Are you ready for some garden photos? Because that's what I've got! Pictures of the garden and some rambling to go with them. I do like to talk about growing things.

First up: tomatoes. This is my Cherokee Purple plant, but Mr. Stripy has a couple of tomatoes this size too. Nothing on the Brandywine yet, but it's got plenty of blossoms, and it's been a week or three behind the other two from the very start.

Oh, I get so flustered when the photos start piling up, but I don't have anything in particular to say. I've got loads of garden photos to go through soon, and I suspect there are heaps of random food shots on my camera as well. Let's get these out of the way for now:

My stellas are going crazy outside, so I cut about a dozen stems and brought them in. The blooms only last about a day, but they seem to keep opening even now that they're cut.

We had a cool weekend here, which I really appreciated, although it could have rained a bit more, if you ask me. I've just about finished my More Work Than I Bargained For project of turning my side yard into a garden. Because my house doesn't have rain gutters, the water runs off the roof wherever it finds a convenient spot, so I've put in a 'dry creek bed' which makes sure that the water collects and then leaches into the ground at a safe distance from my foundation. But that's all a (very long) post of its own.

I was very restrained at the farmers market this week. There were strawberries everywhere, along with loads and loads of new potatoes. Have you ever seen the tiny, marble sized potatoes that show up at farmers markets? They would be very fun to deep fry. Or roast. Or cook in a pan. I guess they're just fun, period.

I also brought home garlic pickles, curry pickles, and nicoise olives. I really appreciate being able to buy only as much/many as I want. Because you don't need a huge jar when it comes to curry pickles.

My mom made another chocolate cake cheesecake the other week (she needs to be stopped), and really rather a lot of it found its way into my freezer. We've agreed that there's something not quite right about the chocolate cake and frosting this time, though, so I enjoyed a piece with those bits sliced off, leaving me with just the cheesecake and ganache. It was wonderful with the farmers market strawberries. I think I still managed to exceed my ganache tolerance levels, though.

I made one of my current favourite meals for lunch today -- salad with falafel. I finally used up my box of falafel mix, so I might actually have an excuse to make my own from scratch now. Maybe using local chickpeas from the co-op! Anyway, I went out to the garden for some fixin's:

I just realized that everything in that photo really did come from my garden. That scissor plant sure was a good investment! But, really, this was the first onion I unearthed. Still small, obviously, but big enough for the meal (two meals, actually -- I used it in my dinner, too).

I'm not so crazy about that photo above, but I just love the light on the baby bok choy. I got it from the co-op (it's also locally grown), just the one 'head' of it, for my dinner. It's hard to justify buying it when I've got chard and kale going mad in the garden, but I'd had it on the brain for a while. So me and my thirty-two cents of bok choy were very happy this evening.

I think I might be entering another tempeh phase. S and I were really into it late last summer, but then the interest dropped off for a while. I've been missing its flavour and texture, and it's a healthier form of soy than tofu, if I've got my facts straight. And nothing tastes better in a sandwich. Mmm, sandwich. Is it tomorrow yet? 'Round about lunchtime?

I forgot to mention that I made another loaf of bread the other day. I posted pictures on flickr, but never made it this far. I used the same recipe as last time, including the same seed mixture for rolling.

Last time, I was completely amazed by how high the loaf rose in the oven. Not so, this time. There were a few reasons, but I mostly blame the yeast. The dough didn't bulk up pre-oven the way it did before, and the only difference between the two times was the brand of yeast I used. It seemed alright when it proofed, but not quite as vigorous as before.

I also think I chickened out on the initial oven temperature. I forgot to write down how hot I got the oven going last time, but I think I maxed it out (550F) for ten minutes before turning it back down to about 390. As I was setting the temperature this time, I thought there was no way I had it going that hot and so only went up to 500. Ah well, live and learn. It's still a handsome loaf, if I do say so myself.

You can see from that slice how dense and gluten-y it is. It actually makes it about a million times easier to slice -- the other loaf was so big and light that it was tricky to get an even piece off it.

It's definitely time to go to the co-op soon -- now that the party leftovers have run out, I'm realizing there's not much in the fridge. I've been doing a lot of wandering around at mealtimes, unable to decide what I want from what I've got on hand. But going to the co-op means I can get some interesting flours for my next loaf.

Although, so long as it toasts and goes well with peanut butter, any sort of bread is fine by me, no matter how flat or white it is.

Ugh. It's hot in the house now. I meant to write a post here all day, and I kept realizing that I hadn't done it yet, hadn't done it, still hadn't done it. And I'm pretty sure it's because I keep wandering from room to room in an effort to find one that's less hot than the others. It's not so bad, really; I did ask for summer, after all.

If it gets really awful, I can always just do some laundry and not come back upstairs. Sometimes I don't see Beany for a while, and when I do, her fur is full of cool air and she smells like basement. She's no fool, that Beany. I mean, she is, but not in this one instance.

I did this stack of white-ish things today -- I don't have much that qualifies as white, so things get thrown aside until enough of them pile up. Today I had to wash my little tea-towel/tablecloth (like so) because I managed to spill delicious coffee all over it a second after I took this photo. And it's not even that good of a photo. I am clumsy.

I also washed the fabric I scored at the thrift store yesterday, which is at the bottom of the pile. I should have taken a better photo of it, because it's vintage and has cute little blue flowers and cost only $3.75. For over 11 yards. I have helpfully done the math for you, and that's less than 35 cents per yard. And I love it. I'm going to have matching dresses/curtains/laundry bags/quilts. And it doesn't even smell like old people a thrift store.

