Succulents: Beautiful, Easy to Grow, and Drought Tolerant

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One of the pleasures of living in the Bay Area is the seemingly endless number of hidden treasures which await discovery.  Although I’ve lived here some thirty years, only yesterday did I get around to visiting the eye-opening Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. What makes this garden so relevant is not solely its beauty, but that it displays only drought-tolerant plants, largely succulents. What exactly is a succulent is apparently open to disagreement, but generally, succulents are plants which are able to store moisture in their leaves, stems or roots (all cacti are succulents, for example, but not all succulents are cacti), thus making them great candidates for our gardens of the future when water is likely to be both more scarce and expensive.

All this matters to me because I’m trying to figure out what to do with my yard. Both front and back consist mostly of lawn, something I hope soon to alter.  I have no interest in maintaining the fantasy of a green lawn during our long, dry Mediterranean summers. And so, I went to the Bancroft Garden seeking inspiration for my own garden. And inspiration there was aplenty. I plan to go again in a couple of months when many of the plants will be in bloom and all the protective coverings which are in place to ward off frost will be gone. The three-acre garden, which is open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m., was begun in 1972 by Ruth Petersson Bancroft, and a docent told us that the 104-year old founder still lives on the grounds. The garden sponsors lectures and demonstrations and offers plants for sale. More photos after the jump…

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A few succulents are edible, these nopales figure prominently in Mexican cuisine.

Gingery Peanut Butter Cookies

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Like many of you, I’ve been baking peanut butter cookies for years.  But to tell the truth, I always thought the taste was a bit one dimensional.  The peanut flavor was great, but the cookies needed some secondary flavor as a counterpoint. So, in this recipe I’ve turned to ginger for a bit of flavor punch, as I often do in dishes both sweet and savory. I think it works well, and the 120 cookies I baked for our Monday night dinner last night in Palo Alto sure disappeared quickly! Recipe after the jump…

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Photo: Bob G., one of our long-time, dedicated volunteers in Palo Alto, tries out a new career: cookie model. I think it suits him! He’s showing what 120 cookies look like, but you’ll find a home-size recipe for two dozen, after the jump.

Who Read MacroChef in 2012?

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I guess I am old enough to still be amazed at what a wondrous tool is this marvel we call the internet. You write a blog post, publish it, and it can be read by people all over the globe. Every year WordPress, the blogging platform I use, gives me a year-end summary telling me who read what on MacroChef. Even though I was less active in writing new posts in 2012, my blog received more than 110,000 views, an all-time high. Viewers are largely from the U.S., but readers came from 148 other countries as well, including 6,000 from Canada, 188 from Saudi Arabia, 3 from Myanmar, 2 from Uruguay, and one each from Zambia, Kazakhstan and China. And while my blog typically gets 250-300 views per day, on October 2nd, it received 11,861.  How did that happen?  It turns out the popular site Reddit linked to a post I’d put up in 2011 in which I published color photographs my father took in Southern California in the 1940′s. In all, about 25,000 viewers came to take a look! The second most popular post this past year was my recipe for sweet potato latkes.  Who knew that latkes would prove so popular? An so, it is you, dear readers, who make blogging fun. That you continue to read, even though my posting has been sporadic, I owe you my thanks. And special thanks to those of you who comment. Bloggers live for comments, and to you I say, muchas gracias!  May 2013 be an insightful and prosperous year for us all!

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Photo: Venice Beach, one of many color photographs my father, Edward Alinder, took in Southern California in the 1940′s. Note the two little kids in the foreground. That’s me on the left and my cousin Joan on the right.  So long ago! Because these photos proved so popular, I plan to publish another collection of them soon.

2012: The Year I Fell In Love With A House

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I’m writing on the final day of 2012, a year which surely will be remembered for events both joyful and notorious. But for me in my personal history, it will go down as the year when for the first time, I bought a house. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will remember what a fraught process that was. But I’ve been living here seven months now, and I’ve had scarcely a moment of buyer’s remorse. Although the house was mostly in good condition, the to-do lists have been long and the process of making this house my home has taken most of my spare time, money and creative energy.  I’ve been so absorbed with my house, as you may have noticed, I’ve neglected this blog almost entirely. My resolution for 2013 is to strike a better balance between my house and my other creative endeavors, and with many of my house projects completed, that seems possible.

As for this blog, while it has never been exclusively about food, I do hope to write about an even greater variety of topics in the coming year. In the meantime, take a look at these photos to see what I’ve been up to for the past seven months.  It’s been a lot of fun, and my ideas for beautifying my home are far from exhausted!  I promise to keep you posted.

