Day in the Life of an Idiot

I just took a bunch of books back the the library, unread. I kind of hate that? But, at the same time, I will sometimes just order whatever is on the awards lists and see what strikes my fancy. Some were obviously not what I was in the mood for at the moment.

Of the things still in my pile, I just don't know what I want. I am having a bit of reading ennui. Maybe I should poll everyone and see what you all think I should read next of the various things that I have around.


I have no idea if this will work, but I'd love some help deciding.

Otherwise, I did try to take my computer into Best Buy today, but they are mostly doing by-appointment-only still and so the guy that started to help me got interrupted by the people, who, you know, went through the right channels. So, I quietly packed my things up, bought a web cam, just to see if I couldn't get that to work in the mean time, and made plans to make an appointment to return via proper protocols.

Then, I picked up my CSA, which is in full swing now, because I got:

• Beets - 1 bunch
• Collard Greens - 1 bunch
• Red Radish - 1 bunch
• Kohlrabi - 1 count
• Pickling Cucumber - 1 lb
• Zucchini - 1 lb
• Kale - 1 bunch
• Lettuce - 1 bunch
• Scallions - 1 bunch
• Rhubarb - 1 bunch
• Basil - 1 bunch
• Parsley - 1 bunch
• Dill - 1 bunch

And I still have a bit of stuff left from last week??? Anyway, this is one of my joys of CSAs. I like trying to figure out how to use up all of this stuff in a week!

So... what are you all reading and/or consuming? Anything worth reporting?

Yeah, mint pesto. 

I was looking around for something savory to do with the mint I'd gotten in the CSA and I kept coming across the idea of a mint and pea pesto. After finally finding a recipe that contained everything I actually had around the house at the moment, I gave it a try for lunch. I used this recipe: https://culinaryginger.com/pea-mint-pesto/.  I didn't have two cups of frozen peas, but I did have one. So, I cut the recipe in half, and ,as you can see from the picture below, that was plenty.  I didn't have leeks (I would have, but I ended up putting them in chicken stock last night because they were starting to get a little wilted,) but figured supplementing some garlic chives would be fine? AND IT WAS. 

THIS WAS WEIRDLY YUMMY.


Image: Weirdly delicious mint and pea pesto

I put the pesto over some pasta and added cubed fresh mozzarella (which turned out not to be all that fresh, so we took it right back out) and anyway, the meal itself was a surprise in that the combination of stuff really worked to make something zingy and savory.

In other far less fun news, I am taking Shawn into the doctor's today because she's been waking up with scarily dark urine. She'd had this problem before? But, we thought we'd fixed it by going off a particular drug that had this side effect. That was over a year ago and so it's disturbing that this is happening again. The only good news is that right now, the urine gets lighter as the day goes by, so hopefully it's not a sign of blood in the urine or anything like that. We'll see. Cross fingers for us. 

At least she was able to get an appointment with her regular doctor.  A trip to Urgent Care is never any fun. Especially on a cold, rainy day like today.
 
UPDATE so that no one worries: Shawn's doctor says it's asymptomatic hematuria, which doesn't mean much since that means that, yes, there is blood in the urine, but no other symptoms. We are waiting on blood work, which should let the doctor determine where to send her next--a urologist or a kidney specialist or what. But, at least we got the, "Well, unless you have other symptoms, you're probably okay??" Thing is, Shawn is on blood thinners, so it's possible that a mild irritation in her urethra or some such is much more significant because she just doesn't stop bleeding easily. Fingers crossed, I guess? 

Image: A small grouping of early spring (in Minnesota) foods: rhubarb, asparagus, chives, and green onions.

Our CSA started today and... it's early yet, but I feel like I went a long way for not a lot. I'm particularly annoyed that they changed my pick-up location. Last year, I ended up at Green Acres in Roseville and it was hella convenient. It was basically a straight shot down Snelling, a twenty minute drive, but only because of all the stoplights. Now, they've moved me over to a co-op (Mississippi Market for local folks), but not the one that's easy to get to from my lovely, Midway home, but the one over on EAST 7th, in Swede Hollow, FFS. 

