Me and Don_J needed 66 and 51 finds to meet our respective caching goals for 2009. With only a few caching days left in the year we looked for an area with lots of caches that could be found quickly. We chose f0t0m0m’s Tarot series.

From f0t0m0m’s cache page description:
“All 81 of the Tarot Caches are located along the CA-138 corridor, between Quail Lake and Lancaster. All of the caches are accessible by paved roads, and are no more that 250 Feet from the pavement. Some of the caches will require walking through some brush, so long pants and good shoes are strongly suggested.”

Here’s Don_J at the first cache Area Closed (GC1K0VC). The temperature hovered between 45 and 48 degrees all day long. Don dressed appropriately…
…while I relied on insulation accumulated from decades of consuming cheeseburgers, burritos, pizzas and kung pao chicken.
Where there were no yuccas the terrain was featureless for miles around. But there was still a cache every few 10ths of a mile.

Caches that wouldn’t last an hour in an urban setting can remain unmuggled for years in the desert. In fact, our only DNF (did not find) was an urban style magnetic cache on a sign along the comparatively busy Hwy 138. The one below was a strange urban/desert hybrid. I’ve seen hundreds of these containers and hidden some myself. But this was the first time either of us had seen one attached this way.

True trees were few and far between. They often marked a cache site.

But yuccas (at least 2 species) were plentiful in patches. Searching for caches near them can be dangerous for the careless. The sharp leaves can slice a hand or poke your eye out.

Decons and ammo cans withstand harsh desert conditions. Less robust containers don’t fare so well. Most of the lock & locks we found had broken tabs. Here’s one that was also cracked.

The Los Angeles aqueduct broke up our monotonous view. B3677 (GCMBDQ), an urban style magnetic cache was there too. The sign allows fishing. Assuming that the river “bed” is as smooth as the banks, what fish species lives in super fast moving water with no cover? If anyone reading this knows, please leave a comment. I’m truly curious.

This just doesn’t happen (anymore) back home in the San Fernando Valley.

Toward the end of the day we saw this. There’s an aptly named cache here, Walls to nowhere (GC1K916).

We found 46 caches in 5-1/2 hours of caching. Megacachers can laugh at the “low rate,” but as my profile states, I’m a slow speed, low energy cacher. Don didn’t complain so I assume that he’s the same.

Counting down: only 20 more finds needed to reach my goal of 1,200 for 2009. I think that I can do it. I know that Don can find 5 more to meet HIS goal.

With a little rain, and some respite from searing summer temperatures, many of the garden plants are growing like crazy.  After weeks and weeks of poor weather we’ve finally had a change; yesterday the sun shone once more.  The air was sweet and mild and it was a pleasure to potter in the garden and then sit quietly in the sun with a cup of coffee.

On the citrus trees – lemon, orange and what we think are clementines – we have a healthy cross of ripe fruit  and a good supply of still ripening to follow.  At least one of the lemon trees has a second crop coming.  To us it is still strange to see the fruit in all of its stages on one tree; ripe, unripe , immature and blossom.

Bucket loads of fruit

... with plenty more to come

Meanwhile the lilies are determined.  Now is their chance to flourish and that’s exactly what they intend to do, whether in the ground, or in pots or even in a bucket, waiting to be planted.  Clearly they should have been in soil some time ago.  The ones that were missed during the removal process are also growing quickly.

Determined Alum or Calla lilies

Yet more lilies

Finally, with a little spare time, some of the yucca offsets were re-homed.  These six were the smallest on the tree, and the only ones that could be easily removed.  Soon we’ll need to use some force to separate the larger ones, perhaps even sawing them from the main trunk.

When we moved into our Aradippou rental home a friend gifted us three offsets about twice the size of these.  Within three years they had grown to over 5 feet tall and were producing numerous offsets of their own.  We, in turn, removed those and gifted them to a friend in Oroklini.  She had no room in her garden but is happily cultivating the open ground beyond the boudaries of the property in the hope of improving her view and providing a screen of mature plants should the land eventually be developed.

Yucca offsets

Yucca in infrared at sunset.