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Photos:  It may be a small house, but it’s not lacking in style. Above: my friend and co-conspirator in home decoration, Frank Melanson, peers from the front porch. Shortly after moving in, I had the house’s exterior painted. And with the help of friends, we’ve painted most of the interior as well. Below: my living room.  I’m particularly proud of the faux paint job I did on the fireplace. Tour the rest of my home: there are ten more photos after the jump…

The Good News Is–Our Monday Night Dinners Will Continue!

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We had an a great crowd last Monday in Palo Alto, serving nearly 100 dinners, and with lots of positive energy. And, we were happy to announce that our 25-year tradition of weekly dinners will continue–at least for now. Susanne Jensen and James Holloway will each cook two dinners in August, and James and I will share cooking duties in September. Jay Whitcraft, who’s been our de-facto dinner manager for the past few weeks offered to come in for a couple more weeks to help with the transition. Claudia Tomaso will serve as temporary dinner manager, and nearly all of our faithful volunteers have said they will continue. All of which I find really gratifying. Apparently there are plenty of people who value our dinners enough that they will do what it takes to see that they go on.  Meanwhile, we continue our search for a dinner manager, or managers.  Perhaps we will find a new solution to that as well. With this transition, other things may change.  We will probably need to raise the price a little. We should take a look at having a new generation of people involved, especially in the cooking, and we may want some people with fresh energy to serve on our board. Change, as always, is a bit unsettling, but, in the end, is unavoidable. Next week’s menu, and all the menus for August and September are after the jump. To reserve a spot for Monday’s dinner, call 650 599-3320, or make a reservation on line here.

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Photo: Fumiko Arao and James Holloway, hard at work, preparing one of our Monday Night Dinners

Monday Night Dinners: After 25 Years, Could This Really Be The End?

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As many of you know, this blog grew out of my work as chef for the Monday Night Gourmet Vegetarian Dinners in Palo Alto.  Eons ago, when I was asked to be chef for a new community group, I was skeptical that it would be a long-lasting gig, but it seemed like too interesting an opportunity to pass up. Twenty-five years later, I’m still cooking on Monday nights. But unless a miracle happens, this amazing event could soon end.

What precipitated this possibility was the announcement a couple of months ago by Ilona Pollak, our longtime dinner manager, that she didn’t wish to continue. Ilona has been manager for a decade and a half, and is one of the main reasons our dinners have been such an enduring success.  She has given valiantly of her energy, time and financial resources, and it’s completely understandable that she needs to move on.

Perhaps I should say something about how crucial the dinner manager is. She (and so far, all the managers have been women) is the nexus which makes it all work.  She takes reservations, greets the diners, makes take-outs, creates publicity, finds and supervises volunteers, and attends to the finances by collecting money, paying expenses  (which include pay to the chef and sous chef, rent to the church and take out supplies). If income is greater than expenses, the manager keeps that as her pay, and as you can imagine, on nights when attendance is low, the manager makes little or nothing, and may even lose money. It’s true that during cycles of good times, when our hall is consistently full, the manager does reasonably well, but, largely it is a labor of love, a service to our community (one of the ongoing conundrums is that although food costs have tripled in 25 years, we’ve only dared to raise the price 50 per cent).

In the past when a manager needed to move on, someone else stepped forward to train for the role and we were able to make an almost seamless transition. This time, that hasn’t happened. So far, no one has come forward to say they will take on this necessary role. If you think you might be able to do so and you’d like to learn more about the dinner manager’s job, click here. If you wish to apply, send an email to: pmcdinnermanager@aol.com.

And so, that leaves us uncertain as to what is next. It seems to me there are three possibilities: 1) having run out of steam, the dinners will end (after all, that which has a beginning, has an end), 2) the dinners will take a break during August, and during that time our community will find a manager or a team of managers to somehow keep things going, 3) we’ll hurriedly put together a plan for the dinners to continue in August and beyond. I could make a logical case for any of these possibilities, but let me simply state that I hope the dinners continue.

House and Home: Finally, Move-In Day Comes

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Yes, it’s true, move-in day was Wednesday, and I’ve already slept four nights in my new home.  I might be prejudiced, but I think it’s a sweet little house–and everyone who comes by to see it seems to agree. I’ve discovered that I love to drink early-morning tea in my living room, with sunlight streaming through the huge, east-facing window. Most of the boxes are unpacked, but a whole lot of stuff still needs to be put away, and the to-do list remains daunting.

It’s great to be here, though I can’t deny that it was an arduous, sometimes stressful, process (read previous posts here). For me, moving is never fun. Moving confronts me with the amount of stuff in my life.  I’m forced to ask myself how much of it I really need, and how much is just a burden. At the very least, moving gives me a chance to edit–to keep what remains useful or beautiful, and to pass on to someone else the rest. No doubt I could have shed more, but seven well-stuffed boxes did find their way to Goodwill.

