Museum Hopping in Madrid

We were up and out the door early this morning since the Prado opens at 9:00. Our favorite little breakfast place wasn't yet doing business when we arrived so we ate at a chain cafe, "Cafe & Te," nearby. With my brilliant Spanish I managed to order a cappuccino and a slice of cheesecake! Not the worst possible breakfast when you think about it.

A lovely stroll away, partly through a construction site, is the Museo Nacional Del Prado, one of the world's great art collections. Among other things, there are acres of Spanish paintings. Think El Greco, Ribera, Murillo, and Velazquez. There are over 100 Goyas and I'm pretty sure we saw most of them. Lots of other paintings you would instantly recognize, too, like Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights." The holdings take you up to the end of the 19th century. We had lunch at the museum cafe, one of the best meals we've had here. Fruit! There was fruit! Fresh fruit! Jamon and melon.

Then on to the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum where I wanted to see the impressionists and post-impressionists especially. I was a little disappointed in the collection, but it was still fun. I think I most enjoyed the fauvist paintings and the modernists.

We were both in pretty pitiful condition after nearly 10 hours on stone floors and concrete sidewalks, but we made it to Faborit, Spain's answer to Starbuck's, for coffee and refreshments. After a great deal of debate on the way back to the area of our hotel, we decided just to dine on tapas at Mercado San Miguel again. It was the right decision. Since we were early (7:30 p.m.) we had no trouble finding standing room at the olive bar. We bought iberian jamon sliced paper thin, more of the seafood tapas we had last night, 2 euros worth of assorted olives, 2 little bread things (one was a chile empanada; the other had cheese), and 2 different cheese slices. Randy had wine while I reprised last night's fresh lemonade. Even though we ate standing up at the olive bar, we left feeling quite refreshed and relaxed. And stuffed.

In 2.5 days one can't even put the barest scratch into the surface of Madrid. It's a terrific city for tourists. There is so much street life! It's clean, safe, friendly and helpful. Although it's rather more modern than many European cities, there is still plenty of interesting architecture and dozens of museums of various kinds. This was a good time of year to come, jacket weather, although bullfight season ends in October.

Tomorrow we take the high-speed train to Barcelona.

Site-Seeing on a Bad Knee in Madrid

Randy's idea of travel is to walk up and down every single street in any given city. We pretty much did that today, although hampered by his bad knee. We did take in the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena after breakfast. It's Madrid's version of the gigantic gothic cathedral, but wasn't built until the 1880s and finished just in 1992, so the religious art is quite modern and ornamentation rather minimal. Interesting nonetheless. Then we took the 20-room tour of the Palacio Real, the royal palace initiated by Felipe V, the first of Spain's Bourbon kings. It has 2800 rooms in all, but only 1/4 of what the original plans called for. Some rooms are still used for state functions, but the royals today live elsewhere in much more modest digs. The rooms have some beauty, and admirable craftsmanship, but are basically an exercise in wretched excess. Not to be missed in case you haven't seen many palaces. And I haven't.

We lunched at Cafe Vergara, selected totally at random. Randy's knee needed a sit-down. I had gazpacho (excellent), shrimp with garlic (good) and apple tart (so-so). Randy had a Spanish soup of some sort and sirlion with fries (Spanish fries?). Then we walked until the knee and its owner wiped out. He was so desperate to sit that we landed in a Starbuck's where he promptly fell asleep, poor thing. We walked back to the Hotel Plaza Mayor for a proper rest and then went out for more walking and a tapas dinner at Mercado San Miguel. It looks like the Mercado was supposed to be a neighbor grocery market of the upscale sort, but it has evolved into a very large tapas bar. It is THE place to be in the area. It really is lots of fun.

I'm totally intrigued by this whole tapas concept. Bought a cookbook of authentically Spanish recipes at the Palace gift shop, although I've seen a few American tapas cookbooks in the area, too. This is not the first time I've travelled out of North America, but I certainly have a whole new set of ideas about how people relate to food in various countries as a result of my recently TAOSF adventures and this mere 2-day visit to Madrid. It's all about respecting food and eating. Which Americans don't. If we did, we wouldn't be eating high-fructose corn syrup and all the other junk we eat in massive quantities. Not that this is a black-and-white matter, of course. We're eating plenty of seafood on this trip (like our whole tapas dinner tonight), but there's the issue of sustainable fisheries. For example, salmon is now a luxury where we live, but it's on every single menu here, as common as potatoes. Where are the Spanish getting all this salmon? Nothing's easy and no one seems to have all the answers.

More tomorrow!

Eating in Madrid

Yessiree, I'm blogging in Madrid! I love these beautiful old cities. Wish you all, whoever you are, were here with us to enjoy the scene and the scenery.

The flight(s) were unremarkable. American Airlines still feeds you on the way, but airline food hasn't improved a bit. Nor has my ability to sleep on a flight. I made up for that with 14 solid hours of zzzzzs last night. Now my body is pretty much rested and on local time. Long flights east-bound are tough since you arrive in the morning most of time, after a crappy night on the plane. Long flights west-bound I can live with since you usually arrive at night and can crawl right into bed when you get to your hotel.

Yesterday's highlight was the tappas bar crawl in our neighborhood around Plaza Mayor. It's like a giant singles bar. With food. It isn't easy to even get into a restaurant or bar, they're all so crowded. Great people watching. We lunched at La Peonza, one of many, many, many such establishments. We had sangria and cola, croquetas caseras, huevos manchegos, and tosta salmon with parmesan. All delicious! The ham here (jamon) is especially wonderful, not at all like ham that we know in the states. I intend to eat as much of it as possible.

We breakfasted at La Mallorquina this morning. I had a little jamon sandwhich on a bun. Randy had a chocolate croissant. And cafe con leche with sugar, of course, for us both. This establishment is a bakery and confectionary. You order and eat standing up at a coffee bar. It's so wonderful and so civilized. Food is respected here, as is dining in general. We've lost that in the USA, lost that simple respect for food and dining. No wonder Alice Waters gets so much flack from so many quarters.

Well, I'll bring my camera with me today as we're out and about and will take some photos to post when we're home. We are off to the palace this morning. Probably this will still be a relatively low-key day. Randy's knee, of course, still bothers him, and all those hours on the plane flights didn't do my back much good. But, who cares! We're in Madrid! I do hope some one somewhere is reading this and will comment, just so I know you're all there.

Ciao bella! Ooops, wrong country. Buenos dias!

Baba's Cafe

Spent the morning finishing packing and tying up yet more loose ends before departure. Randy had one last meeting at 2:30 so I had scheduled a pedicure for 2:00. Heaven. Pedicures are heaven. My color? OPI's "Barefoot in Barcelona." After which we grabbed lattes and hit the road to LAX. We're spending the night at the Hacienda which has stay-and-park for LAX. It's practically our home-away-from-home.

Dinner on the way was at Ali Baba's Mediterranean Cuisine Cafe in Newbury Park. I know it well since it's in the same strip mall as one of my favorite bead shops, Creative Castle. My friend Laurel and I make the trip down to Creative Castle about once a year or so for a beadwork class. We invariably get lunch take-out from Baba's Cafe. It's the standard fare: shawarmas and falafels and tabbouleh and such. Always good, although not quite up to the standard of Jaffa's Cafe in San Luis Obispo. The folks at Baba's are always kind and cheerful. Tonight Randy and I shared the Dinner For Two: chicken and beef shawarma, falafels, rice, salad and pitas. Good road food, familiar and comforting. Also VERY garlicky!! Yum!

Believe it or not, I miss cooking. I found myself one or twice or thrice this morning thinking, "Now, what shall I make for dinner?" Before remembering that I wouldn't be cooking for awhile. I had to settle for watching the assistant chef at Baba's cut carrots for a minute or two. Hey! I learned something! He cut them into very long diagonals, all evenly sized for even cooking, of course. Good knife skills, too.

If you have a Big Lots nearby, check the shelves for Starbuck's Chai Truffles. They are fabulous. Creamy, melty with that aromatic spice blend we love so well. Sort of reminds me of a good pumpkin pie baking.

Next time you hear from me, it will probably be from Madrid.

Prelude to New Adventures

Well, it was just leftovers and weird stuff in the frig for lunch today. No cooking. No time for that because today was a glorious run-up to New Adventures!

First I packed and tied up numerous loose ends in preparation for our Big Trip. Tomorrow we drive to LA. Saturday we fly out of LAX to Madrid. After 3 nights there we take the high speed train to Barcelona for 3 nights. Then onto a cruise ship for 2 glorious weeks. After stops in Cartegena, Gibraltar, Madeira, Tenerife and LaPalma, we have 7 -- count them: 7! -- uninterrupted days at sea before docking in Miami and flying/driving back home.

Getting ready for a Big Trip always stresses me so much that I find it impossible to get excited. Maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, I've a bunch of cooking-related reading to take along. And a couple of beading projects so, hopefully, I can get some Making Stuff accomplished. I certainly won't ever be bored. I'm curious to see if we have any fabulous, inspiring food on the trip. I'll let you know.

My other Big Adventure is that I will be serving on the Board of Directors of North County Humane Society next year. I've volunteered and worked at NCHS off and on for many years. I haven't had time to do so the last couple of years because we've been so busy with house construction. Now I live just a couple miles from the shelter. I've long planned to get involved again once we were in the new house, but I never thought I'd start that re-involvement by being Vice President of the Board! I'm excited. The Board is great. The staff is great. The cats are great. We do great work in our community on little or no money. (We're totally privately funded.) I attended my first Board meeting tonight, although it's still the "old" Board. I was so impressed. I love these people and their devotion to the animals.

Well, now I'm just babbling. For the time being, adios. I'll blog if I can while away, and I'll be back to cooking in 3+ weeks!

Day 35 - A New Sauce

Mushroom Ragu (pg. 228)

Pasta

It's in the sauce chapter! Alice says, "This is a rich, deep-flavored pasta sauce, like Bolognese - but meatless." Indeed, it would be a feast for vegetarians. And it was a feast for us. I wasn't paying total attention and forgot to chop the mushrooms after cooking them. It was okay. To me, it was obvious that top-quality ingredients would really make a difference in the end product. My carrot was mediocre at best. It would have been fun to have a more exotic blend of mushrooms. I had a bag of sliced brown and a bag of sliced white. Guess what!? The ultimate product was still delicious. Rich and deep-flavored just as Alice said. I made the version with peas. Alas, frozen. Not a purist. I am not a purist.