Now, if you're not from around here, you're thinking, "I have no idea what she just even said." Basically, it's just the difference between a nice, easy drive down one street and a trip that now involves getting on the highway and going, as my grandmother used to say, CLEAR across town, to the other side of downtown from where I am. 

Who thought this was more convenient to me? 

I was also thrown by having to go INSIDE the co-op to get my box. The previous place had a nice sheltered area outside that felt unobtrusive? Like, I didn't feel badly not patronizing the business, since we just pulled in, grabbed our box contents, broke down the box, signed the sheet, and left. No one inside the business ever the wiser. Now, I have to go into the store... though, at least they have a section of the store that's quite wide that is on the exit side of the cash registers? Like, so I don't have to go through the whole store, go through the cash register area without buying anything to get to the boxes, but it still feels weird? Like, I'm... bothering them??? I'm sure part of why the co-op agrees to this arrangement is that they know that some people will be like, "Ah, yes, we are getting asparagus in this box, that pairs nicely with xxxx," I'll pick up xxxx from the co-op while I'm there!"

But, I'm not that person?

So I just feel odd.

But, then again, I might just be in a MOOD. I've been in a mood all day. I blame the fact that my household is trying to wean itself from the pandemic habit of having gotten coffee at our locally-owned coffee shop every single day. We are trying to move down to three days a week, and then down to two, and then to "every so often" like normal people. It was a good idea when we were trying to support local businesses, but not so sustainable for the pocketbook long term. 

Anyway.

For those of you who might be curious, we decided to go with the same people we loved so much last year, the Hmong American Farmer's Association. I really loved the variety we got last year and how clean and well washed everything arrived. I'm all for farm-to-table? But, I will admit to being lazy and preferring that someone else do all the tidying up of the root vegetables and whatnot. If anyone local wishes they had gotten my CSA instead of theirs, it looks like there are still some summer shares available, even though spring is all sold out: https://www.harvie.farm/profile/hmong-american-farmers-association

I mean, just look at that veg! There's not a lot? But, it's early days yet. If I had to make a CSA box out of the things that are currently harvestable in our backyard, I would be sending out envelopes of chives and oregano. Even our rhubarb isn't quite ready to be cut yet. Again, people tuning in from other climates might be horrified, but keep in mind that here is Minnesota we're still dipping down into the 40s (F) / 4 C at night. 

Right, now I just have to figure out if we have any xxxx that will go with asparagus for tonight's dinner. 

 
Image: Final CSA bounty (contents listed below)

I had not yet re-homed anything, so this is our full, full share.  It includes: sweet corn, baby bok choy, edamame, on choy greens (this is the water spinach/hollow-heart vegetable,) ground cherries, cilantro, sage, sweet yellow onions bell peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and mustard greens.

You won't have to put up with me crowing about the amazing, interesting food that I got in my box any more this summer. We did sign up for a fall box, but it's a half share (and starts on Sept. 17). I will probably only write about it if we get anything extraordinarily fun or unusual. I've been really happy with this farm, obviously. I'm already thinking ahead to sign up early and often for next year!

I re-homed the tomatoes and the cilantro immediately (and got a couple of patty pan squash and a zucchini in exchange.)  The patty pan squash were eaten for lunch today in a medley of other veggies.

My family, for all their vegetable loathing, ADORE edamame so I boiled that up immediately, salted it and it was gone within seconds of arriving at our house.

Likewise, I was very excited to see ground cherries. I have periodically tried to find ground cherries that tasted like the ones my grandmother grew in her backyard, but never have, until now:



Image: a peeled ground cherry... a taste of my youth.

Half of the box of these are gone just from my snacking on them raw. If you are unfamiliar with with the ground cherry, here's the wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis.  

I'm thinking of trying to make something interesting with the sage we got (besides just using it, like maybe a tincture or some such.)


