Merry Christmas

First, I'd like to say that my grandson is the cutest baby in the world. Second, we had a great Christmas. Nothing dramatic. No Big Presents. It was just us and various family members. Rick and Marilyn came out to spend a Christmas in California with their sons and they stopped by.

I took Courtney, Dave and Cody to the Grove in Hollywood. The picture with Cody is hysterical. Poor squished baby!

We spent a quiet New Year's Eve and I made wings, including my Asian-inspired wings, which are my favorites. The other wings I make are classical Buffalo hot wings. I served these with the requisite celery and carrots with blue cheese dressing. I added some Trader Joe's small tacos, which people always like.

I also made my signature New Year's Eve dish, pigs feet with sauerkraut, but, as usual, no one wanted to share it with me. Too bad for them.

Asian chicken wings

Large, family pack of chicken wings, cut into sections, wing tips discarded
Canola oil
soy sauce (I use Kikkoman reduced sodium)
Kikkoman Aji-mirin sweet cooking rice wine
One bunch scallions cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Fresh ginger root, sliced, about 6 pieces

Pour canola oil into an iron skillet or a good electric skillet to about 1/2 inch in depth. Heat until hot, but not smoking. Fry wing sections for about 15 minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. You can bake the wings, but they don't tend to hold together well when they're mixed with the other ingredients. In a large wok mix wings with enough soy sauce and sweet wine to cover them completely. Add scallions and ginger root and heat through. Remove ginger root before serving.

Christmas street fair

One of the things I love about living here in Ventura is the weather. Where else can you have a street fair for the Christmas holidays? OK anyplace in Southern California, Arizona, parts of Texas and Florida. Oh, never mind.
My point is that the weather makes the holidays all the more enjoyable. Yesterday Lindsay and I went with her fiance Ryan to get Christmas trees. It was a warm day. In fact, I wore my shorts and a t-shirt.

There are those who say that they can't get into the "Christmas spirit" without cold and snow, but I beg to differ. It's so much more comfortable to look for trees without freezing half to death, feeling every appendage go numb, losing all sensation in your lips and shivering uncontrollably.

I've bought trees in 0 degree weather wit blinding snow and I can assure you it becomes an exercise in pain. You basically pick the first tree you see because it's so cold. And the tree freezes in the tied-up position so it takes a few days and a lot of sappy water falling on your floors for the branches to come down and for you to know that you got a tree with a bald spot the size of Donald Trump's ego.

I was able to peruse the trees at my temperate leisure. I wanted an especially tall one this year because it's Cody's first Christmas and even though he won't remember it, he will always remember the sense of sparkly lights and everything being pretty and everyone being happy.

Kind of like the way I always thought -- and still do think that Christmas at my grandparents' was magical. My grandmother would get an enormous tree -- seriously to this day everyone says she got the biggest trees they'd ever seen -- it would be about seven feet wide and at least 15 feet tall. She decorated it with blue lights and silver ornaments, with lots and lots of tinsel. It was amazing and each year my brothers and I would run to sit under the tree. They had a little music box that played Hark the Herald Angels and had three kids singing under a lamppost. My grandparents said they were my brothers and me. I would sit for hours under that tree and play that music box. I treasure those magical Christmas memories and I want to make sure Cody treasures his.

Our California Christmas has some unique traditions. We always go for a walk on the beach. The kids go up to the hot springs on Christmas Eve. They won't go this year, for the second year in a row, because Courtney is pregnant again and can't go. Next year there will be two babies. Crazy.

Besides the street fair, I posted a picture of a peace rose I grew out front. I'll bet you're not seeing a lot of them elsewhere.

Travel piece

These photos are from a visit to Oceanside to see my stepsister Jennifer and her new baby Evan. My stepmom and half-sister were there along with one of my newphews. Below is a piece I wrote about that trip.