Randy and I brought up the very, very, very LAST items from the storage locker! Even though there is a lot of work ahead in unpacking everything and finding homes-within-our-home for it all, I am thrilled that all of our stuff is here. We're just one more (giant) step closer to being settled in. We also took a whole lot of cardboard to the recycling center, and ate lunch at Fig. I had a lovely lamb sandwich with fig chutney. Now I want to make about a gallon of fig chutney!

I'm all caught up on laundry, and have "cat-proofed" my closet a little better. Hannah Marie Pearl, our little white green-eyed feral angel, loves to sleep at night high up on the closet shelves. Which is okay except that everything up there tends to get coated with short white furs. So I'm trying to make special places for Pearl to hang out, thus discouraging her from sleeping everywhere.

And, I'm feeling sad tonight. A little. I've gotten a new report about my mother. It isn't good. It's never good. And there isn't a thing I can do about it. It's a long story. Just upsetting. Just upsetting.

Now I'm going to reveal a "secret". Day after tomorrow, Randy and I are going to Madrid for a few days, then Barcelona for a few more. In Barcelona we will board a cruise ship and spend 2 weeks at sea back to Miami. A very well earned trip. It will be pretty low key as Randy continues to nurse his damaged knee and I continue to (hopefully) heal my neck and butt. That's fine with me. We need to recuperate from all the stress and hard work we've undergone. Hopefully, when we get back we'll have our lives back. Of course, this means putting my cooking project on hold for 3 weeks. It also means that I can take some "making stuff" projects with me to work on, at least for that last entire week totally at sea.

I also plan on getting back to photography for my blog when we get back. Seriously.

Life is good.

24 recipes completed, with 281 challenges to come -- bring 'em on!

Day 34 - Conquering Fear of Fish

Fish in Breadcrumbs (pg. 124)

Beet Greens with Gorgonzola

Leftover Marinated Beets

Olives

I LOVE fish! If someone else is cooking it. Like meat, I thought you had to make a pact with the devil to know how to cook fish. Well, one of the points of this project is to overcome all my food and cooking fears. Fish. Yes. I must confront fish.

For my first fish encounter I decided on (frozen) "pacific red snapper" (there is no such thing really) from Trader Joe's. I know, I know. Frozen. But fish is expensive. In case I had blown it, I didn't want to be putting $20.00 worth of fresh fish down the disposal. I pan-fried this stuff (rock fish? cod?) since I've had success with pan frying meat up until now (pork, beef and venison). Yeah, baby! It was pretty good. Just a tiny bit overcooked, perhaps, but better that than undercooked. Alice has you dredge the fillets in flour, then in egg, and finally in fine bread crumbs. Her secret then, is to chill them (they can't touch) in the frig for an hour for the crumbs to "dry." Well, whatever, you do end up with a perfect coating. I fried in canola oil and butter.

The beet greens? Just because I'm swimming in a sea of them. Unfortunately, I hadn't washed them off as well as I thought I had and they were somewhat gritty. Fortunately, I got most of the gritty part. Randy loved 'em. Alice isn't thrilled about beet stems, but I've found that you can use all the parts of the beet successfully. I learned this while we subscribed to a CSA in our former community.

Otherwise, I spent the day running various errands. I have just a few items to get out of the storage locker and then everything we own (except our old house) will be here in/at the new house. Yeah!!! A good, productive day. And it was a gorgeous day here, too.

23 recipes completed; 282 recipes to explore

Day 33 - My First Lunch for Guests

So what's the difference between a lunch and a luncheon? I served one of those to our old neighbors who brought Randy's little sailboat up to the new house. (Anyone want a little sailboat? Cheap?) It was fun to give them a tour of the house and property, even though our bathroom is still torn up (so is the balcony above now) while the project manager searches for the elusive leak.

Chard Frittata (reprised from November 3rd)

Light Rye Bread made in the Zojurushi bread machine

Marinated Beet Salad (pg. 244)

Mixed Greens with Vinaigrette

Chocolate truffles and meyer lemon cookies from Trader Joe's

The beets were marinated in rasberry white balsamic vinegar and walnut oil. I don't know if that was the best combination. I think the walnut oil, even though Alice recommends it, was lost. I need to try another batch with 1/2 using walnut oil and 1/2 using olive oil. They were delicious. Even the 2 beet dislikers liked them. The mixed greens including spicy mustard greens. Vinaigrette was lemon juice and olive oil.

As soon as our guests left I raced down the hill to retrieve another load from the storage locker. I'm a woman on a quest. And I'm tired. I'm going to watch Dancing With The Stars tonight while I knit another scarf.

My butt and neck X-rays revealed nothing amiss with the bones. So I'll have to give it some time, assuming it's a soft tissue injury and will clear up on its own. I hope.

22 recipes completed; 283 recipes yet to complete

Day 32 - Work, Movie and Leftovers

Started the day by organizing all the stuff in my closet. When we moved in, I just threw everything into drawers and on shelves. Since my closet holds all my clothes, plus sheets and towels, some rearranging from that state of chaos was mandatory. Kitties helped of course. Nicholas, for example, inspected each drawer. What dear little helpers....

We brought up 2 loads of boxes from the storage locker, followed by grease and chocolate at In-And-Out Burger. I stopped and got another load on the way to see 2012. Pretty cheesy, but cool special effects, which is why I went. The opening destruction-of-southern-California sequence was like a Disneyland ride. Think Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I love that stuff.

After a side trip to Trader Joe's on the way home, we munched on leftovers. I found the last bit of beef stew in the back of the frig and added some mixed frozen vegetables (forgive me, Alice). We finished off the bread with slathers of goat cheese and olive oil. Randy made a mixed greens salad. I'm determined to use up as many perishables as possible before we leave on our vacation Friday. A serious planning challenge.

My other Big Objective is to empty the storage locker before we leave. We brought up 3 loads today. I'm guesstimating 4 more loads will do the job. Maybe with a smallish 5th load. Everything won't get unpacked until we return of course, but I can live with that. I'm just tired of paying rent on the locker, formerly lockers. Tired, too, of having the hauling job hanging over my head.

Nothing new with the house sale. The buyer needs to request an escrow extension and hasn't done so since they ran into trouble Tuesday. Our realtor is getting impatient. I'm predicting they will walk. Stay tuned for further exciting adventures.

Have a good week, Loyal Readers. Provided there are any Loyal Readers.

Day 31 - Cheese and Celery

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (pg. 282)

Braised Celery (pg. 300)

After a week of mostly gloomy weather, grilled cheese sandwiches sounded like an appropriate comfort food. I used Jarlsberg since I could get it already sliced at Trader Joe's. I couldn't "very thinly slice" cheese if my life depended on it. Not without a food slicer. And maybe not even then. TJ's also provided sage leaves. Mine sort of laminated. I don't believe they added any flavor, but they were cute and fun.

Alice doesn't suggest a simmering time for the celery, so I had to wing it. My celery was a bit undercooked, but better that than overcooked. Again, TJ's provided thyme sprigs. The dish was quite tasty, to my surprise. I'd never thought of celery as a stand-alone vegetable. Wouldn't have chosen that recipe if left to my own devices. Which, of course, is the point of making EVERYTHING in TAOSF. Expansion of one's epicurian horizons. Or some such thing.

Quite the tasty dinner.

House sale (or lack thereof; we don't know at this point), hurting knee, and hurting back all continue on without change. We bought fruit, beets, beef, and lettuce at farmers' market. Brought home 2 loads of boxes from the storage locker. Randy stuck plants in the ground. I unpacked and knitted. It was a GREAT wildlife sighting day! Deer, turkey, an adorable skunk, and (just on the lot below ours) a lovely bobcat. That's my 6th bobcat sighting since we bought this property.

21 recipes in the bag; 284 recipes yet to tackle

Day 30 - The Salad Was Composed Even If I Wasn't

I was up at 5 a.m., back hurting. OTOH, I now have my studio just that much more unpacked and set up. My studio mini kitchen is all in order: frig, microwave, sink. I'll never have to leave. Except to cook.

Randy and I had shopping to do this afternoon, so we started with a Pollo Loco lunch. My favorite fast food place. Mid-afternoon we had lattes and devoured, between us, an entire package of Trader Joe's Pecan Pralines. Soooo, I adjusted our dinner plans. I made a composed salad (see pg. 52 in TAOSF) of greens and leftovers. We can now see the back wall of the inside of the refrigerator. Red-leaf lettuce and flat-leaf parsley tossed with a bit of mandarin orange salad dressing. On the lettuce I put vegetables on 1/3 of the serving dish, 1/3 meat, and 1/3 fruit. The veggie segment was the last of the celery root remoulade. The meat was the last of the roast beef, sliced into thin strips. The fruit segment was celery sliced diagonally, a sliced persimmon, and the seeds of 1/2 of a pomegranate. Alice's example of a composed salad is a Greek salad, but that's a summer dish in our area. You really want the best possible tomatoes. So, I won't count my composed salad as an official "recipe completed," but I did make this salad differently with great success.

The house sale gets weirder and weirder. The other half of the mortgage crisis is lenders' unwillingness to make loans now. Our buyer is suddenly having difficulty getting his loan, in part because he is insisting on using a mortgage lender on the other end of the state rather than a local institution. Oh sigh. Meanwhile, we have learned that there is another party interested in the house, but that they didn't express serious interest until we were in escrow with the first buyer. So now we are feeling out the second buyer's current level of interest in case the first escrow falls through. All of this wouldn't be quite so interesting if it weren't for the fact that we are leaving the country for 3 weeks in 1 week. It wouldn't be impossible to start a new escrow from Europe, but it would be another adventure. Well, we're always up for an adventure.

Carry on!

Day 29 - Karma, Baby....

