Return to the Farmers' Market

 I had to leave at the crack of dawn this morning for a blood draw and when I got home, Eli was already up and having a crusty day. So, since he needed a change of scenery, I took the opportunity to get back to the Farmers' Market in LA.

We left about 8:30, and it was perfect timing. We sailed downtown on clear freeways and found a parking place right up close in front of Cost Plus. Eli immediately scoped out a cafe that he wanted to have lunch at.

It seems like every time we go we find a new good thing - and this cafe definitely is a good one to go back to. It's called 'Morels' and it is a French Bistro style steakhouse.

Eli had packed himself a lunch for the day, so we walked around till they opened and then sat down and had an early lunch together while watching the fountain in the background.

Morels had an awesome menu of hors d'ouver cheeses or olives. I got the Spanish Sheeps Milk Manchego cheese and Moroccan olives. OMG, so tasty! Unfortunately I didn't think to get a pic before I devoured the cheese and the tasty little toasts, but you can still see the quince paste and honeycombe on the board it came on. The olives were tossed with vinegar, minced herbs (mint, chervil, and ?) and baby lettuce. Yum! And the waiter brought me a plate of puff fritters with raspberry jam made in-house, just cuz he was a nice guy. Everything was great.

After our snack, Eli and I headed back into the market and got his GF pasta from Papardelle's pasta stand, and we made a quick stop at Cost Plus. The day was looking up :)

Caramelized onion and apricot chutney over chicken and saffron rice

Tonight I threw together some things last minute with spices and ingredients on hand. It turned out so well, I had to share - while not authentic, this recipe is delicious.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Take a wide, shallow pan that is safe for the oven. Heat 2-3 tsp of olive oil, then brown chicken legs and thighs. Add 1 onion, sliced thinly and 2 tsp of this spice mixture: 2 parts each: salt, paprika, ginger, and 1 part each: curry powder, chili powder, and white pepper.

Stir it all together and put it in the oven. Cook uncovered about 15 minutes, then cover and cook another 25-35 minutes. The meat should just start to pull away from the bones, and the onions should be really deeply caramelized. Meanwhile, chop 1/3 cup dried apricots (about 6) really finely. Put them in Pyrex and pour over just enough boiling water to cover them. Let them soak to get tender.

When the chicken is done, take the pan out and remove just the chicken. Add 1/3 cup white wine and stir up the onions. Add apricots plus 1/3 cup brown sugar and cook over low till bubbly. Serve with saffron rice or flat bread.

Happy Easter

We got the kids nice and sugared up before heading out to the farm for a family dinner. As always, Carlean made a scrumptious meal. Joan, Marge, and Aunt Marion joined us as well, and a good time was had by all.

Eli-Safe Chocolate!

Trader Joe's has chocolate chips that are Eli-safe, so this year for Easter, I made him chocolate eggs!

They're a hit! Eli really really loved them. I will have to make more, and maybe even get some nifty candy molds...













There was quite a bit of chocolate left over, so I made some Eli-Safe chocolate cookies, too!

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup Crisco or margarine
3 eggs
3/4 cup melted Trader Joe's chocolate chips
2 tsp. orange flower water
1 tsp. orange zest
1/2 tsp. baking powder + 1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour

Mix the sugars with the Crisco till smooth. Keep mixing and add eggs one at a time. Let the chocolate cool, but don't let it get solid. Pour this in to the batter along with the orange flower water and zest. Stir till combined, then add the baking powder, salt and gum. Mix 1 minute. Add the flour half at a time, mixing 1 min. after each addition.
This is really soft dough, so put it in the fridge to solidify a little. Preheat the oven to 300F at this point. Put heaping spoonfuls of the batter on the cookie sheets and bake 20-22 min. Take the cookies off the sheets immediately and carefully - when hot they fall apart, but when cooled they stick to the sheets!