This is the last cake photo for a while, because it's also the last of the cake (er, except for the slices in the freezer). This must have been the section with the most uneven layer edges, because there was a huge amount of frosting. I couldn't eat it (I know how many sticks of butter went into it, after all), so I recruited some help. I swear, you give a cat some buttercream and it's like they've been starving for weeks. I didn't let her eat all of it; I didn't even let Booty finish it off, and he really does need fattening up.

The binder in that photo is one that I got for free from a home-owner class I had to take before I bought my house (= no mortgage insurance, whoop!), which I covered with some printed canvas. It was a super simple project -- sort of like a sewn equivalent of those book covers we used to make out of paper grocery bags in school. I think it took half an hour, tops, including picking the fabric out from my stash.

Now that it's extra pretty, it's my organization binder, of sorts. I think I mentioned it before, with its many tabs. I'm still working on filling it out (for example, although my spending has been mega-under-control, I haven't been writing things down the way I would like to), but it's a Good Thing so far. The temptation with something like this is to keep at it for a while and think that you'll get to a point where it's done and finished. But it'll always be a work in progress, things going in and coming out and being updated. It's good for keeping lists of things safe and on paper, instead of in my head.

So now I can keep other things in my head. Like remembering to update my blog. In theory.

June has sort of been a panic-filled month, in a way. When the weather was constantly grey, and it was always raining outside, part of me felt like we were running out of summer days without being able to enjoy them. We've just had a week and a half of sublimely gorgeous sunshine and warmth, and now some other part of me feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to enjoy it all. I guess I'm just greedy for summer. It was a long, hard winter; I'll feel differently after two months of sweat.

So, this is my weekly post for One Local Summer. I bravely ignored the leftovers calling to me from the fridge (okay, I had some for lunch), and went forth into the vegetable garden. The peas are really starting to do their thing now, which has me feeling panicky about a time in the future when there will not be peas growing in the garden.

I also finally picked some kale, which I grew from seed. The plants I started indoors are looking really good, and the ones that are a few weeks behind are quickly catching up. The leaves are starting to get reeeally curly now!

I knew I wanted to sautee my broccoli, peas, and kale, just in a bit of olive oil and with some onion -- nothing to overwhelm their fresh-from-the-garden flavour. I could have pulled one of my own onions, but I've got some very young purple onions+tops from the farmers market in the fridge, and those won't last forever.

I also made a potato hash with local yukon golds (from the co-op), chives and rosemary from the garden, and some of those same green onion tops. As I was cooking everything, I started to worry that I'd made too much food for just myself. I always get a little overexcited with greens. But since neither the potatoes or the vegetables would keep very well, I put it all on my plate.

Looks like I had nothing to worry about. It was delicious. I forgot to panic for at least a dozen minutes.

It wound up being a fairly small gathering for my half-birthday. I had hoped a few more people would show up, but we had a good time, and there are plenty of leftovers without there being a burdensome amount. And the cake was a success!

It was really tasty and perfect -- in fact, if I were to have one complaint about it, it's that it's too close to tasting like something shop-bought. But it's really good, and none of the flavours are overwhelming, just satisfying. It would be perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning. Although with homemade yogurt in the fridge, who really wants cake for breakfast? Weird, I know.

All the food I made turned out well, and although it feels like it took the better part of the weekend (I made the labour-intensive dishes yesterday and reheated them today), there was no feeling of being frazzled the entire time. I made vegan mac'n'cheese (I think S put his vote in for that one), BBQ tofu and veg, salad, fruit, guacamole with corn chips. . . and there were some other odds and ends.

I had some leftovers for dinner, when I finally felt hungry again:

I was surprised that everybody enjoyed the fake mac'n'cheese. I did brace them as to what to expect from it, and I think it's really very good providing you're not expecting real cheese flavour (I use the Veganomicon recipe, in case you were wondering).

This isn't really half-birthday related, but I love these flowers in the tiny vase:

Can you believe I got the vase from the thrift store? . . . for sixty cents! Crazy.

So, I would recommend half-birthday celebrations, even if they seem a bit silly. My garden gave me the first broccoli of 2008, and S did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen after everybody went home, while I took a nap. Those are some pretty fine gifts.

I mentioned that I'm having a half-birthday party today, right? Because it's my half-birthday. That means that my actual birthday is 22 December (if you were still wondering why this site is twelve22, you can now stop your wondering), which you'll notice is awfully close to that other guy's birthday during that time of year. So after a lifetime of everybody being too busy on my birthday, I've said enough! Half birthdays from now on.

I'm having some folks over to my house today, and I made myself a cake:

I used Dorie Greenspan's 'Perfect Party Cake' recipe, which you can find on a number of blogs, like this one. The Daring Bakers took the cake on as their challenge back in March, I think, and I knew as soon as I saw the finished cakes that I would have to try it some day. The layers! The frosting! The jam! I like all those things.

I will admit that I don't have an excellent track record when it comes to 'fancy' cakes. I'm not very good at icing, and I have next to no experience with piping (apart from snowflakes). In a way, my half-birthday party was just an excuse to finally make a nice cake, because the one I made for my real birthday wound up in the trash. That was not a Good Birthday Morning.

