CityMama™

Meal Planning Monday

It's a short week this week since I'm leaving for New York on Thursday to speak at BlogHer Business. My main task until then is to get myself and the kids healthy before I leave. I do not want to be sick in NYC and I don't want my mom (who will be here to babysit) to have to deal with sick, cranky girls.

I've recently discovered the wonderfully crunchy cookbook The New Laurel's Kitchen. I don't know how this one escaped me for so long, I thought I had a line on all things Ten Speed Press. I've seen it over the years but never felt compelled to pick it up and flip through it. My loss, indeed. It is a joy to read. The practices are sensible and the recipes all look really yummy. Can't wait to dive in and start cooking from it.

Side note: I have a hard time reading Barbara Kingsolver so I didn't warm to Animal, Vegetable, Mineral like everyone else, even though I wholly support Kingsolver's thesis. I've been listening to it as an audiobook for about a month now, but I'm afraid her soothing voice lulls me right to sleep. Many of the same principles are discussed in Laurel's Kitchen which was published originally in 1976 at time when so many great food and dietary treatises were written. I think because Laurel's Kitchen focuses on recipes, which is theory put into practice, I have warmed to this book more.

Anyway, because we are all sick, I am making Laurel's Kitchen's "New Favorite Green Soup" for dinner tonight. It's a blend of scallions, potatoes, spinach, and broth (or milk)—plus I'm adding some zucchini— and it sounds like just the perfect thing to combat our colds.

• Mexican Monday: Vegetarian Taco Salad (beans instead of meat) because this post made me drool. And New Favorite Green Soup.
• Tuesday: Grilled polenta with Muhamarra
• Wednesday: I have about 3-4 pounds of pork shoulder to use up, but not sure what to do with it yet.
• Thursday—Saturday: Tata's cookin'! (Lucky family!)
• Sunday: Roast chicken and potatoes, salad

What are you cooking this week?

I was 99% done talking about it, and this brings me to 100%.

Erin Kotecki Vest has another great post up about the business of mommyblogging which leads with this 'graph:

I’m getting myself very out of sorts lately following all the J&J, Disney drama. It has nothing to do with who got invited, who got snubbed, who got an email, who got a pitch, who is going, who is staying silent.

Nothing.

Thank you, Erin.  I have been a teense perturbed by how this issue has morphed into people crying into their coffee about not being invited to (or not being able to attend) Camp Baby. I know people are hurt but I am not one of them. My feelings are fine. The take-away from my experience, why I wanted to share it, was to point out that they treated potential business partners in a completely unprofessional manner. You don't treat people you want to build a relationship with, whether it be a friend or a business associate, the way they treated many bloggers.

I'll even go out on a limb and say that while I think it's stupid of them to plan the event during the week, and to not allow breastfeeding infants, I think it's the mostest stupidest of the people working on the event that they didn't follow the same game plan. There was so much confusion. So much misinformation. At least they should have had a coherent policy on why bloggers could/could not attend. All of this goes back to relationship-building. Were they successful?

To recap:

• I felt pressured into attending Camp Baby. (3 invites from 3 different people.)
• I felt pressured to RSVP. (Hurry, space is filling up.)
• I RSVP'd that I would attend after juggling childcare/work arrangements.
• Note: no travel arrangements were required for me other than getting me from J&J in New Jersey to Manhattan so I could attend BlogHer Biz.
• I was disinvited because I would have to leave early to attend BlogHer Biz. I was told I needed to be at the event the whole time.
• Since then I've been contacted by bloggers who were told that "it's okay" if they can only attend part of the time and they are attending under those conditions
• I've also been contacted by bloggers saying that they were enticed into attending with first class tickets (which were not offered to everyone).

Who they wanted to invite is their business. How they wanted to do it is their business, too, but their plan should have been iron-clad. If you weren't invited and are hurt, it doesn't feel good and I'm sorry. Let it go—more opportunities will surely come along. It's the way the Mommyblogger world works at the moment.

Erin lists all the reasons why people start blogs, especially mom blogs, and I have to say my reasons were slightly different—and two-fold. Yes, I wanted to connect with people and share my experiences which at the time were about parenting in a urban (city) environment, something I wasn't reading too much about back in the day.

California Democratic Convention: some photos

He said, "Peace, sister." I replied, "Peace, brother."

Okay, I admit it. I took their picture because they were freakin' cute. And friendly. This one is for Bad Kitty. (If only one of them were wearing a scally cap...)

Krajee Carole Migden addressing the API caucus. Go read about how she totally lost it during the Women's caucus. Holy bad judgment, Batman!

I'm at the California Democratic Convention this weekend

Just a few random thoughts:

I had no idea what to expect when I arrived and I am not quite sure I have figured out what exactly goes on here. I think it's safe to say that nothing happening here is taught in the average high school civics class. I look at all the California Young Democrats and realize that they probably know more than I do about this process.

All the important state Dems are here from John Garamendi on down. Nancy Pelosi showed up. Mayor McHottie gave an amazing speech about San Francisco not waiting for Washington, SF is doing it anyway. Bill Clinton is due tomorrow. There are lots of parties and protesting and people selling books and buttons, but really it is one big shmooze-fest.

The delegates and super-delegates all wear badges indicating their delegate status. I've talked to a couple now, and asked them to clarify what exactly it is that they do, and every answer starts with, "Well, it's complicated..."

It is.  I still don't get it.

The Essential Rodin According to Wallie, age 3

"Look at his butt."

"His butt is shiny."

