Booze and a Fast and Dirty Stew

Well, the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge Week is over. So, how it did go for you? What did you do? What wonderful culinary discoveries did you make? Enquiring culinary minds want to know.

I’ve heard folks have been hosting 100 Mile Diet potlucks and parties. Some have pledged to try one new local item a week. There are even some people that are hard-core 100 milers that are aiming to eating only foods grown within a 100 mile range. That’s awesome to hear! Of course, this is just the beginning. Next, we're aiming for a 100 Mile Thanksgiving. I'll post more info on that once I get my crap together.

One of my biggest recent discoveries was the local booze industry. Vancouver Island has some pretty fine wines and ciders. Unfortunately, the government liquor stores don’t carry any Vancouver Island booze. Fortunately for us, there are a couple of beer and wine stores in Nanaimo that are spirited enough to carry them. Black Bear Liquor Store, North Gate Liquor, Wellington Hotel Beer & Wine, Wheatsheaf Beer & Wine, and the Jolly Miner store are some of the Nanaimo beer and wine stores that carry Vancouver Island booze.

Cherry Point vineyards in one of the highlights of out of Cowichan Valley. They put out a great table white called ‘Coastal White’ which is a blending of Vancouver Island grapes. Their Bete Noire (Black Beast) 2005 is my favorite wine discovery for the year. Deep and complex, a bit fruity to keep all the wine snobs away. The wine comes with a great back story that reaches back in history to 1552 in Hungary. Winemaster, Simon Spencer, is planning on putting our three volumes of this wine. Each volume will continue on with this mythical black beast of a wine. The vineyard is now out of the first volume of this wine and so grab whatever you can find at the wine stores. They will be releasing a new batch of wines within a month or two.

There’s no barley grown here on the island, so no locally grown beer. I’ve heard rumors of island barley experiments but nothing on tap yet. There is cider though. And good, cider. Not the candy apple cider that you used to get drunk on and throw up all over the backseat of your boyfriend’s Impala. Grown up cider made from undiluted apple juice from the wonderful apple orchard that surrounds the Merridale Cider House. Everything from a traditional dry cider to a champagne-style cider is made on the premises. My favorites so far are the Scrumpy Cider, a sharp, dry cider made from crab apples and no sugar, and the Merri Berri which is a sweeter cider mixed with local berries. The ciders have a clean, crisp taste and none of that murky aftertaste that other ciders that have sulphur dioxides or are made from concentrated juice have.

They also make an apple cider vinegar but are out of stock at the moment. Never fear, many local apple orchards are making an apple cider vinegar. I picked up a bottle of First Fruits Farm Apple Cider Vinegar a few weeks ago at the Duncan farmer’s market. At $3 for a 16oz bottle! It’s an organic, unpasteurized cider that needs to be diluted before using, it’s so strong. They also do a milder vinegar with Jonagold apples. BTW, farmer’s markets are brimming with local organic apples. Last I checked, they were going of a dollar a pound and not a single mealy Red Delicious in sight. Instead, there’s a variety of apples that you probably never have heard of before but should get to know better. The farmers selling them will also be able to tell you which ones are best for pies, sauces and just eating. Westwood Orchard on 170 Westwood Road off of Jinglepot Road has been suggested as a great local orchard. I think I may have to give them a visit some time this week.

Speaking of vinegar, I have had some folks asking me about locally grown balsamic vinegars. So far, I’ve only sussed out one locally grown balsamic vinegar, Venturi-Schulze Aceto Balsamico. This is true, traditional balsamic vinegar with no fruit concentrate, no caramel colouring, no blended wine vinegars. This is true artisan vinegar. The sort of thing that the Foodies swoon over. A little goes a long way. You can order up a bottle from their website. MacLean’s Foods also carries the vinegar.

Marley Farms is also making fruit vinegars. They make a blueberry and a kiwi vinegar from fruits grown on the island. I picked up a bottle of each from the North Gate Liquor Store on Metral, just off the Island Highway. The vineyard themselves are out of the vinegars, so pick a some up while you can. A new batch won’t be released for a few more months yet. The blueberry vinegar is light and makes a great vinaigrette. You could also use it to tang up a chicken or pork dish. I’ve drizzle a bit over baked fruit.

So last night, to celebrate the end of the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge Week, Kevin and I had an intimate 100 Mile Feast. With veggies and fruit from the Nanoose Edibles produce box and local farms, South African boerwurst sausages from Quist Meat Market in Duncan, and Cherry Points Bete Noire we had quite the meal.

I made a South African version of my Fast and Dirty stew recipe that tastes like something that took hours to make. Here’s the fast & dirty instructions. You can use any fresh sausage. Piper’s Meats has a whole line of sausages made with locally grown grain-fed beasts.

Fast & Dirty Sausage Stew:

1 to 1 ½ lbs fresh sausage

1 onion – chopped into big chunks

2 cloves garlic –crushed and chopped coarsely

2 cups tomatoes chopped in half or quarters

2 carrots –peeled and cut into bite size chunks

2 sweet bell peppers – chopped into chunks

1 stalk of celery – chopped

1 cup of good red wine (I used Cherry Point’s Bete Noire but you can use whatever wine you’re planning to drink with the meal. You have to drink wine with this stew. It’s the rule. I don’t make the rules. That’s just how it is. If you’re going to be a snot-nosed rebel and not use wine, you could use cider or a good stock)

Fresh herbs – ripped/ chopped right before serving

Also – a few glugs of oil, salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a heavy oven-proof pot, heat up the oil and then brown the sausage on both sides over med-high heat.

Toss in all the veggies, pinch of salt and let the veggies get a bit of colour.

Dump in the wine (or whatever liquid you’re using) and scrape up all the caramelized goodness that’s stuck to the bottom of the pan. Throw the pot into the oven for 30-40 mins.

Since you’ve got the oven going anyways, you might as well wash up a bunch of potatoes (I used locally grown Peruvian Purple potatoes last night). Cut them into smaller pieces of needed. Toss them onto a small roasting pan with a drizzle of oil and a sprinkle of salt and slide those in beside the stew pot in the oven. You could just toss the potatoes into the stew pot too. They would help thicken up the stew. I just wanted nice crusty roasted potatoes last night so I did them separately.

I also threw in some unpeeled beets wrapped up in foil to roast beside the potatoes and stew. You might as well use the heat and roast up stuff for the next few days. Cooked beets keep a week in the fridge and can be used in so many ways. I’m thinking of making a fast and dirty borscht sometime this week.

Once the timer goes off and the stew is done, turn off the oven and pull out the beets to cool. I just leave everything else in until serving. I blanched up some local organic green beans for a side dish with the beets. Once the beets are cool enough to handle, you can peel them by simply slipping the skin right off. I do it under the tap of cold water to help the process and prevent my fingers from looking like Carrie’s after the school dance. I had some homemade pesto to accompany the side veggies.

A quick blueberry vinaigrette with Marley Farm’s blueberry vinegar and some oil would also go well with beets and green beans. One part vinegar to one part oil. Some dried herbs and a smidgen of Dijon mustard is all you need. Mix it up. Yep, fast and dirty.

Upon serving, cut/rip the fresh herbs into the stew and season according to taste. I used only basil and oregano since that’s all I have left in my garden.

For dessert, we had the last of a rhubarb and apple crumble that I had made a few nights back. Basically a bunch of rhubarb chopped into ½ inch slices and apples ( I used Brambley Seedlings and Gravensteins) chopped into 8ths. Altogether about 6 cups of fruit. A tablespoon of cornstarch and a 1/2 cup of local dark fir honey. You could also use regular sugar. I prefer organic cane sugar because adds a nice deep, caramel flavour. A heavy pinch of cinnamon, some ground ginger were also tossed into. Mix everything up. I chopped up a bunch of hazelnuts and tossed those as my crumble topping. Baked in a 350F oven for 30 mins. Drizzle more honey if you want it sweeter. Or top it with some local fruit syrup or jam. I popped a couple of blackberries I gathered.

So good. I’m having leftovers for lunch. I’m such a lucky kid!

Happy Eating!

Jen

Would like some E.coli with that salad?

