don't judge a fruit by its cover.

so, a few days ago, i saw ugli fruit in the produce section at bloomingfoods and just couldn't help myself. they're supposed to be ugly, but, come on! this one was kind of cute! sure, it was flat on one side, as if it had been dropped, but the color was a brilliant, jamaican green. most of the ones i've seen on the internets, on the other hand, are a sickly kind of yellow. jamaicans call it "hoo-glee," americans call it "ugly," and i like to call it "ooogly." it's a citrus hybrid, and really, not as bad as my initial googling left me to believe. most called it "like a grapefruit, but not as good."

make your life a little easier by removing the membrane before digging in. it is JUICY, and messy, and the membrane is too tough to eat. i don't mind the membrane of, say, an orange, (mmm, fiber!) but nothing doing in this case.

so, hey, if you come across one in the winter, give it a try. no, it didn't make me want to sing and do a happy interpretive ugli dance, but it's not bad at all. just beware the juice. beware.

you might have noticed that i have some advertisements on the top of the page now from the nice people over at foodbuzz. they're nice enough to sponsor the almost sustainable kitchen. this was a long time coming because i was wary about keeping control over the ads - this blog doesn't promote most of the food being advertised out there - but i think we worked it out, and i'm glad they want to support our little niche here. if you see an ad that bugs you, email or comment to let me know.

happy holidays out there! keep it safe, and eat well!

comment away

hey, did you know that blogger made it easier for those of you without blogger accounts to leave comments? try it, i dare you! feel free to really let loose. or, why not read this new nyt article by michael pollan and make a comment on that?

powering through!

whew! as of friday, i had two christmas presents purchased. as of today, i have all but one. internet shopping - with so many choices, sometimes you've got to just power through. the one present i don't have is probably the most important of all: my 4-year-old niece. alas, this is a joint venture entered into with my oldest brother, the one inevitably slips out the door on christmas eve to wrap up his shopping. not this year, bro! just wrapped up my giving by sending $10 to the UN World Food Programme via Menu for Hope. what's menu for hope? well, they get a bunch of food bloggers together to put up delectable prizes to raffle off. each donation equals an entry. thanks, smitten kitchen, for the donation and the heads up. yes, i will put my name in the hat for some cookies. you bet i will. if you like raffles and food, and dislike hunger, take a look.

jiminy christmas!

ack, help, what happened? it's been a week since i blogged? actually, i do know what happened. i've been very engaged in this other, very time-consuming hobby. "what time consuming hobby, kelley? do tell! we're just on pins and needles out here." why, thanks for asking. i just joined the bleeding heartland rollergirls. "um, what? roller derby?" sure! it's all the rage. "are you still going to blog and stuff?" of course! having this blog, working an interesting and fulfilling job, and doing roller derby makes me feel like a very interesting and well-rounded human. anyways, let's catch up. check out mary's comment on the super-easy bread recipe from the new york times. she subbed whole wheat flour with no problems. i'm a little floored that this could possibly be so simple. thanks, mary! christine set me straight on FARM bloomington (not to be confused with one of our portland favorites, the farm). the long and short of it: there's a coffee counter and gifty market open now, and the kitchen opens soon. i'm sure there's something else i forgot, but off to bed.

local reminder: FARM Bloomington is opening soon

the website says it's opening tomorrow, but you know how restaurant openings can be. still, i have some library books to return tomorrow morning, so maybe i'll buzz by and see if the alley window is open for business. it's not clear exactly which services of the operation will be up and running tomorrow. by the looks of the website, this is an ambitious (and, to be honest, confusing) project. if anyone has a report, let me know. this morning we had a beautifully simple and delicious breakfast: french toast with sauteed granny smith apples. the apples weren't local - we're way past the local supply this year, with the bad april freeze killing so many early blossoms. this meal a simple process: soak your french toast well, cook it quickly, then set in a 350 oven for 8 minutes or so. while your toast is baking, saute thinly-sliced and peeled apples with a little butter and a sprinkle of sugar until soft and floppy. apples and toast should be done about the same time. serve apples over french toast with a drizzle of warm maple syrup. thick-cut bread works really well, and if you have a day-old loaf of challah at your disposal, by all means. use it. mmmmmm. you could always saute the apples (one per serving) the night before, place them in a pan, layer bread on top, pour custard over the top, and keep covered overnight in the fridge for baked french toast in the morning. mmmmm again.

