Killer Bees

There is a 4 box beehive sitting in my pantry right now labeled "DO NOT DISTURB: killer bees." Okay, no, they are no killer. They're just labeled that way to deter people who are too curious for their own good. In fact they are quite lovely because they give us liquid gold (aka honey). Its just, so luscious. I can't wait for this harvest. Honey in a jar and honey right off the comb are just too damn good.

Real Food

What a concept! I'm a huge fan of real food. Why? because it tastes so much better than that slop they serve...wherever. I get a lot more joy (and often flavor) out of my food when I know where the ingredients came from and when I (or my friends) cooked it in their own kitchen.

Here is a shot of some good friends, David and his son, at the Food Day festival we had at the CoHo on UC Davis campus awhile back. They fully support the idea above.

There is a Story...

to go with this photo, but it's more fun to have you guys just guess as to what it involves.

On an unrelated not, I believe I wore this yellow jacket on a date recently. Go figure.

Happy New Years, Folks

Honestly, I'm happier than a squirrel with a big fat nut.

Kombucha Cha Cha

My kombucha momma and it's 1/2 baby. Makes a parent proud.

I need to get back to my kombucha brewing. I got into it in September and have only made a handful of batches. Often, they come out sweet, which makes it nice for those who don't like the traditional taste of a stronger brew. I do think, however, that I'm going to start letting them sit a week or so longer and see what the taste ends up like. I usually flavor with ginger, pomegranate (when available), or lime/ other citrus.

I highly recommend brewing some of your own, its delicious! See if you have a friend that brews and can spare an extra SCOBY. If you can't find out any there then check around your local food co-op and ask around.

New Garden!

So, I'm at my parents place at the moment (a strain of circumstances brought me here) and I've been helping around the new house in Santa Rosa to try and give me parents a little bit of a break. Anyways, one thing I got to do today was work on starting my moms new garden! I really hope she takes good care of it because I just put in a few hours today. Planted two types of basil, two types of carrots, some romaine, chard and artichoke.

Also, this picture is of what I thought was an artichoke plant, but it turns out that it is just a close, inedible cousin. Go figure, ha.

EAT YOUR VEGGIES

Home Made Cookins

Some roasted tomato garlic basil soup I made awhile back, with grilled bell peppers and some fancy fancy parmesan. I harvest all the vegetables from the garden, roasted and grilled them, and then just puréed them all in a blender. Man, this stuff was tasty. Simple food porn anyone? I think so.

My Diet

Typically consists of some type of rice: basmati, wild, brown, jasmine w/e

with some type of bean: white, cannelli, brown, black, kidney, garbanzo, pinto

with some types of veggies: carrots, zucchini, squash, bell pepper, tomato, potato, mushrooms of various types, etc

seems to be working for me pretty well

Eat Your Veggies

Spring means that the weather is nice enough to bust out the grill. It also means that I get to employ my favorite style of veggie cookery: roasting them on the top of the grill with some olive oil and salt & pepper to taste. Simple and DELICIOUS. Here was part my dinner last saturday: zucchini, asparagus, yellow onions, baby portobello, and carrots from my garden. The part not pictured was an almond butter and apricot jam on some ancient grain bread that I decided to grill as well, woo!

New Growth

The first thing picked and eaten from my garden that I planted way back when. A tasty little carrot. Not too sweet, not bitter at all. I'm satisfied and am already thinking about what to plant next when the weather clears up a bit.

All is Right

As I predicted, once my midterms were done I had a hell of a night. Full of music, good friends, tasting treats and some wine and whiskey. This morning I woke up super early and got tons of random produce including: bok choy, spinach, red onions, sweet potatoes, peppers, and more. The kitchen of 911 Arthur street is going to be producing some mighty fine aromas this weekend.

Spring Seedlings

It's enough to make you go all warm and fuzzy inside. I forget exactly which ones these were...perhaps some more swiss chard??

Found inside the domes greenhouse.

Treasure To Be Found

It's always so tempting to go to the farmer's market with my parents because there is always so much tasty tasty stuff there. But alas, I must be heading back to Davis today.

*sigh* I was really looking forward to a Belgian waffle too.

Eating Dead Tree Stumps

I was really hungry yesterday while on a distance run and I decided to get some inspiration from these guys. Note to self: humans were not made to digest wood and bark. We live and we learn.

On another note, I almost did a full unofficial marathon yesterday. 25.2 miles to be exact. I'm going to keep pushing though and see just how far I can carry myself on my own two legs. Cheers!

"Do Not Pick Our Lemons!"

This tree was found right next to the sidewalk on the street in San Rafael. Talk about your forbidden fruit. The sign is almost comical, like it were out of some childhood cartoon. It was a bit upsetting because there were a lot of lemons laying on the ground, looking like they were going to waste.

Yum

Pepto Bismol, raw steak, and flowers all on a beautiful snowy backdrop. Taken whilst preparing our 8 course meal over the tahoe vacation.

One More Chanukah Shot

Dradel! So much fun. And the jews in my house lost twice to the goys, oy. They would not quite their kvetching. It was pretty funny.

Chef at Work

My grandfather making some mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving day. Seriously, look at the intensity.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is a seemingly unrelated photo.

Enjoy the day, guys.

Stomach Flu

It's been going around and I managed to catch it. Im running off of nearly no energy, and because i can't really eat much right now, I'm not able to have my usual energy snack, mixed nuts. I'm gonna stick to the BRAT diet for a few days (bananas, rice, apple sauce, and toast) and see if I can't come out of this thing quickly.