If you haven't heard, there's a huge recall of all bagged spinach grown in the US due to contamination of E. coli. This is not the first time. E. coli contaminated pre-washed factory-farmed spinach has hospitalized and killed in the past.

The contaminated spinach has been traced back to one distributor, Natural Selection Foods based in California. However, it distributes spinach sold under dozens of labels. For a list, check out this article. Amongst this list is President Choice prebagged spinach.

Other brands and distributors could also carry contaminated spinach. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has advised consumers to throw out any prebagged spinach from the US.

So how much damage could one bad batch of spinach do? Well, the outbreak was originally reported yesterday in 8 states. By today, almost 100 cases have been reported in 20 states. So far, 29 victims have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure. One person has already died.

A huge portion of all the lettuce and spinach for the US and Canadian markets is grown in Salinas Valley, California. Eight of the 19 E. Coli O157:H7 lettuce or spinach related outbreaks since 1995 have originated from this area.

This is another example of how vulnerable out food supply is right now. Food security is more than just whether or not we can enough food transported over to this island. It’s a matter of whether we can trust and depend on that food to be safe for consumption. Relying on agri-corporations to supply our food is putting us at risk. One can only guess how a bacterium like E. coli which lives in the intestines of cows and other animals and is spread through contamination by shit ended up on spinach.

This is a disturbing reminder that we don’t know much about the food supply system as agri-corporate consumers. As long as we keep depending on these anonymous foreign factory farms for our food, we’re at their mercy. We have no say in how the US regulates their food. Don’t tell me that they have the FDA. The FDA is not looking out for the consumer’s best interest in the 21^st century. It’s made up of a panel of execs and expects that have deep links to food corporations.

One solution is obvious. Buy local. Buy foods from farms where you can go and see how things are handled. Where you can ask the farmer questions. As a society, we can stop relying on some foreign country to supply the bulk for our food. Especially when we are blessed with great produce and farms right in our own backyard!

That's it for now.

Jen

www.100miledietnanaimo.com

Equinox Cafe Steps Up to the Plate!

I have some exciting news. This morning I got an email from Jessica and Sean from the Equinox Cafe in Duncan and they've stepped up to our 100 Mile Diet Restaurant Challenge and are offering not just one dish but a 3 course 100 Mile Diet meal! They'll be offering this meal from Sept. 14th to the 16th. Of course, much of their regular menu utilizes local products. It's so fabulous that they've gone out of their way to create a 100 Mile Diet meal. Bravo to them!

Unfortunately, no Nanaimo restaurant has stepped up to the challenge. I sent out someone else to get restaurants for the challenge so I didn't get a chance to talk to the restaurateurs and chefs around here myself but from what I gather there's a bit of bridge building that definitely needs to happen between farms and restaurants around here.

Oh well. I won’t allow myself to get too discouraged, especially when I look around and see other nearby communities that are embracing their local farms. To the south of us is the Cowichan Valley and southern island which are filled with restaurants that celebrate the local bounty. I heard that there is a group in Metchosin who are doing a 10 Mile Diet. 10 freaking miles! More power to them! As I mentioned in a earlier post, the Comox Valley has a great farm-loving community and the bakeries there are at the forefront of a artisan baking revival. That whole community is thriving. Now we just have to get Nanaimo’s head out of it’s SUV behind to see that the Wal-Mart food culture is not the way to go.

Let's hope the enlightened spirit of folks like the Equinox Cafe and other local farm loving establishments in nearby communities spreads over Nanaimo soon. But until then, let's reward those that do support local farms and food producers with our patronage. I am going to hit the Equinox Cafe for their 100 Mile meal. I may even drag the Mr. with me and make it a date night. For those interested, here's their fabulous 100 Mile menu:

First course - Potato and Zuchinni bilini, caramelized onions with blackberry and chardonnay drizzle.
Second course -Highland beef NY steak topped with charred cherry tomato compote. Served with fresh local vegetables and roasted Russian Blue potatoes.
Third course -Crustless apple and plum meringue.

(wipe drool off of keyboard)

***

Speaking of dinner, we had the most awesome bison smokie and roasted veggie stew last night. I did a small roast-up yesterday admist my last round of canning. From my garden, I picked 3-4 lbs of cherry and small heirloom tomatoes, tossed them into a roasting pan with a sprinkle of kosher salt and threw them into an 300F oven for an hour and half. I also threw in a couple cloves of garlic. In another pan, I was roasting up a turban squash, some yellow and purple carrots and peppers, all local, of course. I pretty much ignored it until the timer rang.

I didn’t get my canning finished until about 9pm last night. I canned up a batch of pickled beets and a batch of spicy pickled carrot sticks. Tired and running on fumes, I gathered the following:

-2 bison smokies from Island Bison, roasted tomatoes, garlic, peppers & carrots, leftover roasted corn from a few nights back, a few handfuls of spinach and a couple shallots from my Nanoose Edibles produce box, glassful of Cherry Point’s Coastal Pinot Noir.

I basically chopped up the smokies & shallots and threw those into my wok over medium heat. Let the meat carmelize a bit and shallots soften then toss in the wine to deglaze. Cook that down a bit and then simple toss in everything else except the spinach. Let it all simmer a bit for 10 mins. You can add some water or broth if it’s not soupy enough for you. Then right before serving, I threw in the spinach and a few fresh cherry tomatoes. I tasted and seasoned it accordingly. I had slices of Natural Pasture’s wasabi cheese and cucumber from the produce box as a side. Man, was it ever good. The bison was mildly seasoned to allow it's flavour shine through. It's definitely leaner than typical smokies. A couple went a long way. The roasted tomatoes provided a rich flavour base to the soup. It was a great 1st fall soup of the season.

There was enough leftover for lunch today. I love leftovers. Yes, it tastes better the second day. Next time, I just might add the spinach to the bottom of the soup bowl and pour the soup ontop and let the heat of it wilt the spinach. The spinach in the leftover batch tasted fine but it looked a bit grey.

(Update: I tried the soup again tonight but without roasting any of the veggies and with a white wine instead of red. The verdict. ..It's bitching.)

I found out that I’ve got another 4 weeks on my produce box. I guess had enough forethought in the spring to sign up for a whole 16 week program. Thank goodness, this week’s box included a bunch of local apples including some famous Bramley Seedlings which are some of the best baking apples. You know what we’re gonna have for dessert tonight. There amongst all the greens, tomatoes and apples was a small bunch of the most delectable grapes. They were divine. Small fruit with only a seed at most in each. They were tender and sweet, with none of that weird bitter aftertaste from the skin. The texture was a bit different with an almost velvety smooth flesh.

For all those whining that the produce box makes it soooo much easier to follow a 100 Mile Diet, get off my back and get your lazy asses over to a farmers market. It's harvest time and there will be a ton of stuff available there.

Until then, happy eating!

Jen

Nanaimo’s 100 Mile Diet Challenge

You say To-MAY-To, I say…

(a tuscan heirloom tomato. Sweet and juicy. Great simply sliced with a drizzle of olive oil.)

Solanum lycopersicum

Or at least that’s one of the monikers used last night at the Slow Food Tomato Feast. They like their Latin at the Slow Food clubhouse. Which makes sense since the latin term is the same if you’re in Nanaimo, BC or Marrakech, Morocco.

The tomato event was hosted by the delightful host with the most, Nick Versteeg, at the Laughing Geese in the Cowichan Valley. Nick is the producer with DV Cuisine, a company specializing in producing culinary and food documentaries and short features from around the world. We were all to bring a dish made with local tomatoes. The invitation ended with a dared to bring a dessert.

Well, you know me and dares. More about my dish later.

Other guests were mostly from the Cowichan Valley or the Victoria and surrounding area. There were farmers, educators, chefs and just folks who liked a good meal. The.Vancouver Island Slow Food convivium is led by the culinary jedi, Sinclair Philip of Sooke Harbour House and the talented culinary diva, Mara Jernigan, from nearby Fairburn Farms.. A convivium is Latin (of course) for a feast. In the case of the Slow Food movement, it is not only a feast for the belly, but a feast for the mind and soul. There is a deep sense of respect and appreciation for food that I found at this gathering that I haven’t experienced in a long time in the company of others.

