Pierogi

That's a great point, Heidi. Now that I think about it, I've been disappointed with the FJ pork in other dishes where I used it alone, and not as part of a mix, like for meatloaf. I'll do just that. Probably accounts for some of the blandness, as well. Ummm...."keep the fat down"....? *You've* seen what I've been eating this week. Seriously, that thought like ever even enters the equation !!!

As Heidih points out a couple of posts below yours, with either chicken or turkey, I'd be afraid of the same problem as I had with the pork....dryness. Maybe the ground dark meat turkey might be better, and something to up the "fatty-ness" factor a bit. Since I know you keep Kosher, I'm not even going to try to advise you what that could be, since I know I'll stick my foot in it . But I'd think the ground poultry would need some help with the texture. Flavor-wise, it'd be fine.

Spooky - I have had my ipod going all morning at work (helps me concentrate sometimes, when I have a thorny writing project to endure), and Woodstock was the last song it played just before I plucked my earbuds out so I wouldn't shatter my eardrums during my Triscuit-based snack. Great blog - your lovely climate and farm-fresh produce make this Buffalonian yearn for Spring. Thanks, patris. I know, we're so lucky with our year-round growing season. My family moved to SoCal from Chicago when I was 8. My parents had both lived their whole lives in that area, my dad in Wisconsin and then Chicago, and mom in Chicago. I can remember them coming home from one of the first winter trips to the grocery store just floored by what was offered, even back in the day, before we had imported fruit and hot-house tomatoes.

, Toliver !

Thanks Randi ! Like 6ppc, it please me that other "locals" think I'm doin' OK. Coffee Cup does make a good one. So does Gourmet Pie in Los Alamitos. It's even BIGGER than John's if that's possible.

Noooooooo. Oh. Just. No. But, on the other hand, I now have a spiffy new insulting name to call someone who ticks me off !!! And *THEY'LL* never even now I dissed 'em !!!

That's awfully nice of you to say Lolagranola74. You guys' feedback has been so great, it's really made this a fantastic experience !

OK, Pork Sung sounds interesting. It goes into the mental file of "next trip to 99 Ranch". That rice with the sausage on top sounds mouthwatering. Thanks for the suggestions ! I could've had much more fun at 99 Ranch I'm sure, had I not been trying to take pictures, and been so rushed. Next trips I'll take it aisle by aisle and explore. Thanks Dejah,

One quick question. As I was cleaning up, and trying to be sure the Cuisinart blade was de-porked, I wondered why I didn't just schlep the think into the dishwasher (which, BTW, ran last night on "Light Load", first time all week !). I am absolutely paranoid about cleaning that metal blade, because I'm such a klutz, I'm always afraid I'll slice my fingers to ribbons with the edge. But I seem to remember in the manual, dishwasher cleaning was not recommended. I was also afraid I wouldn't get all the pork residue off of it. How do alll y'all clean that metal processor blade? The curvy one, not the shredder/slicer ones.

PHEW !!! I thought I'd lost that entire last post during the upload when Explorer stopped working. I was going to be one unhappy camper. All right, the meatie-balls are chillin', and it's time to make a side dish. Take some sesame oil and mix it together with some rice vinegar: And cut a cuke into batons: What's that you ask? Did the fur bombs get cuke? Did the sun rise in the East this morning.... Take some sesame seeds and some red pepper flakes, and grind 'em up. My mini-chopper died about 6 months ago, so I had to try to use a mortar and pestle. A mini-chopper would've done much better. Put the batons of cuke in the dressing, and sprinkle in about half of the seed/flake mixture. Add some of these (sliced scallions): ...to end up with this. While you're puttin' some heat under the meatie-balls: Make yourself a pretty serving display with butter lettuce leaves and thinly sliced cucumber: To end up with this: Which will yield THIS, drizzled with the dipping sauce: Verdict - Two big "hmmmm's" up (as opposed to thumbs up). The meat balls were a bit dry, and surprisingly didn't have too much flavor. The dry I think was operator error. Because I scaled the recipe down, I couldn't ever get the lemongrass/shallot/garlic/cilantro mix into a paste. So I probably over-processed the mix once I put the pork in. The lack of flavor has me puzzled though. The dippng sauce was good... The presentation also was a bit clunky. The meat balls were a bit too large, I think, for butter lettuce. The first bite I took, the leaf tore immediately, especially when the meat balls were still warm. I ended up slicing the meat balls for the subsequent rounds. The cucumbers had even less flavor. I amped up the vinegar by probably 50% more than the ratio in the recipe called for. It was very heavy as well, from the sesame oil. I love that flavor, but it can overwhelm very easily. Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. Probably not enough potential to keep the cucumber recipe around, I can come up with marinated cucumbers out of my brain that I like better. I may try the meatballs again, with some tweaks. Leftover count - add 7 meatballs to the list. Any ideas on uses for those? I was going to make rice as a side dish, but then remembered I had these... ...in the freezer, so I decided to have one for dessert. When I looked at it, I realized that, especially after the carbo/fat-bomb of a breakfast burrito, I probably didn't need any more starch with dinner !!! It was very good ! I'd buy these again. Time for a quick snack, and an errand and then we'll answer some questions and see what kind of trouble we can get into today !

