Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 118

Farmers Market Month, Day 15-16: Bread # 3, Mandarins, Steak, Sweet Potato

Yesterday I got caught up in some neighborhood drama (spent 4 hours helping a neighbor pack up for a last-minute move, or rather a move he'd left till the last minute) and I have no idea what I ate, though I have a distinct memory of being annoyed that I had neither bread nor time to bake it. I remedied that today.

I grilled a hangar steak on a no-stick pan with just a tiny bit of butter, plus salt and pepper. I am very good at making steak if I do say so myself, and that was an extremely fine steak. I had it with mashed sweet potato and the inevitable pickled daikon.

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An Unkindness of Magicians, by Kat Howard

Urban fantasy, but old-school (magicians in New York) not "hot woman slays things." The snobby secret society of New York magicians is organized into Houses, and ruled by one of them; which one is chosen every 20 or so years in a ritual called the Turning, a series of magical duels. The system has worked for hundreds of years, but this Turning is different…

I feel that it is not spoilery to say that the magician society is not only awful on the face of it, but their power is based on a dark not-really-secret which is revealed quite early on to the reader. Early on, it seems like one of those books where everyone is horrible and that's just the way it is, but it turns out to not be that at all—the society is awful, but the story is about the people trying to fix or overthrow it. A lot of the characters are surprisingly nice; the heroine, an escaped slave who wants to free the other slaves and end slavery, is pleasingly ruthless in pursuit of her genuinely altruistic goal.

There are tons of great female friendships and a couple of nice male-female ones too. There’s lots of trauma recovery, and a really good take on PTSD that's not at all the cliched one. (I was very amused to realize that one plotline more-or-less fulfills a prompt I saw in Hurt-Comfort Exchange, “Haunted House/New Tenant (both hurt).”) The magical duels are inventive and beautifully described.It was all way more up my alley than I thought it would be based on the first few chapters. It’s also extremely page-turny, which is why I kept reading past the first few chapters, and I’m glad I did. It’s the first in a series, but has a reasonable ending.

There’s not a big focus on graphic violence, but there are some gory moments and torture (the latter mostly referred to rather than happening on-page), a serial killer, and child harm (again, mostly just referred to rather than shown.)

There's some plot/information-revealing issues—some things are kept from the reader that would have been better revealed early, others are revealed early when they would have been better as surprises, and I was often a bit puzzled over issues regarding who knew what. I also didn’t quite buy the main sexual relationship as a romance (oddly, I did buy it as a friendship, which is not how that usually goes). But overall it was very good and I really look forward to the next book.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

An Unkindness of Magicians[image error]

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Sunday KatMari

KatMari has been quietly continuing behind the scenes, bit by bit, as I transform my apartment into my ideal living space.

I now have a second dollhouse, also tin but this one from the 1950s, next to the first. I unpacked all the little animals I made when I was a kid from Fimo (and a couple from clay) and which have been in boxes for ten years, and gave them a home:



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Farmers Market Month, Day 14: Salmon collar, kamut, eggs, carrots, parsley; Lessons Learned Halfway

Yesterday was effectively skipped, as Sherwood and I went to a restaurant for lunch. I did feed her some homemade toast first.

Today I made kamut (Khorasan wheat), which is sort of like farro, in my rice cooker. I had intended to use it as a salad base, but 1) my remaining kale had gone bad, 2) it took approximately three times longer to cook than I expected so I ate my composed salad ingredients (carrots, salmon collar, pickled daikon, parsley, olives, eggs) separately while waiting the eternity it took for the goddamn wheat to cook.



And then the bottom burned, which is not a problem I have with rice. What was not burned was actually very nice and tasty with just some salt and butter (it's a bit buttery-flavored by itself, which adds to the effect), as I'd already eaten the intended toppings, but obviously needs to be cooked on the stovetop rather than in a rice cooker.

Bow before my perfect soft-boiled eggs though!



(I didn't eat two separate helpings of salmon - the top image is the meat still attached to the bone, the bottom is the salmon pulled off the bone and sprinkled with parsley. I also had some elderflower cordial and Melba toasts with garlic-herb goat cheese (not pictured.)