Usually I’m the only one at the table who cares where the food came from, it’s lineage, it’s story. Though most of my dinner companions are nice enough to humor my culinary rhapsodizing, most couldn’t care less which farm the beef came from or what variety of apples are in the pie. At best, I find someone eager to learn, explore and celebrate food, if only for a meal. At worse, food is treated as background noise to television.

I hate that. Really.

HATE IT.

As a friend once so eloquently put it, ‘I’d rather that you just not eat it, than to eat and not even taste it because you’re too busy watching another fucking ‘Friends’ rerun.’

Now, this Slow Food event is not a meeting of Foodies. They weren’t a bunch a gourmet snobs pooh-poohing what the peasants are eating. In many ways, these were the peasants. These are the folks who connected food from farm to fork. Throughout the evening I had conversations with guests about gathering of food and what simple feasts could be had right off the land. I had conversations about growing up at the farm and sharing family recipes and the connecting of food to our identity. The food they brought was simple, rustic fare highlighting the lovely tomato. There wasn’t a single speck of gold dust or contorted vegetable garnish in sight. There was no chastising for eating the 'wrong' food, merely reveling in real food.

Tomatoes took centre stage and they weren’t shy about it. The evening was a many chaptered story on local tomatoes. After a small taste of a wonderful roasted cherry tomato soup made by Don Genova, (yes, the host of Pacific Palate), we gathered outside on the cool evening patio, surrounded by whispering trees and the calls of chortling geese.

Derek, a local farmer and tomato expert from Pender Island, gave a small lecture on the growing tomatoes and the importance of seed saving, especially heirloom or heritage varieties. I learned that tomatoes, like grapes, take on different characteristics depending on the soil. I also caught bits and nibbles of the other’s culinary travels and tidbits of intricacies of European agricultural and culinary bureaucracy.

On a small table were a variety of heirloom tomatoes of various shapes, colours and sizes. Having tasted any of these garden beauties, one would wondered, why the heck are they only selling the insipid, tasteless ones at the supermarket?

Well, because they can. Because they can genetically modify perfect looking ones that produce a ton of cloned fruit and a ton of money. Of course, that means consumers end up with a bunch of ‘Barbie doll’ tomatoes.

Because the agro-corporations are betting that the public won’t put out the extra 25 cents a pound for properly grown, flavour-bursting heirloom varieties that haven’t had fish genes spliced into them.

They’re betting that the public are a herd of stupid, cheap, superficial consumers that have had their taste buds chemically burned off by years of fast food.

Oops, now how did that soapbox get there???

BTW, for anyone out there who’s growing tomatoes in their garden, you can stop watering them. Just let them ripen on their own. They need to be somewhere warmer. Either move those babies inside if they’re in containers or just pick the fruit and let it ripe on it’s own. Store them in a box in a dark, mildly humid room and let them naturally ripen. They’ll naturally release ethylene gas which stimulates ripening. Ripening this way isn’t quite as yummy as vine-ripened but it sure beats those
artificially gassed, factory-farmed bland-bombs you find at the supermarket.

(my golden boys. Sorry about the eBay quality of the photos).

The rest of the evening was spent eating tomatoes. Mara Jernigan made a simple and sublime yellow tomato sorbet topped with raw tuna. There was something so familiar, yet exciting about that taste combination. The light, sweetness of the yellow tomato sorbet cleansed the palate as it melted to make way for the rich tuna. Many brought salads to showcase the bright, fresh flavour of our local tomatoes. Married with local cheeses and herbs, these dishes were a fine example of simple, rustic fare at it’s best. Others brought simple slow roasted dishes. One young lady brought a gorgeous slow-roasted Moroccan tomato dish that had such an intense flavour, it was like having the Mediterranean sun in my mouth. Another guest had brought a slow roasted tomato topped with pesto.

Joyce, a vivacious and absolutely delicious creature from Victoria, brought the only other dessert: A cheesecake topped with a tomato, ginger and salal berry sauce. The ginger did a great job adding a bit of zing to highlight the sweetness of the tomatoes. I could totally see the sauce dribbled over vanilla gelato or topping for crepes.

Blessed with bounty of tomatoes, I decided I could sacrifice some for a green tomato dessert. After a few failed experiments, I ended up with a green tomato dish done in three variations. I started with a basic olive oil cookie recipe.

For the first variation, I did a biscotti with local hazelnuts and green tomato marmalade filling. The second variation, I used the same cookie dough recipe and made jam cookies with a dollop of Little Qualicum’s fromage frais and a dollop of green tomato marmalade in the middle. The third variation, I made a green tomato crumble with the plain olive oil cookies lining the dish and a green tomato filling which was basically chopped green tomatoes, lemon zest and organic cane sugar cooked for a 10 mins over medium heat, dumped in the cookie lined dish and topped with chopped local hazelnuts and crumble mix. Bake for 30 mins at 350F. I wouldn’t have posted a picture of that but it’s all gone ;)

One lady remarked that the crumble tasted like something that would come from a farm. From this group, I take that as a huge compliment.

Despite the bounty of food laid out for us, this was not the Gluttony Bowl. We were given modest lunch size plates that were just big enough so we could all have a taste of everything. There was no heaping of food onto one’s plate, no shovelling of food into one’s mouth. All around, people savoured and relished and appreciated the bounty bite by bite. We chatted and shared food stories.

Time and time again, I heard folks remark, ‘We are so lucky.’

Yes, we certainly are.

Happy Eating!

Jen

Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Let the Challenge Begin!

Happy 100 Mile Diet Challenge Week!

It’s the start of the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge week, my lovelies. I’m so looking forward to this week of eating and exploring. This morning I had a breakfast of ripe Bartlett pears, a Paula Rose apple from Gab. Island and a last small wedge of Hilary’s Cheeseworks’ Red Dawn cheese. Luckily, I’m heading down to the Cowichan Valley for a Slow Food Tomato Feast tomorrow so I’ll swing by Hilary’s Cheeseworks in Cowichan Bay and pick up some more of that yummy cheese.

On Friday, I swung by the Nanaimo Farmer’s market and noticed a few more actual farm stands admist all the arts and crafts vendors. Now, I love a hand-carved wooden duck as much as the next person, but I’ve been a bit disappointed with the Nanaimo market in the past due its lack of farm produce. Along with the smattering of stands selling veggies and fruit, was Cedar Valley Poultry farm with ethically raised poultry eggs and Ken from Gabriola Gourmet Garlic (he’s everywhere or maybe he’s cloned himself with a garlic-powered genetic replicator) . There was even a vendor selling alpaca yarn, a fresh pasta stand, and a bunch of other food vendors that I hadn’t seen earlier in the season. Let’s hope this fresh produce trend continues at the Nanaimo Farmers Market. It sure makes eating on the 100 Mile Diet a heck of a lot easier.

I picked up a bunch of organic peppers that were going for cheaper than what regular non-local peppers are going for in the store. I also grabbed some zucchinis, a butternut squash, onions and swiss chard. Again, all of it local, mostly organic and around the same price as grocery store prices. In fact, some of it was cheaper. I paid with loose change in my pocket and headed home with bags of farm fresh goodness.

On Saturday, I did a mini-road trip up island to the Comox valley for the Comox Valley Farmer’s Market in Courtney. What a great farming community and what a great market! It was all pretty much farm produce and meats. There were a few bakers and beauty and health vendors but mostly farm stuff. Which is the way it ought to be, not a glorified craft fair. Natural Pastures cheese was also there and a honey vendor. There was even an array wild, dried mushrooms, seaweed and stinging nettle at the Wild Products Network booth. Clean air, live music, grass under my feet, two coffee kiosks and no clerks that are going to give me vacant looks when I ask them how the chickens were raised or what variety of tomatoes that have in stock. This is my kind of grocery store!

Upon leaving Nanaimo, storm clouds were grumping above and I was dressed for a sloppy morning of marketing. By the time I got out to the field across from Vanier School where the market is held, the sun was out, my rain jacket came off and I was armed with a backpack that needed filling up.

