Tantre Farm Share, week 5

Sorry no photo (again). A certain newly minted 11-year-old borrowed my camera to make a stop motion video with his friend and now we can't find the thing...he's upstairs cleaning his room right now so there is hope it will be excavated soon.

This weeks share:
small bunch of bok choi, head of garlic, summer onions, bag of fava beans, bag of small lettuces, one big head of lettuce, big bunch of beets and greens, haruki turnips and greens, collard greens, chives

Menu plan:
We're going out of town next week so I'm kind of relieved that the share is a bit small this week.

• bok choi, garlic, and onions will go into Asain noodles (with some ground turkey, tofu, shredded carrot, peanuts, etc.)
• turnip greens and collards will get braised together with some more garlic. Since my kids are out of school and not at camp this week and keep asking for homemade mac and cheese for lunch--guess what they are going to learn out to make? I love homemade mac and cheese with braised greens and lots of hot pepper vinegar.
• Salad (duh). Even after eating salad twice a day because of last week's lettuce bounty, I'm still happy to have more salad, though I don't know if we'll finish all the lettuce before leaving.  I'll probably make a chive and sherry vinegar dressing.
• favas and beet greens will get sauteed with a few summer onions and tossed with hot pasta and goat cheese. If there are any chives left, they'll go in there too.
• Not sure of any plan for the beets (once I cut off their greens though, they can stay good for a few weeks so I might save them for later) or turnips, yet.

Tantre Farm Share, week 4

I think this is the week to try making lettuce soup.

You're going to have to trust me on the bounty because blogger is being persnickity about uploading my photo of this week's share. You can see it here on flickr if you're really interested. About a quarter of my dining room table is taken up with lettuce: three HUGE heads, two green, one red, of leaf lettuce and a big bag of more young green leaf lettuces. Seriously, one of the green heads weighed in at 1 lb 5 oz...

Also included in the share:
a little bunch of cilantro, a quart of strawberries, a bunch of rainbow chard, a bunch of haruki turnips and greens, a small bunch of asparagus, a large bunch of summer onions (sort of like scallions on steroids), large quantity of garlic scapes and a bag of snap peas.

Menu plan:

• Lettuce soup. There are a ton of recipes for this on the web. I'll probably go with a version that uses a lot of scallions and chicken broth and a little bit of potato to give it some heft. Then some creme fraiche and sauteed garlic scapes to top it. Maybe a little cilantro too if it fits the flavor profile, other wise I have some tarragon out back that I think would be good.
• Speaking of sauteed garlic scapes: most mornings I'm sautéing up a couple in a little olive oil and then making an omelet with them and feta and a couple of dashes of Clancy's Fancy. 
• Any remaining garlic scapes will be processed into pesto and frozen for the winter.
• I love snap pea's sauteed in a little butter and finished with chopped mint, black pepper and a little sea salt. Brian will have to fight me for them.
• Yea! Chard! I've been hankering to make the beet/chard/chile/goat cheese combo again, though I'm craving chard as the star of the show and fewer beets (since I only have a couple in the fridge). If there's any cilantro left by then, I'll probably chop up a little as a garnish.
• Turnips, greens and asparagus sound like a good combo for a sauteed side dish for something meaty--pork tenderloin maybe?
• And, of course, salad. Lots and lots of salad. And if we eat all the salad we can and still have lettuce left, I might try this lettuce sauce which sounds like it would be good with poached salmon.

Tantre Farm Share, week 3

Top row: Red Russian kale, big head of lettuce, bag of small lettuces

Bottom row: scallions, lots of garlic scapes, strawberries, black stemmed peppermint, English peas, haruki turnips

It's kind of a small share this week--good thing I only have to feed two people since my critters still only tentatively nibble the occasional piece of lettuce or a few peas. I was hoping for another load of spinach because I have a hankering to make Indian food and saag is one of my favorite dishes. Ah well, it'll have to wait until another week!

• The kale will get cooked up with garlic and olive oil and combined with cannelini beans, rosemary and parmesan, served with baguette. Beans n' greens Italian style.
• I'll make a big batch of garlic scape pesto to freeze.
• Scallions, lettuce and peas will go into another round of Larb Mu (recipe below).
• The rest of the scallions will probably go into a korean pancake and I'll simmer the turnips with some mirin and soy sauce to serve with them. If I get really motivated I'll stir fry the turnip greens with some tofu and kim chi we'll have a multi course feast!
• It's been cool in the evenings so I'll have the peppermint tea hot--good post dinner beverage.
• No reason to do anything with the strawberries but rinse and eat!

