From www.ktar.com:
by KTAR Newsroom (February 24th, 2010 @ 1:27pm) PHOENIX - Hundreds of Phoenix firefighters have voted unanimously to take a 2 percent pay cut and four furlough days over the next two years to save jobs.
The head of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association Pete Gorraiz (guh-'RYE-us) says the pay cuts will save three engine companies and 42 jobs.
Gorraiz says the Phoenix Fire Department will lose 40 jobs but those will be offset by retirements that will happen by June, meaning that no firefighters will have to face layoffs.
Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan tells KTAR Radio in Phoenix that firefighters like what they do, believe in what they do and want to protect the community and save jobs for fellow firefighters.
The final city budget hasn't been set but it will be in early March. No matter what they do the city council's action seem to enrage somebody, lots of somebodies. the public hasn't come to realize yet that less and less is what's ahead of us for a few years.
I don't blame "somebodies" for being angry. If I was 30 years younger--I'm so old I can say that now!--I would be very angry for the things I would not have in my life that I expected to have, and angry because of my children not having these things either. And not just expected material things but the choices of traveling, pursuing almost any interest I wanted and finding people to share that will also be lessened in the coming years.
Peace , shamba
Friday, February 26, 2010
Vegetable report for the week ... :)
this weeks veggies:
Carrots Kohlrabi
Rubi Stripes Tango/Lola Rosa Mix
Spinach Endive
Cilantro Citrus
I still have veggies leftover from last week but I'm doing better at managing them all week by week. also, one solution to too many veggies is to give some to neighbors or friends. It keeps things from being wasted which is my main concern. Maybe it will introduce them to some new things as well.
One of my neighbors got a deal on some russet potatoes and wanted to know if I could use, like if I “ate potatoes”. So, now I have about 8 medium sized russets and I gave her some of my CSA share. She didn’t ask for the greens but I know that she really likes greens and she took spinach and a portion of all the other greens we had this week.
As for tonights dinner, its a potato, greens, cheddar cheese and onion casserole.
this recipe is from the Crooked Sky Farms Recipes is below. I'm not in Tucson but the recipes are on the Tucson site.
Crooked Sky Farms Recipes
Greens and Potatoes Casserole
Adapted from Cooks.com
8 cups water
2 bunches chopped greens
6 or more red potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 or more onions, sliced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheese
1/2 cup vegetable broth
Preheat oven to 350°
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add greens, and cook.
5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Drain; set aside.
Arrange potato slices in a single layer in oiled baking dish; top with single layer of onion slices. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt; top with half of greens mixture.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers once, ending with the greens. Cover with remaining slices of potatoes, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.
Pour broth evenly over potato mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover with foil.
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
Uncover and bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned and potatoes are tender.
And I'm sure this can be done in the solar oven as well as my inside oven. Maybe the potatoes won't brown on top but it will be all cooked and taste quite good, I'm sure.
Peace, Shamba
Carrots Kohlrabi
Rubi Stripes Tango/Lola Rosa Mix
Spinach Endive
Cilantro Citrus
I still have veggies leftover from last week but I'm doing better at managing them all week by week. also, one solution to too many veggies is to give some to neighbors or friends. It keeps things from being wasted which is my main concern. Maybe it will introduce them to some new things as well.
One of my neighbors got a deal on some russet potatoes and wanted to know if I could use, like if I “ate potatoes”. So, now I have about 8 medium sized russets and I gave her some of my CSA share. She didn’t ask for the greens but I know that she really likes greens and she took spinach and a portion of all the other greens we had this week.
As for tonights dinner, its a potato, greens, cheddar cheese and onion casserole.
this recipe is from the Crooked Sky Farms Recipes is below. I'm not in Tucson but the recipes are on the Tucson site.
Crooked Sky Farms Recipes
Greens and Potatoes Casserole
Adapted from Cooks.com
8 cups water
2 bunches chopped greens
6 or more red potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 or more onions, sliced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheese
1/2 cup vegetable broth
Preheat oven to 350°
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add greens, and cook.
