A bit about my neighborhood

Speaking of adventures, I picked up running after a three month hiatus, and the running trial by our house is just too good to be true!

The price of not being persistent with training is pretty brutal, on my first run I could only jog in a pace that's a little faster than walking. But I'm not complaining, the scenery is so beautiful and peaceful, I was just glad I was there.
The lake you see on the left is Lake Merced. From the picture, you probably imagine it's an untouched piece of nature in San Francisco. Quite the contrary, Lake Merced suffered great environmental destruction when nearby golf courses took the runoff to water their lawns. As a result, the lake's water level depleted drastically.

The situation improved when the city changed legislations and started to protect the lake's water source. But it will take years for the lake to gradually fill up again.
I do feel sad whenever I hear stories of pollution or over-exploitation. The cost to repair those damages are just not worth the initial gains. But as I slowly jog along the trial, I bump into countless fellow runners, bikers, people taking a walk, walking their dogs too, and birds! There were so many birds chirping around the trees. I marvel how nature has a way of righting wrong things. And that makes me very hopeful.
I think we do need to change our lifestyles in order to live sustainably, but it doesn't mean giving everything up. Somehow, we can find a way to strike that balance.
Much easier said than done right? Ming and I have been trying to solve this rodent mystery in our garden. And finally half an hour ago, with the help of outdoor lamps and flash lights, Ming saw it... it was a BIG FAT RAT! It jumped up a foot tall concrete block with no difficulty at all. Yes, balance... I'm going to burn that garden first thing in the morning! Joking...
I'll figure something out :(

The end of summer: Canning Tomatoes :)

So life goes on... Just this past Sunday we had friends over for dinner, first time since we moved to our new home :) We cleaned, polished, shopped... did you know you can fix heat marks on a table with a steaming iron? And Ming made his beloved Jamaican Jerk Chicken and ribs. The evening flew by, we shared summer stories, unusual encounters, and washed our tasty dinner down with plenty of beer and wine. Of course, the evening cannot be complete without me passing out on the couch after our guests left. A great dinner party always brings me back other fond memories of eating with friends, I'm grateful for every one of these memories, and I wish we have many many more in the future.

A couple years ago when I decided to eat local and seasonal, one obvious ingredient I had to give up was tomatoes in the winter. That is a bummer because tomatoes are absolutely one of my favorite flavors; especially when I'm trying to be a vegetarian cook, tomato dishes became one of my biggest go-tos. I find them oddly flavorful and satisfying even without meat in them. Thus, the idea of canning tomato sauce came to my radar. I mean, it sounds so fun it's worth a try :)

My work station

Got them last week at the farmer's market with a discount (I love deals)  The farmer told me the long skinny ones are ideal for making sauce, because they're less watery and can act as a thickener 

Before skinning all the tomatoes, I saved seeds from a couple of them. All you need to do is cut them open, scoop the seeds out and put them in water for 3 days. The fermentation saves the seeds from deceases. Then you can just wash them, dry them, and store them. The tomatoes I have in my planters are seeds I saved last year from our landlord's garden, just saying, it works :)

 The first step in making sauce is skinning the tomatoes, plop them in boiling water for 30 seconds and dunk them in cold water. The tomato skins will come right off! Ming looked at me doing it for a while and asked, "Can I try?"

 Once all the tomatoes are 'naked,' then it's time to take the seeds and pulp away. The main goal of all this is to squeeze as much water out from the fruit as possible.

Quite the bloody mess I'll say

 Don't throw the tomato water away! It taste just as sweet, citricy, and intense as any good tomato tastes like. It's intant tomato stock, I boiled it a with bunch of soup vegetables and threw in some pasta, and a refreshing lunch is served!

Once the tomatoes are prepared everything else was a breeze. boil the tomatoes down in sauteed onions, garlic, basil; season the sauce with some salt and pepper, red wine? Put them in sanitized jars, oops, forgot to mention, I washed the jars in the dishwasher while I was doing the previous steps. Lastly put the sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes.

Yay! After all that work, all I got was 6.5 jars?!

