In Southern Californa, in my backyard and nearby.
Today I picked some guava, cherimoya, my first harvest of sugar snap peas, mandarins, tangerines… hm what else… passion fruit, sweet potatoes (a little late in the season) burdock… I think thats it for now. I will update if I remember more.
On the radio I’ve been hearing ads for cherries on sale at local grocery stores… cherries are NOT in season in California. You’re probably buying product from Chile or somewhere very far away. If it has to travel then its probably been put through alot of stress, sometimes chemicals, picked early and sprayed with chemicals to ripen earlier. You’re better off waiting for your local seasonal fruit. If you’re in California, something is always in season… at the very least strawberries (unless its raining)
Also, I accidentally broke my dslr and my point and shoot… so no pictures unless I try really hard. sorry.
I use it, Joy the Baker uses it, Alton Brown uses it. It’s really just the best recipe I know out there… for us chewy chocolate chip cookie lovers.
This is Joy the Baker’s post on it
This is Alton Browns Chewy Recipe from the Good Eats episode : Chips for Sister Marsha (Youtube link)& Part Two
also featured in the episode
The Thin (Crispy) Cookie
The Puffy Cookie
I use the chewy recipe and add the variation of using browned butter instead of just melted butter (gives the cookies a toffee kind of flavor). To make browned butter melt the butter in a saucepan, keep the heat on until the butter starts to turn a hazelnut color. Turn off the heat and place the saucepan on a wet cloth (or a bowl of water) just to stop the butter from overcooking and burning.
I like to add things like walnuts and cranberries and nix the chocolate chips for a change.
There are a few things I MUST do.
1. Near the intersection of Wilshire and Western, about half a block up from the Wiltern Theater on Western Avenue there is this small boba ‘hut’ called I Love Boba, a local chain. Hands down the best boba around. Their boba drinks in their smoothie line are the best. I like their strawberry peach and strawberry kiwi.
2. on West Olympic Ave and Vermont, also about half a block away from Vermont on Olympic Avenue is this really big (kinda old 80’s looking grocery store building with big red korean lettering) Korean grocery store. They have so much seafood and fresh meat and 3 aisles of kimchee, other cool asian products and produce. I always buy all the asian mushrooms you can’t find at your local market like eringi, oyster mushrooms, enoki, shimeji, etc. Everything is so cheap and fresh I can’t resist. They must have amazing turnover because whenever I go its very crowded. You can also buy 10lb (probably bigger) bags of peeled garlic and 10lb bags of bean sprouts. yum! The place may be daunting for first timers but I love the old asian feel to the place. Plus you can’t beat the prices. A pound of pumpkin seeds for under $3. I get excited just thinking about it.
With my new spiffy fishing lisence and a new tide table booklet and some know how I have so far (with the help of my dad) caught 2 octopus, 2 crabs and about 10 clams.
The octopus got boiled then pickled into a vinegar and sugar solution.
The crabs became miso soup (they were small so we were going for extracting the crab flavor rather than trying to eat the tiny bits of meat)
The clams became the soup broth base for my Kimchee Chigae