Monthly Archives: January 2009

We have a screen!

January 28, 2009 – 12:30 pm

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Our liv­ing room has two big win­dows. They func­tion as the main cool­ing ele­ment for our whole apart­ment. Last June, one of the screens fell out (and Mar­got went with it!). It is hard to describe the process of get­ting that screen back, but I will do my best.

But first! Let’s talk about the func­tions of screens and win­dows. Our apart­ment has out­side walls mostly on the South side of the build­ing so we get direct sun pretty much all day. And liv­ing in LA it gets fairly hot in the sum­mer, like really hot. So all sum­mer when we were less one win­dow, we were burn­ing up. And because we are energy con­scious badasses, we are totally decided against buy­ing an A/C.

But you may be ask­ing, why didn’t you just open the win­dow any­way? Well, let me tell you. We have a par­a­lyz­ing anx­i­ety about open­ing that win­dow. What hap­pened is, one night we were read­ing down­stairs and we were so hot that we had to open both win­dows. While we were read­ing a HUGE COCKROACH FLEW IN THE WINDOW AND INTO LAURA’S FACE. That’s real, a true story. It was deeply traumatic.

So, since open­ing the win­dow equals shep­herd­ing Mar­got and weird sub­con­scious anx­i­ety, we haven’t, for about 6 months. Well, that’s a lie. Some­times we have to, like one night when we were saute­ing chilies and couldn’t stop cough­ing. But it’s rare… and for < 5 minutes.

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But now, today, six months and a day from when the screen fell out, we have two screens again. Let’s hope this is a metaphor for our country.

By Matthew | Posted in Feats | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Farmer’s Market: January 25

January 28, 2009 – 11:12 am

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  • Blooms­dale Spinach
  • Broc­coli*
  • Car­rots
  • China Rose Radishes
  • Chiogga Beets
  • Cilantro
  • Cimar­ron Red Lettuce
  • Col­lard Greens
  • Kale
    • Blue
    • Red
    • Tus­can
  • Kohl Rabi
  • Mus­tard Greens

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  • Fuji Apples
  • Gar­lic
  • Gin­ger
  • Japan­ese Yams
  • Raisins*
  • Red Pota­toes
  • Squash
    • Del­i­cata
    • Kabocha/Sunrise
  • Tan­ger­ines
  • Wal­nuts
  • Yel­low Onions

*High­lights

  • First time ever get­ting broc­coli from the CSA. Get­ting broc­coli is an excit­ing change. Changes! I love you.
  • Burkart Farms’ Organic Flame Seed­less Raisins, HOLY GOD, the best raisins in the world. Period. Ever. After eat­ing these raisins I real­ized I have never eaten a real raisin before, it makes a huge dif­fer­ence. (I was just tast­ing them to try and describe the taste accu­rately, but it is impos­si­ble. I’ve never tasted any­thing so good. Now I can’t stop snack­ing on them). The man who sold them to us was all excited that they “are made from the same grapes that were just sit­ting on these tables a few months ago.” WE FEEL YOU.
By Matthew | Posted in Eats | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Agricultural Equality

January 20, 2009 – 12:38 pm

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To the peo­ple of poor nations, we pledge to work along­side you to make your farms flour­ish and let clean waters flow; to nour­ish starved bod­ies and feed hun­gry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy rel­a­tive plenty, we say we can no longer afford indif­fer­ence to suf­fer­ing out­side our bor­ders; nor can we con­sume the world’s resources with­out regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
 – Pres­i­dent Barack Obama, in his Inau­gural Address

Our new pres­i­dent men­tioned today in his Inau­gural Address sup­port­ing poor nations through farm­ing and clean water. I am very moved by this idea. It is sym­bolic to me of all the change that is hap­pen­ing. Giv­ing every­one access to their rights as human beings seems to be a pri­or­ity for Obama. It is good to see that food jus­tice is being rec­og­nized as a tac­tic for spread­ing peace and equal­ity, instead of start­ing wars with every coun­try in the Mid­dle East like our pre­vi­ous president.

“On this day, we gather because we have cho­sen hope over fear, unity of pur­pose over con­flict and dis­cord.” Hope over fear guys. We did it. Hope, farm­ing, equal­ity, peace. We chose this. We want to heal the dis­pro­por­tion­ate dis­tri­b­u­tion of wealth in the nation and the world. And you know what the best way to start this is? Through clean water and sus­tain­able crops. Peo­ple have been try­ing to get the White House to join the sus­tain­able farm­ing train for a while, but it is very mean­ing­ful for it to be finally com­ing from the commander-in-chief.

And this is just the begin­ning, day 1, there is so much to do and so much that can happen.

