We went raspberry picking on Saturday morning ("we" being E and E's mom and I), came home with 4 quarts. I used 2 quarts of them, together with 5 ripe mangoes from Arbor Farms, along with the juice and zest of two lemons, to make jam. I used Pomona pectin instead of regular pectin, because it needs dramatically less sugar - called for 3/4 cup of sugar, whereas the regular pectin recipe called for 6 cups of sugar, with the same quantity of berries. Mind-boggling. Anyways, I think it's quite tasty, but perhaps regular jam fans won't like it as much since its not super-sweet.

Inspired by the fact that I picked, blanched and froze 10 more quart-size ziplocs of kale and collards on Saturday too, I did some chest-freezer research (with great info from otterkin, thanks!. My little freezer under my fridge is frustratingly full - you have to wrestle with it to open it because things get stuck etc. We stopped by Sears to look at some freezers and get an idea of sizing and pricing. There are tradeoffs, as otterkin has posted about before. And it would take a while to save back the cost of both the initial investment and the annual electric cost of running one of these. But by the end of the day on Saturday, I had a 5 cubic foot chest freezer in my basement, at an up-front cost of $0! Thanks to a neighbor who had one they were not using. So I can try this one out for a while, see what my usage pattern of it is, and then eventually buy one if I find its worth it (and she wants this one back). Nice.

Tonite, the bacon special dinner at the Roadhouse, am looking forward to it! Along with showcasing the Bacon book (woohoo!) it's a fundraiser for the Southern Foodways Alliance - an awesome nonprofit that seeks to preserve traditional southern foodways. They have documentaries and interviews up on their web site www.southernfoodways.com.

I made 28 quarts of sour dill pickles this morning! Solo, but had some good music playing. Took 5 hours start to finish. The common house kitchen equipment is really handy for it - the large stove, large sink, and dish sanitizer.

This past weekend we went back to Nordhouse, with E's department from work, was lovely. The forecast was iffy but the weather was fine - some clouds on Sat morning, but not rain. And almost no bugs (other than a nice-sized sand spider, see photo) Some pics at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilliandowney/sets/72157621776359022/show/

So, I've got kale. Lots of kale. And beet greets, and turnip greens, and collards. I've been eating them, and freezing some too. Would love some new ideas though, of recipes that use good quantities of these, if anyone has any suggestions!

This past Sunday E and I went to Cedar Point! With three other folks. E had never been, and it had been more than a decade since I'd been there. So, I was not sure if I'd still love roller coasters or not, but I do! The lines were short to nonexistent so we just went on the big rides over and over - was really a blast. The Millenium was the best of the big coasters - smooth and fast (93 mph?) the first huge drop is actually more than vertical - its 95 degrees! And the Tower drop and the Extreme Dragster were great. The extreme dragster was hard to comprehend - they use magnets to blast the the car from zero to 125 mph instantly - enough to get you 400 feet up in the air, and then its 400 feet straight down. The whole ride takes 14 seconds.

And we brought a lovely picnic lunch - goat cheese, saucisson, olives, homemade hummus, strawberries.

I have a few shots up on flickr - the last pic shows the Extreme Dragster ride - there's a car up near the top on the right... :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilliandowney/sets/72157619915982672/

Smart Car parked on street
Tree decides to say hello
A bit too much force

Shiny bits of glass
Big big big flatbed tow truck
Itty bitty car

The Tunisian dinner at Zing Deli last night was really good. Very tasty and fun to learn about such a unique cuisine, and now I'm interested to learn more about the country as well. Apparently Tunisia decided to do something about their 50% poverty rate, and over the past couple decades have reduced it to 2%! Over 80% of the population is middle class. Health care and education make up a large percentage of their GNP. And a great climate for growing tomatoes, peppers, olives, lemons, capers - judging from the vast quantities of these, sundried/pressed and used in their cuisine. The hand grown and hand rolled cous cous is really amazing too. I think I'll have to visit some time! And I'd even get to practice my french there. :-) The couple who came here and cooked the dinner were very sweet people, and very excited to find Zingerman's - they feel they are "not alone any more" knowing that Zingerman's exists. They have some land and they grow their own organic lemons/olives/tomatoes/peppers/garlic/capers/wheat, and make all the traditional foods by hand including their own olive oil. Zingerman's now carries their jars of harisa, preserved lemon, and various sauces with these ingredients, and the sundried cous cous. Saw some friends of Tammylc there, and a lot of Zing people too - Ari has been raving about Tunisian food since he visited over the winter so lots of us got curious!

