Fresh Starts

Well I'm back now! After a crazy holiday season I'm ready to emerge into the world again. Right before Thanksgiving I came down with a nasty cold, then as soon as I recovered from that I got hit by the flu as well and then to add insult to injury I managed to get food poisoning about a week before Christmas. So I was incredibly ill and like everyone else dealing with the craziness of the holiday season. Honestly I was so stressed out right before the holidays that I could barely keep sane much less do any leisure activities such as cooking.

The holidays were amazingly happy time for me. I spent Thanksgiving with some wonderful friends in San Francisco and I went on vacation in Phoenix, Az to visit my Mom for Christmas. Some highlights of the season included a truly yummy turkey, video games with the family, Harley rides in the desert and best of all long talks with Mom. As much as I was stressed out before the New Year I am now feeling relaxed and renewed. I'm also feeling so grateful that 2009 is over as it was year that was filled with trials for me. I'm so happy to be starting over again in 2010 in a new year and decade.

Now I know that for most of you that the New Year has already started, but for me it's only partially begun as I wait for the Chinese New Years which this year falls on February 14. It's going to be a doubly special day as it will be Valentine's as well as New Year's. I'm so excited as I love both holidays. I adore Chinese New Year's, because it connects me back to my roots and it's such amazing food. As for Valentine's I love it, because I'm incredibly sentimental and I like the thought of people taking the extra effort to show their love. Of course we should do it every day, but there's something sweet about a day devoted to love. Plus, all the products for Valentine's is freaking adorable hearts and pink all around makes me a happy girl.

Back to Chinese New Year's it's always celebrated on a different day each year depending on the lunar calendar. There's traditional foods and customs to be followed to bring luck and prosperity into the New Year. None which makes me happier than the Mooncake which is a Chinese pastry that is filled usually with red bean paste. As a child I knew that mooncakes were hard to come by living in Virginia and they were only around during holiday season. Getting to have a mooncake was a luxurious treat especially if it was one with a salted egg yolk in the middle. Luckily I now live in a city that has a large Chinatown and I can go to a bakery to fufill my craving for a mooncake. I made a special trip two days ago to Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown which is largely acknowledged as the best Chinese bakery in town for a lotus seed paste mooncake with salted egg yolk.




I was so happy carrying that pink box out the door and home that it was worth the half hour wait in line to get into the bakery. Then getting a taste of the first mooncake of the season starts my New Year's off in the right direction.

Today is a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen today is an Odd Thursday and I always look forward to this day. Why? Well it's because today I picked up this:

That's right I went to pick up my unassuming cardboard box, but surely you know that appearances are deceiving right? This box contains something I love, something that think about day in and day out, something that makes me happy.



Are you ready for this? This revelation?





Really the suspense would be killing me if I were you.





Yes that's right I got PRODUCE! Fresh, local organic produce from my CSA at Eatwell Farms.

This week I got:

• Basil
• Garlic
• Lemon Verbena
• Bok Choy
• Eggplant
• Gypsy Peppers
• Serrano Chile Peppers
• Sweet Potatoes
• Onions
• Fuyu Persimmons
• Granny Smith Apples

Not a bad haul huh? I've been getting a share of produce and eggs from them for well over a year now and I really like it. I get lovely produce, fruit and eggs that are all organic at a very reasonable price. I do an every other week delivery, because it's simply too much food for one week and that way I can still stop by the local farmer's market for anything I might need.

I love getting my box to see what's inside, because although they post what they might put in the box a week ahead oftentimes there are last minute variations or it's simply not specific enough (like I know there will be tomatoes, but not what kind). Sometimes the surprise is good like the time I got a heirloom melon that for the life of me I can't remember the name of. Sometimes the surprise is bad like in the spring when I kept getting cabbage which is not really one of my favorite veggies.

However, that's party of what's great about a CSA is that it forces you to be inventive with your cooking and pushes you out of your culinary rut. It also connects you with the seasons, with the farms and the local food community. I like knowing that what I put into my body is free of extra chemicals and that I am supporting a farmer. In addition to all of that the produce is really really tasty I mean so fresh and lovely. Oh and the eggs please don't get me started on the eggs! I get half a dozen every other week and they are not only the largest eggs ever they also have such lovely yolks and whites. Really yellow firm yolks that are perfect when cooked slightly runny just the way I like them

So this is why I love every Odd Thursdays. Produce and eggs baby produce and eggs.

Happy Halloween!

Ah my darlings I'm hoping you have a spectacularly spooky Halloween. Have fun and be safe!

From Vintage Holiday Crafts

Pumpkins and Gourds

Last weekend me and a friend drove out to Half Moon Bay to pick up some pumpkins. I adore pumpkin patches. I love seeing the families with little children picking out their perfect gourd. I love the piles of hay all over and stacks of pumpkins. The best part about the pumpkin patch is that it means that fall is really and truly here. The pumpkin patch announces the changing of the seasons with it's slew of winter squash declaring with their bright color fall has arrived.

The Great Tomato Debacle

A few weeks ago I did something stupid something very very stupid. I bought 2 boxes of tomatoes to make salsa from a produce club I belong to. The produce club is from Marquita Farms and they sell produce in the city when they have an extra large harvest that they can't sell at restaurants or at farmers markets. So I decided that canning some salsa and fresh tomatoes seemed like a great idea. Which it probably would have been if I hadn't bought 2 boxes of tomatoes filled to the brim with tomatoes which would go bad if not canned or eaten soon. I way underestimated how many tomatoes would come in a box.

See the thing is that a week before this tomato incident I had already canned some tomatoes and made some sun dried tomatoes so this bunch of tomatoes was defiantly in excess. I picked up the tomatoes on Thursday afternoon and spent pretty much the rest of the weekend processing the tomatoes. I boiled tomatoes, peeled tomatoes, boiled jars, boiled lids and boiled the lids some more. Do you notice how much boiling there is going on here? My kitchen was a mess of pots, jars and tomatoes. I made raw packed tomatoes, salsa, Italian crushed tomatoes, regular crushed tomatoes and I ate tomatoes all weekend also. At the end of the weekend I was sick of tomatoes really really sick of tomatoes, but I am grateful that I will have tomatoes for the pantry.

Almost done canning the second box of tomatoes

From the left salsa, raw-pack tomatoes and crushed Italian tomatoes

I must admit though that those tomatoes look so nice all lined up. I ended up with 7 quarts of raw packed tomatoes, 7 pints of salsa and 8 pints of crushed tomatoes. If you ever feel like attempting canning tomatoes or canning food in any capacity check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation. These are the guidelines I use to ensure my canned goods are safe and they even have tasty recipes which I also use. I will NOT be canning tomatoes anytime soon, but I might consider making some jelly soon. A small batch of course.