The great thing about using recipes that have been blogged about is that you can find out exactly what to expect. Everybody said that this cake recipe hardly rises, so I wasn't shocked when they came out of the oven at just over an inch high. They're light and fluffy, but sturdy enough that I was able to slice each cake into two layers (with the aid of a ruler and patience) -- and I even frosted each side of the layers separately and flipped them into place (rather than spread the jam on a layer and then try to spread buttercream over that).

We'll see what it looks like when it's sliced. I was afraid to spread on the jam and frosting too thick, as sliding layers was a contributing factor to the Doomed Cake of Yesterbirthday. But I'm really rather proud of the way it looks at the moment. All those pretty stars. And I even made the rhubarb jam myself, so all in all, I'm thinking this will be a pretty great cake.

As for the party, we'll see. Even if nobody shows up, at least I'll have the cake to keep me company (and a load of other leftovers). And what better way to celebrate turning half a year older than by eating a pound of buttercream all by one's self?

Lots of bits and pieces today, so I shall present them in list form. First, because it's customary, a photo:

-- My Nikon's battery ran out of juice today, which is why there's a random photo of some flowers (from my front garden) with this post. I'm usually very good about keeping one battery charged at all times (I have two), but I can't find the other one. So there were a tense few hours while it was charging, in which I ordered the world around me to cease doing photo-worthy things.

-- On Monday, I told myself that if I crocheted a dishcloth every day for a week, I would have seven by the time Sunday was out. It's Thursday evening, and I currently have four dishcloths. My math skills are still razor sharp!

-- I'm putting together a binder to house all my many lists and plans and other household management type things -- specifically, there are tabs for a calendar, spending, chore lists, tried and true recipes (that aren't in cookbooks), recipes to try, projects, garden, and my wishlist. I repurposed a plastic pocket that belonged to an old datebook, and now I've got a good place to store my stamps and address labels. It's ridiculous how good that feels.

-- I'm going to cancel my cable television and gym membership. I haven't watched television in two weeks, and I haven't been tempted at all. Eighty percent of the time I turn it on, it's just to have something going in the background, and I'm learning to live without that extra noise. As for the gym membership... I may rejoin in the winter, but I think the joining fees will be less than paying for these summer months. I'd simply rather get on my bike or take a walk than try to wrap my schedule around a gym class (or worse, use a stationary bike or treadmill!). If it's raining and I need to move, I'll do yoga at home.

-- I made yogurt again! This time I started with six cups of 1% milk (last time I used skim) and wound up with five cups of yogurt, with only a little bit of whey skimmed off. That's progress! I used the oven again, but this time I turned it to its lowest temperature (170F) and let it preheat for a minute every hour or so. It required slightly more attention, but the yogurt set more quickly and with better results. I've put a quart of it in a tub in the fridge, and I'm pressing the remaining cup to see if I can make quark -- just a mini trial, obviously. Having done the math, I figured that the quart of yogurt (plus the quark, if it turns out) cost $4.

-- Today I had a heel of bread with jam for breakfast, salad with falafel and tahini dressing, plus a nectarine for lunch, some carrots in the afternoon, and a piece of cake for dinner. It was a strange day for eating.

-- I'm now going to read a book and then go to sleep. I keep springing out of bed in the morning much earlier than I would usually choose to. I just wake up and have to greet the world in a cheery, annoying, ain't-life-grand sort of way. But it means that I get tired that much earlier too. So much for my rock'n'roll lifestyle. Ha.

I realized the other day that I never posted photos of my bedroom after the Great Room Swap this spring. I moved my guest/craft/work room into the smaller room (and posted a picture here) and my bedroom into the larger space. It was a really satisfying change, because it made everything feel different, but it hardly cost a thing.

I find this room so tricky to work with. It only has one north-facing window, which means that it's never very bright. And the walls are real plaster, making it hard to drive a nail in, much less hang anything that weighs over a couple of pounds. So the walls always look sort of bare. But I still like it, and it's nice to have more space now. It seems like both room are actually being used more efficiently than before.

One thing I did buy after swapping rooms was about two dollars of pretty clearance wrapping paper from Michaels, for this dresser:

It's a cheap-o particle board dresser that has been around for years and has been dismantled and reassembled several times now. Not attractive. So I used some spray adhesive, a bit of Tacky glue, and a lot of patience and covered it with paper. I still have to paint the drawer pulls, but it looks pretty good, no? Even with nosy cats getting in the picture. If you click on the first photo to enlarge it, you can admire all the hard work I put into making sure the stripes lined up on the drawer fronts.

I usually keep the bedroom doors closed, because cat hair on the bedding makes me itchy (and cat sick on the bedding makes me shouty), but every now and then they're open, and I catch a glimpse of my nice bedroom. It makes me happy. And relieved that those stripes match up.

Sorry to leave you hanging, eagerly waiting to hear whether my bread tastes as good as it looks (it's possible that somebody somewhere was wondering!). Well, it does. Two thumbs up, fine family fun.

And sometimes the crust really is the best part, just like you've always been told. This is a white loaf, which has good flavour. . . but it's still white bread. But I rolled it in a mixture of milled flax, poppy seeds, oat bran, and crushed sunflower seeds (before baking), and the flavour of the crust is amazing. I had cut off the heel so I could make slices for our sandwiches the other night, and I ate it the next morning with jam. Bliss. I was in carby, seedy heaven for hours afterwards.

