Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 119

Farmers Market Month, Day 8: Sunday Market

Today I went to my usual farmers market in Mar Vista. I'm going to give you the list of what I bought/already have and am looking to use, and you can suggest things for me to make.

You can assume that anything I can eat as is, I will also eat as is; I'm looking for suggestions for actual recipes, even if they're as simple as "roast beets, slice, drizzle with garlic olive oil, top with crumbled goat cheese." In fact I generally prefer simple.

You can assume I already have unmentioned basics like rice, eggs, onions/garlic, etc.

I now have in my possession...

Acini de Pepe (YES STILL)
Beef, ground
Black lentils
Blueberries
Bread (homemade country white, go me)
Burrata
Calamari (pre-pounded steak)
Chinese sweet sausage (lop cheung)
Coconut (fresh; I do NOT have coconut milk)
Cod (ling)
Goat cheese
Hangar steak
Kalamata olives
Khorasan wheat (never used this before, but was encouraged by pastina experiment)
Kale
Lemons
Mandarin oranges
Oaxacan cheese (like string cheese but round)
Parsley (fresh)
Passion fruit (bought on whim - would really like suggestions)
Raspberries
Scallops
Sweet potatos
Thyme (fresh)

Foods I do not like; please don't suggest them as ingredients: avocado, bananas, cilantro, squash except acorn, tomato in giant chunks (sauce or little bits is fine), zucchini.

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Farmers Market Month, Day 7: Bread

I made bread from this recipe: My Mother's Peasant Bread. It was so easy, not a hassle as I wasn't planning to go anywhere anyway, and quite fascinating to do. I used a single two-quart bowl as I didn't have a one-quart. (The recipe says that's fine.)



After the second rising, it felt resilient, elastic, almost velvety, and somehow alive when I poked it, like some sea creature. Only dry rather than slimy.

It was a little doughy when I first sliced it, so I popped it back in the oven for five minutes and then it came out perfect:



The inside is light and fluffy, the crust is chewy, and the flavor is a pleasant, non-tangy bread-flavor. And that is exactly how I like my bread. I had some with butter, and some with browned butter/brown sugar.



It was so good that I had another slice with black sesame spread, and that was AMAZING.



I may never buy bread again.

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Farmers Market Month, Day 6: Beef soboro, beets, carrots, mandarins

Yesterday I defrosted some of the leftover acini de Pepe and tossed it in a frying pan with the leftover beef soboro, then topped with a farmers market fried egg and ate with daikon pickles.



Also had a reprise of the sliced roasted golden beets with goat cheese and garlic olive oil. What can I say, if something is good I don't get sick of it. Today I'll try something a bit different with the remaining beets, though.

Also snacked on farmers market carrots and mandarins, and had some more black sesame spread on toast (defrosted store-bought emergency bread that's been in the freezer for God knows how long.)

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Farmers Market Month, Day 5: Cider bread, tempeh

Just posting for the record as I wasn't having a good day and that tends to affect my appetite/level of interest in food. 2 slices of cider bread toast with butter and honey (also brought one to a neighbor who's moving and who I'm helping to pack up/dispose of 60 years worth of accumulated stuff), some snack tempeh, some Coolhaus ube ice cream from fridge.

Last slice of cider bread for breakfast today. I'll try actual baking with yeast next.

ETA: Today's breakfast: cider bread toast with butter and black sesame spread. A+



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Farmers Market Month, Day 4: Golden beets, ground beef, apricot kefir

I did not get to the farmer's market yesterday, for the same reason I did not get to the gym the night before: we had a rainstorm. Last night was a very dramatic lightning storm, with visible bolts splitting the sky and brilliant flashes turning the whole sky white. I decided I did not want to drive in that, even for five minutes, and I wanted to walk in it even less. So I stayed in and ate what I already had.

For breakfast, I had apricot kefir from the farmer's market. It's not a drink, it's the texture of very thick yogurt, only the most delicious yogurt you've ever had, flecked with bits of apricot. I tried a sample at the market, then asked the seller what the difference was between kefir and yogurt.

"Kefir is much healthier!" she exclaimed. "It's full of probiotics, nutrients, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin X, Y, and Z!" (Not an exact quote - my brain turned off at some point. She might have said it prevents or possibly cures cancer, I'm not sure.)

Me, interrupting because I had to: "I meant, literally how is it different from yogurt? Not in terms of healthiness, in terms of how it's made."

With a "Son, I am disappoint" look, she said, "Yogurt is made by heating milk. Kefir uses cold fermentation."

A+ cold-fermented cancer cure, would eat again.

For lunch, I had a slice of cider bread toasted with butter and honey, and a slice toasted with melted farmers market garlic jack. While eating, I roasted some beautiful farmers market golden beets according to this recipe. They were so lovely straight out of the oven, glistening and caramelized and sweet-smelling, that I sliced one up on the spot and ate it with some chèvre and a drizzle of garlic olive oil, both from the farmers market. It was absolutely delicious.



