Cheryl Katz

My first artichokes!

Originally uploaded by cinediva

While I was away in New York, my artichokes decided to take off. Talk about a watched pot never boiling… its size and status were pretty much static for most of this year, until I left.

So here they are, the first fruits of my year-old artichoke plant. I need to google about when I should harvest them – the biggest one looks like it is starting to open, and I suppose that this isn’t a good thing. I wasn’t prepared for hot artichoke action while I wasn’t here to research it in a timely way!

So here’s a picture to tide you over. I canNOT wait to see what a home grown artichoke tastes like. Also: will be using our organic fertilizer soon to see if we can’t coax a little more size out of the still growing baby artichokes.

Recently I joined the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program at Be Wise Ranch.  I got a big fat box full of yummy vegetables – zucchini, kale, cucumbers, dill, cilantro, swiss chard, carrots (oh, so many glorious carrots!), oranges.

With a fully stocked fridge of vibrant organic produce to inspire me, I’ve been cooking with an enthusiasm I haven’t experienced in a while.  (Maybe part of the euphoria of being home, finally?)  On Monday I made a pizza totally from scratch. Bell pepper, zucchini and tomato with a home made cilantro, almond and pecan pesto.  It was even better when we ate the leftovers for lunch a few days later.  I really impressed myself with the pizza.

Tuesday, lettuce wraps.  I shredded up carrots, zucchini and onions, sauteed them with a little olive oil and tofu, and added a soy honey peanut butter sauce.  A dash of curry completed it for me.  It was fantastic.

Yesterday I made a swiss chard and barley stew.  Considering the number of vegetables in this soup, it comes as high praise that Ben ate his whole bowl down to the bottom.  Enough frozen for a week of lunches, yum!

And tonight I thawed out some frozen won ton wraps and made fried won tons with the leftover lettuce wrap fillings from Tuesday.  I think this was actually an even better use for the asian veggie-slaw than the lettuce wrap idea.  For my next trick, I’d like to try making potstickers or ravioli.  I also sauteed the remaining swiss chard with a little oil and garlic.  Even Sami liked it – especially the red cooked stems.

I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it all!

And back in the saddle, though I’m re-adjusting to Pacific time very slowly and poorly.

Only by sleeping in other beds for a few weeks do you really appreciate your own, that’s all I can say.  On my visit to my parents’ place and Michelle and Andy, I slept in some mighty comfy beds, but the understated familiarity of my own is frankly insurmountable.

It’s great to be home, Sami in school during the day, eating my own food, cooking in my own kitchen, driving my own car, working in my office, sleeping in my own bed.

I spent a weekend with my parents, showing off all Sami’s new abilities and recuperating from the long day of travel from San Diego to New York.  My father met Sami and I at the airport and helped get us and our checked luggage from the terminal, over AirTrain, on the rental car shuttle and all the way into our rental car.  And I don’t know how I would have done it without him, so let’s not think of that just now.

Sami got to play outside in the same yard I played in at her age, took a walk in the old neighborhood, and spent an afternoon with my friend Jenn’s kids, Ryan (7) and Cynthia (5).  She met her cousing Madeline, age 13 months.  (Sami was NOT excited about a baby close enough in age to want to share her toys, and was thus most decidedly not charming.)

Then we drove up to Ithaca, NY to visit Andy, Michelle and new arrival, 5-weeks-and-counting Milo!  He is sweet and wonderful in the way that only babies who can’t roll over and run away can be, but still young enough and demanding enough a taskmaster to keep his momma ready to pull her own hair out – in only the way a needy infant can be.  Sami was half fascinated, half jealous of the baby – especially when I’d take him to give A&M a break here and there.

Sami was not the poster child for reproduction – but I’ve come to wonder what toddler is.  Having a toddler in the house with a new baby, when said house has not been toddler-proofed and said baby’s parents are similarly unprepared for the unrelenting persistence of said toddler… was challenging for me, the seasoned, toddler-proofed toddler-mom.  I’m sure A&M have made a list of things that Sami got into that will need to be solved before Milo is mobile.

Ithaca is just a lovely city.  This visit, I didn’t get near the college areas, so I got a real look at what the residential life is like in Ithaca.  And I like it.  I’ve spent a little time trying to sell Ben on Ithaca as a place to live, and he’s game to explore it, but I’m partly waiting for the recent-visit afterglow to wear off.  It’s SO GREEN there, it nearly blew my mind.  The supermarket, Wegmans, did blow my mind – it was as if someone rolled Henry’s, Whole Foods and our local Vons into one humongous super-super-market, but the organic and holistic offerings were exponentially larger than anything I’ve seen in any single market here in SoCal.  But mostly what blew my mind about Ithaca was the people, the upstate hippie vibe, the open space and the plethora of local chains.  It feels very alive there.