The market is a great array of farm produce from apples to wasabi. Yes, fresh wasabi and other organic asian greens like bok choy and gai lan were found at the Hazelmere farm stand. Lijen & Sherlene Hua also sell wonton and other Chinese dumplings, as well as pickles and kimchi. The couple were excited to hear about Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet campaign and were happy to chat about their experience as organic farmers. They, like most farmers, are finding it hard to get good help and hold onto it. They have had volunteers from the WWOOF (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farm) program in the past but not this year. WWOOF links up volunteers to organic farms that are willing to host them in exchange for help around the farm. Before you go hoofing abroad to help some organic farm in Slovenia, you may want to check out if any local farms wouldn’t mind a helping hand or two.

I picked up a small root of wasabi from them and a bunch of tips and recipe ideas. That plug of green play-do they stick on the corner of your sushi isn’t wasabi. They call it wasabi but usually it’s plain horseradish powder (if you’re lucky) mixed with mustard powder and green food colouring. Real wasabi has a crisp, clean taste upfront with a floral note behind it and then zings you with the sharp horseradish heat. The root and the leaves can be used. Grate only what you need and keep the root on your fridge wrapped in a wet paper towel. It should fine keep for a few weeks that way.

Along with the many booths of local veggies and fruits, the market is a carnivore’s buffet of your typical farm flesh, as well as more exotic meats like bison, wild boar and venison. Island Bison booth had a line-up of eager carnivores. I picked up a couple pounds of stewing meat and a pound of smokies there. The bison are raised ethically with no hormones, no antibiotics, and are grass fed. Island Bison also takes online orders and will deliver.

The Twin Peaks Game Farm stand sells wild boar and fallow venison in every cut imaginable. What really caught my eye was that Andrew Androsoff, who runs the stand, had real skulls and bone specimens of the animals on his table. What a great, simple display of the connection between the animal and the end product. This is another reminder that this is food sold by folks who authentically know their products, who recognize and acknowledge the link between what’s at the farm and what ends up on your fork. An antithesis to the shrink-wrapped, sanitized, factory flesh that shows up in grocery stores that is completely devoid of any connection to the animal that it came from. Could you imagine a cow skull hanging over the meat department at your local corporate supermarket? You’d have McKids freaking out everywhere. There wouldn’t be enough Ritalin to calm them down!

I also met Matthew Nikkel from Tannadice Farms which sells Angus beef, pork and poultry. All their animals are raised with no-hormone, no-antibiotic and ethical practices. Their cattle are fed grass and corn grown on the farm, making them a true 100 mile diet beef. Matthew, a fella with enough energy and enthusiasm to power a Midwest cheerleading squad, also sits on the farmers market board and offered 100 Mile Diet Nanaimo a free booth at the market. I might have to take him up on his offer. As busy as his stand was, he was happy to chat for a few minutes and pointed out a few other farmers I should talk to, as well.

Before leaving the market with my backpack filled with fresh produce and a several frozen pounds of a menagerie of animals, I swung by the Human Eats Fresh Foods which sells a line of salsas, largely made with local produce. The stand was run by a saucy young woman named Rosa.

It so happened that Courtney was hosting their ‘Local Colours’ festival, which highlights the local arts and culture. This included a block of vendors from local restaurants, resorts, bakeries and other food establishments. Fanny Bay Oysters which sells locally harvested oysters fresh and smoked, and other seafoods was there. I also met Dave from Cumberland Village Bakery who uses a range of local products from apples to garlic to chicken in their chicken sausage rolls in his baked goods. His grains are coming in from an organic farm in Saskatchewan. He’s baking a range of naturally leavened multigrain, sprouted grain and rye breads and he’s keeping the famous Cumberland Auchterlonie donuts tradition alive. Krispy Kreme need not apply. Folks around here like some character in their doughnuts. The whole Comox Valley seems to be going through an artisan baking revival. Wild Flour Bakery is even offering a rye bread that gets a 100 Mile Diet thumbs up with rye grown up the highway at Emerald Acres Farm at Oyster River. Let’s hope this baking renaissance finds it’s way to Nanaimo.

I also found Sunshine Organics , a local organic grocery delivery company. The company has locations in Comox Valley, Powell River and Edmonton. They try to bring in local produce whenever they can and offer a variety of produce box sizes. Another great tool for 100 milers in the Comox Valley.

Speaking of produce boxes, my subscription to Nanoose Edibles is coming to an end for this season. I have an option of adding another 4 weeks of service. However, some folks (you know who you are) are griping that the weekly produce box makes it soooo easy for me to stick to the 100 Mile Diet and that they don’t have to time or money or both to find good, local organic produce on their own. So to show them, I’m taking my $30 a week from the produce box and using that to buy what I normally get through the box elsewhere. With more fresh produce showing up at the Nanaimo Farmer’s market and other farmers markets and the plethora of farms in the region, I’m not too worried.

Before leaving Courtney, I stopped by Hot Chocolates and grabbed a strawberry gelato made with local strawberries. What a great way to enjoy the last berries of the season. The flavour was a sublime and simple blending of ripe strawberries and cream. The gelato was a bit airy for me to consider it a gelato. (Sorry, I’m a totally gelato snob. Blame it on my years of living in Vancouver and having some of the best gelato in North American.) Nevertheless, it was a great treat to end my culinary tour of the Comox Valley. I have a feeling there may be a part two to this tour very soon.

Happy Eating!

Jen

www.100miledietnanaimo.com

Free Range at the Range

A future step taken for my 100 Mile Diet today, I threw in some winter veggies seedlings into the garden. I had a bunch that I grew from seed saved from last year and a few 6-packs of seedlings that I picked up from Long Lake nurseries. They had a table of winter veggies that included lettuce, spinach, kale and spinach, cabbage, brocolli and, of course, brussel sprouts. I know that by mid-February, I'll be sick and tired eating kale, but right now I'm dancing-my-ass-off excited about having another winter veggie garden. I had already thrown in some sea soil and tidied up the raised beds a few days ago, so it took all over 15 mins to put them in. Here's one I had a few years back in Port Alberni:


It's the middle of November in that picture. You're just going to have to take my word for it.

So I did a bit of postering around Downtown Nanaimo in preparation for the upcoming 100 Mile Diet Challenge Week. I ran into a friend who told me about an organic chicken and turkey farmer on Jinglepot Road with a very interesting story to tell. I'm thinking the next challenge for me will have to be a 100 Mile Diet Thanksgiving!

I'm still flying solo at the dinner table. DH will be back tomorrow. I like cooking for myself. It's a chance to experiment even more so than I usually do. To play with different texture and flavours that I normally wouldn't try if I was cooking for others. It's one thing if I end up eating toast for dinner because my radish and cranberry soup experiment didn't quite work out, it's another thing to make others do so.

However, it was past 9pm when I realized that I was hungry. I realized that I was hungry because I hadn't eaten dinner. I was also tired and not up to playing Iron Chef so figured I'd do a kitchen sink fritatta. Basically bits and pieces of stuff thrown into a fritatta. It's my way of doing some fridge housecleaning. I way of getting rid of leftovers gathering in random bowls and containers and bits of fresh ingredients that aren't enough to make something one their own. In a way it is a form of experimenting since often the most unlikely combinations end up together. I once did a kitchen sink fritatta with green beans in fermented black bean sauce, grilled chorizo sausage, greek salad and hummous that was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, I've never had that combination of leftovers since.

Here's what I had for leftovers: roasted corn (from dinner last night), small chunk of steak already cooked that I've been having as my main meat this week, blanched green beans, boiled beets. And I had some fresh bits: small bunch of swiss chard, bits of Hilary's Red Dawn cheese, red onion and basil. Yes, all of it grown within 100 miles.

So I sauted up the onion, then threw in the roasted corn, the chard, and the last of the steak (sliced thinly). As those ingredients heated up on medium-high heat, I beated a couple of local free-range eggs with some of the basil and a bit of water. To cut basil quickly, just stack the leaves, fold over lengthwise and cut directly into the bowl. The egg mixture went into the pan. Once almost completely cooked, I grated the rest of the Red Dawn cheese over the top of the eggs and pop it right under a waiting hot broiler until the cheese caramelized. I mixed the beets and beans together with a dash of balsamic vinegar and some dijon mustard for a salad.