5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Drain; set aside.
Arrange potato slices in a single layer in oiled baking dish; top with single layer of onion slices. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt; top with half of greens mixture.
Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers once, ending with the greens. Cover with remaining slices of potatoes, and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.
Pour broth evenly over potato mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover with foil.
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
Uncover and bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned and potatoes are tender.
And I'm sure this can be done in the solar oven as well as my inside oven. Maybe the potatoes won't brown on top but it will be all cooked and taste quite good, I'm sure.
Peace, Shamba
Monday, February 22, 2010
Current Food Sources
Boy, was I ambitious yesterday! (Saturday Feb 20 actually)
Tried cooked wheatberries (white winter wheat from CSA, not the hard red winter wheatberries I’ve bought before) with some milk and brown sugar for breakfast. It was okay. Even the overnight soaked wheatberries were still very chewy. I didn’t mind that so much but I thought they’d be a little softer. I think this would be better cooked in milk rather than just adding the milk to it after it’s been cooked in water.
I’ve had a terrible craving for something sweet like pumpkin pie all week. The pumpkin pie taste simply wouldn’t leave me alone so I made one yesterday. I had the pumpkin puree, added spices, egg and the condensed milk and used a pie shell I had in the freezer but it wasn’t homemade shell. I was so hungry for the pie I ate a 4th of it! But it satisfied my craving for that flavor finally.
Al, I made red lentil soup for the first time. It was okay but I’d want to use more veggie or chicken flavored broth with it next time. I had a recipe that used cumin, salt and pepper and some lemon juice and some olive oil on top at serving in the bowl. I think this might be a “learned flavor” for me.
And some chicken with veggies and leftover wheatberries is the last thing I cooked. The chicken was all thawed and needed to be cooked.
That leaves a lotta dishes to be washed one way or the other loaded in the dishwasher or the sink …
And notes about current Food Sources
1. CSA vegetables. These are more greens that I thought but I want to do a whole year’s worth of subscriptions to see what they grow all year around. I wish we could get a few citrus each week. I’d imagine we’d get summer squashes later on and I hope some sweet peppers and tomatoes.
2. Sprouts. This is where I get dry bulk things: flour, sea sale, cornmeal, farina, oats, sugar, rices, legumes, dried fruits, cereals to cook. I also can buy bulk spices here. Sometimes I buy some applesauce I particularly like here as well as canned pumpkin and sweet potato. I like these canned products rather than the similar ones at the grocery stores. They also have the usual food store supply of produce, meat, dairy etc. I also buy those things at this store.
3. Safeway and Bashas’ are closest grocery stores. I still buy peanut butter ( a LOT for the collapse is needed you know ;)) jams, maybe meat and dairy, fruit, maybe some veggies I don’t get in the CSA but I’m trying not to do that as long as I have the CSA membership. So far, it’s working for the veg.
4. Farmer’s Market weekly about 2 miles from here. This might be a more economical place to get fresh produce than the CSA pickup but I like the variety and figuring out how to prepare and eat the CSA veggies.
Peace, shamba
Tried cooked wheatberries (white winter wheat from CSA, not the hard red winter wheatberries I’ve bought before) with some milk and brown sugar for breakfast. It was okay. Even the overnight soaked wheatberries were still very chewy. I didn’t mind that so much but I thought they’d be a little softer. I think this would be better cooked in milk rather than just adding the milk to it after it’s been cooked in water.
I’ve had a terrible craving for something sweet like pumpkin pie all week. The pumpkin pie taste simply wouldn’t leave me alone so I made one yesterday. I had the pumpkin puree, added spices, egg and the condensed milk and used a pie shell I had in the freezer but it wasn’t homemade shell. I was so hungry for the pie I ate a 4th of it! But it satisfied my craving for that flavor finally.
Al, I made red lentil soup for the first time. It was okay but I’d want to use more veggie or chicken flavored broth with it next time. I had a recipe that used cumin, salt and pepper and some lemon juice and some olive oil on top at serving in the bowl. I think this might be a “learned flavor” for me.