This concludes my whirlwind overview of the trek to New York.  I feel like I have tons more to write but I need to hold off lest I fritter the entire day away with posting.  More to come.  I swear.

New Hair!

Originally uploaded by cinediva
A picture of my newly chopped hair! I’m still growing into this cut, but I pretty much love it. Apparently it makes me look younger, too – many different people have told me that. Chop off hair, chop off years, I guess.

One chopstick!

Originally uploaded by cinediva

I think she may have noticed that it doesn’t work as well with only one. But she still had a blast trying! I estimate that by age 4 she’ll be a natural with the chopsticks.

My Derby Party Hat

Originally uploaded by cinediva

Yes, it’s an olive drab, metal pith helmet (circa WWI). Yes, I put a yellow ribbon on it.

Any questions?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what happens downstream from me – what I’m using on my body and rinsing down the drain.  Upon examining ingredient lists of products I frequently use and researching their origins and impacts, I have found I’m not excited about the way I’ve surrounded myself.

For the last week I’ve been using the oil cleansing method (link courtesy of NoirBettie).  I’ve used oil-based cleansers for some time, so this was definitely within my comfort zone.  The upshot of it is that I don’t use anything on my face that I wouldn’t also be comfortable eating, and I’m not using as much water or rinsing as many harsh chemicals down the drain.    Another added bonus:  my skin has been fabulous lately, and is only getting better.  I’ve taken to rubbing Sami down with olive oil after her bath, and not only can I feel safe that if she gets it in her mouth, she’ll be ok, but her skin has that baby softness and glow magnified just a little bit.

Along this vein, I compared my hygiene routine to Sami’s.  Before she was born, Ben and I attended a Baby Care class, and the instructor told us that using soap on her more than once every week or two was excessive.  So I very rarely use soap or shampoo on her, with the exception of baby wipes in her external diaper area and soap to wash her hands (hello, germ protection!)  Her hair and skin are lovely – and her dry skin only acts out on the rare occasions when we do wash her with a soap.

With this in mind, I did some research on shampoo, and discovered a method called “No ‘Poo.”  (A fairly comprehensive guide to the no ‘poo method is here.)  The idea of cutting out chemical agents from my hair care routine and replacing them with gentle and edible counterparts hits me on my good side, I must admit.

So I’m trying it.  The last time I used shampoo was on Tuesday.  I’d previously been using shampoo only every other day to every three days, just rinsing with water in between, on the advice of my hairdresser.  So my next “shampoo” would have been on Thursday or Friday, but I skipped and instead did a water-only wash again.  I made sure to brush my hair from root to end (about 8 inches, total) every day with my boar-bristle brush, to help redistribute oil throughout my hair, and this did seem to help.  By Friday morning my hair was a bit heaver than I’m accustomed to, but it certainly wasn’t as greasy as I’ve seen it in the past – on camping trips, for example.

This morning I washed my hair with a tablespoon of baking soda, and rinsed with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar dissolved in a cup of water.  Results:  Not the typical squeaky-clean I recall from my shampooing days, but my hair has a lot more body than it did, say, last week, and it is shinier.  It doesn’t feel gloppy or oily.

What I’m learning here is that oily hair does not necessarily mean dirty hair.  Also, how often do I get dirty in a way that water wouldn’t fix?  Water gets mud off my hands, why not out of my hair?  Baking soda cleans my teeth (yes, I brush with baking soda and water) so why not my hair?

This is still in experimental mode.  While I’ve gotten rid of an insane hoard of body products and soaps that I had no chance of ever using and culled out products with ingredients whose name I can’t pronounce, I do recognize that if in the end I don’t look presentable, or even worse, smell bad in public, I will have to find a better solution.  But so far my hair smells fine (thank you baking soda’s odor absorbing properties) and my scalp’s oil production has not shown itself to be on a crazy bender.

I’m probably disproportionately giddy about the idea of a life untouched by the marketing power of the beauty industry.  It’s been one of my weaknesses in the past, and I’ve sought ways to control my compulsion to buy.  Of course, I still wear some makeup and I still eat food, read books and wear clothes, so it’s not like I’ll never set foot in a store again.  I still feel a minor victory in the process of eliminating marketing-driven purchases, and products with an unknown biological and environmental impact.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will point out that I am not giving up on eye cream.  I no longer need moisturizer, since the oil cleansing method leaves my skin soft and balanced, but I can’t tolerate oil standing in my undereye area.  So eye cream is the one product I’ll most likely still be purchasing on an annual or semi-annual basis.