We're going to rock down to...

Check out Rebecca's new-used electric cruiser bike! It's supposed to give power for about 30 min of assisted motoring, lots more if you are pedalling on your own for large
parts of the trip. We're hoping to go on more bike rides together, this will help level the playing field, since I'm a more experienced rider with a much more distance-friendly bike. ie: maybe she can keep up now! :-)

Camping report - August


Uvas Canyon Park for the win!

The park is about a 90 min drive away, so we didn't make it down on Friday night. Rebecca had to work late-ish, so we took it easy instead of rushing down there (and possibly not being able to get in when the gates close at sunset). It's a drive-up car camping (park next to the tent) as opposed to a haul-in car camping like Sanborn (cart your gear 300+ yards from the car to the tent). Also, it ended up being just the two of us, so we didn't feel any pressure to get down there to host.

Drove down Sat AM, set up the tent and went for some walks. We didn't expect any water at all along the creeks and the Waterfall trail in the dusty dry summer, but were pleasently surprised! The creek burbled merrily in it's low volume way and we had our lunch right by it. The Waterfall trail had about 2 dozen stops on a nature guide (PDF) that talked about plants (mostly) and trail features. The trails were well-kept and didn't suffer from the "overall sameness" of the trails at Sanborn-Skyline. (ie: we had ups'n'downs, stream crossings, bridges, steep side trips to overlooks and water(trickle)falls, etc). Wildlife abounded: we saw newts, snakes, deer, orioles(?), quail, ground squirrels, wild turkyes and jays.

Dinner was cous cous and cauliflower, breakfast was oatmeal. All-in-all a very low-key and relaxed get-away for two. The campgrounds are *very* kid- and dog-friendly, we may have been the only people there that didn't have one or both along with. We're certainly going to go back, especially with Niece Melissa, to explore more. We only did about half the trails and haven't even started on the fishing there yet (looks like boating is off limits for right now). A spring trip for full-fledged waterfalls and some wild flowers would be ideal.

September: hike-in tent camping at Portola!

Veggie report - week of 8/12

Torpedo onions have usable green onion-ish tops. We got strawberries *and* squash, bright purple cauliflower and our mystery was a 2nd head of lettuce (or maybe it's escarole).

Out of my own back yard, I got 4 green beans. *sigh* I upped the watering quite a bit, hoping to coax more out of all the plants, and that seems to be working. There are a couple more yellow cucumbers coming in, one big green cucumber, 2 bell peppers and 3 little yellow waxy peppers. A miserable yield, but much better than it was looking in July.

The fresh corn salad from last week? zomg!

The LazyMan(TM) pickling method worked out just fine! Ate some of the pickling cucumbers soaked in left-over dill pickle juice along with sandwiches. I'd call them bland/mild, but they tasted like pickles with zero effort.

- Turned the oven on, so I figured I'd do lots of dishes at the same time: Roasted up the potatoes from last week with the last bit of the tarragon (roasted potatoes - good for any meal), also the beets separately (for beet/feta salad) and made up a big pan of chicken casserole with romanesco and squash.
- Looking for new tomato ideas, I found Pan Tumaca. Basically, you rub a tomato onto a piece of garlic toast. Good, but didn't knock my socks off.
- The "something different" that I tried with squash: I took the Pattypan squash and cut them into rounds and batter fried them. I saw that in a Greek cookbook that I have, so I guess you'd call them Kolokythakia Tiganita mmMMmmm. Fried food.... Now, *those* were super. Going to use the rest of the batter from the fried zuchs for pub fish early next week.
- I prepped up some food to take car camping with us on Saturday: Made a great, crusty wheat bread for trail sandwiches (made them small, so they are like individual loaves) and packed a cup of cous-cous to fry up with some purple cauliflower and pine nuts for dinner.

Saw Julie & Julia last night. Walter said "delightful and forgettable". I loved the foodie stuff and Rebecca and I are still talking about how good Meryl Streep was, so not as forgettable for us.