Alll rightie. NOW you can see why I couldn't put everything up last night ! It was a busy, busy, busy day, and CSA days run me late anyway, since the pick-ups start at 3. After a brief adult beverage break (a vodka gimlet): It was time to take the class photo of the ingredients: And the recipes: From the March Bon Apetit and the November '10 Food and Wine (I'm a recipe slut as well as a condiment slut... ) First you go all postal on a stalk of lemongrass, and get out your meat mallet (and hostilities) to bash the heck out of it. Chop it up, and dump it into the Cuisinart with some chopped shallot, chopped cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, vegetable oil, a bit of sugar and white pepper: Blitz it around until you get a paste, and then put in some ground pork... ...blitz that around for a bit to further mince the pork and combine everything... ....and shape into meatie-balls. Put those aside to chill in the fridge for an hour or so while you have another... Now we're going to make the dipping sauce. Take another stalk of lemongrass and teach *THAT* one lesson with the meat mallet, too. Then mince up some cilantro. Put the lemongrass and cilantro in a bowl (by the way, does ANYTHING smell better than lemongrass and cilantro together, I think not !) Then take a carrot and your re-purposed, re-marketed woodworking tool, and shred it. Hmmmmm, wonder what I'm going to do with that end of the carrot....I don't know... any dogs around that like veggies?? Put the shredded carrot in the bowl with the cilantro/lemongrass. Mince up one of these guys: And add it to the bowl as well. And, erm, remember not to scratch your eyelid until you decontaminate your hands. Don't ask how I know... Get some brown sugar, fish sauce and lime juice in the bowl as well. I just love what THIS... ...does to THESE ! Talk about goin' all postal ! Set that aside until the meatie-balls have finished chillin'. The picture up-loader thingie seems to have frozen on me, so let me post this part, and we'll pick back up where we leave off...

And here's what I took home with me: That's 2 avocados, scallions, broccoli, a bag of salad greens, mustard greens, rainbow chard, some kumquats, a bunch of mint and a bunch of lemon verbena. Other than tea, anyone got suggestions for lemon verbena? I love the fragrance. And of course, I got some of the yummy eggs: On to dinner....

This is the front area by the office. Currently, this area is mostly ornamental plants. Jimmy has plans to replant a lot of this area with edible crops as well, either as replacements, or interplanted with the ornamentals. Even the perimeter of the parking area and driveway, and the walkway into the office are planted with food crops ! Some of the current crops. Under the shade cloth are salad greens, herbs, cruciferous veggies, peas, scallions, carrots, cabbage, hearty greens and other goodies: Guava tree: During the winter, guavas became the bane of my CSA existance... The smell is intoxicating, but the flesh is sooooo full of nasty, absolutely inedible seeds that it's mostly unusable. I made syrups, I made a stir fry with some (actually quite good), and I infused some in vodka (THAT was a real winner). When I was at Pioneer Cash & Carry the other day, I saw guavas for $2.99 a pound... I no longer have so much guava hate going on ! Papaya tree: The farm also has 20 chickens: And one very happy rooster ! So yes, The Growing Experience also offers free-range eggs to its members. Great eggs ! Some of the beds under the shade cloth...I think these are salad greens: The mound in the back is artichokes, which are just starting to come in (large boxes got them this time, hopefully small ones will soon): They're already preparing for next fall's and winter's crops: Part of the fruit orchard. They have around 150 fruit trees total: A cherimoya tree: If you've never had a cherimoya, you do NOT know what you've missed. I had my first from The Growing Experience in December. It was amazing... The start of some strawberries: This is a new variety of collard greens Jimmy's experimenting with. It's a perennial, instead of seasonal, so when you cut the greens, it just keeps coming back. Farmer Jimmy ! The Growing Experience doesn't use any synthetic fertilizers, and no chemical pesticides or herbicides (Jimmy kept apologizing for the weeds !). What's even more amazing to me than even the concept of a farm in the middle of Long Beach, is that Jimmy's essentially a one-man show. He has one other full-time employee who is paid by the County as he is. The rest is all done with volunteers from local Master Gardener programs, some students from the community college horticulture program and other community members. Jimmy also runs an after-school and summer program for children living in Carmelitos, who work on the farm to learn about proper food habits, green industries and horticulture and job skills. Here's their web site Some of the local restaurants even use their produce !