Lessons I have now learned from this experiment:

1. Salad greens are better from the local Japanese market than the farmers market. Farmers market baby kale, arugula, etc, is cheaper but very prone to going bad quickly and/or having bug issues, so it's not actually a savings as I repeatedly have had to toss part or all of it.

2. Smoked fish is better from Santa Monica seafood than any farmers market vendor I've found yet. Their prices are jaw-dropping for a reason.

3. I am never buying supermarket carrots again. The little spring farmers market carrots are crisp and delectable, like carrot-flavored ice, and can be eaten with pleasure all by themselves.

4. I am never buying supermarket yogurt again, either. The kefir lady's kefir is way better.

5. I am never buying bread again unless due to time pressure and an urgent need for sandwiches. I like my bread better than even the farmers market bread lady's, and mine keeps better, too.

6. Whole grains are a pain in the ass.

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My First Bouldering Class

I used to rock climb a bit. I enjoyed it but did not care for messing around with ropes, and also tend to stick better to activities I can do solo.

Yesterday I took a bouldering class at a local climbing gym that rejoices in the name of The Cliffs of Id.

Speaking of excellent names, not to mention a canny sense of their clientele, it had the Huitlacoche Taco Truck parked in the parking lot.

I was in a class with two girls of about 10-12 who just flew up the routes, plus the mom of one of them who had an easier time than me as she had a longer reach. For a while I thought the other girl was also her daughter, while the mom thought she was mine; we eventually discovered that she was a very self-possessed person who had come on her own. I used to climb and scramble a lot at that age, alone and on local easy low cliffs and crags. I could really see the advantage of being extremely flexible, extremely light, and apparently composed almost entirely of muscle.

I made it up one V0 and fell off the next two tries, the second time because it was a different route that I struggled with and the third time on the same route as the first and because my muscles completely gave out halfway up. So this is exactly what I was looking for: something extremely strenuous that I can actually max out my strength on without (too much, hopefully) risk of back injury or repetitive strain, self-directed, something I can do by myself, engrossing, absorbing, and not prohibitively expensive or prohibitively far away.

Also hopefully I will get better at it with practice. I had thought I was pretty physically fit in the sense of "can lift a fair amount of weight, can do very strenuous hikes, etc" but I nearly fell over after completing that one climb. (And today I feel like I got hit by a truck.)

I invite anyone who'd like to geek out in comments with any advice, helpful links, personal experiences, etc. I'd be particularly interested in tips on avoiding joint injuries, which I am extremely prone to no matter how careful I am with form. At the moment my knees, ankles, wrists, and elbows are the problem areas but I have had past trouble with pretty much every joint in my body.

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Farmers Market Month, Day 12-13: Cornmeal bread, passion fruit, macadamia nuts

I had a lot of stuff going on the last couple days, so no photos.

I squeezed passion fruit juice/pulp through a colander on to my apricot kefir. It was divine, but the kefir is also divine all by itself. Will not buy passion fruit again unless I have a specific plan for them.

I baked the wonderful bread again, this time with 3/4 flour, 1/4 cornmeal. It is delicious but less versatile; not a good pairing with black sesame, for instance, which is obviously a problem. It goes well with honey, brown sugar, and apricot preserves. I gave some away to neighbors (not because I disliked it, but because people are so thrilled to receive homebred bread) and will go back to all flour for my next try. I will also invest in two one-quart oven-safe bowls so I can do one loaf plain and one flavored, perhaps with the Kalamata olives I have on hand.

The California macadamia nuts are absolutely fantastic: sweet, nutty, slightly chewy, less rich than the ones I've had before, and perfect without roasting or added salt. I love them so much that I am going to either make special trips to that market just for them or, if possible, order them by mail.

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Farmers Market Month, Day 11: Kale, oranges, kalamata olives; Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market

Yesterday I made this salad suggested by rushthatspeaks : One of my favorite salads of all time is dark greens (raw kale would work, and I'd suggest either shredded or de-ribbed) with pitted kalamata olives and oranges (peeled, pitted, cut in rounds not segments). Combine the ingredients, drizzle with a little olive oil, and, and this is key, sprinkle with slightly more salt and fresh-ground black pepper than you were originally intending. Best salad.



