During the last Megafest I made Corn Meal Griddle Cakes. Traditionally, my familiy tops Corn Cakes with honey. However, Nemo mentioned that he thought this would go well with some savory toppings also. I forgot about this conversation until a couple of days ago when I was wandering around my recipe wiki looking for breakfast ideas for today. I stumbled across the recipe for Balkins Breakfast which the Logans had introduced me to.

Last week, I had made corn cakes for myself and froze the extras. As I was looking at the Balkins Breakfast recipe, it ocurred to me that I could use the corn cakes in place of the cornbread in this recipe. However, one of the key ingredients in this recipe is egg. I’m not a big fan of eggs unless they’re hidden in a bread and/or dessert. I started thinking about what I could replace the egg with and the obvious answer was black beans. Thinking a little longer, I decided that since this was a savory recipe, I might as well add some vegetables too it. Suddenly, the recipe was looking less like Balkins Breakfast and more like my Cuban Black Bean recipe.

Today I tried out my experiment and created a new recipe: Corn Meal Griddle Cakes with Cuban Black Beans. Jaeger refused to try it (he had already eaten breakfast anyway in preparation for another death march). However, I thought it tasted pretty good. I think I’ll probably try it out at the next Fest and see what everyone thinks.

Last night, I also got a craving for homemade applesauce. I looked at a couple of applesauce recipes but no one recipe seemed quite right. So, I combined a couple of recipes together to come up with Chunky Applesauce with Raisins.

Altogether, I felt it was a pretty good breakfast. My breakfast ended up being 495 calories (the official Corn Meal Griddle Cake with Cuban Black Bean recipe has fewer beans than I put on my serving). 11% of the calories came from protein, 71% from carbs and 18% from fat.

Today was the fourth Thursday I received produce from Monroe Organic Farms. This week we got:

• 1 head of Lettuce
• 1 lb 6 oz Green Beans
• 1 lb 5 oz head of Cabbage
• 1 lb Zucchini (just the right amount )
• 1 lb 4 oz Yellow Squash
• 1 lb 10 oz Cucumbers
• 1 lb 14 oz Onions
• 9 oz Carrots (with tops)
• 4 oz Basil
• 2lbs 15 oz Red Potatoes

On the days I work, I usually eat oatmeal with some variety of fruit and nuts. This is a very filling breakfast with just about the right amount of calories to get me through to lunch. However, on my days off, I like making a more varied breakfast. Some of my favorite breakfast foods include sweet bread products (sweet rolls, waffles, muffins, etc). Unfortunately, these tend to be fairly high calorie foods that don’t fill me up till lunch.

Today, I actually managed to make an interesting filling breakfast for around 500 calories. I tried a new recipe I had found in Cook’s Illustrated called Potato Roesti, made Scrambled Tofu and ate 1/4 of a cantaloupe. It was tasty, filling and not too calorie intense (though I’m going to have to watch my fat intake for the rest of the day ).

Today was the third Thursday I received produce from Monroe Organic Farms. This week we got:

• 1 head of Lettuce
• 4 lbs 7 oz of Zucchini (of course I had to make Zucchini Bread)
• 1 lb 14 oz Beets
• 12 oz Beet Greens
• 1 lb 5 oz Red Onions
• 2.5 oz Pickling Cucumber (yes, it was small )
• 3 lbs 7 oz Yukon Potatoes (I used some of these to make an excellent Potato Roesti)
• 1 lb Green Beans
• 3 oz Broccoli

Today was the second Thursday I received produce from Monroe Organic Farms. This week we got:

• 2 lbs 3 oz red potatoes
• 1 lb 12 oz zucchini
• 8 oz yellow squash
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 lb 13 oz beets (with greens)
• 13 oz green peas
• 1 lb 11 oz onions

Jaeger’s mother is here so she’s going to teach me how to make potato salad her way with the red potatoes. I have a rough recipe here but it’s one of the few recipes where she doesn’t have precise measurements.

Today was the first day I received produce from the CSA farm I joined a couple of months back. They started distributing last week but Jaeger and I were in DC for the ALA conference (American Library Association). With the produce came a newsletter that contained general information and included tips on how to prepare various vegetables. Last week they distributed kohlrabi which apparently many people didn’t know what to do with. I was hoping for some this week since they are too expensive in the grocery store and I was curious to try them. However, we didn’t get any this time.

The newsletter stated that the first couple of weeks will be a little sparse as they wait for the crops to mature. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety we got this week:

• a little over a 1/2 lb of snow peas (maybe more but I’ve been snacking on them all night )
• 6 small turnips
• 1 head of red leafed lettuce
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 broccoli crown
• 4 onions (with greens still attached)
• 2 lbs of small red potatoes

I didn’t realize that turnips grew in the early summer. I always associated them with fall and soup. So, I’ll get a chance to try preparing them a different way (it’s not soup weather right now). I’m tentatively planning to use them in a Maple-Glazed Turnips recipe I have from The Roasted Vegetable. I understand the greens are technically edible but I suspect I’ll give them up as a lost cause. I like chard, spinach and beet greens but I’m a little dubious about other greens.

We’ll be receiving produce everything Thursday from now until the end of the produce season. It’s going to be a little bit like Christmas every week

Early this spring I decided to join an organic csa. They pick most of the produce and pack it into boxes which are shipped off to various distribution centers scattered around Colorado for pickup by members. However, there are two crops that require the members to pick if they want any: asparagus and strawberries. I decided not to pick asparagus because I didn’t think I’d want enough to make it worth a drive to the farm. However, I love strawberries so I made an appointment to pick.

