Jensen

I have poke salad at my favourite sushi place. There, it comes as lightly seared tuna (very lightly!), sliced jalapenos, lots of lemon juice (fresh squeezed onto the salad), and some special Asian-style dressing, all served on top of shredded daikon. Yum!

Also, increase your water intake. Yes, when I quit the caffeine, I had headaches. I get migraines anyway and, as the meds for that didn't have any effect on these headaches, I knew it was from caffeine and not something else. Extra water did seem to help though. And, after a week or so, they went away.

I am SO looking forward to this week! (And I thought the trip to New Mexico last week was heaven!)

I quit about 6 months ago. I have coffee occasionally now, sometimes leaded and sometimes unleaded. I've found that the leaded coffee now gives me the shakes something fierce.

My friend and I have been trying to get to Karen's Bakery in Folsom for quite a while now and we finally made it! After hitting the farmer's market at Sunrise Mall, we headed out to Folsom. Although Karen's has a lot of sweet stuff on the menu, my friend and the Spawn went for savouries. Marge's breakfast tortilla with English breakfast tea: It was garnished with the most amazing pesto! Yum! The Spawn's grilled sun-dried tomato sausage plate and an Italian soda: And my fruit salad and green tea: After enjoying the scene on Karen's patio, we headed out to Newcastle to check out Newcastle Produce. Along the way, we took a wrong turn and decided to take surface roads out to Newcastle, instead of I-80. That led us to two serendipitous discoveries: Griffith Quarry Park (where we decided we would return one day soon for a picnic) and Newcastle Cheese and Deli. Who would believe that I would find TWO cheese shops in the same week? I didn't take a photo inside the cheese shop but here's one of the hours/parking sign outside, along with the bottle of Rat Bastard root beer the Spawn insisted I buy for her: I bought two pieces of cheese: one was a locally-made layered cheddar with blue cheese and some other white cheese called "Shaft's Serendipity" (from Cedar Ridge, up by Grass Valley) and the other was Somerdale Red Dragon, a Welsh cheddar blended with whole-grain mustard seeds and Welsh ale. Then, it was on to Newcastle Produce! What had drawn me out here was a mention in their website's newsletter that they had different types of potatoes. And so, I bought some Maris Piper potatoes and two other types whose names escape me at the moment, all from Twin Brook Farms in Loomis. I also found some Half Moon Bay brussels sprouts. Yippee! Other purchases include a rosemary baguette from the Truckee Sourdough Baking Company, a packet of Tongues of Fire beans, a packet of Eduardo's Paglia e Fieno egg noodles, and a mix for roasted garlic and potato soup (purchased at the behest of the Spawn). All in all, it was a very successful shopping tour!

I went looking for Brussels sprouts but they were not to be had at my market I shall have to continue to covet Rebel Rose's... Here's what I did get though: 1. watercress 2. arugula 3. gai lan 4. leeks 5. cilantro 6. blood oranges 7. broccoli greens 8. fennel bulb 9. broccoli 10. savoy cabbage 11. asparagus <!!!> 12. fresh onion 13. salad mix 14. garlic 15. cauliflower 16. cranberry beans What I can't locate in the photo is what was described as "sweet broccoli". It looked like the gai lan but had very tiny broccoli heads on it.

Thanks for approaching the forum host, RR. I'm looking forward to learning more about the entire scope of "rancho cooking".

That is one of my favourite aspects of the farmer's market. I was so excited to see Rebel Rose's photos of the brussels sprouts, as I've been waiting and waiting for them. I hope to see them this Saturday at the market! If I miss the Saturday market, I will sometimes go to the downtown market on Sunday morning. Even though it's much larger and has a greater selection, I really don't like it as much as the Sunrise market. The location is just horrible...there is no sunshine and far too much noise under the freeway!

Does your market have an organiser/sponsor? (Not sure what word to use.) At my market, I often see "official" type people. Perhaps a call to them and maybe even your AG dept. rep could arrange for some back-up for when you go back to the market next week.

I think some of the confusion in terms might be due to my original question and how I called the cooking. I had no idea that there were two distinct types of cuisine called "rancho cooking". I suppose I assumed that the rancho cooking Rancho Gordo had mentioned was a descendant of the rancho cooking of California history, not realising that it was more likely to be an adaptation/re-creation of the same. Rjwong, as a history buff, you might be interested in this little tidbit that I learned yesterday while on my field trip to Coloma. The area that is now Sacramento was originally a Mexican land grant made to John Sutter. He planned to develop it into a colony, not a rancho though, and it was while milling lumber for the construction of the colony that gold was discovered. I know the gold and milling bit is common knowledge but the Mexican land grant bit was news to me. Now that I have a slightly better idea what I was asking about, I was just thinking that a "panel Q&A" might be a neat thing to do. Cris Cherry and Jacqueline Higuera McMahan talking about rancho cooking: what it was, what it is now, what it can be, and how they are all related.

