Culinary Adventure: Shave the ... Mussels

I just de-bearded mussels! I have probably consumed a mussel before, but not that I can specifically recall. Never before had I prepared one.
   This guide by my seafood guru took the potential whattheheckamievendoing?! stress out of the mystery.
   There were 3 dead mussels. They are in their grave. The others, alive — and now beardless, sleek — sit unmoored in the fridge. Thank you, little bivalves, for your lives.

Eat ALL the Kingdoms!

Guess what, people? I eat mushrooms now. I eat mushrooms and I like them.

   You gasped, right? It's a shift more radical than my sucking the marrow out of chicken bones, right? Yeah. I know. Now I devour all manner of heterotrophs.

I had long eschewed mushrooms.

   Though I didn't try them anew until this month, I'd considered them a lot this year, in the recurring remembrance of Roscivs' widowed aunt, with whom he lived for two years. She loved — loves? — stuffed mushrooms. I want to try stuffing some with crab meat, propers to this shroomy cookbook. 

One of the most important things about cooking that I found out by myself was how vital homemade stock is. This cookbook suggested mushroom stock, and I'm so glad it did. I made it yesterday. It's yum yum umami! After I made it I found out there are vegetarian constraints on the dish I'm to bring to a UU book club/pot luck this weekend. This stock will make rich anything I do.

   Yesterday Jøthin and I watched Food Fight (our kth food documentary of the year) and in it Alice Waters said 85% of cooking is finding the ingredients to cook with. Meaning not, of course, finding the best water chestnuts for a recipe that calls for water chestnuts, but making recipes out of the best foods around.

   I have Waters' book out from the library but I haven't opened it yet — I also have out a dozen other cookbooks. I've changed my approach to cookbooks. Rather than poring strenuously over them to measure their treasure I take away one technique, one tidbit, or one eureka.

cha-ching + diaeresis

The first 3 weeks of our CSA totaled 28 pounds of vegetables!

I procure the rest of our food (including even more vegetables o_o) at the downtown farmers' market and at the town's food coöperative, of which I'm a member.
   I fell in love with the coöp when I learned that to shop there, I was to bring my own containers (weighed and tare weight marked) and fill 'em up. Such had been my dream!
   ...
   The coöp's better than I had dreamed a grocery store could be; it's so much more, so much more awesome than a traditional standard grocery store, and not just because of packaging reduction and reuse. It offers food education classes (see principle #5 of the 7 Coöperative Principles). It has provenance stickers for each produce item, and a special sticker for local items.
   I wish I could take all my readers on a tour.

The coöp also relies on member volunteers.
   Earlier this week I finished my final training session (a supervised shift) to qualify as a volunteer cashier.
   I think that being a cashier is a daring job. It takes chutzpah. I have to be bold. I have to execute. I have to be careful but speedy. I have to handle money. It's a good way for me to do something crazy and new, and it earns me a wee stipend.
   Tomorrow morning, I take on my first lonesome cashiering shift! Wish me luck.

Simplicity, Roscivs Style

My parents have china, and silver, and when I was growing up they used it at least eight times a year (seven birthdays and Christmas). Two (and maybe all) of my sisters have a full set of china, used less than once a year.
   Roscivs and I did not get china for our wedding, nor did we ask for it. We were not in agreement about that at first. He said, if I get china, I'm going to use it every day. Huh? Every day? said I. That's ... not what china is for. It's for special occasions.

Turns out that every day is a special occasion. Nobody lives this as much as Roscivs did, and it's why he died so well. He'd spent each day like a golden coin.
   You could summarize his position as "buy only what will serve you for the average day" AND "the average day deserves the best".

I have all the special plates I will ever need. One set for every special day.

I'm Going to Pwn Paper

Remember my new month resolutions? January was juicing. Habit acquired! I still juice every morning.

February was zero screen use starting 1.5 hours before bed. Habit acquired!
   I got this idea from talking with my narcoleptic sister who read a 40,000 page book on sleep.
   Speaking of books, records reflect that I suddenly started reading a lot more books in February; reading books seems to be one of the things I do more when I sit on [sic] the computer less.

   I have read so many books this year that GoodReads is prompting me to increase my goal for its "2013 Reading Challenge". Let me explain sum up:
   GoodReads invites its members to participate in its yearly reading challenge. You set your goal and GoodReads puts a progress/status bar on your front page. The challenge is just a motivator/a bragging tool.
   I entered 52 books as my 2013 goal. I am already 73% of the way done, which is, as GoodReads tells me, 41% ahead.
   I am not going to increase my goal, because I keep hearing Roscivs wising about not retroactively fitting goals to what you have or have not attained.

