You know it's fresh and organic when...

Farmers' markets are mostly closed this time of year, so we get our produce from a nonprofit cooperative grocery, People's Co-Op. Besides free yoga, excellent prices on bulk goods, and other benefits, we love this place because everything in the store is all-natural and organic.

One of the quirks to eating the way we do is that sometimes a funny thing happens. You go to the store and get your groceries - in January, that includes a lot of kale, an incredibly nutritious green that is sweetest and most delicious during the coldest weather - and stick it in the fridge when you get home. A couple days later, you're starting to cook and you pull out some kale, only to discover that somebody else got a head start on your dinner.



The Very Hungry Caterpillar went right on eating kale in the bowl we keep for vegetable scraps, and then once the bowl was full, he went out with those veggie scraps to the chickens. Snack and be snacked!

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Goin' Down South

Haven't been back to Dixie in two years, but I'll be there this afternoon. My mother has generously flown me out to see my family for a week; this morning I caught a quick shuttle to Seattle and in a couple hours I'll be airborne for Memphis.

Every time I go back to Memphis (since moving away over six years ago), it's a different town. I've never seen a town change so much. I'm interested to see what's changed this time. And I'm REALLY looking forward to the drive down into Mississippi to see my brother, who's in college there - I have a deep love for rural Mississippi, especially when I get off the interstate and amble down old highways through towns with drawling names like Holly Springs and Tupelo, names that pour from the tongue in a thick slow stream like sugary tea.

Holly Springs is also the former home of my favorite Delta bluesman, R. L. Burnside. All day I've had one of his songs in my head, "Goin' Down South"...



Last night I had to use up the veggies in the fridge before they went bad, so Keith and I made a big veggie feast together. It turned out in my usual style - Southern with a Northwest spin - and we had a couple of friends over and had a wonderful time. The mostly-vegan menu:

BBQ Blackeyed Peas (with molasses and chipotle)
Cucumber Salad with Dill & Green Zebra Tomatoes
Apple-Kohlrabi Slaw
Grilled Eggplant
Grilled Potatoes
Collard-Turnip greens
Steamed Romanesco (with vegan "cheese" sauce)
Butter-Creamed Corn
Hazelnut Pie Brownies (made with bourbon and brandy)

It was a pretty good send-off, and now I'm in the Seattle airport waiting for my flight. Ironically, I'm flying Delta to the Delta. I hate to fly SO VERY MUCH but I've got the latest Hemingway (hee hee, his last novel) and some of my own writing to keep me occupied, so hopefully four and a half hours in a tiny seat will go quickly. Knock wood.

Epic Taco Salad

Keith came home from his trip last night, just in time for dinner. He'd asked for taco salad. So I went all-out and made the most epic taco salad ever. It was fabulous!

EPIC TACO SALAD

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (use cilantro if you like it)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Tiny pinch of sugar
1/2 cup olive oil

Meat Mix:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 a small sweet onion, diced
5 or 6 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 fresh hot chile pepper, minced
1 Tbsp chile powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 lb ground chicken (or beef)
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
Salt & pepper to taste

Salad:
1/2 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1 ear of corn, kernels cut off the cob
1 cup black beans (see note)
Salad greens, rinsed and dried
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Avocado, sliced
Carrot, shredded into curls with a peeler
Freshly-grated cheddar cheese
Pumpkin seeds

Tortilla chips (see note)

Note: You can use canned black beans, but I soaked and cooked dry beans in boiling water with salt, dried savory, and hot sauce. They were so much more flavorful than canned beans! And they required no active time; they just simmered while I did other stuff around the house. On the tortilla chips, you can use packaged ones, but I cut corn tortillas into eight little triangles each and fried them up in a mixture of peanut oil and schmaltz, then sprinkled them with salt as they drained. They were perfect for scooping up bites of salad!

For the dressing, whisk together everything but the oil in a small bowl. Steadily whisking, add the oil in a thin stream until blended. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to a day to let the flavors blend.

For the meat, heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Toss in the onion, mushrooms, hot pepper, and spices; saute for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to soften. Add the ground meat and keep cooking until it's mostly cooked through. Stir in the tomato sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper, and continue to cook until the meat is done and has soaked up the sauce. Transfer to a bowl and rinse out the skillet (it doesn't have to be perfectly clean, just rinsed and wiped out).

Melt the 1/2 Tbsp butter or oil in the skillet, then add the corn kernels. Saute for a minute or two and then remove from the heat. (Sure, you could use canned corn here, but the fresh corn is so delicious this time of year!)

Loosely chop the salad greens and put them in a pretty glass serving bowl. Top them with the meat mixture, then the corn, then the beans, tomatoes, avocado, carrot curls, cheese, and pumpkin seeds. Set this in the fridge for up to an hour, until you're ready to serve dinner.

When you're ready to eat, give the dressing another good whisking and drizzle about half of it over the top. Save the rest for another salad on another day. Serve the salad with tortilla chips on the side.

We had ours with homemade peach ice cream for dessert, and a nicely chilled rose. Perfect for a hot summer evening!

We're Home! (A Very Portland Weekend.)

