Twilight

I think it’s time to put the blog to bed.  It seems the contributors, myself included, have other things to be doing than blogging, and that is not something I call a bad thing.  We do get Google searches stopping by for the material that’s posted here, so I’ll leave it up, and if any of the contributors are so inspired feel free to come back and opine.

Peasant power to all ! 

Good gifting

If, like me, you are trying to figure out what to give for Christmas this year, consider handmade.

My own hands don’t make much more than papery things and food.  In past years, I have given Christstollen as a gift- maybe this year, too.  But even if you don’t have time or talent, there are outlets where you can get unique gifts that are handmade or made on a small scale in artisan or cooperative settings.  The links on this site, especially under “Market Square,” point to such outlets.  Check out the beautiful things at A Greater Gift.  Here are some examples:

• A gorgeous embroidery peacock tree ornament, made by a co-op that works with “untouchables” in India;
• Snowflake tea towels and table linens by a similar cooperative;
• Capiz-shell snowflake ornaments made by a youth development group in the Philippines started by Belgian nuns.

The Enterprising Kitchen is a great source for handmade bath products.  It’s a cooperative run by and for women who are “at risk,” as a way not only to give them some transitional income but help them develop job skills.

My other favorite place to get unique gifts are monastery gift shops, many of which are online.  In addition to Holy Cross and Quiet Light which is linked to on this page, here are a few more:

• St. John of San Francisco in Manton, CA, which sells candles, icons, and gourmet teas.
• Cheesecake and fruitcakes made by the nuns of New Skete (hurry- holiday orders must be placed by December 3rd);
• Monastery Greetings lists links to various kinds of monastery shops.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also put in a plug for our favorite gifting (and drinking!) outlet, Holy Chocolate.  Fr. Stan is a priest in an East Syrian church and is a long-time friend.  Aside from that, his drinking chocolate is unbelievably good, owing mainly to the fact that he keeps it simple- milk, cocoa, sugar and natural spices and flavoring- and uses the highest-quality, purest ingredients.  The chocolate has garnered national attention and really is worth it, if you are a chocolate drinker.  My favorite types are Swiss and Mint.  Amsterdam is a chocolate powerhouse, if you are really a chocoholic.

Salt rock lamps

This may be “out there” for some, but after reading about them in a natural cleaning book, I purchased a salt rock lamp from Salt Lamps for Less, a web outlet based here in San Jose.

I can’t vouch for all the health benefits that are claimed, though it does seem to me that in our “computer cave,” the air is fresher since I placed it there. The negative ions from the lamp are supposed to disperse especially electrical and electronic static, as well as absorb dust and allergens. I mostly appreciate the lamp’s soft natural glow. I’m sure it breaks all sorts of canonical regulations, but for now we even use one as a vigil lamp for our icons. The soft light doesn’t have the symbolism that a flame would, but still is calming, does the job of illuminating, and hopefully is less likely to burn the building down.

They use the sort of tiny bulb that you would put into a night light, so you’re not using much electricity. In fact a small one would make a good night light. Prices can sometimes be high for these, but the link above is a good outlet, either via their web store or through an Ebay auction.

P.S. I hear that the de-ionizing/cleansing effect can also be obtained by burning pure beeswax candles. So says the website of Quiet Light Candles (see links). Houseplants also clean internal air.

Roots and leaves

One of the things I’ve learned from eating out of a CSA box (if you don’t know what CSA is, look here) is that there are parts of many plants which are edible and useful, but which we never see because they will not stand up to the long trip to the packers and to your grocery aisle.  If they survive the trip, they would probably not make it home and in a pan in an edible state.  So they become waste instead of a source of variety and thrift.  Other plants fall by the wayside due to the mysteries of marketing.  Who knows if the plant ever really would catch on and be appreciated- if the focus groups say nay, the rest of us will never see them.

There’s so much abundance, variety and good order in natural things, and people have been thrifty throughout the ages in taking advantage.  Necessity probably drove things then, but a kind of voluntary thrift benefits us.  Roots like the “red meat daikon” (picture below from my own CSA) can be topped and put in a cellar to sustain people over the winter, but long before you get to that, you can cook up a pot of their peppery leaves.  These days, unless you buy your food from a farmers’ market or CSA or grow your own, you may never taste a radish green.  They wilt quickly after the plant is pulled.

…another good reason to befriend a farmer, preferably one who really likes to eat.

