Category: Tales from the Homestead

A weekend of firsts: Ricotta and Races

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Sometimes life is so, so good. And when it is, it’s important to stop and take notice; to slow down and roll around in all that rich and delicious joy: joy, joy, joy. Love, love. I am a lucky person and the universe has been good to me in recent years — also a combination of me working hard to reach certain goals that have manifested internally and externally. But I recognize that I am incredibly fortunate, with a roof over my head and room for creativity in my life; the ability and means to make delicious meals some days and meet friends for donuts other days; the strength and health of my body. I’m marking that this is a beautiful and blessed time in my life, and I feel thankful. For my family’s support, for new love, for the continued endurance and care of friends. Funny, how this richness aligns with a very week designed to give thanks. My proverbial cup runneth over. I can’t say it enough.

And for those who are still with me and haven’t been deterred by the honey dripping off this page, last weekend brought some wonderful things including my first bout of making ricotta! I happen to know this fellow who is adept at the art of cheese, and he guided us to the completion of an incredibly simple pasta dish with homemade ricotta to boot.

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The process couldn’t be more simple. It goes like: slowly heat milk in a pot to just below a simmer, add an acidic element (we used vinegar) to get the milk to curdle, and when soft clumps have formed, scoop out the ricotta with a slotted spoon and transfer to a cheesecloth. Drain. Wrap the ricotta up in the cheesecloth in a small bundle and twist the cloth to squeeze cheese gently. Serve.

The pasta recipe was a happy form of carb-loading before running my first 10K race in Berkeley. I’ve run off and on at different times in my life, with long hiatus years in-between, but back in June I was inspired by a friend’s lead and decided to start running three times a week to train for a 5K, and then I set my goal higher — to run a 10K in November. Low and behold, I’m a little shocked and staggered that I’ve actually met my goal. It has been a process, too, watching my body change: becoming a little leaner and a lot stronger, and the side effect of all this running? Feeling like I certainly wield the potential within myself to do anything I set my mind to. That is powerful news, all. It’s not timid. It’s a whole new chapter for me, and I like it.

I took part in the inaugural Berkeley Half, which included a half marathon, a 10-mile race, and the 10K. I absolutely had race-day jitters, and have a sweet memory of Nick pinning my race bib to my shirt while my teeth chattered, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and the route included streets and Marina paths that were part of my training runs; I felt like I was breaking ground on my own turf. A sampling of photos is below — for the full experience click here. (And huge thanks to Nick for navigating the route so seamlessly and taking all these shots!)

Wishing all a lovely time with family this week. I made a batch of dough tonight and have some baking on deck (slab apple pie!), and will be getting some deliciously sordid dessert photos on this screen soon.

Beets and the Bulb

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Yesterday I took a familiar walk out at the Bulb trail in Albany. In the spring, the trail is a bounty of blooms and color, and in the fall, the reeds are dry and gold, a little sunburned, and the crisp breeze off the water makes for perfect walking weather. One part of the trail winds right out to the bay and a narrow stretch of rocks swamped on either side by water. It’s as close as you can get to the bay without falling in. My favorite part of the walk is witnessing how the sculptures and art installations change over time. For a bit of history, the Bulb trail is a former landfill in Albany. This dumping ground for construction materials, landscaping debris, and garbage, was restored to a park and many art installations were made from the scrap metal and junk discarded there.

There are huge metal and wood figures, graffiti murals, mosaics of glass and tile on rocks, paintings on trees, totem poles and sculptures—I’m always trying to decide whether the Bulb is the creepiest or the coolest. It might be both.

My last two farm boxes included beets: golden and baby red. Last night I roasted them all in the oven and served over rice with greens. Despite the stained fingers that result from red beets, I love peeling them after roasting. They absolutely glisten, the deepest purple.

Did you know you can cook the beet greens too? The leafy green stalk of the beet is very similar to chard varieties. So I sautéed the beet greens with onion and tossed the beets with olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, chopped walnuts, and salt and pepper. My mom often serves beets with avocado, walnuts, goat cheese, and a citrus dressing—also wonderful.

Scenes from the most perfect day

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Days off are precious. Four-day weekends are especially precious, and I used a gorgeous Friday off to check out some new things about town. After nearly eight years in Oakland I finally made it to the farmers’ market in Old Oakland, from 8am-2pm on Fridays—a time when I’m usually working. It’s on the smaller side, spanning part of Ninth Street and Washington, but bustling with the downtown work crowd. I picked up beautiful baskets of strawberries, beets, and the sweetest bouquet of pink flowers.

I also finally made it to the printer for an estimate on the cost of printing postcards for a project I’ve been working on, and was delighted at the quality of the color copies on heavy cardstock.

Downtown mural by day/night

And no perfect day is complete without a fresh strawberry margarita…

To create:

Muddle fresh strawberries at the bottom of a glass
In a cocktail shaker, add the juice of 1/2 to 1 lime, cointreau, 1-2 shots of tequila, and several ice cubes
Shake, pour over strawberries, stir and sip

Prosciutto, artichoke heart, & arugula pizza, spinach salad with pomegranate and goat cheese, and cinnamon rolls — a potluck holiday dinner

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Alyson, Erin, and I forged a friendship during our years at Mills College when we were all in the Creative Writing program. My earliest memory of Alyson is Spring 2005—she was late to the first meeting of an evening writing workshop and crawled through the window because they’d already locked the front doors to the building. My first memory of Erin is from a writing workshop Fall 2004. She’s the kind of beautiful that makes men so dumbstruck that they lose their words, and when she read one her poems out loud in class I went the same kind of stupid, and looked at her thinking, holy shit, beauty and talent.

Sho’nuff, it’s true what they say—that a Masters program is designed to kill ya—but we got through it all with a lot wine and potluck dinners spent critiquing our poems and prose, talking about men, ill-fitting pants, what-have-you.

This is us then:

One of my most beloved photos on the planet. In this photo we’ve just finished our performances at a slam poetry event. We are thrilled.

This is us now:

Between then and now two babies have been born, jobs have been secured and quitted, boyfriends have been kicked to the curb, we’ve moved to new homes and cities, written novels (nearly finished), started urban farms and gardens, opened etsy shops, urged classrooms of children to be kind and creative, to realize their full potential, and through it all we’ve lent each other a hand, an ear, a kick in the pants. I wear my heart on my sleeve with these ladies and we’ve had a chain of emails ongoing for about seven years now, so they know it all…

In our tradition of potluck meals I hosted a potluck holiday dinner. I was planning to cook a grilled vegetables lasagna, but ended up making pizza instead. The artichoke heart and prosciutto pizza calls for shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and after baking, it’s topped with arugula drizzled with lemon. I didn’t get a picture of the finished pizza with all the toppings and because Alyson is a vegetarian it ended up being a pizza buffet, which was fun. I served the prosciutto on the side, along with butternut squash and bell peppers for adding as desired.

Alyson brought a yummy spinach salad with persimmon, pomegranate seeds, goat cheese, and an oil/vinegar dressing. Erin made cinnamon rolls that were the perfect combination of doughy and crisp. We ate them warm, just out of the oven, with a powdered sugar icing drizzled on top.

Happy holidays, all! I hope you get to share some spectacular meals with loved ones this month.