For 60 years I've been a pain in the butt and a pain in the neck. Now I HAVE a pain in the butt and a pain in the neck. For about a month now I've had a very sore tailbone and some right arm weakness and now neck pain. So, it was off to the Doc this morning. Who ordered butt X-rays and neck X-rays. Luckily, I was able to get an X-ray appointment for late afternoon, so I hung around town, shopping and reading cookbooks and cooking magazines until then. Not the most productive use of a day, but necessary. Anyway, I got to look at some of the neck X-ray images with the technician who pointed out a bone chip at the back of my neck. If that's what it is. Interesting. With luck, I'll hear from the Doc tomorrow since she'll have the radiologist's report then.

Randy's knee still sucks. The house sale is still in peril. The ceiling of my bathroom has been tore out. It's cloudy and drizzly. In spite of all that, I'm a happy camper. Tired, but happy. Randy heated up nearly-the-last of the leftover stew with some noodles and made a green salad. That was great beef stew! He also turned the fireplace in the great room on for the first time. The fire, semi-fake though it is (gas), absolutely transforms the space. Cozy, cozy, cozy.

I also was able to go to the monthly meeting of the Central Coast Weavers this morning. Although I probably won't be able to get back to weaving any time real soon, I'm excited to do so. Actually making fabric is just a magical experience.

Off to slumber land.

Day 28 - Randy Made Dinner, Inspired by Leftovers

Randy made dinner for us 3 or 4 nights a week for 20 years. Seriously. Now he's gone for nearly 4 weeks without cooking. Tonight, wanting to try his hand at roasting peppers on the cook top, he used those peppers and leftovers to make a wonderful innovative soup. He used the meat and vegetables from the 1 remaining braised chicken leg quarter along with the sauce from the beef stew (which was partly the sauce from the chicken leg braise) and added the roasted chopped peppers. My goodness, it was heaven! We continued to put away the celery root remoulade, and ate the last of the oatmeal bread. I cleaned up afterwards! The nice part about making a couple big meals, spending a couple days hard at it in the kitchen, is that you can coast on leftovers for days afterwards.

Well, in the "when will this s&*t ever end" department, we're running into yet more snags in selling the Los Osos house. It seems a new problem crops up just about every third day. This time the problem is in the buyer's lap and I'm sure he's not real happy about it. It's nothing we can do anything about. The deal might still fall through.

We've had to cancel our upcoming Mark Humphreys/Andrew Lorand house concert due to lack of interest. I'm really disappointed and saddened, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Randy and I both stayed home all day today which was nice, even though the skies are overcast and icky gray. He got to rest his knee. I unpacked, unpacked and unpacked some more in my studio. I'd say the job is nearly done except that I know how many more boxes are still in the storage locker. It's frightening. This is a big studio, but it has to suck up all my stuff that was all over the old house and garage. Serious stash reduction is in order. The good part is that I can know see and access that stash! Yippee!! So, I started knitting a little scarf. First time I've touched fiber (or anything related) in a creative way in months. It feels so good!

Carry on. (Sorry to say I finished off the apple crisp and creme fraiche at noon today.)

Day 27 - McDonald's!

I told you I wasn't a purist. After a day of paper-work and unpacking in my studio, I wanted to eat out on the cheap. For me, it was McNuggets (hey! even TAOSF has a recipe for fried chicken!) and a chocolate shake. Seriously, what are McNuggets other than fried chicken? No, I won't get into the sourcing of the chicken....

Lunch was fun. I used my bread from last night with some nice sandwich-sliced roast beef still in the fridge to make a sandwich. I added a healthy slug of the leftover celery root remoulade and (here's the surprise) a thin layer of blackberry preserves (homemade by my Bakersfield in-laws). This made for one very fine sandwich. For breakfast I had leftover apple crisp with creme fraiche. So, am I now forgiven for the McDonald's "slip?" ... Yeah, probably not.

Randy's knee is indeed shredded. He will have to have surgery. He is seeing my orthopedic surgeon, Ken Fryer, as soon as he gets insurance company approval. Dr. Fryer is a terrific guy and a very fine surgeon.

It was Christmas for me today! My December holiday gift arrived -- a Pendleton wool blanket reversible jacket. I've wanted one forever. It's gorgeous. And a used, but pristine, copy of Julia Child's _The Way to Cook_ that I found on ebay. I figure it will be like reading _War and Peace_!

Tomorrow may be nothing but leftovers. We'll see. On the other hand, I'm making major progress getting my studio ready for making stuff, which is very, very exciting.

Day 26 - My First Dinner for Guests

Beef Stew (pg. 136)

served with egg noodles

Celery Root Remoulade (pg. 243)

Apple Crisp (again) for dessert

A Loaf of Bread-Machine Bread

Nibbles:

Cranberry Chevre on Pita Crackers

Warmed Olives

Salami

Tangerines

We had our neighbors over for dinner to thank them for taking care of our cats while we were in New Mexico. And because we like them and enjoy their company.

Following along in the Slow Cooking chapter, I made Beef Stew. Part of the cooking liquid was the sauce left over from last night's braised chicken legs. Talk about layering flavors! How much more complex can you get?! The wine part of the liquid was a Two Buck Chuck reduction. Can't say I've seen that on any menus anywhere. Anyway, it was excellent. I had a hard time keeping the stew from boiling in the oven; had to bring the temperature all the way down to 200 at the end. Nonetheless, the stew was excellent.

I used the celery root I bought at Andronico's in Berkeley for the remoulade. It was also very good and went well with the stew. I actually julienned the whole thing with my trusty knife. It wasn't as difficult as I had thought it was going to be. I guess my knife skills are improving. Or at least my knife confidence is increasing.

I also made a load of bread in my bread machine. Not an artisan french loaf, but good anyway. Just plain white bread with a couple handfuls of Quaker oats thrown in. Honestly, I love my bread machine. I made another pan of apple crisp, this time with mostly braeburns. Topped with creme fraiche. To die for.

Nibbles were slightly upscale. Cranberry chevre on pita crackers, salami, warmed olives and tangerines. There was wine, too, which I guess was good. Randy was in charge and I'm not much into the stuff, except for my Two Buck Chuck reduction.

Randy had his MRI for his knee today and sees his doc tomorrow. Some days he can walk and some days he can't.

Jim the appliance repair guy came and fixed the dryer door. Again. Hope we've got that problem straightened out now.

I ate too much. I'm tired. I literally cooked all day starting at about 8:30 a.m, although I did get some studio unpacking in early in the morning. Yippee! Every box counts!

19 recipes cooked; 286 recipes yet to explore

Day 25 - Chicken Leg Quarters -- Heaven!

Chicken Legs Braised with Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic (pg. 133)

Red-Leaf Lettuce with My Favorite Vinaigrette

I've never braised before. Heck, I didn't even know what braising was. I braised 5 of what they call "leg quarters", which is drumsticks with thighs attached. I think. Or something. I also added a few carrots to the braise since I only made the braise and a plain salad for dinner. Well, the legs and their veggies were just heaven. Alice has you goof around a bit more with the juices at the end of cooking, which I did not do. It was still heaven. Now I have to think of something to do with the leftover juices. Soup?

Otherwise I had a lazy Sunday morning with the newspaper and the leftovers from last night's Indian dinner. I spent the first part of the afternoon whipping my studio into shape. It has a very long ways to go to be done, but I did manage to put a major dent in the huge pile. The space looks considerably more civilized now.

After dinner we took out the garbage and clipped cat claws. What a romantic life.

17 recipes completed; 288 recipes to go

Day 24 - Forced to Eat Out on a Saturday Night

First, I have to apologize to the plumber for referring to him as the @#$%^&! plumber. When called yesterday early afternoon, he came immediately, diagnosed the problem, fetched the parts he needed, and fixed the problem. By 3 o'clock almost all was well. Except that the water to the house was turned off and could not be turned on again for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Sigh. No cooking was going to be happening.

So, we rushed into SLO to see the movie, Men Who Stare at Goats, which was pretty funny. After which we bought cat food and kitty litter at my favorite pet store, Petsmart. Petsmart in SLO is very well managed. Unlike many other pet shops, they are ALWAYS fully stocked with everything I need, and usually have several additional things that I merely want. Plus, they assist various local cat rescue groups in placing kitties in permanent homes. And, it's a sparkling clean store, which I much appreciate.

After which, we were forced to eat dinner out. We chose Shalimar in SLO, a newer Indian restaurant. Prompt, cheerful service. A homey, comfortable atmosphere complete with Indian music videos playing on a big screen TV at the front. I thought that was a wonderful touch. My shish kabob and Randy's chicken biryana were both excellent. The garlic naan left something to be desired. It was kind of tough. Over-kneaded perhaps? Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and we'll definitely be going back. I had to admit to the manager that we are spoiled since we eat at Ajanta in Berkeley frequently. Randy, who has been to India and is generally a big fan of Indian food (we try Indian restaurants everywhere we go) has concluded that Ajanta is the best Indian restaurant. Period. The best. He frequently cooks from the Ajanta cookbook, much to my delight. I think it's the best Indian recipe book. The best. Period.

Stalling, we had lattes and madelines at my favorite Starbuck's on the way home, turned the water on at 9:45 p.m., happily discovering that the repair was securely holding. I wonder how Alice feels about those chicken leg quarters being salted and peppered TWO days before braising?

More later.

Day 23 - Scrambled Eggs and Scrambled Brains

Scrambled Eggs (pg. 240)

Yes indeed! Alice has the directions for scrambled eggs in TAOSF. You might think that a bit elementary, but I doubt that everyone actually knows how to cook scrambled eggs properly. It's one thing I already knew, but it was nice to learn that Alice and I see eye to eye on the subject. So, I made scrambled eggs for lunch, mostly to use up the egg white left over from making aioli. Scrambled eggs is like meatloaf -- good for using up dibs and dabs of stuff from the back of the frig. I accompanied the eggs with a couple slices of bacon and the other half of the avocado from the grapefruit and avocado salad. Quite the tasty and semi-elegant lunch.

We ran some errands and went to farmers market this morning. Our plan was to go to a movie in San Luis Obispo this afternoon and stop at our favorite pet store for cat food and kitty litter. BUT... Randy discovered a serious plumbing problem right before lunch. There is water bubbling up from below ground right outside the kitchen window. This is a serious problem for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that the exterior walls in that area are straw bale. You do NOT want to soak your straw bale walls. The &%^$(#% plumber is on his way. I ask you, does this shit ever end??? I've never seen a new house with so many problems. Scratch the movie. Cat food will be fetched from my least favorite pet store, which is much closer, later this afternoon. A small bag to tide the little hairballs over.

