Settling In, Getting On – The California Homestead Chapter

Over two and a half years since the last post, and so much has happened. Most of us know what happened in 2020 and 2021, and I won’t rehash those things too much. But instead, I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to the last few months, and maybe look back a bit.

Thanks in advance, this is going to be an imperfect post, but that’s ok, I’m just getting back into the swing of things.

Due to many reasons, wanting a change of pace, a need to be closer to family, a desire to explore new opportunities, I decided to move from Oregon and come back to California. I’m lucky that my parents owned property in the central valley, a place where I could make a new start of things.

The initial idea was pretty ambitious in hindsight. Get settled in September, get a pottery studio set up (for old readers who don’t follow me on social media, yes, your surprise is understandable), produce some pieces to take advantage of the holidays, and get set up for the following year.

So many ideas. Make a bigger kitchen, set up some housing further away in the field so I’d have some separation when my parents arrived, maybe build a barn even. A workshop for many types of crafts! Carpentry certainly, maybe a commercial kitchen even so I can produce all sorts of products.

Even though I did my research, the reality once I arrived has proven to be quite a bit different. Turns out moving and adjusting takes a lot out of you. My parents set me up with some additional responsibilities for one, and there were lots of things to deal with.

One rather adorable problem was a surplus of kittens. In spite of telling my folks to get ahead of the situation, they’ve understandably been busy with their own priorities. Thanks to some very dear friends, I was able to get that handled, and the kittens are healthy and in a foster program, many of them probably adopted out by now.

Building a shed was another major project that took a lot of time as well. Still working on it, but at least it is watertight now, so the rush we had before the winter rains is thankfully past.

Many other lessons had to be learned. How to drive a lawn tractor, maintaining a pool, dealing with people for various reasons. Hard learned, but important perhaps

But not everything was a hard challenge.

I’ve gotten to reconnect and spend quality time with the kamado grill, and it’s nice to know I still have the touch

I’ve been making great friends with the cats still hanging around. Hopefully I’ll be able to get more of them fixed soon.

It’s been so nice having access to. Here’s some sugarcane, which we run through a press to get the juice out of.

It’s also been nice having some things to forage. Stinging nettles and Miner’s lettuce (claytonia) have supplemented my diet, and kept me from rushing to the grocery store for greens.

I wish I had more of a concluding picture here, but what I wanted to finish with here is I think after a few months, I’m starting to feel a bit settled. My clay studio is lacking a kiln but otherwise functional. I’ve got a handle on most of my responsibilities out here. I have a modest income to support me which takes a lot of the pressure off and gives me the freedom to think and pursue other tasks.

I’ve got a lot of goals in mind for 2022, and hopefully I’ll hit a good deal of them. I’m going to apply a healthy amount of pressure on myself, but not in excess. Cheers to you all, and let me know if you’ve got any questions.

A Cook & A Geek Reviews: Willow, June 2019

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Hello and welcome back!

I had the great pleasure of being taken out to Willow Restaurant in Portland for a belated birthday celebration. Run by the two person team of Doug Weiler and John Pickett in a converted apartment, it was a pretty great experience to be able to enjoy some really great dishes in an intimate setting.

If you just wanted to see some pretty pictures, here’s the album.

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The menu above speaks for itself, but I’ll write it out just in case that helps:

  • scallop ‘crudo’ (rhubarb | celery)
  • pan roasted maitake mushrooms (favas, garlic mojo, ramp)
  • summer squash panzanella (bread, squash emulsion, squash marmalade)
  • fried green tomatoes (broccoli, roasted ramp aioli)
  • barbecued pork (sumac, spring slaw)
  • poundcake (ricotta, strawberry)

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Happy New Year + Chard Taco recipe

Hey everyone, it’s been a bit but I’ll avoid the blogger trap and spare you the life story. (If you actually are curious, hit me up on Twitter or Instagram!)

So instead, happy new year everyone, both the January first and Lunar variety.

One of the things I’m trying to do this year is eat more vegetarian meals. Helpfully I’ve discovered that I absolutely love chard, and it really makes meals it is a part of a real pleasure. Here’s one of my favorite ways to prepare it, on a corn tortilla.

I can’t claim any sort of authenticity here, but this is a recipe I’ve been working on a lot with a lot of respect to the ingredients and I have huge respect for Mexican cuisine (which goes so far beyond just tacos).

What I can say for sure is that for me personally, this recipe has also been a phenomenal way to vegetarian more often.

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Pumpkin Shrub & Punchkin Spice Harvest Punch

At the old job, it was hardly a secret was quite known for enjoyment of mixology, and I never really minded sharing. Having a lot of people to “keep watered” as the kids used to say, could provide a logistical challenge depending on demand, at least if you wanted to hand craft cocktails for an army of folks.

As a natural result of that, I’ve found my way into experimenting quite a bit with champagne punches, particularly after trying the fabulous Rosemary, Baby! punch from Serious Eats. (It is an excellent intro to champagne punches for anyone by the way.)

Using that rough ratio, I’ve enjoyed great success in producing mass quantities of libations that required little in the way of personal supervision or hands on delivery.

