Friday Food 05-03-24

Recently I read an article titled "12 healthy foods" and discovered that all but one are the mainstays of my normal diet.  Avocados, Broccoli, Apples, Nuts, Berries, Beans/Lentils, Eggs, Dark Leafy Greens, Olive Oil, Dark Chocolate, Whole Grains, Asparagus. The latter is rarely on my plate, just not a favorite!   If you Google 12 Healthy Foods you will find dozens of variations which include most of these choices.

One of my favorite meals is lactose free  cottage cheese with fruit and a drizzle of Brianna's Poppy Seed dressing.

Tonight it was avocado, pear, apple, blueberries, pear, banana, toasted pecans, 

Last week it was avocado, banana, blueberries, banana, apple, toasted pecans.

Happy eating!

#   #   #

Friday Food 12-29-23

 Fuyu season is almost over and I haven''t had nearly enough!

This trees slightly hangs over a wall along our usual walking path.  Before I could ask if I could pick some  they harvested every one!

This shows the difference between the Hatchiya on the left and the  Fuyu on the right.

The Hatchiya is soft and gelatinous when ripe. The Fuyu is hard like an apple.

The Fuyu cut crosswise makes a sun with rays some have flat black seeds. Other than eating them like an apple or cutting them up in fruit salad, the only other way I have heard them used is sliced and dried as a snack.    This year when I saw them at the market they were selling for $1.00 to $1.50, each.  As I drove around the area I looked for some loaded trees and stopped to ask to cut a few.  The man at the first house said no, they were a large family and needed them all.   There were probably 70 - 80 on the tree, maybe they planned to dry them.  At another house there was nobody home and it appeared that they had been gone for awhile, maybe traveling for Xmas.  So, I cut four off their well fruited tree and said Thank You.  I am a Fuyu thief! 

#    #    #

Miscellaneous 11-08-23

 I thought it was just Blogger that wouldn't let me post last night, but it was something else.  Still having a problem with  my space bar.  Guess  I will have to go visit the Geek Squad.  I think I was just born without  the  electronics gene!

The Fuyus (persimmon) are just ripening. This one hangs over an 8 foot wall along our walking route. I  think  I will knock and see if they will share.   I guess I will need to  carry a ladder over to reach them.   They are  my favorite fruit.  

I  am taking the boys to school  on both Tuesday and Wednesday this month and Julian can't stay alone  when he gets out at  1:15 or 2:15 so I stay with him until his dad comes  home. I have been doing surgery on Froggy while I am sitting at the  boys house.  Poor guy, I will need to replace his entire back again since KoKo  chews on him there.  But there are also many small  holes with a tiny puff  of stuffing sticking out.   I use carpet thread, which doesn't come in  green, but KoKo doesn't notice. 

Lots of Western Bluebirds lately.  This one turned his head just as I clicked. 

I think we need to have our fence  sanded and repainted.  

Here is  another local bird!  This is an artificial blackbird perched on the right hand  of  the giant skeleton who has been "re-garbed" for Thanksgiving.  

I think he needs  a pilgrim hat. 

#   #   #

Lemon tree 02-13-21

It is citrus season here.  The orange, lemon, mandarin trees are weighted down with fruit.  At the same time the buds are setting for next year's bounty.  Kind neighbors share bags of fruit and I pass some on to others.  I could never use the 20+ lemons someone left on my porch last year.  

This little tree has been growing here for at least six years, but it gets no fertilizer and apparently only natural water.  The previous owners did not pick the fruit, so what wasn't rescued by neighbors just rotted.  Sad.  New owners seem to be taking better care. 

See all the tiny white blossoms coming on.  Hope a lot of them survive and the lemons will be abundant next winter.  

We are doing okay.  I am just so very, very tired and spend a lot of time resting, reading, and snoozing.  We did the loop both morning and evening today and I continue with the PTherapy exercises.  But then have to rest up.  BP is all over the map; I am taking it three times a day per instructions.  

Hope you have a special Valentines Day.  One of my neighbors brought me a heart shaped balloon.  It bumps along on the ceiling with my movements and KoKo growls at it.  I think he has accepted it now.  Funny guy.  

#   #   #

 

It seems too early, but the pomegranates have formed and are plumping out every day.  They haven't turned red yet, but this tree in my neighborhood promises a bumper crop.  One a year is about all I can handle and even then the only thing I can do with it is scrape it out and put it in a salad.  

 

During WWII my sister and I lived with our paternal grandparents in Los Angeles.  Their property backed up on an alley for access to the garage and across the alley was a property with a wire fence and a pomegranate tree.  I now believe that the hole at the bottom of the fence was intentional so that the neighborhood kids could reach under to "steal" the fruit.  There was always fruit on the ground near the hole!  With grandmother and aunt we made pomegranate jelly.  It was a huge job and involved a cone shaped sieve and cotton bag to squeeze the juice out of the seeds.  The jelly was a gorgeous clear red and I thought it was the very best jelly ever.   But not enough for me to ever go to all that work to make some these days.  

