First a brief Gardening Roots update

It's past pea time!  So I set up a "trellis" and planted snap peas. It's a mixture of old seed from a couple of years ago and new seed from Ferry Morse, which I don't like much. But it's what I had.

Yes, I know this looks awfully boring: 

While I was turning over the bed where lettuce, radishes and carrots is going to go, I found this. How it got there, I have no idea.

  

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #19: African Vegetables

 

This is technically a re-try, not a to-try. But it had been a long time since I made it, and I didn’t remember why I thought it was so good. Basically, it’s a vegetable stew seasoned with peanut butter, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. And since I hate cinnamon in spicy dishes, it’s just peanut butter and cayenne pepper. And tomato paste, which gives it a rich flavor.

And yes, it is indeed still as good as I thought it was the first time. The only change I would make is to use unsweetened peanut butter. I have a jar of it, bought for the purpose, but it seemed silly to open a jar just to use a quarter cup when I already have an open jar of Peter Pan in the fridge.  But yes, that was a mistake.

Keep or Discard?  Keep. And do it right next time.

Review: Pets and the City

Pets and the City:

True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Veterinarian

By Dr. Am Attas

I liked this okay—it was cute and light and amusing. With occasional sad stories, although I think she steered us away from the really sad cases that any veterinarian must have to endure. There were a few that made you sad, but most of them had happy endings.

I got the impression it was one of those books written because everyone always told her, “You really have to write this stuff down!  Your job would make a wonderful book!”  Not because of any deep, overwhelming need she had to pull it out of her chest and throw it on the ground. Which is fine—sometime you just need a mindless amusement. (With an occasional lesson—Don’t Feed Grapes to Dogs!)

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #18: Sticky Miso Salmon Bowl

It was okay—there’s really nothing you can do to salmon to ruin it--but nowhere good as other salmon treatments like Dr Bruce's Awesome S
almon.  I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but that’s all.

Keep or Discard?  Discard

Review: The Last Cheater’s Waltz

 The Last Cheater’s Waltz:

Beauty and Violence in the Desert Southwest

by Ellen Meloy

I can’t do justice to this elegant work; all I can do is explain how I reacted to it. The alternating subjects—beauty of the desert vs. violence of the atomic bombs that were developed and tested there—kept me alternating between wanting to read deeply and savor every turn of phrase...and wanting to skip past the awful stuff. Atomic explosions—the suffering they caused and will go on causing for as long as we likely will exist as a viable species—don’t make for good reading. Or thinking about.

And so I confess to skipping and skimming, a lot. But when I would suddenly hit upon a passage of heart-lifting beauty, I’d be deep into it; lost and not wanting to come back up for air.

I suspect people will fault her writing for being disjointed and somewhat random in coherency and flow. But that’s the way this sort of nature writing is supposed to be. It’s poetry—no, it’s better than poetry, because poetry is bound by a rhyme and a rhythm. Her writing springs from the rhythm of nature—long, slow pauses, bursts of action, and crash! of flash floods in the arroyos.

Cooking…for the halibut

Finished!  I'm lagging behind on writing up and posting these reviews, but the cooking was all finished in January.  Summary follows in a few days.

To-Try Recipe #17: Coconut and Spice Chickpeas

Not impressed. It’s just chickpeas cooked with onion, garlic, coconut milk, turmeric and cayenne pepper. I’ll try it again before making a final decision, but the turmeric really has no flavor and all the cayenne does is make it a little spicy. Some real spices, like cardamon or curry or cumin, would have improved things a whole lot.

Later, on retry, I decided that they tasted better that I thought at first. A half-hour sitting in the pan improved them immensely. But I think I’ll hold out for a different recipe.

Keep or Discard?  Discard

Cooking…for the halibut

To-Try Recipe #16: Oven-baked Sweet Potato Fries

From Serious Eats—you coat the fries in cornstarch and flour with a little baking powder, then bake them on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  And they were good!   I didn’t even use the seasoned salt at the end or make the spicy dipping sauce. And they were still good! 

I just needed to be reminded that you don’t put cornstarch in hot water!  It turns into marbles. Use cold, of course.

Keep or Discard?  Keep for sure