No Chaser

The, um, "great" outdoors

The one thing I miss most about living anywhere else I've lived but here is Nature.  I love the beach, mountains, forests, rivers, and I spend as much time in those places as possible.  Growing up in California, I did tons of camping and hiking all over the place as a Girl Scout, skipped school to go to Santa Cruz as a teenager, and marvelled throughout my life at the redwoods.  In Boston, I walked by the Charles regularly, swam in Walden Pond, lived by the ocean for a year.  Portland had Forest Park, the Willamette, and amazing hikes, waterfalls, and beach within an hour's drive.  In Seattle, I lived very close to the beach and would walk there with the dogs at least once a week, usually more.  Any direction I looked, I saw huge peaks and beautiful mountain ranges, and in a few hours, I could drive to an enormous forest.  Even the park near my house contained a small forest on a cliff above the beach. 

Here, there is mainly corn.  Oh, sure, there are soybeans as well and a few patches of prairie grass and wildflowers, which are lovely.  And, there are pretty little forests nearby with sweet little streams that I enjoy walking through, but they lack the grandeur and wildness of the natural spaces I'm accustomed to.  I guess a corn field could be grand, and I have seen farmland in Idaho that I've responded to in that way.  I think the mass of Syngenta signs around these cornfields diminishes that quality.  We are a fairly long distance from the truly impressive big lakes and rivers of this region although I appreciate them when I have the chance to see them.

In Seattle, we spent a lot of time in and on the lakes, swimming, kayaking, and canoeing.  We decided to keep the canoe when we moved, but selling our kayaks drove home how different our lives would be.  We've investigated places to paddle here, and while there are some excellent opportunities several hours away in various directions, there's very little nearby.  We tried one spot this weekend, and it did the trick, but when we had finished paddling around the entire lake, which took about two hours at a slack pace with both a walk and lunch break in there as well, we both agreed that it was a good thing we hadn't tried it out last year as it would have just depressed us. 

It's just the general smallness of everything here that feels stifling and vaguely disappointing, and I admit it's a matter of both taste and perspective.  I'm getting used to life here, and there are many things I like, which I've enumerated in the past.  I'm especially pleased for the new and fun training it offers me.  But I miss the high I get just looking at a mountain and the sense of expansiveness and movement a very large body of water provides.

posted by: NoChaser at August 22, 2006 10:05 | link | comments (4) |

12 ways of looking at a tomato

The title of this post is borrowed from Paul Bertolli (and Wallace Stevens) and his really nice essay about the many ways one can think about preparing tomatoes, which I reread this weekend in the face of the yield from our garden.

Tomatoes do not grow particularly well in the northwest:  too much rain, not enough heat.  Here, however, they thrive.  Clonk, in his glee at finally being able to grow the tasty vine fruits, planted an abundance despite all warnings from saner individuals.  Most people around here have four plants; we have twenty-four.  Now, we have what can only be described as a tomato hedge. 

Said hedge is producing fruits at a rapid pace, and as a result, I am having to be somewhat more clever in my food preparation.  Yes, we are freezing them and will soon be giving them away (take note all local readers of this blog), but we are also trying to eat lots of them.

In the last two weeks, we have made two kinds of salsa, fried green tomatoes, cherry tomato pasta sauce, tomato/bean/corn salad, niçoise-ish salad, curried garbanzos with tomato, and an unusual sungold tomato pizza sauce. I thought I'd share recipes for a few in case you have tomato overload as well.

Right now, the farmer's market is also stocked with lots of tasty things, and one of my favorite dishes in this nasty heat has been the niçoise-ish salad.



Niçoise-ish Salad
Place several new potatoes (I used Yukon Gold) along with 4 eggs in a pot of cold water and place on a high burner. When the water starts boiling, set your timer to fifteen minutes, at the end of which time remove potatoes and eggs to a colander and cool with cold water, then place in fridge. If you have a steamer, put several handfuls of destemmed green beans in it and place over your boiling water for 5-10 minutes until they are slightly tender but still a bit crunchy. If you don't have a steamer, blanch them in the boiling water for 3 minutes. Rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking and then cool in fridge. If your hands are tough, you can peel the eggs before you cool them in the fridge; this is really best otherwise they don't peel so great. When everything is cool, slice the potatoes and eggs and some ripe tomato, and lay them out on a plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with some kind of fairly acid dressing. I made one with veganaise, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and herbes de provence.

The other thing we enjoyed was grilled pizza, with fake mozarella, roasted red peppers, and a funky sauce I invented.



Sungold Pineapple Sauce
Mince a quarter of a yellow onion, preferably a sweet one. Cook it slowly in olive oil until it begins to carmelize. When it is golden, pour in 1/4 c pineapple juice and about a pint of halved sungold cherry tomatoes. Stir, turn down heat, and continue cooking for about an hour-and-a-half. You are going for a really serious reduction here. It should end up close to a conserve but a bit softer. After an hour, taste and correct with salt and/or pineapple juice. When it's almost done throw in about 1 tablespoon of chopped pineapple sage leaves.

posted by: NoChaser at August 10, 2006 11:06 | link | comments (3) |