16 recipes completed; 289 to go!

Day 22 - Meltdown Continues; Braising Begins

My general fed-up-with-all-this-crap meltdown continued today. My poor husband gets the brunt of it. He's doing everything possible to be supportive. He hung the Buddhist prayer flags for me this afternoon. He's putting my last Ikea cabinet together in my studio this evening. We had to go to the title company to have some house-selling paperwork notarized late this morning. Then went to Fig for lunch, did a little carnivorous grocery shopping, and got yet another load of boxes from the storage locker. This box batch was a heavy bottom layer, mostly books. Ooooph.

Fig merits some special attention. (And I've got to fig-ure out how to make links sometime very soon....) There has been no particularly good place for a foodie to eat here in Atascadero. No place with the right blend of locavorism, tasty food, decent prices, and a nice atmosphere. We've heard about this new little place, Fig, properly located downtown, that opened about 5 weeks ago. Limited hours. Small place doing mostly take-out, but with a couple tables. Our lunch was quite delicious and met all of the above criteria. The place was jam-packed with both taker-outers and eater-inners, proving that Atascaderans are desperate for this sort of place.

Then it was back home where our builders arrived to do yet more finishing work and repairs on this house. Will it never end????? And I melted down some more. And started tomorrow night's dinner. As a rather random choice, I've decided to next tackle the Slow Cooking chapter. I bought "leg quarters" (chicken) and chuck (beef). We'll start with Braised Chicken Legs, for which I have 5 of the "leg quarters". Alice wants these puppies salted and peppered the day before cooking, so I salted and peppered and stuck 'em back in the frig. The beef chuck for beef stew went into the freezer in case I don't get to it as quickly as I might like. That was my cooking for the day: seasoning chicken.

Mid-afternoon my friend Laurel joined me for a trek to the 3rd Annual Central Coast Handweavers Show and Sale. Since it's hard to tell when I'll have my own looms set up again, I went in search of dishtowels, of which I purchased 3. There is nothing like a handwoven dishtowel. Sturdy as hell, they last forever and perform like champs. I love, love, love them. You might think them a bit pricey at $20-25, but seriously-- they last forever. You'll use them every day, wash them a jillion times, and they'll still last well enough to perform equally for your children and their children and, probably, their children.

After the show and sale it was back to Fig for dinner! I had the polenta stack with a salad. Fabulous. Much tastier, actually, than the pulled pork sandwich I'd had for lunch. Laurel and I both had carrot cake cupcakes for dessert which were heaven. I had also had one after lunch. Shhhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!! We had a grand time talking with other diners and the owners. We were there 'til closing and after. I think it was the kind of atmosphere Alice Waters must have had in mind originally for Chez Panisse. A few of us Fig Fans considered starting the ADA, the Atascadero Dining Association. If it ever really happens, you first read about it here.

That's about it for today. Tomorrow I'll go on to actually braise those "leg quarters." And check out the farmers market. And I'll try to NOT be a basket case. Wish me luck. I hereby do the same for you.

Day 21 - No Cooking; A Movie Instead

No cooking today. I needed a mental health break. Went to the Cohen brothers new movie: A Serious Man. I feel like that guy today, so I appreciated the black comedy.

Not a good news day here at all. The son of a friend of mine has drowned. Very sad. He was a great guy, a third-generation local fisherman. We've been the lucky recipient of some of his catch. I feel a hole in my heart for his family.

The house sale has hit yet another major snag, this time a dead or at least dying leach field. I can't even begin to contemplate what fixing that one is going to entail and cost. OMG. Makes me want to slit my wrists. I'm so sick of this whole house building and moving and selling thing. I want my life back.

Our first house concert, scheduled for November 14, is turning out to be a bust. No one wants to come. So far we have reservations from exactly 2 people. To hear 4 musicians. I'm pretty sure this will get cancelled. Apparently people don't socialize anymore. Who knew.

I think I'm going to go drown my sorrows in popcorn. What a crappy day.

Day 20 Continued - What I Did With the Aioli

The aioli tasted better after 5-6 hours in the frig. The flavors had blended. Clearly, this is a situation where you want to use your "good" olive oil. The flavor of the olive oil would make a difference. Of course, you could add lemon juice instead of or in addition to the garlic . Same with mustard and so on.

So, what to do with the stuff. I made roast beef sandwiches. On toasted buns. With a little of that crumbled gorgonzola, some more-or-less carmelized onions, and a big dollop of aioli on top. NOT a low-fat entree. Served with mixed greens tossed with dressing from the back of the frig that has overstayed its welcome (I'm cheap, as well as whimpy).

A NOTE ON USING TAOSF TO LEARN TO COOK:

It works just fine for me. For other people with different temperaments, it wouldn't work at all. It's not the only way to learn to cook, not even the only cookbook from which one can learn to cook. Mastering the Art of French Cooking has been used. The Way to Cook (Childs) is a possibility. So are books by Martha Stewart and others. The Joy of Cooking is an old standard. There is at least 1 web-based cooking school. I just bought a copy of Cooking Light: Way to Cook. I freely use these resources and others to expand on what's in TAOSF.

Nor is TAOSF a cookbook of complex "fancy" recipes. If that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. This cookbook addresses exactly what it says: SIMPLE food. The title is totally honest. I only mention this because of reviews on Amazon that complain about TAOSF being elementary. Yes, it is. So?

Clearly, making mayonnaise was the high point of my day. Mind if I go off somewhere and eat chocolate and lick my wounds?

Carry on.

Day 20- Aioli !!!!! (Garlic Mayonnaise !!!)

Aioli (which is garlic mayonnaise) (pg. 47)

Okay. I'm a whimp. Fear of failure. Not a good trait for someone who wants to learn to cook. A cook must be courageous. I've been tip-toeing around the 3rd of Alice's Four Essential Sauces. Finally this morning I screwed up my resolve and made an attempt at mayonnaise. Slowly -- almost painfully -- whisking in those drips, drips, drips of olive oil. Whisking like a mad woman all the while. Considering that I've never been much good at multitasking, this was a serious challenge. But I did it! I made mayonnaise! Garlic mayonnaise, aioli, to be precise since I also pounded the heck out of some garlic cloves and added that to the mix.

I think tonight we'll have simple Dagwood sandwiches, slathered in aioli.

Am I the last person on the planet to have actually made mayonnaise?

15 recipes down; 290 recipes to go.

Day 19 - Eggs!

Chard Frittata (pg. 166)

Like many novice cooks, eggs make me nervous. And I don't always like eating eggs. Face it: after 60 years of eggs, I find them kind of boring. Intimidating and boring. Enter Alice Waters' chard frittata. It was delicious! And beautiful! I so love that Alice is as concerned with what food looks like as how it tastes. I finished the frittata in the oven (fear of egg-flipping remains) and sprinkled it with just a little crumbled gorganzola when it came out. The whole thing slid neatly out of my (new!) calphalon 10" pan (from Ross Dress-for-Less; I'm such a snob...) onto a Fiestaware plate. I sliced it into 4 servings. Randy and I ate the whole thing.

If, as a cook, you're looking for absolute precision in recipes, you may have a problem with TAOSF. Chard frittata calls for "1 bunch of chard." Dah. How much chard is that exactly? My bunch from Saturday's farmers market was huge. I used only 1/2 of it tonight. Another example: "Cook until the leaves are tender." What does that mean? I cooked 'em until they would fit back into my 10" pan since the leaves were so voluminous I had to move the whole operation to a much larger pan for that phase. Nor did I have to wring excess moisture out of the cooked leaves. The mixture was nicely dry at that point. Measure olive oil into teaspoons and tablespoons? Nah. I just sling the stuff around with such panache you'd thing I knew what I was doing.

This was a slightly complicated recipe, but I'm sure would/will become easier as I try it with other veggies. It was mighty tasty and pretty economical. I've become quite a fan of chard since a neighbor and I split a CSA share for awhile a couple years ago. Chard was new to both of us, as was kale, and we ended up in serious negotiations for both of them each week they appeared in our market basket. And she was a vegetarian! That CSA experience convinced me of the value of at least trying new veggies.

Otherwise, it was another day of unpacking, washing quilts, putting stuff away. Arranging and rearranging. Organizing and reorganizing. I can finally say that I've pretty much got the downstairs of the new house under control. There is much to be done there yet, but it no longer seems like total chaos. The upstairs is another matter altogether.

No news on the house-selling front today, which means I have nothing to get pissed off about today which is a very good thing indeed.

Is anyone reading this stuff???

14 recipes down; 291 recipes to go!

Day 18 - We Ate Bambi's Mother....

Pan-Fried New Zealand Venison Loin Chops with Salsa Verde

Potato Gratin with Mushrooms and Parmesan (pg 318)

Persimmon and Pomegranate Salad (pg 240)

Leftover Apple Crisp and Espresso

My Big Project for today was to finish unpacking and putting away all the rest of the kitchen stuff. Which I pretty much did. There's a little tweaking to accomplish, but not much. Does it put the size of the task in perspective if I tell you that I/we have 8 sets of dishes? For aesthetic, not dietary reasons. Three are depression era. There's new and vintage Fiesta Ware. Basic sets in black, brown, and blue. And some interesting vintage Japan ware. That's downstairs. I have additional dishes upstairs for my studio....

My Small Project for today was to wash and dry all my quilts. I haven't counted recently, but suffice it to say that we always sleep under quilts I've made. Most are 100 inches square. There are maybe a dozen? Fifteen? Something like that. They get grubby, mostly full of cat hair. I've been waiting, patiently, to be in the new house with the new washer and dryer, to launder all of them. There are only a couple to go. The new appliances do a jim-dandy job of it.

Now, for dinner. Venison from New Zealand is hardly local, but I did buy these chops at the Templeton farmers market. I LOVE venison! The chops were totally delicious, although pricey as all get out. Took just a few minutes to pan fry them. I love this pan frying meat thing. Easy, fast, tasty.

I wasn't thrilled with the potatoes gratin. The potatoes were elderly. I used skim milk. I don't know. Something just didn't thrill me. Randy liked them, but I need to try again. Maybe the mushrooms and parmesan with the potatoes wasn't the best idea. Well, there are so many variations, it won't be difficult to make them again. And again. And again.