For dinner, beef soboro from this recipe. Beef and pickled daikon from farmer's market, rice from pantry. Very tasty and satisfying on a dark and rainy night, especially since it was post-gym and weightlifting.



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Farmers Market Month, Day 3: Chinese broccoli, cider bread

I just finished gobbling a slice of just-out-of-the-oven cider bread spread with maple butter, as per this recipe. It was definitely gobble-worthy. Grade A, would bake again.

ETA: Just finished gobbling second slice.



For lunch (and forthcoming dinner) I had a slight variation on yesterday's lunch/dinner, fried "rice" with acini de Pepe, the rest of the Chinese broccoli, the rest of the kimchi including its brine, Chinese sausage (pre-steamed), and hoisin sauce. It was just as good as Take 1.



Tomorrow I am getting up early to hit the Santa Monica farmers market and be back in time for the plumber.

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Breer Bread: The Poll

So, it turns out there's not a great selection of beers if you don't want a six-pack that's all the same kind. However, I discovered a shelf of random beers where you can mix-and-match a sixpack. I tried to get beers I thought might make a nice bread and which I'd probably enjoy drinking if they don't. (I like Sapporo, I like cider, and I like Stella Artois. The others I haven't tried.)

View Poll: #21517

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Tucson Book Haul, Part 2 and Depressing Children's Books of Yore

I got some boxes in the mail today. Here’s what I bought at Bookman’s:

The Girl Who Drank the Moon (Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal)[image error], by Kelly Barnhill. A fantasy that looks surprisingly non-depressing despite having won a Newbery medal.

The Private Worlds of Julia Redfern[image error], by Eleanor Cameron. Sequel to A Room Made of Windows, which is itself in a four-book series – huh, I had no idea! It’s about a girl writer.

Big Red [image error], Outlaw Red[image error], and Haunt Fox[image error], by Jim Kjelgaard, who cornered the rather specific niche of exciting kids’ fiction about Irish setters.

Forest[image error], by Janet Taylor Lisle. The back cover promised a pastoral fantasy about a girl and a forest, but I just now realized that it’s by the author of Afternoon of the Elves[image error], possibly my all-time least-favorite Newbery book. I thought it would be about elves. There are no elves. Elves are a delusion. The heroine’s friend who says there’s elves turns out to be living with a mentally ill, abusive mother. When the heroine tells her own mother in the hope of getting her help, her friend is taken away and she never sees her again or learns what happens to her.

Message: Elves aren’t real. If you ever tell anyone a friend is being abused, they will disappear and you will never know if you did the right thing or made it worse. Also, everything is terrible.

Message of almost every Newbery book before about 1990: Your pets will die. Your grandparents will die. Your parents will die. Your best friend will die. Mentally ill or abused or disabled people die, are institutionalized, or disappear. (You may learn later that they died.) Social workers lock up your mentally ill friends, take away your abused friends, and step on your kitten. Magic isn’t real. All attempts to do the right thing lead inevitably to misery. Everything is terrible.

Meanwhile, Layla bought a book at Bookman's that she thought would be a heartwarming story of kids making friends while rescuing stranded narwhals. No One Expects Surprise! WWI.

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Farmers Market Month, Day 2: Mandarin oranges, garlic sprouts, Chinese broccoli, acini de Pepe

I had blueberries and acini de Pepe, heated with butter and maple syrup and a little milk, for breakfast. It was fine but I prefer rice for that sort of thing.

For lunch, I stir-fried more acini de Pepe with green garlic/garlic sprouts (green shoots and immature heads), Chinese broccoli, kimchi, steamed Chinese sausage, pickled garlic (sue me, I like garlic), and soy sauce, with flowers from the broccoli sprinkled on top. That was delicious, and I will have the leftovers for dinner.



After all that, I still had about eight cups (dear God!) of acini de Pepe left, so I individually bagged and froze the rest. You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck with that stuff.

I also had some juicy, sweet Mandarin oranges, so bright and glistening that I have immortalized them.



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The Change series reissued

Sherwood and I have regained the rights to our book Stranger and have reissued it at a more sane price ($2.99 for the ebook, as opposed to the previous $11.99) and with new covers by telophase for the entire series.

If you've already read it but haven't written a review of it on Amazon, I will love you forever if you do so. Even a 1-2 line one would work. (We need more reviews to be able to do certain types of advertising on it.) They don't have to be raves, just any honest review is fine.

We are about 2/3rds of the way through book four, Traitor, and hope for a release date this year. If you like Paco and Felicite, you are in for a treat because they have especially awesome storylines in the final book if I do say so myself.

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