - it's great as a base for salad dressing - or get out some other greens (chard & spigariello work great for chips too). It's a great way to get your greens!

quick cooked kale chips - just rub kale with olive oil, mix with black pepper & sea salt and put in the oven on a cookie sheet at 200 - not raw, but they crisp up super fast and make a great appetizer for a dinner party - your guests will be shocked that they just wolfed down 2 whole bunches of kale in the form of chips! :)

Raw Crackers - I confess, I grind up my flax seeds. Our human teeth are not tough enough to break open the flax seeds to get out all the nutrients, so my crackers are usually something like this:

Grind up 1 c of flax seeds & soak in water - add water as needed - may take a few hours or overnight
Soak 1 c raw almonds til they sprout, rinsing & changing water as needed
When all flax & almonds are ready - grind the almonds in the cuisinart then add to the flax seeds and mix in 2-3 cups raw veg pulp from juicing carrots or other veggies, along with a little salt (I use my Kitchen Aid for this)
For more flavor - put red onion, garlic, tomatoes (fresh or sun dried), parsley/cilantro/rosemary into the cuisinart and chop the heck outta them - add to the cracker "dough" - nutritional yeast is also yummy
Using clean, wet hands - spread onto teflex sheets - flaxseed crackers don't shrink as much as buckwheat crackers, so just make sure there are no bare spots on the teflex - about 1/4" thick is good
Use the back of a bread knife or some kind of spatula, score the wet cracker dough on the tray to the shapes you want - big or little, square or rectangle
Dehydrate 115 for first hour or so then reduce to 105 til crispy

I have made crackers with beet pulp mixed in with carrot and the cracker dough - with onions & parsley added in - looked just like meatloaf!

With the crackers - it's ok to go crazy with fresh herbs - but be careful with dried herbs and salt - you don't want your crackers to be too salty or taste too strongly of one particular dried herb (or maybe you do... just keep in mind that dried herbs & salt don't reduce in volume like fresh herbs/veggies).

Feel free to drop a line and I'll be happy to talk you through anything. I'm going to make a big batch of flaxseed crackers later this week if you want to come over and check out the process.

Raw Brussels Sprouts & Enoki

2011-01-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

This tasty little raw vegan entree of shredded brussels sprouts features little enoki mushrooms, lemon juice, nama shoyu, olive oil, black pepper, garlic, marinated in dehydrator at 105 for a couple hours to make the sprouts & mushrooms nice & soft.

INGREDIENTS:

1 stalk of brussels sprouts - trimmed & shredded by knife for 1.5-2 cups volume
1 package enoki or similar little mushrooms, ends trimmed
2 Tb fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 Tb nama shoyu
1 Tb sesame or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
freshly ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Carefully cut up the brussels sprouts with a very sharp knife to the smallest shreds you can make without taking off a fingertip or fingernail.
Trim the little mushrooms - use as much of the package of mushrooms, to taste (and depending on the amount of veg!)
Whisk together the lemon, nama, oil & garlic - taste & adjust. If you prefer a sweet/sour, add a little dash of rice vinegar and agave.
Toss the dressing with the veggies and put into a small gratin dish or other non-plastic low edge dish, warm in dehydrator at 105 for 2-3 hours til wilted.

I need a sous chef!

2011-01-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

With work & other obligations, it's taken me a lot longer to put together this list of culinary delights than I expected:

MONDAY:

zest & juice 9# of Bearess limes - freeze most of the juice & dehydrate the zest

This took the better part of 90 minutes just to zest & juice the limes - a lot of them were tiny! I ended up with 6 cups of juice and nearly 2 cups dried zest. Plus an hour for clean up (lime pulp got everywhere!)

TUESDAY:

kale & spigariello chips (dehydrator)
shredded brussels sprouts salad - little enoki mushrooms, lemon, nama shoyu, olive oil, black pepper, garlic, marinated in dehydrator at 105 for a couple hours
savoy cabbage slaw w/lime, ginger, olive oil, nama shoyu, red onion, cilantro, garlic, mango & topped with sprouted pumpkin & sunflower seeds
grated turnip & carrot salad dressed with agave/nama shoyu/lemon/white wine vinegar, liberal amounts of finely minced parsley & cilantro, red onion & garlic
fennel & grapefruit salad with jalapeno & cilantro
sprouted sunflower seed, cilantro & chile pate
sprouted pumpkin seed, sundried tomato & chipotle pepper pate
soaked cashew red pepper pate
buckwheat, sprouted almond & carrot pulp crackers
romesco sauce w/sprouted hazelnuts, cherry tomatoes & red bell pepper

This all took the better part of 5 hours, plus an hour for clean-up and a half hour to put together two plates with collard leaves stuffed with pate & brussels sprouts salad, and pate, romesco, sunflower sprouts & cucumber, and a quarter cup of three of the salads. I'm very happy to have this all wrapped up - I'm going out of town this weekend for a mushroom foray/taxonomy trip in Mendocino and will have all my own foods ready to pack up and bring along!

The spigariello greens turned out great as chips - and I'm really more and more happy with my new Cuisinart - it can be a bit tricky to get the nesting bowls to lock properly, and I have noticed some food bits do get up into the part of the locking lid where I can't easily clean (long bristles from a bottle cleaning brush and running water seemed to do the trick, except for one tiny carrot bit). Also - don't expect that you'll be able to use the slicing or grating disc and can get away without washing all the bowls as bits travel down the stem and get into the other bowls.

WEDNESDAY:

shelling Louisana pecans that I brought home in November to store in fridge
key lime pie (lime, young coconut meat & water, avocado) with pecan/mac crust

This is my "to-do" - after doing 4 hours of work, a couple loads of laundry, vacuuming, sweeping & mopping the floor. I'm trying to think about how to make small "to go" sizes of the key lime pie so I can bring some with me on my weekend trip.

Raw Vegan Challenge - On the Menu This Week

2011-01-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Thursday's "mystery box" from Mariquita was full of wintery goodness. A stalk of brussels sprouts, two gorgeous turnips, a bag full of multi colored carrots, spigariello greens, chard, three gorgeous red onions, a giant squash, savoy cabbage (bringing me up to 3 heads of savoy in the fridge!), cilantro, fennel and collards. Ialso got 9# of Bearess limes.

Yesterday, I decanted the current batch of kim chee to make room for a batch of savoy cabbage sauerkraut. The newest batch of kim chee is fuschia in color from the red cabbage, purple carrots, daikon, ginger, hijiki, green onion and habanero peppers. I ended up with 1.25 gal of kimchee, and it is delicious. I expect it will get hotter and more gingery the longer it sits in the fridge like the first batch has done.

An awful lot of greens all at once! I still have a bunch of kale in the fridge, so decided to make up a new batch of kale chips with both the kale and the spigariello greens.