I shot this yucca sunset in Laguna Beach. I used a D70, Tamron 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5, and a Cokin 89b filter. This filter allows infrared light as well as a small amount of visible light to pass through to the image sensor. While digital cameras do use infrared blocking filters on their sensors, most still allow enough to pass through to make images like the one above. The image was color corrected as if it was all visible light.

Every year we buy an organic lamb from a friend’s farm.  Simply some of the best meat you’ll ever eat, not to mention you know where it’s coming from.  Lamb is one of those foods that if cooked just right can actually make you react like one of those food network stars when they take a bite of their own cooking.  “mmmmmmmmm”.

One thing to note:  It really helps to be a good multitasker if you plan on cooking this dish by yourself, otherwise things are going to get cold on you.

Prep/Cooking Time: 1hr 45 minutes

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

Lamb Chops:

4 small lamb loin chops, trimmed
1/2 Tbsp whole black pepper
1 tsp of kosher salt
1/4 cup of olive oil + a little more to coat chops
1/4 cup of port wine
1/2 Tbsp of fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 Tbsp of garlic paste

Yucca Fries:

1 medium Yucca, peeled and sliced into 1/2-in thick, 2-in long fries
1 Tbsp white vinegar

Chinese Broccoli:

1 bunch – rinsed and trimmed into individual stalks
1 Tbsp butter

Directions:

In a mortar and pestle, coarsely grind peppercorns.  Coat the lamb with olive oil, and season with kosher salt and the pepper. 

Place port, olive oil, garlic and finely chopped rosemary in a Ziploc bag along with the chops – marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Be careful not to marinate the lamb for too long as the port flavour can become a little over powering.

Take a pan large enough for the chinese broccoli to all fit in and place it on medium low heat.  Add broccoli and toss until it begins to wilt.  Add a pinch of salt, pepper and butter, toss to coat or until fully cooked (stalks should still be crunchy).

Place 1.5″ of oil on a medium-hot flame until heated through, added yucca fries and cook until light brown in colour.  Toss the fries in vinegar and kosher salt while still hot.  “mmmmmmm!”

Take out lamb from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature while heating a grill to HOT.  Really HOT.  Coat the grill with something nonstick (Pam works great).  Place all four lamb chops on the grill for 4-5 minutes on each side for medium, if you’re not scared, try 2-3 minutes per side for pure deliciousness.

Both drawings done on an ipod touch.

Yucca palm plant. Das all.

I'm a mouse! I'm cute yo!

]]> http://joylicious.net/2009/12/02/chinese-five-spice-braised-pork-belly-with-lotus-root-and-steamed-yucca/ Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:46:37 +0000 Joy Zhang http://joylicious.net/2009/12/02/chinese-five-spice-braised-pork-belly-with-lotus-root-and-steamed-yucca/ http://savanvleck.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-flea-freezer-of-doom-and-flea-wii/ Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:00:05 +0000 savanvleck http://savanvleck.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/the-flea-freezer-of-doom-and-flea-wii/

This is Irritating little Chihuahua at six weeks, January of 1999.  She is eleven years old this month, and she has her daily exercise routine.

It consists of sleeping, and

going outside and surveying her driveway, from the great sniffing of automobile tires down to the Yucca plant.  I have yet to figure out what is so intriguing about the Yucca, as it does not seem a normal “pee” spot to me, but it is on her daily route. 

It is also on her daily route to debate whether to go on down the driveway to the road.  She will look back, to see if we are watching, go a few trots, stop and look back.  This continues until I rap on the window or yell at her.  Then, she ambles off into the yard as if, “No, I never intended on going down the driveway.  I know my boundry.” 

The rest of the day is taken up with sleeping with nose buried,

and begging for food, and sleeping.  Mostly sleeping. 

Oh, and there is the occasional — jump up and give me a dirty look because she swears I touched her haunches, when she actually has a flea. 

Before I am yelled at, she has a frontline flea application monthly, as well as her heart worm pill.  She has had neurological problems with other flea applications, so Frontline it is.  This was working well for her until the St. Bernard family decided to eat our garbage and deposit their “city of fleas” in our yard.  They DO NOT get flea applications.  Chihuahua  added the garbage cans to her morning run as those St. Bernard’s leave behind all kinds of things, including their fleas. 

