Farmer's Market Adventure- Saturday 7/28/2007

My first objective upon arriving at the Farmer's Market was lunch at Monsieur Marcel. Hydra was meeting an old friend for lunch in Culver City and dropped me off on the way. The food's good here, unpretentious and not badly priced especially for French food.

They really should break loose some of the salt and pepper grinders they sell in the gourmet shop, though, don't you think? The flowers are nice, but otherwise it's a diner set up!

I had a hard time deciding. I had a wonderful salmon salad when Mom and I were here last October. Thought about the Charcueterie Francaise, which include duck rillettes (my oh my...duck meat in reduced duck fat which is heaven on French bread), but it was a hot day, and all those meats seemed like a bad call.

They bring you a tiny bowl of assorted olives and a basket of breads. House chardonnay was refreshing.

It seems only fitting, after all those photos I took of meals in France, I should take a photo of the first French meal I had back in the States. Croque Marcel and fresh greens...there's turkey and goat cheese inside. I hardly ever let the restaurant dress the salad, but this was nice and light.

After the meal, into Monsieur Marcel's gourmet shop, where I sampled olives (and brought some home), found the same brand of mustard I'd bought in France, and bought an Egyptian dipping spice mix. Fun just wandering around in there.

I roamed around the market for about an hour, just snapping photos of people and things that caught my eye. Fun, for me!

If you weren't eating ice cream, you were probably thinking about it. The market's a jumble of old stands with awnings. It was uncharacteristically humid in L.A. Whew.

I was going for a photograph of this Todd Goldman painting at Jack Gallery, but I like the way the other painting in the background looks like it's printed on the reflection of the guy in the right's polo shirt.

On the way home, we missed a couple of freeway entrances and decided to check out our first L.A. neighborhood, which was near LA City College. Along the way, I saw this sign outside a Jolibee restaurant.

While I'm interested in expanding my meager experience of the cuisine of the Philippines, I have to admit that neither of these items sounds enticing.

Downtown Acton - Friday 7/27/2007

We ventured the 2 miles to downtown Acton last night to give Wences /Acton Chinese Food another try. Sadly, overpriced and not very good food. Overcooked penne ($8.95, no sides) for me and boxed mashed potatoes and not all the way thawed vegetables with Hydra's chicken picata ($12.95). Zero atmosphere. Dang it.

When Hydra asked how the crispy chicken on the Chinese part of the menu was cooked, the waiter looked panicked and said, "Well, you know. They put it in the thing and dump it in the grease."

Trez appetizing!

But here's a shot of the Tahoe in the parking lot. This is downtown.




Standing in the same place, looking north (I think) across Smith Street, downtown Acton.

I know that more changes are coming and I feel compelled to take random seeming photographs.

Back in the Saddle Again - Thursday 7/26/2007

The view from my usual booth, around 5:20 this morning.

The night manager who used to talk to me quit. Hmmm.

The morning waitress gave the new young night manager the most evil laugh yesterday morning when he was in for training. I think he was moved up from being a waiter. (Which never seemed like a good deal to me when I waited tables. Let's see...work more hours, make less money, wear a different badge. Nope.)

"You don't want to get on my wrong side," she said to him, "You'll never know what hit you, honey."

Yikes. Probably true.

She's the one who scared off Grumps.

On a lighter note, three or four people said nice things to me today. It was the first time since the infamous back injury that I had my laptop with me. Working on a short story that may demand to be a novella.

And doing my small part to keep the wheels of commerce oiled.

If there really is a writer's strike and I and the crew people who come in at all hours of the day aren't around, it's going to put a big dent in the whole economy. We're all just waiting.

Wrong. And Wrong Again. - Wednesday 7/24/2007

I like this sign, which hangs outside Mo's in Toluca Lake, right across from Bob's Big Boy.

Wrong: The food is not fine.

It's overpriced and not even very tasty. Their "famous" burgers are fat little wads of ground beef that glare at you from the center of the bun. They still have a burger bar with a handful of condiments and some bean salad on it that they think is the bee's knees. Not since 1977 was this impressive.

Wrong Again: The service is not friendly.

The actors-- I mean, the waiters--don't want to be there. They are working here because producers, directors and writers from the nearby studios eat here. Sometimes you see a former waiter--er, actor-- who has hit the big time, taking a meeting. The acoustics are terrible. Maybe they feel safe talking in a place where you can't hear your lunch partner's voice, let alone whatever's going on at the next table.

