Crazy Water Pickled Lemon
Cookbook Review

These are Tiger's Eye and Jacob's Cattle dried beans that I grew in my community garden row. It is only a fraction of what I should be able to harvest in a few weeks. I don't expect to be able to grow enough beans to sustain us all year-we eat a lot of beans- but I wanted to find out how many pounds of dried beans I could get from a small patch of them. I also wanted to grow my own selection of varieties because as much as I love the basics (black, kidney, etc) I want the beautiful variety nature has provided to be preserved.

I wanted to look at prettier beans on my pantry shelf. Right now I'm in love with the Jacob's Cattle for its gorgeous red and white contrast.

Last night I made hummus to be eaten on sandwiches with fresh tomatoes (now in season!), grilled eggplant, and feta. I haven't had hummus in over 11 months. I didn't have any garbanzo beans and it wasn't part of my local challenge to get any since they aren't grown locally. I have missed it. My home made knocks the socks off of any prepackaged variety. I had beautiful parsley growing lush like jungle and cut a bunch of it. Four rinses later (all the water went into the pond, by the way, and not down the drain) and I was still getting tons of tiny little bugs off of it. I don't mind a stray bug that I can't see and don't know about but when, four rinses later, I'm still getting about a hundred tiny bugs...forget it. I don't eat bugs.

I'm bummed about that.

My head has been buzzing with food inspiration lately and I have been hankering to make some new dishes and try some new techniques such as Chinese spring rolls and home made veggie burgers. I have been wanting to buy a Chinese cookbook because I've never had one but it's not a great time for me to be purchasing anything new and I do have a lot of cookbooks already. So I took one of my very favorites ("Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison) to bed with me along with a newer cookbook that I hadn't yet really explored called "Crazy Water Pickled Lemons" by Diana Henry.

First of all, Deborah Madison delivers the goods! Note to self: always check Deborah's book first for recipes. She has three spring roll recipes. Her recipes turn out perfect 99% of the time. If you only have one vegetarian cookbook, get this one.

I bought "Crazy Water Pickled Lemons" because it's beautiful. My favorite food in the world is Mediterranean style. This encompasses the food traditions of a lot of different countries but all in all there is a style that asserts itself through the ingredients and links them all together. I buy cookbooks largely for inspiration.

I opened up Diana Henry's book for a quick eyeful, not expecting to read much. An hour later I was turning the pages, reading her notes and essays on spices and ingredients as though it was a mystery novel. I couldn't put it down. Diana Henry is not just a cook, she's a poetic writer. When she writes about spices I can smell them. I can taste them. I know what she means about the excitement of seeing interesting colorful packages of exotic food on the pantry shelves.

I don't actually embrace the wild use of herbs for desserts. I am also not a fan of lavender as a flavoring. Yet, when she's writing about them I think it's like an aromatic universe of possibilities.

What an incredible contrast to the brash clangy commercial world of Rachel Ray with her cookbook called "Yum-o"*. I didn't even bother opening up her book when I was browsing at our local book store. It looks like one big television commercial dedicated to how to cook fast from a package.

Diana Henry's book has got me thinking about eating local versus eating internationally. She roused my desire for olives, lemons, cumin, and rice. Things that don't grow here. Oregon produces wild rice but I'm not crazy for its grassy chewiness. California does grow basmati rice though and if I can get it there instead of all the way from China, that's a good deal less travel for my food. How can I eat the food my soul craves while adhering to standards of local eating that I deem important?

I think trade offs are the way to go. Just as I learned in my months of buying only local foods, it takes some homework. It takes some effort. I don't have to stick to a 100 mile radius either. California is a hell of a lot more local to me than Chile. Washington state is more local than California. I do plan to grow my own lemons (must be brought in in the winter here) so that I don't have to buy them from California. But I will still buy olives. I think one has to think of the exotic imports as treats. I've said that before. Spices have been travelling the globe for centuries and keep well. Spices are the heart of regional cuisines. If you have the right spices you can often slur the lines with local produce. If I can't find Napa cabbage for spring rolls I'll experiment with regular cabbage and then grow my own Napa the next chance I get.

I love almonds and sadly they don't grow in my region. However, southern Oregon grows almonds well and I can find sources for those grown there as opposed to almonds grown further away. Save those things that don't grow in your region for special treats. I could eat three avocados a day. But not a single one of them will grow here. I still have not bought any avocados. I am not going to add them regularly to my diet again because of the road they have to travel. However, as a special winter treat I may buy a couple to make a grapefruit avocado salad. (Grapefruits are also not local.)