The St. Bernard’s eating the lid of the garbage can, to circumvent the ties and boards and anything else we could find to keep them out, finally resulted in putting the garbage cans in my studio (which I rarely use in winter).  The city of fleas resides on the ground yet, as well as the smells do.

Twice a day I comb her with a frozen flea comb, catch the fleas that freeze on it, and put them in the freezer of doom; a disposable container in the freezer.   I know this is wierd, but, yes, I have a container of frozen fleas in my freezer (Try saying that three times fast.).  On top of which, sits her flea comb.  Someday the City of fleas will all die —– I hope.

So, back on topic, the Chihuahua sleeps, eats, poops, and sleeps all day.  For ten minutes, at night, she also plays with her Taco Belle Chihuahua.   Taco Belle Chihuahua has more sewn body parts than you can imagine.  Irritating Chihuahua loves to grab it by the neck and try to knock herself sensless with it.

My fear, the year we had floods, was that our home would be flooded, fall into the pond and the Taco Belle Chihuahua would be history.  I have searched ebay, Good Will and yard sales for a back-up Christmas Taco Belle dog.  Chihuahua has a basket of stuffed toys and will occasionally play with the Turkey Buzzard and rarely with the cat mouse toy.  Taco Belle Chihuahua is her love.

Now, we have found another exercise outlet for Chihuahua: The Wii.

Yes, Gaffer brought a Wii home.  One of the games sounds rather like a bark, so she stands on the couch and barks back at the Wii.  But, bowling drives her nuts.  It took her three hours to figure out they were not throwing food for her.  She loves her Wii.  She does not understand it, but she loves it.

This is Skeeter, trying to communicate with the blue jean leg of the Wii player.  She is either saying, “Okay, where is the treat you have been throwing for three hours?” or “GO TO BED!”

The storms have blown over, the tradewinds are back,  the humidity gone and it’s warm and wonderful once again. Perfect for a little hike suggested by a local to a secluded beach.  It starts at the Japanese Cemetery just above Glass Beach and follows the trail along the coast.  Only about a 20 minute hike.  At first the trail is narrow, red and studded with lava rocks, well above the crashing surf.

trail to secluded beach

It provided excellent views of natural bridges, blow holes and arches carved by the relentless sea.  We didn’t linger at these sights for long, anxious to find the secluded beach.

natural bridge

Ahead the trail carved its way through high grass leading us toward a quarry and coffee fields. Soon the beach came into full view, but not easily accessible, we needed to remove our hiking shoes and walk knee deep though the muddy currents of fresh water spilling into the ocean.

the stream crossed to get to the secluded beach

Then sinking into soft gray sand.  We found our beach. The sand was firm by the water and fine in texture. We placed our beach sheet on the far end, pulled out our reads and made ourselves comfortable.  The Giant yucca were amazing their lances were approximately 8 ft tall but their spires reached  thirty feet into the sky.

giant yucca

My more familiar yucca is never more than 4 feet tall.  The crabs were dancing along the surf, searching for meal while we rested before following the trail just a little further.  We climbed to an elevated area above the beach on another of Kauai’s red dirt roads.  We took in breath taking vistas and a view back at our beach blanket in solitude, while the aroma of coffee from Kauai Coffee Company enticed us.  This entire adventure was a pleasant 3 hours, then off to our favorite Salt Pond for a cool off swim.

view from above the secluded beach

worth the hike, our secluded beach...see our beach blanket off in the corner

view on the way to the secluded beach

twisted roots hold fast in muddy currents, one final wade through, aloha secluded beach

Call me weird, but in my imagination these trees seemed like dancers on the desert floor. Used a Nikon D3 with a Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 lens at 35mm and processed with Adobe Lightroom. Was photographed at Joshua Tree National Park.

Photo © Craig Brewer

all over my face.

That’s right I have burns all over my face. And, they hurt. (Actually I started writing this post like 2 weeks ago when the incident was still pretty terrifying and  I couldn’t bring myself to finish. Right now the burns have healed and are not so terrifying.)
I have to say my first attempt at making buneulos without a Colombian nearby was a miserable failure, since it landed me in the emergency room. (Also, you should know, I am not sure I am spelling Buneunlo correctly and get results from google no matter how I spell it, so if it is wrong…Sorry?)