It also toasts really well, a trait any good bread should have. I don't feel like store-bought bread ever toasts nicely; it just sort of dries out. Real bread manages to be very crunchy while still keeping a bit of chew and substance. In my inexpert opinion.

I think that, when this loaf runs out, I might use the same recipe to make rolls, because I'm really hooked on the crust. But S says he likes the bready middle. Alternate plan: invent middle extractor for a regular loaf, and we can both be happy.

I realize that two cat posts in one week might be too much for some people, so I shall put the funny pictures behind this link here, for you to click on, should you feel so inclined.

Two posts right in a row. It's a crazy world these days, isn't it? I have to run off in a few minutes to make sandwiches, as I mentioned, and I'm counting on them being Best Sandwich Ever contenders, because they'll be made on slices of this:

I wouldn't usually mention having baked something before I've had a chance to taste it, but I'm pretty excited. I don't often have a problem with making bread that tastes nice, but getting the lift one needs for a sandwich loaf has eluded me. A lot of patience, the right pan, a really hot oven, and this recipe have put an end to that. It certainly looks delicious. Fingers crossed, guys.

I've been reading that down---to---earth blog slightly obsessively lately. It came along at just the right time (thank you to Bonnie, for linking to her yogurt-making post), and I've been finding it so inspiring. The only trick has been to not spend TOO much time reading it and not enough time getting things done around the house. I managed to control myself today and made the napkins I mentioned yesterday.

I was dreading hemming all those edges, so I just cut my fabric (just over a yard) into three 12" strips, ironed and sewed the edges down, then cut the strips into three pieces each. It took a while to iron under all those shorter edges, but I sewed them continuously, one butted right up to the next, so I didn't even have to bother with clipping lots of loose ends -- I just cut them apart and called it a day. They don't really need mitered corners to keep them neat, and this was so much more efficient. And nine napkins without mitered corners is better than no napkins at all!

To end, a piece of cake that my mom made:

Banana cake, of which I brought home a large portion of an even larger sheet cake. It is delicious. I like to eat it.

Do you know what's enjoyable? Picking lettuce fifteen minutes before lunchtime.

I don't have a salad spinner (I can't imagine where I'd keep one), so I just wash lettuce in a bowl and then lay each leaf out on a clean towel. I roll the towel up and either gently press it to remove the water, or, if I've got a bit too much energy, I grab it by both ends and swing it around. I've yet to lose my grip and shower the kitchen with lettuce, but I'm counting on it happening one of these days. . .

So, I'm sure I'll get around to a slightly more complex local meal at some point this week, but just in case I don't, here's a tasty local salad:

Not very different from Saturday's salad, I know. But I didn't add tofu -- I went the cheese route instead and mixed in some local goat's cheddar. I don't think there's anything new here, so I won't go through the list of where everything came from.

The radishes that were still in the ground in my garden had passed their prime and have gone to the great big compost bin in the sky (actually located in the corner of my yard). In their place, I've planted another row of chard and one of kale. The kale I have right now is still young-ish, but I might pick a few leaves soon to eat with local potatoes. In fact, that's exactly what I would have for dinner tonight, if I didn't have to make sandwiches and play kickball instead.

Ah well, tomorrow, then. Thank goodness there's no shortage of mealtimes in my life.

I'm not sure that many of you lovely visitors to my blog even remember the days when I used to write about crafts the whole time. I've completely lost the urge to apologize for not posting about recent craft-happenings; instead, I shall consider it a bonus to you! I'm feeling rather benevolent.

I wouldn't want to name names, but there's a certain black and white cat who looks upon a full drinking glass as an invitation to refresh himself. So I made myself a crocheted cover to keep him out. Now I just have to worry about the cats running away with the cover.

I happened to have this white cotton string kicking around, so that's what I used, even though it's a bit thicker than I would have liked. I still have to block this, to stretch it out and give it its proper shape, but I wanted to snap a photo of it before the sun got much lower. I might make another cover with embroidery floss, although my project list is growing long already.

One of the projects I was really happy to cross off that list was this crocheted shopping bag. I've been meaning to make a bag like this for years now. I got a skein of nice cotton yarn when we were in Oberlin and made up this bag in a number of sittings when we got back. I really don't like how the yarn started striping in the middle of the bag; I don't care how many people say they think it's nice -- I don't like it! But I guess I didn't not like it enough to go back and try to stop it when I could.

The bag is for carrying home produce when I go shopping, but right now it's filled with odds and ends of cotton yarn that my mom gave to me today. I'm making dishcloths. I'm in a very crochet-y (not to be confused with crotchety) phase right now.

There are a few other household sewing type projects I want to tackle, namely making napkins/towels out of some cotton broadcloth I've had sitting around. I really want to cut out paper towels from my life. It's sewing all those straight lines that does me in, though. Sooo boring. But it's on the list!

(I wouldn't want to just assume that people will ask about patterns for the two crochet projects in this post, but I'll go ahead and mention that I made them both up as I went, so I don't have a pattern for either. Sorry!)

So, it turns out you weren't all lying when you said a person could make their own yogurt, even without a machine. It's one of those things, like growing plants from seed, that seems unlikely. You're fairly sure the world hasn't come up with an elaborate lie to trick you, but you can't quite believe it until you try it yourself.

