Till I won't no more

A lot of my foodie friends have been abuzz about this recent article, written by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, if you've read them (if not, definitely think about heading to your library). It's a bit lengthy but brings up some great points.

Kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream

This week I ate the best strawberries of my life. Mid-October. Strawberries. Californians are spoiled when it comes to eating seasonally. This is a walk in the ideal climate park. I also have fresh figs for breakfast many days...and can tell you whether I prefer kadota, greek royal or black mission figs. I haven't been bragging about the food I eat on a daily basis. It's amazing. Amazing. Although to be fair, I pile on the food at work so that I don't have to spend as much money to feed myself. And I get spoiled at work.

I have the next two days off, which will be filled with getting ready for Italy among other things. Miss Sarah is in town for a marathon Sunday. It's amazing how a familiar face can brighten your day.

Get yourself to the butterfly lounge

Apparently we do have "photo shoots" all the time. Every time that I decide to not shower before work. Luckily I'm an intern and therefore not in any camera's lens.

My fingers seem permanently berry-stained, joints constantly aching and the pads of my fingers are exfoliated to the point of hyper-sensitivity, thanks to strawberry seeds, peach and plum pits, leathery fig leaves and a good daily dose of searing hot pots, sheet trays, water, everything.

I also got a second job as a server at catering events. So if all goes well, I will soon be catatonic from exhaustion--but with an income!

Oh didn't it feel good

I recently made some coconut manjar/dulce de leche/creamy caramel sauce for some chocolate coconut alfajores that I'm playing around with. I had a quart of this gooey goodness sitting in my fridge a week ago. It's about half gone now and I have considered just sitting in front of the tv, spoon in hand and devouring the rest of it. So far I've held strong but we'll see what happens to it the rest of this week. I keep encouraging the roomie to eat it so less of it gets slapped to my tummy, but so far he has also held strong. Or stupidly refused to eat something so terribly good, albeit addictive. Oh well.

My roommate warned me that there was a wild squirrel in our area that, should I leave a specific window open, would eat up items left in the fruit/vegie bowl. I somewhat forgot about it until yesterday when, watching the pathetic excuse of a Badger game, I heard some scratching and looked over to see a squirrel entirely inside my apartment, save for the end of his bushy tail still shaking in the wind outside my window. He continued sniffing at my eggplant even as I yelped at him. It took me getting up and rushing at him with a spoon waving in my outstretched hand (a bit terrified that he would jump at me and attack) to force him to scurry back to his rightful place outside of my living quarters.

As far as I can see

Nights before my days off can be filled with the dreams of sleeping in, but realities of early morning routines still wake me up by 7:30. Oh well, that means making a killer breakfast, going to the library, stumbling on a farmers' market and Native American festival. And all that before most other people my age venture out of their front door.

One thing about Berkeley is that it's going to be difficult leaving this food. It's so easy to eat local and organic. I do it without even thinking about it. Awesome.

Some as big as your head

I dream of produce almost every night. Usually sorting grapes. Sometimes figs or pluots.

People in Motion

"Hey, Sixty Minutes is coming."
"I'm sorry?"
"sixty minutes"
"What?"
"Sixty Minutes is coming today. Did you know that?"
"..I'm not understanding what you're saying...wait, are you saying 60 minutes? Tick tick tick tick 60 minutes? 60 MINUTES is coming here today!?"
"Yeah, doing a photo shoot, talking to Alice, you know."
I tug at my unwashed hair, thinking of my dewy face glistening from the speedwalk to work this morning.
"...Great..."

Nothing really changed today except that we had to put our To Do lists and glasses of water out of sight in preparation for "the photo shoot." Nobody seemed as wide-eyed as I did. Although the crew mostly ran late and my shift was over before they started up, but I did joke around with the lighting guy for a few minutes about being a functional drunk. So for all of you that don't know about where I am currently doing my internship, I'll try to find out when we will be featured on an episode of 60 minutes and you can check it out. Right. Of course. No big deal.

In other news, I am now sitting on my freshly made bed in my cute as a button apartment until January. Love the new roomie, love the new surroundings and finally feel like I can settle in here a bit. I think I am on the verge of a great day...set to Repeat.