Wheel…. Of…. Produce!
I’d like to buy a cherry.
If you’re trying to plan for meals that use local and in season produce, it helps to have an idea of what’s in season in your area. But I know I’ve lost touch with my farming roots (what farming roots, you ask? I’m sure I have some ancestors at some point who were involved in farming) and I don’t have a complete picture of how things grow and when they’re ready. But I’m getting better with the help of the SF Bay Area’s local foods wheel. It’s a literal wheel made from cardstock and you can spin the wheel to figure out what’s in season at any point in the year. I love mine and it’s worth the investment of $12 or so, I think. It also makes a great gift. I’m actually planning to give mine to someone when I leave the Bay Area (don’t worry, I’m keeping mine nice and pristine). I haven’t decided who I’ll give it to just yet, but if you’re interested, let me know! 
Someone should enjoy it when I’m living far from California’s bountiful and fruitful and vegetableful harvests.
The website also has all the information listed as text, but the wheel is a lot more fun with nice hand-drawn pictures of the different foods. And with the text version, it’s not easy to see which foods are in season at a given time during the year. The wheel is good for inspiration when I’m planning a menu or before I go shopping or to the farmers market.
For those of you outside of the Bay Area, there’s also Epicurious’ map. But it’s not as complete as the local foods wheel – California only has 9 things listed as being in season during May! But it’ll do until there are wheels are invented for everyone!
Mac ‘n’ Cheese, please, on your knees
I was craving macaroni and cheese and so I made some. That’s why all the people who don’t cook should get more familiar with doing stuff in the kitchen – you become more self-reliant and you can get what you want when you want it.
I used these fun looking and colorful spiral noodles – from Rainbow Grocery, how appropriate. I added some grape tomatoes and some fava beans (it’ll probably be the last fava beans of the season). I also decided to throw some bread crumbs (from the sour dough bread that I made) on top and then throw it in the broiler to crisp it up, but I wound up burning the top a little.
I usually make a bechamel-like sauce first, add cheese, and then add the macaroni. But this time, I tried a recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes. It worked really well, and it was pretty fast. And I only needed one pot. So I guess, in the future, this is the way to go.
Nutritious subsidies?
I thought this was a very interesting and telling figure:
That figure says a lot all by itself, but if you’re interested in reading more, here’s the blog post that talks more about this figure and the latest farm bill.
Actually…
Mark calls them “volcanic mushrooms,” but after you cut off the 1/2 cm of burnt crust on the bottom, it’s not bad. The inside/crumb is nicely chewy. But still, not worth pictures. Maybe the next batch will be more photogenic.
Sourdough: Round 1 Results
This round goes to the baking tiles. The wild yeast did a good job rising the dough, but my baking tiles were too hot and the bottom of the loaves got really burnt. I’m too embarrassed to post photos. A close 2nd place goes to the steaming method – the crust didn’t come out shiny and crusty like it’s supposed to. I hope to triumph over these forces soon!
Because there are no photos of the ugly burnt bread, here are some more photos of B2B, 2008 (oil spill barge, Mario flagpole, and a day at the races):
I didn’t find myself on Flickr, but I found other good B2B costumes
I really have been looking through photos on Flickr to find photos of myself running as scissors and Mark running with scissors. Actually, when I was running more slowly, Mark had to walk because of his long legs to stay with me, so often, he really was not running with scissors. But in looking through all of the photos, I found lots of interesting costumes that I didn’t see that day.
It seems like a lot of people pick something that comes in a set (scrabble pieces, billiard balls, lucky charms, etc) and then each person in the group dresses up like a different part of the set. And the other costume “strategy” is to take a pop culture person or character and dress up like that. And then of course there are the political statements. Most costumes were fairly entertaining, but a few stood out for me (clicking on the images will bring you to the Flickr or SF Chronicle source):
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A Wheaties box. I saw other cereal boxes, but this one was particularly creative and well-done.
I’m just going to link to it because the original photo that I copied here was deleted. I’m concerned that this Flickr user didn’t like that I put a copy in my blog (even though I linked to the Flickr page). I do like his photo and I’d like to share it. Hopefully, just linking to it will be okay.
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Don’t run with scissors. Don’t run as scissors either.
Updated 5/19/2008 at 2:19 pm.
I ran Bay to Breakers yesterday. Last year when I ran, it was a ton of fun, but it really made me want to run the race in costume. So this year, I dressed up as a pair of scissors. And Mark wore a shirt that said “Don’t run with scissors” on the back and we cut up the shirt with scissors.
My costume:
Mark’s costume:
I don’t have any photos of us during the race. If any photos from strangers pop up on Flickr, I’ll share them. But it was definitely way more fun to go with a costume, even if there was more wind resistance while running. We got a lot of compliments from people and heard lots of chuckles around us, and hopefully at least some of those chuckles were for us. One woman even said that we had the best costume that she had ever seen! And she had just finished B2B, so that’s saying a lot! It’s unlikely that she ran the race with her eyes clothes, because given how crowded the route is, that would be really stupid and dangerous and unfun!
Update: A prize for anyone who finds a photo of me and/or Mark running the 2008 Bay to Breakers race. The photo must be of us after the starting line and before the finish line.
We joyfully welcome Jakob Bobson!
My new sourdough starter has been born. Jakob’s father is Bob, Christina’s starter. I brought him home from the hospital this afternoon,
fed him,
and how he’s resting in the fridge. He has a lot of growing to do before he can become bread!
I just wanted to share this wonderful news with everyone, but now it’s time to get back to work! Focus!
It’s about time!
“California State Supreme Court says same-sex couples have right to marry”
Of course they do! Now if only the rest of the country would realize that as well… Except for MA… you guys are way ahead of the curve.
Yay!
I hope it doesn’t wind up going to the Supreme Court. I don’t know how this would fare there.
But in the meantime, Yay!
I miss the snow!
I want to be a panda rolling in the snow!
I’ll also settle for being a human rolling in the snow!