I followed the instructions at that link I posted the other day, and, well, it mostly worked. I've got more yogurt now than I started with, so I guess that counts as a success. I used a quart of skim milk and 100g of the plain yogurt that I was about to run out of (by the way, 100g of yogurt is NOT 3 Tbsp, as the instructions say -- not three of my Tbsp, anyway), I put it in a warm oven before I went to bed, and eight hours later, I took it out and peered at it.

It was yogurt, but not spoonable yogurt. More like a yogurt drink. As per the instructions, I heated the oven again and stuck it back in, this time for four hours. When I took it out, the whey had separated! I wound up having to strain it through a cloth, which resulted in the perfect yogurt consistency, but only about half a quart.

It tastes lovely, exactly the same as the yogurt I started with, but it cost roughly $3 for 550g. For another fifty cents, I can just buy about 650g of locally made yogurt. Without all the mess (of which there wound up being a lot). Maybe it was just because I used skimmed milk that it wasn't thick enough after eight hours, although I don't know why it split during its second round in the oven (maybe the oven hadn't cooled down enough?). If I had wound up with a full quart of yogurt, I would do this again and again without thinking twice, but as it is. . . I'll wait until I can get a yogurt maker to control the temperature and time.

Today! I went to the farmers market! Which is pretty much the most exciting part of my week! Here's a photo of part of my haul, soon to be uploaded for the ten euro group on flickr. The two little plants are loofah gourds -- I'm hoping we'll have enough hot weather for them to grow me a big basket of loofahs.

That's a really, nearly, not quite local meal. The tofu ruins it. I had a salad with spinach from the farmers market and lettuce and chard from my garden. I've been eating all my chard raw this year, since I've been feeling much more salad-y and less steamed-greens-y. I threw some asparagus into my salad, along with green onion and the dill balsamic dressing I made the other day. I bought a small container of jalapeno pickles from the market today, and I really like them. Although one bite = not very hot; one pickle = runny nose. Ah! Good for the sinuses.

Thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's post. While I think it's become highly acceptable to talk about certain body image issues (which just perpetuates the issues, in a lot of cases) and eating habits (either the latest fad diet or the extreme habits of others), there's definitely a lack of discussion in certain, more realistic (and problematic) areas. So I'm glad you appreciated my ramblings.

So, there are a number of topics I keep thinking of writing about, things on which I have opinions. I sort of balk at posting about these things, because it's possible (er, likely) that other people will have their own opinions that might not match up with my thoughts and experiences, and there might be silent (or not so silent) judging that takes place. Also, because I get distracted by shiny things and flying cats and post about them instead. But I've been thinking about writing this for a while now, so here are my thoughts and experiences on eating and hunger:

I'll warn you that this is going to get long and rambly, so brace yourself.

Look what I found at the thrift store today:

I often feel like other people have more luck thrifting than I do, but it's probably just that those other people go more often. I've had a couple of good outings in the past few weeks, and I'm really pleased with this mug. Only eighty cents!

I did have the biggest stroke of general thrifting luck today, because I discovered that one of the hyooogest stores has been just four miles away from me this whole time. I only had about twenty minutes to rush around inside of it today because I was waiting for my very first strength training class to start.

Yeah, strength training -- training to become less feeble. I belong to a Lifetime Fitness gym, which means that I can go to most of the other locations in the metro area, so I've been keen to check out the one in New Hope. It's actually closer to me than the one I usually use, but I've never been for a whole host of boring reasons. Well, no more, because it's nice, it has everything I need, and it's right next to the giant thrift store. There has never been a more fortunate pairing.

Strength training kind of kicked my butt, in a good way. I didn't think I'd be all that into classes with the hopping and the steps and the hand weights and the thumpy-thumpy music. But I have to admit that I've been getting a little bored with yoga, so I may change things up for a while.

Speaking of doing new things, I'm going to try making yogurt tonight with this method. I was going to make bread also, to justify warming up the oven, but then I realized that I don't really want a loaf of bread. Surely heating up the oven AND letting most of a loaf of bread go stale would be worse than the heating alone, yes? Yes. Let's not even think about what else I could bake instead. No.

I can just imagine how nervous my mom will get about me trying to make yogurt. Never mind! What's the worst that can happen?

Life with Beany, a short monologue with photographs:

"Ho hum. I am a cat that is so bored. What could I break?"

"There must be something to break around here. All I want is a little trouble."

"If only I could -- what ho! Problem solved."

"Whaaaaaaaaa!"

The thing about eating one local meal a week is that you wind up having a fridge stocked with local foodstuffs. I guess the real challenge is in keeping the meal entirely local without folding and including something from halfway across the world. I had been planning on making a local meal for lunch, but the day was so dark and dreary that I wound up having this instead:

It's the last of the bean soup I made from a local mix. I can't remember if I mentioned this already, but the soup was very strange in that it had absolutely no flavour of its own but was super spicy. It's like there was just pure capsaicin in it. I didn't mind, because it allowed me to figure out my own blend of garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, chili powder, etc, but I thought it was pretty funny.

I had the soup with a quick quesadilla made with the goat's cheddar. It tasted slightly more goaty when it was warm and melted, but it was still really delicious. It's more like American-style cheddar than the real stuff -- I think British cheddar must have more fat in it than what they make here. That would explain the oily cheese sweat that appears when you make cheese on toast. Mmmm, oily cheese sweat.

By the by, I'm going to start eating soup in this cup from now on. I always get greedy with the amount of soup I eat, then feel uncomfortably full and am still hungry an hour later. This was the perfect amount!