I took a one-day seminar from Laurie Buckle, managing editor of Bon Appetit and we were supposed to write a 100-word travel piece. I had just finished her six-week course four weeks ago, and was a little burnt out. I said something to Rob about writing a piece on my trip to Oceanside and how crappy the food was there. Everyone thought it was really funny and Laurie actually said it was the best thing see's seen me write. She didn't know where I could sell it exactly, but here goes:

Whenever I visit a new place the first thing I do is try to find local restaurants and examples of local cuisine. I eagerly anticipate the new culinary adventures awaiting me. After all, I watch the Food Channel. I read the travel pieces.
I was ready to be delighted as I traveled to Oceanside. I arrived late and asked the desk dude where to eat. It was about 11:45 p.m. He told me to try Angelo’s, but to hurry. “It closes at midnight,” he said.
I ran to my car and entered the Angelo’s parking lot at 11:50 p.m. I drove up to the suspiciously dark menu. I set my clocks according to the atomic clock feed we keep in the house, it was a good ten minutes before midnight, but a voice said “We’re closed.”
I drove up and down the Coast Highway, but all I found was a scary tuna sandwich at seedy, scary convenience store. It was either that or the ubiquitous petrified hotdog. Oh well, I thought, I could stand to miss a meal.
I started poking in the other direction from the motel and my heart leapt when I saw neon in the distance. Dare I hope? Could it be a McDonald’s. Could I be getting a Big Mac?
Nah. It was a Del Taco, which I resorted to as an emergency measure. The hamburger tasted like cardboard – more so than the usual fast-food burger. Oh well, I’d try culinary adventuring tomorrow.
I woke the next day and decided to bypass Carrow’s with its familiar breakfast menu. I went to the Jolly Roger restaurant in the Oceanside Harbor. I had a lovely harbor-side seat and the restaurant was all quaint and seaside-y. I ordered eggs benedict, my very favorite breakfast food. The waitress smiled conspiratorially, “Would you like extra sauce?”
“Sure,” I said. I love me some hollandaise sauce. My eggs arrived. They were perfectly poached on a nice, crispy English muffin, or what once had been a crispy English muffin, by the time I got to it the muffin had drowned in the sauce. The sauce looked unlike any hollandaise I’d ever seen, not even the canned kind. It was reddish/yellow and had a greasy consistency, kind of like melted butter, but a lot grosser, with not even a hint of lemon.
I scraped off as much sauce as I could, ate my eggs and played with the plastic hash browns. The breakfast proved a good investment, however, because I got a stomach ache that lasted the rest of the day and killed my appetite.

Happy Halloweenie

 

 

 

Breakfast places in Ventura

Here's another article I wrote for my food writing class. It's a guide to breakfaat in Ventura:

It’s the smells, the sweetness of pancakes and syrup, the tang of orange, the bitterness of coffee, the savory eggs and potatoes, that make a great breakfast as comforting and satisfying as a warm hug on a cold day. You’d think it would be easy, after all breakfasts tend to be fairly easy in concept, but as anyone knows who has had a disappointing plate of rubbery, cold bacon and congealed eggs served with leaden pancakes, it’s not so hard to make a bad breakfast.

A great breakfast needs to throw dietary considerations to the wind, which is why they should at most, be a once-a-week treat. Weekend breakfasts are a time-honored tradition, allowing for lingering over a cup of hot coffee with toast and the newspaper.

Ventura is a breakfast Mecca in the county. There are so many great breakfasts available, it’s almost impossible to list them all. This is more or less a list of just-breakfast places, that focus on the morning meal and in most cases also serve lunch: The kind of place that closes at 2 p.m. each day.

Pete’s Breakfast House is a local favorite and there are long lines each weekend morning. They serve up a great, traditional breakfast, but the charm of Pete’s is the casual “Everybody knows your name” atmosphere, where regulars shout greetings to people behind the counters. People rave about the omelettes, and the pancakes and waffles are very popular.

Allison’s Country Café is also popular with the weekend crowds. With its emphasis on their light, fluffy biscuits served with homemade raspberry jam that is available by the jar, this is a delightful, homey restaurant that is country without pretense or artifice. The menu focuses on eggs, waffles and hotcakes, along with the legendary biscuits.

