chardgirl

yes, many seed folks sell the plants, including Johnny's Seeds in Maine: alpine strawberries for growers to sell them to restaurants or at market they have to harvest them and get them the end consumer (the one who will actually eat the small berry) within a few hours. At our farmers market I think there are a couple of growers who do these berries but the chefs snap them up. Or their regulars have to get to market VERY early, and then eat them that day. My husband (the farmer by trade who loves to hike and find mushrooms and berries by hobby) found some of these in the backwoods and brought them home: 3 hours later only about 25% were edible, but man did they smell good! a photo of those berries compared to some from our farm: -cg

I looked through my unnecessarily extensive collection of cookbooks that should have answers to any question I have and I didn't come up with: how to make cheese? Any kind? My children love cheese, and we've access to 2 gallons a week of raw local milk from a cow we are acquainted with. We have lots of cream and we've been (they've been) shaking it into butter. we have buttermilk and we're making muffins and pancakes with that. any cheese: with the bounty of milk, with the buttermilk, with the cream... Any suggestions on a basic book that tells us how to make cheese? Amazon has several titles that might fit the bill, but I thought I'd ask you guys first! I think the science behind making the cheese would be an excellent science class for my homeschooled 9 & 11year old. They're just stuck with hopelessly slow food parents. cg ps I searched and didn't come up with any similar threads, and had to decide whether this was 'adventurous eating, cooking, or general food topics'.

I live in the middle of California strawberry country: my kids are in 4-h and girl scouts with large growers' kids. We are a small, organic producer of vegetables, and a few years back, a couple of acres of strawberries. Yes, the big growers produce their own varieties and strains that are large (easier to pick = lower labor costs = more money for the grower), very red so they are indeed seductive, but tasteless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yuck yuck yuck. Buy local, wait until they're in season in your area. In the meantime, buy strawberry preserves and have them on some excellent toast. In our household we believe strawberries should again be a luxury seasonal treat like asparagus, not an obligation like bananas and apples. (these fruits have their problems in big conventional agriculture, but they both do ship better than berries) Also: when we grew berries, we grew Seascapes, which are perfumey, delicious and red. But the most important thing for our farmers market and CSA customers was that we picked them *ripe*. the growers who are picking and then sending them on a 3-4 day trip in a semi across country couldn't do that in any case. White shoulders are the norm. There are ways (I believe) that the end point produce brokers can gas the berries up a bit more when they arrive to make them redder... Ok, I'm stepping of my soapbox now, I promise. The way strawberries should look when your local farmers market/farm stand/csa/upick starts up:

Miz Ducky: I've just discovered your blog and I'm enjoying it! Asian food, budget gourmand, San Diego (I attended UCSD), AND Frank Zappa references... (Mr. Chardgirl loves FZ: I'm looking forward to sharing this with him.) Blog on M. D. ! (I had my first chicken feet in a tiny dim sum joint in a strip mall near down town San Diego in 1984....) cg

I also had another model that finally died, then got a red Kitchen Aid and use it at least a couple times a week. Ditto everything RG says above. I use it mostly for soup, so easy to use and clean. (I'm more challenged for time than space.) I've never used it for hummus, I prefer the food processor for that: just say no to chunky hummus! cg

Your camera has a cuisine setting? Were they marketing directly to eGulleters? Brilliant! ← I have the identical camera, and I use the cuisine setting too... I like the simplicity of this camera... cg

Thank you for sharing with such rich details the Life of a Restaurant Critic. I'm enjoying your entire blog and look forward to more. The history, the 'how to be a critic' lessons, the Canadian education (at least for me, as I live south of the border...) A question: is it possible for a restaurant anywhere anytime to get a "20"? I'm not a frequent restaurant client nor have I ever worked in one so it may be a somewhat ignorant question... although I do get to see restaurant kitchens with some frequency! cg

My clock says 11:57am: thanks all for your interest, it was a very fun project. Sorry I didn't do a better job documenting the goat feast... I'll do better next time. More photos and more recipes! This blog didn't go exactly where I thought, but maybe they never do. Happiest December to all. chardgirl our real names: Julia, Andy (Mr. Chardgirl), Graydon (Son Aged 10) and Magdalena (Daughter Aged 8)

Brunch from today: here's the cheese board that Mr. Chardgirl served children last night when I escaped to the movies: the bluish white square one on the left is Andante's Nocturne (cow); the white semi circle is Andante's Melange (cow and goat); the big herbed one is Andante's Pastoral (goat) and the aged is a dry-aged goat cheese from Yerba Santa Goat Dairy. Son Aged 8 loved the Melange. and the rest of brunch: the pastry looking thing is a vegan-baklava that a frequent market customer brings to us on Saturdays.... the beverage is a breakfast tea with half and half.

