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.

Too hot to cook

It never gets too hot in Ventura, rarely over 85, which is good because most of us don't have air conditioning. But this summer has proved to be one for the books. While one heat spell doesn't a global warming trend make, this weather has been hot enough to get all of our attention.

Despite my complaining, it could be a whole lot worse. Sunday, I went to Ojai for the farmers market. I swung by the bank -- the one with the time/temperature on it. At 10:15 a.m. it was 100 degrees. Here in Ventura, we've managed to hit 95 some days and although my house is naturally air conditioned with the ocean breeze providing a constant source of cool air, the air has been so hot and sticky that Rob, the pets and I have been mostly lying around until sunset, when it gets cool enough for comfort.

Imagine, this was the year we were going to dismantle the pool; it's an above-ground pool and is easily taken down. I only used it three times last year and Rob hasn't used it in years. This year, though, I've been swimming daily.

I also have been trying this week to avoid cooking. Monday I made some bacon in the George Foreman grill, which doesn't get very hot. We had BLTs made with heirloom tomatoes and fresh lettuce from the farmers market.

Tuesday I got meat from our local butcher, hamburger and bone-in chicken breasts, which were on sale. Our outdoor grill was just made for this type of weather and the chicken breasts were perfect, grilled with just a sprinkling of onion and garlic powders, salt and fresh tarragon. We had the hamburgers fresh off the grill and saved the chicken for the next night.

I made a tarragon chicken salad and some cold cucumber/watercress soup. This has sustained me for the past two days and has proved to be the perfect hot weather meal.

Tarragon/chicken salad

1 large or 2 medium grilled skin-on chicken breasts
1 celery stalk, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup dried Morello cherries, nonsweetened (available at Trader Joe's)
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 tablespoon fresh chopped or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
3/4 cup mayonnaise
salt and white pepper to taste

Take skins off cold chicken breasts and chop into 1/4 inch pieces. Mix all the ingredients together except for the salt and pepper, which you add at the end to adjust the taste. Chill. Serve with crackers and sliced tomatoes.

Cucumber/watercress soup

1 cucumber, peeled and seeded and chopped into large pieces
1 cup watercress, use mostly leaves but some stems are good
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
green onion, scallion, sliced

Using a hand-held blender, (you can use a regular blender, but the hand-held blenders are so much more convenient and so much easier to clean) blend all of the ingredients together until the cucumber and watercress are completely incorporated into the liquid. Wait until the soup is made to season. Chill the soup for 24 hours before serving. Some foam will rise to the top, so make sure to stir the soup. Garnish with sliced scallion.

Plums

We moved to this cul de sac about five years ago. I'd never lived in a cul de sac, but I've found there's a great sense of neighborhood in such an arrangement. We all tend to watch out for each other and some of us actually interact from time to time.

Ours is a microcosm of "diversity" that over-hyped, rarely achieved corporate goal. But it doesn't matter. In fact, if anything, the only people we as a group look down on is renters -- there's one house that's rented out in the enclave. Renters don't tend to care as much about the property as homeowners do, so the house always looks a little rundown.

One of our favorite neighbors is firefighter Dan and his family. One of his boys is interested in cooking and he will have me try some of his efforts. I offer him tips. I try to keep my tips positive and in the area of general knowledge. And Dan comes over from time to time with some of the fruit from his fruit trees. We get oranges, peaches and plums at various times of the year.

We had a late spring this year because it was wet and cold. As a result, the plums were late. But they were worth the wait. They were sweet and juicy. I decided to make a plum pastry after perusing some online recipes. I wasn't so much in the mood for a sauce and a pastry seemed like a nice idea.

This recipe is super easy and preserves the taste of the plums with little added. Just make sure you have a sharp knife to cut the pastry. This is great served with vanilla ice cream.

