Feeling Naughty?

Urban Foraging? hmmm...

FIGS!

CITRUS A'PLENTY!

Urban foraging is become more and more popular. It's the art of finding fresh food in public areas.

Every grab a lemon from a tree that hung over the sidewalk? Pick lavender at a local park?

Well, I'm sure it's *wrong*, but the best place to grab a snack might be the Fullerton Arboretum.

By the way, you didn't hear it from me.

I looked for staff onsite to ask about how they would handle that, but didn't see anyone.

I think the key is to take a single item, or something that wouldn't be missed. Don't be greedy.
Also, think karma.  There is a donation box at the front gate.  Toss in a few and buy your way to heaven.

There were figs, oranges, lemons, bananas, mango, lavender, herbs, and so many others.........

Fantastic!

Naughty, but well fed.

Wake Up Sunshine!

There are definitly some perks to waking up early in the summer to babysit.

For starters, seeing my niece and nephew just waking up, crazy hair and all yawns.

Also, you can't argue with a plate full of these pancakes....the start of a good day.

When you Need to Know it Could be Worse...

Yeah, we've all been there.

Gluttony is my personal favorite sin too.

Well, when you need to know you haven't exactly hit bottom, check out the blog 
This is Why You're Fat.

Seriously.  It could be worse.

Here are a few of my favorite...

The Twinkie Sushi.

And there is this guy called "the steakinator"!

2 8oz Prime Angus steaks with braised short rib, cheddar cheese, bacon and a fried egg on a toasted cheese and garlic sourdough bun.

My midnight drive thru doesn't seem so bad after all.

Cheers.

From the Heart.

I came home to a bag of apples on my porch- a gift from my landlord and her garden.

I wonder if home grown gifts touch other people they way they do me...?

It's lovely.

Fallen Fruit Presents, EATLACMA!

June 27, 2010–November 11, 2010

 Welcome to the next installment of LACMA's year long look into food, culture, politics and of course art!  In February they hosted fruit tree giveaways, and last month they celebrated with tomatoes.

The Fallen Fruit summer display kicks off this Sunday, June 27th.

The museum opens 11am to 8pm
BYO Picnic from 5-8pm

Join in with a guerrilla style picnic near the amphitheater to celebrate and meet new friends.  BYOP (picnic) or you can purchase food in the cafe. 

Picnic Blankets and acoustic musical instruments welcome for the after-picnic in the park.

And how great is this???  The campus of the museum is hosting gardens designed by artists!

Check out the Artist Gardens Opening (and more to come) by:
Didier Hess (Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess)
Lauren Bon
The Roots of Compromise ( John Burtle, Ari Kletsky and Owen Driggs)
Fallen Fruit (David Burns, Matias Viegener, Austin Young)
National Bitter Melon Council (Hiroko Kikuchi, Jeremy Chi-Ming Liu, Misa
Saburi, Andi Sutton)
ųa Sonjasdotter

Thirftstore Find of the Week...

$1.00 flour sifter, great condition.

Petaluma Goodwill, I thank you.

If you're going to spend, save!

Those beautiful bastards at William Sonoma are luring me in again-

this time with their Summer Sale-

Save up to 50% now

Don't even bother looking at the full price items. 

You will definitely see something you NEED.

On the Fly!

Find that racket in the back of the house sexy?  Me too!

Here's a quick run down of my favorite diner kitchen lingo.

Hello 1880!

• Adam & Eve on a raft: two poached eggs on toast 
• Bowl of red: a bowl of chili con carne 
• Bucket of cold mud: a bowl of chocolate ice cream 
• Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion 
• Cow feed: a salad 
• First lady: spareribs (a pun on Eve's being made from Adam's spare rib) 
• Frog sticks: french fries 
• One on the city: a glass of water 
• Shingle with a shimmy and a shake: buttered toast with jam or jelly  
• Wreck ‘em: scrambled eggs

And the always important...
Check the ice: look at the pretty girl who just came in

Extra! Extra!