So, we're goin' down to Yasgur's farm...(raise your hand if you remember that arcane rock & roll and cultural reference !) No, not quite, but we are goin' to the farm. A farm that's smack dab in the middle of Long Beach, California, a city with about 500,000 population. Just on the other side of this railroad viaduct is my CSA. It'll be off to the left there, behind the support embankment for the tracks. Over where that stand of trees are. Here we are: The Growing Experience is, I think, unique among other CSAs that I'm aware of. It's not based at a commercial, for-profit farming operation. The Growing Experience is a 7-acre farm, on repurposed land at the edge of the Carmelitos Housing Development in Long Beach. Yes. A farm on public land, in a low-income housing complex. It is TRULY local food ! Everything that The Growing Experience currently offers is produced on that 7-acre plot of land. Talk about knowing where your food comes from. The land had originally been destined to be used as a tree farm for other LA County agencies...median plantings, roadside trees, etc. About the time the land was cleared, the demand for this type of horticultural products declined. The manager of the current program, Jimmy Ng, had already been hired to over see the tree farm. He was already very active in local food production, CSAs and sustainable agriculture, so he persuaded the county Housing Authority to convert the land to community gardens instead. At first, the purpose of the agricultural plantings were to provide food to the Development's residents. There are currently about 60 raised beds in another area of the farm that are used by Carmelitos residents to grown their own crop. The success of the community gardens led Jimmy to develop the rest of the 7-acre plot as gardens to supply a small CSA. When you come in to the office area, Jimmy has all the week's produce sorted out in boxes for the members to bag up and take home: The blue boxes are for the small shares and the gray ones hold the large shares: That's what we're takin' home this week ! YAY, more avocados. The Growing Experience currently offers sage honey from Honey Pacifica. The company is also based in Long Beach, and has hives all over Southern California. Jimmy has plans to add other, staple bulk items, such as grains, nuts and dried fruit, to The Growing Experience's offerings as well. For these products, sources would likely be outside of Long Beach proper, but would be sustainably produced in California. So let's go see where Pierogi's veggies come from !

Welllll....speaking strictly personally....*I* think the name is pretty spiffy !!

Chris, it's foolproof and easy.

So, what did Pierogi buy at 99 Ranch? Well....had I had the time to really look at things, I probably could've done a lot more damage, especially if it hadn't been 80° outside (sorry Shelby), and I had another, about hour long-stop to make before I got to a fridge/freezer (not that I have any room in either after this week....oy). I bought some makings for homemade dashi: That'd be konbu and bonito flakes. This thread, over here, and this one, over there, got me wanting to try this myself. I see miso soup in my future. I got some seasonings I've been looking for, for, well, forever. I got some produce, lime leaves, galangal (which I've also been looking for, for, well, forever), some maitake mushrooms (WOW, they use those on Iron Chef. The ORIGINAL Iron Chef !) and some "white beech mushrooms": Anyone got any ideas on what to do with the 'shrooms? I'm thinking just stir fry them, and maybe put them on top of rice or noodles. And I'm assuming the galangal will freeze, like ginger does. Am I correct? And finally, one of the bazillion choices of dried Chinese sausage. Anyone got any suggestions for that? That's all for tonight folks. We'll catch up on tonight's dinner and the trip to the farm tomorrow morning. I'm too, tooo tired to do any justice to either of them, and the farm, especially deserves my close attention. Later, 'gators !