If anyone is interested in making and canning their own sauce, please don't use what I wrote as reference. We'll know in a couple weeks time if this project was successful or not. You'll find this website is much more helpful and informative: http://www.pickyourown.org/spaghettisauce.htm

Plants are my kind of pets :)

To my dear friends who are also looking for jobs, hang in there, better days are coming. The job search process is gradual and tedious, and the stress and anxiety comes and goes in waves. About once a week, I lay awake in bed half the night, only to doze into nightmares... apparently, nightmares are contagious. Ming woke up one day and said he dreamt of me frantically screaming at him, "I need money!" No financial woes intended, I just think it's funny.
I can't afford to feel crappy, there's food to be cooked, house to be cleaned, bills to pay, things to put away. If I feel crappy, not just the house, I'll be a mess! I will break-out, get muscle spasms, and loose sleep. We all have to stay positive somehow, stay busy, stay confident, and stay focused. How? whatever floats your boat. Before I knew, I keep going to my garden.

First thing in the morning, check the nursery 

Just this weekend, I was reminded that people have definitions to what pets are. At a urban chicken keeping workshop this past Saturday, I asked the awesome instructor, "Can we eat the chickens?" And he seemed a bit dismayed, "You have to decide if you want to keep them as pets, or livestock." Why can't I eat my pets, why is it okay to eat livestock? This is my logic: One day when I die and leave this world, I would wish to leave a nice inheritance for people I care for; and I think my chickens would wish to do the same, won't they? Most Americans might frown upon my fuzzy line between pet and food, so I chose a pet that is socially acceptable to eat :)
I started my garden because I want to grow my own food, and also I want to train myself for a career in urban farming in the future. But I did not expect growing plants would be such an intimate experience. Every morning I can't wait to get out of bed and go into the garden. I check how the seeds are sprouting, how small leaves turned into big leaves overnight, how vines are latching on the fence etc. It's amazing to see how vulnerable and strong seedlings are, when a seed decided to sprout, it is so tiny you have to squint and look real close to be sure if something is growing. But all they need is a bit of water, sun, and dirt, and they will grow, their roots will grab onto the soil, keep it moist, and they would branch out from there.

Planted a veggie garden last week, to realize rodents have access to it 

As soon as the seedlings were big enough I decided to transplant them into the raised beds. But I didn't expect company. Last week, after I planted half of my seedlings into a raised bed, all my lettuce leafs were eaten overnight :( Apparently, some mysterious creature like to pay us a visit at night. I was pretty upset, through friend's advices and help from Ming, we put chicken wire up to fence of the hungry predators.

The chicken wire fence is a temporary solution, once we know better what we're up against, we'll take more drastic actions 

The amazing part about the lettuce was, two days later, new baby leafs started growing out from the stem. It's like them telling me, they're okay, and they're staying with me. When I went out to check on the plants this afternoon, I touched the thriving tomato plant, and it left its fresh, spicy scent on my hand. I know plants don't make sounds, plants don't do tricks, but if you listen, they talk to you, send you energy, and they send you love. Can't wait for my first harvest :)

Speaking of pets, how can I not mention my lovely worms?! 

The worms have been settling for a couple of weeks, and they're doing great! Chomping away our kitchen scraps, and multiplying in numbers. Fyi, I learned something recently that might make my former housemates want to kill me... I am supposed to put 50% newspaper and 50%food scraps every time I feed the worm bin. That's why the worm bin constantly had an odor problem... Sorry girls.

Carrot tops and Patty Pan Squash

I write food stories, but I rarely get into the technical part, a.k.a recipes, procedures, or ingredient selection. Main reason being I don't think my food is good enough for people to make in their homes, and some of my approach is just simply, freaky. Then recently I realized, I cook for I am, and people cook because they are. There is always a story behind our cooking or taste, and we should be proud about it. So, no more feeling embarrassed about my spontaneous cooking. After all, give me a recipe, and I promise I'll screw it up but still make it taste great :) if not, I can give you a good laugh. Why are we giving so much credit to celebrity chefs when we are perfectly capable cooks? And why feel as if I've done something blasphemous because I substituted one ingredient for another? Whose fridge is so well-stocked anyways? Are you seriously going to buy a bag of pine nuts because one recipe calls for 3ounces? So this is it, the cooking of everything goes, zero food waste: when in doubt, add more stuff to it.