Yeah, I hear dead people.

March was a glass of water in the morning upon waking. Habit acquired!
   As once a runner (which may or may not be like being a King or Queen in Narnia) I have read a lot about the Great Hydration Controversy. Group A aver that one should "drink to thirst"; people who "drink ahead" are, like most house-plants, overwatered. Group ∀ aver that one should "pre-hydrate"; by the time you feel thirsty you're already dehydrated.
   For me it is moot. I haven't been able to sense thirst since Roscivs got sick, so I can't "follow my thirst". I am happy with my new habit. With all my new habits!

April was no electric light after sundown/8:30pm. Habit acquired! 
   Boy am I waking up earlier! And, mirabile dictu, I'm functional as soon as I'm out of bed! 
   I use 100%-beeswax candles for my bedtime routine.
   When I implemented February's habit I had no idea I'd be doing this; Feb's intentional became a stepping stone. 

May? 
   For May I am doing the paper part in the first chapter in the Unstuff Your Life book, which has the BEST. METHOD. EVAR!!! for organization and Simplicity. 
   This chapter involves radical changes in my paper processing habits. Paper processing is my bête noire. May's work is big. It's so big that it isn't even cut out for me. I have to cut it out myself.
   I fancy I'm on my slow way to becoming like unto Winifred, my sister Mona's mother-in-law, next-to-godliness Matron Saint of Org, who "doesn't even have a jumble drawer!!!"
   My mom gave me the book for a housewarming gift last year. When Bjórnathrón moved in, we did the kitchen chapter together, and — hallelujah — our kitchen is organized like God's sock drawer!

Dipster: Installment III

I don't brush with toothpaste any more.
   I have not brushed with toothpaste since November 2012. I pull oil every morning for 20 minutes and I brush my teeth with water every night (or, rarely, with oil or baking soda). I floss every night too (a habit I abruptly adopted fervently after Roscivs died).
   After I pull oil, my teeth feel as smooth as they do the afternoon after a dentist visit! I like the results.
   Yet ...
   I have not yet seen the dentist since adopting these oral hygiene methods. I have my biannual visit coming up next month and I wonder what he will say about the health of my teeth and gums. While I do not put first trust in conventional chemical paste and swish methods of attaining or maintaining oral health, I put trust in my dentist's assessment of whether my teeth and gums are healthy.
   If my oral health seems to be suffering I will have to find a new method. If not, huzpaz!

Box #1

7 pounds of vegetables! All harvested this morning! Now in the fridge — or my belly. (The shungiku didn't last an hour. It's all gone. I love that stuff.)

Listed by weight:

mustard greens
   (a variety that I'm not familiar with ... very long, and light green)
leeks
spinach
salad turnips
chard
lettuce
   (red leaf variety)
radishes
shungiku
collards
celery
kale raab
cress

Dance of the Veg'table Fairy

Frabjous day!: this week will see us get our first CSA box of the season! Yum yum yummy yum yum! 

   Same farm as last year :) Last year I was a household of one and ordered a half share and didn't know what to do with it half of the time. This year we are a household of two and ordered a full share and I'll know what to do with it all the time — not because we are two, but because now I am THE VEGETABLE MAVEN.

Some of my favorite, new items last year were ♣ garlic scapes, mustard greens, dill, and chervil.

   I fizz with anticipation. It's so fun to wonder what is going to be in our box. This is my kind of gambling!

Soundtrack: "No Phone" by Cake

I bring you the second installment of how hippie I am: I don't have a cell phone any more. I have a land line that costs me $10 a month from my internet provider.
   I really enjoy this change. My six year old cell phone died in August last year, making it easier for me to unplug in this way.

ADHDancer

Yesterday I saw Circa perform. Circa is a troupe that does body/movement art. It was a good performance!
   I noticed something in the dancers' profiles: six of seven of them mentioned that (s)he was hyperactive as a child. Unusually so. They stuck out: they didn't fit in.

Today, a friend linked to this Onion article. It's incisive — a satiric incision. I'd laugh if I weren't sick with horrorage over kids really being drugged into behaving conveniently.