Oh man, am I exhausted! But it's the good kind.

We made it from L.A. to Portland in one 18-hour day, including a stop for lunch at a decent little pizzeria in Northern California, and a trip to a kitchen goods outlet store, which is a dangerous place for us to be but we scored a great deal on a salad spinner I really wanted and a very nice ice cream maker at half the retail price. Yay for homemade ice cream! We've really wanted an ice cream maker for some time now so that we can make our own deliciousness out of raw milk/cream and good organic fruits and herbs. Coincidentally we also scored ten bananas for fifty cents at our little produce market here in Portland yesterday, so it looks like banana ice cream is first up (though more on that later)!

Anyway, we also made the obligatory stop in Central Point, Oregon, for Rogue Creamery cheese and Lillie Belle chocolates, plus a very pleasant wine tasting. So we weren't in the car for the full 18 hours. But we were still pretty exhausted by the time we got in, about 10:30 pm. We loved on the cats some and passed out.

Since then it's been a flurry of catching up. Portland has suffered through a pretty massive rain in our absence, yesterday being the last day of a twenty-day run of straight rain. This is typical of winter around here but not summer, and no one knows why it happened. The most noticeable effect of it all was evident even as we pulled into our driveway in the dark: an explosion of roses, and knee-high weedy grass. Oops.

So we had mowing and weeding and staking roses to get through, plus unpacking, laundry, straightening up, restocking chick feed, restocking people feed, marveling over the chicks' incredible growth, and otherwise restoring the balance. We've been hard at work and still aren't done yet. I hope to finish tomorrow.

But today was Saturday, so we went to Sauvie Island for the afternoon. We made a stop at Kruger's Farm for fresh-picked, candy-sweet roasted corn, then headed for the beach, where we waded through thigh-high flooding to get to a narrow strip of sand along the swollen, fast-moving river. After so much rain ending in a sunny warm Saturday, all of Portland was out enjoying the weather today, but our strip of beach wasn't too crowded and we soaked up some vitamin D and relaxed for awhile. Eventually we headed back to Kruger's Farm to pick ourselves five pints of strawberries.

We got home sun-tired and woozy, but hungry, so I quickly seared and roasted a fresh salmon filet we bought yesterday (with fresh rosemary from the yard), and served it up atop a lovely salad of red lettuce, green onions, red turnips, sunflower seeds, and smoked bleu cheese. A lemon vinaigrette held it together nicely, made with a lemon from Keith's father's lemon tree (that tree makes the sweetest, juiciest, tastiest lemons I've ever had). The salmon was so perfectly moist and flaky, and went so nicely with the smoked bleu cheese, that we both just sat at the table quietly licking our lips like cats for several minutes before Keith got up to do the dishes.

I was going to make the banana ice cream tonight, but I'm just too freaking tired right now to skim the cream off the three half-gallons of raw milk we have in the fridge, much less cook up the custard and make ice cream. So I'll save that for tomorrow. It'll be a good day for it, since tomorrow is the first day of the Lents International Farmers Market (our favorite market in Portland, and also our closest one)! We'll have to celebrate with strawberry-banana ice cream now since we picked all those strawberries. Maybe we got too many, but they were so brilliantly red and sweet, still warm from the sun - I could've picked the whole field and brought it home.

Bye, L.A.!

This month down south is over, and in seven hours we'll be hitting the highway to go home! (So of course, I can't fall asleep. OF COURSE. Hence my blogging quietly in a dark room with the screen dimmed.)

We had a very nice last day in town. Went for a walk on the beach this morning, and watched a wild sea lion playing in the surf. We'd just lost him and were about to head back when three dolphins approached, so close we could've waded out to pet them. They cruised along as dolphins do, casually enjoying the morning, when out of nowhere the smallest one leapt from the water - RIGHT IN FRONT OF US - and did a little twist-flip on the way back down. They all continued on their way after that as though nothing had happened. Keith said it was almost like he did that just for our benefit. There was no one else around, early on an overcast Tuesday morning.

After that we walked on back and made our plans for the day. Keith dropped me off in Hollywood, where I had my favorite Thai lunch with a good friend, and then she and I went shopping for some incredible jewelry at the 1928 Outlet Store (everything half off!) and browsed around the other nearby shops. Meanwhile Keith had lunch with friends of his and browsed his favorite stores in L.A., Y Que and Glory. We met up again when we were done, and he and I headed down to Redondo for a walk with his dad and the dogs, and then the three of us (sans dogs) went to Ortega 120 for a fresh-and-delicious Mexican dinner.

Funny how I always thought I hated Mexican food before I moved to L.A. and actually had Mexican food. The nasty canned-goods enchiladas I had in the school cafeteria can't ever be compared to the mango-jicama salad I had tonight, topped with sliced all-natural carne asada, served with an incredible margarita made with fresh-squeezed juice. I'm off in happy la-la-land again, just thinking about that meal...

... Whew! And I'm back, still stuffed to the gills.