In case you missed the Sunday L.A. Times today, there is a front page article on Brad Metzger's home kitchen. Metzger is a restaurant recruiter for some of LA's top spots.  He decided to renovate his home kitchen and use it as a neutral location for chefs and potential employers to meet.

You can read more here.....

The best part?  Before being a master net-worker, he used to wait tables...

..which gives hope to the rest of us!

Just in time.....

Everything I have read said to start pumpkins in late May, for a Halloween harvest. If you pick up a pumpkin plant at a nursery, you're still in business for this year.

Days to maturity varies widely, depending upon variety. Plan for 90-100 days for miniature pumpkins, 100-120 days for Jack O'Lanterns and 130-160 days for giant pumpkins.

I started mine from seed, and we're making progress. 

They will need to be moved soon to make way for more growth....

Inspiration.

Visit the blog Gastronomista for a dose of culinary inspiration.

Just don't forget who sentcha.

xo

"All sorrows are less with bread."

-Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Natalie Dee!

Note to Self......

....Buy a pasta drying rack.

Rutas!

A family favorite, Rutabegorz, is turning 40!

What started as a hippie hang out in 1970, Rutabegorz has become an Orange County institution.

To help celebrate their anniversary, all month long the appetizer dip is only 40 cents!

Show your support, and get a great deal meal!

The Grunion are Running!

Tonight is another summer Grunion run-
this time just north of Malibu.

Grunion are known for their very unusual mating ritual. At very high tide, the female come up on sandy beaches and dig their tails into the sand to lay their eggs. A male then wraps himself around the female to deposit his sperm. For the next ten days the grunion eggs remain hidden in the sand, but at the next set of high tides the eggs hatch and the young grunion are washed out to sea.  It's a great show, AND IT ONLY HAPPENS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (oh, and Mexico. Sorry guys I got excited.)

Here is more info on the specific location.

  We caught a run about a month ago in Venice, which was super fun, but way past my bed time.

A few people were actually fishing for them during the run.  

I was told they are a fatty little fish, similar to smelt.  

My opinion- too cute to eat.

Here's a list of future runs.
...bring a flashlight.  That is unless you have cat like vision.

Hosting?

Who could say no to this cute DIY project?
(courtesy of the original post at Re-Nest)

You'd make your mother proud.

Save the Bananas!

Again.

The bananas sit on my counter with best intentions, but no takers.

Banana bread is always the go to recipe for the ripe guys, but I just don't have it in me today.  

Instead, smoothie!  It's like the fruit version of soup....it's a catch all, and I'm in!

The bananas met up with the last of the OJ, yogurt and a few frozen strawberries.

Nice job self!

Revolution Foods!

Yes!

At the New City School farm's building day, Revolution Foods provided the lunch for us.  It's was grubbin! 

I chatted with one of the gals and she explained what they are all about.  

Founded by 2 business students who met at UC Berkeley, their mission was to get healthy foods into schools, especially to those who need it most.  They provide school lunch for many students from LA to San Diego through the reduced lunch ($) program, and to the entire school in a number of cases.

LOVE THESE GUYS!

 Their website mentioned they are in northern California, Colorado and D.C....

This is good news people!

New City School Farm, work day.

It was work day to break ground on the teaching farm for New City School in Long Beach.

After I read (and wrote) about them a few weeks ago, I kept them on my radar.  They needed volunteers for their work day today and I jumped!

We Love Long Beach provided breakfast and discussed the importance of community building with hungry volunteers.

Council member darling Robert Garcia and mayor Bob Foster helped welcome the farm to the school and community.

Best quote ever from Bob Foster regarding growing up in Brooklyn, unaware of where his food came from:

"The only thing I knew how to grow was my beard."

Awesome.

A local Long Beach architecture firm helped design the layout.  It will include a chicken coop, raised beds, classroom and a booth where the kids can sell the produce they grew.

Shovels and gear, courtesy of The Home Depot.  A manager from Home Depot was there with his crew, helping build and paint.  He made a little speech with the mayor and said something that was very nice.  He said that he believes it's not hard to do the right thing. It's sometimes hard to know what's right, but when you do, it's easy to do it.  Lovely.