And some chicken with veggies and leftover wheatberries is the last thing I cooked. The chicken was all thawed and needed to be cooked.
That leaves a lotta dishes to be washed one way or the other loaded in the dishwasher or the sink …
And notes about current Food Sources
1. CSA vegetables. These are more greens that I thought but I want to do a whole year’s worth of subscriptions to see what they grow all year around. I wish we could get a few citrus each week. I’d imagine we’d get summer squashes later on and I hope some sweet peppers and tomatoes.
2. Sprouts. This is where I get dry bulk things: flour, sea sale, cornmeal, farina, oats, sugar, rices, legumes, dried fruits, cereals to cook. I also can buy bulk spices here. Sometimes I buy some applesauce I particularly like here as well as canned pumpkin and sweet potato. I like these canned products rather than the similar ones at the grocery stores. They also have the usual food store supply of produce, meat, dairy etc. I also buy those things at this store.
3. Safeway and Bashas’ are closest grocery stores. I still buy peanut butter ( a LOT for the collapse is needed you know ;)) jams, maybe meat and dairy, fruit, maybe some veggies I don’t get in the CSA but I’m trying not to do that as long as I have the CSA membership. So far, it’s working for the veg.
4. Farmer’s Market weekly about 2 miles from here. This might be a more economical place to get fresh produce than the CSA pickup but I like the variety and figuring out how to prepare and eat the CSA veggies.
Peace, shamba
Friday, February 19, 2010
Back to regular routine
Back to my regular routine as of today.
My brother came into town on Monday from San Diego. He was originally going to drive in today but changed his mind and came Monday. He didn’t stay with me this time, this was better!
We had to make some decisions about personal property of my parents, pictures and some other estate related material. That went well; we made some decisions and let others go for a while. We were invited out to meet some old friends of his from grade school! These guys have kept in touch for almost 50 years. :)
Then, of course, my brother wanted to buy me dinner out which we did and he also picked up some subways one day for us to eat. Subway day was the day I decided to make a rice dish and vegetable soup so when he arrived with the sandwiches we had a lot to eat that lunch and those leftovers for dinner.
He took off on Thursday about noon. We had a good time but my plans for my vegetables kind of went out the window.
So, today I had to take stock of what was leftover and what was in the CSA batch I picked up Thursday afternoon. Actually, Wednesday noon is the scheduled time for veg pickup but the people who handle the distribution also have a regular office for their regular jobs in the hospital complex. So, when we miss a pickup day we can pickup the veggies Thursday or Friday. They have them bagged and in the fridge for us. This is very nice of them, I think!
I tried something Chile suggested for last week’s veggies—I had sweet potatoes--and it is quite good! My friend, S., also took some of the green I got last week. She liked the fennel and the dill quite a bit. I had two fennel then to use in the recipe below. I had dehydrated a lot of the fresh dill. I hadn’t done that before and I also haven’t really cooked with dill before.
Anyway, Chile’s suggestion was:
If you have any sweet potatoes left, a member gave me a very tasty recipe. Dice the sweet potatoes. Cut the fennel bottoms into bite-sized pieces. Toss both with a little oil, salt & pepper, and some tarragon. Roast until tender. It was very yummy for lunch yesterday. And, yes, I cooked it in the solar oven. :)
If you don't have any sweet potatoes left, try it with the carrots. Then serve with some kind of starch like pasta, potatoes, or rice. I suppose you could substitute dill for the tarragon, too, to use some of the dill.
Thanks for the ideas, Chile!
Peace to all , Shamba
My brother came into town on Monday from San Diego. He was originally going to drive in today but changed his mind and came Monday. He didn’t stay with me this time, this was better!
We had to make some decisions about personal property of my parents, pictures and some other estate related material. That went well; we made some decisions and let others go for a while. We were invited out to meet some old friends of his from grade school! These guys have kept in touch for almost 50 years. :)
Then, of course, my brother wanted to buy me dinner out which we did and he also picked up some subways one day for us to eat. Subway day was the day I decided to make a rice dish and vegetable soup so when he arrived with the sandwiches we had a lot to eat that lunch and those leftovers for dinner.