Spinning Flax

I picked up some bleached flax and decided to give it a go again. The last time I had anything to do with flax was my failed attempt at growing it in order to try all the processing steps start to finish. Unfortunately I miscalculated how long llamas can actually stretch their necks. Who knew that flax was such a delicacy? :(
Due to garden constraints (down to just patio pots for now) I will not be growing it again any time soon.

Spinning flax is not actually as hard as it is made out to be. But it is very fussy when you are used to spinning wool. I have tried several methods and find the best success with dipping only my left hand or leading hand fingertips (yes, I know I'm backwards but that's how I learned and I can't un-learn it now) in a small dish of water while I spin to keep the fibers quite wet. I have tried spritzing the strick and licking as I go along, and neither are really as satisfactory for getting the fibers to hold together while introducing twist.

I will post more once I get a bobbin done and plied. My end goal for this lot is to weave it in a simple huck pattern.

...and Broccoli!

I'm really impressed with some of the things he's willing to branch out and try! As long as they are just cooked plain, anyways. He turned his nose up at my dilled greenbeans, which had 'stuff' on them. Oh well.

Sheep Shearing!

It's the annual Sheep Shearing party at the Foothill Farm. There were about a dozen people here today to help with the shearing, shots, worming, trimming, skirting, labeling and bagging. Then the real fun - the lunch and spinning in the afternoon.

Aunt Pat's shearer is about 93 years old, and still kickin. He took his time, and got the sheep clean, and the fleece off with as few second cuts as possible. With all the help, the sheep were done in about 3 hours total.

 Eli and Router both spent most of the day indoors - both to keep out of trouble!

 The buffet featured Sheri-Emina's wonderful fresh green salad and cabbage salad and triple chocolate cupcakes, Brigit's chicken salsa chili, Carlean's marinated chicken and sausage, sliced wraps, brown basmati rice, and I made Stilton cheese muffin 'poppers' and prosciutto-wrapped melon, and GFCF chocolate sponge cake to share. To top it off, there was Purple Moon Shiraz, Honey Moon Viognier, and nice Beringer white. Yum! No one left hungry!

And here is the newly shorn, nekid flock - all ready for summer!

Barn Raising, Part 3

The barn is now sporting a beautiful pale sage green coat of paint on the exterior, and white sealing/priming within. Uncle Bear, Fil and Michael have done an outstanding job!

 With rubber mats lining the floor inside each stall, the barn will be easy to scrape or hose out, and there shouldn't be any rain run-off collecting inside. They also laid and graded a load of DG for the runs on the hill-side, and trenched along the uphill wall.

Snowed Out

We headed up to Yucaipa last weekend to check out the Rock Autism benefit concert sponsored by the Inland Empire Autism Society... But while we were having 80F+ degree weather in Fontana, up in the hills they had 3 inches of snow. Even though there was only just a little left by the time we got there, the ground was pretty mushy. It was enough that the city canceled the concert since they were hoping to bring in stages, equipment and an inflatable bounce castle - all too heavy for the saturated ground. They are rescheduling the concert for June 18th. It should be even better!

...It just won't die!

Yes, that is in fact M.C. Hammer that Eli is rocking out to.

Scary Thought for the Day

This story, amazingly enough, appeared in Vanity Fair this week....

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105

The blame-game never gets old does it? Instead of blaming the last guy holding the

 administration for the current recession though, perhaps we should look at all the people standing around with their hands in their pockets. Or, other people's pockets - as the author of the article above points out.

What a novel thought.

The King's Hunt & The Queen's A&S Tea (Festival of the Rose)

This event was so great, and the site was A MA ZING. We will definitely look to camp here for this one next year. It was so laid back and beautiful! Aunt Pat got the best pics, though - in her pictures you can, as she said, sit back and take in the subtle nuances of the color green!

 And there was archery....

 And equestrian....

And guys hitting each other with sticks.... (At last, Shaun got to go play with his knight, Edric)

 

And Vikings!