It’s been years (decades?) since I last picked strawberries and I couldn’t really remember what was involved. When I called the farm, I was told to bring “flat” boxes (strawberries get squished if piled too high on top of each other). I wandered down in our basement and discovered that the top of paper ream boxes seemed about the perfect size.

Today turned out to be very cloudy and windy. Fortunately, Colorado has a tendency to rain so I had stuck in a rain coat but it was still colder than I expected. Usually I take a walk during lunch but decided to abort the exercise today due to the wind. Unfortunately, the wind hadn’t stopped by the time I was ready to leave for the farm. As I pulled up, another car pulled up and two women from Denver emerged. They had also picked the 6:00 time slot to pick.

We were each given a row to pick and told we could pick as much as we wanted. It was nice having two other people in the vicinity to talk to as we picked. I discovered that I’m quite pampered. My back doesn’t like picking strawberries for extended periods of time. I was also very surprised by the state of the strawberry rows. Granted the last time I picked was years ago but I rememberd neat rows of strawberries with lots of fruit to pick. Probably due to the organic nature of this farm, the strawberry plants were in neat rows but they also had a fare number of weeds interspersed with the strawberry plants.

By the time I filled two boxes, the other two people decided they had enough of the wind and quit. I figured this was a good time for me to quit too. I didn’t end up picking as much as I would have preferred but I did get more than I was afraid I might. When I arrived back home, I weighed the strawberries and discovered I had picked around 14 lbs.

Growing up, mom spent a lot of the summer canning and freezing. Mom allowed us to watch movies if we helped her which was a treat for us. So, I spent many hours during the summer watching The Sound of Music, The King and I, and Fiddler on the Roof. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to listen to Fiddler on the Roof as I washed, stemmed and froze the extra strawberries.

The experience was kind of fun. However, I’m very glad that I don’t have to do this for a living!

As usual the Fest was great fun. Unlike previous Fests, I did my normal exercises every day. In addition, on Saturday I walked 7 miles and Sunday I walked around 8 miles. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop me from gaining 3 pounds. I always overeat when with groups. I’m not sure why but I can’t stop eating if people are around. Fortunately, Jaeger is an exception to this rule. Otherwise I’d be in big trouble

I was halfway expecting that I’d gain weight over the vacation so I wasn’t as distressed as I might otherwise have been. I’m disappointed but now that I’m back to my regular schedule I should be able to lose it again. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to control my eating in group situations. I’ll have plenty of opportunity to try. In fact, for the next couple of months I’ll have monthly tests on my eating skills in public:

• June – Washington DC trip for the ALA Conference
• July – visit my family
• August – visit Jaeger’s family
• September – potentially another Fest

Like I said, lots of practice. I’m sure at some point I’ll figure out a good abstaining solution.

Friday night I made my Boulder Veggie Bowl and Jaeger made beautiful sushi.

I went ahead and prepared the rice for him. As numerous books pointed out, the rice is one of the most important parts of sushi (which makes sense since apparently sushi means “vinegared rice”). Preparing the rice is a fairly involved process.

• Use a short grain Asian rice (don’t use the type of rice for risotto)
• Start by rinsing the rice well until the water is clear instead of cloudy
• Combine rice and water. I was surprised to learn that the proper ratio of rater to rice is 1:1 (I make normal brown rice with a water to rice ratio of 2:1).
• Let the rice soak in the water for 30 minutes
• Combine 6 tbs rice vinegar with 2 tbs sugar and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well until sugar and salt have disolved. Set aside (this is for about 3 cups of dry rice).
• Cover pan with lid, turn on the heat and bring the rice to boil
• Reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes
• Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes without removing the lid.
• Pour onto cookie sheet and spread out.
• While rice is still warm, pour vinegar on top and gently mix into rice (one book likened this to the same method used for folding in egg whites)
• Technically, while you stir in the vinegar you’re suppose to fan the rice at the same time to cool. However, I’m not coordinated enough to do this
• Give the rice ample time to cool. Once cool, it’s ready to be used for sushi. Note: multiple cookbooks state that you should never refrigerate sushi rice. However, if you have too much, you can freeze it.

For the sushi stuffing, Jaeger cut into shoestring pieces the following ingredients:

• dakion radish
• avocado
• cucumber
• carrots

For actual assembly and more information, see this website. Technically it should be served with wasabi and soy sauce mixed together on the side. Unfortunately, I neglected to acquire soy sauce so we did without.

The sushi turned out very well. I think Jaeger took pictures which he’ll probably post on her website at some point.

I just finished my morning exercises. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do a combination of pilates, toning, and abs (I mix and match so the combination is not more than 45 minutes). On Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I do a step aerobic workout.

I really like the toning video I use. You choose how long you want to work out and then it randomly picks enough one minutes exercises to fill that time. However, in one way the instructor really annoys me. Almost all fitness instructors like doing exercises in multiples of four. Often one will do 8, 12 or 16 reps depending on the exercise. However, Lessig’s toning video doesn’t. Sometimes we’ll do 10 reps but sometimes it’s 11 or 22 or 19. This always throws me off balance. If I know at the beginning of the exercise how many reps I need to do, I can usually stick it out. However, without knowing sometimes I give up. Oh well, other than that it’s an excellent video.