By Matthew | Posted in Feats | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Farmer’s Market: January 18

January 20, 2009 – 10:18 am

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  • Beets
    • Red
    • Chiogga
  • Blooms­dale Spinach
  • Car­rots
  • Cilantro
  • Col­lard Greens
  • Kale
    • Blue
    • Tus­can
  • Mus­tard Greens
  • Radishes
    • China Rose
    • Daikon

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  • Acorn Squash
  • Brazil­ian Pep­per Tree Raw Honey
  • Fuji Apples
  • Gar­lic
  • Tan­ger­ines
  • Yel­low Onion

High­lights

  • Meet­ing brother Daniel at Caffe Etc for lattes.
  • Daniel becom­ing a mem­ber of the CSA.
  • Find­ing out that we can look for­ward to cau­li­flower, broc­coli, pars­ley (we’re cross­ing our fin­gers that this includes pars­ley root), and fava beans (!) in our box soon.
  • Get­ting epic acorn squash (seri­ously the tex­ture was like a kabocha!) per Matthew Bachler’s insider tip to check out foley(?) farms. If you like squash and live in LA, do your­self a favor and GET ONE.
By Matthew | Posted in Eats | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Farmer’s Market: January 11

January 14, 2009 – 8:53 am

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  • Beets
    • Chiogga
    • Golden
    • Tus­can
  • Kohlrabi
  • Mus­tard Greens
  • Radishes
    • China Rose
    • Daikon

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  • Acorn Squash
  • Christ­mas Lima Beans
  • Fuji Apples
  • Gar­lic
  • Oys­ter Mushrooms
  • Sweet potato
    • Red
    • White
  • Tan­ger­ines
  • Yel­low Onion
By Matthew | Posted in Eats | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Merry Cakemas

January 4, 2009 – 5:10 pm

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And a happy cake year!

What bet­ter way to send off the hol­i­day sea­son then with a petite (and deli­cious) apple cake. After the gen­er­ous and epic christ­mas gift from M’s par­ents, a pro­fes­sional Kitchen-Aide mixer, we have no more excuses for mak­ing com­pli­cated desserts.

Now, I’m not much for sweets; I like fla­vors to take me on a jour­ney, start­ing off in one place and end­ing in another. Most cakes that cross my path can be avoided due to their sta­tion­ary, sickly nature. Why even bother, right? Pass me the sour­dough toast.

But it’s nearly my last day on vacay! And how I do love a good challenge.

M and I got to dis­cussing a ver­sion of red vel­vet cake (a long stand­ing tra­di­tion in his fam­ily) and we were nearly set on mak­ing it until I remem­bered this apple cake that I had been dream­ing of since Bea posted it back in September.

We are shame­less apple fiends… It sounded perfect.

Did we make any alter­ations? Why, only a few. We don’t have a 9″ bak­ing dish, so we split it up into two 6″ ones. Instead of yogurt, we used home­made but­ter­milk; instead of vanilla bean, whiskey. Oh, and we did not have any almonds for the almond flour, so when sub­sti­tuted a com­bi­na­tion of cashews, sun­flow­erseeds, and black sesame seeds (hence, the grey­ish color of the cake).

(side­note: one of the best fea­tures of the Blendtec is being able to make our own flour – what a dif­fer­ence!)

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The sesame seeds really worked their magic. The cake is moist, salty, and nutty – the apples mushy and tangy. Man, you should make it. The recipe is here.

Report back with your successes!

By Matthew | Posted in Eats | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Farmer’s Market: January 4

January 4, 2009 – 5:09 pm

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  • Beets
    • Albina Vere­duna
    • Burpee’s Golden
    • Chiog­gia Pink
    • Red Ace
  • Chard
  • Kohlrabi
    • Pur­ple Vienna
    • White Vienna
  • Mus­tard Greens
  • Radish
    • Daikon
    • Red
  • Romaine Let­tuce
  • And some kind of greens yet to be identified

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  • Apples
    • Fuji
    • Granny Smith
  • Avo­ca­dos
    • Bacon
    • Fuerte
  • Car­rots
  • Gar­lic
  • Gin­ger
  • Honey
    • Euca­lyp­tus
  • Pota­toes
    • Red Lasoda

High­lights

  • See­ing Katie, brother Matthew (who man­ages the Hol­ly­wood Farmer’s Mar­ket), and their lovely mum. A Sun­day morn­ing stroll though win­ter bounty and bustling crowds chat­ting with warm friends – so nice!!!

Low­lights

  • The sea­son of eat­ing many Per­sim­mons seems to be over. I didn’t see any, but L said she saw a few. I feel very sad that we missed them last week. In the future, GET THEM WHILE YOU CAN.
By Matthew | Posted in Eats | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)