more information on the musgrave orchard market

hi friends, yes, i'm guilty of mild neglect toward the blog of late. i've taken up a kind of time-consuming hobby which you'll hear about soon, but i've been cooking and would love to tell you all about it. until then, here's an e-mail from christine at slow food about the musgrave orchard december market. i probably won't make it this week (darn you hobbies!), but here's the skinny: ---------------- Good Morning Folks, Don’t know if you are aware of this, but there is a December Winter Farmers Market on Saturdays from 10:30-2:30 at Musgrave Orchard and Cider Mill. www.musgraveorchard.com I don’t have a list of vendors (it’s on the small side) but it includes Teresa Birtles (Heartland Family Farm), Randy Stout (Melody Acres), Steve Spencer (aka the Mushroom Man – Homestead Growers) and Andy and Amy Hamilton (Musgrave) so that’s vegetables, greens, eggs, mushrooms, and more! Good way to get your local fix until the Winter Market opens at Harmony in January! Cheers, C.

stuffed full of stuffing

man, blogging about food after thanksgiving seems like overkill, doesn't it? i have you all had a weekend as relaxing as mine. may your brussels sprouts be firm, and your hearts be light.

john, i'm looking forward to coming over for the tomato soup my niece promised me.

"i'm concerned."

planning the making of your thanksgiving dinner is one thing. executing that plan is another. tonight, i was led astray by:

1. drinks with work people,

2. napping after said drinks,

3. bad (incomplete) instructions for roasting chestnuts.

good thing i didn't put a time on dinner tomorrrow, right? chestnuts can be properly roasted tomorrow. dough is rising, and the bread can be made tomorrow.

yikes. i'm going to be busy.

if worse comes to worse, at least i remembered to pick up dessert.

i need bread.

you thought that no-knead bread was easy. (i didn't, because i don't have the proper baking vessel.) well, look here at this recipe in today's nyt. i'm making a loaf or two tonight and will report back. no, really, i promise! food blogging will occur! just you watch.

solar sun chips?

frito-lay making sustainable chips?

From coast to coast, more companies are thinking about how much fossil fuel they use and ways to conserve energy. Venture capital money is also pouring into fledgling green technology. Only a few years ago, Andy Walker, a government engineer, pleaded with companies to tackle the problems but got blank stares. “Now, my phone is ringing off the hook,” said Mr. Walker, who works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the Department of Energy in Colorado.

great! call me when the bags are biodegradable!

beans and rice - extra nice.

the grocery budget is spent for the week. good thing we LIKE beans and rice. (sigh.) where does it all go? oh, yeah. cheese. newsflash: bloomingfoods west has butter from graham farms now from just down the road in elnora. i'll have to try that soon. it's a little amazing and disturbing how quickly we go through butter in this house. i suppose, though, if you're vegetarian, you get a little more saturated fat allowance. yes? i'll pretend you said yes. look in the bottom of the cheese cooler.

a thousand times no.

tonight i made a trip down to the old supermarket to cash in some coins and see what was on sale in the "natural foods" section. not much tempted me. it's strange to walk around a conventional grocery store and be hard-pressed to find anything that you'd feel strongly about purchasing and eating. i got an endangered species chocolate bar, (and in case you're wondering, yes, i WOULD like some of those chocolate-covered pretzels for christmas) some goldfish crackers (a favorite of SOMEONE in the house), and a jug of vinegar. and, i'm sorry to say, i came across this. um, is this new? is it a midwest thing? because i swear with my hand to heaven - i have never seen such a thing. "ropes?" i can't imagine.