Since I had bought more local Yukon Golds at the co-op this morning, I moved my local meal to dinner (although the only non-local part of lunch was the tortilla):

I prepared the potatoes the same way I did for the first week of OLS, and they were even better this time. If you're ever walking around with your pockets full of money, wanting to buy the best plate of potatoes possible, but for some reason you're in north Minneapolis -- come on over. These might be my new specialty.

I also had asparagus (a given), and a salad with greens and radishes from the garden plus some hot house tomato (the co-op had signs saying that their tomato growers had been tested and are salmonella-free!), mixed with a dill balsamic vinaigrette. It was tasty.

I'd love to hear about what you people out there think about eating locally -- what counts as 'local' to you? I know a lot of people adhere to the 100-mile diet, and I think that might be the official definition for One Local Summer, but I don't feel like that's very useful to me. A lot of the farms that my co-ops consider local are about 150 miles away, and the pasta comes from 370 miles away!

Most of what I've been calling local comes from within a 150-200 mile radius, I would say. But, really, I would personally consider anything from Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Iowa to be local. I think my ideal lifestyle would include 85% of food coming from Minnesota or one of its neighbouring states, with things like chocolate, tea, spices, and olive oil (all things that have been imported since looong before globalization) coming from wherever makes them best. And peanut butter. Mustn't leave that out.

We've had a couple of moderately sunny days in a row now (it must be a record!), and the garden is gobbling it up, after having had its fill of rain last week. The radishes are suddenly really radish-sized, and the greens are going great guns. I mentioned it before, but the broccolis are starting their crowns, and some of the peppers even have blossomed. But the winner for cute? The eensy weensy peas!

You can see just how small it is in this photo. It's so precious that I want to knit it things. I planted snow peas, the kind you eat pod and all. I like them better than real peas, plus those'll be infesting the farmers market soon. I can buy my fill from somebody there. Here is a shot of the veggie garden from this afternoon, in case you're tracking its progress, and here's one of the Brandywine tomatoes that I started from seed. It was younger than the other tomato plants I bought, so it's not taken off as quickly, but it does seem to be doing well. Whoop.

I rode my bike to the store today (to Starbucks, to be exact, because I had a gift card and needed more of that special coffee-making powder), and it was very satisfying. The gas prices really have put a fear in me about driving all over the place, and I think it's particularly acute because I DON'T need to drive to and from work every day. That makes driving seem that much more frivolous in my own life, and therefore that much more avoidable. The nearest co-op is 4.5 miles away, which is a perfectly good distance, so long as I have the time to spend getting there and back.

I think I might have to buy those bike baskets, after all. Really, they don't even have to save me an entire tank of gas before they've paid for themselves. And maybe I can strap a cat into each one and go on adventures!

This is what my afternoon looks like: yogurt with berries and granola, tea, the magazine that just came in the post, and All Things Considered on the radio.

It's a good afternoon today, because I got a letter from The Man, letting me know when I'll be getting my stimulus check. I had started spreading the rumour that the checks were just an urban legend -- everybody knew 'somebody' who had already got theirs, but nobody close to me had actually had theirs come in the post. Once my friends started claiming they'd already got their check, I just assumed they were lying to me. I didn't blame them; they just didn't want to feel left out.

But I guess maybe it's not just a big ruse, and I'm thinking this means I won't be audited. I don't suppose that many people get audited, but I was starting to worry, what with my self employment situation. So hooray! Medical bill payments for everyone!

Unless The Man heard the rumours I was spreading and is just trying to throw me off my game with this 'your check is on its way' letter. Ah ha! They nearly had me.

Oh boy, I've totally gotten off track. This is what happens when you start to update with pictures but no plot. Perhaps I should just leave you with links to the other two photos and move on with my afternoon. Here's Beany the houseplant and a scone I made.

Onwards and afternoonwards, my friends.

Yes, more local food! My friend came over this morning to have a local brunch with me, and it was awfully tasty.

Brunch means we're slowly moving away from breakfast, right? Next week I might have a local lunch! This week, though, I stuck with scrambled eggs (farmers market), this time with asparagus (farmers market), mushrooms (co-op), and chard (garden). Also with chives and dill (garden), because they go so well with eggs.

The exciting bit of the meal was the pancake mix from Whole Grain Mills. I got the name wrong in my previous post -- they're 'Harvest Grains' pancakes (not seven grain). If you live in the Twin Cities or the metro area and have a good co-op, rush right out and buy some of this mix! The pancakes were just perfect: they were light and fluffy but had a lot of whole grain texture and tons of flavour. They somehow absorbed the maple syrup without becoming soggy; they were just maple infused. Two thumbs up.

My friend brought over lemonade from Golden Fig. It may have been produced locally, but we're not quite convinced it should really count -- how many Minnesotan lemon orchards have you seen? I will concede that they could be hot house lemons, but I remain skeptical.

Part of my lunch/afternoon meal was also local! I found couscous the other day, and I've been trying to put together a good use for it ever since. I finally realized that the dill balsamic vinegar I had in my cupboard was from the Golden Fig and therefore local -- huzzah! I made a simple vinaigrette and mixed it together with the couscous (co-op), asparagus, mushrooms, hot house tomato (co-op), and! Goat's milk cheddar cheese.

