Popular Urban Farmer in Oakland Getting Grief, Facing Fines From City

I'll be following closely what's going on with Oakland's urban farmgirl Novella Carpenter, who is now facing thousands of dollars in fines after being told by city officials before she started her urban ag operation that she should wait to apply for permits because the laws were in flux.

Oakland North has a full report on what's going on. And Carpenter has her own understandably incredulous response at her blog Ghost Town Farm, where she announces she's taking her popular, inventive farm activities underground for fear that city inspectors are watching.

The Great Piglet Swap

On the QT, I learned this evening that the injured piglet my family was nursing didn't make it.

It's hush hush because my kids don't know. The piglet was still hanging on when my mom took them to the library.

The poor sugar turned blue not long after they left. But there was a swap, with yet another injured piglet.

I've learned that sows can get mean, viscous even, shortly after they give birth. That's why farmers often have to separate the mom from her newborns until she's calmed down a bit. This sow actually bit the heads of a couple of her youngins.

So, no one's hugely optimistic even with this second one. He's clearly suffering some defects from the attack. But he's much more lively, squealing up a storm and suckling - even though he's having some trouble swallowing everything.

As far as my kids know, their piglet has improved. I hope he keeps on improving.

Spring Break: New Baby Chicks & an Injured Piglet

Roasting Peeps over the fire.

The kids are having exactly the spring break we were hoping for: They're outside, getting their hands dirty and having a blast.

Of course my dad might be breaking some child labor laws putting them to work on The Farm.

The first night, my son reported that "we really needed the breaks" when they got to play their DSis in between burning a stump and building quarters for 15 new baby chicks. My daughter was so beat that by mid-day she took a 2-hour nap. I don't remember the last time she was so worn out she willingly took a nap. Preschool maybe?

Today the work continued over at Victory Acres, where they went to see the spring babies - chicks, lambs and piglets. And they ended up coming home with one of the new babies.

From what I could gather on the phone, one of the piglets was injured and abandoned by his mother. My daughter said he had a bloody snout. So my family took him home and they're working hard to get him to nurse from a bottle.

They haven't named him yet. But I'm positive that's not stopped my Future Farmgirl from thinking of names in case he pulls through.

I'll be pulling for him, for her sake as much as his.

Coyotes in Oak Park?

I know coyotes are a problem at The Farm. They sure keep the dogs busy patrolling the perimeter. Sammy especially seems to enjoy keeping coyotes and other predators away from the chickens.

But I never thought I'd have to worry about coyotes in Oak Park.

Our local Patch has this roundup of stories in the local papers about coyote sightings.

Apparently, Oak Park has enough wildlife to attract the interest of the Urban Wildlife Institute of Lincoln Park Zoo, which is considering studying our area, according to the Wednesday Journal.

I haven't seen any coyotes yet, but I've seen plenty of rabbits, raccoons, opossums and junior hawks. Maybe we should start our own urban wildlife journal.

Bienvenue Spring!

No surprise that we're celebrating the first day of Spring by eating.

In fact, we've decided to have a Welcome Spring party all day, even though the sky looks sad and is threatening rain.

We're bookending the day with fried dough: beignets for breakfast and steak & green chili-filled gorditas for supper.

The beignets come from a Cafe Du Monde mix that Sim picked up on a recent business trip to New Orleans. I've only had them once and this is a first for our future farmkids.

They were a big hit this a.m., especially after I doused them with a little chocolate sauce and added a side of whipped cream and sprinkles.

Next time I'll experiment with fillings.

Midweek Carolina Pulled Pork: It Looks Complicated But It's Not

Carolina pulled pork, slaw, onions & a dash of hot.

There's nothing like coming home to a hot meal and eating it together as a family.

With both of us working full time and often very full days, this is a big challenge. But we do manage to eat together most nights during the week.

Someone asked me the other day how we manage to pull it off.

Best answer: planning. We sketch out our menu usually over the weekend and do our shopping then too. I scan recipes to make sure we have everything we need on hand.

But because our moods and tastes change, I don't plan our meals day by day. Who wants to be locked into a meal a full week in advance? I try to plan for 4-6 meals a week (Friday's pizza night). We usually settle on our pick in the morning or early evening on our way home.

This morning, we spun the wheel and picked Carolina pulled pork in the crock pot. I misplaced my trusty recipe, but found a really good alternative - one I'll probably use from now on - on Food.com. This may actually be one of my best efforts at pulled pork. The meat was perfect, juicy and easy to shred.

In the recipe, I cut back on the spice to be sure the kids would eat it...which they did. Time saver: When I do this midweek, I pick up a bag of pre-shredded slaw fixings.

The kids got sides of green beans, peaches and cottage cheese. Sim and I topped ours with slaw, sliced onions that cooked in the juices all day, some mustard/vinegar dressing and a dash (or three) of hot sauce.

OK, I'm hungry again.

One More Thing the Kids Will Eat: Beef Stroganoff

In my constant search for things my children will eat, I stumbled right into a family favorite.

It was so obvious, I can't believe I haven't tried it before: beef stroganoff.

They love noodles, beef and sour cream. How could that go wrong?

The answer is in my hips. These kids are making it harder and harder for me to keep my weight off. But that's a different subject.