I'll post about anything that comes of that.

I have to admit that I have never cooked mustard greens before, so recipes are always welcome.

I'm kind of glad for the week respite before the fall box starts because, even though we cranked our way through a lot of stuff already, this was a big share. I will probably actually pickle the pickling cucumbers because my family has been eating those at a pace. The question will be whether or not I can still find dill in the stores, as I like to include the seed heads. 

The Hmong Farners Association sent a lovely thank you note to all of us in the box. If you are local, I can not recommend them enough. They've been (mostly) organized and have had a fantastic variety.  I've really had a lot of fun with all the new-to-me veggies and I'm actually kind of excited to have another crack at hollow-heart/on choy, since I was not super satisfied with the meal I made myself with them last time and everyone who was familiar with them raved about their crunchy stems.

 I suppose I should post about something other than food, maybe?

What can I tell you that would be of interest?  I'm still picking away at my Loft class. So, I have more short stories to add to the list of the things Iv'e been reading. I finally also tried recording a voice-only, podcast of a very short, fifteen minute lecture which went surprisingly well. That made me feel like I could probably pepper a few of those in here or there. If any of my writing colleagues who read this want to offer up a conversation about writing, I'd happily record us on Zoom or on voice. But, I'd also understand if that seemed like a big ask.

I still have three weeks to complete all the written/recorded stuff for the class, so I feel pretty good about where I'm at (crossing fingers and toes.)

Other stuff? I am hiding out in the "cool room" (our upstairs bedroom, one of the few rooms with window air-conditioner unit). I was really hoping it would be rainy and cooler today, as promised, but even if it is? Our across the street neighbor has decided to have some kind of work done--insulation, from the looks of things--and the truck that is doing that work is idling outside and has been since 8 am. And, this isn't just a small car idling issue, this is black smoke coming from a smokestack kind of idling. It's noxious! We had to shut the windows because it was triggering my asthma INDOORS and giving my migraine-prone wife a headache. Shawn went out and yelled at the workers _and_ texted the neighbors about the issue. The neighbors feel awful, but the workers (who aren't wearing masks) doubled-down and told us the work permit meant they could idle in our neighborhood until 5 pm.

UGH.

All the more reason to hideout, I suppose.

Today, I go pick up our penultimate summer share of the CSA. I will miss having a full share, I think. I foolishly signed up for only a half share for the fall because I assumed we'd be sick of getting the same three bundles of kale. Well, okay, I am actually kind of sick of the greens, but there's been so much fun stuff!!  I'm worried that the half-shares will only have the conservative fruits and veggies.  Ah well, I know better for next year. I'll sign up for full the whole year.

Image: a bounty spread out on my dining room table (enumerated below.)

This week's CSA has several exciting things. First off, we got, as you can see: cabbage (napa), carrots, corn, collard greens, eggplants (Thai), melon (sun jewel*), onions, radishes, and potatoes.

So, the sun jewel melon... it is listed in Wikipedia as "oriental melon,' but it is also known as 黄金瓜 / huángjīn guā  in Chinese, 참외 / chamoe in Korean, and 真桑瓜 / makuwa uri in Japanese. i am incredibly excited to try this melon. I suspect it's going to be part of (or all of) dessert tonight.  According to the Wikipedia article I linked to, the makuwa uri was once so popular in Japan that its name became synonymous for ANY melon.

The Thai eggplants are also a new-to-me vegetable that I'm going to have to hunt down some recipes for.  Just wandering through the Googles leads me to a lot of curry options, so I'm excited about that. Apparently, I can eat these raw? I'm going to have to try that!

Anyone else finding interesting things in their CSA boxes? At the farmer's markets? In their backyards?

 
Image: very 1974 stuffed green peppers, complete with "Cooking with Soup" a very 1970s cookbook...

