Jamboree

Last Sunday was our first official day in Sacramento and what was the first thing we did?.....

Find a farmers market!

One of the things we missed about our life in Kitsap was going to the market every week and getting fresh produce and bread from Borrowed Kitchen Bakery. Farmer's Markets in Las Vegas were a joke. We did most of our shopping at Cardenas, a mexican market that had the best produce prices ever and I miss dearly. Here in Sac grocery prices are out of control! I have hit several stores over the last 10 days to see the prices of things we regularly eat and I am not impressed. Supermarkets populate the place as opposed to Vegas which was full of smaller regional markets like Sunflower Market and Fresh & Easy Market.

But the farmer's market, oh the farmers market.... It was heavenly. It's about 3 blocks of farm stands. And by farm stands I mean there aren't any crafts. Just stand after stand of produce, local honey, local artisan cheese, local ranchers, and flowers. It was as crowded as Pike Place on a weekend and the produce stands actually barter prices with you. We had a successful adventure there and we went back again this weekend.  A 1/2 flat of strawberries, 14 lbs of peaches ( $1/lb Lady Elberta Freestone Peaches) and more came back home with us. And then I got to canning.

Last week I used all my fresh basil and made a batch of fresh pesto. It turned out fantastic! It also made a ton, about 24 oz, so I canned it. Well you can't actually can pesto. So it's in the freezer in little 4 oz. containers.

I used Ina Garten's recipe for pesto. It's delicious. And while you can't can pesto it will freeze indefinitely. I saw a fantastic tip on another blog though where she freezes the pesto in muffin tins and then pops them out and stores them a container, where they are perfectly portioned. Genius. I also had a container of fresh mint in the fridge. Chris and I are addicted to drinking minted green tea but my $0.50 mint purchase was more then I could drink in a week. So I decided to make Mint Jelly.

I used the recipe included in the pectin box. I've never made Mint jelly before. I've never even ate Mint Jelly before. I guess I need to roast a lamb because I have 8 jars of Mint Jelly now. And my apartment smelled fantastic!

It was super simple to make. If you aren't canning or jamming you should try it. I started doing it as a little girl with my grandparents and my mother. Chris and I bought our own canning equipment this weekend and now I'm going to be on a canning spree! The initial cost is steep but not awful. It's mostly the cost of the jars and they are reusable. The cost of the fruit is a factor too but down here in California you can grow just about anything and there are lots of u-pick farms. We picked up another half flat of strawberries for $10 at the market and I made a batch of Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam.

I washed and trimmed my berries. They are so sweet and delicioius and strait from the farm to my jar.

I used my food processor to pulse the berries. So much easier than hand mashing but you don't want to go too crazy. You want the berries to be chunky and give your jam texture. Also according to pickyourown.org if you totally puree them, it breaks down the acid required for the jam to set properly.

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Jam. My batch yielded 11 jars and they set perfectly. I saved a little to taste test and the vanilla bean mellows out the sugar sweetness. Also, my flavor profile was a little different since I used an unrefined cane sugar instead of refined white sugar. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I had enough stawberries for a half batch so I added the white peaches (and a little almond extract) we picked up at the market to them. But peaches and strawberries require different amounts of sugar in order to jell properly. So I decided to split the difference and that didn't work. So I now have 13 jars of delicious dessert topping :)

And then I started on all those big beautiful Lady Elberta Peaches....





I poached and peeled them. They felt all cool and slimy in my hands so I just mashed and separated them with my hands. This left them very chunky...

... I had enough for four batches. I found a great recipe I wanted to try for Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach Jam. I adapted from her recipe and wow! It's fantastic. I made two batches at first and poured some in a bowl for my fridge so I could sample it later. I had 20 jars already so I decide to make a different flavor, a Spiced Peach Jam with cinnnamon and cloves. Yummm... Well while they were processing I poured that warm Bourbon Peach Jam over some vanilla ice cream and blew my own mind. The jam uses lime juice so it's very tart at the front but then you get peachy bourbony goodness. I decided then and there that 20 jars wasn't enough and I made the fourth batch Vanilla Bean Bourbon Peach too.

72 jars of jam total! Chris came home and was stunned. And unfortunately, he doesn't like the peach jam as much as I do. More for me I guess. Or more for you as our Christmas shopping is basically done now. I think I will do some more canning next week though. I have ideas about Ginger Peach Jam, Strawberry Basil Jam, and Pear Butter or bruschetta topping, or salsa or chutney....

Well I found this great quote earlier that I want to share with you....

"When you cut that eggplant up and you roast it in the oven and you make the tomato sauce
and you put it on top, your soul is in that food, and there's something about that that can never
be made by a company that has three million employees." - Mario Batali

I find this to be very true and I am glad to be in a geographical location where I can try to grow some food. Today we picked up a basil plant as well as some rosemary, oregano, and thyme. I'm starting my herb garden while I research other gardening advice for this climate. I've never grown food before but I have a fairly large patio and I can grow a little urban garden. I'll keep you posted on how that goes as well as all the housewife-ing I plan on doing during my temporary (and hopfully short) period of unemployment.

Road Warriors

Well we made it!

1370+ miles on our tires, not including air travel.

(And by tires I mean the spare tire we both gained with all the crappy eating over the last few weeks.)

But seriously I feel like I am still catching up on sleep. I wish Chris would have had a few more days off before his first day but it is what it is.

So here is the short version of the last few weeks:

• I had my three month check-up with my Neurologist. It went well. He was amazed at how detailed I am with taking notes about reactions and my symptoms. I had to refrain from any jokes about what percentile I am in etc. (You know, so I can brag to people about my amazing percentiles later.) because I cracked a joke at the receptionist that made her uncomfortable when she laughed and I didn't want to do it again.