I looked at a ton of recipes and finally settled on this slow-cooker one on the Kraft Foods site that I felt was basic enough to modify to my liking.

Basic Recipe w/ Notes

2 lb. beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes [I used some beef spare rib meat that I had in the freezer.]

10 oz.  fresh mushrooms, halved

1 onion, chopped

1 clove  garlic, minced

1 cup beef broth

2 tsp.  paprika

1 tsp. salt

1 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. dijon mustard 

1 pkg. (16 oz.) egg noodles, uncooked

2 Tbsp.  chopped fresh parsley [I always skip this when I don't have parsley in the garden.]

PLACE meat, mushrooms, onions and garlic in slow cooker. Add broth [I used two cups], paprika and salt. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 7 to 8 hours (or on HIGH 5 hours). [Note: I browned the meat first in a little bit of oil, then threw in the onions and garlic, cooking until slightly tender. I then deglazed the pot with about a quarter cup of red cooking wine, then dumped it all into the crock pot.]

MIX sour cream, flour and mustard [I used 1 1/2 times the paprika, sour cream, flour and mustard to increase the amount of sauce]. Stir into ingredients in slow cooker until well blended. Cook, covered, on LOW 15 min. Meanwhile, cook noodles as directed on package.

DRAIN noodles; place in large serving bowl. Add meat mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with parsley. [I served this with peas and sides of peaches and sliced oranges.]

Bon appetit!

Trail of Condoms...What Should I Make of This?

OK. I'm not exactly sure how to react to this.

On my way home, in the dark because this winter is holding the sun hostage, I nearly stepped on a condom.

It was strung out in its full sunshiny yellow glory in the middle of the sidewalk.

I thought, that's odd. It's gross when I see them in the alley because, well, they've been in use. This didn't look used, just unwrapped.

I'd thought nothing of it again except, on my doorstep, I found another. This one - red - was still tucked away in it's Lifestyles package.

What am I to make of this? I live in Oak Park, a progressive community.

Was it a demonstration of sorts? A political statement? Is this a new form of TPing...local kids going a little rubber crazy? Or should I just be creeped out?

Shaun Cassidy Flashback

Watching Glee tonight, I was stunned to learn that my husband had never heard the song "Afternoon Delight."

A quick search of YouTube remedied the situation. Bonus, in the VH1 clip I found, David Cassidy did the intro.



That video had me tripping all over memory lane and eventually remembering how much of a crush I had at one time on David's brother Shaun Cassidy.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the music. I was a "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew" fan. And oh was I a fan. I had posters of him on my wall, stickers and, I'm fairly certain, some teen idol books on the subject.



Does he really have six kids?

Last-Minute Dinner Party...My Favorite Way to Entertain

I love to play the part of hostess and I love to cook for friends. But when I'm busy and stressed, I can't bring myself to add a dinner party to our already hectic schedules.

That's why it's so great that we have friends who, on a moment's notice, will take us up on a dinner invite.

These impromptu parties are just delightful. There's no stress of having my house in order. I'm lucky if I can do a quick pick up, wipe the toothpaste off the sink and make sure there aren't any bras hanging on doors.

And I don't have time to fret about getting the menu just right. Whatever we have on hand that we can set out will do.

This weekend, we threw out an invite after laboring several hours on a new (to us) Rick Bayless recipe for beef stuffed gorditas.

The more time we put into the recipe, and the better our house smelled, the more we wanted to share.

Just as we were extending the invite, we realized we were missing a key piece of equipment: a tortilla press. Rather than improvise and roll out the corn masa with my grandmother's pin, I jumped in the car and headed to our local market.

I called home to find out our invite was accepted, so I picked up a couple dozen limes for Sim's famous margaritas.

Thirty minutes later, as I was washing our brand new tortilla press, our friends arrived.

My homemade guacamole, two salsas & chips and margaritas seemed to tide everyone over as we all gathered around the stove and recipe book to figure out the final sequence: fry the gorditas until they puffed up like a pita, then slide them onto a plate, drain, slit, stuff and serve.

Not exactly elegant, but a lot of fun. I think Bayless would approve.

Oh, and it was delicious.

We figured we could stuff those suckers with any savory combo we could think of. I could even see those being good with a cinnamon apple or summer fruit filling.

The best part was sharing the evening with friends, who aren't offended by a last-minute invite and are adventurous enough to let us use them to test new recipes.

Menu:

Guacamole (with mashed avocados; grated tomato, white onion, and serrano; fresh-squeezed lime juice; chopped cilantro; and salt to taste.)

Chipotle salsa

Chunky salsa

Chips

Margaritas served in honey- and salt-rimmed glasses

Tossed salad (mixed greens, tomato, avocado)

Gorditas with Classic Shredded Beef (recipe from Mexico One Plate at a Time)

On My Wish List: The Indian Spice Box

Anupy Singla's custom-designed spice box is set to debut this weekend at the Chicago Housewares Show.

But for those who follow her Indian As Apple Pie page on Facebook, there was a sneak peak today.

All the things I had concerns about other spice boxes I've seen over on Devon Ave., she seems to have addressed: higher quality steel, teaspoon/tablespoon dippers, built in leveler and, from the preview shots, it just looks pretty.

I also love the idea of getting more than one -- price permitting. I could easily fill one with Indian spices and another with my most-used Mexican spices.