Larb Mu (Thai pork salad)

Traditionally this is served with whole lettuce leaves that you use to wrap up a portion of the seasoned meat. My lazy version has you make a big salad for each person and top it with the meat. It makes it a fast week-night meal instead of something I would only take the time to do occasionally.

1 lb ground pork (or turkey)

1 T peanut oil

3 T uncooked jasmine rice

1 T fish sauce

1-2 t sriracha sauce

1 t sugar

juice from 1 lime

1 shallot, sliced thin

2 scallions, chopped

1 head of lettuce, washed and torn

1 C of shredded cabbage

1/2 cucumber, sliced thin

3 or 4 radishes, sliced thin (optional)

fresh peas or pea pods (optional)

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thing (optional)

small bunch of cilantro, chopped

small bunch of mint, chopped

small bunch of thai (or regular) basil, (optional), chopped

In a small skillet, toast the uncooked rice, stirring so it doesn't burn. It should turn golden brown and have a nutty smell. Grind in a mortar and pestle or a spice or coffee grinder. (If this step sounds like too much of a pain, I've made this salad without the toasted rice powder and thought it was still pretty terrific though I'm sure some people think that it is essential to the dish.)

In a big bowl mix together the fish sauce, sriracha, sugar, lime juice, shallot, and scallions and set aside.

In a big skillet or wok heat the peanut oil and cook the pork (or turkey) until it isn't pink. Crumble it while cooking so it doesn't clump up. Dump the cooked meat into the bowl with the sauce and toss it around a little. Sprinkle in the rice powder.

On plates make a pile of lettuce, top with the chopped/shredded vegetables of your choice. Then place a generous portion of the meat mixture on top. Sprinkle with plenty of the herbs and serve.

Tantre Farm Share, week 2

Top row: Red Russian kale, radishes, garlic scapes, spinach, asparagus, komatsuna (spinach mustard)

Bottom row: haruki turnips, 4 heads of lettuce, black stemmed peppermint, scallions

Menu plan:

• The garlic scapes will go into garlic scape pesto which has become far and away my favorite pesto. I'll toss it with some pasta and the asparagus and the turnip greens which get chucked into the pasta water for the last minute or so of cooking.
• I'm thinking of using the kale in this kale salad with toasted coconut, probably with quinoa instead of farro since my better half has requested that we go gluten-free for a while.
• The radishes will get turned into quick ginger radish pickles.
• I love the haruki turnips so much but will try and not be a selfish cow. I'm tempted to eat them all for lunch today, but Brian loves them too. They'll probably get braised with a little butter and some poppy seeds. 
• The komatsuna and spinach will be stir fried with ground turkey, shallots, fish sauce, lime and scallions and then plopped on top of a bed of lettuce to make a bastardized version of Thai pork salad (Larb Mu).
• Any remaining lettuce and scallions will go into green salads for lunches for the week.
• The black stemmed peppermint will be made into the most refreshing iced tea ever which will be good for these crazy 90 degree days we're having now.

Well hello there! (aka Tantre Farm Share, week 1)

After blogging for 5+ years, I needed a little break.  For the last few months when I thought of blogging I felt tired. And frankly my life was going relatively smoothly, but there weren't a whole lot of interesting things to write about. We all were just plugging along, getting stuff done without a whole lot of drama.

I thought about shutting down the blog, I thought about starting a new one with a more accurate name since the things I was obsessed with 5+ years ago have shifted and changed but coming up with a blog name that encompassed cooking, reading and writing YA fiction, house renovation, and the occasional parenting fiasco was too high a hurdle. Something like "Ephemera" sounded a little too snooty. "Aggle Flaggle" would be accurate for the mental nonsense realm, but hard to spell. So here we are! Back in the same old place.

This morning I picked up my farm share this morning and there is nothing like a big box of beautiful organic produce to reinvigorate my urge to share.  If you were wondering what would possibly grow in the crazy amount of rain we've been getting, I have the answer: spinach! Lots and lots of spinach.