It was great. The sweet roasted corn played nice counterpoint to the 'greeness' of the chard. The steak offered some interesting texture and flavour. I think cutting it thin was the key. Thick slices would have muddied up the texture. The Red Dawn cheese worked really well. It's mild enough that it doesn't dominate but it still has a presence. It helped bring out the sweetness of the corn.

I was going to take a picture but I was too hungry :P

Now I gotta go hunt for dessert.

Happy Eating!
Jen

Plum Drunk

So I'm a genius. Really. At least that's how I feel whenever a food experiment of mine actually works.

Last night I decided I needed clear out some precious fridge real estate and started with that bucket of damson plums I picked up from Nanoose Edibles. I decided to make jam. But, of course, I couldn't just make regular, good ole, yummy damson plum jam. Nooooo. That would be too easy. Instead, I made Damson Plum White Wine jam. Not just any white wine, but Cherry Point's Coastal White 2004 which is kinda like a Vancouver Island twist on a Gewurztraminer.

Here's the basic recipe:
4 cups of pitted and finely chopped damson plums (you can try other plums if you want)
1 cup of Cherry Point Coastal White wine
1/2 teaspoon of veg. oil or butter (to prevent foaming)
1 package of low/no sugar pectin
2 1/2 cups of sugar


1- Mix the plum,wine and oil.
2- Whisk in pectin.
3- Bring to boil
4- Take it off the heat and dump in sugar and mix well.
5- Bring it back up to a hard boil for 3 mins.
6- Pour into sterilized canning jars. Pop on lids.
7- Process jars for 10-15 mins.

It's a beautiful jewel of a jam. The wine added a depth and light floral tones that regular old juice wouldn't have. While the jars were taking their bath, I sopped up the remaining jam in the pot with a chunk of homemade semolina bread, plopped on some Little Qualicum's fromage frais on top and enjoyed my ruby treat with the last of the wine.

In fact, it truly was the last of that wine since Cherry Point has sold out of the Coastal White at their vineyard. Oh well, all the more reason to try what elses this Cowichan Valley vineyard has to offer.

Happy eating!

Jen

What's for dinner?

It's 11.36 pm and DH is off guiding a trip and I have nobody to bug!!!

Ok, so I guess I should tell you what I'm eating as I journey through this 100 Mile Diet. The basic idea of this diet is that you eat whatever you want, then you run a 100 miles.

I'm kidding. Just checking to see if you're paying attention.

So I'm pledging to buy and eat more foods grown within 100 miles of where I live. I'm aiming to eat 90% within the 100 Mile diet criteria. It's not reasonable or safe to deny me chocolate or coffee. However, if I must, I will eat only locally produced chocolate and locally roasted coffee ;)

Luckily for me, we have some amazing coffee roasters and chocolatiers here on the Rusty Coast. So my coffee choices right now are Level Ground Trading's Café Pangoa, a fair-trade organic coffee from Peruvia. t's a nice mellow cup of wake-up juice. The company is based in Central Saanich on Vancouver Island and is run by a group of Canadians that were truly dedicated to providing a real solution to poverty in coffee growing areas. I also use their organic fair trade cane sugar which tastes a heck of a lot better than the so-called 'plantation sugar' of sugar corporations.

My chocolate choice is currently Denman Island's Cocoa Loco with 70% cocoa mass that I picked up on the ferry over the weekend. This organic chocolate has a nice initial bite of bitterness that smooths out to a deep chocolate taste with no bitter aftertaste. One little square is all the dessert I need. This is one bar for savouring. Unfortunately, they don't use fair trade cocoa so I'm going to have to keep investigating.

I'm also on the hunt for local vinegars. I have a few leads and will get back with any updates.

So, now onto my 100 Mile Diet meals for today:

Breakfast: Local Red Haven peach and a wedge of melon (honeydew?) from the Nanoose Edibles farm stand cut in half with a dollop of Little Qualicum Cheesework's fromage frais (natural) and a drizzle of some local fir honey. Fir honey is so yummy. It's a dark brown honey with green tones. It's taste is mild and has a darker taste than lighter honey. And a bodum of coffee, of course.

Lunch: I had a bowl of beets leftover from dinner yesterday. They were the one's I picked up from the Duncan farmer's market. I also had a bunch of local organic beans and some romaine lettuce from my Nanoose Edible's weekly produce box. Along with some sliced carrots, again from Duncan, I made up a quick salad. I doused it with my Black Sesame Asian dressing (completely not within the 100 mile criteria, oh well). I had a small wedge of Natural Pasture's Wasabi cheese and a Paula Rose apple from Gabriola Island for dessert.

Black Sesame Asian dressing:
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup veg. oil
1/4 cup crushed black sesame seeds (either whirl in your grinder or a smashing in the mortar and pestle)
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp of white pepper

Dump all ingredients into a jar. Screw on lid. Shake and serve. It keeps in the fridge for a couple of days. This is super good with a slaw or as a flavour booster in soups and stir-fries.

After running errands earlier this afternoon, I popped over to Piper's Meats on Bowen Road to pick up some flesh. Piper's carries a whole shop full of locally raised, non-medicated, non-hormoned meats. There's everything from local lamb to local buffalo. I picked up a nice looking top sirloin steak to serve as my main protein source for the week.

Once I got home, I popped the steak into a glass dish and squirted a fig balsamic vinagrette and some chopped red chili pepper from the garden onto it. The vinegar I picked up a few weeks back at the Gabriola farmer's market from Jocelyne of Auld Alliance Farm. Along with a fig balsamic vinegar, I also picked up a chocolate balsamic vinegar and a fig chutney from her vast and growing line of vinegars and condiments. I know, not neccesarily within the 100 mile criteria but at least I was buying it from a local producer and the figs are from her property.

As the steak marinated in the fridge, I had to step out for a short errand...

After returning from what was supposed to be a short errand that got hijacked by miscommunication and a spontaneous wander down to Departure Bay beach and a wonderful return wander into the arms of an almost full, heavy moon, I was grateful that I had a fridge of waiting produce and a marinating chunk of flesh. Already too dark to bbq, I broiled the steak. I pulled off a few large romaine leafs, sliced off the thick stems and plopped some leftover Indonesian rice salad into the middle of the overlapping leaves.
The rice salad is the one from Moosewood's cookbook with a few local substitutions. For the veggie ingredients for the rice salad I tossed in some local green beans, carrots, cucumbers, zucchinis, red peppers, sprouts and red onion, all either from the Nanoose Edible's produce box or from the Duncan farmer's market.

Once the steak was cooked, I let it sit for 10 mins then sliced off a few thin slices and placed them ontop of the pile of rice salad. I then rolled the lettuce leaves over it all so it looked like a green burrito. To top it off, I squirted more fig balsamic vinagrette. A slice of Hilary's Cheese Company's Red Dawn and a sliced tomato from my garden served as my second course. Dessert was a square of my chocolate bar and a cup of mint tea with mint from my garden. Simply stuff a bunch of mint leaves into a sturdy mug. Crush the leaves a bit with the handle of a big wooden spoon and pour boiling hot water over it all. Viola!

Well, it's now tomorrow so good morning and good night all.

Jen Lam

I'm on a diet!

Ok. Before you all think that I've fallen off my brioche-lined rocker, the diet I'm on is the 100 Mile Diet. In fact, I'm such a believer in this diet that I'm leading the campaign to spread this way of eating and consuming through the Rusty Coast. The diet focuses on eating foods grown within 100 miles of where you live. We even have a website! For me here in Nanaimo, 100 mile is from Campbell River, to the west coast of the island, past the southern end and all the way east past Agassiz. That's a pretty big garden to draw from.

The 100 Mile Diet Nanaimo campaign is being launched with a Challenge Week from Sept. 11th to 17^th. I figured, I’d get a head start and start upping my local produce consumption this week. Though with a produce box from Nanoose Edibles, local free-ranged eggs from Nanaimo Sausage House where I pick up my produce box and oodles of fruit gleaned from friend’s trees and berry bushes, I’m well on my way.