Plum tart

12 to 16 plums, seeded and sliced
1 sheet puff pastry
Canola spray
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon good-quality Indonesian cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch cakepan with canola oil. Roll out thawed puff pastry sheet and lay it in the cake pan, pushing the pastry up the sides of the pan. Place sliced plums in the middle. Using your fingers, mix the sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon together until it is is a coarse mixture of pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle mixture over the plums. Fold four corners of puff pastry over the plums. Brush exposed puff pastry with beaten egg. Cook for 30 minutes or until the pastry has browned.

Summer treats

  
It was Rob's birthday yesterday. I'd really screwed up his birthday last year by being sick, so this year I wanted to make it up to him. But Rob really dislikes big deals made over him. He wanted a cherry pie, so I made him one. (I need to brush up on my pie baking because the fair's coming up.)

Although we went out for dinner on the Big Day, I made a nice meal the day before because Rob had wanted Italian food. Meatballs are one of the first foods I learned to make. I still love them.

Spaghetti and meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
About a container and a half of your favorite sauce
1 pound spaghetti prepared as indicated on the package

Mix all ingredients together and form the mixture into 1-inch balls. Brown the meatballs in a skillet on all sides. Heat the sauce over low heat and add meatballs. Simmer on low for at least 30 minutes.
Add sauce and meatballs to drained spaghetti and mix over very low heat for about a minute. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

The Fourth of July

 
 
  
When we first moved to Ventura the local street fairs and festivals didn't live up to our Midwestern standards. In the Midwest, festivals are HUGE. These people will celebrate anything. I spent years covering the Waynesville Sauerkraut Festival for the Dayton Daily News. I also covered the Americana Festival, the Sugar Maple Festival and the Holiday at Home parade.

I wasn't all that impressed the first time I went to a Ventura street fair. Sure, the Strawberry Festival in OXnard would have probably wowed me, but it seems as though it's TOO big. These days, however, downtown Ventura, which has undergone a renaissance since I moved here, host a much better festival. We took the dogs with us because Rascal and Fuser, the two abused dogs need to get used to having lots of people around. Fuser did fine, but Rascal freaked out and would pretty much spin in circles of panic. He finally calmed down a bit, but they were all grateful to get to the car.

The fair itself was just like Ventura, funky, diverse and eclectic. It's so funny these days: Corporations have embraced "diversity" (along with getting to the "next level," whatever the Hell that is) as the newest greatest fad. But look around you and embrace what you see. Diversity is everywhere, it shouldn't have to be something you strive so hard to achieve.

Catching up

Yee Ha! I FINALLY got my gardens planted. I'm not sure why it took so long, but it has. So I made sure to buy larger seedlings and got them all planted. I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and herbs. I also managed to plant some containers to make some colorful additions to the front of the house.

I just love the feeling when you get something done that you've procrastinated to the point of getting a bit freaked out by it. I've been meaning to do yard work, but there's just so much that needs to be done that I get overwhelmed and I don't do anything. But I'm on a roll now and I'd really like to get my yard into better shape. I have a bunch of plants and bulbs I've been collecting for projects, so I should have some cool things happening around here pretty soon.

We also met for bookclub last week. Our bookclub is nothing like the just-cancelled "Tuesday Night Bookclub," which featured a bunch of Scottsdale, Ariz., women who were freaky in their "hotness." After all, there are no groups of women where no one is over a size 2. And no one has that much time to spend on her appearance. Hell, it's a good day when I remember deodorant AND eyeliner ("Mommy, that lady doesn't; have any eyes!!!"

We read "What's the Matter With Kansas?" as the book of the month, which I highly recommend. I was enlisted to use a chocolate fountain my friend Kim have me. I bought all kinds of goodies, macaroons, biscotti, pound cake, strawberries, pineapple, to dip in the chocolate. I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate chunks. It was messy and a lot of fun. A chocolate fountain is one of those things you would never buy for yourself. But it's a lot of fun to have around.