Top row: 4 huge bunches of spinach, tatsoi, scallions, asparagus

Bottom row: chives and blossoms, spicy greens mix, red russian kale, 2 green leaf lettuces, radishes and some over-wintered fingerling potatoes.

And here's the plan:

• The asparagus is already gone. I couldn't resist; before I even finished unpacking the box I had a pot of water on to boil so I could make this for my lunch:

asparagus topped with a poached egg, olive oil, shards of parmesan, chive flowers, fleur de sel, black pepper and lemon juice.  Oh my was it tasty!

• With all that spinach (and some of the scallions) how could I not make spanikopita? Besides I have some left-over grilled leg of lamb and yogurt cucumber salad that will be so good with it.
• The tatsoi and some more scallions will get the thai noodle treatment with a little ground pork and tofu.
• I'm going to make some homemade blue cheese dressing for a salad with the lettuce, radishes and chives. It'll probably go with something simple like turkey burgers.
• That leaves me with kale, spicy greens mix and potatoes so I might try to combine them into some sort of gratin with gruyere, if the weather is conducive to turning on the oven. If it is hot and  that sounds dopey then the greens will just get the classic garlic, olive oil and lemon treatment.

Villain Work

I'm within three chapters of finishing my first draft (and they aren't even big chapters) but I've been fighting and fighting with them and recently realized that I can't write them without believing in my present bad guy more than I do.

So I'm backing off from the chapters and doing some villain work.

The villain is the main problem I'm facing, but working on him also made me realize that I need to make some other characters in the book less pleasant--there are too many nice people right now. I think this is a result of me being in my winter mode and wishfully writing what I'd like to be surrounded by, as though crafting nasty characters is just too hard for my brain in the midst of the dark and cold days.  I can imagine a sunny, warm day, sitting out on the deck and having a great time writing a really despicable character. But right now, when I feel the world is not an overly easy place to live in I'm doing a much better job crafting the kind characters--I've developed a sibling relationship that was a little thin and have filled in some of the (pleasant) background characters. But if I want to finish the draft, I'm going to have to get over the niceness hump* and write the meanies.

So I went out and bought a bag full of out-of-season non-local fruit: strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and kiwis. Maybe I can trick my brain into summer mode for a short while, just long enough for me to crank out some really nasty characters to make my book more interesting.

And if you have any great villains you think I should keep in mind, please let me know!

*The niceness thing does not apply to me. I am not nice to be around now. In fact the best I can do is resolve not to be as unpleasant this February as I was last year. That's hard enough.

Getting weepy on the stairmaster

I was at the gym the other night stomping away on the stairmaster when all of a sudden everything got sort of blurry. No, I wasn't going so fast that the machine was smoking (ha!), nor was my vision deteriorating more than its already crappy state; I was reading the final chapters of the wonderful book Plain Kate by Erin Bow and my eyes were responding appropriately.

This is a wonderful book. The story is about a young girl and is set in a vaguely Russian-ish land with prominent characters who are members of a traveling Roma family. The story has elements of magic and mystery, but primarily it is about loneliness and belonging.

None of the characters are simple--almost all of them have been deeply hurt by the world--and none of their feelings are simple. The best example is the villain of the piece, who I absolutely hated for preying on Kate at times, and for whom I felt a deep sympathy for his suffering at others. Kate is also unsure what to feel or think about him: fear? pity? friend? enemy?  There's no simple way to render a character who steals from Kate but also saves her, and I loved this complexity.

You'd think that with such layered characters the book would be long and it would take a lot of text to convey such complicated feelings and characters. But there is a remarkable economy to the language--it is lyrical, yet spare. It didn't feel like there were any extraneous words in the book. By comparison, most other books (many of which I also enjoy) seem downright sloppy.

And I challenge anyone to read this book and not be thoroughly in love with character of Taggle the cat. Bow has captured the most perfect "cat-ness" of Taggle:

Taggle was absorbed in the meat pie. "It's covered in bread," he huffed. "What fool has covered meat with bread?" He batted at the crust, then sprang back as it broke, and began licking gravy off his paw. "Ooooo," he purred. "Ooooo, good."
"Taggle," gulped Kate, again.
The cat looked up from his licking. "Oh. Well. I could share." He arched his whiskers forward and, like a lord, demonstrated his beneficence by giving away what he didn't want. "There is bread you might like."