I’ve moved a great many times in my madcap life, from state to state and even country to country, but in some ways this was the most momentous. Buying, I’m discovering, gets you committed to a house and a neighborhood in a way that, for me, renting never did. I’ve met a number of my neighbors, who are a typical Vallejo mix of white, Black, Latino and Asian, but who seem  friendly, and as far as I know, to get along. It has the feel of an intimate, old-fashioned neighborhood. Houses are set close to narrow streets, people walk the sidewalks, and my two gay neighbors next door have been chatty and welcoming.

Something else I’ve discovered is that it takes a village to find, buy, upgrade and move into a house. I’m grateful to my mom, brother Steve, Jane and Lyle, and Roger and Michael, who helped with the downpayment, and to Judy and Kathy who helped me find a house and to finance it, and to James, Frank, Mary, Michael and Yargen who helped get my house ready, or helped with the move. And I’m grateful to Bob, Ric and Richard and so many other friends and family members who offered encouragement and advice, and to many of you, readers of this blog, who’ve also offered your good wishes. Those of you whom I know personally, I hope to invite to a house warming sometime down the road. And to those who’ve followed this story online, I promise to post the “after” pictures when I’m satisfied that my little house is ready for it’s close-up. Thanks to you all.

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Photos: Top–early morning of the final day at my old apartment, a 14-foot U Haul truck is loaded for the nine-block journey. Above: my nearly empty living room looks forlorn.

A final look at my old patio garden (more photos after the jump).

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For A Meaty Entree, Try These Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

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Over the past weekend, I cooked for a lively group of guys on retreat and served these stuffed portobello mushrooms to the vegetarians. They were scarfed up so fast, I really didn’t even get a proper taste.  But in this case, I’m pretty sure the vegetarians fared better than the omnivores who had to make do with boring old roast chicken. If you’re looking for a recipe your meat eating family members are likely to enjoy as much as your vegetarian friends, this could be it. This is a rich entree, so make it for special occasions (or make any occasion special by serving this comforting dish). Recipe after the jump…

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Photos: Top–stuffed portobello mushrooms come out of the oven.  Above–the mushrooms, before stuffing, after 35 minutes of roasting.

What To Take To A Potluck: Cole Slaw Gets A Makeover

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There was a time when cole slaw was pretty much something I avoided eating at all costs. Perhaps it was that when I was a kid, the slaw I encountered was little more than chopped cabbage combined with copious quantities of mayonnaise straight from the jar. The very thought of it makes me shudder! But that was, after all, a long time ago, and cole slaw has moved on. Today’s slaw takes cabbage as a given, but can include so many other ingredients which add contrasting sweetness and crunch. Jicama, it seems to me, is made for cole slaw, as are apples and dried fruit–all of which find their way into this new classic recipe. If you decide to add dried fruit, as I do here, I suggest you hydrate it by rinsing or soaking it in warm water. The fruit will be ever so much more moist and tender. Mayonnaise here is the basis of the dressing, but it’s so lightened with other ingredients that you barely recognize the starting point. You’ll no doubt think of all kinds of  ways to improvise on this recipe, and you won’t go wrong as long as you keep it light and fresh. Recipe after the jump.

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Photos: Top–this recipe is pot luck ready– it makes 8-10 servings.  Above–Serving suggestion, cole slaw goes beautifully with barbecue tempeh sandwiches (recipe here).

Compared To Choosing Paint Colors, Cooking Dinner For 100 Is A Piece Of Cake!

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Yes, I know this is allegedly a food blog, but bear with me.  For the next few weeks I’m going to be completely obsessed with getting my new house ready to move into. Having a warm, cozy, beautiful home is very important to me, and I hope you’ll enjoy sharing in this process a little bit as much I am enjoying it. But picking colors is excruciating! I bought a total of ten samples and put them on the walls.  Ultimately, five made the cut: a neutral pale gold for living and dining rooms, with a deep copper on the dining room feature wall, a dark rust red/brown for the foyer and my office, mustard yellow for the kitchen with semi-gloss ivory white cabinets, and terra cotta for the bathroom. It’s yet to be determined if I’ll get around to painting the hall and the bedrooms. Let me know what you think, as this is very much a work in progress. More photos and commentary, after the jump.

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Photos:  Top, not an abstract painting, but five possible colors for the living and dining rooms. Ultimately I choose the lightest color (second from the left) for most of the walls, with the paint sample just behind it for a contrasting feature wall.  Above: the dining room feature wall, after two coats of paint.