Scene: I left the apartment at 8:30 am for a 9 am appointment. I drive the 8 miles (roughly 20 min in traffic) to the Neuro's office. I check in.

Me: Hi, my name is Angelina. I have a 9 am appointment.
Receptionist: Good morning. I see your name here. Your appointment is at 9 am and it's 8:35 so why don't you have a seat in the lobby for a while.
Me: What? It's 8:35? How is that possible?
Receptionist: (points at clock) See? 8:35. You can have a seat in the lobby.
Me: But how? It left my house at 8:30 and it's 8 miles away. I could have swore I left my place at 8:30. Maybe I read the clock wrong? Weird.
Receptionist: (smiling patronizingly) Well you have 20 minutes till your appointment if you would like to have a seat.
Me: (muttering to myself) That's just so strange. I swore I left at 8:30. I guess that's why I have a Neurologist.
Receptionist: (starts laughing hysterically. I laugh too.Then she stops.) Oh gosh I shouldn't have laughed at that. I'm so sorry.
Me: No, you were supposed to laugh at that. It's funny.

I sat down and looked at my phone clock. It was 8:47. It took me 17 minutes to drive there. I am not crazy. Her clock is crazy.

• The Airborne Toxic Event rocked our socks off at the Hard Rock. Hands down best concert I have ever been to. It far exceeded Korn, Foo Fighters, Britney etc. The pool was quite an intimate setting. And we could get in the pool, which was deep unlike the Mandalay pool. So deep in fact that Chris and I waded out chest high to the little "islands" to get a great view of the stage. Did I mention that I was fully clothed? I wore a sundress on purpose but forgot to consider the fact that it would float up and show my white (soon to be see-through) granny panties. This didn't occur to me until after the show when I used the ladies room and saw my undies. Oh well. All those times I jumped off the island into the pool and floated around imagining I looked a pretty pretty mermaid were all in my head. I may have ruined a few others viewing experience but what can I do about it now? Chris did get some very unflattering pictures of this. They will never be on the internet.

• We drove to Sacramento in one day. Chris in the U-Haul and I in the shark car. I left an hour after Chris but could drive over 70, while he was limited to 55 because of the trailer, and he still arrived before me. I even passed him on the road several times.  But since I have "the bladder of a field mouse" according to Chris ( I choose to think of it as superior kidney function), I had to stop 6 times in 10 hours on the road. Also, I listened to an audio book on the drive and I blame the hilarity of Jeneration X by Jen Lancaster, as read by Jen Lancaster.

• Our apartment is small but modern, which is a change for us. However, there is absolutly no storage. Ugh. Good thing there is an Ikea near by. This place will be a model of efficiency in no time. My fears of living in a crack den are (so far) unfounded. We unloaded on Sunday and attempted to fall asleep early as my sadistic husband had booked our flights for 630am on Monday morning.

• We had a great time visiting as many people as we could while back in the Northwest. The most rewarding part of the trip was watching my little cousin Daniel graduate from drug court! It's been a really long road for him and I couldn't be prouder. He has 22 months of sobriety and is starting his tattoo apprenticeship. The graduation ceremony was surprisingly personal. I was crying hearing the stories of people I have never even met.

•  We drove our second U-haul of the trip from Port Orchard together. We made to Crater Lake Oregon the first night. We stayed in a little roadside casino called Seven Feathers which was surprisingly well accomodated. We also won $75 at the Roulette table which will pay for that trip to Ikea later :) We drove the final six hours on Saturday.

• Saturday sucked. Even though I listened to Tina Fey read Bossypants on Audible. ( Hilarious BTW). Let's just say I wasn't feeling well. We went to Target to get some supplies before we went back to the apartment and unloaded and well... I just felt exhausted. And I didn't even have to do the hard stuff!  But I have been very stressed out and it's taking it's toll in weird ways. Saturday night was the worst injection site reaction I have ever had. I won't go into details yet but it wasn't pretty. I was the small print on the warning label. I was the 1% of patients who suffer crappy x side effect. It was the scariest thing. Basically, on Sunday night when it was time to take my meds I told Chris, " Please don't make me do it. I'm scared." I have since done my injection and was fine.

•  Strangely, I felt totally normal on Sunday and was itching to explore Sacramento. We went to an amazing Farmer's Market. It was about 3 blocks and was all produce, handmade cheese and local meats. No crafts! The prices were fair and every booth we purchased from haggled over the prices so would buy. We spent $42.50 and walked out with a 1/2 flat of strawberries, 1 lb. of local organic cheese, spinach, basil, mint, freestone peaches, plums, nectarines, grapes, potatoes,  tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and 5 ears of corn.  Good eating is back on the menu :)

I am going back to my unpacking now. I have been unpacking and organizing all week long. I hope to be done this weekend so I can get back in a regular routine and start looking for a job. I'm looking forward to finally being settled and getting to know this city, which so far I am loving. It's nice to be driving down the highway looking at farm land. My apartment complex is covered in trees, grass and squirrels. When I was driving down I-5 to get here I was thinking to myself, " Why did we leave Vegas again? What are we supposed to do on the weekends? Vegas has the best concerts and shows". But then I saw the sunset leaving Bakersfield. And then I saw the stars and realized that the lights of the strip weren't blocking them out and I knew we had made the right decision. I haven't had a single second thought since.

That's the sunset leaving Bakersfield and Chris driving a U-Haul with the Speedwagon towed on the back :)