where do u live? love is a place.

Love Is A Place (Album Version) - Metric


There's spring in the air
They're sweeping the streets
Wind is a breeze
The sun becomes her he agrees

What's holding up her face?
Nothing but blue skies
Passage ways to windows
That don't close

Where do you live?
Love is a place
Where are you from?
She says, ask yourself ask anyone
What's holding up her face
Nothing but blue skies
Passage ways the mind's eye
Contemplates
****

this song is dedicated to the nights like this where metric feels like the theme song of my life. enjoy ur bdae partee tmr kenny! <3

moi hart house club beats

My Loving Arms (Club Mix) - Karen Overton

sloughhouse adventures

a tribute to produce.
what will vegetarians do without you? eat air i suppose.

im kidding. what would this world do without plants, fruits & vegetables!? this is a tribute to mother earth, and the harvesters that work hard to feed ME :)

a general idea of how sloughhouse's davis ranch looks like

yellow squash!!!

eggy plants. also YUMMY :)

below: beautiful bell peppers! esp the purple ones!!! so pretty!

a california oak tree. in sloughhouse, near davis ranch.

in california, getting produce at grocery stores CAN be a rip off. and since this place is really agriculture heaven, a short drive to the farms where these plantanimals grow isnt far and also saves you money.

sloughhouse is a town near sacramento & jackson. the sign on the 16 highway to Sloughhouse says it's is home to 150 pple. haha. this town has a huge farm called Davis Ranch, famous for it's corn. the corn is picked fresh daily and that makes corn yummy, for human consumption? but aside from their corn, they have all kinds of produce, like beans, beets, pickling cucumber, zucchini, beautiful bell peppers, a variety of wax peppers, a corn maze, pick-yourself strawberries, & pumpkins for halloween.

summer makes me wonder

today as i was chopping a case of heirloom tomatoes, i thought to myself that this summer is one i'd miss. yes it can be very HOT in the summer but while the heat sucks.... the heirlooms DONT :) these beautiful heirloom tomatoes that we fortunately get at my work place taste exquisite. they do not have the sharp sourness found in regular tomatoes. instead i find their taste more balanced, good for stuff I want to eat.

after chopping those heirlooms, they were thrown in our small rondo, the kitchen's affectionate name for our smallest aluminium equivalent of a dutch oven for a summer fish stew. this fish stew is made with bell peppers, garlic, saffron, heirloom tomatoes, and cups & cups of white wine. And because these heirlooms came in all colours (like red, red yellow, orange, green purple, green), the fish stew looked even better. as i added the ingredients one by one, i could feel the dish developing; like when adding garlic after the bell peppers are soft from sauteing. or like smelling the saffron in the mix while the wine is simmering. or.... like smelling the stew in the fridge where it's left to cool. smells good!!!

saffron+tomatoes+bell peppers+garlic: i love the combination of these flavours. somehow they go together oh so well.

a cookie frenzy

best ever shortbread

made with rice flour, all purpose flour, butter, sugar & baking powder. allergen free! and the rice flour makes it my favourite shortbread recipe to date. it gave a beautiful crumble and lightness to the cookie. ole!

cornmeal shortbread

cornmeal cookie by itself= not okay. cornmeal cookie swirled with fruit filling=very good. the fruit filling made with cherries & boysenberry jam gave a good sweet & tart flavour to the plain shortbread. and cornmeal & shortbread really dont go in the first place because the melt in your mouth texture of shortbread is lost when coarse cornmeal is added. if i were to do another cornmeal shortbread, i would grind the cornmeal even more before adding it to the batter.

earl grey bergemont tea cookies

because i absolutely love earl grey. :) somehow this recipe from "martha stewart cookies" is still lacking something. sugar? butter? or really, how bout some brewed tea. these were made with grounded earl grey tea, grated orange peel, flour, butter & sugar but they just dont make the cut. :(

rosie day

i've had a good week. mainly because i had dinner with kel & Rosie (the psychic) today. meeting her felt so good. it grounds me & brings me back to a place that's good to be in. It reminds me that although it is key to work toward personal growth & progress, sometimes the simplest things are good enough to make a person happy.

that aside, i also watched a great film "Happiness" & an ok film "Pleasantville" as recommended by kenny. Pleasantville was great kenny, till the ending!! wtf! too many loop holes even for a make belief tale! And Happiness, was just too damn good, plus funny, plus gross.

film aside...i baked a fruit tart, bought some best-ever rhubarb pie, cooked some country style ribs for hours in the oven, & bought some frames to put a Heirloom Corn Poster in the kitchen. Like did you know there is a corn varietal that's called, "Bloody Butcher"? :) I wont lie. that poster wasnt even a fancy schmancy poster. it's actually a page off the back of Cook's Illustrated (a pretty good sorta technical food publication, with lots of cool drawings of step by step cooking techniques!). the back of Cook's Illustrated is always colored, which makes it nice for a picture to frame.

so that about sums up my weekend. i have 4 more days of work after which i will be quitting to CHILLAX even more i guess.

kelly taking a photo of me experimenting in the kitchen

apple fruit tart

made with: pate brisee, golden delicious apples cook in sugar & butter, white nectarines, dried cherries cook in champagne

a good day for pastry

pecan fig & apple galette

it really couldn't be more elementary. a rustic, free form tart with seasonal fruit offerings (& the pantry's store of pecans) felt like the best dessert to finish dinner with.

it started out with an attempt to just, try making some good old crumbly pate brisee (pie dough). i made sure that the water was ice cold, the butter was fridge cold, the dough barely kneaded & the process was quick. since the end product looked like it could turn out good, it was then decided that i should just make a little taste test galette.

since she likes pecans & caramel & we both like figs & apples, the galette was dressed with those ingredients. i cooked some sugar in a heavy based pan till it caramelized, threw the pecans in the caramel, cut the other fruits, then rolled out the refrigerated disc of pate brisee. after rolling the dough out, the fillings went in, and the edges were folded inward any what way. i then poured a little butter-egg mix for i dont know what, then sprinkled the galette with palm sugar. this little baby then went back into the fridge while the oven got to temp. and when the oven reached 400 f, the galette went in.

the tart dough took 3 minutes to make, & the pie took 5 minutes to assemble. this is the real fast food! :) efficient, economical, basic & dutifully tasty.