The only other fictional animal I can think of that is this perfect, that absolutely captures the appeal of the particular species, is Manchee the dog in Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go (which I mentioned here) whose love for the boy Todd made me cry.

For the writers out there, it was really nice for the author to include the information in the acknowledgments* that it took her six years to write this book. That seems like a perfectly reasonable amount of time in which to create something so perfect and precise. I checked out the author's web site and it looks like her next book will be out in 2012 so (yeah!) we don't have to wait another six years to read it.

And now a word about the cover art: Very pretty but it just doesn't fit. Take a look at the picture at the start of this post. It looks like the girl on the cover is having a lovely time, balancing on the ridgepole of a roof, looking out over a magical town, a gentle breeze making her hair and scarf float out behind her and her cat is prancing in front of her! This lighthearted depiction is the absolute opposite of the one incident in the book when the main character (and the cat) are on a roof. They are in a city that is about to be destroyed and the inhabitants of the city are known to pick scapegoats (like Kate), accuse them of witchcraft and burn them at the stake (so not a friendly, happy place). And by this point in the story Kate has had her hair cut off and been badly burned. She is hunched and tense and clinging to the slates. For example: "The downpour slowed to a cold soaking rain. The steep roofs were slippery, but they didn't dare go into the streets. Men in the dark garb of the city watch roamed in packs and harried the refugees from doorways and alleys. So Drina and Kate stuck to the roofs, inching, sliding, scraping, keeping out of sight. It was slow and exhausting." This cover just doesn't fit this wonderful book.

*Thank you, editor, for putting the acknowledgments at the end! One of my big pet peeves is when they are at the beginning.

Frita Batidos

It's been a good long while since I blogged about a restaurant. I haven't been eating out much and when I do its usually just a rushed post-gym dinner at our favorite Korean local, Maru, or for a beer and sandwich at a brew pub. But yesterday I joined some friends for a holiday lunch. Since only one of us works in a traditional office where holiday parties are the norm, we made our own little celebration and decided to try Eve Arranoff's new place Frita Batidos.

I got there before the lunch rush began and it was quiet and very, very white. It's a casual place with (white) picnic tables and all hard surfaces so while it was quiet when we arrived, once the traffic picked up, the noise level was approaching uncomfortable. I'm not sure my sensitive ears could handle a boisterous late night crowd.

But the food! Oh my the food! I ordered a black bean frita with tropical coleslaw on top and a side of the twice fried plantains. The black bean patties I've had in the past have been leaden and heavy and feel a bit like a punishment for choosing them over meat. But these are creamy and flavorful and really rewarding. I didn't wish I was eating another friends big Cuban sandwich, delicious though it looked.

This may not look like a huge amount of food for $14, which is more than I usually spend on lunch, but it is all so rich that it was amazingly filling; I wasn't hungry when dinner time rolled around and since I'm one of those people with a hobbit-like tendency to eat every three hours or so, that's saying something.  If I worked downtown I could see getting just the black bean frita with a side of tropical slaw (it was good on top, but I think I'd like it even better on the side); that would set me back $8 and mean that I wouldn't be feeling stuffed. But those plantains were amazing and amazingly rich. They are drenched in a garlic-cilantro butter and accompanied by a sweet chili mayo for dipping. They melt on your tongue and the combination of the sweet plantain and the rich butter, combined with the bright flavors of the garlic and cilantro is just magical. This place is open late and I could see coming here after a show for an alcohol-soaking up plantain gorging.

If you have a sweet tooth, as one of my friends most decidedly does, then you should try the churros with chocolate Espanol.  It was a huge portion which meant we each got to sample them without depriving her of the blood sugar spike she so desired.

They were the best churros I've ever tasted--the dough is flecked with orange peel and nutmeg, they are rolled in cinnamon sugar, and the chocolate is like warm, cinnamon-spiked ganache. I'd say one order could easily satisfy two sweet-tooths or four normal-tooths.

None of us tried the batidos--I was chilled from walking downtown on a windy cold day so I'm going to wait until the weather is more conducive to the consumption of ice to give those a try. 