 

This kid was so cute.  He helped paint the storage containers.

 

Solar panels installed by a Long Beach company.  The farm will be 100% off the grid.

It's National Iced Tea Day!

You read it correctly-  
National Iced Tea Day!

It began in 1904 when a tea plantation owner set up a booth at the world's fair.  He planned to sell hot tea, but due the hot weather, he added ice and the rest my friends, history.

Iced tea history.

Health benefits? Of course!

The leaves of the tea plants contain polyphenols, which gives tea it's antioxidant properties.  Polyphenols in tea have been known to:

• Help protect cells from the normal, but damaging, physiological process known as "oxidative stress." Although oxygen is vital to life, it's also incorporated into reactive substances called free radicals. These can damage the cells in our body and have been implicated in the slow chain reaction of damage leading to heart disease and cancer.
• Help prevent blood clotting
• Help lower cholesterol levels
• Help neutralize enzymes that aid in the growth of tumors
• Help deactivate cancer promoters
• Help stimulate the immune system

Apart from polyphenols, tea also contains a variety of ingredients that are beneficial to one's health. These include theanine (an amino acid unique to tea), vitamins, minerals, and methylxanthines. These are the components that are the source of the healthful properties of tea. These are known to:

• Help fight against mutagenic agents
• Delay aging
• Help fight high blood pressure
• Help fight against viral and bacterial infection
• Help improve the functions of the digestive and excretory systems

DRINK UP!

Looking for a Market?

Here is a complete list of Orange County farmer's markets.

Shop til you drop, just don't hurt the produce.

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

-John Gunther

Free Download

The lovelies at Skip to my Lou have sweet recipe cards you can type on and print for free.  

...Perfect as part of a pretty little gift.

Best Bumper Sticker, Ever!

Using What You Have....

Today's installment: Orange Juice.

Since we didn't finish the pitcher of OJ this weekend, I'm going to use it to jazz up my dinner.  

My marinade is simple, and chicken is the lucky winner.

1 cup of OJ, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 2 minced garlic cloves, a sprig of thyme a little S&P.

Simple, and it's great on the grill.

VIE Water.

At the east village farmer's market in LB Saturday, there was a booth for VIE Water.

It is a non-profit started by a Haitian born, Los Angeles based Mickelson Civil.

Through donations and sales of VIE Water labeled bottles, VIE Water helps to build wells and bring clean water to the poorest areas of Haiti.

"Did you know that children in Haiti have the highest death and disease rate of any children in our hemisphere? Many die during their first year of life. These children die from cholera, typhoid, and chronic diarrhea, all of which are all waterborne diseases.  With clean water these children would live."

Their website has a paypal set up to accept donations, or ytou can help by volunteering in a number of ways.....according to a recent post of their's on facebook, 

"$10 can provide 1 person with clean water for decades."

Profile: Conflict Cafe

The next time I find myself in Pittsburgh, this place is on the top of the list!
Friends or family in PA?  Pass it on.

Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with.

Their first iteration, Kubideh Kitchen, is up and running.

"The food is served out of a take-out style storefront, which will rotate identities every 4 months to highlight another country.  Each Conflict Kitchen iteration will be augmented by events, performances, and discussion about the the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each county we focus on."

It was developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community, the sandwich is packaged in a custom-designed wrapper.  The wrapper includes interviews with Iranians both in Pittsburgh and Iran on subjects ranging from Iranian food and poetry to the current political turmoil. Very creative, informative and witty.

I'm curious to see the next project they have planned.  Ideally it's be great if they ran out of countries.  I love take out, but peace wins.

She Says It Best.

Do yourself a favor & visit Nikki McClure.

Canning?

Here is a round up of free printable labels for your home made jams, salsa, relish, etc!

Merriment Design: modern and adorable

Domestifluff: simple and also adorable

Wendolonia: lemon, lime & oranges for you to customize.

Eat Drink Chic:  so damn cute that I want to print them out and put them on all the jars that are already in my fridge.

HP: Sweet vintage designs from HP

...and of course, the woman who needs no introduction, Martha Stewart- enough said.