I knew it was possible to make firm cheeses from goat's milk, so I couldn't quite understand why nobody was producing it commercially. Then, a few weeks ago, I started noticing that the co-ops were carrying a range of this very product! They make cheddar, colby, mozzarella. . . other things. It's very exciting, because goat's milk is much more tolerable than cow's milk for those with lactose sensitivity (I've heard), so there's a chance that S might be able to eat this. And it's not just good 'for goat cheese' -- it's really nice! I'm very pleased, and I'm glad that it's made just over the way in Wisconsin.

So hooray for another week of local summer!

Someday, I'd like to spend a week or two doing yard and garden work for other people. To see what it would be like to be 'the (wo)man who does the garden'. There's nothing like feeling the hours slip by while you're hard at work, physically, but I'm not naive enough to think it's really like that day after day. So just a week or two.

My own garden has been hanging on through the stormy weather, glad for every hour of sun that comes its way. I made a sort of yogurt sauce today with radishes and herbs from the garden -- and the yogurt is local too. Do you want to hear a yogurt-related tragedy? I had finally decided to buy a Salton YM9 yogurt maker, after months and months of should-I-shouldn't-I. The price was right, I knew I would use it, and after months of thinking about it, I wasn't worried about it being just a whim.

And now it's discontinued! They still make their other model, which makes yogurt in individual cups, but I wanted the quart model. It was so much cheaper! I don't want little cups! I am sad. S says this is a lesson to never put off impulse purchases. I wonder if that's true. . . my latest material infatuation is this set of bike baskets, but those are way more expensive than a discontinued yogurt maker. I haven't bought anything that wasn't A) for my garden B) for my belly C) a book or D) from the thrift store for a couple of months now, so bike baskets suddenly seem like an extravagant purchase. Strange but true.

Anyway, radishes. And the garden, which is doing well. My broccoli plants have teeny tiny broccoli crowns starting! The snow peas have started flowering! My potato plants are up! Other things with exclamation marks!

I've also started digging up the side of my yard. It's long and narrow, and half of it (running the long way) is shaded by the lilacs, but the the half against the house gets sun and more sun. Rain also runs off the roof (no gutters) and falls along that strip. So there's been some shoring up to create a slight slope away from the house, and a dry 'creek bed' is in the works. Do you know how much free landscaping rock (thanks, craigslist) it takes to fill up even a small gully? More than you can load into your car in one trip.

So it's a work in progress. A HARD work in progress. But apparently I enjoy that sort of thing.

Okay, I have a confession. Up until recently, I didn't really care that much about buying organic, and buying locally was just a fun novelty. I knew I should care, and I guess I did care, but I had a hard time connecting my principles to my actions. And even though I would have preferred to buy all my groceries at co-ops, it was easier and cheaper to just keep doing things the conventional way.

But like I say, that was up until recently. Maybe it's been creeping up on me little by little, but it feels like over the past month, something clicked into place and convinced me that my principles were worth living by. I think it's the combination of the start of the growing season, the One Local Summer challenge, and the fact that I've FINALLY got 'round to reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.

I've definitely been keeping my eyes open for locally produced food. Those of you who live in areas with long growing seasons probably think that eating locally in Minnesota must be the most boring thing ever. Sure, there's some fruit and green stuff for a couple of months, but then what? Months and months of winter squash? But I've had some exciting discoveries.

I'm most enthusiastic about two milling companies I've come across, Whole Grain Milling and Swany White Flour Mills (I don't think either company has their own site). They make a variety of products, including some things I'm looking forward to buying once I run out of my current stock -- corn chips, flour, oats, etc.

And although getting protein locally could be a challenge as a vegetarian (and certainly trickier for a vegan!), the co-ops stock locally grown beans (kidney beans, black turtle beans, chickpeas, and lentils are what I can actually remember seeing), and I even found gluten flour today -- perfect for making local seitan!

Anyway, the peanut butter above isn't local (but it is organic and delicious, and the honey came from an hour or so north of here), but I feel like I really lucked out at the supermarket today. I'm going to start simmering some local 'Southwestern' bean soup soon (a dry mix made, I think, by WGM); I've got seven-grain pancake mix for this weekend, which I know will taste great with Minnesota maple syrup; there's yogurt in the fridge that was made just over the way that I can top with compote made from locally grown rhubarb.

So, yeah, my one local summer is looking pretty good so far.

Getting my porch ready in the spring almost feels the same as planting out annuals in the garden. Sort of literally -- I've been potting up some plants to keep on the porch -- but mainly just because it all goes bare in the winter. It's far too cold to spend any time on the porch during the winter months, so I bring all the pretty things back inside; now that it's warmer, I get to choose what goes back out -- or out for the first time. Like the seal family:

I think that's my parents and I in seal form -- one of them could explain their origin, but they were always in the house when I was growing up, and now they're in mine. They're sitting in a basket-made-shelf that I hung up the other day, next to the sweetest plant pot ever:

I found it at the thrift shop on one of my luckiest thrifting days to date. I found that planter, and I found little glass bowls exactly like the vintage ones I keep breaking, so I've got a 'complete' set again. And then I found a little shelf. I like little wooden shelves and cabinets, and I think I'm pretty good at seeing something fairly ugly and being able to imagine what it would look like with a nice coat of paint, but this latest find was particularly exciting. Like any sensible person, I'm totally in love with Jasna's decor, so you can imagine my astonishment when I returned from the thrift store and realized I'd just purchased this shelf.