On the list of "to do" items for this afternoon and tomorrow morning, making up my menu for the week:

zest & juice 9# of Bearess limes - freeze most of the juice & dehydrate the zest
kale & spigariello chips (dehydrator)
shredded brussels sprouts salad - little enoki mushrooms, lemon, nama shoyu, olive oil, black pepper, garlic, marinated in dehydrator at 105 for a couple hours
savoy cabbage salad w/lime, ginger, sesame oil, nama shoyu, red onion, cilantro, garlic, mango & topped with sprouted pumpkin & sunflower seeds
grated turnip & carrot salad dressed with agave/nama shoyu/lemon/white wine vinegar, liberal amounts of finely minced parsley & cilantro, red onion & garlic
sprouted pumpkin seed & sundried tomato pate
fennel & grapefruit salad with jalapeno & cilantro
soaked cashew red pepper pate
buckwheat & carrot pulp crackers
romesco sauce w/sprouted hazelnuts, cherry tomatoes & red bell pepper
shelling Louisana pecans that I brought home in November to store in fridge
key lime pie (lime, young coconut meat & water, avocado) with pecan/mac crust

I'll be using the collards to roll up pates with sprouts, shredded carrot, cucumber & zucchini sticks, kim chee and other good combos. The best thing about all the salads is that they last quite well in the fridge and the longer they marinate, the tastier they become.

Raw Vegan Challenge 2011, update

2011-01-17T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's now been over 2 weeks - I've lost almost 10 pounds. I confess - the first week of January, I didn't do very much to push myself to get into the gym. I did, however, get my refrigerator cleaned out and put together my workout regiment tracking sheet (this is not new - I've used some version of this for the last 10 years).

EXERCISE: My workout regimen - granted - it's getting off to a slow start and I'm lazy, is something like this:

Visit the gym (3-5x/week)

Ride my bike to the gym & back (4+ miles total)
80 minutes on the recumbent bike - it's good for hamstrings & I can read my book! I usually work out around 160-170 bpm for an hour, then step down from 150 to 100 in a 20 minute cooldown
Strength training

Crunches/push ups (2-4x/week)
Yoga (1-2x/week)
Hiking (1-2x/week)

Yoga at home is different from going to a teacher-led class, that's for sure. Cats interfere, space is limited and there are more distractions. In December, I went to about 20 classes at Square One Yoga - and I love the space and some of the teachers were really great. However, it reminded me that I really don't like Hatha yoga - it's too "busy" and fast.

I like iyengar for the precision, the slow stretching and the long held asanas that are more body weight training than yogaerobics I get in Hatha, Vinyasa or Ashtanga. Also - as a swimmer, I value my shoulders and just a few weeks of Hatha had my shoulders crying "foul!" from too many repeated vinyasas. I am going to go back to yoga with Stack Buss - she's a certified iyengar instructor and and very patient.

DIET: Breaking one of the cardinal rules of good dieting and nutrition, I have not been keeping a food journal. My basic diet is that the bulk of my meals should be high nutrient, low glycemic index vegetables, with some fruit. Over the past couple of weeks, my diet has looked like this:

Breakfast: decaf organic coffee (french press) with sucanat & So Delicious coconut milk creamer, carrot juice or green juice if feel like it, maybe 1-2 apples or a couple of carrots.
Green smoothie: my favorite is 3-4 leaves of kale, 1 small zucchini, 2 cubes of frozen persimmon puree or 2-4 frozen strawberries, brown rice protein powder and psyllium husk powder
Snacks have included:

"I Am Spirit" sprouted teriyaki almonds (from I Am Grateful)
Kale chips
"I Am Relishing" Buckwheat crackers & sprouted almond hummus (from I Am Grateful)
Flaxseed & carrot pulp crackers

Dinner varies, and I have skipped a few dinners after having a great big green smoothie late in the afternoon. Dinner has looked like this:

Kale & fennel salad
Romaine salad with red pepper, avocado, carrots & dressed with lemon juice, salt, black pepper and olive oil
Green papaya salad
Raw cabbage salad/coleslaw
Raw enchiladas from I Am Grateful - the spinach tortillas came out a little thin, but delicious, and the two fillings I made were Red bell pepper & Cashew, Pumpkin Seed & Green Chiles with raw cashew sour cream (also from I Am Grateful) and a nice spicy sauce leftover from kale chips
Cauliflower couscous - holy cow! who'd have thunk?
Kim chee - I'm very fortunate that a friend passed on a 7.5 Harsch Gairtopf Fermenting Crock to me last summer for kombucha. The kombucha mother lives on in the compost pile in the backyard and my first batch with green cabbage came out great! A couple of friends came over for a motorcycle mechanics tutorial and they helped me test it extensively! For recipes check out I Am Grateful and Wild Fermentation - there are also plenty of resources on the web.
"I Am Authentic" Koi Teow soup, from I Am Grateful, a super delicious and easy miso based soup - equal parts miso, agave & lime juice mixed with hot water, add 1 cup of spiralized, shredded or julienned veggies, a bit of garlic & hot chile oil.

Herbal tea (unsweetened)

My goal is to keep my caloric intake around 1000-1200/day, which - combined with my activity - should effect the weight loss by end of April. Never fear - I eat appropriately for my activity level and weight loss goal. My salads are quite big - a whole bunch of romaine with half a red bell pepper, a whole avocado, a carrot & 1/4 c sprouted seeds (sometimes).

SIDE EFFECTS: Other than weight loss, there are definitely some side effects to switching to a raw diet. Detoxing will happen when you cut out wheat anyway - but I was quite unprepared for some of the effects. After the first week or so, I started noticing a few things.

First, a few sips of port tasted like cough syrup. I tried having a glass of wine last week and again on Saturday and it just tasted sour - and not in a good way. Late last week, I noticed that my eyes felt goopy - I was waking up with lots of crusty bits in the corners of my eyes, and for about two days - my eyes felt blurry and bleary, and I noticed a decrease in distance vision. I had a few headaches, too, so I thought I was coming down with a cold or allergy attack but the symptoms passed after Saturday. I also noticed that my skin has gotten a lot drier - and yes, I am eating avocados in salads & smoothies, in addition to nuts.

Finally, I noticed that - well - I don't feel as "hungry" as I did before I started this regimen. I don't have the desire to snack. I feel pretty well satiated - after chewing through 3 bowls of kim chee, you get to mandibular workout and enough nutrition. I haven't had any unusual cravings (though tempted by the knowledge that Cha-Ya's expanded location is open to go get agedashi tofu!).

Raw Vegan Challenge 2011

2011-01-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

For the time being, there's a bit of a change of direction over here in the Live Green, Wear Black kitchen. I decided to start off 2011 by going 100% raw vegan. I was planning to do it for 1 month, but now I am thinking that I am going to extend it through April - a full 16 weeks. Partly, I want to lose weight - the other goal is to experience the benefits of eating a live foods diet.