We try to cook with the kids everyday. We try (with about a 50% success rate) to get one or both of them to make or cook something for the dinner table everyday. My son's current favorite is tofu sprinkled with the bonito/sesame/nori flakes: is that gomaiso? goma? I forgot the name. We also have 1-2 times a week cooking projects: this week between the birria party and this blog (ironic!) I've not cooked with them at all. My daughter is going to a girlscout cookie decorating party tonight: does that count? She's supposed to bring 'a can of frosting', I"m considering being a rebel and sending homemade in an old plasitc something that I don't need back... any good recipes? We are going to make cornbread tonight: I've promised, and we're of course going into the dangerous waters known as Cookie Season. sigh. I'm certain that my kids are cooking more and eating better than when they were in regular school, so over all I think we're on the right track.

Yes, we grow butternut squash. Here's my recipe pageand here's a photo. The chefs love this versatile vegetable because of it's smooth skin you can peel it quickly. And the neck is dense so you can do different things with the cutting up of it. And it's got gorgeous orange flesh and a great flavor. it's my favorite too!

I hesitate to post a question b/c your schedule sounds pretty full right now... Maybe Soba will consider leaving the blog open for an extra half day??? My question was about the three different slow food conviviums you belong to. You mentioned the "food professional" group and I was wondering if you could describe the other two a bit as well. Thanks again! Looking forward to other goat roast pix if they make it in! Good luck with your busy day as well. ← It's ok, I'm here for the next 2 hours and can answer questions... and even hopefully post my beautiful cheese plate with cut oranges I hope to have for a brunch with Mr. Chardgirl: all before noon! (soba A.: no need to change) Re: Slow Food Conviviums: we belong to the food professional one because those are our colleagues up in SF: pastry chefs, chef chefs, cookbook writers, jam makers, etc etc. they have a few 'educational' events for their members which I really enjoy when I can make it to them: one they had last year that I missed was a fermentation workshop: they brought sauerkraut, beer, and all kinds of other fermented items and discussed them. I'm in the middle of trying to strongarm Harold McGee (he's already agreed in principle) to have a Q & A session with him that we could use as a fundraiser as Slowfood Intl (Carlo's directive) so they can invite lots of Kenyan farmers (I think it's Kenya) to next year's Terra Madre: a big conference that was held last year just for farmers and producers of food. I got to go! It was great! But that's another discussion for another time. The other two conviviums we belong to are our local ones: Slow Food Monterey Bayled by Kim and George: they have low-cost dinners in their home and other evnets: and they've adopted a local Watsonville school garden as their 'project': their members have gone out to at least one work day to help build raised beds and they raise money and get materials donated. The other convivium we belong to is Slow Food Carmel: run by our friend Gaby. she does all kinds of things down there, and she adopted a shrimp boat that was a family run operation and inspired Mr. Chardgirl and I to adopt a farm like our own. We raised $1000 at a dinner for them with Anne Gingrass at Desiree last month! And I got to wait tables and I didn't spill wine on anyone....

The table was set: (the chairs were vegetable totes) By this time of the day I was petering out but also still attending to many details... sorry about the few photos of the actual plate of food. I'll do better documenting my next goat roast, even if I'm not blogging! Here's 1/2 of the dessert: this goat roast was put on for one of our slow food conviviums, we belong to 3 total. this one is the greater bay area food professional one, and the chef from Piatti Santa Clara came and brought this: (he also brought some delicious sticky buns for the morning cooking crew, they were eaten so fast there's no photo): also our friend Robert who's one of the 2 founders of Scharffen Berger Chocolate came and brought some private stash 2 different dark chocolates, I liked one of them very much: I think it was a 70% varietal, but again, I was so busy with other details I didn't get the name or a photo! but that was the other half of dessert. I will continue to look for photos and try to post at least a couple more before noon. Right now the chef orders/invoices, the fight erupting RIGHT NOW over the lego advent calendar and my kids lunch for their one day of school are all calling me, I'll be back before noon and see how much more I can pull off! Ask questions now or forever hold your peace.... cg

a bit more on the goat roast: How we heated the tortillas: I didn't get a photo of Paula actually heating them, but here's a photo of the old disk that we use to heat them over an open fire: and here's a photo from a 2004 event so you can see how we do it. (Also notice that there's no fence in the background but there are weeds... since then we've built the fence and the weeds are gone thanks to the goats!)