Golden Egg Café is right down the street from Pete’s, which seems kind of a shame because it has never really had a chance to be considered on its own merits. There are outdoor tables available, which are pet-friendly. The menu features basic breakfast food and the bacon is thick and very nicely cured.

Art’s Corner Café focuses on customers. So much so that caricatures of regulars, drawn by area artist Chris Martinez line the walls. Art prides himself on his soft, fluffy pancakes and the French toast is the old-fashioned thin sliced bread kind. The chile verde is also featured, as well as really large portions of eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and ham.

Eggs N Things is a small Ventura County chain that is well-known by locals. They serve every customer a small Swedish pancake that’s served with a dollop of boysenberry jam. The eggs benedict can be a bit uneven, with eggs arriving at random stages of doneness. But the food is very good overall.

Café Nouveau has been discovered and it’s not going well. The delightful breakfast restaurant located in an old, renovated house with an exquisite outdoor patio is wonderful if you catch it at the right time. The menu is good, with breakfast burritos, eggs, French toast – the thick kind, but the service is quite spotty and can be downright rude. The lines on the weekend are long and the wait staff gets so flustered that they have trouble filling orders.

Franky’s Restaurant was long a Ventura favorite. But under new ownership, it's a shell of its former self, with a truncated menu and the elimination of the iconic fountain. The old staff is gone as is the tomato/basil dressing. The menu focuses on healthier choices.

Ojai travel piece

This is from my food writing boot camp class I took in West Hollywood. This was supposed to be a food/travel piece, but somehow the mention of how to get there using the scenic route was considered somehow irrelevant???? And the whole getting away from it all angle was considered trite:

Anyway, here it is.