It was indeed the best salad. I used those amazing mandarin oranges and baby kale, flat leaf variety. Seriously, it was so good I will probably have a reprise tonight.

This morning I visited the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market. It's much more famous than my regular one but I like mine better, though I met some lovely friendly vendors who admired my hair and matching sweatshirt. Very few vendors took credit cards, and while there were a lot more vendors, the variety of produce was only somewhat better. (The really unusual stuff tends to get scooped up by chefs and is gone by the time I get there.) Also I like having both produce and ready-to-eat food, which the Santa Monica market does not.

I stopped at a stall which had a sign advertising miner's lettuce, but it turned out to have been bought out by chefs.

"But I have stinging nettles!" the greens lady said, in a tone the opposite of the one which people normally use to tell you stinging nettles are in the vicinity. She picked up a bunch with her bare hands.

"Are they... de-stung?" I asked, wondering if there was a way to do that other than the one I knew of, which is to cook them.

"Oh, no," she said cheerfully. "I like getting stung! It's very healthy! Good for arthritis!"

I am definitely coming to an understanding of where all the stereotypes about California come from. But hey. We have great produce.

I bought apricot and strawberry kefir (thick, eat with a spoon style) and cultured butter from the same kefir lady as at the Mar Vista market, as I'd polished off her apple kefir. Also carrots, flowering Chinese broccoli, orange blossom honey, bacon, eggs, and macadamia nuts (grown in California! they had photos).

Today I am baking bread again, from the same recipe I used last time. I have a feeling that will be the best thing I get from this whole experiment. Home-baked bread is the greatest.

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Flint, by Louis L’Amour

James Kettleman, a successful financier with no friends and in a loveless marriage, is told by his doctor that he’s dying of cancer. Leaving his wife behind, he returns to the west of his boyhood, where he’d been an abandoned child raised by a gunslinger assassin named Flint, to die in peace. However, he gets drawn into some bad guys moving in on a woman who owns a ranch, and finds himself drawn back into life at the worst possible time.

Spoiler: ( Read more... )

This premise is so good! And I generally like L’Amour. Unfortunately, the book didn’t do much for me. By far the best part is the atmospheric description of Kettleman finding Flint’s old hideout in a maze of solidified lava, complete with a herd of horses who’d been living there, unable to get out without human help but with everything they need, for seventeen years.

Kettleman plans to catch up on his reading before he dies – an obviously excellent plan, and one which endeared him to me. Alas, it was the only thing that did. He’s so cold and unlikable that it sucks the life out of the book, and his reawakening to human feelings – possibly my all-time favorite plot – was told in such an unemotional way that I never really believed in it or cared. Not a favorite.

Note the ominous "A Novel." Flint: A Novel[image error]

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Farmers Market Month, Day 10: Scallops, pea greens, blueberries, sakura mochi

Yesterday I had this for dinner:



It's scallops, Chinese sausage, pea greens, and rice, from this Yotam Ottolenghi recipe, freely adapted as I didn't have all the ingredients. That was a mistake. His recipes are very precise and come out delicious if you do them exactly as written, which I didn't do. And while I can perfectly sear a scallop (yes, even a tiny bay scallop) normally I cook scallops extremely simply so I can focus my entire attention on getting the sear right. Instead, I was juggling multiple steps, and the sear suffered along with everything else. It wasn't terrible but it was nowhere near as delicious as you'd expect from the ingredients.

While I was at the Japanese grocery buying the ginger and pea greens for the scallops, I spotted the first sakura mochi of spring! Naturally I had to buy them. If rules would stop you from eating sakura mochi, you must break the rules.



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Farmers Market Month, Day 9: Burrata, kale, blueberries, beets

Bow before my beautiful composed salad!



I'll have the scallops tonight. If I feel sufficiently ambitious I'll duck into the Japanese market for some ginger and try saute them with Chinese sausage and greens. I may have to buy some greens from the market as well, as the kale is too tough for what I'm thinking of. But hey, I'd rather break my self-imposed rules than have an inferior dinner, and I do need to eat those scallops tonight.

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