Veggies galore...

A friend basically asked me: how much food do you really get from the CSA weekly box? If it's just two of us would it be a good amount or would we be struggling to eat all of it? Here's their FAQ answer.

I guess it's alot, but we're both nearly 100% vegetarian at home, and rarely eat out. So, I buy lots of food at the grocery store to supplement, every week.

From the CSA weekly box link, here's the list, with some estimates of amounts.

Sweet Corn - 7 ears
Tomatoes - 8 or so smallish tomatoes
summer squash - 6 or 7 small squash
Fennel - 1 good-sized bulb
Romanesco - 1 medium head
Strawberries - 1 quart
Scallions - 1 big bunch
Red Butter - 1 medium sized head

If you eat a decent amount of vegetables and especially if you don't eat out very much, I think it's a completely sensible quantity. They have a 4week trial period sometimes, but they may also have a waiting list right now. I'd say give it a try!

Buying from a farmer's market gets you pretty much all the benefits and allows you to control the amounts, tho'... (I think the weekly box is pretty darn cheap, tho', compared to Whole Foods or farmer's market). I pre-payed for the whole year and I think that works out to about $19/week.

Veggie Report 8/5

The weekly baskets seemed a little light sometimes in May/June. That's all forgiven in the deep summer months.

Here's this week's list of veggies from Two Small Farms, our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm.

Amazing Cook Tim sent us some food earlier this week, too! Gazpacho and homemade tortillas (some made by Princess Melissa) and rice with peppers. mmmMMmmm... thanks, man. I don't get food gifts often enough! Also, a bag of superior cherry tomatoes from the Princess's garden.



It's a very summer-ry basket this week. Strawberries, summer squash (the mystery this week), corn and tomatoes. And green onions. A big bunch. Luckily, I was nearly out. (no, really!) Rebecca loooooooves corn and we got about 8 ears, so many corn dishes are a'coming. Plus, one of the great oddities of the vegtable world called romanesco broccoli. It looks like an alien plant, but it's a kind of cauliflower, I guess. (Turns out that broccoli and cauliflower are the same species. Who knew?)

Finishing out last week:
- I read lots of pickling and brining recipes last week for the pickling cucumbers, but couldn't bring myself to start a canning operation. (Lazy!) So, when I finished a jar a pickles, I cut about 3/4 of the pickling cucumbers up into spears and stuck them in the left-over pickle juice. I figure in a week or so, they'll have soaked up some vinegar-y, dill-y, garlic-y goodness. Or, they'll taste just like cucumbers soaked in salt water. I'll let you know.
- I took potatoes from a few weeks back and made a dish similar to one suggested by Facebook Kelly: a "no mayo" potato salad with green beans and feta cheese. (*cough* ...and green onions). Thanks, Kelly!
- Chicken stock and the chard and the beet greens went into a red risotto. Golly, I like risotto. Learned how to make it from Walter, who learned from a master.
- Oh and that "lettuce"? That wasn't lettuce. That was escarole, a slightly bitter tasting green that's more firm than spinach and softer then chard. I've made that mistake before. Ask me about the "bad lettuce soup" sometime. I sauteed the escarole and nearly all the green and bulb onions up with the rest of the tarragon. I had it for breakfast with some sunnyside eggs poached in salsa. Kinda-of-a rancho huevos with greens.


Tongight:
- I'll prep up the strawberries for breakfast. Strawberries are almost entirely a cereal topping here at the Bungalow. If they get a little too ripe, I turn them into a desert sauce, or toss them in the freezer for smoothies.
- Tomatoes + corn + a couple peppers from our own backyard(!) and some (everybody say it with me!) green onions will make a nice summer side salad.
- It really is lettuce this time, so actual salad with Princess tomatoes, fennel and feta. I'll bake some bread to go with.

I gotta find something cool to do with summer squash. Something out of the ordinary, so no breads, no pasta, no stir-fry. I'll work on that...

Take care