What we've been eating lately

Since we started the CSA ('community supported agriculture'- we pay $20 a week into a local community farm and get a big box of fresh, organic vegetables each week), I've been cooking new things. Because it's late summer, we've had tomatoes and zucchini up the wazoo. I've made:

• marinara spaghetti sauce a couple of times (thanks to Joey, carrots give my sauce the magic sweetness instead of sugar). Making the sauce would would be super easy if it wasn't for having to take out those friggin little seeds. That tip comes all the way from Nicole in France (Herve's mom). They're bitter so they've got to go.
• heirloom tomato tart. Good recipe from Ann, which she fittingly calls 'Ann's tomato tart'. I'm confident the use of the heirloom tomatoes changes the content to the extent that I can now call it my own: 'tracy's heirloom tomato tart'
• zucchini quiche. WAY too much cheese and cholesterol (eggs) for our diet. we're watching Charlie's cholesterol. That was a one-timer for our camping trip to colorado (we didn't end up eating much of it because it kept slipping down into the watery depths of our cooler)
• Black-eyed peas with spicy greens and cornbread. I put the trader joe's chipotole chicken sausage in, which is pretty spicy. It's fun to cut the collard greens; they're such huge leaves.
• White bean and dandelion greens soup. So far, this is my favorite new dish. Puree one can of white beans with chicken broth, brown onions and carrots and a small amount of garlic (being sure not to burn the garlic) and then throw in the other can of white beans, a bunch of dandelion greens, and about 4 cups of chicken broth. Grate fresh parm over the top upon serving. very good. very healthy.
• stir-fry, stir-fry, stir-fry. a good way to use up a lot of different vegetables. my secret is adding cashews. I get the broken, 1/2 salted ones at trader joe's- they're cheaper and not so salty. I mean really, who needs perfectly whole cashews in their stir-fry?
• lentil & bulgur wheat pilaf with tahini herb sauce. I found this great recipe on The Food Network. The tahini sauce is a real must with this. In fact, I highly recommend using tahini sauce wherever and whenever you can. The recipe from the food network calls for adding water, but you can make it thicker for different needs. This is a good, fresh, filling and pleasantly different dish- it can be a main course for your vegetarian friends.
• plum crumble. This was yummy; I made it tonight. I never bake, but I really like the taste of hot plum. I also do a mean stewed plum dessert, which has a beautiful reduced wine, butter, sugar sauce.

Sustainable Communities & Train Friends

The reason I started this blog is because I was asked to manage a blog for a grassroots organization I belong to called Sustainable Communities. The organizer of this group, Gar, is a 'train friend', one of several random people that for one reason or another, I have bonded with. Gar got it in his head that I should run the blog and since I knew almost nothing about blogs, I promptly got a library card, checked out "Blogging for Dummies", and began pecking away in cyberspace. I soon realized it would be pretty neat to have my own blog, free from any topical boundaries, so now I work with two blogs, with a total combined readership of approximately 3. What's good about managing a topical blog, like Sustainable Communities (which is concerned with raising awareness regarding energy and climate issues impacting North San Diego County cities, and to establish and prepare community guidelines to address these impacts proactively) is that you are forced to read and stay current. I need something that motivates me to stay in the loop. My natural tendency is wonder off, loose touch, fade in and out. I also like the fact that blogs are so immediate. I think writing on a topical blog will be good exercise for learning how to get my ideas down quickly and concisely. Unlike the never-ending research paper (picture me biting my nails down to the nub, all strung out from worrying that it just doesn't hang together, forcing in just one more perfectly appropriate term [I'm still convinced that my A+ papers were based on getting the 'tone' just right, having perfected the academic 'accent', never mind how many hours it added to my daily toil or how many potentially novel/original ideas it squelched]) topical blogging is all about quick-wit and connecting ideas- you get in and get out quickly.