I believe it's possible to eat largely how we want and need to while still buying mostly local. You have to be willing to experiment with your produce. I think you need to try growing some of the delicacies (like lemon grass) that your grocery store normally imports from far away and use substitutes wherever possible.

Here are some guidelines:

• Try growing special foods in your own garden whenever possible. (Experiment with what will grow!)

• Buy dried goods in bulk (except for spices) to reduce packaging use. Do some research to find out if you can get your dried goods from locally grown sources. You may be surprised by what your region is producing.

• When buying something that doesn't get produced locally, try to find sources as close to home as possible. Miles count. So count them.

• Save the non local purchases for special treats instead of every day staples.

• Consider making some of your own condiments such as harissa or chutneys that you might normally buy. Some exotic condiments are very easy to make at home and taste better anyway.

I just read some reviews of this book. Most were good but one was very sour. I thought it was interesting. This book is not a traditional cookbook. It is more than that. The sour reviewer was annoyed by the small type, the way the chapters are laid out by spice rather than dish, and that she included too much prose- the very thing that got me turning pages into the night. This is how we should be approaching food: put it into a context in history, in lore, in the pantry...working our way through flavors and approaching our nutrition as a deliberate and thoughtful process. Using our imaginations and traveling the world with our senses.

This is the kind of approach that takes cooking from a necessary daily activity to an exciting, stirring adventure.

I don't need to buy any new cookbooks. I have plenty.

Having plenty is not something I've felt often over the past couple of years.

Plenty is beautiful.




*Yes, I realize that this is a charitable thing that she's started and I am happy that she's doing it, but "Yum-o"?! Oh for crying out loud! I HATE "Rachelisms". EVOO is the stupidest thing ever. As though I'm much too lazy to say extra virgin olive oil.

Cilantro Rice Salad
a recipe

This is a great spring dish that I just made up this week because it uses the first fresh cilantro of the season to dress a melange of items from the pantry. You could make it in the summer too when there is fresh corn and tomatoes to be had but I don't want to think about how much better it will be later when I'm enjoying the spring version now.

My friend Anna asked for quick vegetarian recipes and I think this one qualifies as quick if you have the black beans in a can. I had to make mine from dried which takes time. But cooking the rice takes twenty minutes and you can make the cilantro pesto and grate the cheese while it's cooking.

I can actually remember a time when I wasn't crazy for cilantro the way I am now. Now I crave it when I haven't had it in a while. Fresh is best with cilantro (in my opinion). You can freeze it and it is acceptable, but not the best.

Cilantro Pesto Ingredients:

1 large bunch fresh cilantro, washed and stemmed
3 garlic cloves
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Rice Salad Ingredients:

2 cups cooked black beans (or two cans)
2 cups cooked Basmati rice
1 can corn
1 quart diced tomatoes
2 cups grated jack cheese
1 recipe cilantro pesto

To make the cilantro pesto:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulverize the hell out of it. You're done.

To make the rice salad:

Be sure to drain the canned goods first. Then you put all of the ingredients in a bowl together and stir well. You're finished. Dinner is ready.

Serves 6-8


Variations:

If you're one of those neurotic people who really needs two dishes on one plate, you could serve this rice salad with roasted potatoes, or grilled asparagus. I like it as a simple one dish meal myself. It's great at room temperature but it's also quite good heated. If you don't have black beans, I think it would be superb with chick peas. I also made this with pasta instead of rice and it was WONDERFUL. If you want to add some heat to it you could add chopped up roasted jalapenos. Or chopped pickled jalapenos. What brings it all together is the cilantro pesto. If you are vegan you can make this without the cheese.

The Amazing Patented Unpeelable Egg!

Ever wished your chicken eggs weren't so darn easy to peel? Ever found yourself making egg salad (again) and felt the ennui spread over your whole body because there's just no challenge to it anymore? Have I got some exciting news for you: now all you have to do is find yourself some super fresh eggs and your egg peeling experience will be transformed from one of boring ease to one that offers a chance to test your patience and determination to have egg salad, which, unless you're removing lots of yolks and editing your mayonnaise consumption, isn't good for you anyway.

