Mischievous Molly
Eep!
- Celebrating their arrival!
UPDATE!: I put some photos of the new chicks up on flickr. Click the photo below to jump to the slideshow.
Mycoscaping: Mushrooms in the Edible Landscape
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Wet and windy weather saw our expert friend, Rafter, lead a mushroom workshop on April 16th! Indoors for a PowerPoint, Q & A and snarf session; then outdoors for Shitake log inoculation and garden bed prep. Thanks to housemate JP for his effort and achievement in helping organize a delightfully illuminating event. And kudos to our many guests whose enthusiastic participation and food contributions will undoubtedly manifest in a good-Karmic harvest. Happy, happy!
Craft Traditions Live at La Casa
Much thanks to local reporter and friend, Melissa Merli!
First Duck Egg!
Prized duck egg (left)!
Our ducks, Mr. and Mrs. Cloud (as named by Joshy)
Meet our ducks: Mr. & Mrs. Cloud. Based on what we were told when we adopted them last Fall, we didn’t expect to see a duck egg anytime soon (if ever). Well, as you can see, the layin’ has begun! This egg is amazing, with a shell that’s almost translucent, like vellum. It has been suggested that Mr. & Mrs. Cloud are especially content, now that they’re allowed to walk themselves to and from the garden puddles. Let’s hope there’ll be many more eggs to come…
‘Like a pancake of solid parmesean cheese’
Julio cooked a spectacular dinner of stuffed eggplant, stuffed squash, tomato stewed okra, and flaming cheese!
The Making of a House Logo
Not too long ago, JP approached me about crafting a House logo. His photograph (gracing our blog banner) has served as an illuminating source. Along with that photo, Housemate feedback and our fidgety chickens rallied my signature line art to paper. Voilá—communal inspiration hatches free again!
Huevos Rainbocheros!
Housemate Jacob recently said it best: “Keep up the good bok.”
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La Casa Real Food Olympics: Mayonnaise!
For a while now I’ve imagined a sort of La Casa Real Food Olympics: a series of foods that we in “this” “culture” usually buy already made, but which could be made from scratch, that every green La Casan would go through the experience of making from scratch just for the fun of it.
I just brainstormed 10 things that I have personally known people ’round here to make, excluding alcoholic fermentations:
- Mayonnaise
- Komboucha
- Yogurt
- Bread
- Granola
- Ginger ale
- Pesto
- Ice Cream
- Seitan
- Kimchi
I don’t know if this is the optimal order of execution, but it’s clear that making these all from scratch at least once would be a substantial accomplishment of (s)elf-reliance. Of these, I have only made mayonnaise and bread. Tonight, I teamed up with Kim (La Casa ’08 welcome back to town Kim!) to make both mayonnaise and bread again, but the bread didn’t turn out perfect, so let’s talk about the mayonnaise!
Like Kristina before me, I used the basic mayonnaise recipe from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything: mix an egg, some lemon juice, some mustard, maybe some salt and pepper to taste in a food processor. Pour in a cup of olive oil in a slow stream—if you pour too fast you’ll get runny mayo! This time I used half olive, half canola oil, but it still tasted too too extra virgin for me. Still, one of the better batches I’ve made.
NOT a photogenic food
I used the mayonnaise in Deviled Eggs, which of course involve more eggs and more mustard. They turned out great:
Delicious!
Happy Winter from all of us.
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Kleismic Joy…
Sometimes I like to proceed by innocence. I have never made a music video before. But this track totally needed one. Enjoy.
“Kleismic” refers to the Kleisma, a musical interval made slightly more significant by this composition.
Remember: If you reject or even ignore Christmas, you are still using it.
La Casauerkraut
I think it was this article http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/413/countertop_culture in The Sun magazine that first caught my interest in wild fermentation. Certainly, the pallid, soggy sauerkraut of my middle American world had never once lured me. Still, my interest in home food preservation and the health benefits of raw, fermented foods made trying this irresistible, and so in I leapt. I can only say that homemade, wild fermented sauerkraut is one the most unexpected pleasures of my life now. Each batch is unique and that is part of the fun. I like to add a little garlic, a bit of carraway seed (against flatulence) and any root veggies that might be available like beets, carrots or radishes. I use the least amount of salt I can get away with which has been a bit less than the recipe and it has worked out well. Beets and purple cabbage both give the kraut a lovely pink hue. I don’t even like pink, but I have loved the colors of my kraut batches.
Anyway, Sandor Katz is the wild fermentation maven. Here’s his website, starting right off at the recipe for kraut: http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut
This is the batch I made just a few days ago, dedicated to Dan Schreiber:
Cabbagecarrotconfetti
A bit of sauerkraut spirituality fun
Julio giving the kraut crock some L-O-V-E
I hope you make some of your own and you love it!