To Market To Market to Buy a Fat Fish, Home Again Home Again Cook't in a Dish

Yesterday our farmers' market opened! Today we went! We bought smelt — three whole smelt. I simmered them silly and we ate them up. Yum.
   We ate all of them. And I don't mean all three, though that's true; I mean all parts. Fins. Bones. Head. Eyes. Guts. And — because we bought three females — roe.
   Here, Mark Sisson recommends "Tiny whole fish with heads and guts", noting "Anytime you can eat the entire animal, you should."
   (Guess which three items on that list I do not regularly eat?)
   My preparation was inspired by something in The Herbal Palate Cookbook (which was a sore disappointment overall but gave me two great ideas). I used my just-made fish broth and added coconut milk, dried lemongrass, garlic, lime juice, and salt. I used a Thai red curry paste: red chili pepper, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, salt, shallot, spices, kaffir lime. As you can see I fortified some of the flavors.
   Near the end I added pencil-thin asparagus and tiny cuts of broccoli florets.
   Bjørnatron loved it and I will be making it again for sure. Next time maybe I'll add crab. I discovered source for it locally — conveniently, it's on our walk to the market!

The rest of our haul: 2 bags of nettles, 2 bunches of miner's lettuce, and 1 bunch of chives.

Spicy Thank You No. 2

I used the Penzey's "Singapore" spice mix two ways, both soups, one lentil and one squash. I liked both soups but wouldn't definitely buy the mix again.

Lentil Soup
--
1) broth
2) lentils
♣) Singapore seasoning: Tellicherry black pepper, lemon peel powder, citric acid, garlic, onion, turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, cinnamon, fenugreek, white pepper, cardamom, cloves, and cayenne red pepper

For (1) I used a beef soup bone, cooked it in well water for a few hours, then took out the marrow, meat, and connective tissues that fell off the bone. While I got the lentils started cooking in the broth I pureed the meat and fat with my wonderful immersion blender then added it all back into the soup.
   For (2) I used black lentils! I'd never used black lentils before. I soaked them for 24 hours, rinsed them, and then cooked them in the broth.

It was good. It is always good when you use sprouted lentils cooked in broth. I may have added onion, since I add onion to practically everything, and of course S 'n' P. The important thing, though, is the broth/stock. And the lentil-soaking. I would not make lentils without soaking them and cooking them in broth. Homemade stock IS SO GOOD.
   Our guests liked it a lot, too.

Nutter Soup
--
1) butternut squash
2) coconut milk
♣) Singapore seasoning: Tellicherry black pepper, lemon peel powder, citric acid, garlic, onion, turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, cinnamon, fenugreek, white pepper, cardamom, cloves, and cayenne red pepper

I call this nutter soup because it is so good it's crazy. And because it's butterNut and cocoNut — funny because it has neither butter, nor cocoa, nor nuts in it.
   I have never seen the idea to combine butternut and coconut. I don't know why!!? This should be a standard!
   The coconut milk we buy is full fat, so there's lots of cream clumped at the top of the can (and said can is BPA free). It doesn't have guar gum added: coconut only!
   Now I know what I can make for my vegan friends!

Thank You Note, Installment #1

One Christmas gift from my parents last year was a gift certificate to Penzeys Spices. I recently made and received my order. I bought seven items. I'm going to make a blog post for each item after I use it. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Spice Item #1: "Sunny Paris"
♣ components: shallots, chives, green peppercorns, dill weed, basil, tarragon, chervil, and bay leaf

Ante

I selected this one because I thought bJorn would 'specially like it. As it turns out, when I got the package, I arrayed the seven containers for him and asked him to vote on which to use first, and this tied for first.
   I love dill, chervil, shallots, and bay leaves. I was intrigued by the green peppercorns. Tarragon, basil, and chives are hit or miss for me.

As

I tried it with zucchini noodles and eggs. 
   I fashioned the noodles with our newest, fabulous kitchen toy. We've used it many times since acquiring it a month ago. It makes the best veggie noodles I've ever! had (including in restaurants). Yum.
   I seasoned the noodles and fried them in melted tiger. Then I took them out of the pan and pan-scrambled some eggs. Sunny Paris is green. This is the closest I've ever come to green eggs. 
   There was no ham.

After

Tasty! It's great with eggs and znoodles (say that—it's fun). It also goes a fairly long way: I'll get a few uses out of it. (I got the 1/4 cup jar.) Because of the delicacy of chervil, the rarity of green peppercorns, and the difficulty in drying shallots, it's easier to buy than to concoct at home. I'd buy it again!

