110°F yesterday and today. The avocados we planted 2-3 years ago transpire water more than they can replenish from the ground and so their leaves desiccate and die. Especially the young leaves on the Bacon (1) variety and random adult leaves on the Mexicola (2) variety. ☹️
Scrub Jay patiently waiting for the grapes to ripen.
The makings of Chai ice cream (admittedly without the tea).
So many Brown Turkey Figs!
Leafhopper Assassin with a meal.
Hummingbird enjoying succulent flowers.
Shooting Star or Primula hendersonii (maybe) at Hidden Lakes, Lassen National Forest last Friday 6/12.
6/14/20
We set the Filet Mignon into the water bath (in a bag of course, air displaced by water so water touches as much steak surface as possible), then set the Sous Vide to 130ºF. Once the water hit 130ºF, we set the timer for an hour to officially start the cook. When the Sous Vide cook was finished, we removed them to pat them dry, and then generously salt and peppered them. We then seared them off in a smoking hot cast iron pan with a tiny bit of peanut oil. After about 1 minute and 15 seconds, we flipped the filets, put unsalted butter in the pan, and basted the heck out of them for about a minute. So after about 2 minutes and 30 seconds of searing heat, we removed them and put a bit of finishing salt on them. This method worked perfectly for Medium Rare-- without the guess work of typical cooking methods! The steaks weren’t mushy, which can happen if you overcook thin pieces of meat in a Sous Vide.
Tostones or patacones (made whenever we find green plantains at SavMor, which isn’t often). 😋
6/13/20
We went on a hike to the Hidden Lakes in the Caribou Wilderness on the Lassen National Forest. It started at the Hay Meadows Trail Head, north of Lake Almanor, California. It was six miles of relatively flat hiking with periodic steep inclines. The trails were not at all crowded, though we brought masks just in case.
We saw a male Western Tanager (bird). I cropped to zoom:
Volunteer tomato is flowering. Who knows what kind of fruit this might grow (if pollinated). So too blooms our late April direct seeded peppers blooming.
[Crispy Cheese and Kimchi-Topped Skillet Rice](https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2019/10/kimchi-cheese-rice-recipe.html) — quite delicious.
The California Buckwheat is now blooming — cool hot pink anthers!
The toyon is in full bloom and it is impossible to photograph its flowers without pollinators. A very popular plant!
Today’s front yard Poppies and Clarkias.
Cultivated native California grapes are coming along quite well.
... made from the left over Bulgogi the next day, Bibimbap! Crisped up the white rice a bit too.
Homemade Bulgogi.
If only I could have got closer to this gorgeous blue dragonfly in the front yard. This super crop will have to do.
Inaugural cook on the Baking Steel Mini Griddle. We love the original size for pizza, cooking lots of vegetables etc but it is too big for most of our griddle applications.
The Annie Cat in a box.
Bee butt on the first understated blooms of our cultivated Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia).
An unidentified grasshopper of some kind on our cultivated native California wild rose. Genus _Scudderia_?
Lunchtime snack: Sweet Cherries fresh from the backyard tree.
Freshly churned strawberry ice cream.
Lunch today: Chuck Roast (left over) Sandwich. Cooked on Baking Steel.
chuck roast (left over) sandwiches on homemade sourdough. The Baking Steel is pretty great as a griddle.
Cherry tree update: almost dark red! (and then they’re hopefully ripe and sweet; had two today and they were not there yet: tasted like early season supermarket cherries.)
The backyard native California grapes are about done flowering and beginning to swell.
Metallic flagging and a fake hawk to discourage birds from the cherries. The blue jays are smart and eventually don’t care but smaller birds stay away. Just say no to critter killing netting.