On Saturday, a ravishing redheaded friend and I wandered over down the island to the Duncan Farmers Market to do a little chatting with the farmers and their patrons. Farmers are such real people. You know? They are literally and figuratively grounded. Some are a tad too grounded but they have a sense of place and time that has relevance. Time is not measured by some arbitrary ticking of a clock, place is not marked by convenience.

All the farmers I spoke to were thrilled by the idea of a 100 mile diet campaign in the area. They pressed business cards in my hands, they waxed poetic about their product, and they invited me up to their farms for a tour. They spoke of the simple joys of being part of a community and enjoying good whole foods and a real meal. I met Steve Miller from the Shadybrook Farm who raised cattle and lamented the possibility of not being able to sell their beef to the public due to bureaucratic red tape that’s trying to shove them down. From his stand, I picked up an inside round steak for dinner that night. All his cattle are raised in an ethically and environmentally sound manner. His stand also carried chicken in every cut imaginable, from stock bones to boneless breasts to whole chickens.

A few stalls down was the Cottage Farm stand where I found strawberries and blueberries still being sold. I picked up a huge box of prune plums, a bunch of huge oblong beets, a bunch of multicoloured carrots (yellow, purple mixed in a with their orange buddies, a beautiful head of cabbage). I spoke briefly to Helma Stewart, the farm’s proprietor, who insisted that call her to chat more and even gave me her cell phone number. Right beside her was the Gabriola Gourmet Garlic guy, who also makes the wonderful Definitely Different Chocolate line. He sold me a bag of garlic for planting and when asked when I should pop them into the ground, he advise that it be best that I plant them on midnight of October 15th, naked by the light of the full moon. Frisky vampires beware!

One of my favorite cheesemakers happens to sell at the Duncan Farmer’s market: Hilary’s Cheese Company. Hilary Abbot is a cheesemaker after my own heart. A charming man who loves cheese and the craft of cheesemaking. His Belle Anne, a French inspired cheese that has been washed in a locally made blackberry port is one of my favourite cheeses. He also an ash-ripened camembert that has revived my love for camembert. The milk for his cheeses comes from a farm minutes away from his cheese operation. That day I picked up a goat feta which tastes nothing like the industrial frog farts cheese that you find shrink-wrapped in the grocer’s dairy case.

We popped over to Hilary’s store in Cowichan Bay shop later that day. He shares store space with Tru Grain Breads, a real artisan baker who also brings in a Red Fife wheat grown in Saskatchewan and a spelt grown in Armstrong, BC. I picked up a couple bags of Red Fife wheat and some spelt. I know, Saskatchewan is way out of the 100 Mile radius but it is milled right there in the bakery and it’s organic. There’s no way I can make it without bread. The original 100 Milers got some precious flour from The Roost, a bakery that’s part of the Highland House Farm in North Saanich. On this hobby farm, Hamish Crawfood has planted Red Fife wheat which he turns into bread for the bakery. I may just have to plan out a Southern Vancouver Island food trip and see if I can beg or bribe some of this flour from him.

Many of the stands were boasting the first harvest of local apples. Organic apples for a buck a pound! Yippee!! I picked up a bag of Gravensteins, which are a wonderfully tart, crisp apple perfect for baking. I also love it with some good old cheddar. I also picked up a bag of Galas which are sweet and aromatic and put those industrial farm gala apples to shame. My backpack was already getting pretty full so I only picked up 3 pounds in total. It’s crazy that produce aisles at big grocery chains are inundated with mediocre apples from everywhere else but only offer one or two local apples. And usually one of those is the industrial farmed Red Delicious which looks great on the outside but has the taste and texture of wood pulp. Thank goodness for small local farmers that are keeping a variety of apples going and understand that there are some of us that don’t like the plastic aftertaste of the factory farmed apples.

I got to talk to wide range of folks from farmers to their patrons. I even ran into Mara Jernigan, resident chef for the Fairburn Farm B&B in the Cowichan valley. The farm boasts the only herd of authentic water buffalo in North America. There is a freaking water buffalo dairy in my 100 Mile region! (Jen does happy buffalo mozzarella dance). She’s also a rep for the Slow Food movement and a cooking instructor. And she has great tastes in shoes :)

It’s amazing how the farmer’s market has become a true community hub. Farmers, food producers and chefs that have organically (pun intended) formed a network of culinary wisdom and culture. There were many food and beauty producers selling as well. From soap to lavender products to jams and preserves to baked goods, one would wonder why anyone would ever need a grocery store.

It was apparent which vendors there were there to be part of a culinary community and which ones were there to simply make money for themselves with no intent of supporting the larger community. I suppose those vendors that don’t utilize any local produce in their products would have little immediate financial advantage to helping out the local farmers. Luckily, not all of them are of that mindset. Many of the other vendors were was happy the chat and were supportive of the 100 mile diet campaign even though it wouldn’t profit them directly, however others were downright chilly when I visited their booth.

BTW, I found gomashio at the market which is basically black sesame and salt. Who would’ve thought that this standard Japanese macrobiotic diet condiment would show up at the Duncan farmer's market? It was all packaged up pretty and labelled and, of course, overpriced. My Japanese friends would have a good laugh over how much people pay for this prepackaged condiment considering that most of them make it in bulk at home for pennies. You can make it yourself for a fraction of what it costed there by picking up a bag of black sesame seeds for $2 in the asian food aisle and adding a bit of sea salt. I use 1 tsp of salt for a ¼ cup of dry-toasted black sesame seeds. Just toast up the seeds in a dry pan, whirl it in your grinder with the salt or pound it in your mortar and pestle. It’s easy!

Check back soon and I’ll be telling you all about this great restaurant I found in Duncan! Maybe I'll even share one dressing turned my farmer's market bounty into a great 100 Mile diet meal.

Until then, treat yourself to a locally grown apple.

Jen

Canned

So my lovelies, I've been canning the last few days. Figs and peaches gifted from my friend's gorgeous trees supplemented with local bounty from the Shady Mile farm have been keep me busy. After gorging on fresh figs, I had to 2 huge baskets of edge of erupting ripe figs that I turned into fig compote and a fig chutney. Peaches (all together 50 plus lbs), got turned into peaches in vanilla syrup, peach compote with green cardomon and spiced peach & ginger chutney. I had some leftover peach slurry from the compote and freestyled a peach-rum-hazelnut sauce which I canned and I'm planning to break out in the dank swamp of February over some pancakes or perhaps a simple pound cake or a bowl of real vanilla icecream. Who wants to bet that it won't last through September?

I didn't get out for much blackberry picking this year. I did manage to get a couple of yogurt containers and made a blackberry-plum-rhubarb jam (with a touch of balsalmic vinegar). It's so good. The blend of tangy and sweetness goes well with goat cheese on a slice of baguette.

Blueberries , oh the bounty was good this year. They are huge and sweet and once I finished stuffing handfuls down my gullet, I made them into various jams. My first was a blueberry rhubarb jam. The late summer rhubarb is divine and damn a certain someone who keeps reminding me that they cause kidney stones. I'll worry about when I pee pebbles. The next batch was a blueberry plum jam. Finally, I made a blueberry ginger jam. Well, actually, it's more like a sauce. I mismeasured the sugar and it isn't quite thick enough. But it's thick enough for a crepe syrup or a 'fruit-amisu' (basically boozed up fruit sauce and fresh fruit instead of espresso in a basic tiramisu).

I just picked up a couple of pineapples (my guilty pleasure) and I'm thinking of a pineapple marmalade. Or maybe a chutney with some leftover peaches and rhubarb. Or a pineapple mint salsa sort of thingamabob. Who knows.



Along with all the fruits that are filling my belly, are all the brilliant veggies that I've been getting via my Nanoose Edibles produce box and local farmer's markets. From beans to squash to those sexy garlic and of course, the tomatoes. The tomatoes are going to be star of the show at a Slow Food event at the Laughing Geese in the Cowichan Valley on Sept.12. Participants are asked to bring a dish made with local tomatoes. In the invite, they dared up to bring a tomato dessert. Now, my lovelies, you know I couldn't pass up a dare like that. So now I've got to figure out a tomato dessert. Any ideas?

