Paula's Perspective Archives : Cast Iron Forest to Skillet

2023-11-262023-11-26

11/26/2023 return of cilantro

A ramekin of pozole, a pile of refried beans, and half a turkey enchilada with green sauce on a white plate edged with black lines and squares. — Leftover turkey enchiladas with salsa verde (tomatillos mostly from farm share but a few from the garden). The turkey is from Paula’s uncle. Refried beans (“red beans” from the farm share. Pozole made from Rancho Gordo hominy from our Bean Club membership days and is topped with garden cilantro. Paula has vowed we will not let it take over and shade our other things again unlike in spring.

2023-11-232023-11-23

11/23/2023 peaceful thanksgiving!

The described meal, plated on white and black plate with a wine glass of champagne. — The Chef and Chef Paula made a lovely Thanksgiving dinner they considered simple but they were actually having a good time in the kitchen all afternoon. I kept out of the way and napped with cats on the couch. The turkey was raised by Paula’s uncle. The dumplings are cream cheese and onion pierogis. The Brussels sprouts are from the farm share and caramelized in crabapple syrup (jelly that didn’t jell).

$The champagne bottle (dark green glass) with the Chef’s hand designed reusable vinyl label. The vintage area is pink with darker pink letters saying “CHC Brewing”. Handwritten notes specify “Cran + Crab Champagne, batch 3, 10.3% alcohol”. The logo is CHC with the first C reversed for symmetry. The letters are red with ornate, almost fractal, curlicues around them in a slate dark gray background.$

Our sparkly beverage was 2021 vintage neighbor crabapples with added cranberry, bottled in 2022.

I’m holding a wineglass of sparkling beverage up to the 1970s shell chandelier that came with the house. The backlighting shows off the abundant bubbles in the bubbly. — Cheers everyone!

2023-11-232023-11-23

11/22/2023 shakshuka dinner

Shakshuka and couscous next to a bowl of salad — Shakshuka is a Mediterranean/North African dish that uses a lot of bell peppers in the tomato sauce. We had frozen slices of bell peppers from the last harvest this year before first frost. Yum!

2023-11-042023-11-04

10/30/2023 last peppers

The last peppers of the season piled on the gray ceramic kitchen table. There are long curly skinny yellow corbaci, big red bell, green bells, and brown-purple bells, and two little triangular apple peppers. — Before the hard freeze I cut down all the pepper plants (plus a few stray and unfortunately sized okra) and put them in the garage. The next day when I had time, I sorted and weighed them. we got a good last bunch of all our pepper varieties for this year! Paula notes of the sweet peppers, the apple peppers were sweetest when both red and green. The California wonder bell and chocolate bell were both more bitter when young/green. The Chef likes the thin and easy to cut corbaci peppers.

2023-10-282023-10-28

10/28/2023 dinner

Refried beans with chunks of feta cheese, a pile of Mexican rice, and a corn tortilla loaded with pork, avocado, lettuce, onions
, cilantro, and the flavorful pepper hot sauce. — Paula made refried beans with bolas maycoba beans from last year as well as some Rancho Gordo beans of some variety. The Chef made a pepper hot sauce from all the ripe Chimayó chile peppers in the garden plus everything pepper leftover in the freezer, including farm share jalapeños, two year old poblanos from the garden, and assorted mystery peppers.

2023-09-272023-09-27

09/27/2023 Thai larb

A half empty bowl of steamed rice awaits lettuce and laab, piled on nearby dishes. — Paula and The Chef collaborated on tonight’s dinner. Larb (or laab) is a meat salad. We used the lettuce leaves as little scoops/wraps and put rice with each scoop. Very tasty. From the garden, the larb contained Chimayó peppers and mint. It was delicious.

2023-09-172023-09-17

09/16/2023 inspection of dust

An overhead view of a leashed gray and white cat avoiding a very happy German shepherd laying down nearby. — Briar was delighted, honored, and thrilled to be allowed to escort Shackleton on a leashed walkabout. Shackleton was less thrilled about Briar, but finally got some good dust rolls in and sampled various lush grasses. He also hissed at Briar every time she got too enthusiastic about her adoration.

The formerly pristine gray and white cat laying on his side in dust on concrete near the edge of the lawn. He is covered in brown dust bits everywhere. His face is happy. — Briar was delighted, honored, and thrilled to be allowed to escort Shackleton on a leashed walkabout. Shackleton was less thrilled about Briar, but finally got some good dust rolls in and sampled various lush grasses. He also hissed at Briar every time she got too enthusiastic about her adoration.

2023-09-092023-09-09

09/09/2023 dinner and a show

Paula made this Thai dish, rad nah. It has garden garlic in it. The chef made the broth from scratch, from chicken and turkey bones. He also provided Paula with the hearty noodles. It was delicious!

Earlier in the day, Shacks watched the herb garden for skinks and grasshoppers.

2023-07-282023-07-28

07/28/2023 garden garlic and garden basil

A white plate with black lines and squares around the edge. It has a molded pile of rice with a fresh basil leaf on top. The remaining three foods are piled around the tidy rice. — Green beans, pad krapow gai (spicy Thai basil chicken), egg foo yong, and topped with a basil leaf.

2023-06-252023-06-25

06/21/2023 award winning acting

Paula took Briar out on Wednesday night and she found a possum.

The possum says “nobody home! Ignore my tight grip on the bird bath!!” it worked though. Briar wandered off.

After Briar wandered off to drink water and Paula got this lovely picture of the goofy young creature. They were gone by the time we humans checked again for the young friend. A great bit of possum theatre with Briar none the wiser!