Let's rewind to two years ago. January 2009 saw me dealing with the sudden onset of a really bad kink in my neck - I fell asleep in a weird position and didn't move. For two months, the pain was so excruciating, that I gave up swimming. I quit taking the train and went to work and back via bus because the pain was so bad that I was having Anna Karenina fantasies. I discovered restorative Iyengar yoga and ART chiropractic - and things began to improve. I also started riding a motorcycle (hey, fun is always a good distraction) - and my bicycle started collecting dust.

By June 2009, my neck pain was improved by going to yoga classes 2-4 times/week, and I was going to the gym 4-5x/week at lunch. I was around 155 lbs. My breakfast consisted of a smoothie (water, fruit, brown rice protein powder), and my lunch consisted of a big salad with lots of romaine, different raw veggies, ground flaxseed and some raw nuts, dressed with lemon & salt (usually around 500 calories with the nuts).

That summer, I experienced a lot of very stressful life changes - not the least of which being that I left my job, had a couple short term temp jobs and then transitioned to working from home at the end of the year. I also stopped going to the iyengar studio due to differences with the owner. The biggest change was basically cutting out the 2-4 miles/day that I walked between home/work and public transit, walking around in an office (I often took stairs if it was fewer than 2-3 floors), trading the bicycle for the motorcycle, and not having the routine of wanting to escape the office to the gym at lunch time.

In a year, I went from a 32C size 8 to a 36D size 10 - at 5'10" - most people insist I look "great" - but if I cared what other people thought about how I look, I'd probably wear make up, maintain a hair style and put more effort into my wardrobe. I got back into the pool last spring - and the neck problem flared up again, so I would swim and back off periodically. I went back to the gym and I spent a lot of time hiking (both mushrooming and regular hikes). I was in pretty good shape by the time I went to Kauai for my solo backpacking trip in April 2009, but not thrilled with the size of my backside. Actually, I was doing pretty well until I injured my knee in July 2010 and was basically on my butt for 3 months. Bye bye, summer!

After 3 months of physical therapy, I found motivation to get back into the pool and the gym. To be honest - I love fried food and desserts. Hanging out with people who ride motorcycles often means lots of beer - and long motorcycle rides in Northern California don't burn calories like bicycle rides. Often the destinations don't have a lot of healthy options for vegan dining (Barstow, for example). As a vegan, I have to make sure I bring my own food or I end up eating french fries & beer for lunch, or some wilty horrible looking salad.

To be brutally honest - this is the most I have ever weighed in my entire life. And yet, I'm only about 10# over the weight of the average woman in the US, and 5 inches taller. Blame it on vanity, blame it on being cheap (seriously - who wants to go buy all new clothes? I hate shopping!) - I'm determined to get back on track.

A raw vegan diet is something that has always interested me. I adore the food at Cafe Gratitude - but as many friends are quick to point out: there are lots of nuts in their dishes. Nuts, it would seem are a great way to gain weight if you over-rely on them. They are just as much a convenience food as bread & pasta.

I spent about 3 months doing a lot of reading up on various raw vegan diets, including "high fat," "low fat," the 80-10-10 (calories should come from 80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fat), green smoothies vs juicing, fruitarianism and more. Some basic findings include:

Reduce frequency & don't graze. People do not need to eat 5-6 meals a day. This does not copy patterns found in nature and results in obsession with your diet & feeding yourself. Eat 2-3 times a day, fast every so often (ie, skipping a meal if you aren't hungry).
Know when you are hungry. Most people don't really know when they are hungry - they eat because they are bored (ie, entertainment) or they eat because they are thirsty.
Protein is synthesized by our own bodies using the amino acids in the food we eat. Eat lots of different leafy greens and other colored veggies -- you'll be fine. No need to obsess.
Raw, sprouted nuts are not as fattening for you as unsprouted or roasted/toasted because they contain the enzymes our bodies require to properly digest the fat in the nuts.
You can't eat too much kale. I am not kidding. It is just about the most perfect vegetable.
Raw fermented foods are essential to the raw diet. They provide bacterial cultures that promote digestion and taste yummy.
Smoothie or juice - concentrated greens every day are also critical.
Water - early and often.

Of course, standard diet advice applies: don't be too hard on yourself, if you fall off the wagon, get back on. Also, if there is one thing that is outside the diet that can be reasonably included - indulge. A diet is not about punishment. My exception is decaf coffee with coconut creamer & sucanat in the morning.

My library of raw cookbooks includes: I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude, Sweet Gratitude: A New World of Raw Desserts, The Complete Book of Raw Food, Entertaining in the Raw.

The web is incredibly helpful and I have found tons of great resources for information about nutrition & recipes.

My goal is to to lose at least 30# and get back to 32C (bras are so expensive and I like the collection I have in that size!). I already eat a lot of raw food - I love salads of all sorts, I use my dehydrator to make flaxseed crackers and kale chips (among other things). The main changes for me in this diet are the elimination of wheat (including beer), fried food, refined sugar and other convenient snacky type items. Actually - you can see it's not nearly as "radical" as it might sound at first.

Mushroom Season 2010-11

2010-12-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

Mushroom season is underway - despite all the rain we have had, the chanterelle season is lagging about six weeks behind last year's season. Last year I was harvesting 40-60 pounds of mushrooms/week by this time of year! This year - I'm lucky to come out with 4-6 pounds. Most of the chanterelles are closer to the edge of any given stand of trees where they get a bit more warmth, quite a few buttons.

Lots of other foragers are finding bonanzas in other areas but - being the creature that they are - they aren't giving up the information on where they are finding stuff! Hoping to head out to Salt Point State Park next week to look for black trumpets, hedgehogs, maybe some late porcini and other good stuff. Mushroom reports & pictures coming soon! I've sprayed my shoes & rain jacket with Scotch Guard just to be ready! Maybe I should go do my hat, too...

Golden Chanterelle Stroganoff

2010-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

If you haven't yet signed up for one of Chef Eric Tucker's cooking classes at Millennium, perhaps this will tempt you - Chanterelle Stroganoff. He said it was ok for me to reproduce this recipe, so here you go!

This is one of my favorite recipes - I have experimented with a few variations which I will mention below.

Chanterelle "Stroganoff" by Chef Eric Tucker

INGREDIENTS:

1 yellow onion, sliced into thin crescents
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 Tb olive oil
1# cleaned chanterelles, sliced thin
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp paprika
1 Tb tomato paste
2 c vegetable or mushroom stock
1 Tb nutritional yeast (or more, to taste)
1 c cashew cream (make yourself with pre-soaked cashews, drain, blend with cold water, dash of salt and squeeze of lemon til you get a cream)
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper, to taste
minced fresh dill
lemon zest
cooked papardelle (super easy to make yourself!)