I am not a gigantic fan of green peppers so eating them as the classic hamburger and rice stuffed green peppers is absolutely a fine use for them, IMHO. Feel free to tell me how I wasted this amazing vegetable. I'm just glad I found a way to eat them that I enjoy. No one else in my family is likely to eat them, so you're looking at my lunch for the next several days. 

Next challenge for me? Figuring out a way to use up the jalapeno peppers. 

Otherwise, I continue to struggle with getting content together for my Loft class. I have a decent draft of what amounts to the first week's class: "Introduction to ourselves and SF/F."  It's got a fancier, snappier title than that, and I still need to record an introduction of myself BUT I mostly have what I think is a decent class in terms of written content and content for students to go off and explore. I stumbled across a cool project that "The Verge" Magazine is doing where they are animating short stories (or short bits of short stories) and posting those along with the written word. It's a neat project to let my students explore on their own time/as they like.

The thing that is always difficult about Loft classes, even when running in-person, is figuring out the right balance of "assignments" for adult learners, many of which have full-time jobs.  I figure I can ask them to listen to a two minute podcast of a short story, but I can't necessarily expect them to write an essay for me about it.  I also need to make sure there are a lot of optional things... and with a class like this I would rather students have things that they are writing down to continue explore later rather than feeling like they burned through all the material in a half hour. 

I'm glad I'm taking a month to get things together, because I'd like to have the weeks when class is running to be critiquing their short stories, novel excerpts, etc.

Otherwise, today is hot and muggy... and overcast. The remains of a hurricane? It feels like it should rain, but there is none in the forecast, but is very dark and gloomy while also being 82 F / 27 C.  

Image: Yard-long Beans on my red, red counter top.

In the "excitement" of WorldCon/ConZealand, I neglected to mention last week's CSA. The only thing we got last week that was new-to-me was the yard-long beans shown above. These are also known my many other names. Its scientific name is: Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, but I found it on Wikipedia under another one of its common names, Asparagus Bean. It is apparently also known as: long-podded cowpea, Chinese long bean, bodi/bora, snake bean, or pea bean.

Regardless of its name, on Saturday, I made a stir fry of it with a bit of garlic, mirin, and soy sauce, and it was delicious. 

Besides the yard long beans, last week's CSA included: green beans, kale, red beets, napa cabbage, cucumbers, basil, onions, garlic, and potatoes. 

Because of my triumph pickling last week, I instantly pickled all the cucumbers and then, in a grand experiment that I have not yet tried tasting, I pickled the green beans as well. I have vague memories of my grandmother having pickled things that were not cucumbers, but I may have gone out on a limb here with the pickled green beans.

At any rate, the only things I have left to eat this week are the kale (I'd forgotten I'd gotten it and it got shifted to the back of the fridge or I would have been eating it steadily.... mmmm, seems I may have bubble and squeak for brunch/lunch!) and the napa cabbage. I have plans to use up the cabbage tonight because I have been long hoping to experiment with making dumplings in my bamboo steamer and I have a book that suggests wrapping the dumplings/lining the bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves and I NOW HAVE A LOT OF THOSE.  Plus, of course, I can put cabbage into the dumplings, as well.

I will take pictures of that process if I decide to do it, of course. 

Otherwise, this morning started out very strange in that I had to give my wife a ride to her physical work place. She needed to pick up mail and to look for some files, so we donned our masks and headed out. I rediscovered that I am not very happy when any portion of my day is spent waiting on my family while stuck in a car. I do NOT miss that from the before-times.

Anyway, check-in? How was your weekend? 

You can still tell me what you'd like me to watch next in the comments, but I went ahead and closed the poll as we have a clear winner. I will be watching "Star Trek: Picard" next. As it happens, it was where I was leaning anyway?