"He has a penis."

"Look at his penis."

"He has a butt, too."

"Touch his butt."

Bubble world

Went up to San Francisco with the girls earlier this week to have lunch with my sister. The girls scampered into the car with their sundresses and sandals on and as I climbed into the front seat, something triggered deep down in my brain and I ran back into the house for heavy jackets and yoga pants they could slide on under their dresses.

How quickly we forget.

We were having lunch near 9th & Irving close to where we used to live in Cole Valley. "There's Tata's old house!" I pointed out.  "There's where Mamma and Papa used to live before we had kids!" I indicated, but who could see through the fog, which was rolling over Cole Valley thick as pea soup.

We arrived at the restaurant where I snagged a spot in front. There was a time that I'd rather walk 15 blocks from a non-metered spot than to have to pay 25 cents for 7 minutes. "Screw that," I thought, pulled into the metered spot then realized I had no quarters. I've gone soft. The days when I used to go the bank to get two rolls of quarters (for laundry and parking) are long gone. Luckily my sister had a bunch of quarters.

PSA: Is Blog Net News scraping your site?

The scrapers are at it again.

Blogger click over to BNN and see if they are syndicating your content without your permish. Blogs are sorted by category, parent bloggers go here to see if your blog is listed.

If it is, read this post by Erin Kotecki Vest on how to get your blog removed. She got BNN to remove her blog and assured the editor, David Mastio (who is no saint), that more bloggers would be contacting him. (His email is in her post.)

For those that need more of an explantion of this general issue and why it's so frustrating, read Jaelithe's post.

Scenes from Easter Weekend vol. 2

Sunday held two more egg hunts, two more Easter meals, and an evening of lying around watching @GaryVee. Cuz nothing says Easter like Slim Jim-smelling Chateauneuf du Pape (a wine I cannot read without hearing the Beastie Boys in my head. Hopefully one of you gets that reference.)

Egg hunt at church.



"Green egg, you can't hide from me. You're next. I'ma 'bout to own you."

Roasted root veggies with rosemary, finished with truffle salt. (They went with the lamb chops not pictured cuz they're in mah belly.)

ChefSis and the rolled out pasta dough.

The 5-year-old pasta-making expert. Crank it, girl!

The 3-year-old pasta-eating expert. Slurp it, girl!

Aaaaaand scene. Until next year.

Meal Planning Monday for 3/24

I have no idea what to cook this week. I'm a little thrown off because of Spring Break (We're around here and there, who wants to play?) and we have lots of meet-ups and activities planned. I feel like doing that, not cooking.

Please let me know or link me to what you are cooking. I need serious inspiration this week, especially for a good potluck dish for later in the week.

Oh! Also, I have two pasta-related tutorials coming up: one of making your own fresh pasta from scratch, and the other on making pasta alla carbonara (the real way).

The [*] indicates locally grown and/or sourced items.

• Mexican Monday—I have corn tortillas*, leftover wild Alaska salmon, limes* and cilantro*, so something with that.
• Tuesday—Garlic* Roasted Turkey breast, salad, some kind of whole grain/rice* (lunch with sis in San Francisco)
• Wednesday Sandwich Night—leftover turkey sandwiches on whole grain bread*, celeriac* remoulade—will post this recipe soon (field trip/picnic lunch)
• Thursday—No idea! (meeting HongLien123 and Glennia for lunch)
• Friday—J. and the kids will probably have pizza. (I'll be covering the California Democratic Convention for MOMocrats this weekend. Krajee!)
• Saturday—dinner at Xiaolin Mama's (a fellow MOMocrat) house. We'll bring some thing to contribute to the potluck dinner.
• Sunday—help!

Green Garlic Soup with Pernod

Green garlic signals spring to me just as much as asparagus does. When I see them at my farmer's market I get all excited because they aren't around for long, a month maybe.

What to do with green garlic? You can treat them as you would regular garlic or leeks or onions. They look like really fat green onions (or smaller leeks) and go really mellow and sweet when sauteed. I like to make souffle or soup with them. We started our Easter meal yesterday with this quick and easy Green Garlic soup.

I was recently sent a bottle of Pernod to try, and since I love the licorice flavor of fennel in my rustic vegetable soups, but didn't have any fennel on hand, I added a shot to the soup and it was delicious without being overpowering. (Plus it's nice to have on hand for cocktails.)

GREEN GARLIC SOUP WITH PERNOD

Serves 6.

If you'd rather use fresh fennel than Pernod, add one small chopped fennel bulb to the garlic sautee and proceed from there. A stick blender will make quick work of this.

• 2 bunches of green garlic (about 10 stalks), cleaned, trimmed, and chopped (remove top 2-3 inches)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 glugs of olive oil
• 2 pats of unsalted butter
• 1 shot of Pernod
• 6 cups of chicken or veggie stock (or water)
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped (I never peel potatoes, but you can if you like.)
• sea salt and fresh pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup or so of heavy cream

Saute green garlic and garlic in butter and olive oil over medium heat until just starting to caramelize (about 10 minutes). Be careful not to overly-brown. Deglaze pan with Pernod, stir, scraping up all the crusty bits. Add in stock and raise heat to med-hi. When stock starts to simmer, add in potatoes. Cook about 15-20 minutes until potatoes are softened then remove from heat and whiz soup with a stick blender until very smooth. Season to taste, stir in cream, warm through, and serve. (Once cream has been added, do not boil soup.) If you want a very smooth soup, strain it through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer, but it's not necessary.