We're packed up mostly, the car is loaded and all we have to do when the alarm goes off at 3:45 a.m. is hit the snooze button for another two hours put our clothes on, brush our teeth, and go. We're leaving early so we'll be out of the desert by the time the sun gets insufferably hot, and also because Keith wants to make the whole trip to Portland in one day, which is a heroically long schlep but at least we can stop at the Rogue Creamery and Lillie Belle Farms again on the way up.

And until then, I really should at least try to get some sleep.

Killing time in L.A.

So I'm all rested from the show now, and ready to go home to Portland. We have to wait though; no point fighting Memorial Day traffic along I-5 after the misery we suffered last Thanksgiving (I-5 was a parking lot all the way through Sacramento). So I'm stuck here in Los Angeles a bit longer.

Could be worse, though. Yesterday we went to a lovely little farmers' market on the beach in Redondo. Everyone was sampling out fresh strawberries, and we bought some of those, as well as fresh cherries, lots of veggies, and twelve little vegetable starts that were a steal at $11 for the dozen. The weather was chill and drizzly, but I got a nice cup of fresh coffee so I was fine, and fresh cherries will brighten any day whatever the weather.

After the market, Keith and I grabbed a bite of leftover cabbage rolls from the night before, and then we each went to unwind in our own way - he spent the day at the movies, and I spent it at my Korean spa. Soaking, steaming, scrubbing, relaxing, until I was all limp and light... bliss. This spa is the reason I come to L.A.

Keith and I made a very nice dinner when we got back. He fired up the grill for a London broil I'd marinated all day, and he also grilled some fresh sweet corn and asparagus from the market, while I whipped up a salad with arugula and strawberries with fried shallots and a wine-balsamic vinaigrette. We opened an incredible pinot noir to go with it. Dinner was delicious, if filling - so filling that I fell asleep on the couch shortly after dinner, so quickly that I honestly don't remember what movie we were just about to watch. This is an embarrassing habit I'm developing here; every time Keith's dad puts in a movie after dinner, I pass out on it. I feel bad but I can't help it.

Today we took a drive out to see Keith's grandparents a couple hours outside of town, then went out for Mexican food. I'm now curled up with a little splash of Bombay Sapphire while Keith and his dad sip a very fine tequila, watching a British reality show that combines cars and travel with British humor to hilarious effect. I know tomorrow we're seeing friends in Hollywood, and we'll find something to occupy us for the next few days... but I'm ready for Wednesday and the drive back. I'm ready to go home again to my chickens and planting. I miss my life!

Bleu-Green Salad

O happy day! At long last, I have learned to love avocado.

I hated it for years. Hated the texture mostly, but the flavor didn't much do it for me either. I could tolerate avocados once I moved to the west coast, where they are fresh and abundant, but I still didn't really care for them. I don't even like guacamole.

They're so good for you though. And recently I've been deliberately trying to cultivate a taste for avocado. It's pretty good smashed up and spread on a vegetable sandwich with hummus, and it's good tossed into a salad with a lot of other textures. Finally I discovered that the secret to a delicious avocado: citrus and vinegar. Together. Something about that acid really brings a nice rich flavor out of all that creamy green.

So for lunch today, I made the greenest salad ever, and based it on avocado. I started with this recipe and just ran with it, using up the farmers' market goodness that I had on hand, enjoying the first local asparagus of the season. This salad was perfect. Next time someone asks me what spring in Oregon tastes like, I will serve him this salad. I'm just sorry that Keith missed out on it, because he would've absolutely loved it. I'll have to make it for him next week when I get down to L.A.

(And what a nutritional punch in this salad! Look at all that iron, those good healthy fats, a little protein, plenty of fiber... just perfect!)

BLEU-GREEN SALAD

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and halved
2 avocados, peeled and cubed
Fresh, quality lettuce
Fresh baby spinach
Fresh sorrel
* Rogue Creamery Smokey Bleu Cheese
Sunflower seeds
Fresh mint

Dressing:
** 1 wedge salted Meyer lemon, minced, plus 1 Tbsp juice
1 small clove minced raw garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 small dollop honey
Fresh parsley, chopped
Pepper to taste

* Okay, you can use any bleu cheese here. But I really, really recommend the smoked bleu cheese for this if you can get it. It does the loveliest things with all the sweet crisp greens and creamy avocado... just incredible.

** Use the zest and juice of a lemon plus some salt if you haven't made salted Meyer lemons. But you should try those salted lemons sometime. They go with everything; I'm constantly finding new things to put them in, and that salted lemon juice is the best thing that ever happened to salad dressing.

So anyway, bring a pot of water to boil, then blanch the asparagus for a minute or two until it turns brilliant green. Meanwhile, whisk up the dressing ingredients with a fork and set aside. Drain the blanched asparagus in a colander and rinse under cold water until it's cool to the touch. Throw the asparagus and avocado together in a big bowl, pour the dressing over it, and mix it up.

Arrange the lettuce, spinach, and sorrel on a plate and dump half the avocado-asparagus mix on top. (Make two plates of greens to serve two people, or save the other half of the a-a mix for later.) Sprinkle with the bleu cheese, sunflower seeds, and mint. Try not to stuff it all in your face at once - it is that good!