That's right, and when I say "fresh", I mean eggs that are less than a week and a half old. Maybe your store bought eggs say "farm fresh" right there on the package...don't be fooled. You will be hard put to find actual fresh eggs at a store. If you can hard boil 'em and peel 'em with ease, they aren't fresh. How do I know this? Because I have eggs that are so fresh they are still warm from the chicken's...you know. Everyone who raises hens knows that fresh eggs don't peel well. So if you want to boil them, you need to wait at least a week. So I set a dozen aside for hard boiling purposes and let them wait around in the fridge for over a week. Just about a week and a half. They were still too fresh to peel. What a waste!

You know what that means, right? That means that store bought eggs are even older than that. Probably two weeks old. I have never once had difficulty boiling and peeling eggs that I bought in the store. So now I think I'll set aside a dozen to age in the fridge for two weeks, then find out if that's old enough.

As I recently admitted, I have not been skilled at cooking dry beans. Buying beans in cans, if you eat a lot of beans, gets a bit expensive. Since I am in no way prepared to buy cheaper beer, I figured I better ease the grocery budget somewhere and start acting as poor as I actually am. My good friend Lisa (not the knitter) here in McMinnville gave me the opportunity to join a little co-op she belongs to that orders bulk food from a company here in Oregon. Buying bulk beans at thirty cents a pound is so cheap I decided it was time to learn my way around dried beans. It's been an embarrassment to be so lame in this way. EVERYONE CAN COOK BEANS FROM SCRATCH.

And I pride myself on being a pretty darn competent cook.

My friend Chelsea told me how to cook black beans:

You put a bunch of them in a pot (specific amount up to you), cover the beans with broth (about three inches above the beans), bring the broth to a boil, then turn the beans down to barely a simmer. Do something else like achieve world peace and knit baby booties. The beans will plump up in a couple of hours, not stick, not break apart, and will, in fact, be perfect.

It totally worked!

Though Chelsea already knows it, and she and I are very unsentimental steely women, I really miss her. We've had some good talks on the phone, but nothing beats getting together to cook. We met in a natal nautics class at the YMCA because we were the only two pregnant women there who weren't swimming in a great aura of unmitigated joy, we had to bond in order to survive the heat of their annoying glow. So we would grumble and swear our ungainly way through water exercises in which grown women are made to play with plastic "noodles". We've been close friends ever since.

A couple of smart ass curmudgeons cooking better food together than most restaurants serve. Bickering ever so slightly over the fact that Chelsea thinks it's ridiculous for me to ask her to write any of her brilliant recipes down because they're all right there in her head. Where I should be able to read them, no problem. Because I routinely pick people's brains with nifty spy tools designed especially for stealing secret recipes from chefs. The salad dressing I make all the time is one that I learned from her. (And forced her to put on paper.) Thank you Chelsea!!

Our kids are so lucky to have us.

So now I can cook black beans. I made my first batch into some black bean chili to put over Mexican rice which I also made for the first time. The rice was pretty tasty, but also mushy. I will try again, making adjustments.

I have a recipe for polenta lasagna that I will soon share. (Very easy on the waistline, in case you were wondering.)

The incredible shrinking fiber

Lisa and her family came over yesterday in a mutually beneficial gathering, as most gatherings between good friends are. I was relieved of my duties as sole entertainer for the six year old set, and Lisa got to use my upright washing machine for her felting project. I am super charmed by felting in all it's forms. My first introduction to it was through my friend Lucille who makes hand felted fairy dolls. That is the kind of felting you do with barbed needles that you poke into soft drifts of fluffy wool to stiffen it into shapes. It's a very dangerous craft.

Lisa's felting projects involved knitting bowls and purses and then shrinking them in hot soapy water with a good deal of agitation. (Many people who stop in at my blog are already old hands at this kind of felting, I am posting the process for my own benefit and interest because this is my first time seeing it myself.)

So here is Lisa stitching up the seams for what will become a super cute little purse.

This purse is a much larger one which, as you will soon see, becomes much smaller. This one turned out to be a little too wide and not tall enough to be a convenient purse shape, so Lisa is working on options for improving it. We have included the ruler to really give you the sense that we are serious scientifically minded people around here. We're not just going to tell you how much wool shrinks in agitated hot water, we're going to PROVE it to you. Which is exactly what you were hoping for on this lovely Sunday morning.