Isn't there a place down by the new water pumping station? I don't really know too much about dining here either. I did eat at Masque last year and was pleased with the food there. It's certainly not near the river but they might have a patio. In other Sacto news, I did find a very nice cheese shop today. My friend and I were out for a "field trip", doing the Auburn-Coloma-Placerville loop. We went into Dedrick's Main Street Cheese; the smell alone was enough to make me happy! I bought some gruyere, some reblochon, and a loaf of seeded rye bread from the Sierra Rizing Bakery. Can't wait to eat it all...

I think hat would be a great idea. ← Either that, or Jacqueline Higuera McMahan herself. Is there anyway we could get her to converse with us? ← Either of these would make me an extremely happy girl...

I like to use the lightly steamed leaves (stems trimmed off) to wrap around some rice or some fish. When the little bundles are made, they can be steamed thoroughly to cook and/or warm the contents.

Yes, I've been thinking the same thing. Here's an eGulletised Amazon link.

I was interested to read Rancho Gordo's comment the other day in which he said he thought that California rancho cooking could kick the pants off Tex-Mex. (Or something like that) An article from last week's SF Chronicle's food section by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan about healthy, low-fat Mexican food just reminded me of RG's comment. That got me thinking, "Just what is California rancho cooking?" Mr. Google tells me a lot about Mrs. McMahan's cooking book "Rancho Cooking" but I haven't seen too much else in the way of information. So, what defines "California rancho cooking"? What are the ingredients? What are the cooking methods? Teach a poor foreigner all about it...

I'm not really looking for anything specific. I just liked the idea of starting up a Sacto-based thread. And look! It worked! I've found that most of the Asian noodles available here are Vietnamese, rather than Chinese. So, there are a lot of rice noodles a la pho but not so many other types of noodles (like Chinese fun noodles or Shanghai noodles or those sorts of things). I've been buying most of my produce from the farmer's market. I live relatively close to the Sunrise Mall, one of the year-round markets. Does anyone know anything about a CSA from the Rudolf Steiner College? I was looking at their website section on Biodynamic Gardening classes and read this:

Being an island girl from the west coast of Canada, I'd have to say my number one favourite is halibut, followed by salmon. Kokanee is damn good too but it's not a commercially available fish; I haven't had it since I lived in the Yukon.

New Mexico is one of my favourite places! I hope we'll be seeing at least some green chile this week...

I've seen the one in Auburn from 80 and I see on their website that there's one on Folsom Blvd., close to Corti Bros. too. That reminded me that there is an Italian import place on Folsom too; it has a good deli and a few groceries. Has anyone tried the breads from Bella Bru? Is it worth a trip?

In response to the "why isn't this forum more vibrant", I'd like to start a thread similar to the Downtown Sonoma restaurants, food shops, and bakeries thread. I moved to Sacramento from Vancouver almost 6 years ago and still haven't figured out where to buy good food. Well, besides Corti Bros. Just last week, my neighbour (another foreigner) took me to Morant's on Franklin Blvd. where we bought some wonderful weißwurst, leberkäse, and other German meat treats. They also had some great kaiser rolls, something I haven't had since moving here! Shun Fat at 65th and Stockton is a good source for some Asian groceries but, as it seems to be more Vietnamese than Chinese, there are still some groceries that I miss. Fresh dim sum items and fresh noodles are what I miss the most. Where are some other places to buy good foods?

I would check out the Cooking Light website. They have a bunch of recipes for snacks. (The access code for this month is LIVEWELL)

I was getting tired of my daily dose of porridge and so, the other day, I made a big pot of congee My rice cooker doesn't have a porridge setting and won't cook congee worth a damn without it so I tried it in the slow cooker instead. It worked like a charm. I used a mixture of haiga rice and brown rice and cooked it in homemade chicken stock. Yesterday, I ate it with leftover roast chicken, ginger, green onions, and sambal olek. Today, it was just the ginger, green onions, and soy with a side of kim chee.

Thank you for blogging, Diana. It's been a great week and you've inspired me to start a similar herb garden. I love the look of that globe basil. Note to self: send the Spouse a link to the photo of Diana's herb planter (And thank you for the sunshine! It's not raining today...yippee!)

Cappicolla, maybe? It looks like the meat in your photo with the reddish-orange coating. One of my favourites! I'm really enjoying your blog, Diana. Send some sunshine out west, will ya?

Bul go gi, zaru soba, sauteed cabbage, and twice-cooked green beans.