I've been dragged--erm, have eaten--here at least once a year for the past 8 years I've worked in the neighborhood.

Maybe two wrongs will make a right and the next time I eat here I'll find something to like about it.

What the Heck Time Is It? - Tuesday 7/24/2007

Time to go home! I've worked my eight hours and I'm leaving.

OneL brought in this be-boppin' clock just to confuse me, I swear!

Work has become very stressful very early in the season. Waah.

Progress Report - Monday 7/23/2007

The Granny Smiths are coming along nicely.


So are these flowers, which came from wildflower seeds. I'm not sure what they are, but the goldfinches like to eat the seeds when they lose their petals.

New Homes - Sunday 7/22/2007

Some kids make a whole new art form out of this, bopping to mp3s and flipping the sign like they're doing a high school flag corps routine. It was hot and humid Sunday as we headed home. This kid looked fairly grim and I don't blame him.

I fear for Fillmore, CA. We've been going up there for about 7 years, I guess, and for most of this time it's seemed like there wasn't a big disparity in income amongst the residents. But the times they are a'changin'.

The have-mores have moved in on the east side of town. There's a gigantic subdivision going in called The Bridges at Heritage Valley. Pretentious much?

While it's nice to see the buildings in the small downtown with their turn of the 19th-century architecture begin to fill up with businesses again, it's a little sad for the people already there. I grew up in a rural community where the few people who had money certainly didn't flaunt it. It would be hard to take some of the changes in the air, to feel that you don't really belong in a community your family has called home for generations.

Even the once-humble Von's supermarket has been overhauled. It's like shopping in a Whole Foods Market. Not that everyone shouldn't have a nice shopping environment, but you almost feel like you should dress up before you drop in for a pint of milk.

One of the common themes you hear from people who were kids during The Depression of the 1930s is that everyone was in the same boat, so they never knew they were hard up. I think people in Fillmore are going to become increasingly aware of their economic standing.

Sigh.

Living the Americone Dream - Saturday 7/21/2007

At last we scored some Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream! We've been looking for this stuff ever since we saw it debut on The Colbert Report. At last, at the Von's in Fillmore. (And yes, we have a freezer in our camper trailer.)

We bought the Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler, too.



Stephen and Willie in the same bowl! A taste-off!

The Americone Dream was actually better than I expected. I usually find that the ones that have a lot of chunky stuff in them are more about the stuff than the ice cream. This is really good... but given a choice, I'd probably go with the lighter tasting Willie Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler.

Is anyone in Toronto jealous, I wonder? [rubs it in]


And just to throw a little gander in the direction of American excess.... We shared the campground with another group this weekend. There were about 10 of these behemoth RVs in the top section. They filled up the campsites completely with little space to be outside. These things are about 40 feet long and probably cost upwards of $125,000 each.

Yikes! It was a little intimidating walking down through them. "Walk of the Giants," as one friend put it.

Morning Shadows - Friday 7/20/2007

Yeah, I know. Most people's idea of going camping doesn't include Starbucks. But at home, it's a longer drive to get to one so Hydra usually goes to the one in Fillmore at least one morning. I went with him.

Most of the people we're camping with won't arrive until this evening, so there's not much of a crowd around the coffee urn at the campground on Fridays.


Life doesn't get much better. Except maybe later in the weekend when we'll sit outside our camper for hours with the birds in their cages on the picnic table, reading, writing and talking to friends who stop by to chat.


An old church in Fillmore. I think it may be used as a home now.

Produce Country - Thursday 7/19/2007

This produce stand sits at the corner where we turn off of 126 to go camping.


Part of their garden against the backdrop of the mountains. The campground is approximately behind this garden and to the right, about 2 miles maybe.

Had to work very hard (at home, thank goodness) to be able to leave for a weekend of camping with Songmakers.

The View from Braveheart's Front Porch - Wednesday 7/18/2007

5:15 a.m.

Looking toward Century City. Fifty years ago, that was the 20th Century-Fox backlot.

My last waitressing job was there, in the now-defunct Sports Deli. It was a fun time.

I think the whole ABC complex between the Century Plaza Hotel and the towers, where the Sports Deli was, has been torn down since then.

Sigh.

The Scene on Moorpark - Tuesday 7/17/2007

This is the way it was outside The Coffee Fix on Moorpark in Studio City around 6pm yesterday.