  

I've been eating better and trying to exercise more this summer. I've always enjoyed seafood salads and I love avocados. Living in Ventura County, we get great avocados grown locally. I bought a couple at the Ojai farmers market on Sunday, along with some fresh dill, salad greens and arugula. I also snatched up a couple of lemons.
This made a great dish after a day of digging around outside.

Crab and avocado salad

1 6-ounce can lump white crab meat
1/2 cup chopped celery
lemon
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 avocados

Mix crab meat, celery, juice of one-half lemon, dill and mayonnaise. Slice two avocados in half. Remove pit and sprinkle with lemon juice. Divide the crab salad into fourths and put in the center of the avocado. Serve nestled on a bed of lettuce.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

You know how I said it never gets hot here? Well, as these things have a tendency of happening, I was proved a liar and we were struck by seriously hot weather. In fact, this past Friday I called my husband in a panic. "It's an emergency. WeatherBug says it's 95 degrees at DeAnza and I can't find the fan."

Translated that means that the Web Site, Weatherbug, which give live temperature reading from all kinds of places around the country that aren't covered by the National Weather Service. DeAnza is a local Junior High School about four blocks from our house, which is important here because there are so many microclimates here in Ventura and we live in a very specific and Unusual one. Many schools have weather stations that track the temperatures because they work together with WeatherBug to make weather interesting to students.

After I called Rob, I went for a swim in our pool. It's really turning out to be quite handy this year. Rob came home and he had bought about every fan they had at Wal-Mart. Not exactly, but he DID buy four fans: two small desk models; one larger desk model and one fan on a pedestal with a remote control (God forbid we should have to get off our lazy butts and turn the fan off.)


I also had no intention of doing any serious cooking. So I decided to make BLTs along with gazpacho for dinner. These are two of my all-time favorite summertime favorites. Rob and I both love BLTs, they're just so light and just the right mixture of salty and crunchy and tomato-y sweetness. And I add basil leaves to mine to give it that little extra something.

I was introduced to gazpacho when I was a girl by my grandmother. She would whip up a batch and we would have it for lunch. My grandmother was always on a diet and we would eat very sparsely during the day when I would come for my summer visits. At the time I was thin as a rail and I would just be starving. I used to raid their pantry every night looking for food. I still love to eat. But the thin as a rail thing? Not so much.

True gazpacho calls for bread, but this is more of a puree of vegetables that's served cold with a healthy dollop of sour cream. And I can call it gazpacho if I want to. So I do.

Gazpacho for a hot day

4 roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with seeds and liquid strained
1/2 bell pepper (I used a yellow one)
1 cored cucumber, coarsely chopped
1 cup V8 vegetable juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Blend together using a hand blender, as I did (I just LOVE those things) or a regular blender. You can add basil for a nice touch or any other herb(dill would be good) if you like. Serve cold with a dollop of sour cream.

For BLTs, I always use whole grain toasted bread -- in fact I eat whole grains as much as possible. I use thick sliced bacon that I cook in a George Foreman grill. A local radio personality tipped me to this and it makes great bacon that comes out pressed straight and perfect for sandwiches. Slice the tomatoes, add fresh basil leaves, romaine lettuce and some mayonnaise and welcome to a little slice to summer time.

OTHER NOTES:

My youngest daughter Lindsay graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara today with a degree in political science. She's been working on her degree for seven years, but she has taken some time off and she managed to backpack across Europe one summer. She also worked as a manager at Aaron Brothers framing and at other stores.

Her dad and his wife came into town with their son and Lindsay's aunt came to visit. It was really kind of nice to see my little girl get her college degree. And there is no small amount of pride at having both of my girls have college degrees. It took me a while and a lot of angst before I got mine, which proved to be a lot easier than I thought it would. We went up to UCSB for the morning graduation, along with a friend of ours, who knew an interen who was graduating. It was drizzling and crowded but still nice set by the lagoon, which is right nect to the Pacific Ocan.

Parenthood has some really ugly moments, or at least that's been my experience. It's great to be able to savor the victories.