What’s a buneulo? Well it is deep-fried heaven. it is kind of like a hush puppy made with cheese, yucca flour and cornstarch. The result is a crispy ball of cloud, that is proof of the food gods love for your taste buds. Actually in Colombia and other Spanish countries buneulos are a Christmas time  treat, a la the buckeye (which does not involve hot oil).

They are deep-fried, and that was/is the problem. I have never been too into home deep-frying, there are a lot of risks involved in deep fry heaven. buneulos seemed to be worth the risk.

Now let us learn how not to make buneulos…

First, eat a proper dinner so that you don’t get the urge to deep fry at 10pm on a Sunday night.

Second, when you discover that box of buneulo mix , that your BFF left for you when she abandoned you for China, leave it where you found it. At least leave it until you have the time and energy to use the translator, on your Google homepage, to turn all that Spanish into English. This was my biggest mistake, the instructions were in SPANISH. I don’t read, speak or comprehend SPANISH. But alas I tried any way.

Third, don’t assume that because you have been present for two separate buneulo making sessions, that you have any idea how it is done, and therefore “Don’t need no stupid box!”

I got my oil nice and hot started rolling up some balls. I even got through the first not so perfect batch before

POP!

My dear brother, when I relayed this story to him, told me what he felt I had done wrong… Apparently when you make hush puppies, you have to let the dough sit for about a half hour to let the corn flour absorb the water… So that the water doesn’t make the oil splatter. My response was “well the problem wasn’t a splatter it was more of a pop”…

Dear brother might be right, but here is where I suspect I erred:

All the recipes I have viewed since the incident caution against the oil being up to temp before adding the buneulos. Apparently the oil should be WARM, not hot. I repeat warm, not hot.

I should have let the oil get warm, not hot, then added the buneulo and then turn the heat up. Sort of slowly deep fry them. And maybe letting the water absorb would have been a good idea, too.

Still I am not sure what went wrong but I know I will be avoiding it happening again. On the bright side I did do a couple things correctly:

When the oil popped and sprayed onto my face I was wearing glasses (protective eye gear) otherwise I might be blind.

I immediately turned off the fire and moved the hot pot away from the heat… Even before screaming and running into the bathroom to check for damage.

After checking my personal damage I rechecked to make sure the fire was off.

I freaked out and called a friend who drove me to the hospital.

I kept my face cool. I did this by first, melting a tray of ice on my face and then thawing a bag of corn… also on my face. For future reference this is not the recommended way to ease burn pain. actually the recommended method is to run cool water over the burn, not ice which might shock the burn, although, I have no idea what that means. I personally did not suffer any shocking side effects from melting ice on my face. And, honestly the monotony of rubbing ice on my face helped mentally calm the fear of Phantom of the Opera-esque scarring.

So, the point is that I  will not be deep-frying any time in the near future. As a result of not using my brains, I currently have experienced a panicked trip to the ER, a kitchen covered in a half inch of cooking oil that took over an hour to properly clean and a scarred face.

I managed to snap this awesomely dramatic pic on the way to the hospital.

And this not so dramatic one a couple days later.

Thankfully I do not currently have Phantom of the Opera face! I learned that kitchen burns don’t typically cause those. And that when you complain about it “kind of hurting” in the ER they give you narcotic grade pain killers… yet when you tell you primary care doctor that the pain in your foot “unbearable” she gives you alieve…. in essence I learned that there is a reason they charge so much for the ER (they are freaking drug dealers).

“Shake ‘n Bake”…  as the Harley-Davidson financial wizards turn off the Speedway lights and come on cost savings ideas like a spider monkey. 

I blogged in October 2008 that H-D reached an agreement with Chrysler to use part of the Arizona Proving Grounds facility. The facility is located about 25 miles south of Kingman, AZ on the old Yucca Army Airfield.

Given the dismal Q3’09 financial results and closure of Buell, they have now decided to further reduce operational expenses by closing the test facility in Talladega, Alabama, eliminating about 100 jobs. The testing facility was opened in January 1981 and had performed several kinds of vehicle tests including high-speed performance tests on Talladega SuperSpeedway.