Hippie-ki-yay

When I was in 3rd grade, my sister Mona was in 6th grade. A boy in her class saw me in the lunch room and told me I looked like a hippie.
   I went home and asked Mona and my mom "what's a hickey?" [Sic.]
   My mother, suspicious and displeased, asked me why I asked, so I recounted the lunch room encounter. We soon worked out the source of the confusion — or at least, the source of her confusion, because at the end I was still confused about a) what a hickey is b) why looking like a hippie is bad.
   Whether Mona knew a) what a hickey is I can't say. (If she did she (like Mom) wasn't interested in clarifying it for me.) I can say with some confidence, however, that Mona was not confused about b) why looking like a hippie is bad: she was mortified that young Mr. White had found my look remarkable and asked our mother if something couldn't be done about my appearance.

Anyway, here is the first in a potential series of how hippie I am.
   I never use the microwave: All my food is warmed or re-warmed on the stove or in the oven. I have not used the microwave since August 2012.
   I don't have any studies to cite about whether the microwave is bad for your food, but I operate as though it is. (Go ahead. Call me a kook. Or — even better — a cook!) I do believe that avoiding the microwave is a big fat deal in moving away from convenience as the deciding factor in food choices. When convenience is king, health suffers.

In case you were wondering, I received clarification about a) what a hickey is when I was in 5th grade. A girl in my class, Heather Scot, invited all the cool girls into the bathroom and took out a red ink stamp-pad and said let's make ourselves look like we have hickeys. I took the opportunity to ask what a hickey is, and Heather took the opportunity (as I thought she would) to tell me.
   I've also figured out some reasons people might have for b) why looking like a hippie is bad, but Jimmy crack corn.

hEArT

Things I have made this year that I have never made before:

Rumaki 

... sort of: Instead of wrapping chicken liver in bacon, I wrapped chicken heart in bacon. I had a bunch of frozen chicken hearts from the farmers' market and I wasn't sure what to do with them.
   The hearts in my freezer were much larger than the ones in my memory. I had had chicken hearts before (Brazilian BBQ) and I remembered them being wee. I cut these ones into three or four pieces before swaddling them in bacon.
   It wasn't bad! I mean, wrapped in bacon, what can go wrong?
   I think maybe liver would be better f(even though the first time I had chicken liver — a couple of months ago — I didn't like it much). I also think that no matter what offal I used I'd marinade it next time.
   Props to LF.

Artichoke

I'd eaten this heaps o' times ... mostly on pizza ... but never prepped it. The heart really is the best bit.

Sea-Cucumber Salad

This is a joke name. Like Dorf Salad. My dad doesn't like walnuts so when my mom made Waldorf Salad she would leave out the walnuts, and my dad called it Dorf Salad.
   Until this very year, yea, the year of our good lord 2013, I thought that the "wal" in Waldorf came from "walnuts". I didn't know it was a salad born in the Waldorf Astoria.
   Anywho.
   No sea cucumbers were eaten in this salad. (I don't know if sea cucumbers are even edible.) Seaweed and cucumbers, however, were main features. The salad's alternym could be Weed Salad.
   In keeping with the heart theme in both dishes above ... um ... It was yum and I shall make it again! ♥  
   Props to this recipe and others like it (to which I made, comme toujours, significant modifications) and this TEDx talk. After we watched it Jorn asked "will you make me seaweed salad?" and I said "yes".

Quilt-t

When we (R&I) announced that Roscivs was dying, my dad flew up to Seattle the very next day. The doctor said it would be "weeks", maybe "months" (for any strangers reading, it turned out to be "days") but my dad ... he wanted to make sure. It's his MO, his motto: Don't put off to tomorrow the important thing that can be done right this minute.
   That's why my dad is awesome.
   When he arrived, we all (my mom, my dad, my sister Winnipeg, and me and Roscivs) went out to lunch at Wild Ginger — where we always had dinner together when my parents visited. We managed this even though Roscivs was in a wheelchair and even then barely mobile.

At that lunch, Winn offered to make me a quilt out of Roscivs' t-shirts.
   I visited Winn last weekend and we started the quilt. With much luck and work, it will be done by his birthday.

Up

My 2 cutest, funnest, bestest piano students brought me Valentines today.
   One of them brought me a pipe-cleaner heart-shaped bracelet.
   And one of them also (not as a Valentine) brought me a composition of her own, written out (on plain paper she lined herself) — the grand staff (two clefs), a time signature (ok, half of a time signature, but does the bottom number even matter? Nah), unison and non-unison segments, everything!
   Its title: "Up and Down". First it went up, then it went down. It rocked.
   We have done a little improv together, I taught her to read music, and she works out of my theory books while her sibling has a lesson, but we'd never done notation!

