Julie/Julia/Steph

Hi all,

Actually, I'm just flattering myself here. A friend lent me "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously", which happened after Julie Powell wrote her blog, but before the movie. And it's fan-freakin-tastic. Ok, so I know I might've raved about it a little yesterday, but I was full-out laughing during the drive today (details to come), and had to read a whole passage out loud. Two words for you: "Bitch Rice".

Although, I must say that I had quite a moment. I was reading and along came the last sentence on page 216:

"Everyone knows there are foods that are sexy to eat."

1 Point to Sam.

However, she follows this up by claiming there are some foods that are just sexy to make. Two pages later she follows this up with: "Now, this may be a stretch for some people, but I believe that calves' liver is the single sexiest food that there is."

She lost a point of credibility with me there, but then again, I've never had it.

Anyhow, much more laughter ensued.

This morning I did the garden market run, learned how to do Villager finances (which gets me tense, because - oh, how Steph loves Math...), ran the enthusiastic work crew and made granola. Plus a multitude of tiny things that take up time but aren't significant to mention.

Connie and I got picked up at about 2:10 to go on our outing with the co-op crew. We went to Tierra Farm and got the grand tour. Tierra Farm is: "...a small, privately-owned, certified organic producer and roasting company in upstate New York." And they're passionate about what they do. We got to see the roasting room (complete with new coffee roaster!), their storage area, the packing room and (my favorite) - the chocolate room. Sounds like it's straight out of Willy Wonka, right?

Anyhow, the whole facility was nice. Their office areas had a homey feel, they use about 80% solar energy to operate, they have gardens and keep outdoor pet farm animals (although neither are biodynamic...lol). And while I assume that everyone within 100 miles knows something about the community, we found ourselves explaining at the end. Hopefully we didn't come across as being too crazy. At any rate, we had a great time and I feel great that we support (and vice versa) such a nice company. Did I mention the free samples??

Anyhow, we got back in time for me to help (along with Sam, of course) housedad move his things out. He's heading out tomorrow to get things settled in Maine. It made a few people anxious, but nothing too dramatic. Since he's been busy job hunting a lot the last few months, he's been gone quite a bit and so I think it made the transition easier on everyone. Still, it calls to mind that soon the majority of co-workers that I've come to know in the past 4.5 months will also be slipping away soon.

A moment for pity.

Moving on.

Anyhow, I have S&B in a few minutes, so I should probably get my stuff together now. It was a nice day today and assuming I get my act together on the millet (leek and millet cakes again tomorrow??) it should go smoothly as well. It's another half day, with neighborhood work in the afternoon...hopefully it won't be raining all day like today.

Hope all is well,
Steph

Today, Julia Childs Wept

Hi all,
Ominous title, no? This morning I threw myself into the brunch with the house dad. He normally doesn't cook, but his wife had other issues and so I volunteered to jump right in. We had a villager helping us (medieval giggle...) and she helpfully dragged out all the ingredients for clafoutis. For those of you who don't know what that is (like me...), it's a rather simple but delicious fruit flan. One might even say it's impossible to mess up.

They'd be wrong, by the way.
See, I thought things had gone swimmingly, and was rather proud of my first effort. The house mom looked at it thoughtfully, but praised the golden edges. She decided we should whip up some cream, and so I did it, adding a little sugar to sweeten it up. I tasted it, and then had a very bad feeling.
I approached the house mom and rather abashedly told her "We have at least one bad thing...and maybe two..." Unfortunately, I proved my worse fears were confirmed.

The "sugar" that the villager had so helpfully fetched turned out to be salt. Yup. And who knew, but apparently a full cup of salt does funny, funny things to a recipe. Not limited to, but including giving the texture and taste of playdough. Yay...

I really know how to impress people, don't I?

Anyhow, we ended up whipping up some delicious buttermilk pancakes and ate pretty much on time. Though apparently this story is going to be whipping through the village and so I may be soon known as "that" co-worker.

As for the rest of my day, it was long but mostly fun. I'm beginning to see who will challenge me and in which ways. There was also plenty of humor, as one of the villagers accidentally washed and then dried a load of clothing with floss in the pocket. Who knew that approximately 1/3 a spool of floss could make 2 inch cluster knots? You could literally grab 1 piece of clothing and the whole bundle would follow! It will definitely take some time to figure everything (anything!) out, but people seem patience, nice and very friendly. So, I'll keep you posted!

Hope all is well,
Steph

PS I found out my address and will update my facebook with it. Otherwise, shoot me a comment or e-mail and I'll be more than willing to share!