Fear of a Female Planet

On Saturday I went for a hike to check out a potential trail running route on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail up above us (it had also been a rainy couple days and I felt cooped up). It was a nice trail, but I think I would do it in reverse, as the first part is very steep straight up on sidewalks, while the second part was nice shaded switchbacks up the canyon.

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This week I picked up a knitting project I had set aside for months. After only one episode of Orange is the New Black (as I am counting hour long periods of time lately) I was able to figure out where I was in the pattern and since then I have almost finished the sock (picked up again from the heel turn).

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Yesterday the gardener came over to weed and pointed out that the grapes in the front yard were ready to be picked if I wanted them.



Why yes, yes I would like that very much:

Used up my bread flour making some baguettes! I used to love making bread but haven't in years, so this was fun :)

Bonus: Baguettes are vegan, so I can bring them over my friend's house for dinner!



(Recipe)

This week's cleaning of the cupboard may make it seem like I have very decadent cupboards - but give it time - come May things are going to get interesting.

I had two nori sheets, some sushi rice, and, for some reason, two bottles of rice vinegar...



And half a box of falafel mix, a box of tabbouleh mix, and leftover radish from the sushi...



Last week I used up a bunch of chocolate I had leftover from holiday truffle making by improvising some brownies:



And in money saving - you can make ramen really quite tasty!

Nick is a big fan of applesauce and we have a ton of apples, so yesterday I tried making applesauce for the first time!

It's made much easier by my "Apple Master" which peels, cores, and slices apples in a jiffy.



I canned the applesauce, the first time I have ever tried canning! It was much easier than I thought it would be:



The hard part was waiting for them to cool over night to find out if it worked!



I also made some walnut apple muffins:



It worked!

The Minimalist: Putting Meat Back in Its Place
By MARK BITTMAN,The New York Times, June 11, 2008

LET’S suppose you’ve decided to eat less meat, or are considering it. And let’s ignore your reasons for doing so. They may be economic, ethical, altruistic, nutritional or even irrational. The arguments for eating less meat are myriad and well-publicized, but at the moment they’re irrelevant, because what I want to address here is (almost) purely pragmatic: How do you do it?
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Banking on Gardening
By MARIAN BURROS, The New York Times, June 11, 2008

Cassandra Feeley prefers organic ingredients, especially for her baby, but she finds it hard to manage on her husband’s salary as an Army sergeant. So this year she did something she has wanted to do for a long time: she planted vegetables in her yard to save money.

“One organic cucumber is $3 and I can produce it for pennies,” she said.

For her first garden, Ms. Feeley has gone whole hog, hand-tilling a quarter acre in the backyard of her house near the Fort Campbell Army base in Kentucky. She has put in 15 tomato plants, five rows of corn, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, okra, peas, watermelon, green beans. An old barn on the property has been converted to a chicken coop, its residents arriving next month; the goats will be arriving next year.

“I spent $100 on it and I know I will save at least $75 a month on food,” she said.

She is one of the growing number of Americans who, driven by higher grocery costs and a stumbling economy, have taken up vegetable gardening for the first time. Others have increased the size of their existing gardens.
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