Mo slicing up the avocado

Kielbasa: sliced into medallions and grilled on each side; dip them in mustard and they taste just like a delicious meat chip
Burgers: Variety of veggie and beef (hardwick farms yum) topped with either sliced jack or asiago, tomatoes, onions and avocado.
Veggies: Garden salad and a zucchini, mushroom and onion pouch with fresh thyme, olive oil and a couple pads of butter for extra richness.

BEER

Drinking bottled beer out of a coozy isn’t nearly as fun as a can but how do you find a decent beer packaged in aluminum?  It just so happens that Mo and I have discovered the answer to this dilemma: Dales Pale Ale and Pork Slap.  Both pack a hoppy taste which is often missing from their other canned counterparts.  For our BBQ we had the Dales, brooklyn pilsner, miller high life, and an assortment of other misfits.  I was surprised to see how many summer brews are already available at the liquor store but I’m trying to refrain from them until May since I have a long season ahead of me.  Unfortunately the Geary’s Summer is not out yet, the one beer I would break my rule for!

Me Vbar & Mo

What’s Next?  I’m thinking about combining the two items in the title and grilling a beer can chicken…stay tuned…

Its spring time here! Woohoo! My spirits were very much effected by the lack of sun for the last several months, more so than I realized, until today when I was able to have a glorious adventure in the sun. As many of the people who have visited me in Oakland know, my house is on the edge of a vast expanse of a globalized industrial wasteland AKA. the port of Oakland. In the middle of this hundreds of acres sprawl exists an oasis of nature, undergoing a huge restoration and preservation project called the Middle Shoreline Park.  To commemorate the arrival of springtime Billy & I (along with a one michael gensington) packed a lemon-inspired picnic and biked to this park.

When I went to the produce market on the way home from work Saturday I was shocked to see such a stocked sale rack. (this particular place bags up the older, broken, or almost rotten goods and sells them so cheap!) I got a 5 lbs bag of broken zucchini halves for $1 and about 30 lemons for $2. Life is good When I got home I began forming my plan of attack. At the picnic we ate : lemon poppy seed muffins, lemon-zucchini bread, lemonade(although it was store-bought), and a quick-sort-of tabbouleh.

The muffins didn’t come out as moist or as lemony as I would have liked, so I’ll hold off on the recipe until I’ve mastered it, but the pseudo tabbouleh & zucchini bread were stellar!

Zucchini Bread w/lemon

2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 T baking powder
2 t garam masala blend*

aprox 3 cups grated zucchini
2/3 c oil
1 egg (or apple sauce)
1 t lemon zest
1/2- 3/4 cup raisins
2 t cider vinegar

1/2 c lemon juice

Method: Pre-heat oven to 350. Sift the flour, spice, & baking powder. Mix with sugar. In a clean bowl grate the zucchini, and add all the wet ingredients except the lemon juice. Mix the wet + dry, slowly add the lemon juice. Mix as little as possible. Pour into a greased baking vessel (I used a 4 X 9 loaf pan, but I’m sure anything will do). Bake for about an hour, until a stick comes out clean.