The farmers market

 
  
Every Sunday morning I roll out of bed around 8:30-9:30 a.m. While this isn't exceptionally early by most standards, considering the fact that I stay up late and usually don't get to bed until around 3:30 a.m. or so.

But Sundays are when I have to go to Ojai for the farmers market that runs there from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. What started as just a fun thing to do has turned into an obsession. I could go to the farmers market here in Ventura, but it's more expensive.

I have to get to Ojai -- it takes about 25 minutes up Hwy 33 from my house -- as close to opening hour as possible so I an grab all the good flowers.

I've become a bit obsessive about my flowers. I love to have scads of flowers all around the house all the time. As time goes on, I'm looking for more and more of a bang for new and colorful blooms. There's one lady there who sells bouquets during the summer. I totally love her stuff. It's very feminine, while being unusual and fun.

Then there's the Dutch guy, who, as one woman put it, is a "rock star" at the market. He sells flowers a loves to go on and on about them. I usually don't reciprocate too much because it's early and I usually haven't formed cogent enough thoughts to be able to express even the most basic sentence. So I grab flowers and wander around looking for fun stuff to cook.

It's late spring in California. This is a good time for lettuce and cold weather crops. I got some flowering broccoli and bok choy, along with my weekly lettuce. We can get cherries from a select few area orchards. The onions and garlic are looking delicious and the herbs are great.

I bought some squash blossoms this Sunday. I love to stuff them with cheese and fry them. I tried a little experiment this time. I stuffed half with a feta cheese/Mediterranean mixture and the other half with a double creme cheese from Trader Joe's. I then just fried some right up in olive oil and I dipped the others in milk and then a light coating of flour and fried those.

I learned this: the ones that weren't dipped in milk and flour kind of fell apart and became a nondescript mess. The ones dipped in flour held together quite well. I didn't salt any of them because cheese is salty. That proved to be wise, especially with the feta.

With food like this, I like to keep seasonings to a minimum and let the food taste come through. Squash blossoms have a fairly delicate flavor, so I just wanted to taste them, cheese and olive oil. The ones with the Trader Joe's cheese were the best, but the feta ones weren't so bad.

Stuffed squash blossoms
10 to 12 squash blossoms
cheese (use your favorite cheese to make these -- I prefer chevre when I'm not experimenting)
milk
flour
extra virgin olive oil
pepper

Carefully stuff blossoms with cheese. The squash blossoms are delicate so you will want to use them as soon after buying them as possible. Dip blossoms in milk and dredge (roll) them in flour.

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Fry squash blossom on medium high heat for about 2 minutes a side or until browned. If you have little squashes attacked to the blossoms, don't dredge them, just fry them until they begin to brown. Season with freshly ground pepper.

It's time to 'cue up the grill

  
While it's still officially spring, unofficially it's summer and it sure has felt like summer during the past few days.

Here, in Ventura, it rarely gets really hot because we're next to the ocean and there's almost always a sea breeze. Occasionally, we get Santa Ana winds, which can be very dry and hot and can last for a few uncomfortable days of high, gusty backwards winds blowing all kinds of dust and ... stuff, from the mountains. But these usually happen at the end of the summer, rather than the beginning.

As the result of having few hot days, most Venturans don't have air conditioning. And because it always, always cools down at night, we can tough it up and get through the days when the temperatures actually rise into ... gasp! ... the 80s. Oh yeah, the pets are panting, I'm sweating and the plants are wilting. Our vet said that pets from Ventura tend to exhibit signs of heat stress way before animals living elsewhere. He kind of gets a kick out of it, noting that we've all become acclimated to comfortable temperatures, or wimps I believe was the actual term.