Sheesh, all that dang wildlife out there. The robins are eating the strawberries and the rolly polly bugs are eating the scarlet emperor beans as they sprout, and eating holes in the radishes. Sigh. I don't always feel like sharing! :-)

E and I decided very last minute, to stay in town rather than go up to Pigeon to camp. Instead, we spent Saturday in local woods, with day-packs with our backpacking hammocks, water, a picnic lunch and a few guidebooks, learning tree identification. It was fun and we definitely learned about some of the trees right around where we live. We found that being amateurs, we needed to stick with large trees - immature trees were too variable, esp the bark - we were stumped for a while by a small tree, but later I saw the same leaf pattern on a large tree with very different bark - so we could finally tell that it was a shagbark hickory. The immature tree had had smooth bark which had thrown us off.

Saturday night was a big grilling dinner to celebrate a wedding of some GOers - the couple provided drinks and grilled meats, we all brought side dishes (I picked a bunch of my turnips greens and chopped them fine and cooked them up in bacon fat, onions, garlic, vinegar, salt, and honey), another neighbor made two gorgeous cakes. Was fun.

Sunday eve was my book club, we talked about a very good book, called Strange as the Weather has Been - following a family living in West Virginia, in the mountains, for many many generations, but now mountaintop mining operations have started right above them and above everyone they know. Horrifying to understand that this is going on every day. But it was not a crushed-down-depressing book - the characters are strong and interesting, and it's written in a style that reminds me of Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. Very connected to the land, poetic writing.

A good, full weekend. Spent a few hours in at work on a project, but mostly at home. Had fun buying plants at the Saturday farmer's market - I had a lot of my own seedlings but needed plants for community areas. I weeded and planted the community herb garden and a couple of big ornamental pots. Then on Sunday I got to work on my own garden plots - planted my crazily-long tomato seedlings (Brandywine, Roma, and Grape), basil, italian parsley, cilantro, red peppers, red onion, beans, squash. Discovered several of last year's potatoes sprouting and didn't have the heart to tear them all out - left a few. Tried to weed my front yard some, but it is hard to be ruthless enough - almost all of the zillions of tiny plants coming up now are NOT weeds, they're reseeding flowers, and dill, but there are way too many of them!

Saturday night was a going away potluck dinner and party for neighbors at Sunward; Sunday night was an amazing dinner at another neighbor's house - scrumptious food and wine both. For which I made a recipe from my forthcoming Zingerman's Guide to Better Bacon book - dates stuffed with a slice of Balinesian Long Pepper (incredible stuff) and wrapped with a slice of Broadbent's dry-cured bacon, and then broiled. Was fabulous if I do say so myself - due to wonderful ingredients, not skill in cooking!

Sunday afternoon E got home from the national BALLE conference in Denver, inspired and full of ideas. (Business Alliance for Living Local Economies I think it stands for.)

Speaking of a local business, my Zingerman's web site is up and running now by the way!
http://www.zingermanspress.com/

For dinner last night, we made pasta with homemade pesto from last year's haul, and I made a big salad from my front yard, with a dozen different greens. Yay spring!

I'll be staffing a Zingerman's Press booth at the Ann Arbor Book Fair tomorrow (Saturday), 11am-5pm, come on by and say hi! And get a sample of Bacon Farm Bread. :-) It's on the Ingalls Mall near the Bell Tower (my spot is on the south end, near North U). There's a lot of activities in the League, too.

Today as every Friday until the end of July, 11am-7pm, is Zingerman's Mail Order's warehouse sale (available by on-site walk-in only), always fun stuff on sale and lots of samples to taste! Here's this week's list:

• Fresser Cocoa Coffeecake. Was $40, now $20
• Chocolate Orange Torte. Was $30, now $18
• Farmhouse Cheshire. 1/2 lb wedge was $18, now $8
• Colonna Special Blend Olive Oil. 250 ml bottle was $19, now $9
• Columbus Salami. Was $10 now $6
• Long Stem Artichokes. Was $35, now $15
• Parmigiano Reggiano. 1/2 lb wedge was $13, now $8
• Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans. Was $9, now $5
• Grains of Paradise. Was $15, now $6
• Spiced Pecan "Dust". 1 lb tub for $5
• Portuguese Fine Sea Salt. 1 lb tub for $5
• Pickled Raisins. Was $13, now $6
• Rick's Picks Wasabeans. Was $17, now $9
• "Love Magnet" chocolates. 3/4 lb tin was $35 now $10
• Askinosie White chocolate bar. Was $14, now $8
• Vosges Barcelona Bunny. Was $16, now $8
• Koeze Peanut Clusters. Was $19, now $8
• Irish Back Bacon. Was $10, now $6
• Cider Vinegar. Was $19, now $12
• Polenta (Coarse). Was $16, now $8
• Camembert. Was $19, now $10
• Zingerman's Travel Oil. Was $16, now $8

Happy earth day all!