No, not that EXACT one (she lives in Germany, after all). Mine's not red either, of course, but it's the exact same design. Same little drawer, everything. I've painted mine bright blue; now I just have to line the shelves with paper (easier that trying to paint them!), and it'll be good to go. Excellent.

I'm so smitten with Johnny jump-ups this year. And alyssum. And creeping phlox, just in case you're keeping a list. I'm obviously a simple-pleasures kind of person. Which also explains why I like pothos plants so much. I've now got two potted pothos and a couple stems in water -- all from the same tiny plant I bought in college (my mom took care of it when I lived in London). I prefer full plants to ones with really long, trailing arms, so I clip them, root them in water, and then plant them into the pot every six months or so.

Some of my porch plants are sitting on a candle holder than S brought home for me. One of the legs was broken off, so the whole thing was in the 'free room' of the merchandise section of the company he works for (not sure he wants me to share the specifics. . .). It was super easy to fix up with a few drops of super glue, and I think he's really proud at having found it. So I'm glad I can put it to good use, even if it's not as a candle holder!

We're heading into yet another round of bad weather here in Minnesota, and it makes me nervous. Last weekend, a hail storm tore through the cities (I only got rain, thank goodness), and it ripped gardens to shreds just west of me. Forget flashlights and weather radios; storm preparedness for me means having a bike helmet and a bed sheet by the door, just in case I need to run out and protect the vegetable garden.

Remember when my mom made a ridiculous cake for her birthday? I froze several slices of it, so I could share it with friends and save some for later, and today I thawed and ate the very last slice:

It was as delicious as it looks -- I'm pretty sure it was the best piece of the entire cake! I let it thaw over a couple of hours on the counter instead of overnight in the fridge (as I did with the rest), and the cake and frosting were room temperature and perfectly soft, while the cheesecake was still cool. I think this cake actually got better the longer it was frozen.

If you have a great big bunch of money going spare, why not consider giving it to my mom, so she can open up a bakery and sell cakes like this all day long? Actually, it would be a cafe, and I would make the sandwiches. I'm pretty good with those.

Why eat such decadent cake on a Monday (uh, why not!)? My desktop is working again, so it was almost a sort of celebration. My own particular brand of IT relies heavily on luck, and that is exactly what I employed in this instance. After finding out how expensive data recovery is (very expensive), I thought I would try starting the computer up one last time. Lo and behold, it worked! I didn't do anything different from the dozens of other attempts, so it's pretty amazing. Everything is backed up now, I got some urgent files off to print, and everybody's happy again. Cake for all!*

*Cake claimants must be resident and present in the cake-bearing household at the time of cake distribution and may be disqualified for showing signs of being a cat.

I was really excited that yesterday was the start of June, because that meant it was also the start of One Local Summer! I'd stocked up at the farmers market on Saturday, so Sunday brunch went off without a hitch:

The meal consisted of:

-- steamed asparagus (from a local seller at the farmers market)
-- local potatoes from the co-op, fried with green onions (farmers market) and rosemary (my garden)
-- eggs (farmers market), scrambled with dill and chives (garden), more green onion, and spinach (farmers market)
-- radishes (garden)

One of the places I love eating breakfast (possibly my favourite meal to eat out) is the Birchwood Cafe in the Seward neighbourhood of Minneapolis. My one complaint is that their rosemary potatoes are very hit and miss -- they often seem a bit undercooked and oily. So my aim was to make their potatoes the way they should be, and both S and I thought I did the job very well.

The only non-local ingredients were olive oil, Earth Balance, salt, and pepper. One week down, one summer to go!

I know! You'd be totally justified in thinking that somebody has hijacked my blog and is constantly updating it. I don't understand what's going on either. But I do know that I spent way too much at the farmers market today.

Well, I suppose it depends on how to define 'too much'. More than I planned, anyway, and most of it on the above two items -- asparagus and rhubarb. I guess being surrounded by its abundance made me feel a bit panicky at the thought of its season passing so quickly. So I came home with five pounds of rhubarb and eight pounds of asparagus. Totally reasonable.

I turned two pounds of the rhubarb into compote and chopped and froze the other three pounds. In fact, I froze about four-fifths of the compote as well, for use in my half-birthday cake later in June. (I'm upset about a lifetime of missed birthdays due to Christmas, so I'm throwing myself a half-birthday party this year.) I also put three big bags of asparagus in the freezer -- I thought one should blanch it first, but my asparagus man says no need.

I'm really excited about the One Local Summer challenge starting tomorrow, and I think I've done well on stocking up for the coming week(s). I think we're still talking breakfast as my local meal, this early in the year, although I did manage a local hot house tomato, some potatoes, and various green things. But eggs are still the best starting point.

One recent fascination for me has been local ice cream. Today I found a quart from New Prague (about fifty miles away); it seems like different coops carry stock from different farms. I had a really weird experience with Edy's the other week, in that the product inside the ice cream container seemed to have very little in common with actual ice cream. It felt and tasted more like chemicals (and a lot of corn, probably) formulated to resemble ice cream. So now I'm very wary of anything that isn't a bit home-grown and easily traced back to an actual cow that ate actual grass in an actual field. But I think that's only right, right?

Here's a photo of my entire farmers market haul, if you're interested. For two bucks -- less than a triple-washed bag from the supermarket -- I got more fresh spinach than I could fit in my fridge. And it came with a bonus insect. Score!