DIRECTIONS:

In a large skillet, sautee the onion in the olive oil over medium, stirring often until onion is medium caramelized.
Add garlic & mushrooms, continue to sautee, stirring often until the mushrooms are dry.
Add thyme & paprika, sautee 30 seconds, then deglaze with red wine.
Add tomato paste, stock & nutritional yeast and simmer 5 minutes.
Add cashew cream, simmer until thick.
Taste & adjust seasoning.
Toss the cooked papardelle with some olive oil.
Place a portion of sauce over noodles, sprinkle with dill & lemon zest.

Variations: I have made this with morels and other mushrooms - it comes out pretty delicious. I have also substituted dry sherry for red wine for deglazing.

Make your own pasta - it's really not hard, and papardelle are wide strips that you want to cut by hand anyway. Rustic homemade noodles are divine!

Millennium Winter Mushroom Cooking Class 2011

2010-12-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

If you have never attended a cooking class at Millennium - or even at all - I highly recommend getting behind the counter at Millennium with Chef Eric Tucker for his annual Winter Mushroom Cooking class. There's usually a pre-class foraging trip in addition to the pre-class Farmer's Market trip.

Winter Mushroom Cooking Class
Sunday January 9, 2011
10am-4pm (ish)
$155/person
Join Eric Tucker for a hands on cooking class in the Millennium kitchen. Spend the second Sunday of the new year creating multiple mushroom filled courses that you will then have the opportunity to sit down and enjoy family style. You will be working with mushrooms that Eric has foraged locally and you will have the opportunity to join Eric for a guided tour through the Ferry Building Farmers' Market on Saturday, January 8 at 10am.
Space is limited, please call Alison for a reservation 415.345.3900x13

Chanterelles & Israeli Couscous

2010-12-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Recipes often result from "what do I have in the house" - in my case, I am fortunate that I have a giant pile of chanterelles, plus kale growing in the yard and a well stocked pantry of dry ingredients. This is a quick and easy dish that you can make up using one pot and one skillet, substituting any mushrooms you like! This recipe can also be done fat-free since chanterelles throw off a lot of water.

INGREDIENTS:

1-1.5 pounds golden chanterelles (or other mushrooms) 1/2" dice or coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 c chopped parsley
1/2 c Tuscan or Dino kale, chiffonade into thin strips
1 c dry Israeli couscous
2 packets Road's End Organics herb gravy
Veggie stock or almond milk, as needed
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried lemon zest or 1 Tb fresh lemon zest (or more, to taste!)
Salt, black pepper, paprika - to taste
Olive oil or sesame oil (optional)
splash of dry sherry or cheap sake for deglazing

DIRECTIONS

Prepare the couscous in a separate pot with salted water or veggie stock, adding the lemon zest after liquid is about half reduced.
Mix gravy packets in a measuring cup with 1 c almond milk, stock or water and put to the side.
Sautee onion til soft, add garlic. When they are transluscent - and before garlic starts to burn - add chanterelles.
Reduce heat and let chanterelles release liquid. If it gets a bit low, deglaze with sake, sherry (or stock/water/white wine).
After chanterelles have gotten softer, add kale and parsley and spices.
Allow chanterelles to cook down a bit more and as the liquid reduces, mix in the couscous and gravy mix. Thoroughly but gently toss and allow to cook down til thick. Add more stock/almond milk/water if needed.

Serve warm - also works great at room temperature and as leftovers. The couscous will swallow up any remaining liquid so your leftovers will have more of a sopa seca or pasta salad appearance. The lemon also gets more lemony if you used dried lemon zest. Delicious, quick and easy!

Candy Cap Blondies

2010-12-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

Last month, after signing up for the culinary interest group for the Mycological Society of San Francisco, I found myself volunteering to help make desserts for the annual holiday dinner. The organizer and her other volunteer both live within a few blocks of me, so meetings were convened and e-mails flew back and forth. In the end, I brought a pile of delicious vegan desserts including: Mexican Chocolate Torte, Persimmon Bread Pudding with a Bourbon Anglaise sauce and Candy Cap Blondies using a recipe created by Eric Tucker for one of his classes at Millennium Restaurant (recipe below).

The dinner came off pretty smoothly - my friend Scott joined me and even loaned a hand (& tools) to help set up the xmas tree and set tables. There was so much food! We could have easily had more people there - and the East Bay location at the Albany Community Center had a fantastic kitchen and huge dining room. The chanterelle-quinoa stuffed portobello mushroom was really delicious, as were the mashed potatoes with *vegan* mushroom gravy and a delicious mushroom soup with loads of delicious mushrooms. My desserts partner made up about 20 different kinds of chocolate truffles, mini eclairs and cream puffs. Needless to say - I was very well fed and brought home much of my dinner for lunch the next day.

I am still eating some leftover desserts this week, as well - I hope you'll pop in for coffee and cake!

Eric's Millennium Candy Cap Blondies

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 c cocoa butter
1/3 c grapeseed oil
2 T ground dry candy cap mushrooms
1/4 c rice or almond milk
1 t vanilla extract

1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/4 t baking powder
1 t Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 t salt
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground clove
1/2 c pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 c chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Place the first 5 ingredients into a double boiler and melt. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes or so, then remove double boiler from hot water and let it cool.
Sift dry ingredients together - except for pecans and chocolate chips.
Add wet ingredients - at room temperature, not warmer - to dry ingredients. When mixed, add pecans & chocolate chips.
Turn into lightly oiled pan lined with parchment paper, bake 22-24 minutes at 350. This will fit in a large loaf pan or a 9 x 9 pan if you like thinner blondies (which will need to be removed sooner than a deeper pan). Keep an eye on this - if you increase the recipe size, it will take longer. If you use a dark metal pan that holds more heat, they will cook faster and you will end up with cookie instead of blondie. You want to see the blondies puff up and get tall, filling the sides of the pan and becoming golden brown on top. A 3x batch fits a 13 x 9 pan and takes well over 40 minutes to achieve doneness!

Persimmons are BACK! - Persimmon Bread Pudding for BREAKFAST!

2010-12-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

If you're like me - an avid forager & kitchen witch - you might wake up one morning to discover that 40 of the 212 persimmons you harvested and have spread out on cookie sheets, trays and the little cardboard trays that once held pint and half pint canning jars - are ripe and already have been discovered by the ants. Fortunately, the ants never get farther than under the little crown of four leaves at the stem and are easily evicted under running water.

After filling six dehydrator sheets with sliced persimmon, and putting 11 cups of persimmon pulp into freezer bags - you then discover that the gallon bag of croutons and the decidedly non-vegan chicken parts rescued from the freezer of a friend moving to Portland (to pass along to another friend for chicken stock - hey, the chicken is already dead!) - are taking up so much space that you don't have much room for more persimmon pulp in the freezer.

Then, the next morning - say, today - you wake up and find that only 3-4 persimmons, small ones at that, are really super ripe and it's not worth adding them to the dehydrator when you can kill two birds with one stone by using up some of those fabulous sourdough croutons.