Ojai: Getting away on a road less traveled

When life is too hectic, when traffic is too traffic-y, crowds are too crowded and you head’s wound so tight it could snap off with the slightest jostle, it’s time to get away. But this can’t be a getaway that causes more stress than it relieves. This needs to be a getaway that offers ease of access along with an entirely different, laid-back environment.
Ojai, California, is nestled in the mountains just north of Los Angeles in a place that seems far, far away from the endless mini-malls and big box stores that seem to be the norm in the Southern California landscape.
Getting there can be a delight. Sure, there is a more direct route – you take the 101 Freeway north to Hwy 33 and go on north to Ojai – but half the fun of getting away is getting there, especially if it’s scenic. Take the 101 Freeway north from Los Angeles. In Ventura, take Hwy. 126 to Santa Paula. Get off at the signs for State Route 150 and follow the two-lane marked road though the town and up into the hills.
This is a drive, with its Alps-like views, and a two-lane road that meanders alongside the Santa Paula Creek that can quiet the most stressed soul as soccer games and payback dinners fade into the background and an obligation-free weekend away beckons. In the spring the mustard weed blooms and the hillsides explode in yellow, rising into the deep blue that is the sky. Other times of year are equally delightful, unique and waiting to be discovered. The road rises through the hills and levels out in what is known as the Upper Ojai, a series of ranches set in a high valley, with fields of apricot trees and grazing cattle..
You pass by Beatrice Woods’ Ojai Foundation, the Boccali tree farm and end up at the village/crossroads of Summit, where a lone hamburger stand, which is almost always closed, sits by the side of the road. The road starts to wind again and right at the top is an overlook where visitors can view Ojai stretched out below, evoking a Van Gogh landscape, with its Medeterranian-style vineyards, fields of oranges and red-tile roofed homes all nestled at the foot of Topa Topa mountain, which forms a distinctive backdrop for the western half of Ventura County.
Highway 150 delivers visitors outside of town, where the road is lined by stone walls and the orange trees spotted from above. A local favorite, Boccali’s restaurant, which serves pizza and pasta where the not-so-secret ingredient is the homegrown tomatoes, is immediately on the left where the old California oaks offer dappled shade over the picnic area where diners enjoy their meals.
The center of town is heralded by the downtown arcade, with its distinctive scalloped arches facing Libbey Park, the heart of the town. Libbey Park is home to an annual tennis tournament, a music festival, Shakespeare and other performances in the small ourdoor amphitheater.
While Ojai is home to the Ojai Valley Inn, which is a high-end escape for the privileged, there are a number of smaller places available for the weekender. The Lavender Inn, 210 E. Matilija St., is a bed and breakfast that offers rooms that are as quaint as the bed and breakfast’s name. The inn offers cooking classes through the Ojai Culinary Institute, with such topics as farmers market specialties, Italian treats and holiday cooking taught by local chefs and food experts. But if even a cooking class is too much pressure, the Lavender Inn offers massages and other relaxing spa services.
After a morning of travel has generated a healthy appetite, it’s time to take a break and grab a sandwich or salad at Rainbow Bridge Natural Food Store, directly across from the Lavender Inn. The store offers a variety of organic foods and pre-made or made-to-order specialties. Take your lunch and head to nearby Libbey Park, where you can enjoy small town people-watching in the sun. If you’re lucky, local performers will be entertaining. You can stroll around the wooded park after lunch and visit the Libbey Bowl. The outdoor stage offers kids – and childlike adults – a chance to perform, if only for the local frogs.
Spend the afternoon shopping and browsing at the local galleries. Ojai is an artists’ retreat and there are many local artists who display their works. This is the kind of small town where shopkeepers are relaxed and friendly. Visitors have been asked to “watch the store” as owners run down the street to “grab a bite.”
One of Ojai’s great joys is the Pink Moment. When the sun sets on most days, the unique topography causes the rosy rays to appear to get trapped by the atmosphere, bathing the town in a pink glow. The very best place to watch this is Meditation Mount, a facility where people are welcome to contemplate the unspoiled view in the Peace Garden.
Dinner in Ojai offers a multitude of possibilities, from fine dining at Suzannes, Azu and Auberge to more casual, but still high-end fare such as that offered at Pangea or Feast Bistro. One thing about all restaurants in Ojai share is an emphasis on local fresh produce. Chefs tend to be inspired by the abundance and variety of vegetables and fruits that are locally grown and they use them well. Just outside of town is the Deer Lodge, 2261 Maracopa Highway (Hwy. 33) where wild game is prepared by a chef who is adventurous enough to offer a smoke trout chile relleno with a chili cream sauce that will have diners licking their plates.
After a good night’s sleep, wake up to a buffet breakfast at the Lavender Inn or try out the more traditional fare at Bonnie Lu’s Country Café or Eggs N. Things. After getting a bellyful, head to the local farmers market where vendors from local farms offer all kinds of treats – from fresh, locally grown apples and strawberries to root vegetables and a myriad of greens and herbs. This is a great place to gather flowers for the week or to stock up on salad greens and fresh, local eggs. Try out the “soap lady,” with her homemade soaps, the “salt lady,” who offers organic Celtic salts to be used as rubs alongside her many herbal potions, or the lavender booth, dedicated to all things lavender.
Ojai is nestled at the foot of Los Padres National Forest. There is a ranger station on Ojai Avenue, just outside of town where visitors can get day passes and directions to area trails. A number of hot springs can be hiked to in the area, along with a bike trail that runs from Ojai down to the ocean in Ventura.
If you’ve worked up an appetite from the morning fun, don’t overlook Rubens Burritos, which is a tiny little hole in the wall that serves huge and tasty burritos, or Ojai Pizza, which also has a great lunch menu.
You can head out of Ojai from whence you came, along Highway 150, or you can choose to go down Hwy 33 to where it swings by the ocean and runs into the 101 Freeway. Either way, the unique small-town charm of Ojai will stay with you – at least until the Monday morning productivity meeting.

