gold star

It is officially spring at the homestead. The various peppers and tomatoes have been planted in the front yard, including a cute little heirloom variety called hillbilly potato leaf. It was obviously quite impossible to pass that one up at the nursery, especially considering my company at the time (and also the company who planted it while I was napping later that afternoon). Hiking season has also begun, and how. A friend's Sunset put us on the road to Mt. Tamalpais early last Saturday morning. Wow. Between the green hills, coastal views, and rolling fog over the Golden Gate, it was

And it was also

And to top it all off, we lunched luxuriously on some curried chicken salad sandwiches (a la croissant!) at Stinson Beach, although, to be fair, the return hike was all uphill. On a side note, never play "Up, Down" with a feisty toddler who has no qualms over leaving you hanging, vertically, about the arms.

Another springtime revelation: we are on the hunt for a house of our very own. Well, more like a duplex, so we can pull in some rental income. Yes, Three's Company is living up to our house joke where we stereotypes walk into a bar. I think we all know how that one ends.

Your guess is as good as mine

Ciabatta success! Finally, after months of bread machine struggles and flatness frustration, there came to be a loaf of such holey-ness and crustiness that it could not be denied. The trick turned out to be ditching the bread machine and doing some flour research. We are getting back to basics, y'all!

This month is shaping up to be water conservation month. Even Mike acquiesced to using a bucket to collect warming shower water; the garden and peach tree are eternally grateful for our lukewarm liquid bounty. With all of the droughts predicted this summer, we are doing our Californian duty here at the homestead. Another fun/gross idea we have embraced is putting a water-filled quart jar in the old toilet tank--save a quarter of a gallon of water per flush! Just keep an eye out for the mighty dumps, those do not go down so well at reduced water levels.

Do you wanna

The first great experiment came to a close on April 4 with a trip to Santa Cruz and two full walls of bulk bins (skullcap! spike! organic red wheat berries!) at Staff of Life. March was quite a departure for this household - a full month of eating turned inward, clearing the freezer down to the last few frozen peas and the pantry to some cranberry beans (wtf, seriously, Jake) and the pillaged remains of a giant bag of dried cranberries. We, who would all surely include "grocery store" in our top five favorite places, vigorously avoided these mercantiles except for the produce section.

One of our last family dinners, before things got vegan, was an amazing pizza that hid quite well the now palpable hysteria about the lack of snacks in the house. It also marked the first time that a certain MOT in the household got all Sally Struthers on some Bob Evans spicy sausage.

All in all, the experience brought Three's Company closer together as we found that it was in our best interest to eat together as much as possible to stretch the food supply. A full page of creative recipe ideas came to fruition last month, from turkey meatloaf with TVP and ribs with cornbread to mushroom risotto with peas and scallops with cream sauce (which got creative when we realized that we had no cream).

Yum.