The persimmon and pomegranate salad was excellent. It's kinda messy to get the seeds out of the pomegranate. I now have little red spots all over a couple pages in my TAOSF. Even the red wine vinegar vinaigrette was good. A successful salad. Anyway, you know I love fruit in salads.

When Randy makes us espresso at 8:00 (a nightly ritual), I'll warm up some leftover apple crisp. It's almost gone. I may have to make another. I can't believe how tasty it is. Magic.

The pending sale of the old house continues to be a real PITA. Thank heaven for a wonderful realtor, Jerry Gregory, who is earning his commission on this one and then some.

13 recipes completed; 292 recipes to go

Carry on. More tomorrow.

Day 17 - No Cooking Today

I did not cook today. Yikes! Randy and I both worked our butts off all day today. Our eternal attempts to get unpacked and settled into the new house. Plus laundry and many other sundry essentials. We ate lunch at my favorite seafood place, Pier 46 in Templeton. I had a shark sandwich. Randy had fish tacos. Lunch was late today. We were both still feeling stuffed at dinnertime, so it was every man, woman and child for himself. Randy made himself a nice, healthy salad. I snacked on goat cheese, bread and salami. With olives.

Although we are still in escrow to sell the old house in Los Osos, we are going round and round with the buyer and it all just keeps getting more and more complicated. If this sale goes through, I'll be surprised. Our poor real estate agent is certainly earning his commission on this one -- provided it sells. Details I won't bother sharing here, but it made me feel really depressed today. I wonder, truly, if we'll ever have anything like a normal life again. This build-and-move saga has sucked my brain dry for 3 years now. Enough!

Well, Rhett, just remember that tomorrow is another day. Or something like that. Carry on.

Day 16 - Leftovers --and Apple Crisp!

Leftover Spanish Rice and Chicken

Steamed Broccoli finished with Black Salt

Baguette and Happy Acres Family Farm (Templeton) Goat Cheese

Apple Crisp with Greek Style Honey Yogurt

Sigh. Leftovers again. How sad. I finished off the last of the torta for breakfast this morning. You can just call it grits if you like. We did have mere leftovers from last night for dinner tonight, although I discovered some broccoli lurking in the vegetable drawer to add to the plate. I love all the fancy salts you can buy now. I sprinkled a little black salt on the broccoli. We bought a nice baguette at farmers market this morning and served it with the goat cheese I bought last week. I just can't get Randy to get excited, or even particularly to like, goat cheese, but I just love the stuff. We are so lucky to now have a local producer of fresh chevre. I'll continue going to the Templeton farmers market just to buy the Happy Acres chevre. It's delicious.

The Big Deal in cooking today was Apple Crisp. Although Alice gives a recipe for peach crisp with a nut topping, I've had a yen for some fall apple crisp. To me, apple crisp needs the traditional oatmeal topping, so I used the marthastewart.com recipe. The recipe says prep time is 20 minutes. They lie. By the time you do the mis en place, it's more like 1.5 hours, believe me.

I used Winesap apples, recommended by the See Canyon growers. For the first time I used convection baking in our new oven. Mostly it's an energy and time saver. You lower the recommended cooking temperature by 25 degrees and reduce the cooking time to 75% of what is recommended. The crowning touch was my own moment of inspiration. I shopped for ice cream at Trader Joe's, but didn't think any of their offerings were suitable, so I topped the crisp with Greek style honey yogurt. Oh! It was heaven! The tangy-sweet flavor and creamy texture played off perfectly against the crispy and sweet flavors of the apple dish. Good thing I got plenty of the yogurt. I foresee apple crisp for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. After all, I have about 8 servings of the stuff. Well, 6 now.

Otherwise, we took a trip out to Las Pilitas Nursery near Santa Margarita to purchase a flotilla of manzanitas and ceanothuses which Randy planted under one of our oak trees. He's doing vast amounts of planting and replanting, all with native plants. Las Pilitas has been very helpful with the project.

Carry on! Happy Halloween! Happy Dark & Gloomy Evenings!

Day 15 - Cleaning Out the Freezer

Spanish Chicken and Rice (from "Real Simple" magazine)

Seriously. About cleaning out the freezer. There are things in the freezer that we brought from the old house. Some of them went into the garbage can a few days ago (too much old bread saved for bread pudding). Some chicken breast meat became dinner tonight. From my box of saved recipes I brought out "Spanish chicken and rice" from the October 2007 issue of "Real Simple."

According to "Real Simple" this is an easy dinner and is heart-healthy. Basically it's a version of paella, of which there are jillions of variations. It's a one-skillet meal, which is good, and easy to cook, which is good, but the mis en place does take some time. With frozen peas and canned diced tomatoes, this recipe would not pass the Alice Waters test, but (as I've said before) I'm not a purist. I just want to learn to cook, which means I need to cook. And it's such fun! I have a notebook full of clipped recipes that are worth keeping. This one will go into it. It would feed 4-6, depending on what else was served. Guests could get involved with the mis en place. The flavors would appeal to most everyone, and the ingredients are familiar. And, it was a pretty tasty dinner -- Randy loved it. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top and anything looks upscale; that's my opinion.

Our old house is in escrow, but I'm not at all sure the deal won't fall through. I won't even publish my opinion of the buyer, but to say that he wants something for nothing and wants our 35 year old house to be in the pristine condition of new construction. It ain't gonna happen. I worry about these things and was wide awake from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. At least I made good use of the time, hauling boxes of stuff upstairs from the foyer to my studio.

Our project manager was here this morning working on the weather stripping on our front door. It's an artisan-made door from Santa Fe, gorgeous, but something of a challenge. Fortunately, we love our project manager. And we all love the door.

This afternoon Randy and I had lattes at Randy's favorite coffee house, bought a few groceries at Trader Joe's, and finished emptying 1 of our 2 storage lockers. Yeah! The end is near. Er, maybe I should find a better way to phrase that.

I am reading Thomas McNamee's biography of Alice Waters. At the end of Chapter 3 he writes, "Alice decided to cook her way straight through Elizabeth David's 'French Provincial Cooking'." Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Childs. Alice Waters cooked her way through Elizabeth David. Sally Knight is cooking her way through Alice Waters. Interesting. There really is nothing new under the sun.

I must also add that as I go along my own learning-to-cook path, I grow more and more in awe of Julie Powell. Regardless of Julie's motivation, what she did was remarkable. To make everything in Childs' book on top of working full-time, and to do it in 1 year, is astonishing.

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening relaxing, not worrying, and not hauling boxes of stuff around. The rest of you? Carry on.

Day 14 - Leftovers and a Radiocat

Good thing there was plenty of Torta left over from last night since I only had the energy to ask Randy to nuke some of it for dinner tonight. I had to drive to San Mateo and back today to bring Maizie Jane Valentine home from Radiocat where she was treated for hyperthyroidism. A total of nearly 8 hours of driving. I had contemplated going to Chez Panisse in Berkeley for lunch (again) before heading to San Mateo, but with the Bay Bridge closed I decided it wasn't feasible. Judging from the back-up of vehicles waiting to cross the San Mateo Bridge that I just barely avoided coming and going, it was the right decision.

My big thrill for the day was a stop at the Gilroy Outlets for underwear. I did find a snuggly bathrobe, too. That was a good thing. I didn't have one. Can't run around in the house in the nude all the time.... Otherwise, I just drove straight up there and, with Maizie in tow, straight back. Lunch was a bag of Chex Mix and a bag of honey roasted peanuts that I picked up when I stopped for gas. What a come-down!

I'm delighted to have Maizie home again. She's a good cat, a lively cat, who's quite engaged with the other cats and with her people. Amazingly, she knew exactly when we got to the freeway exit that leads to home. She stood straight up and meowed all the way from that point to home.

And, of course, I'm hauling some more of my stuff up the stairs to my studio. I'm so looking forward to getting back to my work up there once everything is unpacked and put away.

Day 13 - A Recipe I Need to Tweek a Little

Simple Tomato Sauce, the out-of-season version (pg 264)

Polenta Torta (pg 95)

served with mixed greens dressed with clean-out-the-frig dressing gussied up

Ya live, ya learn. Or not. Since Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of this week are all pretty much shot in the nether region, I hit the ground running at 6:30 this morning. Unpacked and washed and put away a ton of dish (we own 7 or 8 tons all together). Did a mountain of laundry. Carried dozens and dozens of boxes of stuff upstairs. And still planned on making Polenta Torta for dinner. When will I learn to ALWAYS read through all the recipes FIRST?! Turns out that it takes some time to make the polenta and I still wanted to get another load of boxes from storage and maybe get to the Atascadero farmers market.

Shoot. Time was growing short. So I decided to just make the torta with store-bought pre-prepared polenta. Searched the Von's supermarket about 3 times before finally tracking down an employee to help. No polenta! The store had NO POLENTA!! Went to the Albertson's, which is huge. Went to customer service. Four additional employees and 1 store manager later, someone finally managed to find one roll of polenta. What the hell do these people eat in this town??? For all that, I could have stayed home and made the darned stuff from scratch. OTOH, I did get another load of boxes from storage. That's something. And dinner was on the table at 7 p.m., not 11 p.m. as it otherwise might have been.

I made the torta with the out-of-season canned-tomato version of Simple Tomato Sauce, and used the hard-won store-bought polenta, adding sauteed sliced mushrooms to the sauce. It was darned tasty, but my tomato sauce was way too runny. Less of the canning liquid, or some roux to thicken the sauce, or time to reduce it, or something. Or run it through the blender. Or use fresh tomatoes when in season. Something. The torta was pretty runny. Using from-scratch polenta would have helped, too. So, this one I need to make again with a thicker sauce.

However, the end product was delicious. Even with 5 cloves of garlic, the overall flavor was mild. I thought that was a nice change from the highly-flavored foods we're all used to. We forget what simple food tastes like.

I just tweeked some bottled salad dressing to put over greens. There are things in the fridge I want to get rid of and I'm too cheap to just throw them out. With a little fresh lime juice squeezed onto the whole thing and some red Hawaiian salt sprinkled about, the salad was pretty good. Okay, not my best meal so far, but not a total melt-down either.

