Sunday, January 01, 2006

2006: The Year of Global Wetting


Oh, man, it's been wet around here. Some of my Marin neighbors haven't fared so well during the torrential downpours and wind storms that kept Cranky and me locked inside over New Year's Eve.
The store where I bought my camera (and where Cranky just bought me a tripod for Christmas) was flooded by four feet of water; probably huge losses.
But we're safe and snug at home. Today we'll make a soup of black-eyed peas, leftover frozen ham, and a bunch of collard greens. For luck. I do feel lucky, to tell the truth.
And look at this: I still have tomatoes, on January first! They're not lovely tomatoes, to be sure, and the vines look terrible. But how amazing. So, for Weekend Herb Blogging (thanks, Kalyn), I present Bean Sprout and the Bedraggled Tomaters. (You can actually consider tomato leaves to be an herb; add one or two to tomato sauce while it's simmering for some bosky punch — look that up, Biggles — and then remove them if you can still find them.)

9 comments:

ZaZa said...

I had a quite exciting trip over to Terra Linda to visit my mother in the hospital today. One detour going, two different ones coming back. Do you think we're all going to float away?

cookiecrumb said...

Oh, dearie. Is your mom at Kaiser? I hope all's going well for her.
Can't believe you braved the floods. But dutiful daughterhood, and all... I understand. I told Cranky I thought our only route of escape would be the Richmond Bridge.
E-mail me next time you're coming down; we'll go grab a cup of tea or eh, wot?

Sculpin said...

This had me wondering: aren't tomato leaves poisonous? And the answer appears to be, sort of, but not that much in domestic varieties.

cookiecrumb said...

Sculpin: I'm impressed by your research. I had harbored the fear of toxicity too, but Paul Bertolli effectively squelched that in his book, Cooking By Hand. (Truth is: I still haven't tried using tomato leaves in my food! Still a little scared!)

Kalyn Denny said...

Love those photos. You are getting good results with the tripod. I hope you don't float away.

cookiecrumb said...

Kalyn: Actually, those were handheld snaps. Focus isn't great, because I was getting rained on and was in a hurry. But you just can't beat the beauty of a homegrown tomato and a drop of rain water. Thanks!
(It's r-e-a-l-l-y wet here. Garage leaked a bit yesterday.)

Cyndi said...

Are you floating yet? We're getting about half of what you have, and it's bad enough. A huge cell just passed through, with wind that almost took our shed roofs off.

I'm envious of your farmers' markets and all the local food-here in southern cal they're pretty rare. I know of one in Redlands, and you've inspired me to start going!

Take care and don't drown!

Greg said...

Yeah I bought my camera there too. The best camera store in Marin. Damn shame. I really love San Anselmo.My wife graduated Drake so I hung out there alot.They sprung back after 82. Let's hope the best.

cookiecrumb said...

Oh, Greg. It's so sad. My friends own that cool hobby shop there, and I'm afraid to call them and ask how bad it is.
Cranky and I are going to go on a shopping spree in SA, throwing some love and $$ around.