Food – Page 17 – Her Green Life

Friday free-for-all

All things go in cycles — for quite awhile there, my writing was very food-centric, almost to the exclusion of anything else. My concerted effort to post more on the bicycling-side of things perhaps worked too well, as my food-related posting feels a bit sparse of late.

I blame this in part on my slightly blah feelings on cooking in general, as I’ve been feeling unmotivated and [finally] a bit tired of eating primarily from our frozen and root-cellared stores. After a number of months, it began to feel like the same food all. the. time.

Fortunately, spring is here (today’s blustery weather notwithstanding), and abundant fresh, local produce is just around the corner. We’ve already had a few small spinach harvests (from the plants that grew under the low tunnels all winter), and I can’t wait for more.

In the meantime, I finally caved and bought a head of broccoli at the grocery store. That broccoli is the first non-garden, non-local produce (other than onions, garlic, and frozen corn and peas) that I have bought in I don’t know how long. It’s easy to focus on the [still many] foods that we don’t grow ourselves or buy local, but in reality we’ve taken some pretty big steps to lighten our food footprint.

Back on the biking side of things, after debating whether it was worth thirty minutes in the car to meet a Craigslist seller (to buy a life jacket for Sir’s upcoming beach trip), I contacted the seller to set things in motion. Rather then me going to her (over six miles away), she suggested a meeting point conveniently located about two miles from us.

I happily ditched the car for a lovely (though windy and chilly) bike ride and returned home with a worn-once (looks brand new) life vest. Sir approved the purchase and happily wore the vest for the rest of the morning (you never know, our second story apartment could flood — better safe than sorry!).

He’s carrying the pump for my exercise ball, which he pretends is a vacuum cleaner (complete with cute sound effects). Something about the life vest and pump-vacuum combination makes me think of Ghostbusters, though I can’t say quite what, having only watched the movie once, a long time ago. For those of you more familiar with the movie, does my association make any sense?

A pseudo bike date

Sunday night we had a long overdue date night. I’d read about Fork & Stix, a new Thai restaurant, in one of the recent foodie magazines (don’t remember if it was Feast or Sauce), and it’s been high on my list since then. The restaurant’s location just off The Loop meshed well with another item that was high on my to-do list: ride the Kona Ute [longtail bicycle] at Big Shark.

We arrived to a packed bike shop thirty minutes before closing time. With no hope of getting help anytime soon, we hunted for the Ute and MinUte. We finally found the MinUte, which I mistook for the full-out Ute, near the back of the shop. After a few minutes of standing there drooling on the bike failed to draw any sales associates, Matthew went to hunt someone down, while I decided to take matters into my own hands.

The bike was up on a small rack, so I decided to take it down for a better look. In the course of doing so, I discovered that the front tire was completely flat — couldn’t ride it like that. Sensing closing time approaching, I wanted the bike to be ready to ride, so I grabbed a nearby floor pump and started attempting to refill the tire. My do-it-yourself efforts finally drew the attention of one of the mechanics, who came over and said he’d take the bike back and get it ready to ride. Fine by me.

After what seemed an age — I guess the tube wasn’t holding air, so he had to change it — he rolled out the MinUte, and we headed out for our test ride.

We had a few goals for this test ride: 1) Get me on the Ute; 2) see if the larger (20″) frame would work for me, since that frame size would be better for Matthew; and 3) see how the bikes felt with weight on the cargo racks.

We were two for three on those goals. Unfortunately, after going nowhere for over a year, the Ute sold sometime in the month since Matthew rode it, so I didn’t actually get to ride a longtail. The MinUte (i.e., mini-Ute, a regular bike with many of the heavy-duty cargo features of it’s larger sibling) gave me the chance to try the frame size (the 20″ was fine for me).

We then loaded the bike with human cargo, each taking a turn with the other as passenger on the rear rack. An adult human passenger (especially with no foot rests or official hand-holds) is probably the trickiest cargo possible, with a high center of gravity and the natural inclination to react to, and attempt to compensate for, the bike’s movement, instead of leaving that task to the driver. I enjoyed being a passenger, but felt pretty unstable operating the bike with Matthew on the back.