I probably won't be cooking tomorrow since I have to go back up to San Mateo to retrieve Maizie. The report is that she's done very well while at Radiocat. I'm not surprised. Maizie is about the most easy-going cat I've ever known. She's a total sweetheart.

Carry on, loyal readers.

That's 11 recipes down and 294 to go.

Day 12 - Eat Seasonally

Alice's second principle of good cooking is Eat Seasonally.

I remember that when growing up in Wisconsin in the 50s and early 60s, eating seasonally in the winter meant canned tuna/peas/mushroom soup over toast. Pork chops and potatoes. Liver and onions. Casseroles. Iceberg lettuce. But oh! The summer bounty! Watermelon, fresh-caught fish (caught by Dad), tomatoes, corn on the cob, asparagus we harvested from along the railroad tracks, berries from country road-side patches. Fall meant a wealth of apples. Oceans of apples in all their many forms. Okay, so maybe the food wasn't always a cornucopia of great stuff, but we sure did know about eating seasonally.

Today, we can eat anything any time anywhere. Fly it in from somewhere. Dig it out of the freezer. All it takes is money. Here in coastal California we are even more spoiled. We really can get fresh-picked local strawberries nearly 12 months out of the year. I mean berries grown within an hour's drive of our home. Cole vegetables are year around as are most "basic" vegetables. Here it is the end of October and we are getting terrific asparagus. But some things are still prizes of their seasons: winter squash, peaches, the best tomatoes, all come to mind.

The weather, too, dictates many of my cravings. Pea soup, navy bean soup, and chili mean winter to me. Minestrone and cold soups mean summer. Kale, root veggies -- all in the winter. And then there are all of those traditional holiday foods for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter on the one hand; and Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day on the other.

To cook seasonally certainly means to NOT select all my ingredients from the shelf and the freezer day after day 365 days a year. You know I'm not a purist. I will fall back on those things from time to time, but I'm looking for more. You've seen that I've added a "gadget" to my blog showing what's in season in my area at any given time. You can move the cursor around and check out your area, too. We're spoiled here, it's true. I love reporting what I buy at farmers market each week to thrill and amaze you. Still, I love going with the local seasonal flow.

No, sorry; no cooking today. It just wasn't in the cards. I had a great lunch with a friend at Hush Harbor here in Atascadero. Their portions are huge. I brought half my curried tuna sandwich home and had it for dinner. Poor Randy opened a can of soup, but he said it was good. Progresso, I think. Tomorrow I won't be quite so busy chasing around, running errands, moving yet more boxes from the storage locker to the house and up the stairs and into my studio. Tomorrow I cook.

Carry on.

Day 11 - Lunch at Alice's Restaurant

You remember the old Arlo Guthrie song -- "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant."

Today was quite the busy, adventurous, exciting day. We crawled out of bed at 6 a.m. in order to be out the door at 7 a.m. Too early for me, but the sunrise was beautiful. So my Dear Husband asks me if he should make a lunch reservation for us at the Chez Panisse Cafe. Holy mackerel! Yes! If we can get in... Yes! Yes! And we can get in! At 1:15, we'll be eating at Alice's restaurant.

At 7 a.m. we're out the door, my Honda CRV loaded with the boxed pieces of a cabinet that has to be returned to Ikea (it has a warped piece and needs to be exchanged) and Maizie Jane Valentine who is going to Radiocat in San Mateo for her $1,000 high-tech radio-iodine treatment to resolve her hyperthyroidism. Maizie rode in her carrier, right in the back seat between us, high enough so she could look out the window and watch everything. Maizie is a good traveler, thank heaven. We arrived at Radiocat shortly after her 11:00 appointment time. Traffic was squirrelly and apparently all the cats were running late. (You know how distracted those kitties can get....) Maizie is totally calm about everything. She's probably the most easy-going cat we've ever had. We got her checked in and then we were off to Berkeley.

Ah yes, lunch aboard the mother ship. Basically, this was a real vote of confidence (and encouragement) from Randy. Sunday night he told me that he's really impressed with what I'm doing with regard to my learn-to-cook project. Bless his heart.

Randy had:

Cannard Farm leeks with mustard vinaigrette and chervil

Autumn vegetable couscous with harissa and charmoula (Moroccan condiment sauces)

Carmel cream puffs with bittersweet chocolate sauce; coffee

I inhaled:

Rocket and celery root salad with Meyer lemon and black pepper

Northern halibut with cauliflower, spinach, lime and ginger butter

Pink Lady apple and quince tart with wild flower honey ice cream

Sour cherry D'Arbo fruit soda

I don't have to tell you that everything was wonderful. Expensive, but wonderful. And inspiring. This is only the second time I've eaten in the cafe. We also had dinner there with friends maybe a year ago, although I can't remember for the life of me what I ate that night.

Between my own cooking and this lunch, I'm getting a handle on what signature Waters food/cooking is all about. It's not like other food, even in other upscale California restaurants. There something different here that I can't quite yet put my finger on. One thing I know by now is that this is food for the adventurous eater. New ingredients. New combinations. New ways of preparing food. I'm an adventurous eater. Early childhood influence from my father's side of family. I'll have to write more about that later.

Anyway, after lunch I bought a few things at the Andronico's grocery store across the street from Chez Panisse. I would have thought that store, of all groceries on the planet, would have salt-packed anchovies, but nooooo. I did bring home a celery root however, a couple Meyer lemons, a proper fuyu persimmon, some shriveled French olives, some fresh mozarella, walnut oil, and raspberry white balsamic vinegar.

Then it was off to the Emeryville Ikea to exchange the cabinet. Lattes at the nearby Pete's and then head for home. We stopped in Salinas for a bite to eat at Jack-in-the-Box. That was tough after Chez Panisse, but I survived. We got home about 10:30 and hit the proverbial sack.

No new recipes today, but plenty of inspiration and reinforcement. Not to mention great eating!

Carry on.

Day 10 Redux - And Dinner, Too!

Pan-Fried Sirloin with Salsa Verde (pgs 120-122 & 45)

Brussels Sprouts Gratin (pg 295)

My main goal today was to get caught up with laundry, so I was eager to cook some more for dinner tonight. ANYTHING to avoid laundry. And, no, I'm not caught up with the laundry. Anyway, I tackled 2 new recipes and another variation on an old one for dinner tonight.

I've pan-fried pork chops and wanted to try my hand at some beef tonight. It was some sort of sirloin with a very long name on the label. I can't believe how easy it is to cook meat! I always thought it was one of the dark arts, that you had to make a pact with the devil to be told the secrets of cooking meat. Even with a spatter guard, pan frying makes a heck of a mess on the cooktop, but it's so quick and easy and Randy cleans up. (I just don't want to push my luck in that regard.)

To top the steaks I made the second of Alice Waters' Four Essential Sauces: Salsa Verde. Basically it's gremolata gussied up. A lot of chopping and zesting, but my skills are improving, however slowly. I am now certain that it's way easier to zest a fresh lemon than a frozen one. Should have guessed that one.

Accompanied by Brussels Sprouts Gratin. We LOVE brussels sprouts. I was thrilled to find another way to prepare them. Somehow I've managed to live all these years never having made a gratin (or much of anything else in recent memory). This was not a low-cholesterol dish what with the cream, butter and bacon. But my-oh-my was it tasty! Alas, I used Progresso bread crumbs, not home-made. There are limits and I'm not a purist.

I wasn't quite as organized tonight as usual. My mise en place wasn't in place. I was in a hurry and learned, once again, that rushing this step just doesn't pay off. Nonetheless, I'm feeling more confident overall. I'm paying strict attention, too, to presentation. If I'm going to do this, it's going to be beautiful on the table. Period.

The veggies were creamy without being mooshy. The steaks were delicious. The salsa was a nice fresh-tasting addition. Another terrific meal.

9 recipes down, 296 to go

Day 10 - Grapefuit and Avocado Salad

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad (pg 240)

Man, what I did to that poor grapefruit could probably get me arrested. Remember that scene in the movie "Julie and Julia" where Julia Childs is at home chopping a mountain of onions to perfect her knife skills? Well, I need to do something similar to a mountain of grapefruit. Peeling one down to its flesh was challenge enough, but then merely identifying the membranes separating the sections, much less properly cutting them, was a real challenge. So, I foresee making this particular salad again. And again. And again. And again. Beats the heck out of chopping 20 pounds of onions anyway.

I made the vinaigrette with champagne vinegar instead of white wine vinegar because that's what's on the shelf. I used Hawaiian red clay salt on the avocado slices. I arranged the slices on top of mixed organic greens and sprinkled the whole thing with bacon pieces before serving to make the salad lunch-worthy, served only with a big bowl of tortilla chips. Sunday lunch!

Once again, I bow to Alice where flavor is concerned. This recipe sounded like the most boring thing in the world but was absolutely wonderful. I do think that the bacon pieces added the perfect savory flavor for us carnivorous fat seekers. Bacon/ham and avocado always seem to me to blend beautifully. I think it's the salt and the contrasting textures. This time of year our local ruby grapefruit are just becoming sweet, not like those awful sour things I remember from my midwest childhood. I want to try this salad again in a couple months when the grapefruit have been on the trees a little longer and are just that much sweeter.

The vinaigrette, made this time with a little of the grapefruit's juice, was excellent. Good thing I had the foresight to cut the fruit on a rimmed plate to catch the juice, eh? Comes from actually reading the recipe first and thinking it through. I AM learning SOMETHING!

Another success, I'd say, even if the condition of the fruit slices left something to be desired aesthetically. I'm becoming more and more amazed at how this project is opening Randy and I both up to new tastes. Honestly, I think we had gotten into a terrible rut with our cooking and eating. There's more to life than Trader Joe's pasta, good as that stuff is. More importantly, I'm really enjoyed cooking. It's "making stuff" as much as any other creative pursuit.

Now, on to a mountain of laundry. Not so creative, I'm afraid.

7 recipes down; 298 to go, more or less

Questions to Answer After Cooking....

How did it taste?

What did I learn?

Day 9 - No Cooking Progress Made Today; Sorry...