The tale of fenugreek

 
  
This is the piece I worked on for Laurie Buckle's class in food writing. I'm having so much fun with this class.
At the local farmers market every Sunday in Ojai, California, is an organic produce booth. With its bunch of knit rainbow-hatted, dread-headed sales people, it is a Mecca for health food afficionados from around the artists’ enclave north of Los Angeles. Each week people clamor for the fenugreek, which is available alongside such exotic offerings as wild arugula, nettle, rosemary, cilantro, and other seasonal herbs and greens. The salespeople are happy to help customers who have questions about the more exotic or unusual offerings.
Fenugreek is used in both seed, dried and fresh forms extensively in Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian cooking. The Latin name is trigonella foenum graecum. Trigonella refers to the triangular flowers and foenum graecum means Greek hay, supposedly because it was used to sweeten the smell of inferior Greek hay, according to botanical.com Web site.
Fenugreek does have a strong, characteristic odor. Some say it smells kind of like maple syrup, and in fact, fenugreek is used to make maple syrup flavoring, but others find it has more of a earthy, curry-like smell, which is appropriate because fenugreek seeds are often used in making curries in India and Pakistan.
The leaves, also known as methi, are used in Middle Eastern cooking, often in stews. Fenugreek has also been used traditionally for various medicinal reasons and the powdered seeds are often sold at health food stores to lower blood sugar, as an anticoagulant and to help breast feeding mothers increase lactation, although the latter use is under debate. But the amounts used in cooking have little effect on health and fenugreek is added to increase the complexity of flavors.
Fenugreek seeds are a spice and fenugreek leaves are considered an herb. They can’t be used interchangeably.
“Fenugreek seeds are NOT a good substitute for leaves. Think of the difference in flavour between fresh coriander (cilantro) and coriander seed. You can use them as a substitute but you'll get a different flavour. If you do use fenugreek seeds DO NOT overheat them or you will really know what bitter tastes like. Add them with the liquid,” says David Smith of England, who writes and maintains the Web site The Curry House (http://www.curryhouse.co.uk)
Fenugreek has a rather bitter flavor, which can be off-putting for the American palate, but if you counteract the bitterness with other brighter ingredients, the resulting dish can be complex and delicious. And with many of the medicinal/health effects of cod liver oil, fenugreek not only adds to the flavor, but also to the nutritive qualities of the foods in which it’s used. A word of caution, though. People have noticed a distinctive smell to their sweat and urine after eating fenugreek, some say it’s like maple syrup.
Fenugreek is often used with potatoes. The guy at the Ojai produce stand recommended it in a potato casserole or in soups. Other recipes call for using fenugreek in dals, or the pureed lentil dishes that are often served in Indian cuisine. The following recipes take both of those ideas, Indian-style spices and healthy cooking concepts, to create dishes that have a depth of flavor that is rather unique to the Western palate.
This lentil soup recipe is low-fat (if you consider extra virgin olive oil a fat), is inexpensive and is actually a vegan dish that people who profess an allergy of all things labeled Health Food find tasty.

Lentil soup with fenugreek2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
8 cups vegetable broth
1 16 ounce package lentils, rinsed and cleaned
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon garam masala
5 to 6 bay leaves
1 cup fresh fenugreek leaves

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add onion and saute, add carrots and celery. Saute until vegetables start to sweat. Add minced garlic. Cook until garlic becomes fragrant. Add vegetable broth. Add lentils, salt, garam masala and bay leaves. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add fenugreek leaves. Cook an additional 15 minutes or until lentils are tender/chewy.
Serve with pita crisps

Pita crisps
Cut 4 pita rounds into fourths and divide each fourth into two pieces. Spray cookie sheet with olive oil. Place pita pieces smooth side down on cookie sheet. Spray pita with olive oil. Sprinkle with granulated garlic powder (not garlic salt). Cook in 350 oven for 8 minutes.

Using butter with extra virgin olive oil raises the burning temperature of the butter, making it suitable for longer term higher temperature cooking. Plus this is a really easy way yo get the taste of ghee (clarified butter) without going through all the trouble of making your own. You can use extra virgin olive oil exclusively to make the recipe healthier. The Vindaloo seasoning is an Indian-style spice mix from Penzey’s spices, which carries a wide variety of curry spices.