Also, Sustainable Communities is about reclaiming the benefits of community life. A sense of community offers social identity, pride of place, and a sense that what you do individually has a true impact on others. I think a lot of people miss this. I feel like I miss it, but did I ever have it? Maybe it's just a romanticized idea- how can you miss something you never had? Living in France was certainly a good introduction to 'community'. Their infrastructure, from architecture, to tax policy to social mores encourages tighter-knit communities than we experience here in the United States (particularly in southern California). Ultimately, "community" starts at the level of the family unit. And some families are just better at facilitating community membership than others. If you remember what a drag Sunday night dinners with the family were- if not showing up was not an option- then you probably belonged to a tight-knit, community oriented family. If your parents were more relaxed about participation, responsibility and obligation then you probably skated by, not recognizing any social contract that you unwittingly signed onto. Anyway, none of that parent stuff matters because we're all grown up now and in charge of ourselves. My intent was not to discuss 'good' or 'bad' communities, but rather just to remark that the train offers a great entry into a 'community'. I feel more 'at home' on the train than I do walking down the street in Carlsbad village. The 'horizon of the future' (knowing you'll see that person again soon) plays a prominent role in predisposing us to make friends on the train. Since people tend to take the same train everyday and sit in the same spot, we know they'll be there again tomorrow, so we're cordial and then we get to talking and finally, strike up a friendship. Still, this doesn't explain why we strike up friendships with some of the regulars and not others- I'm simply saying that being thrown together in the same space, traveling on the same trajectory for similar purposes pre-disposes us to become friends when we otherwise may not have. I think convenience plays a lot into friendships. The repeated snippets of time we have with each other as part of our daily routine is largely responsible for maintaining the relationship. All of this seems to be missing at the city/neighborhood level (or at least in mine). There is no 'horizon of the future' to speak of (except maybe with those two families with whom we share a wall, and who sometimes pull up to the garage at the very moment that we are in front of our own) and there isn't any immediately discernible shared interests beyond maintaining neat yards and quiet children. I don't need my neighbors for anything vitally important, so they are more of an appendage to my life than an organ. If we needed our community more, we would have more of a community.

Barbara's Blog?

I was first introduced to Barbara Ehrenreich in 1999, or so, in Sociology 101. Her work, that is, not her living breathing person. She's pretty fundamental to the discipline. You have to read your Marx, Weber, Comte, and Durkheim of course, but I do believe I read Ehrenreich's "For Her Own Good" before any of the founding fathers' essays. I find her compelling. I feel a little guarded when I read her work though, as if I might be getting duped or pulled into an unbalanced tirade. (Gasp! We wouldn't want anything too controversial now!) But what she says pretty much always resonates with me and her intelligence is a quiet one that sparkles in simple direct writing without the unnecessary accoutrement of overly complex sentences and concepts. Her sarcasm is good too. (Maureen Dowd takes the prize, however, for the most toxically enjoyable sarcasm). Anyway, the point of my entry today was to say that I've just bookmarked Barbara Ehrenreich's blog, 'Barbara's Blog', and I'm not sure if that pegs me as a socialist/feminist/working-poor-apologist, but then, who the heck cares if I'm pegged or not. Everyone's got everyone pegged for something anyway. genuine genie is all about coaxing the truth out. separating the real from the fake. the real deal. the gen-u-ine article. the bona-fide, honest-to-god truth. or at least the authentic.

Welcome

Photography by: Sarah Prall Photography (www.sarahprall.com)
Welcome to genuine genie. Until I have something coherent to say, this blog will address a very targeted market: me, myself and I. Here I am. This is me on my wedding day. Not that I want to wax lyrical about my wedding, but I've got the photos handy on my laptop here, and the fact that I'm married is the most salient point about me right now. It's a strange thing being newly married: it is at once fitting and surprising. Speaking of being married, I have to go make dinner now. I'm going to make the most of the left over grilled lamb...had a crazy idea I would make fresh Vietnamese spring rolls with it (mint, basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, nuoc mam...) but I spent so much time looking up recipies, and wound up in a tangent, reading this cool blog called Vietnamese God; great reviews of local restaurants and sites-to-see in Vietnam. Have a look- it will make you hungry. And that's a genuine genie guarantee.