CHEESESLAVE

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I never fully understood that until this weekend. I mean, I understood it, but I didn’t get it. But now I really get it. I mean get it in my heart, in my soul.
You know when you do something wrong and someone confronts you, you [...]

Fig season has sprung here in California. If you’re lucky enough to have a fig tree in your backyard (I used to in my last home), you’re probably busy harvesting and drying your figs before the birds get to them.

Dried figs can feed your family throughout the year. They can be added to granola or oatmeal, or used to sweeten baked goods. And during the holiday season, who doesn’t love a good figgy pudding? My sister makes Christmas pudding every year.

Dried figs are good, but fresh figs are delicious. Roasted, they are even better. Roasted after you drizzle honey on them — pure heaven.

Last night we had our first date night in almost a year. We went to a French brasserie called Anisette in Santa Monica, just a few blocks from the beach. Despite the reviews on Yelp, I booked a reservation anyway — I had a good feeling about it. People on Yelp write that it is a “theme park version of a French brasserie” and “Disney does brasserie”.

About the Disney comments — whatever! I loved the atmosphere. Similar to Balthazar in New York City. Very authentic. We felt like we were in Paris. And isn’t that what you want on a date night? To feel like you are in Paris, sipping Ricard and nibbling on a cheese plate while waiters in black ties scurry about on tiled floors?

Do you know someone with osteoporosis or osteopinea? Do you want to prevent osteoporosis in yourself or your family members? Do you have growing kids who need to build strong bones and teeth?

This is the information you have not heard about milk — and the science behind why pasteurized milk does not help you build strong bones. You have to drink it raw!

This may look like a toy car, but it is actually a shopping cart. They have these at the new Whole Foods in Venice, California. Kate had so much fun steering around the store and peeping the horn.
You can see in this picture that there’s plenty of room for the food.

I wish they had these [...]

Mark McAfee, farmer and owner of Organic Pastures Dairy (pictured above with his supporters at the Senate hearings in June 2008), posted the following two comments on The Complete Patient blog today:
1. SB 201 (with a new number and name) will be revived in January 2009 with renewed life and vigor.
Until then, we survive [...]

“This bill weakens food safety standards in California, something I cannot support,” Mr. Schwarzenegger says in his veto message.
From what I understand, it’s just the opposite. SB 201 actually strengthened the safety of raw milk by making the testing much more rigorous.
Ironically, it was just a few months ago that Governor Schwarzenegger declared June [...]

Thanks to our calls to key senators last week, the raw milk bill, Senate Bill 201 passed out of the Senate on Saturday, August 30 with a 31-4 vote. This was a HUGE success, as there was unexpected last-minute political opposition.
Along with the unanimous bi-partisan support we had in the Assembly, SB 201 is [...]

Click on the photo above to go to Flickr and read what everything is. (I added notes on Flickr. You can just roll over the photo and read the notes.)
I missed my usual Saturday morning trip to the farmer’s market since I was out of town, so I made up for it today and yesterday [...]

More photos from our trip up to Berkeley to volunteer at Three Stone Hearth, the community supported kitchen…
Here’s Larry with his fermented drinks.

He makes beet kvass, kombucha and soda pops and coolers made with whey or kefir grains.
Here’s the beet kvass — 80 quarts worth — fermenting in a stainless steel vessel normally used for [...]