keeping it simple

this weekend, it's all about comfort food, since my poor sweetie has been directed to stay home with a mild case of pneumonia. tomato soup and toast. appple crisp. lots of water. for another 48 hours or so, that guy gets whatever he wants, sustainable or not. i'm taking good care of him, leslie! the farmer's market is really dwindling - probably half the vendors were there this morning compared to two weeks ago. next week is the last week for the potato guy, and i imagine there will be plenty others who don't make it to the end of the month. crunchy chicken is doing another local eating challenge for thanksgiving, and i wonder how much of our meal i'll be able to get. i'm not particularly attached to any aspect of the thanksgiving meal, and brian only expects stuffing. that's lucky. all i have put away is a few pounds of potatoes, a couple cups of corn, two cubes of pesto, garlic to last to the new year (got some more today), chestnuts, apples, and maybe a cup of raspberries left. hmm. let's hope the weather stays nice enough that we don't lose too many more vendors at next week's market. now, i think i need to pat my husband on the head and ask if he needs water.

so long, and thanks for all the rutabagas.

lolo over at veganyumyum has the most endearing post about rutabagas up today. so endearing, in fact, that i resolved to pick up a rutabaga the next time i came across one. can you imagine? maybe i'll mash them with potatoes, like i currently do with turnips. i don't know about this soup recipe, though, since it calls for sweet potatoes. deep, dark vegetarian confession: i don't care for a lot of winter vegetables. sweet potatoes don't thrill me at all. most winter squash? i eat around it. cooked carrots, even? yecch. tonight, we had acorn squash as a bit of a departure, and after my resiquite "i'll try it" bites, i ate around it. maybe i'd like it deep fried. has anyone deep fried winter squash? butternut nuggets?

bloomingtonians: local apple alert!

i've just been told that the westside bloomingfoods, which has been devoid of local apples of late, will be receiving two bushels of winesaps before or around noon. and that's it for local apples for the season, at least at the westside store. if you get there before 2 or so, leave some for me! update: at 1:30, no apples. bummer. but they did get local eggs in, which i was very glad to see after missing the market on saturday (sad face). update: at 2:00 on wednesday, they were out! i bought a few pounds, ate one, and didn't go nuts for it. so we'll keep it at a few pounds for now. we still have that half-peck of black twig to get us to december.

peak oil: bummer.

did anyone else attend a step it up! action this saturday? i got to the bloomington event a little later in the day because of a morning commitment, and it was fairly sparsely attended at that point. i bet more people were around when rep. hill was supposed to show up a couple hours prior. let's hope, anyway. i sat in on a couple of discussions and was grilled about how portland pays for its highly-touted public transportation systems. (is my brother bill out there? you would have been a hit at this thing.) dave rollo, from the bloomington city council, talked about peak oil and bummed us all out. here's the long and short of it: we're probably going to run out of oil. when? no one knows exactly, because lots of oil-rich countries would prefer to not tell us how much they have. (wonder why?) there are no nice liquid alternatives. current political and economic interests are not particularly interested in raising the issue. right now i can hear this echo in my head of sunday morning talking heads saying, we're completely dependent on foreign oil, and it actually means something. we're in trouble, friends. when gas runs out, the supermarkets go empty. because we truck most of our food more than 1000 miles. sound like another good reason to support local food systems? or to store food over the winter? i don't mean to sound alarmist, by any means. sorry. but while that "liberal media" tells you that global warming and peak oil are contested theories, most credible experts would advise you otherwise. bummer. conventional agriculture uses incredible amounts of petroleum for oil to run mechanized operations. it's also used for fertilizer. mmm, who wants petrochemicals for dinner? ( okay, we can all agree that we don't want to think TOO much about eating what's used for organic fertilizer, but still.) how can we step off this ca-razy merry-go-round before we're forced off by the chaos of food scarcity? community supported agriculture? more farmer's markets? move to amish country? permaculture? reduce our consumption of petroleum by leaps and bounds? a chicken in every backyard, and an aerogarden in every kitchen?