A good spot for a refreshing iced caffeinated beverage.




Inside, some interesting artwork. I really like this piece The Firestarter by Yuki Miyazaki.

Let's Hear it for the Boy - Monday 7/16/2007

Yeah. I think he's happy to see me, too. [blushes]



Okay, so I took the photos on Monday, but I'm writing this on Tuesday. On Monday the back, where I usually sit--under the big chandelier in the distance--was blocked off for cleaning. So I sat up front with the big kids.

Ooh, it caused such a ruckus!

The Russian Muskateers each stopped to comment, along with JudyJudy, and the night manager on her way out.

This morning I sat up there again, even though there was no barrier to my usual spot. Only 1 Muskateer commented this time. Just to spice it up I ordered a BLT.

Rebel, rebel...

Anyway, Big Boy and I had it out. I told him it was me, not him, and I meant it. I had a great writing day on Sunday. Wrote from 6am-10am, really working an old short story and having a blast.

I think part of my recent creative struggle--which included a weird resistance to Bob's Big Boy--has been that I was focusing so hard on the Basura Canyon (novel #2's tentative title) rewrite that I was trying to shut down all the other voices in my head.

They got mad. Those creative voices, if you tick them off, they'll rally the voices you do want to hear from and then they'll all go on strike.

I've had three really wonderful writing days in a row. I'm not worrying about the fact that it's been a short story and not the novel.

"If it be now, ’t is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all." - Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2, William Shakespeare.

Trader Joe's - Making It Easier to be a Good Person - Sunday 7/15/2007

Isn't this the coolest bag? It's very strong and light and it's got a nice wide bottom (sound like a retired gymnast to anyone else?) And only $1.99!

I am really trying to use reusable bags and not take home the dozens of plastic ones all kinds of stores want to give me. Kind of flustered the cashier at Kohl's the other day, but really.

She'd just taken the shirt I bought off the hanger and offered me the hanger. When I said I'd take it, she started to fold the linen shirt and the hangar into a small bag. They were out of the right size or I might have let it pass.

Waaaaait a minute. Why don't I just take the receipt and the shirt and hang them in my car?

I walked out with a big (flourescent) light bulb over my head!

Two Birds In the Hand - Saturday 7/14/2007

So that's better than how many in the bush?

Gus is young, but he's already ready for his close-up.

Celebration and Goodbye - Friday 7/13/2007

The hat Hondista bought and I decorated for Fetching... It matches the crepe paper we festooned her office with this morning. Later we'll have a potluck lunch.



Two more puppy toys. One each for the teacup poodles.

They don't make anything this cute for parrots!

Squeeze Me! - Thursday 7/12/2007

One of the toys I bought for Luna. Fetching is leaving our office and taking her pups with her.

[Sniffle.]

Since tomorrow's going to be a combination Good-bye and Puppy Shower for Fetching and the teacup poodle, Sunny, I didn't want Luna to be completely left out.

Puppypalooza '07 - Wednesday 7/11/2007

Meet Ava and Sunny. They get along just like siblings, don't they?


Ava, on the top, belongs to Momalisa. Sunny, on the bottom, belongs to Fetching.


See how little Sunny is? That's like a size 6 sneaker. He's a teacup poodle, about two months old.



Fetching's other puppy, Luna, checks out the rugrats. Luna was so small until we met Sunny, on his back again here. He's a pushover.




The sibs take a break from all the play play play.

Circus Liquor - Tuesday 7/10/2007

You've maybe seen this in the movies somewhere. On the corner of Burbank and Vineland in North Hollywood, CA.


When I pulled into the parking lot to get the shot, I was treated to this creepy black and white clown mural. With bonus 1970s Porsche 914--the dream car of my high school years--right next to it. Swoon.

Ingredients - Monday 7/9/2007

Ingredients for the fancy schmanzy sauce I made for the pan-roasted pork loin recipe I tried for supper.

Mmm. Not quite France, but rollin' up on it!

Herbs & Flowers - Sunday 7/8/2007

Having people over almost always inspires me to cut flowers from the yard. There weren't a lot of the miniature roses this time, so I filled in with oregano and summer savory blossoms.

The Big Lemon Tart Experiment - Saturday 7/7/2007

But first, a completely gratuitous photograph of an egg yolk in a small handcrafted bowl.