It's also my nephew's 10th birthday. He is a real sweetheart, middle child, empathetic and the most interested in nature of his siblings, so I think the day suits him. :-)

Happy rain, seeds are sprouting...

I spent seven hours working outside on Saturday, was awesome. First I helped shovel 10 cubic yards of woodchips with a half-dozen of my neighbors - we got all the garden paths covered in only about 90 minutes. It's a lot of fun to do work like that together. Some of the community kids were very into it too, they had mini wheelbarrows and shovels. Cute. Then E and I put out the two pine boxes E had built for two of my plots in the community garden. I'm not quite sure why I waited so long but it is very handy to be able to hold the soil in place! I'm going to grow root veggies in them - carrots, which I have failed at several times but maybe with this new depth of soil they will be happy. Also parsnips, beets, turnips - E jokes that I'm growing all the veggies that guys hate, but I beg to differ. When harvested young and tender even turnips are excellent. :-) And I grow the turnips and beets just as much for the greens as for the roots. Yum. Knowing the rain was coming I planted some seeds, and finally called it a day after flooding a neighbor's basement. (Oops. I attached a hose to the spigot on the building nearest the garden, and watered a few things I had planted, but unbeknownst to me the pipe must have frozen and burst over the winter just inside the house wall... So, water was spraying inside as well as going through the hose. Ulp. Fortunately I only watered for about 5 minutes, and my neighbor knew it was not my fault/intention!)

My sis's visit is going well, some very full but fun days. An Easter feast on Sunday, Hands-On museum yesterday, and ping-pong, four square, BBC-Planet-Earth-watching, and general mayhem in-between. I came in to work for a few hours today, while they're off at the bowling alley. :-)

Sounds like my sis and her husband and three kids are driving out to visit me this weekend; they'd been tossing around the idea for a while but no firm commitments until yesterday! Am looking forward to it, but I do hope the snow melts fast, so the kids can play outside more easily. We've continued the easter tradition that my Mom did for my sis and I as kids, of doing an easter treasure hunt inside the house - using simple rhymed clues to go find the next treat and clue. And the last clue always let to a potted hyacinth that we'd plant outside when it got warmer. (I think my mom tried it outside once but the squirrels kept getting in to the chocolate, so it became an indoor tradition!) So now I need to write some rhymed clues for my house - my sis has plenty for hers. Hm.

"At bedtime you're sleepy and giving your eyes a good rub, but first before bed you get all nice and clean in the ."

Anyone have any good ideas for ending with "oven"? :-) "Lovin'" would rhyme, hm.

It was really nice to have a somewhat more normal weekend again - worked some but also plenty of fun stuff. Went to hear a friend's jazz quartet play at The Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms Friday night - was fun, although the place was a bit fancier than we realized! (White tablecloths, full dinner service.) Saturday noonish I went to the pow-wow for an hour or two, at the Saline Middle School; I am always drawn to the drumming, chanting, dancing, and the crafts, and it was much cozier feeling than when it was at Crisler Arena. I have a push-pull feeling with all the animal pelts and bones - they are real and beautiful, it's fascinating to touch them, but other than rabbits and coyote and deer/elk its hard to think that the animal may have only been killed for its fur (otter, lynx, fox)... I have bought rabbit skins in the past to make drum beaters with though (dog hair from my neighbor's pooch worked well for the stuffing). Saturday afternoon and evening was our wine club special dinner - hosted at my house since there were only 11 of us. Excellent food, as tammylc has written about. And Sunday I mostly worked, but took a break for an hour to catch the festifools giant puppet parade on main st (wonderful), and then cooked a really yummy baked chicken dinner, with sundried tomatoes, green olives, garlic, and some of the preserved Meyer lemons I had made in February. Yum!

It smells like dirt and worms (in a good way) outside today. Yay spring!

My basil seeds came up. It makes me happy to look at the little sprouts.