The companies operational plans had previously committed to cease testing in Mesa, AZ (the GM Proving Grounds) by July 2009 because the testing ground had been sold for a variety of planned developments.  Consolidating test operations from Talladega; and Naples FL., to the Arizona Proving Grounds in Yucca, AZ., is new information.

Clearly the company is aggressively cutting costs where it can and must be necessary to align cost with the new economic reality of reduced sales. I’m truly starting to wonder if H-D has lost its way and offer up the movie opening title card as a reminder to H-D management: “America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed. – Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936.”

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures.

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

I have food sensitivities – not just lactose intolerance or a curious allergy to cucumbers; I mean I’m queasy about the appearance, texture, and even names of certain foods. By my early 20s, I overcame most of my childhood food aversions, but occasionally some still crop up. Like yucca. It sounds so bad; it has to be good.

Also known as cassava, the yucca root is like a high-starch potato with a waxy, bark coating and white flesh inside. Yucca is a dietary staple, being largely grown and eaten in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Yucca can be used in similar ways to potatoes, and because of its high-starch content is an excellent thickener for sweet and savoury dishes. After simmering for about 20 minutes, yucca can be mashed, then kneaded into a dough. I must admit I was very impressed with the ability to make dough without adding flour, water or any other ingredient.

And despite its name, yucca tastes just fine. It can be sweet or bitter, with the latter being a rare commodity in North America. This is good news as the bitter variety contains trace amounts of cyanide that is harmful if eaten raw in large quantities.

I tried some raw and it tasted sweet, so I had a bit more and I’m not dead yet. In fact, yucca is quite good for you; it’s high in Vitamin C, is a good source of fibre and contains about 120 calories per cup. You, see there is nothing to fear about yucca root.

Except, after further research, I discovered that the starch extracted from yucca is the ingredient of one of my most dreaded childhood foods. Tapioca.

I’ve never tasted tapioca but despised it since I was five. It all started one day when my mother informed me that I had to have my tonsils removed and would be going to the hospital in a couple of weeks for the surgery. This didn’t bother me in the least. I knew all about tonsillectomies from my ‘Little Audrey and Melvin’ comic book. When Little Audrey and Melvin got their tonsils out, they just fell asleep and when they awoke, were treated to unlimited amounts of ice cream. I was actually looking forward to it.

Well, the first night at the hospital wasn’t as pleasant as I had hoped. I had to suffer the indignity of being placed in a crib, as did all patients under the age of seven. After the surgery, my first meal and every meal after, included a small cup of tapioca.

The sight of lumpy, green globs in a little dish looked more like a science experiment than acceptable food for a five-year-old. Where was my ice cream?!

Now, I haven’t yet used yucca to make tapioca, but I’m sure that will come in time. For now, I’m just happy that I’ve conquered my fear of a name and aversion to a texture all in one root.

This soup recipe is from The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest cookbook.  It is extremely weird sounding but I am weird so it’s quite fitting.  And I must say it the soup was way more delicious than I could have ever expected!  The bananas were incredible, I would make more next time as I could eat them as a side without the soup.

Soup Recipe

Topping Recipe

~

Soup Ingredients

Topping Ingredients

Soup

Bananas

~

FRIED YUCCA

This was my first time cooking yucca.  It was easy and delicious.  Peel and slice into rounds.  Boil the rounds until tender.  Fry in peanut oil until crispy on the outside and sprinkle with salt.  I ended up adding these to the soup and they were a perfect match with the bananas.

Yucca Root

Peeled and Sliced into Rounds

Boiled Yucca

~

Fried Yucca and Curried Peanut Soup with Banana Topping (disappeared in the soup)

]]> http://goodtogrow.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/wednesday-plant-lady-chronicles-plant-maintenance-at-traviss-apartment/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:33:59 +0000 goodtogrow http://goodtogrow.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/wednesday-plant-lady-chronicles-plant-maintenance-at-traviss-apartment/

My friend Travis asks me over about four times a year for maintenance on his enthusiastic plants. He has a couple of towering Euphorbias that needed pruning, his Bird of Paradise was so big it was falling out of its pot, and his yucca has scale (a really gross pest). Lots of work.