We have a couple of friends who come up and stay over on a Saturday night three or four times a year. We have dinner--during which I usually try out at least one new recipe on them--and talk in the evening, hang out over coffee in the morning, and then they treat us to breakfast at Crazy Otto's.

When Hydra showed off the Bayeaux Tapestry segment replica he hung over the fireplace, they immediately started to translate the Latin. That's why they get to be called the Historian and the Playwrite rather than (food) Guinea Pig #1 and #2.

Anyway, I have been craving lemon tarts ever since we returned from France. I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own. And make the Historian and the Playwrite try them!

Complication #1: Although I tthought I'd read the Joy of Cooking recipe for a Lemon Tart thoroughly, I quickly discovered that I'd overlooked the phrase "two-piece tart pan." These, my friends, are the two piece tart pans I drove 10 miles into the Palmdale to buy.

Complication #2: The recipe calls for one 9 1/2- to 10- inch tart pan. Bed, Bath and Beyond carries either an 11-inch tart pan or six 4-inch tart pans. Ponder, ponder--pounce! I opted for the six little ones. I like the idea of individual tarts, and I didn't have enough eggs to double the recipe.



Complication #3: I used a "pat-in-pan" butter crust recipe. For some reason, the crusts cracked. It would be really helpful if they'd explain this stuff in cookbooks: if this happens, this may be the reason. Hydra speculates that it was too dry.

Sounds good. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Does that mean that I should use a tad less flour in relationship to the butter or a little more of the heavy cream (it called for 2-3 tablespoons, and I used half & half.)

Complication #4: They didn't tell me to let the crusts cool a bit before I brushed egg yolk onto them. Well of course, you're going to get scrambled egg if you brush it onto a 450 degree surface.

We won't call this a complication, but I was able to make 5 crusts and when I was pulling them out of the oven, one of them slid off the cookie sheet and shattered on the floor. Okay, that one was just overkill anyway, right?

Not to imply that there wasn't some cursing and some pouting.



Complication #5: The recipe calls for putting a "heatproof bowl" in an inch of water in a frying pan. I was thinking of risking my old jadite bowl, but realized that my Pyrex would work. The frying pan wasn't deep enough, though. The water spilled over the top and almost put out the flames. So I transfered the whole thing to this deeper pan.

Here's what I enjoy about trying new recipes. Sometimes there's room for improvisation on the first go-round, but other times you sense that you should just follow the rules, especially if they don't initially make sense to you, and see if there's something you can learn.

I melted the sugar into the butter with the water at a minimal simmer on faith. Just as the thought crossed my mind that it shouldn't make any difference what the temperature was at this point, I realized that the next addition was the egg yolks.

Aha! If the butter and sugar mixture is too hot.... You see it? In your mind's eye do you see sugar-butter egg-drop soup?

Yeah, me too.

Whew.

So that went well. I stirred in the 8--count 'em 8!--egg yolks and kept them gently moving for 8-10 minutes. Then Hydra came and held the sieve while I poured the mixture into the jadite bowl. This caught the few tiny bits of egg that hadn't merged smoothly with the mixture.

Crusts loaded! Into the oven they went!

Complications #6-7: The recipe has a less than adequate description of how you can tell when the tarts are done and I suspect that my oven, which is only 6 1/2 years old, doesn't really hold the temperature like it's supposed to.

When you shake them and the center doesn't move, that's supposed to tell you they're done. I was at this point a bit shake-shy, having lost my failsafe crust to normal movement.

I'll spare you the details of repeatedly checking, but I'll say that one of them turned kind of translucent and I realized that that was what I was really looking for. Or anyway, I hoped that was what I was looking for. It just looked...right.

So I took them out one by one as they shape-shifted. And I hoped.

Voila! I cooled 'em, I garnished 'em with fresh red raspberries and a tiny sprig of mint. Behold the finished tartlet!

I avoided Complication #8 after conferring with Hydra. He suggested that we not try to unpan them until we actually ate them, avoiding the risk of them (and me) falling apart.

They were a big hit!

Neighborly Fruit - Friday 7/6/2007

Hey! Remember the plums on the tree the other day?

I was out in the front yard tying up a few overladen branches of the Granny Smith apple tree when our uphill neighbor and his kids walked by on their way back from the pool. He actually asked if I'd like some plumbs! Said they had bags of them they were trying to get rid of.

You betcha!

I went right up the slope and picked this bag full, all from branches hanging over the fence.

Very nice.