Ladies & Gems - I give you:

Persimmon Bread Pudding

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups bread cut into 1"-1.5" chunks (last night's leftover baguette baseball bat is ok!)
3 cups almond milk (regular or vanilla)
2-3 small Hachiya persimmons so ripe that you have to take care not to pierce the skin with your fingertip
1/3-1/2 cup maple syrup
1 Tb ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground clove
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins or currants or dried cranberries (or some other dried fruit - chopped dried apricots, nectarines or apples might be nice!)
3/4 coarsely chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Pour almond milk into your blender up to the 2 cup mark.
Cut hachiyas in half and scoop out pulp with a big tablespoon, straight into the blender.
Check the level - add more almond milk to bring it up to 3 or 3.5 cups.
Add maple syrup (reserving 3 TB), cinnamon, clove, vanilla to the blender cup - put the lid on and process til smooth.
Pour custard onto bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl - let soak 5-10 minutes, depending on how tough your bread is already. You want it to absorb a lot of the liquid and there will still be some liquid floating around.
Mix in raisins and toasted nuts gently - don't mash up the bread!
Transfer to a lightly greased gratin dish or baking dish - the depth of the dish affects the cooking time and the final outcome. If you like a soft, custardy bread pudding, use a deeper dish - if you like it to be a little more chewy and crispy, use a more shallow dish.
Drizzle reserved maple syrup on top.
Bake in 375 oven for 20 minutes - the bread pudding will bubble and get puffy - it will settle a bit after it cools.

Eat it warm or cold!

Hot Kale Mess

2010-11-10T11:07:00.000-08:00

There's nothing that nourishes like greens - a sweet & savory Japanese-inspired sauce makes this dish stand out to my friends (one friend always requests it as "that hot kale mess.") usually, it just means going out the garden to pull a bunch of kale & arugula, and adding it to the other ingredients in the house, I give you:

Pan-Seared Greens with Ginger & Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tb rice wine vinegar or sake (if you want more sweet, instead of sour)
1 Tb sucanat
3 Tb soy sauce
3 Tb olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced or coarsely chopped
1 Tb minced fresh ginger
1 vidalia or red onion, cut into thin crescents
1 c sliced mushrooms - chanterelles, morels, oyster, shitake - whatever is fresh & local
1 small hot chili - sliced or 1 Tb cayenne flakes
1 small red bell pepper, seeded & julienned
6 cups coarsely chopped winter greens - chard, kale and arugula are my favorites (use scissors to cut out the coarse bits which may be finely chopped and added to the pan with the onions)
Herbs - 20 basil leaves, or equivalent in other herbs that are fresh & local
1/2 c raw cashews

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the first 3 ingredients. Set aside.
Heat the oil over high eat in a large cast iron skillet or wok.
Quickly stir in the cashews and toast in the pan - remove and set aside.
Stir-fry the garlic, ginger, onion & mushrooms (and any reserved chopped chard stems) for about 1 minute
Add chile and red bell pepper, cook for 1 minute
Stir in greens - add a splash of sake if needed to deglaze
Cook greens until they are bright in color and just tender, about 2 minutes or to taste (do you like crisper or softer greens?)
Add herbs, cashews and sauce - toss gently to coat and cook for another minute or 2 - the sauce will thicken up a bit (this shouldn't be soupy).

Serve immediately - as a side or over steamed quinoa, rice or couscous. Enjoy!

Pumpkin-Chipotle Hummus

2010-11-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

I love hummus - despite my own allergy to legumes, I occasionally indulge in various flavors of hummus with roasted red pepper or garlic - but rarely make it at home to avoid making too big a batch that I end up eating it all and make myself sick. I can't help it - garbanzos are delicious - in everything from chana masala to stews and gravys. I even named my first cat "Ci-Ci" because I liked the little beans so much. When Julia from Mariquita recently included a suggestion for pumpkin hummus in a newsletter, and the idea inspired me to do my own version of the recipe.

Like pestos and pad thai and many other good things, this is the type of recipe that is open to interpretation by the chef. Feel free to improvise and make your own variation - I already have plans for a gingery-hot 5-spice version, a chai spice version, and might even do a peanutty version with peanut butter in addition to tahini and roasted red peppers (yum, right?).

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 pounds peeled and seeded pumpkin cut in 2-3" chunks
3/4 c tahini paste (or more to make it more hummus like)
1/4 c mellow red/barley miso
1 Tb garlic powder or 2-3 TB minced garlic (to taste)
3/4 c fresh lemon juice
1 whole dried chipotle pepper or your own smoked red jalapenos in oil
1/4 c sesame oil
2 Tb dried lemon zest or fresh zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 Tb cumin
Optional: sweet paprika, freshly ground black pepper, nutritional yeast

DIRECTIONS:

Roast the pumpkin, tossed with a tiny splash of sesame or olive oil to keep it from sticking to your dutch oven. It's done when it's tender.
Soak the dried chipotle in warm water to soften it - unless you have smoked peppers stored in olive oil in the fridge like me (I know, I'm weird).
Pulverize the heck out of the pumpkin and the other ingredients - if it doesn't taste hummus-y enough, add more tahini (this also helps if you made it too spicy and are out of pumpkin!).

I plan to enjoy this with some carrot-flaxseed-sprouted almond crackers that are going in the dehydrator right now. Come on over if you want to try some!

Jelly Catch-up

2010-10-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I had much good fortune - my friend Eric was visiting for the first time in years and we went up for a wine country tour in Dry Creek. We got to Preston Vineyards just at closing but got in a tasting anyway - I managed to catch the young lady clearing away the self-serve produce from the stand and bought up all the muscat grapes that were for sale at $1 per pound. I have to confess - it has been an old dream of mine to make grape jelly.

As soon as my dear friend departed, I pulled out the grapes, the ground cherries I had been cooking down and some plum juice I had frozen in July and made three batches of jelly. Since the grapes & ground cherries are so sweet, I used as little sugar as I could get away with.

The Muscat Grape Jelly came out better than I can possibly express and only a few people get to try it because I only ended up with about 12 half pints. I ate one with a spoon after chilling it in the fridge - it was way better than grape jell-o.

The Ground Cherry Jelly was truly a unique, delicate and amazing experience. It still is. Again - it was a small batch but I plan to make more next year. The plum jelly came out rich and delicious as always - low sugar means it was a bit more tart but I'd happily sub that for cranberry jelly at any holiday dinner!

Muscat Grape Jelly
Ground Cherry Jelly
Plum Jelly (with frozen plum juice)

Weekend Canning Round-up: Tomato Sauce, Zucchini Relish and Bread & Butter Pickles

2010-09-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Nine weeks out from my knee surgery, I am up and about almost back to normal in time for autumn canning season. Tomatoes, basil, squash, apples, ground cherries, quince, persimmons - I just need to lay my hands on some lemons!