Ha! I’m Catching up to Gina, the Turbo Blogger

Gina, I love the new look.  Doesn’t look much like suburbia, but maybe that’s the point.  Especially according to Chesterton, I guess!  So, something has been on my mind as of late.  I keep asking myself this question- how did we get here?  or, what happened?  Here’s an example.  The food we eat.  I sit at the table every night and listen to my daughter protest the dinner.  She doesn’t like any kind of meat.  She doesn’t like cooked vegetables.  Etc.  She loathes dinnertime.  So, I’m starting to think.  Why do we feel pressure to make our kids eat all their cooked disgusting vegetables?  Why do we feel pressure to cook elaborate meals every night?  Why do we even feel pressure to cook DIFFERENT meals every night?  I exaggerate when I say EVERY night, but you get the point.  How did we get here?  Why can’t I just give my kids raw fruits and veggies for dinner (in addition to their other food, that is)?  Why do I HAVE to make my kids eat meat even if they don’t want it- as long as they’re getting enough protein from another source?  I was watching the Food Network the other night and they had a food scientist on who eats everything raw.  Obviously, he eats mostly fruits and veggies.  Doesn’t cook a darn thing.  Says that cooking is outdated.  Anyway, the question remains, how did we get here?  I also ask that question of Christianity- what the heck happened?  And here’s another one:  Where did we get the notion that our kids are supposed to ‘grow up’, move away from home, go to college for four years, get a successful job, etc. and so on?  I saw a magazine article the other day that had pictures of homes that were owned by second and third generations of people.  Wow.  To think, my kids might want to own and/or live in this home when they’re older.  I’m not one who has a ‘co-dependent’ relationship with my kids, but I can’t imagine us all splitting up and living in different states at some point.  I have a friend who is from England and lives here in the states.  Her sister came to visit her from England and when she left, the parting was tortuous.  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we break our families up to ’see the world’ or ‘get an education’ or whatever the heck we do?  I’ll stop there.  I’m sure I’m rambling and venting, mostly, but I figure I’ve got to make up for some lost time on this here blog. . .

A Cockney Regards the Country

Evert man, though he were born in the very belfry of Bow and spent his infancy climbing among chimneys, has waiting for him somewhere a country house which he has never seen; but which was built for him in the very shape of his soul.  It stands patiently waiting to be found, knee-deep in orchards of Kent or mirrored in pools of Lincoln; and when the man sees it he remembers it, though he has never seen it before.  Even I have been forced to confess this at last, who am a Cockney, if ever there was one, a Cockney not only on principle, but with savage pride.  I have always maintained, quite seriously, that the Lord is not in the wind or thunder of the waste, but if anywhere in the still small voice of Fleet Street.  I sincerely maintain that Nature-worship is more morally dangerous than the most vulgar man-worship of the cities; since it can easily be perverted into the worship of an impersonal mystery, carelessness, or cruelty.  Thoreau would have been a jollier fellow if he had devoted himself to a greengrocer instead of to greens.  Swinburne would have been a better moralist if he had worshipped a fishmonger instead of worshipping the sea.  I prefer the philosophy of bricks and mortar to the philosophy of turnips.  To call a man a turnip may be playful, but is seldom respectful.  But when we wish to pay emphatic honour to a man, to praise the firmness of his nature, the squareness of his conduct, the strong humility with which he is interlocked with his equals in silent mutual support, then we invoke the nobler Cockney metaphor,
and call him a brick.
-G.K. Chesterton, “The Surrender of a Cockney,” in Alarms and Discursions

Szegedy

One of my husband’s Slovakian family staples is szegedy goulash, a creamy kraut goulash made with smoked meats. Someday maybe I’ll post a recipe for that, when I’ve got the family cred to make a decent one. But I found that you can make a good, quick side dish using similar flavors. We ate it alongside fresh sausage from Dittmers’ in Mountain View. Cabbage is so good for you that the humble vegetable deserves frequent eating.

1/2 a small green cabbage or 1/4 of a larger one, cored and shredded

1 medium onion or leek, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup white wine or broth (ham broth would be good if you have it)

dash of caraway seeds- a little goes a long way

2 tsp Hungarian paprika; salt and black pepper to taste

1 tbsp butter

2-3 tbsp sour cream

Warm the oil in a large saute’ pan over medium-low heat, add onions or leeks and fry gently until glassy. Add caraway seeds and Hungarian paprika and stir another minute. Turn the heat up to medium and add shredded cabbage, stir a bit to wake it up, then pour in wine or broth. Season with a little salt and black pepper. Cover and let the cabbage cook til tender, stirring occasionally and adding more liquid if necessary. I like the cabbage to still have some tooth and to not get stinky, about 10 minutes cooking time. Before serving, stir in butter and sour cream and warm it through- the cabbage will get a nice glossy look and some flavor without being too gloppy. Adjust for seasonings and serve warm.