#   #   #

Friday Food 04-10-20

In the past few years "Avocado Toast" has been the rage and there was even an "Avocado Toast" index to keep track of the consumption - at least that is what I could make of it.   It all seemed so silly to me because I have been eating plain avocado toast for decades.  Maybe since 1960 when I lived in an apartment that had an avocado tree.  It was a Fuerte rather than the common Haas variety.  Fuerte is very thin skinned and doesn't ship at all well, which is why we find Haas with it's "alligator skin" at our super markets.  Fuertes are mostly found in farmer's markets and roadside stands. 

This is a Fuerte,  I like the flavor better than Haas.

I don't have a picture of a Haas to share. 

My version of avocado toast is to toast the bread, apply butter.  Peel the Fuerte, chop up the flesh and pile it on the toast, sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt and fresh ground pepper.  And enjoy.   It is actually easier with a Haas, if not as tasty, because once you remove the seed, you can cut the flesh into pieces still in the skin and then scrape it out with a spoon and pile it on the toast.  I never put anything else on, such as I have seen at restaurants.  Just toast, butter, avocado, salt and pepper.  Perfection.  

#   #   #

Thursday Thoughts 04-09-20

It is citrus time in Southern California and there are many neighbors willing to share their abundant crop.  One lady posted on Next Door that she would deliver oranges to anyone who wanted them.  I said yes and she dropped a bag of eight of the best oranges I have ever eaten.  But I am not a connoisseur of oranges because if I eat too many I develop a rash.  But, OMG, these were perfection.  I didn't juice them, but ate them over the sink with the juice running down my chin.  Sooo good.  

Then this image appeared on Facebook and I had to laugh.  I am frequently amused by the things from my past, and sometimes present, that younger people do not recognize. 

This was an irreverent post with some raunchy answers.

But in my cupboard I have this.....

Not exactly like the antique they show, but it works the same way.  And it was my mother's.  I was dismissive of it after my first visit to California when I was about 4 years old.  My aunt had a "mechanical" squeezer that I cannot find an image of to show you.  But it had a crank that was pushed down after putting a half an orange on the cone shape and closing the lid.  It seemed very modern and efficient to me and I was thrilled to be allowed to push the crank with some help from Aunt Vernice.  It was the wrong time of year to pick oranges off of trees, but it was fascinating to think of it.  

#   #   #

What tree is this? 03-03-20

This is a volunteer tree growing in my yard.  I don't know what it is and was surprised to see it bearing fruit this year.  It isn't a fig or a lemon, although the fruit is that shape.  The birds devoured the fruit, which tells why this was a volunteer tree, planted by birds, no doubt.  

A little larger than a golf ball. 

#   #   #

Things that are yellow 01-09-20

Since KoKo and I walk twice a day I sometimes need to play "games" to keep going.  To go outside our usual loop we need to go on a busy street and I don't enjoy that.  Sometimes I look for certain things as we walk along.  Today it was yellow.  Usually there is quite a lot of yellow in our environment.  Such as:

Of course, dandelions. 

I think this is a stunted calendula. 

Milkweed to attract butterflies. 

One dying leaf on a wintering Plumeria plant. 

Maple leaf.

Dying rose leaves.

Hopscotch for the kids down the street. A very pale yellow.chalk.  

A fire hydrant and a place to rest once in a while. 

This time of year lemons are abundant. This tree grows along a slump stone wall and the reflected heat ripens the lemons earlier than other trees nearby.  

#   #   #

Fresh fruit 10-07-17

At the Placentia Farmers Market last week I bought two Bartlett pears.  I wish I had taken a picture of them as they were the not-so-perfect kind we picked from the trees as children.  Anyway, they were the best Bartlett pears I have eaten in years.  So juicy that I had to eat the first one out of hand over the sink to catch the juices.  And the second went on my Cheerios this morning - so delicious. 

 

Pictures from Google - I couldn't find one that showed "flawed" pears. 

 

It made me think again of the special food I have eaten in my life; some that stands out in my memory.   The year that Buttonwillow, CA, was hit by an earthquake I drove home from San Francisco a month or so later and stopped for gas.  Across the road was a pickup truck with a stake bed piled high with cantaloupes.  They were being sold by two ladies who told us that a farmer had donated the truckload to benefit the Boys & Girls Club (I think) which had been badly damaged in the quake.  I had passengers with me and we bought what we could get in between the bags and suitcases in the car.  I had never been wild about cantaloupe, but the cause was worthy and the melons smelled wonderful.  I think I ended up with three when I got home.  They were terrific melons, juicy, sweet, fragrant, and "lip smacking good" (whose slogan was that?).  Since then I have purchased cantaloupe at groceries and markets, but none have been as good as those from the back of that truck in Buttonwillow. 

 

 

Can you recall some special food you ate years ago that still dwells in your memory?