He took off on Thursday about noon. We had a good time but my plans for my vegetables kind of went out the window.
So, today I had to take stock of what was leftover and what was in the CSA batch I picked up Thursday afternoon. Actually, Wednesday noon is the scheduled time for veg pickup but the people who handle the distribution also have a regular office for their regular jobs in the hospital complex. So, when we miss a pickup day we can pickup the veggies Thursday or Friday. They have them bagged and in the fridge for us. This is very nice of them, I think!
I tried something Chile suggested for last week’s veggies—I had sweet potatoes--and it is quite good! My friend, S., also took some of the green I got last week. She liked the fennel and the dill quite a bit. I had two fennel then to use in the recipe below. I had dehydrated a lot of the fresh dill. I hadn’t done that before and I also haven’t really cooked with dill before.
Anyway, Chile’s suggestion was:
If you have any sweet potatoes left, a member gave me a very tasty recipe. Dice the sweet potatoes. Cut the fennel bottoms into bite-sized pieces. Toss both with a little oil, salt & pepper, and some tarragon. Roast until tender. It was very yummy for lunch yesterday. And, yes, I cooked it in the solar oven. :)
If you don't have any sweet potatoes left, try it with the carrots. Then serve with some kind of starch like pasta, potatoes, or rice. I suppose you could substitute dill for the tarragon, too, to use some of the dill.
Thanks for the ideas, Chile!
Peace to all , Shamba
Friday, February 12, 2010
Veggies veggies, veggies !
I have been remiss in keeping up with my vegetables from the CSA. Actually, I just haven't felt very energetic this week. My cold seems to wax and wane with the rainy weather. The next week is up to 75 degrees so I'm hoping warmer weather will make me feel more energetic.
So, today is Roasting beets and Roasting Root Veggies. The roasted veggies are good with just about anything so they’re quite easy to eat. They’re also good enough that I want to eat them so they’ll be gone in a day or so.
I’m also going to have to think interms of whole meals being vegetarian instead of just side dishes. That’ll be new for or at least I haven’t done it for long time.
CSA stuff this week:
Arugula Mizuna
Fennel Dill
Spring Mix Carrots
Tokyo Bekana Citrus
the oranges are gone(!), some of the spring mix is eaten. I want to try braised fennel sometime this weekend. I'm always nibbling on carrots so they'll be gone by next CSA day. The greens are always a little more than I can eat raw so I'm going to have to cook more of them. S. would like some arugula and dill and I certainly have it to spare.
Enough sun is available on the back patio for solar cooking again back there.
cheers,
shamba
So, today is Roasting beets and Roasting Root Veggies. The roasted veggies are good with just about anything so they’re quite easy to eat. They’re also good enough that I want to eat them so they’ll be gone in a day or so.
I’m also going to have to think interms of whole meals being vegetarian instead of just side dishes. That’ll be new for or at least I haven’t done it for long time.
CSA stuff this week:
Arugula Mizuna
Fennel Dill
Spring Mix Carrots
Tokyo Bekana Citrus
the oranges are gone(!), some of the spring mix is eaten. I want to try braised fennel sometime this weekend. I'm always nibbling on carrots so they'll be gone by next CSA day. The greens are always a little more than I can eat raw so I'm going to have to cook more of them. S. would like some arugula and dill and I certainly have it to spare.
Enough sun is available on the back patio for solar cooking again back there.
cheers,
shamba
Monday, February 8, 2010
Taxes taxes in Arizona ....
this is just a quick note about 2 tax things that happened this past week:
--Governor Brewer has been asking since last January, when she took over for Janet Napolitano who resigned to be part of Obama government, for a public vote on a 1 % sales tax.