My buddy Kaia came over today and it was one of the few days it was warm enough to go swimming in our pool. When we bought this house, it came with an above-ground pool. It's a pretty nice pool, nothing fancy, but it's a full-size backyard pool. It costs us a small fortune to keep it running and to keep the water clean enough not to alarm the dudes who fly over our house with helicopters looking for dirty pools. Rob acted as though I was paranoid for saying this until there was one of those channel 7 or KCAL 9 or some other TV station that did a big story on dirty pools -- with pictures from helicopters -- and how they're breeding places for West Nile disease.

We've discussed getting rid of it because it's usually in the low 70s around here and too cool to swim. It's getting old too and the liner looks as though it will burst any moment. But it's a big hassle to take it down because we live so close to the ocean and you have to let all the chlorine get out of the pool before you can dump the water. Then we have to hire someone to take the whole thing away. We can probably resell the filter and pump. We've decided that we'd like to replace the pool with a hot tub, which would be a lot of fun on our chilly nights.

But today Kaia and I spent some time swimming around the pool, which was really pleasant. Then I barbecued. One of the other cool things we got with our house was a really nice brick barbecue near the back covered patio area. The barbecue has a tray that lowers and raises on which you place the coals. Unfortunately said tray has completely rusted through over the years. We've taken to using heavy duty aluminum foil to hold the coals.

A few weeks ago, I got a charcoal chimney. These are fabulous devices that allow you to light the coals without using lighter fluid. They consist of two chambers, top and bottom. The charcoal is placed in the top chamber and the bottom chamber is filled with crunched up newspaper. The metal dividing the chambers is filled with holes and there are holes on the side to fuel the flames. It's a ingenious little device.

The first time I used it, I kept the coals in until they were grey. Unfortunately the resulting heat concentrated at the bottom of the chimney actually melted the aluminum foil. I've replaced the foil with a cookie sheet, which holds the coals and can stand getting hotter than the foil can. And the cool part about using a chimney is there is no lighter fluid flavor. It's best to dump the coals out when the fire seems well established in the coals, but the top ones are still black.

Because I can adjust the height of the fire, I can create a two-level fire with no problem. This comes in handy for steaks, which should be seared on both with a high flame and then cooked with a lower flame.

We experimented with rubs today; using three different Penzey's concoctions on the meat. I also made hamburgers, which were flavored with Penzey's English Rib rub.

Cooking hamburgers on the grill is one of the most difficult things for a cook to do well, especially now when all hamburgers have to be overdone to kill any bacteria that may be lurking in our meat. It's a sad commentary that we live in a world where the can poison our meat with bacteria in filthy packing plants, and rather than solving the problem, we are all condemned to eating gray hockey pucks.

But as ridiculous as it is, we still have to do it to be safe. There is an exception. If you go to a old fashioned butcher, who grinds his/her own meat, you can be a lot more sure that the ground meat you get is safe. It may cost more and require a special trip, but it is so worth it to be able to have a medium rare hamburger again.

There are a few cardinal rules to cooking hamburger. If you follow these, you will stand a much better chance of getting heaven on a bun, or my very favorite summer food -- a grilled hamburger.

Hamburger rules
* Never, ever press down on a hamburger when you are cooking it. You are pushing out the juices and making the meat tough.
* If you want the sides of your burger to be flat, indent the burger in the middle a little bit when you form the patties. The natural tendency of the meat is to ball up as it cooks, and this combats that.
* Speaking of forming patties, form them quickly, and handle them long enough for the meat to stick together, but don't overhandle the meat or it will become tough. And always wash your hand with antibacterial soap after handling raw meat. Make sure to wash or wipe every surface you touched or the raw meat touched. And never, ever use the plate you used for the raw meat for cooked meat.
* Try to flip the burgers as few times as possible. You can see the meat cooking on the first side to get a feel for when to flip them the first time. You can judge how done they are in part by looking at the juices that come out of the burgers. If they're bloody, the meat still isn't done. A well-done burger will shrink significantly and become quite firm.
* If you notice blood on the plate, you may want to microwave the burgers for about a minute. Some people recommend doing this as a matter of course with burgers and I will do it with supermarket meat.