If you don’t like the taste of caraway seeds or are making a more French or Italian meal, you could definitely take this in a different direction. Substitute a pinch of dried tarragon for the caraway seeds and Hungarian paprika, for instance, or skip both and stir in chopped fresh parsley with the sour cream. You could also substitute heavy cream for sour cream.

Soap berries

One of these days, my husband is going to decide I’m turning into a hippie (I already get “looks”).  But some things just make so much sense, you wonder why we do things any other way.

Who knew that soap grew on trees, but for thousands of years people in Asia have harvested the fruit of the appropriately named soapberry tree and used it for washing themselves and their clothes.

I called all our area Whole Foods looking for them, but no luck, so I ordered a sample pack of “Maggie’s Soap Nuts” from Maggie’s Pureland and foisted them on Pavel (who usually does our laundry).  Thumbs up on my end!  There were no flowers growing out of our clothes, but the soapberries are simple to use and our clothes were clean and had no residue like they would if you used a lye or castile soap, for instance.  Berries come slightly dried, so they’re not sticky.  Maggie’s ships them with a small canvas bag you use to drop them into the wash.  The soap released is so mild, that the bag doesn’t need to be fished back out during the rinse cycle.  They are grown organically, so you’re not getting any pesticides, either.

There is a good deal on bulk soapberries with limited availability through Better Life Goods.  One kilo, which does about 200 loads of laundry (give or take- the saponin in the berries leaches faster in hot water than cold), is $30 plus shipping.  I think that works out pretty well compared to detergent.  I would also rather pay Indonesian farmers than Procter and Gamble.  Maggie’s website points out that a greater market for soapberries means the farmers will have more incentive to keep the trees in their natural use, rather than bulldozing them for development.  That is something a suburban peasant can appreciate with special clarity.

-Gina

Transilvania

For those in the area, I heartily recommend family-run Transilvania Restaurant in Los Gatos for Romanian and other Eastern European home-cooked flavor and warm atmosphere.

 The hostess admitted they struggle to get customers, something I guess could be owing to the chi-chi’ness of the area.  It would probably do better with bluer collars on its neighbors.

As it is, it represents something fairly unique in the South Bay.  It may be the only place you can get Romanian wine, which is possibly Europe’s best-kept viniculture secret.  The food is delicious, and you can get a free sample of any dish and also of the wine.  As an appetizer we had bulsz, a combination of melted cheeses in a soft polenta crust.  For entrees our party had schnitzel, a mild fresh sausage called mititei, and garlic sausage.  On the menu is also sarmale- stuffed cabbage rolls, and Hungarian goulash, along with the usual bistro-type offerings.  The high point for me was a dessert Pavel and I shared, a sponge cake with jam center soaked in a little booze.  Our hostess/waitress served everything with a smile and with obvious pride and humor about her Romanian heritage.

The downsides are lack of parking (downtown Los Gatos is parking purgatory) and the prices, which will keep us from going as often as we otherwise might though they are moderate for the area.

However, given that Germano- and Slavophiles in this area can be hungry people, it’s nice to find such a charming tribute to the Romanian cousins.

-Gina

The Alehouse

I’ve been doing some reading and listening (a CD course) on Tudor history and they mention that after the Reformation banned a lot of public religious gatherings such as wakes and holy feasts, and disbanded the laymen religious guilds that supported various church functions, the alehouse took on more importance as a locus for social interaction.  You may have a theological dispute with your neighbor, but you both still need a pint now and again.

Living in New York City, I could still relate to the concept of a “local.”  My friends and I had a local.  We went there to socialize with each other, but there was still a neighborhood feeling in being there.  However, that’s a walking culture, and I don’t see anything like it in my present home, which, given the craziness of the freeways as it is, is probably not a bad thing.

However it’s always comforted me to think that somewhere in the world, such places still exist and serve their original function.  So I’m alarmed to read of the disappearance of pub culture in England in favor of chain bars promoting high-volume drinking and corporate franchises.  A correlating problem is the (non)quality of ale and beer served up in such environments.

Where is the alehouse in the average American suburb?  Is it a cafe’ or restaurant?  Maybe coffeehouses are its substitute?  I hope that a time will not come when the only place we see our neighbors is in the warehouse store we’ve all driven ten miles to get to, where our objective is to get in and get out.

-Gina