Some late April garden updates

New planting! As some things hadn’t taken we collectively decided to go in and plant some more from our seed stash this year. And here’s the video from last Friday and from yesterday about all that:

Some end of April AMG reviews

Eksi Ekso — Brown Shark, Red Lion
The Donkeys — Born With Stripes
Pixie Carnation — New World Record
I Was Totally Destroying It — Preludes
Kyle Bobby Dunn — Ways of Meaning
In the Nursery — Blind Sound
Dakota Suite/Emanuele Errante — The North Green Down
Tape — Revelationes

Some photos from a visit to Rancho Los Alamitos

So the other day a small group of us that like to do what our main instigator calls ‘excursions’ to local areas of interest went to see Rancho Los Alamitos, found in Long Beach. I’ve enjoyed doing this because it’s a good way to help you realize what can be around just under your nose; we’ve visited various local museums and other spots of interest as we’ve gone.

The product of a combination of Spanish colonial settling and eventual Mexican and American commercial interests, the complex was deeded over to the city of Long Beach by the Bixby family, one of the major players in the history of the area for the past hundred years (ranching, oil, real estate — the California non-tech/entertainment trifecta, right there). I didn’t really take any photos of the complex itself, but in wandering the gardens with everyone a few sights caught my eye so I put the iPhone through its paces. All shots here, a small set, but a couple of favorites:

This last is actually on its side rather than the proper orientation — it’s a closeup of a palm tree with an ivy-like plant growing up it — but I like the way it looks here.

Orzo salad with radish and fennel

This was kinda nice to find, a good way to use a variety of different things I had around at once. Here’s the recipe — a great dish for the hotter days.

Sauteed radishes and chard with rice

So I got this one via Farmer John’s Cookbook, a regular standby of mine — the recipe calls for arugula rather than chard, but I followed the recommendation to add a touch of mustard towards the end for bite. Pretty much just chop and cook the radishes first, move them to another bowl, add the greens for a couple of minutes until they wilt, add the radishes back along with fresh lemon juice, stir and serve. Can’t beat that!

Some April AMG reviews are up

And more on the way…

All Tiny Creatures — Harbors
Emanuele Errante — Time Elapsing Handheld
Com Truise — Cyanide Sisters
Makoto Kawabata — Samurai Blues
Dustin O’Halloran — Lumiere
Nick Jonah Davis — Of Time and Tides
James Yuill — Movement in a Storm
Sarabeth Tucek — Get Well Soon
Powerdove — Be Mine
Thousands — The Sound of Everything

Some new OC Weekly work…

…and there’ll be more forthcoming, just putting up a couple of links:

* First, Beat Blvd continues as ever, with my most recent entry being on Yorba Linda’s Roman Candles:

The sense of hesitancy and looking back doesn’t dedicate itself to four years of partying, though. A song like “666” looks back at birth and upbringing in Tustin and Orange, although the narrator, in this case, is the devil. (Seems appropriate, really.) There’s plenty more wry humor throughout, despite a blunt song title like “Molestation Is Not a Joke.” Who could blame him when he notes that he wishes the rent was free?

* Meantime, a quick piece on what to do this weekend in OC when everyone else is busy somewhere else in the world…

We feel your pain. Not the pain of all of you about to head out to Indio in order to see the antlike figures onstage from a distance play an amazing unexpected cover version (that will be on YouTube five minutes after they perform it), while some very drunk individual pours a combination of warm beer, extra sunblock and suspect other fluids on you while going on very loudly about how dubstep changed their life. As noted, we don’t feel that pain, we acknowledge it.

Puree of turnip soup

Radishes I’m good with but turnips sometimes leave me uninspired. But a scrounge last night turned up this recipe, so a little experimenting later and this was the result, plus another batch for another night. The garnish in this case was some cayenne pepper to add extra bite as well as some roasted seaweed. Not bad, really!

Recent garden updates!

Because it’s been a bit — videos from the last few visits:

The full garden crew is getting back into the swing of things soon and given the heat wave about to hit this weekend, none too soon…