 

#   #   #

 

 

Saturday Stories 09-30-17

Diane is a "foodie" at heart!  She remembers so many favorite restaurants and meals over her lifetime.  One of the early memories is from her year of working at the main library in her hometown.  Her job was to fetch books from the stacks at the request of the librarians.  It was a fascinating job, being able to look at every single book in the library.  Of course, there wasn't much time during her working hours, but enough to have a read every now and then.  But the memory she cherishes is of a small diner down the street.   It was just a counter and a row of red stools along one side of the room.  No space for anything else.  The owner/chef was an old (or so it seemed to her) guy who was a cook in the Navy, now retired.  One of the things he did she has never forgotten, but discovered that it is a common trick among diner cooks.  Order a warmed Danish and he would plop a lettuce leaf on his grill, top it with the pastry, and cover it with a pot lid.  In a minute or less the pastry would be warm and soft and read to eat.  Amazing then, before microwaves, and still is today.  The best thing about this diner was the pies, made on the premises, early in the morning.  Diane's favorite was the peach pie, when fresh peaches were available.  Such peachy flavor, such flakey pastry, such creamy thick juice holding it together.  Along with a glass of milk it was breakfast or lunch or dinner.  The memory is now sixty years old and it still makes her mouth water.  No other peach pie has ever been so good, even the ones she has made herself. 

 

 

#   #   #

Saturday Stories - Pomegranates 08-26-17

 

When Diane and her sister Marie were living with their grandparents in Los Angeles during WWII they prowled the neighborhood with their school friends.  The street dead ended into Poppy Peak which seemed enormously tall to us.  There was a trail to the top through cactus and chapperel, but they were not permitted to climb it alone.  Once when they went with their uncle they saw tarantulas and there were rattlesnakes in the rocks.    Their grandparents house had an alley along the back where the one car garages were located.  They knew all the neighbors and their animals - dogs, cats, goats, chickens, rabbits.  One house had a pomegranate tree that hung over the back fence and the kids helped themselves to every pomegranate that grew on the alley side of the fence.  Sometimes they even reached under the fence and stole a few more.  The only things Diane can remember they did with them was to eat them out of hand or juice them in the jelly sieve their grandmother used when she canned.  After the war and the move back to Oregon the sisters traveled by train back to Los Angles to visit their grandparents.  For some reason they always visited in August and the pomegranates were always ripe.  One of Diane's neighbors has a pomegranate tree in their front yard and every year she helps herself to just one.  She feels like a seven year old again!

#   #   #

 

Saturday Stories - Falling Blossoms 07-09-16

Where Diane grew up there were many fruit trees in the neighborhood and nobody minded if the kids helped themselves.  Old fashioned apples and cherries, pears and apricots thrived, along with every kind of berry and nut that would grow in western Oregon.  She was a tree climber and always thought the best fruit grew at the very top of the tree.  She missed her step once and fell from half way up the Queen Anne cherry tree and knocked the wind out of herself.  Scary, but not the only time. 

One memory she carries close to her heart is the huge cherry tree beside the bus stop.  It was a black cherry, maybe a Bing, but best of all it had millions of white blossoms which would fall like snow when the wind shook the branches.  The breeze would gather the petals into loops and swirls that drifted along the curbside and swarmed across the street.  It was almost better to miss the bus and be late to school, so she could watch the dancing petals.

The orchard lots are gone now and few of the fruit trees remain, they would probably be too old to bear fruit anyway.  But the memories remain. 

 

Almond blossoms along I-5 in central valley  2013

Saving Water 04-26-15

I'm sure you all know that California is in the midst of a drought and everyone is on restricted water use - Mary and Joe included.  Mary always has lots of flowers and deck boxes on her deck, but now she is limited to things that don't require much water.  The deck boxes are gone, they require too much water.  

 

Geraniums do well and this red is Mary's favorite.  The blue in the middle is a copper Puffin on a stake.

This single pink stands out among the reds.

She has three ivy geraniums from Costco in hanging baskets which Joe can enjoy from his hospital bed.

This one is different with little dark red eyes.

And she has tomatoes just coming on.  Hope it is warm enough to ripen them.

And there is a nice crop of lizards.  There were three on the deck when I was photographing, but the largest one ran and hid.  Not photogenic, I guess.

Lemons ripening on the little lemon tree.  I think Mary uses grey water to keep it going.

There was heavy rain on Friday night, so everything is washed clean and shiny.  Another late spring shower would be welcome. 

#   #   #

Wordless Wednesday 01-08-14

Lemons - NOT! 01-04-14

These pictures were taken January 6, 2010, and the lemon trees were heavy with fruit.  


These bright yellow orbs hung over the wall on the south side of my neighbor's house.  Easy to reach from the front yard.  

 
And this view is just around the corner of the wall.  An abundance of sweet Meyer lemons which the neighbor shared with me.  This year there is not a lemon in sight!  I wonder if he has watered his tree during this terrible dry year - the driest ever recorded in Los Angeles County.  So, it follows that it was also the driest in Orange County history.  I'll miss the lemons as Meyers are not often seen in markets here and when they are they are very pricey.  Guess it will be a year without lemon bars, lemon curd and fresh lemonade.