Potatoes with peas and fenugreek

6 medium waxy potatoes, such as red or yellow potatoes cut in 3/4 inch pieces
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1½ teaspoons Vindaloo seasoning
1 cup frozen peas
½ cup fenugreek leaves
½ cup spring onions, coarsely chopped (Scallions can be substituted)
Sea salt to taste

Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain and start to fry oil/butter mix in a heated skillet. Add Vindaloo seasoning and cook until potatoes start to brown. Add peas, fenugreek leaves and spring onions. Cook until peas are thawed. Salt and serve.

Just some photos for now

I've been busy taking a food writing boot camp course with Bon Appetit Managing editor Laurie Buckle. It's a total blast, although it's in L.A., which means I have to overcome my fear of driving there -- I'm not down with the insanity of the L.A. interstate system. The drive gets longer and longer each time and I leave earlier and earlier and get there later and later.

These pork chops are made with some purple peppers I grew, along with some green ones. I added onion and apple and made a wine reduction. It was really nice with pork chops, which I just sauteed in some olive oil.

The flourless chocolate cake comes from Bon Appetit magazine. It's amazingly easy and insanely rich. I added the raspberries, along with a little raspberry extract in the ganache. A slice of heaven.

Cody: The Da Vinci of Drool

Technical note: HA! Blogger! I tired to upload photos in Explorer -- no dice; in Firefox -- no can do. But I will not be defeated, so I went to Picasa and uploaded through there. But STILL not happening. So I copied and pasted the code, which appears in Picasa. Opened a post and pasted the code into my blog.
Ha! Ha! I have pictures!.
Each victory of the tyranny of machines/computers must be celebrated.

 
 
 
  

I spent 10 days in Ohio visiting my daughter Courtney and her husband, Dave, and preparing for the baptism of Cody: The Wonder Baby.

First, I'd just like to join all the grandparents who went before me in saying that my grandchild is the most beautiful baby EVER. While my parents were never down with the whole grandparent thing -- at least not when it came to my kids -- I've decided to take the pendulum back to the other side. My grandchild can suck his toes with a pensiveness that belies great genius. And drooling? This baby is the Da Vinci of drool.

All of Cody's grandparents and parents descended for his baptism and I was in charge of the food. This meant a lot of shopping in Ohio, which is kind of fun, but harder than I remember with a baby (Oh yeah, when I had my babies, we were so broke that shopping was out of the question.)

Each time I visit the Midwest, I'm reminded why I really hated that part of the world. The weather is way too dreary and I feel trapped. There's something about being able to look out over the ocean that is liberating.

I bought a Honeybaked Ham (my favorite), bread, cheeses and crackers and chips. I made potato salad and a pasta chicken salad. I serve hamburgers and hotdogs, which were OK, especially after we got propane for the grill.

Everyone seemed to have fun. I avoided the volleyball game: I had visions of my ex-husband's current wife cramming the ball up my nose (or me hers), and most parties don't need that much drama.

It was a great party and Cody entertained his guests with a precocious ease -- but then when chewing one's finger is all you need to do to enthrall the crowds ...

Chicken pasta salad
Two boxes of tri-colored rotini, prepared according to directions until al dente
Meat from six cooked chicken leg quarters or the equivalent (cook the chicken in a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and a half).
1 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup slivered, toasted almonds
About 2 cups of grapes sliced in half

Salad dressing
2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 to 2 tablespoons Garam masala powder (Curry powder can be substituted)
Mix together.

Mix together the cooled chicken, prepared pasta, celery, almonds and grapes. Pour salad dressing over and toss until everything is well coated. You can dress up the top with grapes and almonds if you wish.

Peachy problem

Here's my problem. My peaches took forever to ripen this year because of a late, rainy spring. They just started getting ripe last week. But I have to be in Ohio for my grandson's baptism. After waiting a year, I want my peaches.

