kengr

Got my Farm Direct Nutrition Program checks a week or so back.

Since it's ok to have someone else buy things for you with them, I gave a couple to fayanora since she hits farmers markets more often than I do.

and the other day I sent her a link to cruciferous vegetables and we were discussing them, especially which ones we hadn't had yet.

Anyway, seems she'bought some kohlrabi, and had bought some mustard greens she wasn't fond of. So yesterday she brought over the mustard greens and one of the kohlrabi.

I basically chopped up the kohlrabi, leaves and stems included. Tried a bit of leaf and a bit of the tuber before tossing them in the water for my ramen.

I can only describe the leaves as "chewy". The tuber was ok, Had an ok flavor, but that was it.

After cooking the leaves were still pretty meh, but the tuber was nice. Texture tells me they'd mash well.

So I've got another item on the "will buy again, but won't go looking specifally for it" lust.

*Finally got around to making a run to the farmers market in Hollywood.

I've been needing to for months to use the "Farm Direct Nutrition" checks I get every year (6 checks for $4 each that they issue to "seniors). They expire on November 30th so I was cutting it a bit close.

I got myself a big bunch 0of some broad-leaved green I didn't recognize, but should cook up nicely. Also a huge bunch of some purple "green" with ruffled edges. Got a bunch of carrots (3 orange, 2 purple), a huge bunch of celery, a bunch of turnips and beets (2 turnips, one beet) A few pounds of apples, and a stalk of brussel sprouts.

Filled the cart about 2/3rds of the way but was light enough to haul up the stairs in one go.

Got the green on the carrots and the turnips/beets, so that's extra food :-)

I forgot to get onions, but I can do that at the store later.

My glasses were fogging up badly, plus I'm still way out of shape from "hiding" in the apartment so much. That's why I didn't check out everything more thoroughly. Maybe next time.

Had a silly food idea.

Breakfast pizza. No sauce, but cheese, scrambled eggs, ans sausage or bacon. Maybe mushrooms and green omions too.

It *sounds* like it might work, but I don't have the ingredients to hand. Nor do I want to use the oven in a heat wave.

I decided to have some fun food for the next few days. So I bought a loaf of the kalamata olive bread, some sliced pepperoni and some mushrooms. I already had shredded mozarella.

I call this "cheater" pizza because it's not actually pizza, and it is quick and easy to make.

I slice the bread and place a couple slices on a microwave sae plate, then, I cover the slices with sliced mushrooms. add lots of mozzarella, and top with the pepperoni.

Toss in the microwave for 30 sec and voila! pizza-ish goodness

I finally made the pulled pork. I decided to just punt and use the McCormick Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork mix I'd used once before. It's intended to work with hunks of pork shoulder, but worked just fine with the precooked, unseasoned pulled pork I had.

You have to add cider vinegar, brown sugar and ketchup to the spices in the packet.

This time it came out *way* better than the previous attempt. I think two things made the difference. Since the recipe says "firmly packed" brown sugar and I had trouble getting it mixed well last time, this time I dug out a flour sifter and sifted the sugar into the vinegar.

I then stirred that well until most of the sugar was dissolved. Then I added the spices from the packet and stirred well. I added the ketchup to the bowl last and it stirred in fairly easily. Then I could just pour it over the meat in the crockpot.

I opted for cooking on low for 8 hours rather than on high for 4 hours. I think I did that last time too.

But this time I used a meat thermometer to check the temp every hour or two. The probe fit nicely through the hole in the crockpot lid for its temp probe (which I wasn't using) .

After 5 or 6 hours, things were up to 186°. More importantly, there was no resistance when I stuck the probe in.

So I took off the lid and used a small serving spoon to stir things up until they were well mixed.

The last hour or so, the smell escaping through that hole in the lid was driving me crazy.

When it was done, it was *so* good. I used some burger buns to make sandwiches. Mmm.

I used a slotted spoon to get the rest of the meat out and into a plastic container with a lid to go int the fridge.

That left a bit of meat and a lot of liquid (too thin to really be a sauce) left. I ladled that out into another container and put that in the fridge too.

I've made more sandwiches with the cold meat. Still delicious even without reheating.

I think I'll try using the leftover liquid along with some of the meat to cook up a batch of lentils later.

Definitely on the list for next time I get a batch of pork in the food boxes.

I went to the food bank today.

I just missed the bus I'd intended to take, and decided that I could walk the 12 blocks faster than waiting for the next bus (Mistake #1).

I was actually only half a block from the stop when the bus went by. Not bad, considering all the pauses to rest I'd made.

I'd brought along my pulse-oximeter so I could check my heart rate and oxygen levels. Good idea. I mostly kept it below 140 except when thing fell apart (later)

I walked the 3-4 blocks from the stop to the food bank without too much trouble. Though I still had to rest a few times.

Finally got there and while there were cars lined up for blocks, there was only one person ahead of me on foot. Which is good because they take the one foot people in a seperate queue from the cars.

After a bit, I got called up. two boxes of stuff, and three packages of frozen stuff (a huge thing of frozen chicken patties and another huge thing of frozen, cooked chicken chunks (like for fajitas), and a "small" bag of frozen pollock). And then I made the second mistake. They offered me this large box of milk (at a guess it had several gallons inside. The mistake was that I took it, even though I still had milk at home.

Then I made my third mistake. I didn't go thru the boxes and thing things out (there were indeed things I could have given back) so not only was I overloaded, the load was pretty awkward, ever with the folding grocery cart.

I struggled to haul it along (there's no sidewalk) and about halfway back to the bus stop a wheel broke. I struggled along a bit longer (basically 10-20m stop and rest, repeat). I finally gave up and called a cab. Took me three tries to get the number right.