Live Music

Roscivs and I played violin together when we met. I didn't hear or see him play piano until later.
   He was at Aunt Wanda's when I saw him play piano for the first time. He played Bach's Gigue from Partita no. 1. This is a piece where the hands cross over each other a lot. His hands were so attractive.
   He didn't play it too fast. His tempo was heartbeat perfect.
   He bought a keyboard for us as a surprise gift for the one year anniversary of us getting engaged, and straight away I asked him to play the Gigue for me (although I didn't know it by that name; I called it "the hand cross-over piece" and after he died I had to use this phrase to find a recording of the piece). I took motion-blurred pictures of his hands. I still have them ... in my mind.
   I can see him when I hear it.

30 rocks

Before Roscivs got sick I made "new month resolutions", one per month. To incorporate a new behavior, do it for 30 days. This month I had enough energy and incentive to try a new month resolution again. I am lucky; I made it: for January, I have juiced every day!
   Yesterday, in fact, I did a one-day juice fast. I ate only juice. I even managed to make a tasty savory dinner juice.

♣ Dinner Juice: asparagus (4 stalks), bell pepper (1, yellow), bok choy (1, baby), cilantro (handful), cucumber (3, peeled), garlic (1 clove), ginger (0.25 in.), lime (1, peeled), green onion (5), parsley (handful)

For my dear readers who might be :-? or :-7 about this juicing thing, well, I was too. But
 a) it is part of the GAPS protocol I'm following
 b) St. Pear (my doctor) kept recommending it
 c) a friendquaintance (a friend of Roscivs' from Jr. High) started juicing daily (without any particular health need), and then
 d) I heard about it from my dearest L. Fractal

and it's totally working for me.
   I think it will be easy for me to keep at this. I'm going to maintain my daily breakfast juice and escalate to a juice fast every Tuesday.
   I have had more energy this month — more enough to do a new New Month Resolution for February. I haven't decided what.

Moo Goo

My Kiva loan this month was to Bolivian Señora C., who sells bovine gelatin and wants to invest in freezers to protect her product.
   I buy bovine (moo!) gelatin (goo!): I buy it from Great Lakes; theirs is made from grass fed cows. I use it to make stuff like homemade marshmallows. This recipe is easy and pleasing. My modifications: I heat it until it looks good (don't own a candy thermometer) and I use a hand mixer (don't own a stand mixer).
   I realize that "heat it until it looks good" is not prescriptive or directive in the way recipes usually are. But that's how I cook. I measure with smells and tastes and sounds, not cups and minutes.
   I measure, but not with tools that can be shared.

Potion #025

♣ Today's juice: I call it Rooty Fruity Green (Plus Golden Coin)! Rooty: rutabaga (1), beet (1), ginger (~1 in.), carrot (1); Fruity: apple (2), lemon (1, peeled); Green: wheat grass (1 oz?), dandelion greens (~12 leaves), kale (½ bunch), mint (~7 sprigs). And an egg yolk (pastured, raw).

Potion #024

♣ Today's juice was red bell pepper (4), lime (1, peeled), parsley (a handful), cucumber (1, peeled), apple (2), carrot (2). Pepper + lime = pretty tasty.

Musicings

Friday night I walked alone downtown to the Black Box theatre and took in some jazz — all originals. I enjoyed myself.

I thought about where I want my business to be in a year. My goals: 12.0 teaching hours* a week; T/W/Th; starting at noon. My current position is 8.0 teaching hours a week; M/Th; sometimes starting earlier than noon.
   I want to retain at least 3 of my students from now to then. This is not a goal because I don't have a good idea of how to effect it.
   Since Friday, in furtherance of my goals, I have

1. started moving my Monday students to Wednesday
2. posted expanded (Wednesday) hours with the company for whom I am an independent contractor
3. decided I will open up Tuesdays in June (health permitting)

The end.

—
* 1.0 teaching hour is ≥1.5 working hours.

Wintry Day Summary

Today I woke (11am), then I juiced (celery, beet, carrot, apple), then I bundled (-1ºC) and walked (1.5 mi) to my phototx (255 mJ).
   I walked home (1.5 mi) with a stop in at the local apothecary to buy bentonite clay and kelp powder. I add these, in rotation, to my nightly baths.

Potion #009

♣ Today's juice was apple (3), no egg yolk. I'm afflicted with a poison|bug. My 100.2ºF body is eliminating from both ends, resulting in 6 pounds lost.