What did I do today? Darned if I know. Didn't cook, though I thought a lot about cooking. I did make it to farmers market. Purchases included Winesap apples for a crisp, a pomegranate which cost all of 25 cents, a ruby red grapefruit, and a persimmon which turns out to be the wrong type for a salad. I have a heck of a time keeping those 2 common persimmon types straight. I need the fuyu, the small flatish one. I got the pointy one that I can neither pronounce nor spell, but it starts with an h. I was in a hurry this morning, which never pays off.

Otherwise, more box hauling since I'm determined to move a car-load every day. I want to get all our stuff out of storage and into the house ASAP. So the house is a mess, but at least I'm motivated to unpack while surrounded by all our stuff. If it's still in storage, the old "out of sight, out of mind" thing is starting to come into play. Not good since I'm a procrastinator by nature.

Well, more tomorrow. Carry on.

Day 8 - Leftovers and a Vinaigrette Variation

We had lunch out at a Japanese restaurant where, for the first time in my life, I did NOT order sushi. I don't think I'll make that mistake again. The miso and tempura were terrific. The beef stuff was okay. My stomach is small. I took home leftover rice and leftover beef stuff.

After an afternoon of hauling boxes from the storage locker to the car to the garage to the foyer and upstairs to my studio, while just generally also putting stuff where it belongs, I was kinda pooped but still not very hungry. In the refrigerator lurked... (wait for it)... leftovers. Japanese beef stuff. Rice. The end of the green chile stew with its little bacon sprinkles. Half an apple. Half a plum. Most of a lemon. Some chopped parsley. A few Red Flame grapes. It was time for a communal dinner of salad and leftovers.

I made more or less the same salad as last night, and tried another Alice vinaigrette variation, using fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of vinegar and plain basic Trader Joe's organic olive oil. Again, a pinch of salt, but no pepper. It wasn't the total orgasmic experience of last night's honey and lime sauce, but it was still Yum.

So, it was a day of chauffeuring my poor injured husband around, shopping for cool baking dishes, and getting our new life in order. I think I'd rather pack than unpack, to tell you the truth. Oh well. No new recipes today, but tonight I'm going to do some planning for the coming week in order to use my time and resources effectively at farmers market in the morning. I still have an avocado from last week, as well as some brussels sprouts that I plan to au gratin with pan-fried beef.

Carry on.

Day 7 - Vinaigrette With a New Twist

Left Over Green Chile Stew from last night

The end of the pugliese loaf with basil olive oil for dipping

Greens and Fruit Salad with Honey Balsamic and Lime Olive Oil Vinaigrette (pg 44)

The very first recipe/cooking lesson in TAOSF is vinaigrette. Randy has been dressing our salads with red wine or balsamic vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette forever. Frankly, I've never been wild about it. Too acidic and, well, boring, for me. So, I've been avoiding even thinking about making vinaigrette a la Alice. But, today was very busy. The featured entree at my cafe was Leftovers. Leftover stew and leftover bread. Not a lot of time for other cooking.

I had an idea! We recently went to We Olive in Paso Robles California with friends for a major olive oil tasting. It was there that I fell in love with a mixture of honey balsamic vinegar and lime olive oil for bread dipping. Well, it seemed to me that a vinaigrette of these 2 ingredients, with salt but no pepper, would make a swell dressing for a salad of greens and fruit. I love to add fruit to my green salads anyway. So, I thinly sliced some apple and some plum, threw in a few raisins and chopped pecans and dressed the whole thing with my honey balsamic lime olive oil vinaigrette a la Sally. Heaven! It was Heaven! Honestly, the best salad I've ever had in my entire life.

My vinaigrette success tonight makes me now eager to try some other variations, some that Alice suggests in TAOSF and some that I've been thinking about. We have a whole bunch of different vinegars and olive oils in the house, and easy access to many more. This is another major breakthrough, on a par with my recent cauliflower breakthrough. Yippee!!

Otherwise, it was just a very busy day of errands and chores. Some days are like that.

6 Waters recipes down; 299 to go.

Day 6 - A Side Trip to New Mexico

Californian Green Chili Stew

served with tortilla chips, salsa, and cilantro/roasted pecan dip from Trader Joe's

When Randy and I were in New Mexico earlier this month, we took a chile (not chili) cooking class with Rocky Durham at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. It was a WOW!!! We made tortillas, red chile sauce and green chile sauce. We followed our Friday afternoon class with a Saturday morning visit to the Santa Fe farmers market. We brought home tortilla-grind masa harina and 2 pounds of red chile, 1 Chimayo-style from the School and 1 from a Chimayo vendor at the market.

Today I wanted to test my green chile roasting skills on our gas cook top by making the Santa Fe School of Cooking's Green Chile Stew. I made a version based on their cookbook's recipe and another that was on their web site 2 years ago. Of course, my green peppers were Californian, not New Mexican, but the resulting taste definitely had that New Mexico edge. As we learned in Rocky's class, chiles vary greatly depending on many factors: where they are grown, the type, the time of year, the soils, how much water they get and when, and so on. So no matter the taste, my chile was Californian Green Chile Stew. And, it was great! There are plenty of leftovers; I'm anxious to learn what the stew tastes like tomorrow.

Still holding at 5 Waters recipes down and 300 to go.

On a more mundane note, my creative time today (other than cooking) was spent hauling yet another load of stuff up from the storage lockers. My poor husband's knee is in such bad shape he can hardly walk; he bought crutches today. He also had it X-rayed this morning, the first step toward actually getting it fixed. Something tells me this is going to be a long week.

My Blog Sucks; Alice Waters Doesn't

I've just been web surfing, finding all kinds of wonderful food and cooking blogs. Mine, however, sucks. No fancy photos. No great lists of recipes and dining destinations. No links. No bells and whistles. What can I say-- I'm nearly a luddite. Well, I'll try to gussy it up in the future. I'm still working on unpacking and getting settled into our new house. Remember? And there's this to-do list.... which is very long.

In my surfing I've also discovered that Alice Waters has become quite the controversial political figure. Or shall I put it this way: some folks are making Alice into a political controversy. Sorry, but you won't get any of that from me. I just want to learn to cook.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that I went cooking shopping. Turns out there is a huge, wonderful kitchen store right at the base of my hill. Who knew!? I bought 2 mortars and pestles. A medium and a large. I'm ready to pound. I found this double boiler gadget. It's sorta the top part of a double boiler, but made to fit any size saucepan. And a tortilla press. I got a tortilla press. Later in the day I found a Paula Deen 5 quart cast iron casserole at Ross Dress for Less. Forty bucks! I've love to have the $200 version. Someday. I'll try out this one today. It weighs a ton. I'm starting to think that cooking might be a good workout.

Carry on.

Day 5 - The Dreaded Cauliflower, Part II

Spicy Cauliflower Soup (pg 257)

Pugliese Bread with Honey Balsamic Vinegar and Locally Produced Lime-Flavored Olive Oil

I believe I'm going to have to stop whining about cauliflower. Just don't ever ask me to boil the stuff. I made the soup this morning using boxed chicken broth for all the liquid. Then "coarsely pureed" and reheated it at dinner time. Alice doesn't like blenders, but I think I could have stirred or whisked for a week and not gotten the results I got in 2 minutes using the blender. Sorry, Alice; I admitted up front that I'm not a purist.

What separated this soup from the masses was the garnish. A large dollop of nonfat Greek style honey yogurt, a little chopped parsley, and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice. Balanced out the spiciness of the soup quite nicely.

The pugliese was simply from Ralph's, but very high quality. I am in love with the locally-produced lime-flavored olive oil. Excellent for dipping, especially with honey balsamic. Pasolivo also produces orange and lemon olive oil. I'll try them the next time I get to We Olive.

Am I writing into the wind? It's just that I'm so excited about this journey and I want to share it! I will have to settle for Randy's enthusiastic feedback. Bless him: he cleans up after my cooking. And praises the cook.

This makes 5 recipes completed. 300 to go, at least.

Carry on, whoever you are. Wherever you are.

Day 4 - The Dreaded Cauliflower

Sauteed Cauliflower Italian Style on Egg Noodles (pg 119)

Slices of Fresh Fruit with Red Flame Grapes

Did this ever happen to you when you were a kid? Something revolting was served on your dinner plate which you refused to eat and you were forced to sit at the table for hours until you ate it? Who the hell ever thought THAT was a good idea?! My "something revolting" was boiled cauliflower. Which does NOT improve as hours pass, I can guarantee you from actual experience. Nor will all the Kraft American cheese sauce in the world make it any more palatable. I haven't been able to eat cauliflower since. Hardly even raw with Ranch dip. Julie Powell had her eggs. I have cauliflower.

A close second is plums. Never did like the over-juicy, stringy texture when biting into a whole, somewhat over-ripe plum. Just biting into the skin made my teeth shrink back up into their gums. So I don't eat those, either.

But, as long as I'm studying the techniques of pan-frying and sauteing, I thought I might as well cowgirl-up and try sauteing some cauliflower. Luckily Alice lists a variation that adds parsley, garlic, anchovies, capers, hot chile flakes and olives, all to put over pasta. I used the last of some fabulous smoked olives lurking in the back of the frig. I do love olives in most all their many incarnations. Alice doesn't mention any measurements for any of these ingredients, so I was on my own. I can deal. This isn't baking.

Since I'm getting awfully tired of the same-old, same-old lettuce salad accompaniment with all our dinners, I thought that fruit would be a good alternative. One of my fondest Roman memories is the bowls of chilled whole fresh fruit put out for dessert in all the little trattorias. Small plates and small sharp knives were passed around so each diner could peel fruit, share fruit, whatever. My variation tonight was slices of apple, slices of slightly under-ripe plums and more of those Red Flame grapes, all heaped together in a bowl and sprinkled with a little yellow sugar.

Oh ma gosh! What a great dinner! The cauliflower and pasta dish was superb, truly. I'd make it again and eat it again in a heartbeat. The fruit was perfect. I did feel like we were in Rome. The plum was delicious. Randy thought it was a little under ripe, but for me it was perfect. Firm and flavorful. Life is good. Hell, even cauliflower is good. At least in this case.

Okay, that means I've tried a total of 3 Alice recipes. All with success. I am optimistic that I might actually learn to cook one day.

Carry on!