Look at his funny Bird of Paradise. I’m guessing it makes sitting on his couch a little on the nerveracking side.

Bird of Paradise

I pushed the stalks back, and added dirt to support the stalks from the front. Then I used a series of stakes to secure the plant. I used green velcro tape from Home Depot to tie the stakes together. Worked pretty well!

Stakes offer support

Those stakes shooting off to the sides are Travis’s fake flowers. He’s a regular riot.

Staked Bird of Paradise

I didn’t leave that velcro hanging out there, I cut it short. Up next, his Sansevieria, commonly known as Snake plant or Mother-in-law’s Tongue (because it’s so hard to kill). I’ll bet you recognize this one:

Sansevieria, Snake plant, Mother-in-law's Tongue

One reason I love Snake plants, besides their obvious sturdiness, is they make it so easy for you to care for them. See that leaf that’s fallen over out of the pot? I snipped it off like so:

Sansevieria propogation

Then I just stuck it in the dirt. It will grow. No messing around with getting roots to form in water. It’s instant gratification.

Snake plants don't need to root before you plant them

In the coming weeks, I’ll feature lots more plants (like Jades and Wandering Jews) that share this amazing rootless feature. Imagine – a leaf falls off, and you can just stick it back in the dirt.

Even the most amazing plants are susceptible to bugs. So gross. Spidermites, mealy bugs, scale – all are disgusting, and will eventually kill a plant left unattended. I have a super easy solution, that’s non-toxic as well.

Non-toxic pest control

That’s an empty spray bottle and plain ol’ rubbing alcohol from Target. Costs about a buck fifty. I poured half the bottle of alcohol into the spray bottle, added the same amount of water. Then I took Travis’s dish soap (I think he had Palmolive, but it doesn’t matter what brand) and added a few drops to the alcohol/water (50-50) mix.

Then I shook the sprayer. The alcohol will fry pests on plants. The plants don’t seem to mind the alcohol at all. The dish soap helps the alcohol stay on the leaves and also helps clean the plant at the same time! Win-win!

Here’s what gross scale looks like on Travis’s plant:

Bug-infested Yucca. Ew.

The alcohol/water/dish soap mix isn’t going to kill scale on the first try. I sprayed the whole plant and its stalks, but Travis will have to keep spraying the poor little guy, at least once a week for the next several weeks. The alcohol makes the apartment stinky for a few minutes, but that’s about it. We’ll check back in on this plant in the coming weeks.

Ok, on to the big project, his Euphorbias. They can get so big, especially if they’re vying for sunlight from skylights and high windows, both features of Travis’s apartment. Here’s the bungled mess his became before I pruned it.

Overgrown Euphorbia

Pruning is always tricky with Euphorbias. For one, they have a sticky white sap that will swell your eyes, irritate your skin and stain your clothes. Wash your hands often! Oh, and of course, let’s not forget the thorns!

I have these great old firefighter gloves someone gave me awhile back. They’re perfect for thorny plants like Euphorbias. You make the cut as close to the base as you can. Again, be careful of the sap!

How do you prune a Euphorbia? Very, very carefully.

Tongs work, too.

Tongs can be helpful when pruning Euphorbias

Pruning is a lot of work, but the plant needs it to be healthy. It’s the human equivalent of a haircut. This plant grew dreads in the few months since I last pruned it!

There are lots of cuttings leftover!

Euphorbia cuttings

Don’t worry, they won’t go to waste. Lots have already been given away, some will move to the cereal factory, and I just thought of an adorable gift idea for them. Check back this weekend, and I’ll post pictures of the gift project.

The key to the cuttings is to let the cut dry for a couple days, so it scars over the fresh wound. I just leave them on the newspaper (which is my transport system, by the way) and after a couple days, they’re ready to go straight into the dirt. No waiting for roots for this great plant, either. Do you sense a theme here? It’s not that I’m a lazy gardener…

Here’s what the plant looked like after the trim:

Happy Euphorbia

You see I could’ve cut it back even more, but this was a good trim. I don’t want to overwhelm the poor guy – I’m sure he’s quite attached to those limbs!