STOCK: I made my best batch of stock yet, using the bag of veggie scraps I store in the freezer, along with the beet green stems from 3 bunches of white beets, stems from a bunch of radishes, and the seeds & skins of the tomato sauce making. I even threw in the seeds & stems from a couple jalapenos used in salsa - giving the 2 gallons of stock a bit of zing but it's so rich and flavorful that I am going to use it to make some udon noodles this week.

My newest favorite trick for making stock: throw in a 1/4 cup of dried porcini mushrooms.

TOMATOES:
Tomatoes have suffered the worst of this chilly growing season -- as a result, nobody has tremendous backyard tomato production. Even local farmers are finding the fruits are coming late and small. I had been banking on picking 200# of tomatoes at Mariquita's "U-Pick" weekends this fall - the 150# I picked last fall didn't get me through the spring. However, Julia said that they might not have a U-Pick event this fall (my fingers are still crossed, okay?).

I bit the bullet and bought two 12# box of Early Girl tomatoes for $29 each. I made up a big batch of marinara. My friend Serafine helped me process the first batch of cooked tomatoes - we used the food mill attachment for the Kitchen Aid. I think she was impressed by how easy it was to make sauce - she had seen cooking shows where they pour hot water on tomatoes to skin them and then cut out the seeds. That's a PITA, IMO.

Two weeks later, I bought two more 12# boxes of tomatoes last Thursday. I spent all day cooking down the sauce - even pulled out 4 quarts of sauce from the first batch out of the freezer. I ended up with a mere 9 quart jars of sauce, plus about 2 quarts that went into dinner each weekend - that's just under $10/jar to make my own sauce. I guess I could go to Berkeley Bowl and buy sauce cheaper - but it doesn't taste at all the same. After spending $120 on tomatoes (which is more than I spent last year for 150# at 50 cents/pound) - I think I am going to hold out and wait for tomato season to perk up so I can do the U-Pick event.

I didn't use all of the tomatoes for sauce - I also used some in a black quinoa tabouli, and made a quart of killer salsa (which goes great with carrot-flax crackers). I still have a few in the fridge because those Early Girls are good eating!

YIELD:
14 qts tomato sauce
1 qt salsa

APPLES:
Last Thursday I also got 20# of Pippin apples ($11 for 10#) from Mariquita - which I made into applesauce & dried apple rings. The apples were mostly fairly large, a bright green and super crisp and delicious. I saved about 8 of them for eating, put about 7# into the dehydrator and turned the rest into applesauce.

YIELD:
12 16 oz jars of applesauce
4 8 oz jars of applesauce

SQUASH:
Despite the problems my tomato plants are having in the garden - my squash are doing great. The cocozelle is still going nuts with three vines that are about a total of 22' in length. The yellow sunburst squash is more compact and still producing several a week. The Rond de Nice - which I transplanted to a mini raised bed - has just showed signs that it is going to take off and be the rockstar of autumn. The fourth zucchini plant that I bought - perished after it was sat upon at my "bon voyage" party on 7/9 - it limped along but transplanting it to another pot just resulted in speeding up the death.

I've been collecting squash all week - the small squash went into zucchini bread & butter pickles, the large squash went into the cuisinart to be shredded for zucchini relish. I also saved the carrot pulp from the juicer to put into the relish - it made it a really pretty color.

YIELD:
12 8oz jars of zucchini relish
3 4 oz jars of zucchini relish
4 16 oz jars of zucchini bread & butter pickles
2 12 oz jars of zucchini bread & butter pickles
2 8 oz jars of zucchini bread & butter pickles

GROUND CHERRIES:
I'm collecting lots of ground cherries - mostly they are ripe but some are not. I am experimenting with ways to ripen the green cherries - and have put them cleaned on a tray in the kitchen in the sun. They might go into a bag soon.

Coming up - a trip to Larissa's house to check on the quince & persimmon trees!

Vegan Pizzelle Cookies!

2010-09-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

I loved making pizzelle cookies as a kid with my sister & brother - we always had fun mixing up the batter with different extracts like anise, almond, orange or lemon - and dusting the hell out of the cookies with powdered sugar. We always broke off the edges of the overly large cookies and ate all our mistakes.

As a vegan, it's often challenging to modify some recipes - most pizzelle cookie recipes use equal amounts of fat and sugar, and an amount of flour that is equal to both. However - no liquid - so it's the melted butter and egg that provide the moisture, making for a very sticky, thick batter.

The other trick is in getting to know your waffle iron - you know the kind with waffle grids on one side and pizzelle cookie grids on the other. These pieces of equipment can be tricky as the temperature settings are far from precise - mine has "dark" and "light" with a small arrow in the middle and turns almost all the way pas the word on each side! Always start on the "light" side - and increase the heat if your cookies aren't coming out crispy enough (don't forget - they get crispy after they cool and you can put them back in the hot iron to cook a bit longer so they are crispier).

The right amount of batter & pressure are also important - if you use too much batter, your cookie will separate in the middle when you try to open the cooker. If you use too little - it'll be very thin and crispy, and perhaps not full size.

SPECIAL TOOLS:

pizzelle iron
silicone brush
wood or bamboo tongs
a disposable bamboo chopstick

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 c flour
.5 c canola oil or melted coconut oil
3/4 c sugar
1 c smooth, unsweetened applesauce
3.5 tsp Ener-G egg replacer
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
(optional) 1 tsp anise extract or 1 tsp almond extract
(optional) dried Meyer lemon zest, crushed
Spectrum vegetable shortening (for the pizzelle iron)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix the sugar & fat til blended.
Add the applesauce and other liquid ingredients.
Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients.
Preheat your pizzelle iron! Once it is hot, make ONE pizzelle - if you find the iron is too hot and make a mess - you'll have less to clean up!
Using a silicone spatula - put a tiny (like 1/8 to 1/4) dab of shortening on the plates - use the silicone brush to move it around as it melts.
Measure your batter - use a 1/4 measure or a spoon so you can determine the right quantity and make it consistent.
Press down lightly - don't overdo it - and let the pizzelle cook. After a minute or two, gently pry up the cooker to check - if the pizzelle is starting to pull away from the cooker, it's ok to use the chopstick to pry it down a bit.
When the cookie is lightly browned, remove it to a cooking rack with wooden tongs. The pizzelles will be soft when you take them out and crisp up as they cool!
Lay flat for cookies, or roll them into tubes for cannoli or cones for ice cream before they cool too much.

For cannoli - check out the Millennium Cookbook - there's an insanely caloric recipe in there for filling.

One last tip - don't overclean your cooker! It needs to be wiped to remove any excess oil, and use the bamboo chopstick to loosen charred bits. Scrubbing the plates in soapy water will just make your cookies stick more next time.