Day 3 - A Complication Emerges

My girlfriend Georg and I hit the Open Studios trail again this morning, followed by a modest lunch of a small french dip-type beef sandwich at a favorite waterfront haunt in Morro Bay. Damn. Remember how I told you that recent tummy surgery had resulted in my having an actually smaller stomach? So I'm eating less because I get full faster? Well, by the time I got home hours after lunch and it was time to cook dinner, I was still so stuffed from lunch that the mere thought of cooking was turning me bright green. Hot flashes didn't help. The result is that Randy ate leftovers for dinner, while I nibbled on bread pudding (warmed with butter and cream) and Red Flame grapes. Sigh. Delicious, but didn't add to my culinary education much.

However, I did get one cooking-related project completed today. I have a largish pile of recipes clipped from various magazines and newspapers, downloaded and printed, begged from friends, you name it. Collected over more years than I care to admit. I've wanted to go through them, toss out the less than exciting ones, and transfer them into a nice box where they would be a good bit more accessible. I started very early this morning and just finished. Done! I'm feeling like an organized cook, if not an actually cooking cook. Apparently, for at least the near future, I get either lunch or dinner but not both. On the other hand, if the result is a shrunken ass, I'm willing.

In the meantime, why Alice Waters, you might ask? Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia, Volume I. There are plenty of other cookbooks out there. Why Alice? Three reasons. First is that "The Art of Simple Food" is written as a how-to-cook-book. There is no Cordon Bleau here in San Louis Obispo county. I need a teacher. A curriculum. TAOSF is it. Second reason is in the title: simple. Simple. It's not that I'm unwilling to tackle complicated stuff. Occasionally. It's just that I want to cook for real life, as a way of life. Third is that, like Alice, I live on coastal California where one can easily eat from wonderful farmers markets all year around. Indeed, there is at least 1 such market every day somewhere in my county. After living here for nearly 20 years, I've come to know and appreciate the markets, the local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture programs), the abundance and quality of food we can access. Alice's is the way of cooking and eating that is natural to me, given my wants, my disposition, and my geography. It just makes sense.

Alice gives 9 principles of good cooking in her introduction to TAOSF. Perhaps I'll discuss them -- as they seem to apply to me -- one at a time, from time to time. First is: Eat locally and sustainably. Here is California we have numerous examples of both small, local producers and giant corporate agricultural operations. The differences are stark. I won't get into a long explanation. Suffice it to say that produce safety scares of recent years have always involved the big producers and/or distant producers. Okay, I'm not a purist. I eat some of that stuff, but I certainly prefer our local small producers. Randy and I belonged to an organic CSA program for a couple years at our old house in Los Osos. I can tell you from experience that organic produce tastes better. It does. When you wash your lettuce and wash off the bugs, you can be sure that if nothing was applied to the lettuce that killed the bugs, then there was nothing applied to the lettuce that would kill you. A comforting thought. Again, I'm not a purist about organic food, but I do know that organic farming is by far the most sustainable. Organic practices preserve and built the soil and the water resources. Frankly, shopping at the farmers markets is one heck of a lot more fun than shopping at the giant corporate super markets.

Okay, enough for tonight. Hopefully I'll be back to the range and the oven tomorrow.

Carry on.

Day 2 - Templeton Farmers' Market

Girlfriend Georg and I hit the North County trail of Open Studios today. Bruce Everett, our first visit, set a standard that wasn't matched all day. Still, we had a good lunch at the Paso Robles "Crooked Kilt." (Whoever thought I'd find a sports bar to be one of my favorite lunch spots?) It was squid strips for me. The squeamish can call it calamari.

Randy made his first attempt at New Mexican red chile sauce this evening. It was pretty yummy, but honestly, I think mine will be better. Sorry, Randy.

First thing this morning, Georg and I made a visit to the Templeton Farmers' Market. It's a nice size market in a relaxing small-town park setting. I now have a huge "Lamb" Haas avocado that was too lovely to pass up. Some plums and pluots and sugar-sweet Red Flame grapes. I found a few green chiles for practicing my roasting technique. Only 1 vendor had cauliflower, which was my primary goal for this market, but one was all it took. The head I bought is a beauty.

Big news is that we now have a local producer of artisan chevre! Apparently it is very difficult to get proper licensing to make and sell chevre in California -- who knew?! I didn't buy any today, but I certainly will soon. Memories of last week's New Mexican chevres still linger on my palate.

Carry on.

Day 1 - The Art of Simple Food

Pan-Fried Boneless Pork Loin Chops with Gremolata (pgs 122 & 231)

Oven-Roasted Asparagus (pg 289)

We returned yesterday afternoon from a much needed week of R&R&Shopping in New Mexico. Our first dinner home was nothing more than a roasted chicken and container of broccoli slaw from the local supermarket deli. Pretty good stuff, actually.

But I also shopped for tonight's dinner. Pork loin chops, asparagus from Peru (forgive me, Alice; I don't want to wait until farmers' market Saturday to begin cooking), and broccoli.

This afternoon I made bread pudding. I have a standard recipe, subject to much variation, given to me by Susan, manager of a now-defunct coffee house in Morro Bay. I throw odds and ends of bread and pastry past prime into the freezer until I have enough for a batch. Right now I have enough for several batches, having moved all those frozen heels and stale cake bits with us from the old house. (Would someone please BUY the old house?!)

Dinner is Pan-Fried Pork Chops garnished with Gremolata and Oven-Roasted Asparagus drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with shaved Parmesan.

First an OOOPS! Pork chops (or beef or chicken) must be thin, 1/2" for pan-frying. My loin chops are 1" by actual measurement. Alice says that after browning, I can finish them by baking in the oven. But who knows for how long? Not me. I drag out the trusty cast iron skillet I begged hubby for nearly 2 years ago when I decided to learn to cook a la Alice. Get it HOT. Add oil (a mix of olive and some other stuff). Toss in a little salt to keep oil from splattering (a trick I learned from Chinese wok cooking). Dry the chops (learned from the movie; and from Julia). Salt and pepper. Into the pan to brown. Looks promising.

Mean while, my assistant, dear hubby Randy, has peeled the asparagus with a vegetable peeler (who knew?), laid them in an oven-proof pan, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.

When the chops are browned, they go into the oven, right in their cast iron skillet. About 5-7 minutes later, in go the asparagus. The whole thing bakes away at 375 for about 10-12 minutes.

Oh yes! The gremolata! Mine is the parsley, lemon zest, garlic combination that Alice spells out. I'm not thrilled with mine since the proportions don't seem quite right, but then again I didn't measure all that accurately. I'll have to try it again.

Anyway, the whole meal was damned good if I do say so myself. The asparagus should probably have roasted at 400, but that could have killed the meat. The chops were excellent, which shocked me. I've always been nervous about cooking meat.

Later in the evening, the bread pudding with tea.

By my count, there are 305 recipes in Simple Food. (And endless variations, which can be both a blessing and a curse, depending on your goals in life.) I will say I accomplished 2 today, so there are 303 to go. Okay, to be honest, I need to try the pan-fried meat thing again. I have some appropriately thin beef in the frig now. But I'm still going to call it 2 down and 303 to go. I'm just beginning to think that I might be actually learning to cook from this project! Julia always said that to learn to cook one must simply cook. Sounds reasonable.

Carry on!

Long Story Short

We built the house and we now live in it. I intended to blog the whole process but, heck, I barely SURVIVED the whole process. Stressful? You can't begin to know. Unless you've done it yourself. Bits and pieces of the house are still being finished, but we're here and we love it.

Health? Well, all that almost-pneumonia that wouldn't go away traced back to a hiatal hernia. One-third of my stomach was above my diaphragm. No wonder I couldn't breathe. Never mind the acid reflux. So, I've since had laproscopic surgery to fix the whole thing, and I feel great.

Life goes on. In our new house I have a large studio. Which I am slowly whipping into shape.

We also have an excellent new kitchen. Dacor everything except a Bosch dishwasher. So I'm finally able to learn to really cook well, something I've planned on since the decision to build a new house. Coincidentally, out came Julie Powell's book, closely followed by the movie adaptation, "Julie and Julia." Inspiration! My guide will be Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Cooking." Stay tuned for further exciting adventures!

Pneumonia Sucks

Yup. It just plain sucks. This is my second day in bed. I don't do sick-in-bed very well at all. In fact I don't do it at all unless I feel really rotten. I feel really rotten. Thank heavens for my lap computer so I can at least get a few things done. And portable phones and cell phones. I may be sick in bed, but I'm not entirely cut off from the world.

For amusement I went to the American Idol site and rated this year's 20 candidates for The Song. What a bunch of schlock. Not the songwriters' fault. AI wants schlock. There were maybe 2 of the 20 that didn't make me cringe. Must AI insult our collective intelligence this way? The (cringey) Song is one of the reasons why I didn't even watch toward the end of last season. The contestants are much better this year, but the winner will deserve a better The Song than he or she will get.

Almost Pneumonia

Yup, that's what I've got. Almost pneumonia. That's the official diagnosis. And I thought it would be another one of those cold/viral-icky/bronchitis things. And you didn't even know I was ailing. Oh well. Life goes on.

We checked in with the attorney to get my power-of-attorney for when Randy is away. In case anything gets screwed up with the house in his absence.

We selected 3 concrete roof tile samples at the lumber company. The samples will come in a few days. This is mostly for color selection.

We talked with the window lady about windows. Again. This is a BIG issue in a passive-solar house since most windows aren't set-up for anything other than artificial-heating-in-the-winter and air-conditioning-in-the-summer. We want to avoid both.

I told you. Life goes on. And it was way more fun today than having almost pneumonia.

The Cost of Car Juice

It's been too long since I've written. Still no photos. But there's something I've just got to mention.

I can't believe how much we're paying for gasoline here. I mean right here. California coast, half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The big cities have always been higher, but as near as I can tell, short of Hawaii, we're paying more right now than anyone anywhere in the USA. Within the last couple of weeks we've been in San Francisco and New York City. They're paying less than we are. Good grief! Even Manhattanites are paying less than we are for gas! We've always been lower than at least those 2 places. What is going on here? My last fill up was at 3.899, with some stations as high as 3.999 for regular. You know: the cheap stuff. We'll be over $4.00 a gallon shortly.

You could editorialize about this from a number of different angles, but I'm thinking of working people who are just barely scraping by as it is. Do you go without food to pay for the gas to get to work to pay for the gas to get to work? Just wondering.