The Inner Aisles at 99 Ranch. I have to admit, the wheels sort of came off of this little expedition right after the meat case. I needed to be at the CSA by 2:30 to be able to get pictures and talk to the staff before the other members started coming in for their pickups. I also had several things on MY list 'o' things to buy at the Asian Market I hadn't found yet. So I thought it would be wise at that point to check the time. Which was, uhhhh, about 1:45, and I'd figured I needed to be on the road by 2:00. Ooooops. "Warp drive Mr. Scott !" (shout out to all the Trekkies !) An entire aisle of housewares. THIS I will definitely be exploring more thoroughly in the very near future ! Asian snackies: Didn't some folks around these here boards like Pocky's? Plenty 'o' cookies: No fortune cookies, though, wonder why not?? I *LOVED* the name of these crackers ! Not a huge selection of coffee, 'though they did have Cafe du Monde (with chicory), which floored me.... Plenty of tea, though ! Dried seaweeds for dashi, sushi and anything else you need dried seaweed for: In case you don't like fried gluten... Maybe some Ravioli-o's will hit the spot (right across the aisle from the fried gluten !) Or these maybe, which I haven't seen in eons: But if that doesn't work either, some pork sung might. Anyone have any idea what this is used for? They had shelf after shelf of it. I'm intrigued.... An idea who's time has come: Some of the live service fish and shellfish. To the left of the live fish tanks is a huge service fish counter, probaby about 1/2 as long as the service meat counter. A wide selection of fish and shellfish, and prepared fish cakes. Due to the time issues, and the fact it was soooo crowded, I couldn't get a good picture of it. Nor could I thoroughly check it out.....Next trip ! Now *THAT'S* a durian ! No, I didn't buy one ! I's a chicken. And in case you want tortillas with your sushi and kung pao sliced pig ears, right under the tapioca flour, and the rice flour, and the yam flour, how about some masa harina. Yes, Southern California is a true melting pot ! That does it for the field trip to 99 Ranch Market in Artesia. I'll be back ! Next up, what did Pierogi buy???

Continuting on our tour of 99 Ranch Market. The entire rear wall of the store is taken up by the frozen meat & poultry case, the fresh, precut meat case, the service meat/poultry case (which is HUGE by American MegaMart standards, at least the MegaMarts *I* frequent), and the service seafood case. Wow. My jaw was hittin' the floor, my mouth was agape, I was floored. There was actual evidence of actual meat cutters cutting actual meat. IN THE STORE. Just like I remember in the old days, back before the turn of the century ! And the meat looked NICE. Lots of interesting cuts. I'll be back just to play with some of those... Anyway, onto the frozen meat/poultry case. I don't *EVEN* want to know what this is.... ...or *this* ! Anyone know what part of a beef is a "pizzle"??? First time EVER I've seen deer meat in a SoCal store: They also had them unsliced. Those were too skeevy for me to photograph. Sorry, I'm a wuss. They had the feeties un-"cutted" as well. And cow feet, also un-"cutted". Seriously, in all respect, they had some good looking frozen meat and poultry as well. But they also had, as a percentage, more, shall we say odd, stuff in the frozen case than in the service case or the pre-cut case. Now *this* cut, I'd buy. Especialy if it were smoked (which unfortunately this wasn't, but I'd still buy it for a pot of pozole...). Can you imagine these bad boys smoked and thrown in a pot of beans? Or split pea soup? And look at this piece of ham, and that fat. Now if it really *IS* Virginia ham, that's a steal. I was really, really tempted to buy it, but well, my fridge is about to implode. Now that I know it exists less than 10 miles from me, I will get some and soon. And I thought this was a brilliant idea. Great way to get marinade into the meat, and then crisp it up when you cook it. Loved this ! The service meat case. It was really huge, and I usually shop for meat at Stater Bros. In So Cal, they're the only major chain that still has in-house butchers. Their meat is good, but their service meat case can't rival this one. The cuts looked great too. Across from the meat was the eggs. This shot doesn't even capture two-thirds of the egg display. I really didn't think they'd appreciate me sitting in the meat case to get a wider shot ! Of course they had 1000-year, or preserved eggs. On the "back" side of the cold case with the kimchi, miso and soy protein products, there was a case that had a ton of salted, dried fish of every type you can imagine: Followed by a large assortment of dried Chinese sausages: And again, more tofu than I've ever seen in one place at one time: That's about all this post can take. Next up, the center aisles !

