Mmmmm

I was able to make it to the farmers market again on Thursday. Could not resist this asparagus at $2.50 a bunch. It's so small and crisp - can't wait to cook it tonight :) I also bought some more beets, red this time, some wonderful salad mix that had all kinds of interesting things in it, more strawberries, a butternut squash, some very thin carrots, and some garlic. We roasted a head of the garlic the other night and it was great.

The asparagus is getting cut into pieces, and then sauteed with shitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, some shallot & garlic, and some parsley from the yard. I'm going to add in some cut up chicken & call it dinner. I think it sounds good, but we'll see. The proof is in the pudding....or saute.

Ok Sue, it's a new picture. Are you happy? You don't know how tempted I was to post a picture of the stove ;-)

Chillin

We just bought a 5 cubic foot freezer to put in the garage. As you can see, we managed to fit in the garage without too much effort. In our kitchen, we have the smallest side-by-side they make, and the freezer space is less than generous. The shelves are very narrow, and there just isn't room for a lot of stuff.

We started pricing these small freezers and were surprised at how inexpensive they were. This one is from Sears, and on sale, with tax included, it was $172 out the door. The plan is to use it for food we don't need on a regular basis: storing extra soup, meat that was on sale, etc. I've already off-loaded much of the kitchen freezer here and it's great. I can now easily see into the freezer to get what I need, and there is plenty of room left in the garage one. Plus, the garage one is not frost free, so even though it will need defrosting once a year or so, it will not dry food out like a frost free one. Now I can get busy cooking :)

Weekend weather

First off - the tart was delicious. It was easy to make & I would make it again in a heartbeat. I think I'll use red beets next time to see what color it ends up, maybe bright pink? Who knows. I'm sure it will still be as delicious.

We got rain off and on all weekend, but not very much. Slow, steady drizzle for much of the time. Plus, this storm came from down south so it was much warmer than the last one. I like that :)

Riley is recovering from eating all those cookies. He was really acting like a hung dog for about 36 hours. I still don't know how he managed to get the tin open.

Monday, back at work for a while!

Remember those golden beets?

They now live here in a beet feta tart. I'll let you know how it is :-)

Sent Via Blackberry

Oh those animals

This is courtesy of our friend Peter. You may have seen it, but if not, it's pretty sweet.

Food TV

Our friend Brad from the Abalone farm here was featured on the FoodTV show "Will Work for Food" yesterday. They are re-running the episode this Sunday, the 22nd at 1:30 PM if you are interested in seeing it. It's a good segment and Brad does a great job. You can read about the show here: Will Work for Food.

We had a fair amount of rain over the weekend, but not nearly as much as they predicted. Supposed to warm up some after today's showers, the chances of rain starting again on Sunday.

Farmers Market Finds

I took advantage of being home on a Thursday afternoon and hit the Morro Bay farmers market, the one at Spencers. This is what I bought. Kind of random, but it was what looked good and was priced right. Golden beets (which are roasting as I write this) leeks, baby choy and strawberries. Its a bit early for the berries, but I needed some for Saturday and these taste pretty good. I really should try and leave work early on Thursdays and hit the market on the way home. I drive right by it, for crying out loud!

Jeff is doing fine. He was really sore this morning, but made it through the day. I think I'll leave him on his own tomorrow and head to work, just in time for a three day weekend :-)

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Amazing photos.....of a rat!

I was too enamoured with these photos not to share. This is somebody's photo set of their pet rat from Flickr. I had a pet rat in high school - a white female named Zelda, and as creepy as you may think it is, she was a great pet. Anyway, enjoy them here.

Snow

Just a quick post. This is one of the photos of the snow yesterday. This is the Chardonnay block at Tablas Creek Vineyards. Pretty amazing! You can see more photos of the snow here. They are all user submitted photos so they vary, but you'll get an idea of what it looked like over the grade yesterday.

And, in my insane desire to drive myself further into insanity with technology, I figured out how to get Twitter to post my Facebook updates. So if you see something in the Twitter feed that says: Via Facebook: David is... that was populated from Facebook. If you don't use Facebook, the idea is to share with friends & family a simple description of what you are doing at the moment. That's why you'll see Facebook updates mostly starting with "David is..." because that's the template you give you.

Back to work...

One more thing

I'm experimenting, so you'll notice the "Twitter Updates" widget off to the right. Twitter is another way of communicating with friends/colleagues, usually via cell phones & text messages. But more and more, the data from Twitter is being used in other applications, like this widget. I'll warn you - don't expect anything too profound in the Twitter updates, it's just random thoughts or quick updates. I thought it might be fun to add here for things that really don't warrant a Blog posting.

Rain rain rain!

Well it didn't rain all weekend, but we did get a fair amount. This picture was taken Saturday afternoon, about 3:30 when there was a bit of a clearing. I thought the clouds off over Morro Rock were beautiful, but not sure this photo really captures that.

Today (Monday) woke up to more rain. I think it started raining sometime after 2:00 AM, and it rained all the way to work. Supposed to be more of the same off and on all week which is good because we need it!

Jeff has his hernia surgery Wednesday morning. We have to be at the hospital at 6:00 AM. I can tell you - he will probably thinking getting up early enough to make it on time is worse than the actual surgery :) I think I'll be able to take him home about 11:00, and then he'll be resting for a few days. He doesn't have to work until the following Monday, so hopefully he'll be up and at 'em by then.

Now, on with the week!

Wow, I had to share this...

Is this not an eye-popping photo? Here's what the subtext says:

Ittoqqortoormiit is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland, near the mouth of the northern shore of the Kangertittivaq fjord. Population is 537. Ittoqqortoormiit is one of the most remote towns in Greenland. It is served by the Nerlerit Inaat Airport, reachable by helicopter or boat for a few months a year.

Finally raining

After what seems like ages, it's finally raining. We got a good amount overnight, and the predictions are we'll get more today, tomorrow and into Saturday. Nice :) We really, really need it. The hills have started to green up and this should get everything growing for sure now. In our yard, the Clematis (that Riley ate last Summer) has started growing again after a couple months of rest. It should bloom this spring and hopefully, grow like gang-busters to start covering the trellis.

Cash4Gold...

I'm sure you've seen these ads on TV lately for Cash4Gold - a company that takes your old gold jewelry & sends you back cash. The commercials make it seem less than legit, for sure. Not sure how accurate this is, but this is a post on consumerist.com about Cash4Gold, supposedly written by an employee that used to work there. FYI, Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports) just bought consumerist.com, so I think it's a pretty legit website for customer complaints, etc.

10 Confessions of a Cash4Gold Employee

Oranges to die for

These "Cayucos Summer Oranges" have been available here for a few years. I remember trying them last year (or was it the year before) and they weren't so hot. This year, oh boy. They are so good, I can't stop buying them. They are so sweet and juicy. Not the easiest things to peel, so I either slice & eat them, or lately, I've been squeezing them for juice. They are very easy to juice by hand, and two of them give you a juice glass full. Yum! They have been on sale for $2 a bag, which makes them $1.50 a pound which seems decent. Yesterday, they were $2.50 a bag, but I didn't hesitate to grab them. I know this is a fleeting crop, so I want t enjoy as many of them as I can. I love it that they are local *and* so delicious. It's a win win for sure!

How was your weekend? It was beautiful here again, and got up to 80 yesterday afternoon. I took the dogs for a walk on the beach around 3:30 and it was roasting. The boys were panting by the time we were done. I don't know if it's global warming or what, but I've sure been enjoying it. Rain in the forecast for Thursday-Sunday though...