Californ-i-a: Food

We had some really great food in California. Some of it had it's picture taken..some of it was devoured before I remembered.
In addition to In-N-Out Burger and some of the traditional stuff like that, we ate at a couple really cool little local spots. This one was called Back Abbey - a little British-inspired pub with nice outdoor seating.

I had the Back Abbey with fries and a French beer :)
The burger was ridiculous: Angus beef, Nimon Ranch bacon, caramelized onion, garlic aioli
I was really excited about the fries, too..fried in duck fat. I've heard good things, and they didn't disappoint.

The bakery in Claremont has been around for nearly 100 years. It's currently operating as Some Crust Bakery and makes everything by hand with local and organic ingredients.

My breakfast sandwich: turkey, egg, cheeses, garlic aioli, avocado, and red onion on homemade sourdough. Delish!

I want this life.

One of the coolest things was picking fruit from the edible landscape at the Claremont Colleges. It's all organic, and there for the picking if you're a student. Luckily, we had one :)
I don't think I had ever had figs before...now I think I need to plant some!

Olive trees on campus - so pretty!

The allee of oranges. Megan says campus smells amazing when the citrus blossoms are out.

Pitzer College had a really great little student-run garden complete with chickens, bees, and a mini-orchard.

Little pomegranates ripening away.

A good day's work! Plums, lemons, oranges, apples, a pomegranate, a persimmon, avocado, limes, and figs.
Our need to eat out went down drastically after this :)

Megan and I were playing with figs..so cool!
This is fig, prociutto, and chevre pizza with caramelized onions, a balsamic reduction and arugula. So. Good.

Figs wrapped in prosciutto. We tried it roasted and un-roasted, and we both preferred roasting.
We also tried it with some capicola and thinly sliced salami...it was all great!
We also tried a couple internet recipes: sauteed figs in honey butter (good) and figs sauteed in brown sugar butter served with sweetened mascarpone cheese, a balsamic reduction, and honey butter (AMAZING!)

Goat Cheese, etc.

In getting my backyard vegetable garden together, I knew I wanted to mulch the area between the rows with something to keep the weeds down, but also something that would give me something to stand on so I wasn’t wallowing in the mud back there. I’ve seen lots of people do crushed stone or mulch, but I was hesitant to do that because 1. A lot of work, 2. A lot of money, 3. Seems like a pain to undo if I don’t want a garden in the future..or if my seedlings crap out and I’m stuck with nothing this year.

So I started contacting some of our local farmers looking for straw. Our area is really lucky to have a pretty vibrant artisan farm population. Many of these farms are operated by families and are either organic or at least less reliant on chemicals than the larger agribusiness operations. One such farmer is my friend Lois. Lois raises goats, feeds and milks each of them by hand, and turns their milk into nationally recognized, award-winning cheeses that she sells to restaurants and vendors around the country. It’s hard work, but she loves it..and the cheese is ridiculously good.

Anyway, Lois hooked me up with a few (too many) bales of oat straw which will work for my mulch and hopefully not drop a bunch of seed into the plots. As much as I’d like to sew my own oats…I’d actually rather not.

Greeeeeen Acres!

While I was there, I bought a couple ounces of chevre from her and planned to make a recipe I’d seen a year or more ago that I’ve always wanted to try: goat cheese and caramelized onion pizza.

I was not disappointed.

I had a leftover hunk of pizza dough in the freezer from earlier in the week, so I rolled that out after my onions had browned and become super tender and sweet. I added a little garlic, salt, and pepper to the onions for more flavor. I spread a basic béchamel (butter, flour, milk, salt, pepper, parmesan) over the crust, spread my onions over that, and crumbled the goat cheese over top of everything. I baked it at 420F until the toppings were melted and slightly brown and the crust sounded hollow when tapped.

The picture is a little blurry because I was in a hurry to eat the rest :)

So freaking good. My white sauce probably could’ve used more flavor, but otherwise this was way good. I thought later about adding a few leaves of thyme to the mix for next time. And there will be a next time! (If nothing else, I'll make the onions again. While the pizza baked, I was standing over the pan eating them by the spoonful. They were like candy!)

Last night was unproductive on the home front as I was called out to meet with a local guy about a fundraising project we’re working on. But I did have time to make a big batch of fettuccine for dinner (and lunch and dinner and lunch and dinner) with some asparagus I picked up at the grocery store. Not a bad day!

The pasta needed more Parmesan...but that's always the case :)

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck..

We have been woodchucks here at the house the last few nights. Chucking old wood trim up onto the wall and giving things a more finished look. Granted, I still have holes to fill and another coat or two of paint to apply, but things are looking really good so far!

The old trim we're using came from the house next door that's being demolished soon. It has these nice blocks at the baseboard level that make the doors look like somebody wealthy lives in this house instead of me :)

The molding over my bedroom door - the kitchen side.

My bedroom door from the inside. Fancy pants.



The trim around the window in the office.



The doors and windows that I know how to trim have been trimmed, and now I’m waiting for my knowledgeable reinforcements for guidance on the pocket doors and longer window “tops” to match the molding over the doors.

Aside from that, we vented the dryer and I did my first FULL load of laundry in the house. It was a very successful first run, and very nice to not have to lug a bag of clothes to a laundry far, far away. I’m also having a water softener installed. Water softeners might be more of a Midwest thing: when you talk to people out East, they kind of look at you funny. Because of the mineral content in the water here and the damage it can do to faucets and water heaters – not to mention how dry it makes your skin in the middle of winter – it’s a nice thing to have.

Otherwise, I’ve been nurturing my little Wal-Mart plants, testing out my new toaster, and getting my things organized.

And eating dinner, of course..

The garage has been taken over by sawdust and lumber again for the trim projects, so I have had to scrape the ice off my windshield in the mornings before work, but I can deal with that.

IKEA finally came through for me! BOTH lights hanging in the dining room!

The register covers I got for the hardwood floors. They have a brushed finish that doesn't come across in this picture, but I think they look pretty alright.

Things are coming along – trim isn’t as big a deal as I had made it out to be. Once the doors are finished up, we can start on the baseboard.. I bought all kinds of lumber last weekend for that project, and I’m excited to get started. What a difference THAT will make!