Pickled Zucchini Relish

2010-08-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

The last batch of bread & butter zucchini pickle chips I made with tiny courgettes came out so well with a dash of hot curry powder, that I could think of no other use for the overgrown squash yellow and "black beauty" squashes from James' garden than to make up a zucchini relish - basically the same sort of sweet & sour brine as bread & butter chips but with coarsely grated zucchini & onions.

Relish Ingredients:

12 cups of overgrown squash - skins on but cut out seedy/pithy areas if needed
4-5 fist size red onions
5 Tb sea salt
Optional: coarsely grated carrots or red or green sweet pepper

Coarsely grate squash & onions, toss with sea salt and let sit for a couple hours or overnight. Drain & rinse well - squeeze gently with your hands to get out the liquid.

Brine Ingredients:

3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 Tb mustard seed
1 Tb turmeric
1 tsp hot curry powder
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tsp fenugreek seeds, ground

Combine the brine ingredients, dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables, bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes. Ladle into hot sterilized jars and process in hot water bath depending on size of jar - 10 minutes for 8 oz jars, 15 minutes for 16 oz jars - time starts from return to boiling.

YIELD:

Squash, pears & lemons!

2010-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

This morning I started to feel a return to the normal rhythms of summer after being laid up following knee surgery - yeah, I sure know how to have fun! My friend James gifted me some giant squash last weekend and I admit - I blinked - some of my cocozelle got really enormous. But having 20# of overgrown squash in the kitchen doesn't present enough of a challeng.

This morning, I borrowed a friend's truck and headed off to pick pears & lemons at someone's house in Kensington. The pears are small and green, falling easily off the tree - none are really ripe yet so I don't know how they will taste. The lemons were offered while I was busy picking pears - and they are round, soft ripe Meyer lemons that smell positively gorgeous.

On the way home, I stopped at the Temescal Farmer's Market and ran into Asiya from ForageOakland - I hustled her to the parking lot to load her bag with pears & lemons - we had a nice chat about her blog (go check it out!) and caught up a bit. James took a few pears and lemons on Sunday, and more are promised to Veronika later this week. Time to go plan some preserving projects & check in on my garden!

The LAST French Press I Will Ever Buy

2010-08-13T19:57:00.000-07:00

After more than 6 years of service, I somehow managed to set down my Bonjour french press carafe at an angle in the last 1" before it touched the dish towel covered countertop in such a way that it fractured. After cursing and smashing the last bits of it into the recycling bin, I checked prices for replacements online and hiked up to the strip mall at the corner to see what they had at CVS.

As I passed Starbucks, my brain checked me and I went in to take a look. They had a Bodum Bistro stainless steel double wall 34 oz french press. Intrigued, I continued to CVS to see the options. The press they had there was glass and horribly flimsy plastic for $19.99 - about the cost of the replacement glass online.

It took me about five seconds to see that the $50 stainless steel model would save me money in the long run - even if the handle breaks off - the carafe will work forever and I won't have to put the last cup of coffee in the microwave to warm it up because it's better insulated. Even better, when I got home - I saw that Starbucks has some sort of deal with Bodum as the price listed on the Bodum website is $80!

Yes, it was Starbucks. Yes, it is made in China. But - I'll never have to replace it! I'll just call that green and call it a day.

My New Fave - Bamboosa Circle Skirt

2010-08-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

After a week on the beach and a relatively sprightly return on the Kalalau Beach Trail in Kauai last spring, I wanted to treat myself to a day on the town in Kapa'a the following day. After I got a haircut, I wanted something more comfortable than the shorts and cotton knit sundress I had been wearing. I happened to walk into a store selling Bamboosa clothing - made from sustainably grown & organic bamboo.

The knee-length skirt has been so comfortable that I went to the website and got two more skirts - and a pair of men's boxers made of the same fabric - for myself. I could be come positively large as a house and not care wearing these skirts.

After placing my order online - I e-mailed customer service a few days later to find out how long it would take to receive my items. Their customer service was quick, responsive and friendly (thanks Jennifer!).

My purchase arrived today - everything is as I hoped: Priya Skirt, Priya Circle Skirt (just a longer version), knit scarf and men's boxers. The men's boxers are VERY comfortable. The entire package was plastic free! Recycled cardboard box sealed with brown-tape-glue and the clothing was wrapped in chlorine free recycled tissue and tied with brown twine. No plastic!

Even better than recycling...

2010-08-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been seeing a ton of televisions offered "free" on Freecycle and the free section of Craigslist. It baffles me that people never think of donating perfectly good working televisions & DVD players to their local children's hospital or nursing home. When I mention this to folks - it's like a lightbulb goes off over their heads. Recently, I splurged and got a new television - but my 19" CRT television still works perfectly well and doesn't have any bad spots (why should it since I have only watched movies on it and am hardly a couch potato). I confess - with my recent convalescence, I just decided I wanted a bigger and more energy efficient TV that doesn't weigh so much. And a DVI to stream Netflix.

Rather than Freecycle my television and old DVD players, I called the Children's Hospital Family home - turns out they do need a TV and DVD players. The Oakland Children's Hospital also need lots of other stuff - things that I never thought of for crafts projects and such.

Here are a few things that tickled my fancy:

Art and craft supplies
Beanie Babies
Crayons & Colored Pencils
Crossword Puzzle Books: for both kids and parents
Games: such as Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble, Battleship, Chutes and Ladders, Yahtzee, Life, chess, checkers, Boggle, Trouble, Connect Four and memory games
Hot Wheels Toys, Small Cars & Trucks
Journals, Blank Books, NotebooksMad Libs
Magazines: for all ages, including magazines in Spanish
Mini Needlepoint Kits
Playing Cards: including UNO, Old Maid, Crazy Eights
Safety Scissors
Scrapbook Supplies
Stationary Sets
Stickers
Knitting Yarn & Knitting Needles: all sizes (Family Resource & Information Center)
Crochet Hooks: (Family Resource & Information Center)
Booties: Knit or crochet baby booties (including preemie size)
Favors: Make tray favors or origami for patient meal trays
Sew: Sew a quilt or wheelchair backpack. Please use only new, not used fabric.

I think I am most likely to make up a bunch of twin size quilts with small pillows to send sick kids home with sweet dreams. Last little girl who received a quilt I made said it was "magic" - a big red velvet heart with gold fringe on a field of 8" wide alternating green & white patterned and white bands. I've been kind of thinking about making less pattern oriented quilts and using up some fabric - but using a simpler background to do some fun applique stuff - and maybe these kids can be my guinea pigs. :)

I wonder how kids would love the little creatures that Hannah at Bittersweet makes, like the cute little froggy.

Stuffed Pattypan Squash on Couscous

2010-07-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

As any gardener knows - if you blink, your squash will get HUGE. My sunburst (aka pattypan) squash got to be quite ginormous. So, of course - I immediately decided to stuff them!