My peach tree is a source of great pride and joy for me. When we moved into our house five years ago, I went to Home Depot and found these sticks they were claiming were fruit trees. For $4.99, I figured, "What the hell" and bought one. I planted it in our front yard in front of the picture window. I optimistically reasoned that if it grew into a tree, it would provide a screen.

My neighbors laughed. "What's that supposed to be?" they said. "A peach stick. What does it look like?" I replied. I mean, seriously.

I nurtured my little stick. The first summer it produce just one peach. One perfect, sweet Zen peach. I was delighted. Then the little stick took off. Now it's a decent sized tree screening my front window. The neighbors look on with awe and covet my peaches. But no dice. These puppies will be lovingly put up by me.

But I'm in Ohio and can't collect my fruit. I gathered a bunch up before I left; skinned, pitted and trimmed them and I stuck them in the refrigerator. I'm hoping they'll last until I get home. They're a bit more buggy than normal. I don't use spray -- not because of any fervor -- but because I can't figure out how to use the sprayer. But I cut all the bug parts out. Rob says you'll get peach worm eggs if you eat them and they'll grow in your body and kill you. Sigh.

Sheesh Ka-bobs

  
  

I LOVE fair food. Each year I look forward to the fried clams -- even through they're not that good. I also get Udon noodles that are made by the Oxnard Buddist Temple, which are that good. I didn't get a funnel cake this year -- I can only eat a bit before it starts to hurt my stomach.

Overall fair food is amazingly bad for you. I had to take a picture of the top dish when I was there the other day. Three women had ordered it and were each gobbling it down. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what this nasty concoction was, so I went over the the booth where they sell spiral fries and saw that it was the chili cheese spiral fries.

I can honestly say that this looked like one of the more disgusting things I've seen people eat. First, of all the fries aren't crisp. They're served in a log shape, which keeps fries from getting a crispy outside. Then they're covered with a brown-chili sauce that has the consistency of gravy and a cheese product sauce that also has the consistency of gravy. Ewwwwwwwww. And, sorry, sometimes you DON'T have to try something to know it's disgusting.

In honor of the fair ending and in honor of just generally eating better, we had shish kabobs the other night. Let's put it this way, 180 degrees from the spiral chili cheese fries, lie shish kabobs, both in taste and nutrition. They are incredibly versatile and can be prepared for as diverse a culinary crowd as you can find, from the vegans to the meat and potato guys.

Shish kabobs are so easy to make, so economical, so good for you and so tasty, I like to refer to them as Perfection on a Stick.

Perfection on a stick
or Shish kabobs

1 to 2 pounds beef or chicken (buy an economical steak and cut it at home to save money. I prefer chuck, but whatever's on sale works) cut into one-inch chunks
1 green pepper cut into one-inch pieces
1 yellow or orange pepper cut into one-inch pieces
1 large onion, preferably red cut into one-inch pieces
mushrooms
Tomatoes are optional and I don't like them cooked this way
wooden skewers soaked in water. I use a water or juice pitcher for this
garlic powder
onion powder
Worcestershire sauce

Skewer the vegetables and meat alternately creating a nice balance, until the skewer is full. I've noticed that putting mushrooms on the ends is tricky since they tend to fall off when they cook. Sprinkle the kabobs with the powders and soak them in Worcestershire sauce. Grill over hot coals until the meat is browned. Make sure the meat is cooked through with the chicken kabobs. Serve with brown rice.

Fair fun

Here are some photos I took at this year's fair. I went on dollar day just to take some shots.

Pig races

This is a perennial kiddie favorite. The pigs race around the track to the other side to get to their food.

Braids

The farm/ranch kids come in to show off their animals or to do a little riding.

Blue-ribbon winner

There are tons of equestrian events, from jousting to rodeo-style roundups to English jumping. But all I could think of as I watched the jumpers was Christopher Reeve and how that's how he broke his neck. So I left.

Girls and goats

I have a problem with the 4-H livestock stuff because it makes me sad to see these animals knowing they will likely be killed for pork chops or steaks. I eat meat. But I prefer to be a willfully ignorant meateater. My meat comes in packages, all cut up. But since most people don't eat goat meat, I'm hoping these goats will be sold for breeding or goat milk or something.

