lululu

Well, Bryan ritualistically celebrated his departure from Berkeley and graduate school.

I cut my hair off, again.

Our tomato plants got taller.

And we engaged in some light home-improvement projects.

More where that came from, here.

Things, they happen, and I don’t write about them. I did manage to post a round of pictures a week or so ago, so I’ll point you to those and highlight one recent event: a godless Easter dinner with old friends.

We spent the weekend working on seafood gumbo with a dark, dark roux:

And rum caramel banana bread pudding, which was just as good as it sounds. At the last minute, I decided to throw in some blue cheese gougeres, because I’d read an article about them in Bon Appetit by one of my favorite food bloggers.

From today’s New York Times: How I Learned to Love Goat Meat. We’re so proud to be on the bleeding edge of yuppie lifestyle.

Dude, when was the last time you laughed out loud at a federal budget proposal?

One bit, but I recommend the whole post:

“The Republican proposal, as you might expect, doesn’t actually have a health care plan. But it does have this: “Republicans will be on the side of quality versus mediocrity, affordability versus unsustainable debt, and freedom of care versus bureaucrats in control. And we will be on the side of patients, doctors, and the American people.” They are also in favor of good things rather than bad things, moving forward rather than going backwards, the hobbits rather than the orcs, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.”

I just spent half an hour at work reading this series of reflections about grief. It’s beautiful and generous and, in an odd way, fascinating. I have never lost someone in my immediate family or experienced gut-wrenching, long-term grief, though I have (ineptly, unhelpfully) watched friends and family do so. I’m grateful to writers who help me understand it a little better. The Year of Magical Thinking was like this, but it’s nice to read a perspective from a peer.

“Everybody knows constructively channeled anger doesn’t really count. It’s like diet pizza.”

Work slowed down for, like, a minute, so I’m reading op-eds and shooting for a record three blog posts this week.

On the first Friday of every month, I meet a lady in a driveway to pick up 11 pounds of assorted frozen meat. The cool foodies here subscribe to CSAs (community supported agriculture) for weekly boxes of fresh produce from a local farm; we’ve taken it a step weirder for our monthly hook-up of pasture-raised beef, pork, lamb, and goat.

Goat! OMG, it’s so tasty! Our first box contained mostly beef, and no goat at all, but this time we were excited (and a little intimidated) to find a pound of ground goat plus two portions of “rack chops.”

For our first goat-cooking experience, we wanted to really taste the flavor of the meat, not mask it with spices. So we cooked them just like we would lamb chops–a hot sear with salt and pepper. I mashed up a simple parsley pesto (parsley, pine nuts, lemon zest, a little garlic and olive oil) just in case we weren’t crazy about the unadulterated goat flavor, but we didn’t end up using a single pinch. The chops tasted a lot like lamb, but milder. We ate our (un-frenched) chops like meat popsicles, and licked our fingers.

(goat chops, with collard greens and garlic mashed potatoes)

The meat CSA has been a lot of fun so far. At about $7.50/lb, it’s quite a deal for happy, grass-fed animals; our grocery bills are a lot lower since we barely buy meat elsewhere; and it forces us to try new things–like, obviously, goat. We did need to call in some assistance to help us finish last month’s ground beef supply, but 11 lbs/month for two people who cook a lot at home is a pretty reasonable quantity. However, if there’s anyone in our neighborhood (ahem) who’s interested in splitting package 2…just let me know…

When we moved into a house with a yard, planting a vegetable garden was high on our list of domestic projects. We’d bought a how-to book on gardening before we left the apartment, but, not aroused by the idea of growing turnips and beets, decided to wait until spring to begin. (Also, Bryan was busy with this other project.) About a month ago, we had a break in the rain just long enough to build our bed and lay in our first seeds and seedlings.

(the garden, first planted)

Not for us simply dropping seeds in the soil, no. Of course there had to be research and deliberation. The method we ultimately chose (because it seemed straightforward and easy for beginners to maintain) is a version of raised-bed gardening, in which you basically build a big planter, fill it with an ideal soil mix, and space your seeds and seedlings in various configurations within each square foot. We emptied a section of the existing raised bed that rings our backyard, dropped in some cinder block borders—for that charming Soviet style—to segregate our fancy soil from the surrounding clay, and mixed up one part each compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. We used kite string tied to stakes to mark off one-foot squares.

(Bryan mixing the soil)

Then it was planting time. From left to right, back to front, it’s spinach, radishes (from seed), strawberries x2, more radishes, broccoli x2, strawberries, herbs (flat-leaf parsley, oregano), mixed lettuce, red lettuce, and more strawberries. The whole process took about three hours.

(the garden, yesterday)

Aside from a couple of hastily-reprimanded dog invaders, the garden has been completely unscathed since we planted. I water it on days when it doesn’t rain, but it has yet to require any other maintenance. Every day we go out and poke the lettuce. It’s been such a pleasure that we plan to build another bed just next to it in a few weeks, for summer vegetables like tomatoes and pole beans. Possibly squash. Stay tuned.

I’m breaking radio silence to inform you of an important new recipe in my redneck-party-snack repertoire: mini corn dogs. That’s right, you heard me. It’s a recipe that had been in my “try this” file for quite a spell, until a new candy thermometer (thanks, Cam) and a superbowl party (thanks, Clare) allowed me to birth it into the world. Ready?

MINI CORN DOGS
from Sunset Magazine

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp water
4 cups vegetable oil
16 oz package mini sausages, like lil smokies
toothpicks

Instructions
Mix all dry ingredients in one bowl and the buttermilk and water in another. Add the dry mix to the wet one and stir (it will be lumpy). Let rest 10 minutes.

Heat vegetable oil to 375 in a large, high-sided pot. Insert a toothpick into each mini sausage, leaving at least 1 inch exposed.

Dip each sausage into the batter, then carefully drop into the oil, frying only three at a time. [I found I could get three started, turn them once, and then dip and start three new ones while the first batch finished.] Turn with a slotted spoon until golden. Transfer to plate lined with paper towels.

——

These were such a hit they barely made it out of the kitchen—people kept stopping by to sample almost as fast as I could fry them—and easy enough even for a frying novice like myself. It may not have rivaled the bacon explosion as the best dish offered, but they’re still a trashy delight.

Bryan and I had a ball (albeit a sniffly one) during our multi-stage Christmas week, and pictures of all the phases (CA, train, CO, TX) are up on gallery. I’m now finishing a grueling two days of work and ready for another couple days off! Happy New Year!