After reading through some recipes, I decided - you can pretty much stuff the squash with whatever you want as long as it won't be overcooked (or undercooked) by the time the squash itself is cooked to your liking.

4 Overgrown Pattypan Squash:

use a melon baller to scoop out the seeds and pithy part, leaving about 3/4" thick squash all the way around.
steam the squash (not necessary to steam caps), til they were just tender then removed them to a baking sheet.

Here's what I stuffed into the squash:

sauteed garlic (3-4 cloves)
chopped sweet onions & sweet red peppers - about 1.5 cups
very small cut up cauliflower florets - about 2-3 cups
squash - about 1.5 cups cocozelle cut into 1/4" bits
"Savvy Stir-Ins" Shitake Mushroom & Herb seitan bits - about 1/2 package
4 cups vegetable stock, use as needed
vegan worcestershire sauce, 2-3 Tb
olive oil as needed
fresh or dried herbs - I used fresh rosemary & sage

I first softened up the garlic, onions & peppers, then added the cauliflower & squash - til they started to sweat a bit, then mixed in the Savvy Stir-ins (make sure you bust them up really well).
Deglaze with veggie stock, turn down the heat and simmer.
Add stock til the savvy stir-ins are soft and the veggies are where you want them - and you should get a nice rich dark sauce. You can always thicken it up with some instant gravy, arrowroot, flour or other starch.
Fill the squash and roast for 15-20 minutes til bubbly and squash very soft.
Serve squash on bed of couscous - prepared to your liking. I cooked my couscous with my homemade veggie stock, next time I might mix in some Ras al Hanout or some Bharat into the couscous for a little excitement. Yum!

Crunchy-Crispy Kale & Fennel Salad

2010-07-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's a fact that kale is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat - it provides both a high level of nutrition AND a high level of satiation/satisfaction for very few calories. Raw kale provides a powerhouse punch of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, as well as carotenoids and chlorophylls. Want to make your body happy? Make this delicious salad - you can make up a big batch of it and it will keep in the refrigerator for several days!

Ingredients:

1 large bunch lacinato or dino kale (remove stem & chiffonade to 1/8", give a few coarse cross-chops)
1/2 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced & cut into 1" pieces
1/2 large red onion, finely sliced and coarsely chopped
1/2 large fennel bulb (or 1 small - to your taste!), thinly sliced & coarsely chopped
1/4-1/2 c Meyer lemon juice
fresh rosemary & oregano to taste, finely minced
2-5 cloves garlic, pressed or very finely minced
1/4 c capers, rinsed & coarsely chopped
1/4 c pitted kalamata or nicoise olives, coarsely chopped (optional)
extra virgin olive oil to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:
Really, all the work here is in chopping up the vegetables. Once you have the vegetables in the bowl, add a small handful of coarsely chopped capers (rinsed!) and olives. Drizzle with the lemon and olive oil, toss to coat, add chopped herbs and pepper to taste. If you are storing it in the fridge, remember to toss it every so often to move veggies down to the small puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl. This salad keeps very well for several days and is very satisfying!

A quick visit to a nutritional calculator provided a rough estimate that this entire salad is about 600 calories - less if you use less than 4 Tb olive oil!

This post is currently featured guest post on Dog Island Farm!

Vegan Camping Guest Posting on Dog Island Farm

2010-07-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today, one of my blog entries on vegan backcountry cooking/camping was featured on the Dog Island Farm blog. I'm going to make up a few more entries to post to their site (and mine) so stay tuned and check out their really cool blog!

Cantaloupe Sorbet & Snacks

2010-06-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

As if cantaloupe isn't good enough on its own - I had the bright idea to chunk up half a cantaloupe and froze it on a cookie sheet while I made dinner. Then I put the frozen pieces into the ole reliable Breville blender with a bit of agave to lubricate the works and pureed the heck out of it. I scraped it into a 9" x 9" light aluminum (no nonstick -yuk!) pan and put it back into the freezer. Stir every 15-20 minutes or so and you'll have sorbet for 4 as soon as you all finish eating dinner.

I really had to resist the urge to throw in frozen strawberries, too!

This morning I sliced up the remaining cantaloupe to throw in the dehydrator - just three weeks til my 4 week motorcycle road trip, so I better get moving on the food prep and meal planning!

The Last of the Enchiladas Verdes!

2010-06-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

I love summer but honestly, I am so very much looking forward to fall when I can get more chiles and tomatoes. I've now just used up the last of my green enchilada sauce on a casserole dish of enchiladas stuffed with summer veggies.

The beauty of having a stock of homemade red and green enchilada sauce in jars is that I can make up the enchiladas with whatever I have at hand - I have used tofu, seitan, potatoes, any number of veggies, nut cheeses - you name it. I end up making enchiladas with the same stuffing maybe twice - and then move on. Here are instructions for tonight's dinner of:

Summer Veggie Stuffed Green Enchiladas

Ingredients:
1/2 med-large red onion, 1/4" dice
1-2 summer squash, 1/4" dice (you need about one generous cup of diced squash)
3-5 orange & white Chantenay carrots, 1/4" dice
3/4 cup corn kernels (froz or fresh)
4 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely minced
1 serrano chile, stemmed & seeded, finely minced
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tb cumin seed
1/2 tsp whole white pepper
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
2 pint jars of green enchilada sauce
1 c toasted pumpkin seeds
1 package corn tortillas (12 ct)

Directions:

Heat up a large cast iron skillet with 2 Tb or so drizzled olive oil.
Sautee the carrots until they start to get browned and soften.
Add chile, onions & garlic and sautee til soft. Stir to prevent sticking.
Add squash & corn.
In a separate dry pan, toast the cumin seed and white pepper - grind in a spice grinder and add to the cooking veggies.
In the dry pan, spread the pumpkin seeds and toast - medium flame, move them to keep them from burning but not so much as to dissipate heat. They should pop like popcorn. Once they are toasted, remove from heat in a cool dish (they will continue to cook and scorch in the hot pan).
Spread 1/2 c of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 7" x 11" glass baking dish. Put one tortilla in the pan, spoon some filling onto it. Make sure it goes all the way out to the edge and roll it up. Push it to the end of the pan. The sauce on the outside of the tortilla helps soften it up and helps distribute the sauce a bit between the stuffed tortillas.
Fill the rest of the tortillas - just squish them in together - if you run out of space and have extra tortillas, usually I'll have 1 or 2 extra - shred the tortilla into bits, ladle more sauce on the enchiladas, and then place the tortilla bits in areas that have space or where tortillas may have split when you rolled them up.
Pour on the rest on the rest of the enchilada sauce, encouraging it to go down the sides into the ends of the stuffed tortillas with a spatula or spoon.
Bake in preheated 350 oven for 20-30 minutes until tortillas are softened. Sprinkle generously with salted toasted pumpkin seeds and serve.