I just found this website that claims to do fact-checking on all of the candidates claims:truths, lies, and stretching-the-truths. I hope it is also legit! I’ve found it useful.
PS: And some of the lies are pretty funny if you get the chance. . . I had no idea some of this was going around.
Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart have issued a cease and desist order to the RNC and Sarah Palin to stop using their song Barracuda. 
Best part is their statement that her views and values “in NO WAY represent us as American women.”
BTW: John Mellenkamp also told McCain not to use his music. I admit it: I have an (embarrassing) soft spot for Mellencamp.
i wish I had more time to write on Palin because I find her to be a horrible choice as VP, not because she’s a mother of 5, not because she’s a woman and not because she doesn’t have enough experience but because SHE HAS HORRIBLE POLITICS!
Here’s a great “fact check” article on the misrepresentation in GOP’s speeches last night.
PS: Regarding Palin’s denial of global warming issues: a 19 mile chunk of the Canadian Arctic’s ice shelf just broke off this week. . .
An unbaked peach pie– this recipe is so good! I’ve made three of them since arriving at my parent’s place. Now, I’m ready to say: enough already!
Fresh Peach Pie
This is an adapted version of this one, found on Allrecipes.
Oatmeal Cookie Crust
And apples, and oranges, and more.
I’m visiting family right now in the house I grew up in since I was 5 years old, located in suburban San Jose, California. I arrived home a few days ago to see one of the branches of the peach tree in front of my parents house lying on the ground– it had broken off of the tree due to the weight of all the peaches on the branch. I’ve already made two fresh peach pies and have helped my Mom slicing and prepping apples from the trees in our backyard for freezing for fresh pies and cobblers during the winter.
The funny thing is that “local food” is sort of hip right now (I think its more than a fad, but an important political issue), but this is the sort of stuff I grew up with all my life. My parents did it both for economic reasons and because it is also what they grew up with. They both were raised on farms on the Azores Island of San Miguel, Portugal. I like knowing that they are just one of many other immigrant groups that maintain the food prepping traditions (i.e. eating local without calling it that) that they grew up with. And even more interesting to me is that they do this while living in an area that probably is just about as unsustainable as it gets, San Jose, CA: wide streets made for cars, not people, with stores far away from the residential areas. The streets here could be bike-friendly due to their massive width and bike lanes, if the distances weren’t so long between locations.
My parents don’t just freeze fruit: they grow some of their vegetables (favas, collards, tomatoes), my mom makes jams and cans fruits, my dad makes his own rough-around-the-edges wine partially with his own grapes, and long before locavores were heralding the benefits of of buying your own locally and sustainably raised meat, I have memories of going with my cousins to a farm in the Central Valley to pick out a cow for slaughter. We brought the meat back to San Jose to butcher and to make our own morcela (a type of Portuguese blood sausage). Granted, I think these memories *may* have contributed to my vegetarianism. But it still cracks me up that this is something that made me feel *weird* growing up, but now it is something that hip, foodie urbanites and suburbanites attempt to do.
Raspberries picked at Smolak Farms in North Andover.
So, yesterday my partner and I finally made good on our promise to ourselves to prep food to store for the winter (in our efforts to eat more locally, thus avoiding food shipping = carbon emissions). I’m worried about those Polar bears and lots more. Seriously, I can’t think about the Polar bears & global warming, I get too sad even though I know many human beings will be affected as well.
So what did we do?
Blanching & Freezing: We prepped our first set of blanched vegetables by boiling ‘em for about a minute (or 2, or 3) and then cooling ‘em down and then freezing them. We did this with some swiss chard we grew ourselves, some green beans from our farm share, and some yellow beans from my partner’s uncle’s garden.
Pickling: Yesterday we tasted our first pickles that we pickled ourselves last week! Well, my partner pickled them– I looked on skeptically, but now that they turned out great I’m willing to take credit! 
So, we pickled two more jars along with some hot peppers from our garden yesterday.
Raspberry picking and freezing: Our morning started off with raspberry picking at Smolak farms. We got black, red and white raspberries (see pic above). But, now that I’ve picked them, I’m willing to go ahead and buy them from my farmer’s market. They’ll still be local & won’t require standing under a 90 degree sun for three hours. I did learn about the different types of raspberry bushes, but I only need a one time lesson in that.
Lessons: One thing I am realizing this summer is that trying to eat locally and do things yourself takes much more time & effort– but its worth it. We are finding ways to save time such as steaming all of our beets from our farm share early on in the week so that we have beets for salads and sandwiches all week. Or grilling up all of our summer squash & zucchini so that they are prepped for salads and sandwiches too.