The pilgrimage to the Asian market, part deux. After the demise of the camera batteries yesterday at Pioneer Cash & Carry, I plowed on to the Asian market just up the road. I had hoped against hope that *they* would carry batteries, and I could just carry on. Of course, no such luck. So I thought I'd cruise through it, and see if a) it was worth the trip, b) there was anything I wanted to buy and c) if I could do it justice with just verbal descriptions and no photos. Answers to the above: a) Oh yeah b) OH YEAH c) Not a freakin' chance. So I decided to come back today, with fresh batteries and spendin' money. Here we go to: This one is literally a couple of blocks north of Pioneer Cash & Carry (note to self, why on EARTH did I wait so long to come to this neck of my woods?). Heidih, Andiesenji, Calipoutine, 6ppc and our members in San Diego are probably well aware of, and very familiar with this chain. It has outlets all over Southern California, and is truly an Asian "supermarket". I know there are many other, small, Mom & Pop shops around, but I wanted to try the granddaddy of them all. Unlike the "cozy confines" (extra points to the baseball fan that can identify that reference. OK, answer below*, no peeking) of Pioneer Cash & Carry, this, as I said, is truly a supermarket. And if we thought we had culture clash in Pioneer Cash & Carry, get ready for a real head trip here. A HUGE produce department: This area is mostly small packages of mushrooms, fresh chiles, herbs, and other small nummies: Wish I'd seen this before I made gumbo the other day ! Check out the size of this mushroom ! Yikes.... And fresh wood ears Anyone have any idea what one would do with "banana buds"? Wow ! Tumeric (or tumberic) on the hoof. In case you didn't get enough from that 5 pound bag yesterday: They had a sign on these calling them jackfruit, but to me they sorta looked like durian. I didn't notice any "odd" aromas, though. Any of our Asian food experts want to chime in on what this actually is? On the side of the produce area is a cold case with Kimchi. More kimchi in one place at one time than I've ever seen: And miso. Not too very long ago, I almost did handsprings (ok, *that's* a stretch, but I was really happy), when my usual MegaMart got red miso. Look at ALL this miso: All sorts of salted/dried veggies and things. And some soy products made to look like meat. Nuggets, anyone? Or maybe semi-realistic looking ground meat squiggles? All right. Since this little field trip is going to be pretty picture intenstive, to save what's left of my sanity and good humor, I'm going to split 99 Ranch Market into chunks. Thus concludes the fresh produce/first cold case portion of the program. Back in a flash with the meat case. *Answer to baseball trivia...."cozy confines" is usually used in the context of describing Wrigley Field in Chicago, where our beloved, but sad, Cubbies play. It's the smallest of all the major league fields. I loves the Cubbies *almost* as much as I loves My Dodgers. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog

Before we dive into the meat of the day, let's see what came out of the little kitchen first. I took some sugar, and put it in a saucepan: Added some water: And brought it to a furious boil: Because the hummingbirds in my yard need to eat, too !!

YIKES !!! It's been a long, busy day today, and I just dumped 137 (!!!!! ) pictures into Microsoft Picture Manager. AND the computer's running like molasses. I love being 3 lines behind what I'm typing. So, I'm not sure how much I'm going to get up on the blog tonight. I have another early day tomorrow, my poor, scrungy girls are finally going to the beauty salon tomorrow, early, so I'll have time (hopefully) to catch up then. AND MAYBE a better Interwebs connection. Let me go edit that dump load of pictures (and y'all know I cleaned *that* up!!!), and I'll be back. Maybe by then, what I've just typed will be on the screen. We'll see what we can accomplish tonight....

Just back from the day's second set of field trips, and its tipme to unpack and start dinner. I'll be back after dinner, cleanup and the usual adult beverage interlude. LOTS to see today, some may have to wait until tomorrow... Don't touch that dial !

Thanks, Kim ! All ya'll's feedback has given me a swelled head ! And a very warm heart.

back at 'ya johhnyd. Glad the sausages pulled you in. Short ribs are certainly good for what ail's ya.