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One of my more famed recipes came due to a request from the front desk asking for some assistance during Halloween. It being a season for pumpkins, the first though that came to mind was somehow incorporating a pumpkin shrub into the punch, and cinnamon for that autumnal feeling. I did think about adding more of the spices associated with pumpkin pie but…. I had a schedule to keep! To skip to the recipe click here. Continue reading

A Cocktail for Fall – The Kentucky Moose

A classic drink with a maple twist

As Autumn has comfortably settled in for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, I think it’s the proper time to share a recipe that I devised at work, because of one of the more unique ingredients I’ve used personally, maple syrup. Long story short, at Prosperworks we name releases after foods, and when possible, we make cocktails to celebrate them.

This was my contribution, the Kentucky Moose. So named for its roots in the Kentucky Mule, and well, I know there are a lot of moose in Canada.

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Sidenote: I feel the need to say that while maple syrup can be appreciated year round, there’s something about cooling weather (or at least the idea of cooling weather here in California) that makes reaching for that opaque plastic jug of maple syrup that much more appealing.

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Etheric Recipe #3: Cardamom Popovers with Honey Syrup

Large fluffy cardamom spiced popovers topped with honey syrup would be at home on any dining table, elegant or rustic

For the third installment of recipes for Daniel Swensen’s Etheric (upcoming sequel to Orison), I wanted to go with something a bit sweeter after the recipe for a warming drink and some satisfying street food. Daniel requested some recipes as part of an opulent meal, so I took the opportunity to turn to a recipe which I really thing deserves a lot more attention in the kitchen, the popover.

A loose egg batter that is closely related to a Yorkshire pudding, the recipe uses intense direct heat and the explosive power of steam to give an impressive amount of lift to the final product. While the popover is perhaps from somewhat humble origins in the kitchen, I think that with the right approach , the billowy and crispy foundation of the popover would look wonderful on a well-appointed dining table.

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I hope that this picture is convincing!

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Etheric Recipe #2: Grilled Lamb on Flatbread

Grilled meat, grilled bread, and cool yogurt make this dish a well-balanced way to kick off the summer

A bit of friendly note, this is a very meat centric post, so if that isn’t quite your thing you may want to skip this post.

Onto my second recipe installment for Daniel Swensen’s Orison, hot off tail of the last beverage recipe of Barley Cocoa Tea. So if you wanted something a bit more substantial you’re in luck, I’m giving it to you with a take on street food. Daniel asked for something a soldier would partake of, so I wanted to make something hot, savory, and filling.

Given the time of year, I really wanted to leverage the freedom to grill something up, and try a few takes on lamb. I’ve gone a bit further and grilled the flatbread over the charcoal as well, which I imagine would translate well into fiction, ideally into a three person operation over a very long built-in grill so they could work the fires side by side, one dutifully turning the meat skewers, another firing bread to order based on the number of people in line, and finally a runaround handling any prep work needed for the resting meat and add-on condiments.

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Etheric Recipe #1: Barley Cocoa Tea

An earthy warming drink when you rather relax than wake up

So I’m back from a bit of a hiatus, but I’m glad to start an announcement here. This is the first installment of a series of recipes I’m working on as sort of a peripheral Etheric, the sequel to Daniel Swensen’s Orison.

As a quick pitch Orison is Daniel’s first full length novel, a tale of the young thief Story, set in the grim, dirty city of Calushain. I loved the vivid imagery and the amount of agency given to the young female lead. It’s a welcome addition to my bookshelf. It’s very well reviewed, so if you want to know more, don’t just take my word for it.

I’m very excited to collaborate with Daniel, in that I’ll be helping to add some flavor to his sequel, by creating some recipes that his characters will come across in his world.

For this first installment, Daniel mentioned that some characters would be taking tea with one another. I thought it would be great to actually make a new tea recipe, so I decided to tweak some barley tea, which my family has been playing around with lately.

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2015 in a Long Glance

A year of cats, food, and friends both new and old

As promised, my review of 2015, at least in terms of what was documented on my phone. After selecting what I liked from that collection, there’s definitely no room for the stuff I legitimately documented on my camera.

Even without the official camera pictures, I sure did a LOT of stuff this year. I almost feel accomplished with how much fun I had.

Initial impressions, I took a lot of animal pictures. IMG_20150626_005414

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There was also a very brief yet intense Alphabears period. Barbecue was very much in evidence, along with the surprisingly popular #farmjokes on instagram. Also I went to a lot of food trucks for lunch, and I really wish I wrote down more of what I thought of them.

I also reconnected with many old friends, and made many new ones. 2015 was a good year, and not without its challenges of course.

Here’s a selection of pictures, 2015 at a glance.

Dinner at night in the park. Spooky.

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Popsons: A Burger review to kick the year off right.

Popsons’ burger is so good it brought me out of blogger hibernation

I actually thought my first blog post of 2016 would be a review of 2015 (soon to come). But after serendipitously stumbling upon Popsons, and trying out one of their amazing burgers, I knew I had to change my plans.

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I mean, just look at how glorious that is. If you read nothing else, know this burger has my seal of approval. Popsons will be in great shape going forward so long as they can keep this quality up. Continue reading