Thursday night was the 10th annual Lantern Festival here in J.P. About 4,000 people showed up! It was inspired by Japanese Bon festivals to honor the dead (which is what the lanterns are sent out onto the water for). I don’t know much more about it than that! But, is was beautiful, as I hope these photos attest to! It was held in the Forest Hills Cemetery which is a gorgeous, old cemetery with lots of old statues & beautiful trees– I never thought I’d say it but we’re planning a picnic & bikeride through the cemetery one of these summer afternoons– its really a neat place.
Photo credits go to my sweetie, whose hand at night-time photography is much steadier than mine.
I normally don’t encourage folks to sign up for things like this, but this one is so easy & the International Rescue Committee does great work– so, Click here to sign your name so that $1 will be donated to their humanitarian work with Iraqi refugees.
(Yea, I know the html button doesn’t work on the image above, my html skills aren’t good enough to figure that out! Click here instead.)
I have not been knitting much lately. I think its due to my starting three knitting projects that are a bit lacy– (here’s one, another). I’ve come to realize I’m not a lace girl– too much counting! I want to zone out as I knit, so I’ll return to those at some point when I’m feeling uber patient.
Last week a friend and I visited Northampton, Massachusetts which is home to a knit shop that is yarn nirvana to seasoned knitters, WEBS. I admit to at first being disappointed– its didn’t seem that much bigger or with a better selection than other big yarn shops I’ve been in. But, ahhh! I found THE BACK ROOM– home to all the yarn close-outs and with a much yummier (and cheaper) selection of yarns.
So, having found a magazine with the pattern for this blue sweater, I got some of the exact yarn it called for, but in black. I even got some cute, funky ribbon to do the detailing. I am also going to knit this one (the Clover Cardi), but in a slightly more green tone. Note that both of these sweaters are labeled “My First Sweater” on the pattern– in other words after years of knitting I have found out I am still at the kindergarten stage of sweater making. So be it. I like my simple sweaters.
Too much Harry Potter, you know. I’ve made that mistake a few times today.
So we are on our third week of our CSA from Stillman’s and our boxes have been bountiful– our first box consisted of:
Spanish Kale; Yellow Chard; Arugula; Spinach; Beets & their Green Tops; a bunch of lettuce; and a box of strawberries
And the second was similarly full of greens; this weeks was a bit more mixed, but equally great. We’re gonna be busy cooking this summer!
Today we got some garlic scapes, which are essentially the buds of garlic flowers cut before they bloom. I’m a garlic scape newbie so we’ll see how it goes– I’m sauteeing ‘em up with some summer squash and kale to have over some cheese grits (ahh, the South sticks with ya, even if you leave) for dinner tonight.
This week has also marked the first time we harvested from our gardens: lettuce! We should have cucumbers in 1-2 more days. I’d love to post a picture but I can’t find my camera cord! I also was lucky enough to get some rhubarb this week from a member of our community garden’s rhubarb plant. I’m looking forward to some more strawberry rhubarb pie!
(I finally learned how to make pie crust 2 weeks ago– one of my new year’s goals for 2008.)
I’m sure at least some of you heard about the NYT article that came out last week discussing how the Bush adminsitration refused to open an email report from the EPA and placed it in limbo status. This was not just any document but was, according to the article, “the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment.”
Last Wednesday Jon Stewart put together a piece called “Be Patient, This Gets Amazing!” on this (watch the show intro & through the first 5 minutes). This is absolutely nuts to me that they could get away with this, but Stewart’s right: it does get amazing(ly mundane) how many stories we’ve heard like this.
OK, I was wary of Gavin Newsome when he came into office but have to give him & San Francisco some kudos for some of the programs & changes that have happened there since he took office.
Just found out that SF is sponsoring a 2-year pilot program to establish victory gardens throughout the city. For those who don’t know, victory gardens were the food gardens that Americans were encouraged to grow during WWII to save fuel from going into food production. With it looking like we are either at or fast-approaching peak oil, the time is near for more of these sorts of projects.
Boston, by chance, has the last remaining original victory gardens in the park along the Fenway. Worth a walk-through if you are ever in the city!
Check out this post on the Rooftop Gardening website about the very cool rooftop garden that the Food Project maintains at the Boston Medical Center. Most of the food grown here gets sold at lower than market rates in the Roxbury-Dorchester area and also donated to food shelters around Boston. Yours truly helped with laying down watering pipes and planting some of the plants in the rows in the first pic (although I ended up planting ‘em too close together).
I have to admit to some weird obsessing on the idea of rooftop gardening– the other day when some friends described how they were going to build a deck over the garage behind their apartment, all I could think was: but, you could create a great rooftop garden up here! Luckily, I wasn’t geeky enough to say this to them. Kept it in my geeky little brain until writing it down now.
I bet many of you may have already seen these videos since I tend to be waaay behind on my pop culture references.
But, for those of you who haven’t seen them yet, you gotta watch this skit by Sarah Silverman telling Jimmy Kimmel that she’s (bleep)ing Matt Damon. Even better, is Jimmy Kimmel’s response. Believe me, these are well worth 5 minutes of your time, I almost died laughing.