More on the goat roast: thanks for your patience Montalayo filling: it's the haggis of Mexico! (one of you already noticed that above...) this mixture is put in the scrubbed out goat stomach: it has potatoes, onions, fresh oregano, fresh thyme and marjoram, chopped up heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, one of the stomachs that in Spanish is called librillo, all chopped up and stuffed inside the stomach: Don Miguel scrubbing out the stomach, using 'cal' or lime the mineral: all stuffed and ready to drop in the pot: Dropping into the pot of birria to steam on top:

Recipes... I think I was supposed to give more recipes? Here's one for Greens Tacos: one of my favorite way to eat my leafy greens at breakfast or dinner. And our a-z recipepage with over 90 buttons of different vegetables to click: some of the pages are lots of information/recipes on them! cg

more photos.... Our broccoli di cicco, one of our 'signature' crops along with erbette chard. There are other farmers that grow both of these items, but we seem to pile these two items very high at market! Bloody Marys at the Slanted Door. Todd and I had our little lunch at the bar (no waiting): we had tea. But the bartender made at least 8 bloody marys right in front of us, and each time got out 2 pickle jars: pickled carrots and dilly beans: they were Todd's! That made T. happy. We sipped tea and watched the bloody marys get passed about.... eating the crispy imperial roll: the photo as it came out of the kitchen is in a previous post in this blog. You wrap up the actual fried roll with some noodles, a mint leaf all inside of a lettuce leaf then dip the whole thing. my friend Lee at Tierra Vegetables: PHEW! I took so many photos on Saturday. And more on Sunday too. I had to be a strict editor, that part was difficult. Kids and cooking? I think they did make something this evening that involved tofu and hopefully delicious next day beans! until tomorrow morning. cg

Meals on Monday: left overs Breakfast and lunch. Dinner? a glass of 'leftover' wine that I REALLY enjoyed that someone left behind yesterday: Rodney Strong 1999 reserve cabarnet sonoma county. there you have it, don't ask me to describe it, except I think I tasted oak. Dinner besides wine: leftovers for kids and Mr. Chardgirl. Really good leftovers. Me? to the movies with 'the girls'. My three friends who are all teachers, we've known each other since before husbands/kids. We're going to see Pride and Prejudice, so I'm having popcorn (over priced though it is) for dinner. Don't tell me you've never done that! more Ferry Plaza photos when I return tonight. We've been doing that market since it started in (1991?) something like that. I have too many photos that I want to share. Stay tuned! cg

thanks for tooting my horn! you're too sweet.

Lambsquarters

epazote photo

The mole question is an excellent one. Here's what Mr. Chardgirl and I did that we will do differently next time: The birria/goat was prepared by Don Miguel. (Don is like 'mr.' we call him that since he's older than us). The 'sides' were prepared by Maria and Lourdes. Although all three of them are from the same area of Michoacan, they are from different families. So Maria and Lourdes made a mole and a salsa verde (the tomatillo one) Don Miguel made a salsa to go with the birria. So we were heavy on the salsas. My plate #1 of food was 2 kinds of beans, and 2 salsas. It was delicious just like that! I'm light on the photos since I was in the heady steam of being hostess/Detail Matrix. So! To answer your question: the mole didn't specifically go with the birria, but it was great with the beans. Yes, we ate outside. It wasn't quite as chilly as Saturday was. It was a gloriously clear day. That is, until the neighbors kids and their three friends hopped on their very LOUD dirt bikes. But I'll spare all of you the ugly litiginous details. (I know, I use big words but don't know how to spell them...) Guests entered the house at their own risk as I didn't have enough time to truly clean it up. Everyone was marvelously gracious though. and they LOVED seeing the goats.

nope, it's not shiso or lambsquarters... good guesses though! ← Stinging nettles? ← Yes, stinging nettles! This photo is from Star Route's stinging nettles basket. We don't have any right now. For anyone not aquainted with them: click

Greens Tacos I like to make these for breakfast or lunch: I try to eat dark leafy greens most days one way or another. 3/4 lb greens, cleaned well and sliced into approximate 1 inch pieces (today I used arugula and radish greens, leaving the radish ‘roots' in the fridge to be munched on later. the greens are good to eat, but 2 tsp cooking oil 2 stalks green garlic, cleaned as a leek and chopped, or another allium family, whatever you have on hand (onion, green onion, garlic, leek.....) Pinch red pepper flakes or cayenne 2 T cream cheese 4 small corn tortillas or 2-3 larger flour ones Heat the oil and add the garlic, having the greens ready to go, and cook garlic for about 30 seconds. Then add greens and cook until bright green and wilted, add red pepper (and salt and black pepper if you like). Take off heat and stir in cream cheese. Heat tortillas, divide filling among them. Eat and enjoy. Keywords: Vegetables, Easy, Vegetarian ( RG1521 )

nope, it's not shiso or lambsquarters... good guesses though!