An omurice spinoff: the Japanese omurice is a chicken ketchup fried rice with a fluffy omelet on top
it's so much fun to make it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-GFimGcYJw

I made this a while back, fried rice is one of my go-to things if there are leftovers I need to finish off. Dice up whatever vegetable or meat you have, add overnight rice into a HOT oiled pan and work that spatula! (Reason for overnight rice is you want the rice on the dry side, wet rice tends to mush up) Use the spatula to crush, separate, and toss the rice until they're all evenly heated, then toss in everything else. Some salt, pepper, worchestire sauce, five spice, soy sauce, Jamaican jerk seasoning, hot sauce... really you can put anything you think that goes with it, I've done all those ingredients I just mentioned :)
I added carrot tops to my eggs because I happen to have them. Don't throw them away, they taste amazing. Carrot tops are very fibrous, so dice them up very small. They taste like a cross over between celery and parsley when cooked lightly, not as soapy as parsley though. They add an amazing crunch and freshness to your food, in this case, balances off the rich, gooey egg perfectly.

Four days ago, a tonne of leftovers barged into our lives. We got a huge selection of steak, grilled salmon, mashed potatoes, and patty pan squash. The food was prepared by a renowned restaurant in San Francisco, and like all restaurant foods, it was loaded with great spices, seasonings, and sides. For example, the salmon was served with a generous dash of pesto, fresh corn, and caramelized cherry tomatoes.

Side note: For health and environmental reasons, I have decided not to eat salmon. Farmed salmon has been reported containing high-levels toxins, including PCBs; also many salmon farms operate like large scale feedlots. Salmon are fishes that naturally swim long distances and feed on many small fishes to grow to adult size. Packing salmon in close quarters and stuffing them with fish meal, jeopardizes the fish's, the water, marine life, workers, and finally consumers' health. I'll post some information and tips on how to get sustainable seafood on the bottom of this post, small changes leads to big steps :)

But under the current circumstances, either I eat the salmon or throw it away. It looked delicious and I ate it without a second thought. The salmon was rich and creamy, and the sauce was sweet, crunchy, and refreshing. However, after the initial excitement, I got bored with the leftovers, and can't help but play with it. And then there were these patty pan squashes.

Often seen them in the farmer's market but never thought of buying them, they look like Halloween decorations more than food to me.

The restaurant did a great job just grilling them in salt and pepper. they were sweet, creamy, and crunchy. I never tried them and was pleasantly surprised. But we have 2 whole boxes of them, and we simply cannot eat all that. So the next day I stuffed them in the blender, and combined it with the salmon and served it with pasta. Not the most appetizing dish in presentation but it tasted good. Every bite was hearty salmon and pasta, with crunchy corn, tied together by the smooth squash puree that's sweet and savory.
Cooking is never boring, I know there are certain principles and ways to cook, but in between there's so many ingredients and variations where it is up to you.  And the best part is, everyday we get a clean start :) Happy cooking!

And Eating

Advice on sustainable seafood? Go slow, start small, don't get overwhelmed.
First get the Monterey Seafood Pocket guide

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

if you're outside the US, WWF also provides seafood guides, and they BOTH have smartphone apps :)

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/marine/sustainable_fishing/sustainable_seafood/seafood_guides/

If you're buying frozen seafood, look for this label.

This UK based organization certifies sustainable seafood farming practices 

There are no definite answers to many more specific questions, but eating small fish instead of larger ones, who have lived longer and bio-accumulated more toxins is obviously better for you. It is also better for the environment as fish stocks like anchovies, herrings, and sardines can be replenished faster. Look into the catching method too, if seafood such as shrimp, or scallops are trawled. They were harvested in the expense of the whole sea floor. If you apply the same concept on land, it's like setting the whole forrest on fire to hunt a couple of deers. Well... let's take depressing thoughts a bit at a time, I'll write more when the next opportunity arrives.