Happy eating!

Jen

Good-bye Hair

It's hot. Way too freaking hot. It's only going to get even hotter. There's only one thing to do. Cut my hair!!!

Here's one last look at me with my tresses. Say good-bye. Good-bye split ends. Good-bye ponytail-induced migraines. Good-bye drains clogged with Medusa orphaned tresses. Good-bye geisha-concubine-teahouse hostess fantasies.

I was getting pretty good at doing the sexy girl hair flick thing. I can do it now without giving myself whiplash. Oh well, time to learn a new trick. I ought to work on my tying a cherry stem into a square knot with my tongue trick next.

But it's about time I hacked off the locks and sent them off to hair heaven to be made into a wig.

I'm sending my locks off to Wigs for Kids.

I love that tunic top. It's so breezy. I tied a cotton obi around it to give it bit more shape and paired it up with a pair of black linen pants. I have a theory that if you show up to the salon looking spiffy, you'll get a better haircut. So far, it hasn't failed me yet.

Here's a picture of the hair that got hacked off:

Kevin at the Cutting Room in Nanaimo did the honors. He was awesome. A surfing, rock-climbing cutie of a hairdresser. And Freaking hilarious to boot.

I arrived a bit early to my appointment so I could look through the style books. I had a few ideas in mind but nothing I was completely committed too other than I wanted it short.

There are some really ugly hairstyles in those style books. Butt-freaking ugly hair. Like you'd be better off letting your kid brother do your hair for you sort of hair. (Or your older sis, right Pat?) . But then again, at least they're creative. That's a notch better than some of the mundane, hactchet jobs I see wandering through the malls. Lay off the bleach ladies. You're not fooling anyone. While you're at it, give the flat iron the morning off too.

In my hair odyssey, I decided to best way to find a great stylist was to ask women who had great looking hairstyles where they got their hair done. Not just well-cut hair but hair that suited them, hair that moved well and didn't look 'done'. My little survey made me realize that there isn't very much good hair in this town. There some great boob jobs (and lots of mediocre ones to match their hair) but not much in the way of great hair. Of the women that I asked, several had got their hair done at the Cutting Room. A few got their hair done at Kiyo's, which is run by a former Cutting Room stylist.

So that's how I ended up in Kevin's chair at the Cutting Room talking about surfing, climbing and drag queens. And once all the hair stopped flying, this is what was left:















I'm free! So cool, so light!

I'm loving the new 'do. It's wash 'n go. A little bit of wax and I'm out of here.

To celebrate, I'm making Mojitos and watching the ferry mayhem from my patio.

Later.

Happy Hug-A-Tonto Day!

Happy Summer Solstice to everyone. It’s the longest day of the year and the start of summer. It’s all downhill from here.

It’s also National Aboriginal Day up here in Canuckland. In anticipation of this day, the Harper government has decided to join the US, New Zealand and Australia in their stand to stop the United Nations from passing a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. I mean, they have they’re own freaking day, who needs basic human rights?!?! Dreamcatchers and fry bread for everyone!

To make natives even more nostalgic for the good old days, the Harper government has pretty much raindanced the life out of the the Kelowna Accord, a plan laid out by the previous Liberal government and the provincial leaders to provide $5 billion over five years to address many of the inequities facing Canada's aboriginal population.

Thanks to a cold, my body has been under the control of Captain Mucus and his sidekick Boy Phlegm for the last few days. I’ve managed to shake most of it off. Unfortunately, most of it shook off onto my DH. As long as he gets a steady supply of canned chicken noodle soup, Ho Yan Hor cha and PS2, he’ll be ok. Consider it part Jewish, part Chinese, part pubescent boy medicine.

What do you mean, 'What is Ho Yan Hor cha?'

Seriously, get a Chinese friend.

They'll tell you that Ho Yan Hor cha is a magical herbal tea that can cure everything from the flu to dandruff to a New Year's Eve hangover. It has stuff like double golden rabbit bile powder and red phoenix flower stamen and ear of ginseng monkeys in it. (I've got no idea what's in it but it makes DH feel better.)

Today I picked up my box of organic produce from Nanoose Edibles, a local farm. Each week I get a box of fresh veggies and fruit as part of their produce box program. There was enough stuff to fill a whole shelf in my fridge. Amongst the crazy lettuces, English peas, baby beets, local strawberries, purple kohlrabi (picture above) and other goodies was a tomato plant and a stash of chamomile-lemon balm tea. It’s going to be grand playing with these ingredients. Considering how cool it has been this spring, I’m amazed at how awesome of a bounty we’re already getting from them.

We’ve definitely into salad season. I’m thinking of digging right into my produce box and making a mixed green salad with strawberries with orange-poppy seed dressing. I have a piece of smoked salmon from our neighbourhood fishmonger that will pair up nicely with some homemade bread and the last of a wedge of pepper crusted brie that I picked up the last time I was in Vancouver. The bread I made is the Wheat-Nut Anise bread from ‘Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book’ by Laurel Robertson. It’s a sweet, nutty bread that has managed to stay moist for 4 days so far. There is a hum of licorice from the anise seeds and the cooked bulgur has created a chewy but still light texture. So far it has held up well to a Spicy Nutty Squash soup and a picnic lunch or cheese, real salami and olives.

Here’s my recipe for Spicy Nutty Squash soup. It’s an easy soup (only 4 ingredients!!) that requires almost no prep except for chopping and disemboweling a couple of squashes. It’s also a great way to use up cooked winter squashes. I prefer roasted squash since roasting caramelizes the squash but you can use any plain cooked squash. It’s also a vegan dish.

1 large or 2 small winter squashes (or 4-5 cups of already cooked squash). Any orange flesh squash like butternut, acorn, Japanese pumpkin/kabocha etc. Some are starchier than others. Some have more flavour. Just experiment. Pick a heavy squash with few blemishes and a nice solid flesh.

*2-3 tsp of peanut butter or another other nut butter

1/8 tsp of sambal oelek or any other chili sauce

2-4 cups of water or diluted veggie broth (1:1 broth to water)

1- Preheat oven to 325F. Line roasting pan with parchment paper or lightly oil with vegetable oil.

2- Slice squashes in halve lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.

3- Place squashes cut side down onto prepared pan.

4- Throw it onto the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 30-40 mins or until flesh is soft and cooked through. Let cool until able to handle with bare hands

5- Scoop out all the flesh from the squash with a large spoon into a blender.

6- Add other ingredients and 2 cups of water or veggie broth.

7- Blend on high until nice and smooth.

8- Dump it in a pot and add enough of the remaining liquid until it reaches the consistency you want. I prefer mine a bit on the thick side, other’s like it a bit thinner. It’s up to you.

9- Simmer pot over low heat until soup is just heated through. Stir consistently.

*For those with nut allergies, replace the nut butters with a couple cloves of roasted garlic. Just throw a couple of cloves of garlic with only the papery skin removed into the roasting pan along with squashes. They ought to be soft in about 15 mins. Remove from pan before they start to burn.

This soup freezes nicely. It will separate a bit once thawed but a bit of stirring will have it back as new. The smooth, thick mouth-feel (there's something quite obscene about that word, 'mouth-feel') of the soup makes it seem richer than it really is.

Things you can add to this soup (add only 1 or 2 additions):

-a squeeze of lime

-a sprinkle of chopped cilantro

-splash of good balsamic vinegar

-roasted veggies (think eggplant, carrots, parsnips, or more squash)

-ginger-soy or teriyaki marinated tofu

-a sprinkle of chopped smoked bacon, pancetta or chorizo (If you happen to have some leftover from a previous meal.)

-a sprinkle toasted breadcrumbs or a homemade croutons.

-freshly ground pepper

Or just quit screwing around and leave it as it is.

I'll be back with more installments of my China trip. Right now I'm going to enjoy what's left of the longest day of the year.

Enjoy!