one million pounds of beef recalled.

yikes. i wonder how many cows make up a million pounds of beef? now it's all going to be thrown away. sad.

too much candy, not enough plants

sooooo, no trick-or-treaters came to our house on halloween. none, at least, before 7:30, when i left. that was not only disapointing, but left me with this bowl full of candy. all alone with the candy, actually, because brian went out of town early wednesday. yikes. needless to say - i'll need to do a little extra exercise this weekend. no cooking of consequence has happened since the husband's been out of town. i keep kind of strange hours when he's gone. for instance, tonight, i (ahem, ate candy when i got home from work) and had a fried egg and beans around 9. is there much better, though, then a pasture-raised, local, fresh, organic fried egg? i've been buying from rhodes family farm lately, and they've been great, though there are some other great "happy chicken" egg sellers at the market. ooh, newsflash for bloomingtonians: there will be a december market at musgrave orchard. details forthcoming. that means we'll only have the first 3 or so weeks of january market-less.

happy halloween!

i was so gratified to see michael pollan's quote in the new york times today. despite everything, i feel it's my duty as an american with a front porch to hand out individually-wrapped candy to all comers. “I well remember my disgust whenever someone offered me a homemade brownie or, worst of all, an apple. Halloween is the high holy day of high fructose corn syrup. And if we can keep it to one or two such days, why not?” Michael Pollan, journalist and author, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” hooray for candy!

tell businesses you want green options

i have this tendency to get indignant about certain aspects of services and products i receive or pay for and to say, "i'm going to write a letter!" once in a while, if it's worth it, i do. if you're like me and you don't like confrontation, the concerned letter is a great way to express your desire for positive change. the below is a letter i'm about to send to a local pizza restaurant. names redacted to give the business time to respond. i'll post the response with the real, google-able name. --- October 26, 2007 [my personal information] [owner and address] Dear Owner, I'm a great fan of [redacted]. For a time, my husband and I had a standing weekly date there with friends, and we looked forward to sharing our typical [special]. However, as time goes on, I've become more and more concerned about the environmental impact of your business. The waste created by the current practice is unreasonable and, for me, untenable as a customer. There are several ways that you can reduce your unrecyclable waste and save money at the same time: Offer wrapped straws to customers. Save time, money and plastic by asking servers to refrain from placing unwrapped straws in drinks. It's a small thing that, multiplied hundreds of times daily, can add up quickly. Portion salad dressings individually, directly onto salads or into reusable containers. When ceramic or metal sauce cups are affordable and readily available, there's no reason to use disposables for dine-in orders. Replace all Styrofoam products. When I ordered [redacted] delivery for the first time, I was shocked to see that an order of bread sticks came in Styrofoam when a simple paper bag or a cardboard box would have sufficed. I've sometimes had uncomfortable dealings with servers who make it clear that Styrofoam is the preferred material for take-out boxes. Pre-cut sheets of recyclable aluminum foil are cost-effective for pizza slices and sandwiches. Until [redacted] makes an effort to use more sustainable packaging and reduce waste, I'll choose to take my business elsewhere. Pizza Express takes sustainability seriously, and I choose to support that. Choosing to take measures to become more sustainable and reduce unnecessary waste and only help you and your business in the long run in our progressive community. I hope to hear positive news back from you so that I can bring out-of-town guests again and suggest [redacted] as a meeting place with friends. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, [Me] --- i'll let you know how this works. i've only done this with one other local business, and they replaced their Syrofoam products for soup, so i kind of don't want to jinx the magic. i will tell you who they are, however. Bloomington Bagel Company! they're great! go get some shmear!