This really is the smaller of the two bikes. The angle here makes it look extra long, but I really thought the MinUte was the Ute at first. The panniers, which come standard with the bike, totally rocked.

Now, for the dinner part of the date. Fork & Stix is a small Thai restaurant, specializing in northern Thai cuisine. We started our meal with the vegetable tempura appetizer and an order of [two very tiny] spring rolls.

For our main course, we shared two dishes, Khao Soi (above), a soup which is a northern Thai specialty, and Pad Thai, a more familiar southern Thailand dish (all their other northern Thai dishes featured pork, so the Khao Soi was our main vegetarian option for trying northern Thai food).

Both dishes were quite tasty, and it was fun to try something new. It was not the best Thai food ever (Matthew recommends a restaurant in Salt Lake City for this), but a good meal nonetheless.

I think our next Thai outing will be to King & I, a restaurant I’ve never visited, due to Matthew’s being less-than-impressed with the food on a visit many years ago. Given recent reviews I’ve read, I think it’s worth another try.

I would have loved to cycle to the bike shop and our dinner destination, but a tight schedule that involved dropping Sir off at grandma’s, [Matthew] sneaking in a thirty-minute gardening blitz, and getting to Big Shark before they closed at five left no time for that. In some situations you can travel faster on a bike than in a car, but this was not one of them.

Easter sushi

We kicked our Easter off with a relatively low-key breakfast and Easter baskets. I discovered yet another reuse for receiving blankets — the small, pastel-colored blankets make a nice basket liner, without the mess of Easter grass (bonus points if the blankets happen to have bunnies on them!).

Someone got creative with his Easter bonnet.

Later in the morning, we headed over to Matt’s dad’s house for a traditional Easter brunch. I realized as we were in the car driving that the timing (and weather) was such that we could have attempted our first South City to Webster Groves bike ride with Gabriel — another time, I guess.

The fabulous spread included a fritatta, a Parmesean artichoke quiche, waffles with blueberry sauce, and fresh fruit. And then there was dessert — sour cream coffee cake and lemon coconut cloud cake. I don’t need to look too far to see where Matthew gets his penchant for baking.

Anyway, the mother and sister of one of the other brunch guests are in Japan, and we guessed that their Easter brunch may have included sushi.

After a post-brunch nap, Gabriel was ready for some egg hunt action.

Back home, Gabriel and I hung out in the yard, while Matthew worked on bread, including a variation on our chocolate cherry bread. I snapped some more pictures of Gabriel in his Easter best (vest: one American dollar at the SVdP thrift store).

That night, looking for a light and healthy dinner option after the rich brunch, I remembered an idea I had for sushi filling (based on a snack I made for Gabriel a few days prior). I’d actually forgotten about our brunch conversation, and that Easter sushi connection, until I sat down to write this post.

I’ve already done non-traditional rice for sushi, so why not experiment further?

Our Easter dinner: sushi and Asian-inspired salad with garden-fresh purple cabbage and mache lettuce.

Rice millet sushi

Ingredients
1 c. cooked rice (I used a red variety)
1/4 – 1/3 c. puffed millet [cereal] OR 1/2 c. cooked millet
2 T. almond butter
2-3 T. tomatillo salsa OR 1 T. seasoned rice vinegar
1 t. olive oil
3-5 Nori seaweed wrappers
Avocado, carrot, radish, etc., thinly sliced for rolling
Soy sauce and wasabi for dipping

Directions
Mix the top five ingredients. Spread a thin layer on the non-shiny side of the nori sheet and place other fillings on top (see here for more detailed instructions) — don’t overdo it on the fillings, or your roll will fall apart.

Roll, dipping your fingers in water as you work, let the roll sit for a couple of minutes, and slice with a sharp knife. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi paste for dipping.

Fuel for active living

Active transportation is one way to incorporate more physical activity into your daily life, but it is not the only means of active living. Despite a distinct lack of bicycling over the past few days, our lives have not lacked for activity.