The heat was getting to me (more than I realized until I got home). Finally the cab showed up. At the wrong spot, but within sight. a guy that had offered to help me managed to get the can driver directed to me.

I had to load everything myself. Ugh. Fortunately it only cost $7.

I had to unload stuff myself too. I was making the second trip back to the cab, to find that he'd unloaded the last two things and was leaving.

I was not doing well, but managed to get everything inside and then struggled upstairs to my apartment and sat there for a while waiting for my heart rate to drop. Sometime in all this, my heart rate hit 160 at one point. :-(

Finally grabbed the electronic thermometer, suck it in my ear and discovered my temp was 102. Eeep. Between the air conditioning and fluids it came down.

I made several trips with *light* loads after it got lower (but still not back to normal). Well spaced trips. It took me over 2 hours to get everything upstairs and the stuff that needed to go in the fridge put away.

Other stuff can wait. I'm now at the point I can lay down with a fan blowing on me.

I'll worry about replacing the cart and putting the rest of the stuff away later.

I've now added the thermometer to the things I'm gonna carry when out in the heat.

Something from the food box...

It's more or less the size and shape of a small pumpkin, dark green with narrow vertical orange stripes.

Anybody know what it might be?

An idea has come to me for hiding some things in plain sight.

I'm wondering if you can create a "food forest" and something similar in adjacent non forest areas (ie bushes and grasses) that would sustain a decent number of people, but still look "wild".

So it shouldn't look like (for example) an orchard or fields of crops. More intermixed and using plants that support each other (like the Native American "three sisters").

I'm thinking the pacific Northwest, and either the mountains and hills surrounding the Willamette Valley or maybe something up north of Spokane.

"Decent number" would be anything from a dozen to a hundred or so.

I'm pretty sure it could be done, but I don't have a clue about which plants that are native or at least seem to be common "wild" introduced species would be involved.

do note that I'm looking for a varied, balanced diet . Preferably one that can get them by with minimal hunting. But besides food, other resources (crafting materials, some construction materials and firewood) should be sustainably harvestable.

Yeah,, not asking much.

I like using dried seaweed in my ramen and a few other things. But it's been months since I ran out because the store I used to buy it at is no longer a single bus trip away. They split the route about half a mile from it, so I have to wait and transfer. Yeah, I could maybe walk it, but no thanks.

Also, since the Winco we started going to a few months back doesn't have the Nong Shimh Neo Guri ramen (They do have the Shin Ramyun) I've needed to go there to get that too.

The store next to the apartment does have the Neo Guri, but at twice the price. Nope.

Anyway, I've been putting off a trip to stock up for some time, and last week fayanora suggested that we *both* make a trip to the *other* location of the store (Hong Phat) as it was bigger and more convenient for her.

So we did that yesterday. I managed to miss *two* busses due to one thing and another, and I still beat Fay.

It was fun looking at all the stuff available. I got my ramen, and some bean thread. I also picked up a package of rice noodles. Bright yellow ones. Fay recommended them.

There's lot of other stuff to consider in the future. One thing I considered was the KitKats, They had Kit Kats from Japan(?) Alas, we could figure out what flavors they were and at $4.95 a bag, I didn't feel like experimenting.

Definitely need to go back and explore the seafood section!

Unfortunately, the store felt rather hot to me. Which, looking back, is odd as Fay was still bundled up in her many layers of winter robes and things. I also was feeling kinda light headed. So I grabbed a cold can of Blood Orange juice drink and headed to the checkout.

We'd been planning to hit Fred Meyer's as well (I have a gift card) but I wasn't feeling up to it. We did really well on the buses, I was able to ride the 20 with way, (it showed up just as we got to the stop) and then when we got to 60th, the 71 was already there. The driver was nice enough to wait for me to cross the street. And in very short order I was home.

The juice helped (I drank it on the bus) and I was able to sit at the computer and work on the massive mess of files Yahoo put together for me. I'm gonna have to cut back on working on them though, as my clicking finger is very sore...

Got my Thanksgiving meal mostly planned and bought. Got the pension money deposited Tuesday, won't get the SS until the 3rd.

Went to the Hollywood Farmer's on Sat. I had so FDNP checks to use that would expire on the 30th. FDNP is a program for seniors where they send you a set of $4 "checks" that can only be used to buy stuff at farmer's markets from farmers that have been "certified" or something.

Anyway, I'd seen a couple of vendors with purple potatoes last time I was there and I wanted some. The stores don't seem to have them except as part of those over-priced bags of several varieties of golf-ball sized potatoes.

Found some *very* purple potatoes at the first vendor. Bought a bunch of them and a couple of heads of romanescue (everybody's favorite fractal cauliflower relative)

Checked out the rest of the market, Didn't buy anything else, though a few things interested me. Something I had never seen before were several booths from local distillers (I didn't even know we *had* any local distillers).

Tried a sample of bourbon from one and geneva (I'd heard of it but never tasted any) from another. Wasn't impressed with geneva, the bourbon was pretty good. Have to check the prices at the liquor store. I haven't had any in years. But won't be soon. Got better things to spend money on for the next few months.

Today I hit Albertsons (didn't feel any savings were worth the long bus ride to Winco). Got a mince pie (I tried to get one every year). Also got a stalk of *huge* brussel sprouts (the ones on the bottom are the size of lemons) for $3.99. And I got a fully cooked spiral ham (I double checked). So it'll be ham for tomorrow. And a few days after...

I'll go back to the store later to see about some dressing. Didn't see any premade dressing, and I'm not a fan of the boxed stuff. And don't want to deal with "from scratch".

I already have the mashed potato and gravy situation dealt with.


Oh yeah, I went to make some stuff with potatoes yesterday. Turned out the ones I got only have a purple *skin*, they aren't purple on the inside. Drat.