December catch up

Just a little update for those who still check in here. As you may have noticed, blog posts have been scarce of late. I blame that on the 1600+ words I've been churning out for the 1st draft of the novel. By the end of my fiction writing I'm so sick of sitting still (and my wrists hurt) that even if I have an idea for a blog post, I'm too wiped to write it. So here are a few miscellaneous things that I've been meaning to post:

I finished NaNoWriMo! Unfortunately 50,000 words only took me to just past the half-way point in my novel so I'm trying to keep up the momentum. December is harder than November as far as making the time to write. I'm giving myself a break and not expecting any writing on the weekends--it's just too crazy.  But I've managed to add a little more than 15,000 words since the end of NaNoWriMo. I'm approaching the end of part 3 (of 4) so that feels good, though I'm thinking I probably won't be able to finish the draft before the New Year. The kids get out of school next week and finding time to write will become even more challenging.  

Gift/book wise: I'm giving a few family members The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell. Somehow I neglected to blog about it here but it was probably my favorite read of the year.

I have a hard time staying hydrated in the winter because drinking cold water when it's freezing flipping cold outside is something that I have to force myself to do. So lately I've been making an effort to make and consume the following two hot, non-caffeinated beverages. The first I call
Winter Comfort:  Make a half a mug of strong peppermint tea--let it steep for about 10 minutes. Then glug in vanilla soy milk to the top of the mug and nuke until the whole thing is warm. I know, it sounds kind of disgusting, but I really love it.

The second is Cheaper than Sweetwaters' Lemon-Ginger Tea: Put about 5-6 cups of water in a pot. Take a piece of ginger root, about 2 inches long, and slice crosswise into 1/4 inch pieces (no need to peel it). Chuck the pieces in the pot. Dump about 1 T of powdered ginger in there too (more if you really love the ginger burn). Then bring to a boil, cover and simmer for a few hours. Stir in the juice of 2 lemons that you squeezed and about 1/2 cup of honey or sugar and stir until dissolved. Taste and adjust for your own sweet/sour preference. You can strain out the chunks of ginger and keep this in a jar in the fridge for a while. Then give it a shake (the powdered ginger settles to the bottom), pour in a mug and nuke until hot. It's also very nice to settle a tummy that may have overindulged in holiday treats.

Past the half way point

It's day 19 of NaNoWriMo and so far I've churned out 34,992 words. So I'm a little ahead of schedule with the word count though I'm only about a third of the way through my plot map. Since I know that what I've written will need to be tightened up, I'm not too bothered by the length though I will have to keep this momentum up after November 30th to get the first draft finished.

A few things I've discovered:

• I really like writing with a map. Whoa boy is it a different experience. Less choice is a good thing for me. It keeps me plugging through the hard parts and stops me from jumping ahead to the bits I know will be fun to write.
• My main character's mother is blind! And her father dies in the course of the book! I didn't know these things when I started writing, but that's the process of discovery.  As one writing site recommended (can't remember which one): it can be kind of fun to throw a whole lot of grief at your main character and see how they respond.
• I love Last FM. I don't think the interface or organization of the web site is as good as Pandora but the way it connects songs and groups is way more diverse. For example, if you are on Pandora and create an Iron and Wine station, be prepared to get swamped with Nick Drake and Bonnie Prince Billie. I like both, but not all the damn time. Last FM mixes in way more artists: Andrew Bird, Elliot Smith, Noah and the Whale, and plenty of other bands I've never heard of. I've been playing Last FM while I've been writing and it has proved to be a good way to keep me at the computer.
• The house is a sty, there are piles of mail that need to be sorted through and we keep running out of stuff like milk, bread and prescription meds. If I didn't have most of our bills set up for auto pay, we'd probably be getting threatening notices from utility companies. I'm barely remembering to get the laundry washed and dried and have had to tell everyone just to rummage around in the clean laundry pile to find what they need for the day because folding and putting it away isn't happening. But the kitties think the clothes pile new kitty bed is fantastic! Dinners of late have been mediocre at best. The thing that blows my mind is how people who work out of the house for 8+ hours a day get any of this stuff done. At least I can chuck in laundry and go back upstairs and write. 
• But hey, it feels good to be so jazzed with the writing that things that normally bug the crap out of me don't seem to matter.