This is a tense moment in the project, the moment when things go in and will never be the same again. Lisa included some jeans in the wash because the heavy material helps in the felting process. I love how my camera flash has white washed my washer so that you will think I actually keep it clean. Uh, which I do of course.

Lisa is not at all obsessive compulsive. No, she is checking on her project every 69.2 seconds because she is a dedicated crafts person. Here is the little hand bag, not quite ready. In this photo you can observe the stitch definition. The object of this activity is to have the fibers shrink and tangle enough that stitch definition disappears.

We decided to recruit her husband Mark to lure her back to her lentil salad. But luckily, we didn't have to resort to timing the intervals between her visits to the washer, chaining her to the table in between times to keep her still. (Felting is exciting, it's difficult to sit in an aura of zen-like calm when you have such amazing things happening in the laundry room.)

So here's the giant bag. Much smaller now. (Aren't you glad we included the ruler? Because otherwise I doubt you would believe us that this bag shrank several inches. Only habitual sweater shrinkers would believe us.) (I admit to being a sweater shrinker. I will damn myself further and admit that laundry is still one of my greatest shortcomings. I truly suck at it. Yet I maintain the dream that one day I will become so good at it people will ask me how I get my shirts so clean and soft.)

These are the two bowls Lisa knitted. She's actually already made several cool ones. They will now need to be blocked in order to dry in the appropriate shape. Chick enjoyed the smell of the wool and copped a few licks. Here she is inspecting the bowls for possible spontaneous movement.

It took a while but we did find good containers on which to block the felted bowls. I can't wait to see these bowls on a counter with fruit in them. I think Meyer lemons in the green one, and bananas or green apples in the multi-colored one.

This little bag won the beauty contest in tonight's project. It turned out to be such a nice shape and size and the color combinations (to both of us) are quite tasty looking. (I often think of colors in terms of their edibility. When I was dabbling with oil painting as a teen I told my mom, who is an amazing artist, that I wanted to internalize some of the paints because the colors just seemed so delicious. She confessed that she often felt that way too.)

Watching Lisa knit so many great projects, and now to see how cool felting is, is kind of difficult because it makes me want to get out my knitting needles and get to work. Knitting, for me, is one of those extras that I don't have the brain space for currently. When you get in a flow with an easy project, it's not that difficult, but I just haven't got any room for any extra projects. I'm hoping that this summer I will have contract sewers in place, that our store will be running more smoothly and prosperously, and that we will have our T-shirt collection and canning jar labels mapped out. Then, maybe then, I can start knitting again.

Not like Lisa though. She is quickly becoming a skilled artisan. She's already learned to use multiple needles, to do some cool stitch details, and to increase and decrease like a pro. All I want to do is a few scarves, a couple of knitted blankets, and my real dream....is to make a shawl/poncho like the one the grandma wears in the movie "The Secret of Roan Innish".

On another subject: all that pasta..... I've heard a couple of protests about all the pasta and how tantalizing it looks and how one cannot shed pounds while eating pasta. So true. (But remember, I'm trying to dry pasta to store for later, not to eat it right now.) It just so happens that I have bought (and received) 125 lbs of various dried beans. I don't even know how to cook beans from scratch. I mean, I can cook the lentils and the split peas no problem, but black beans and kidney beans...not so much. In the past when I've tried cooking them they either never get done enough to eat, or the second they are tender enough to eat they turn to mush. So the next cooking segments will be all about beans: a great high fiber, low fat, and tasty filling food.

So Chelsea and Matroskin from Helsinki: I am determined to count calories all week. Because it's very important that I lose a few kilos of fat so that I can join Bitter Betty in the vintage pattern wardrobe fun. I have a LONG* way to go. So the challenge this week will be making good food that is not going to glue itself to my bones. Clearly, soup will have to be on the menu. But what about some Angelina style huevos rancheros with only a tiny bit of cheese instead of the truck load I usually must apply to all foods?

Chelsea has given me some ideas on cooking beans well, so I will attempt her method today and report back on my most scientific findings.



*Just so we're all clear what a LONG way to go means to me: at least 50 lbs just to be able to fit in some of my vintage patterns. That's what I call long. And even when I get there (notice I said "when" and not "if". That's very optimistic of me.) I will still be on the chubby end of normal. I just want us all to be clear that I'm not making a mountain out of a paltry ten pounds or anything. But hey, if Anna Nicole Smith could do it, why not me? All I need is a lot of methadone, trimspa, and various other pain killers and narcotics.