The blues

I love how blue the sky is here and these bars against the blue sky just struck me as a cool composition.

The results are in

 
  

Every year I say I'm doing this in fun and each year -- OK this year and last, I get all torqued up when it's actually time to see how I did at the fair. Seriously. I had to take a pill. And this is just the county fair. Imagine if I were up for some big, televised award -- I'd die of an angst attack.

I rode my bike down there. I figure it's safer than me driving when I've worked myself all up into a state. It took me a while to find my entries. The first one I saw was the pie. A first place. Woooo Wooo. The pie didn't look as bad as it had earlier. I found the sugar cookies, my favorites this year, and they got a second place. The chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies didn't get anything.

It's a good showing and, frankly, I didn't feel the chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies were that good. That, however, does not stop me from noting that everyone else who ate them loved them -- especially the chocolate chip. So there!

But I'm thinking maybe pies are my thing ... maybe more pies and more first prizes. Oh yeah. I'm on my way to becoming one of the Grand Ladies of Ventura County baking: Peggy Russell of Ojai and Jeanne Walker of Oxnard step aside.

It was cool to see how many people had entered this year. There seemed to be more of a cross-section of people and a lot of names I'd never seen before.

Rob and I went and saw the fireworks, which will be set off nightly at 10 p.m. It was a clear night. I just love it here in the summer with the fair. I always took my vacation for the fair because it's so quintessentially summer.

It's Fair time

It's my favorite time of year in Ventura. Fair time. I'm not sure exactly what it is -- maybe it's the fact that it's on the ocean, maybe it's all the old-timey stuff and for sure it's because of the great, greasy wonderful culinary wonderland that is the food -- but I just love this fair.

When we first moved here, Rob and I weren't big fair people. But I went the first year I was here alone and I loved it. Rob resisted for a couple of years, but finally, I got him to go and he LOVED it. His favorite part is the Commercial Building where they sell all the fair crap/merchandise. I love Home Arts because they have sewing, and table setting and my favorite cooking.

Last year, I decided to put my proverbial money where my mouth was and entered the fair. I entered a peach pie made with peaches from my peach tree, sugar cookies and oatmeal cookies. I got a first place for the pie, a second place for the sugar cookies and third place for the oatmeal cookies. I couldn't have been happier. Well actually I could have. I could have won all first places and the blue ribbon for all of cooking, but hey, it was a first try.

This year the weather has been unusually hot and sticky. Fortunately the heat has abated for now, but the humidity remains. I'm beginning to think the reason most heavy cooking and baking happens in the winter is to avoid the hot, sticky days that can wreak havoc on baked goods.

I ended up battling my peach pie crust, and I think it won. The juices overflowed and popped the top and the foil I put on the edges to keep them from getting too brown stuck and in one spot it looks pretty bad. The peaches, which were from the farmer's market, weren't very good. The texture was good though, so I put a bunch of turbinado sugar on them. In fact, this is the year of turbinado sugar because I used it on my cookies too. I figure everything is going to get soft because of the humidity, and the sugar will keep it crunchy and give the cookies and pie a little edge.

My buddy Kaia helped me bake the cookies. She and I are becoming quite the baking team -- making cookies year-round. Rob and I also take Kaia to the fair each year. This gives us a completely different experience from when we go ourselves. We're old fogies and love stuff like photography, horticulture, home arts and shucksters. Kaia likes rides and games and candy.

I took my entries to the fair today. They'll be judged by tomorrow -- Wednesday, the first day of the fair. I'm not as optimistic as I was last year -- especially about the pie. But I had so much fun with Kaia and I felt so happy just baking my brains out for the county fair as so many have done before me. It's, like all-American and stuff. It's also really fun to create happy memories for a lovely little girl, which can be taken out for solace or joy as she gets older.

No matter what the ribbon, the real prize was getting ready.