After the pruning, I rotated the plant 180 degrees so the back of him faced the light. That’s so he’ll stand up more straight on his own. Plants don’t like leaning toward the light in just one direction – you have to rotate them!

Now, here’s me happily taking my cuttings home:

One handy way to transport things with thorns

Well, you can’t see my face, but I am smiling!

 My dd and I decided to buy a yucca since we have never cooked it before.  Being married to a Puerto Rican, I have EATEN it, but just never cooked it.  I got my onions and garlic a little charred, but I like them like that so it’s ok!! 

I found the recipe here:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/simply-delicioso-with-ingrid-hoffmann/yucca-with-cuban-mojo-recipe/index.html

On October 19, Rose Ramirez and I are giving a presentation about our ethnobotany project at the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center in Banning, CA. The Center is dedicated to sharing Southern California Indian cultures, languages, history, and arts. “Dorothy Ramon was an elder knowledgable in traditional ways and recognized as the last pure speaker of the Serrano language, that is, the last person who thought and dreamed in Serrano first, before English. In her final years before her passing in 2002 she worked tirelessly with a linguist and helped save the region’s own Serrano language and much cultural knowledge.” Please see their flyer and excerpts from three pages of our Ethnobotanical Calendar below. Dorothy Ramon Learning Center Blog.

We will be talking about the contemporary uses of native plants of profound importance to the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural vitality of Sothern California Indian people. Excerpts from 3 pages of our Ethnobotanical Calendar are below:

After hitting up school and the bookstore, (I am still without books and still without answers from Financial Aid), and running various errands (mailed my Change of Address form, bills, etc.) Clayton and I met at rooftop for Happy Hour.

Well Drinks are only $3 as are pints of beer. Most everything on the menu is under $5.

We asked the waitress if these margaritas were considered well drinks, Clayton assured me they were. I thought he was crazy and insisted he ask. She said they were. So I guess I’m wrong, right?

Actually, I was right. The waitress was just dumb as hell and apparently misinterpreted the question, “Do these margaritas count as a well drink, which is listed at $3 on the Happy Hour menu?”

Chips and Dip, $2. My 1/4 lb. burger only $3.00. Dumb server, priceless. It’s rough, I tell ya. But I was irked at her. It’s not like they were busy or she was new. Did she not think we’d notice they weren’t a happy hour item when she brought us our check?

I was over it. We headed to Serendipity for a scoop of Tillamook Peanut Butter Ice Cream.

Then we wandered into my favorite bookstore downtown, Third Street Books. Clayton was right at home.

We are both pumped about the new Where the Wild Things Are movie that is coming out. We sat down together and I re-read it to him.

I really want a copy of my own!

I figured I might look on Ebay or Amazon, as they wanted $18 for it, which I thought was hefty. Instead, I bought two of the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avalon books, each $4.99 and brand spankin new. I have already delved a few pages in. I love these books.

We saw a little red Smart Car, and I thought of Skinny Runner.

We saw this strange vegetable outside Harvest Fresh, it reminded me of dinosaur skin. Apparently, it’s some kind of cauliflower?

Clayton needed groceries and I need pumpkin for some cookies I’m making for Karla at work, so we headed out.

I’d never before been in the beer cooler. I do not drink The Beast. 

Nor do I drink Heini Light. 

I just like to pose with beer. And cardboard men. 

Clayton couldn’t believe how life like he looked.

I decided to make the cookies at Clayton’s. It was such a fail. Now that I have moved out and taken all of my baking items with me, this poor guys kitchen is a little bare. He ingeniously suggested I use tin foil in leu of a cooking sheet. It actually worked!

I’ll have photos of these little pumpkin frosted cookies tomorrow.

A few randoms I bought at the grocery store. Frozen brocolli, string cheese, soup, all spice, coffee filters, green grapes, and yucca root!

I think this is what Meghann and Kelly make their fries with, but these happen to be really small. I could be way off.

I am having a horrible time with gas tonight. I honestly dumped the rest of the cookie batter out and said goodbye over my shoulder as I was leaving Clayton’s house, I was so uncomfortable. I have no idea even where to begin with my digestion problems. I am buying some kind of supplement in the morning though, because it’s ruining my life.

I’m exhausted! Off to bed.