The cool, wet March weather has Matthew a bit behind where he’d like to be with planting, so on Saturday, I joined Matthew at the garden. We planted over forty pounds of potatoes (ten different varieties) and transplanted more of the onion seedlings. When the sun came out mid-morning, we enjoyed unexpectedly lovely weather, lifting spirits and prompting fun outfits:

Someone knows how to garden in style: coat, leggings, and rain boots, sans pants, of course. He grabbed the lantern in case we decided to work into the dark (we didn’t, but it has been known to happen).

We fueled our efforts with leftovers of colcannon, a dish consisting of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale (I used a mix of red cabbage and Swiss chard). The potatoes were leftover from our potato taste test the previous weekend — some of the purple color is the cabbage, but we are also growing a variety of ridiculously dark purple potatoes.

We went from fifties, sunny, and no pants on Saturday to over a foot of snow on Sunday. The winter weather prompted us to alter our Sunday brunch plans. A mile into our eleven mile drive to UCity, on a very snow- and ice-covered main road, we opted to turn back — not worth it. With the car safely parked again, we headed out on foot to a new neighborhood coffee shop — walkable wins again!

In addition to gardening, PLAY is also a form of active living, great for kids and adults alike. Today’s slightly warmer temperatures and sunshine were perfect for playing in the still-abundant snow.

While Gabriel tramped around the back yard (in pants), I brought this guy to life, complete with squash stem mouth:

I scaled back the size of his midsection when I couldn’t lift my initial creation.

After our exertions, we headed inside to warm up and refuel with dinner leftovers: farinata with carmelized onions (the onions make cheese unnecessary); couscous with Swiss chard, toasted almonds, and sundried tomatoes; and roasted sweet potatoes.

Have examples of how you’ve incorporated physical activity into your life over the past few days? Please share!

Carrot taste test

This post has been in the works for quite awhile now. If you’ve already ordered carrot seed for your spring garden, don’t despair — these results are from our fall grown crop. Given our growing conditions, fall-sown carrots often do best here anyway, as the early heat of summer often limits the sweetness and growth of spring-sown carrots.

Carrot taste comparison (and far less rigorous growth comparison due to differential germination and thinning) – Grown Fall 2012, tasted January 2013, overwintered in low tunnels prior to harvest.

Taste comparison for carrots grown fall 2012 in St. Louis, MO in double dug clay soil after potatoes and prior to that lawn, probably a little on the acidic side.

Tasted sliced to ~1/8” or 3/16”, both raw and steamed for ~7 minutes, until soft but not mush.

We rated each carrot on a scale of one to four, one being best, with rating for how well that carrot grew (the number in parentheses) and how it tasted, with notes on taste both raw and cooked.

Favorites

Danvers ½ Long – great germination and growth (1) fairly sweet & carroty; steamed – very sweet and flavorful 1
Cosmic Purple – (1) raw – mild sweet & spicy; steamed –sweet, spicy, flavorful 1
Dragon – (purple) (2) (raw) – carroty, mild sweet good flavor; steamed – mid-sweet, spicy, flavorful 1

Next best

St. Valery – great germination and growth and size (2) raw – good, not amazing, mild sweet, mild spicy; steamed – pretty good, not best 2
Yellow Carrots (j.o.d.d.) – (2) – raw – firm, crunchy, sweet gentle carrot flavor; steamed – mild, sweet, carroty 2
Chantenay Red Core – (2) Smaller Carrots – Raw – Sweet full flavor, carroty; steamed –good flavor, but not amazing 3

Eh, don’t bother

Muskade – (4) poor germination – tasty to slugs – Raw-not sweet, watery, not favorite; steamed – worst flavor, watery, not sweet, slightly carroty 3
Kuroda – very good germination and growth (3) Raw – carroty; steamed –decent flavor, but not amazing 4
Scarlet Nantes – beans ’11 (4) poor germination Raw – Carroty; steamed –poor flavor
Atomic Red – (4) – raw – a bit harsh, very carroty; steamed – carroty but not very sweet, still a bit harsh 4

Keeping the varieties separate while harvesting, cleaning, prepping, and cooking was truly a labor of love (i.e., huge pain in the butt), and something we don’t plan to repeat often. Now that we have our results, we will focus our efforts on growing our favorites, allowing the purchase of a larger quantity of seed, which saves money.

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Rice millet sushi

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