The trim color is so cute and I love the garden.
The trim color is so cute and I love the garden.
Today’s shopper is Jeanne Kuntz, of TeachingWellness.com, and she’s going to make a Salad Fry.
It’s a great way to combine a warm dish with a salad feel, and it’s completely customizable with whatever foods you like and can find in season, or whatever leftovers you have lying around. Here we go!
She starts with a bed of lettuce — in this case, red leaf — and chops up the veggies that won’t be cooked, like radishes,
cucumbers,
and green onions.
Then she takes some of the red chard
and does a little “salt & sugar massage” on it, to kind of tenderize it and get the flavors going. (Essentially, she chops up some of the leaves and rubs them with a little salt and sugar, then adds them to the bed of lettuce.) Then she slices some onions
and sautes them slowly in a cast iron skillet, letting them get really cooked down. Then she adds balsamic vinegar and lets it reduce. Then she adds the beets,
after they’ve been sliced thin (think julienne), then the peppers,
sugar snap peas
and carrots,
all chopped. When the vegetables are mostly cooked, she adds more olive oil to the pan, as much as you would add if you were making dressing for the salad, then some chopped walnuts,
and then she turns off the heat and adds crumbled up feta cheese,
so it just starts to melt a tiny bit. The whole mixture goes over the bed of lettuce and is tossed. And you’re done: Salad Fry! I’m hungry just thinking about it.
Today in the Green Booth, Arthur Renaud of The ReUse People, was their guest, explaining about this organization dedicated to harvesting reusable building materials from demolition sites and making them available through their retail stores. It’s a very cool idea and I urge you to check them out the next time you’re remodeling.
Last chance for peaches! (Who says we don’t have seasons in California?) Winter approaches and this summer fruit won’t be around long; get ‘em while they’re ripe!
And as one season ends, another begins: it’s Satsuma time. Get your vitamin C in this cute little package.
LAPD Chief-designate Charlie Beck came to Mar Vista last night. The Mayor has been taking him all over town to drum up support and to let us all meet the new Chief-to-be.
I don’t know the man, and my first impression was that he was no Bill Bratton, but as I listened to him take questions and answer them all very seriously, I was glad he wasn’t all flash and media savvy. I think we can do without that kind of rock star persona in the Chief’s job for a while. I wish him good luck, should he be confirmed by the City Council (which is all but assured), for one of the world’s most difficult jobs.
Speaking of rock star personas, our Mayor sure is one, I just have to say. He’s all about the polish, from his very-well-tailored suits, to the way he made the best of an amateur sound system in the Mar Vista park basketball gym. He knows how to work a room.
Photos courtesy of my iPhone, which is my they’re a bit grainy.
LAUSD parents, the Choices brochures were mailed out over the weekend, and you know what that means, right?
Time to fill ‘em out! They’re due back to LAUSD headquarters extra early this year: on Friday, December 18th, which is the last day of school before Winter vacation, and which is not that far off, so don’t get caught without having mailed it in. Do it today!!
What Choices are we talking about? Magnet schools. These are the specialized schools (sometimes schools-within-schools) that exist within the bounds of the giant LAUSD. Originally established in the late 1970′s by a court order, but now dubbed “Court-Ordered Voluntary” on the website (I couldn’t make that kind of thing up), the program was designed to level the playing field and offer specialized academic interests to those students who may not otherwise have had access to such educational opportunities. While it’s debatable whether the program is still fulfilling its mandate, that debate can take place elsewhere. This is just about the details.
Now for those of us who need more information on the choices we actually have, our old option of the District-wide Choices Faire has been lost in the budget cuts. So here’s how to get more info:
• The LAUSD Choices website has lots of information, including a list of the new magnets opening for the 2010-11 school year — check it out. Or you can call them at (877) 462-4798.
• The LAUSD TV channel, KLCS, will be airing information on the many magnet school options. The show is called “Choices/Opciones” and it will air 12 times between now and December 18th. Showtimes are listed below.
• Our Local District 3 Magnet choices will be presented at a Mini-Faire on Saturday, November 21st at Cochran Middle school, beginning at 9am.
• Ask a Magnet Yenta, a great blog that has tons of helpful information on the process and the real skinny on what it all means.
• The GoMamaGuide Blog lists dates for seminars led by Tanya Anton on how to navigate the world of LA Public schools, including all the magnet choices.
Good luck and don’t forget the December 18th deadline!
Down on the farm.
Today’s shopper is Kami Turrou,
a Mar Vista mom whose kids go to Richland Ave. Elementary. She’s on the board of their booster club, RichlandBooster.com, and you can make a donation anytime on their site.
Kami’s going to make a carrot/yogurt salad. She starts by grating these multi-colored carrots
and adding these honey crisp apples all chopped up.
Toss in a handful of raisins,
then mix with lowfat vanilla yogurt and a bit of honey to taste
until it sort of resembles cole slaw. Delish!! And here’s a picture of it ready-to-eat:
Thanks, Kami!
Today at the Green Booth, Sarah Pugh (and her daughter Hannah)
of Outside Landscape Design were on hand to show examples of drought tolerant, California native and sustainable plants.
New at the Market today: pomegranates and persimmons are in season.
And for the kids: The Real Princesses were painting faces
and at the ReDiscover booth kids could make these cool fuzzy felt balls.
Celeste has been here in Mar Vista for 7 years, doing alterations and some basic seamstress work.
She’s well-known for doing alterations on Burning Man costumes, just FYI.
Celeste’s Tailoring, 12028 Venice Blvd., open M – F 9am – 7pm, and weekends 10am – 5pm. (310) 391-4708.
It’s a busy weekend, people, so I’m posting this early so we can all gear up!
Friday is First Fridays on Abbot Kinney (which is in Venice, but so close you can get there in a minute) and it’s a fun time, with stores, restaurants and galleries staying open late, and now it’s going to be Green as well as Fun, thanks to the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Environmental Committee’s new “Bin Your Butts” campaign to keep cigarette butts off the street and out of the ocean.
Friday and Saturday, see Cheryl Tryckv’s Capiche? at the Fanatic Salon, showtimes at 8pm.
Saturday attend “It’s Easy Being Green” at Ocean Views Farms Community Gardens, a free workshop about greening your gardening practices. 9:30am. Apparently it’s all about the worms.
Saturday come shop for bargains at a giant garage sale, proceeds benefitting a brave soul fighting breast cancer. 4346 Stewart Ave, 90066. 8am -on.
Sunday, another Abbot Kinney event: the Fall Fashion Jamboree, from 1-4pm. Kids’ fashions from Twirls and Twigs, introducing their new boys’ line of toddler clothes, live music from Jambo, fun for the whole family. At The Pod Photography, 1219 1/2 Abbot Kinney.
Have a great weekend, Mar Vista!
The Mar Vista Community Council’s Green Committee has unanimously approved a motion to make Mar Vista the first clean electricity neighborhood in Los Angeles, with a goal of 100% clean electricity by 2018. The motion must be approved by the Community Council Board on November 10, and your support is needed! Please sign this petition, which will be presented to the board. It will only take a minute, I promise!
And check out Open Mar Vista’s GoSolar initiative to find out how you can go solar on your roof!
Tin Roof.