--Divided Phoenix City Council voted to put a 2% tax on food in the city. It's supposed to expire in 5 years. Public hearings are scheduled for the next month or so for the public to react to the proposed budget, including the food sales tax. I remember when we did away with the tax on food in the early 1980s. So far have we retreated? the city was very flush with money in the early 1980s, I was still working for them then and we got very generous raises.
peace for now,
shamba
--Governor Brewer has been asking since last January, when she took over for Janet Napolitano who resigned to be part of Obama government, for a public vote on a 1 % sales tax.
--Divided Phoenix City Council voted to put a 2% tax on food in the city. It's supposed to expire in 5 years. Public hearings are scheduled for the next month or so for the public to react to the proposed budget, including the food sales tax. I remember when we did away with the tax on food in the early 1980s. So far have we retreated? the city was very flush with money in the early 1980s, I was still working for them then and we got very generous raises.
peace for now,
shamba
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Happy GroundHog Day!
This is pretty meaningless in southern Arizona where six more weeks will bring spring, actually about 2-3 more weeks will bring spring.
Anyway, thoughts on the continuing drama of the times: one thought from the Arizona state budget struggles and one from my own observations.
1)On Horizon, http://www.azpbs.org/horizon/index.php , KAET Arizona PBS station, show to discuss Arizona public affairs issues. It’s how to keep track of state government. This show was from the midddle of the last week of January.
They discussed the current Governors proposal to do away with the state supported statutes for mentally, including severely mentally ill persons, as a way of cutting into the budget deficit. There was discussion of how these laws came into being around 1980; the number of people affected, how communities will be affected by the cuts, if they take place. Because of lack of any other support for the mentally ill, they also discussed how much more money it will cost in crisis management for those mentally ill who have no meds or structured support. The cost in police calls, emergency room management and other public costs would be then charged to a different jurisdiction than the state in many cases, county or city budgets. This of course does not begin to calculate the intangible human suffering and grief involved.
They finally came to the point that the result of this would be going backwards, not just in monetary terms, but human/humane terms. The host of the show seemed genuinely shocked by the logical progression that this budget proposal would lead to, if it happens. The two other panel members involved in services to the mentally ill community, of course, were well aware of the implications of the situation.
So far, most discussions I have seem on PBS or other media like this have been so theoretical and not yet “real” for the program participants. At least, I haven’t seen it so starkly like I saw it on the faces of these people. It was really quite horrible and I almost didn’t watch it but I had the feeling of being a Cassandra watching the great wave of things coming in the future and no one is seeing the same stuff yet—BUT it’s getting closer to more people seeing it all the time in front of them as it happens.
For myself, I think the Arizona legislature will be no closer to finding a budget solution at the end of June, traditional end of the session, than they are now. I think it will be such an ugly political election year.
2)Notes from the current recession/depression are coming closer to me and the people I know. It seems like I'm aware of more people who lately have slipped a notch downward in the ecnonmic ladder.
Someone I know in the MidWest seems to be in bad straights. She made a remark on the phone the other day about eating a lot of spaghetti, I don't know if with meat or not, and not affording veggies and fruits as they were too expensive. And her husband, who's been out of work a while, makes all their bread.
I've never heard that out of her before. I wanted to say something about lentils and rice that I have a couple times a week but I actually had a roast in the crock pot and so that information came out instead.
I feel bad for her but didn't want to ask too much. She's still working, their kids are grown and they have a house. They've always wanted to move to Florida when the kids were grown enough.
A neighbor learned that she can't sell her townhouse/condo because no one wants to finance them in the Phoenix area. she'a have to sell to someone who'd pay with cash. I think that dismayed and surprised her.
There are days when things are going along fine and then some bit of news or something i hear from someone reminds me of the direction we're really going in.
On the other hand, contractors and people who fix things want work and are doing pretty well at it. I took two lamps in to see if they could be fixed to the old established, Phoenix Lamps, and I'm going to get my excellent brass, floor lamp back like new for not much money!!! I don't know how much yet but lamp is totally useless the way it is. Hooray! I love that lamp and I use it to read by sitting on the couch.
They said they were very busy and they have a wonderful store full of all kinds of lamps, from all time periods, and other furniture that they also sell. It's a wonderful old store to look at.