This week's CSA:


Image: artfully arranged veggies on the table

What I got was:

Carrots
Green onions
Torpedo Onions
Zucchini (yellow)
Potatoes
Dill flowers
Green Cabbage
Cherry Tomatoes
Pickling Cucumbers
... and Water Spinach (or as wikipedia tells us: ipomoea aquatica, "also known as river spinach, water morning glory, water convolvulus, or by the more ambiguous names Chinese spinach, Chinese watercress, Chinese convolvulus or swamp cabbage, or kangkong in Southeast Asia and ong choy in Cantonese." My Hmong Farmers call it 'on choy,' without the 'g.' It is also known as: 空心菜 "the hollow heart vegetable"--thanks, jiawen, who also tells me that it is delicious)

Once you know all of its names, the numbers of recipes that pop up with water spinach as an ingredient are LEGION. I am thinking about either a tofu recipe with them or a pork one that I found last night, while doing research in anticipation of getting these. I certainly got a generous enough pile that I should be able to try out a number of different options. Will post the results of course.

I continue to be really happy with this CSA. I already have someone who will take the tomatoes off my hands, so that's good. But, mostly, everything that has come I have eaten or am willing to try to eat.  

We also got a really lovely bouquet as this week's flower share:


Sunflowers and other happy flowers in a vase.

 
image: a mess of greens, as it were, on a fancy plate.

I tried sweet potato greens. I followed this recipe: https://thewoksoflife.com/yam-leaves/.  By chance, I happened to have Shaoxing wine leftover from another dish, so I duplicated the instructions fairly faithfully. Normally, I also have sesame oil around, but turns out I'd used that up without remembering to buy more. That may have made a big difference to the taste, but maybe not.

What I decided about this dish was that it was strongly "okay." I was not blown away, but I was also not "ewww."  I did tend to prefer the leaves to the stems, even though I was clearly supposed to use both in this recipe. Perhaps I didn't cook the stems long enough, but I found them to be kind of woody/crunchy? It might be intentional to have both textures in this dish, however, since otherwise the leaves were very wilted and soft (which sounds bad, but which I found to be the yummist part.)

I saved out a few of the yam/sweet potato leaves because, in doing further research, I discovered yam leaves are used in some much more exciting looking dishes from Sierra Leone and other parts of the African continent. I watched a few videos of people making various dishes and I suspect that if I try any, I will have to go looking for palm oil. Everyone I watched seems very adamant that palm oil is essential to authentic taste.

Of course the real trick will be convincing my family to try, but both Shawn and Mason like Ethiopian food and I am hoping whatever I end up making will be enough similar that they will at least taste it. I should probably plan to make it for a lunch, though, so in case my family chickens out, I won't have too huge a pile of food with no one but me to eat it. :-)

Looking in the fridge, the only other stuff I still need to use up is the cabbage and the beets. I have plans for a big part of the cabbage tonight as we're having pork pot stickers. With whatever's left over, I'll make borscht. Unless it gets hot, in which case, I'll start looking into beet salads. But honestly, I can see why my ancestors liked beets. They keep really well. 

In other news, this is Mason's birthday week. He's turning 17 on the 24th. It seems unreal How can it be seventeen years already? But, I guess that's the funny thing about kids: they grow up. I think I reported that we finally managed to get his fancy laptop delivered. So, he's actually been enjoying his big birthday present for a week already. 

In fannish news, I've been binging Star Trek: Discovery. I just finished Season 2, Episode 5: "Saints of Imperfection."  So far, I am not as big a fan of season two as I was of the first season. HOLY CRAP I loved the first season. I emailed my friend tallgeese to say just how much that first season was my JAM.  Second season lacks some of the punch for me, I guess? At least at this point. Perhaps it will turn around. However, I will literally watch Michelle Yeoh read a grocery list. I've been a fan of Yeoh since I saw her in various Hong Kong action films, when I used to go to the midnight Asian Film series at the Riverview Theater back in the early aughts. Her character in the second season is a scenery chewer, which I adore. I only have a few more days on my free week of the CBS streaming service, so I'm going to watch what I can and then call it good enough. 

Shawn expressed interest in re-watching some of the newer Star Trek movies, so we might do that as well.

What are you all watching? Anything interesting?