OK, so this is probably only of interest to me (as much of this blog is!), but here’s a pic of our community garden plot. We just set it up this weekend, located in the Brookside Community Garden (behind Ula Cafe). We’ve got strawberries, lettuce, oregano, mint, 3 types of tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers going right now. Cranberry beans, basil and chard are on the way! I’ll try to document as the summer moves along. . .
We’re back from our trip to Sicily and here is a list of highlights from our food experiences (more soon on other aspects of the trip).
1. Fresh ricotta: this needs to come first because several of the others are based on it. Ricotta in Sicily is nothing like that pasty stuff we call ricotta here in the US (granted I love our pasty stuff too). It is fresh, made from sheep’s milk, creamy and soft with a delicate flavor. Mix it in with your pasta, throw it on top of a pizza, spread it on top of your pane siciliano (bread made of durum wheat)—yum!
2. Cassata: a dessert made of fresh ricotta with sponge cake around it and candied dried fruits either on top or mixed in with ricotta. The one I ate (see picture above) had chocolate chips in the ricotta and marzipan along the side. This was delicious! I was slightly obsessed with tasting this and finally was served it on our last day there by my partner’s cousin.
3. Gelato: Sicilian gelato is even better than the mainland gelato- I swear its creamier! Some favorite gelato experiences:
- Mulberry gelato—these are in season for only about 2-3 weeks and the tart gelato they make is delicious.
- Ricotta gelato—We only found this in the southeastern corner of Sicily (in Siracusa and Ragusa Ibla) and it is deliciously creamy.
4. Gelato in a brioche: OK, this could go above but it deserves its own category since you gotta love a people who eat gelato in a sweet bun of bread! This is typically Palermitano but is found in some other areas of Sicily. Especially good with chocolate or nutella flavors. Palermitanos even have this for breakfast in summer!
5. Watermelon pudding and other fruit puddings: Typically Sicilian this pudding is called “gelo di melone”. The watermelon juice is infused with jasmine flowers overnight and it gives the pudding a delicious aroma and taste. Heavenly! My partner’s cousin made this on a visit to the U.S. 9 years ago and I have dreamed of it ever since. Another version is one made of lemon—deliciously tart with miniature strawberries on top. My partner’s uncle who runs his own restaurant in Palermo has made his own version of this: mandarin pudding! I got the recipes from the uncle and am going to make my own.
6. Fragoline: Miniature strawberries!!! These are heavenly and tart and are the size of the tip of your pinky finger. I was a bit obsessed with them.
7. Arancine: Saffron-infused rice balls filled with cheese and then deep fried. So good and a meal in themselves.
8. Fruta da Mattorana: You often see this weird marzipan fruit at Italian bakeries in the U.S. They really come from Sicily, specifically Palermo where they were first made by the Catholic nuns at the Mattorana cathedral in Palermo in the 1600s. These are not delicious—I cannot tell a lie, but they made it onto this list for their cute-kitsch factor. Above are some pictures of some of the best fruta da Mattorana that I saw.
9. Seafood: Generally caught that day and served fresh—Sicily is a pescatarian’s delight! Some favorites were the clams, mussels, octopus, and the smoked swordfish.
10. Wine by the carafe: I am not a wine snob, but I love good wine and trying new wines. I am particularly enamored with the idea of going down to the local wine merchant and buying locally made wine in bulk. My favorite part of our meals was sampling the local wines by doing this—they were all good! Above is a picture of a shop in Siracusa (Syracuse) where you can get your own bottles filled with the local wines of Southeast—generally a Nero d’Avola variety.
One of the best things about Sicily and food is how much Sicilians love it and how assertive they are about where to go to get the best whatever (whether it is a type of pastry, a flavor of gelato, etc.). Meals were long and social and drawn out over several courses. I have to say I truly felt loved and welcomed by the feasts that my partner’s family put on during the time we were there! This list is totally random and doesn’t include many wonderful Sicilian specialties such as panelle, fritella, chocolate made in Módica, various types of cheeses, etc.
We owe many of our fabulous meal experiences to my partner’s uncle and aunt who are both wonderful cooks at home and who have a great restaurant in Palermo. His cousin is also a top-notch cook and host.
is very effective. Jon Stewart on abstinence only education.
OK, this is the most outrageous thing I have heard of since, well. . . there’s been lots of outrageous things these past 8 years. But, this is pretty bad.
N.C. hospitals are requiring rape survivors to pay for their own rape kit examinations when they go to NC hospitals to collect evidence– at a cost of approximately $1,600! Here’s the News & Observer article that documents this. Infuriating.
I’ve seen this piece on Suburban farming on a few different local foodie websites. Love this idea.
Ok, so this blog is hilarious: Stuff White People Like
It makes me laugh and makes me cringe with the embarrassment at identifying with many of the “what white people like” traits!