Made in China

I've been MIA for a while. But I have a really, really good excuse this time. Really, I do. I got kidnapped by the cyber-terrorist group, Goodbye Pussy, and sent off to work for a Chinese ganglord. They were running a counterfeit cellphone ringtone factory built underneath a Ming Temple, the Altar of Everprocreating Sons. They needed my nimble fingers and ability to muzak on the spot. After weeks of forging ringtones of the whole Billboard 100 List with a Lilliputian-sized synthesizer, I managed to bribe the the night-shift guard, Shen-Shen, for safe passage to the nearest Special Hypocrisy Zone. After a few nights in a Chinese gulag and a short stint in a Shanghai massage parlour, I managed to make it home with a few bruises, 2 missing internal organs and a suitcase of fake Rolexes.

OK. So that's not exactly what has been happening. But I did go to China with my family. I would have popped stuff into the blog while I was travelling but at each internet terminal I used, there was a nice little note reminding me that that any statements made against the Chinese government would be considered a crime against the state and once their cyber-filters discovered my criminal acts, they would string me up by my toes and stick bamboo needles under my fingernails and rub snake piss into my eyes. So I figured I'd just keep a journal and puke it all out once I got back to where the soil was only semi-fascist. I'll be adding entries harvested from my journal whenever I have a chance. The journal, BTW, is a little red book. How very Mao of me.

PS - Shen-Shen your Yao Ming pubic hair clippings are in the mail. Thanks for everything!

May 12, 2006 – Vancouver Airport – 9:17 am

Waiting for Pat, John & Dad to show up (John’s brother, Andrew, is driving them here) so we can get going to the Air Canada check-in counter for our CHINA TRIP!!!! Beyond excited about seeing China & all the relatives that we have never met. It’s all very strange to think of these people as family. Not sure what to even call them. Thanks to the Chinese obsession with familial taxonomy, each relative has a title that reflects a multiple of things including maternal or paternal lineage and birth order. This means each relative has a specific specification of their special post as speciated member of this family. In other words, each family reunion is half joyful celebration, half imperial exam.

I stayed up pretty much all of last night watching ‘Return of the King’ then ‘Connie & Carla’. After almost 4 hours of the epic battle over Middle Earth, my brain could only handle an early morning wallowing of show tunes & drag queens. Anything more substantial would have blown a fuse and rendered me useless for today’s travel.

I stayed awake for a reason. Though, I don’t really need a reason to watch ‘Return of the King’ for the 32^nd time. The plan is to sleep most of the 11 plus hour flight to Beijing. Now, as I’m writing this, I realize that my brain is fallen into a bucket of stupid. My efforts to trick my body into Beijing time has left my brain dumber than my body. Considering how goofy my body is, this is definitely not a good thing.

That familiar tinny ‘ all-nighter’ feeling that accompanied me through most of my college days has taken over my body and is thick on my tongue and throat. Mom keeps asking me if I’ve eaten. It’s her default mode. When she has nothing to say to me, she asks if I’ve eaten yet. In fact, it’s the general Chinese default mode. We greet one another with ‘Have you eaten yet?’ upon meeting not because we’re concerned about one another’s state of hunger but because we have nothing better to say. But now, each time Mom asks me, it’s brings attention to my stomach, which at this moment in time, is very confused. It’s saying to me, ‘What were you thinking? Am I supposed to want breakfast or dinner now?’ I have a feeling that my stomach will not be happy for a while, especially once it gets a whiff of airplane food. I can only hope that the bounty that awaits us on the other side of the plane trip will appease it.

Part of me is so present for all of this trip. I’m a sponge (a sleep-deprived sponge). I’m taking in all the sounds and sights, the feeling of crisp pages of my passport, the cavernous airport and all the cheesy Canadian paraphernalia stores, the already dog-eared itinerary that I keep checking to see when I’m going to see what, and the speeding baggage carts and their drivers as people rush for their flights. Another part of me isn’t going to register it at all until I’m standing in Tianamen Square.

Oh fuck! I’m going to be in Tianamen Square. And I’m going to see the Terracotta Army and the Great-Freaking-Wall of China and those glorious limestone mountains of Li River and, and, and…OK…breathe. There’s a table of airport workers that are given this bug-eyed yellow gal strange looks.

Airports are strange places. They are not so much a place but a space that operates as a vehicle. Nobody comes here to be here. Well, except for that Christmas when our family came to the airport just to hang out because there was nowhere else that was opened. We hung out at the arrivals gate, waving at all the holiday-weary travelers as they arrived through the magical arrival’s door. The door that signals that ‘Ah-ha’ you’re finally here, you’ve passed through all the 9 gates of hell. Your swarthy eyes and 5 full sets of hotel toiletry sets haven’t set off any security alarms. You meet the minimal requirements in order to step onto this soil. You may go join the rest of the peons.'

Airports are transition spaces, spaces built simply to move people in a physical way. Some are good at this, other’s are human-size equivalents of sadistic rat maze experiments.

The souvenir stores are a countdown of Canada’s greatest hits: First Nation doo-dads and thingamabobs, 63 manipulations of maple syrup, smoked salmon in a bag- in a box- in a tin- wrapped in cedar bough and stuffed into the nether-regions of a beaver. There are tins upon tins of animal droppings which gives tourists the false impression that Canadians have a coprolite fetish. Disappointingly, they are merely fruits or nuts covered in chocolate, thown into a tin and slapped with an absurdly high price tag and a cute cartoon of the animal that the product supposedly was expelled from. Yummy.

We’re waiting in the food court by Bill Reid's 'First Folks in a Jade Canoe' statue. It’s a shame that most locals don’t get a chance to see this beautiful work until they leave this city. We’re still waiting for the others. It’s all fine since we’ve got a ton of time before our plane leaves. Anyways, I’m still mentally deciding what to pack. Should I have brought more underwear? Should I have brought fewer skirts? Should I have brought more t-shirts and fewer tanks? (a moot point since I only own 2 t-shirts and 28 tank tops) Should I have bothered bringing a pair of jeans? It’s amazing how much space a pair of jeans takes. I could have packed 6 more tank tops in space of one pair of jeans. Should I have brought another book just in case I don’t feel like reading the one I have. What are the chances of finding a English-language bookstore in Xi’an? Should I have brought more sunscreen? I had brought three bottles, one spray-on, one purse size spray-on and a regular smear all over yourself type.

There they are! We’re now off to the first of the treacherous nine gates of security.

10:53am -The bastards won’t let me carry on my knitting!!!! They’re freaking 6mm plastic knitting needles. There are baby toys that are more dangerous than these mammoth needles. So I’m stuck with 11 plus hours to fill up sans knitting. Provided that I sleep for about 6 of those hours, that still leaves over 5 hours. Hopefully the inflight movies will be good. If not, then I may have to talk to my family or whatever poor sap has their seat next to me. Thank goodness for Sudoku!

Dead Seeds Growing

I've been MIA for the last while. I've been recovering from my Knitting Olympics frenzy. The skirt got done and I would post up a pic but I'm having technical difficulties so you're just gonna have to take my word for it.

Here's some stuff I've been messing with lately:

Ban Terminator : No, this is not a call to get Schwarzenegger out of office. This is a call against lifting a UN moratorium on sterile seeds. The GMO seeds would prevent farmers from saving and replanting harvested seed. In other words, it would stop farmers from farming the way that they have for freaking ever. This wonderful concept is brought to you by your neighbourhood agri-facists like Monsanto. Canada and US are at the forefront of trying to get this moratorium lifted. Write letters to your officials, sign the petition, spread the word.

In relation to the Dead Seed Growing rant, I'm subscribing to Nanoose Edible's local produce box program. For $35 a week, I get a big box of organic local produce delivered to my doorstep. Yippee! I can't wait. There're similar programs in other cities in Canada, US and Europe.

So, in celebration of International Women's Day, South Dakota's Rebumpkin Governor Mike Rounds has decided to put forth a bill to ban abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Other states are considering following South Dakota's lead...sigh...some people's children...

So, if the bill passes, doctors will face fines and up to 5 years in prison for performing abortions. Rape and incest victims will be forced to carry the fetus to term, whether they want to or not. Rapists will get the same parental rights as the woman they raped. Well, I'm sure the rapists in South Dakota are glad their rights are being protected so well.

Maybe Cameron Diaz did know what she was talking about on Oprah's Voting Party show.

Yikes.

Is it too early in the day to start drinking?