I'm looking at the rest of my "work on the house" list I've been getting done the past 2 years and it's time to start doing the rest of it: insulation, getting rid of old carpeting, maybe some other things as well.
That's enough commentary for now. I'm progressing eating/cooking my multitude of greens from the CSA. I passed some on to a friend so they wouldn't go to waste. next time we have mustard greens I'm going to ask to trade!
Peace to all,
Shamba
Anyway, thoughts on the continuing drama of the times: one thought from the Arizona state budget struggles and one from my own observations.
1)On Horizon, http://www.azpbs.org/horizon/index.php , KAET Arizona PBS station, show to discuss Arizona public affairs issues. It’s how to keep track of state government. This show was from the midddle of the last week of January.
They discussed the current Governors proposal to do away with the state supported statutes for mentally, including severely mentally ill persons, as a way of cutting into the budget deficit. There was discussion of how these laws came into being around 1980; the number of people affected, how communities will be affected by the cuts, if they take place. Because of lack of any other support for the mentally ill, they also discussed how much more money it will cost in crisis management for those mentally ill who have no meds or structured support. The cost in police calls, emergency room management and other public costs would be then charged to a different jurisdiction than the state in many cases, county or city budgets. This of course does not begin to calculate the intangible human suffering and grief involved.
They finally came to the point that the result of this would be going backwards, not just in monetary terms, but human/humane terms. The host of the show seemed genuinely shocked by the logical progression that this budget proposal would lead to, if it happens. The two other panel members involved in services to the mentally ill community, of course, were well aware of the implications of the situation.
So far, most discussions I have seem on PBS or other media like this have been so theoretical and not yet “real” for the program participants. At least, I haven’t seen it so starkly like I saw it on the faces of these people. It was really quite horrible and I almost didn’t watch it but I had the feeling of being a Cassandra watching the great wave of things coming in the future and no one is seeing the same stuff yet—BUT it’s getting closer to more people seeing it all the time in front of them as it happens.
For myself, I think the Arizona legislature will be no closer to finding a budget solution at the end of June, traditional end of the session, than they are now. I think it will be such an ugly political election year.
2)Notes from the current recession/depression are coming closer to me and the people I know. It seems like I'm aware of more people who lately have slipped a notch downward in the ecnonmic ladder.
Someone I know in the MidWest seems to be in bad straights. She made a remark on the phone the other day about eating a lot of spaghetti, I don't know if with meat or not, and not affording veggies and fruits as they were too expensive. And her husband, who's been out of work a while, makes all their bread.
I've never heard that out of her before. I wanted to say something about lentils and rice that I have a couple times a week but I actually had a roast in the crock pot and so that information came out instead.
I feel bad for her but didn't want to ask too much. She's still working, their kids are grown and they have a house. They've always wanted to move to Florida when the kids were grown enough.
A neighbor learned that she can't sell her townhouse/condo because no one wants to finance them in the Phoenix area. she'a have to sell to someone who'd pay with cash. I think that dismayed and surprised her.
There are days when things are going along fine and then some bit of news or something i hear from someone reminds me of the direction we're really going in.
On the other hand, contractors and people who fix things want work and are doing pretty well at it. I took two lamps in to see if they could be fixed to the old established, Phoenix Lamps, and I'm going to get my excellent brass, floor lamp back like new for not much money!!! I don't know how much yet but lamp is totally useless the way it is. Hooray! I love that lamp and I use it to read by sitting on the couch.
They said they were very busy and they have a wonderful store full of all kinds of lamps, from all time periods, and other furniture that they also sell. It's a wonderful old store to look at.
I'm looking at the rest of my "work on the house" list I've been getting done the past 2 years and it's time to start doing the rest of it: insulation, getting rid of old carpeting, maybe some other things as well.
That's enough commentary for now. I'm progressing eating/cooking my multitude of greens from the CSA. I passed some on to a friend so they wouldn't go to waste. next time we have mustard greens I'm going to ask to trade!
Peace to all,
Shamba
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