Took your advice and seared some scallops. Unfortunately, here in West Texas, only wet scallops available. Added beautifully caramelized scallops (thanks!) to fresh arugula, Texas grapefruit sections, and diced avocado. Little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, little grapefruit juice, fleur de sel, freshly cracked black pepper. Summer on a plate.

Yum. Weekend baking project with my son. It’ll remind us of our trip to Paris. Now if only there were some way to make real French baguette...

Love grilled pizza. Love this combination. I’ve done this with prosciutto di parma draped off the heat onto the hot pizza so it gently melts into the crust. So good.

just fed my 7 year old son dinner of steamed rice, nobu’s miso cod (so easy and so delicious - charred and roasted under the broiler for 5 minutes or so), topped with crunchy asparagus tempura. delicious and healthy all under 30 minutes. hopefully these meals will keep my son away from the chicken nuggets and keep him asking for miso soup and miso eggplant and miso cod...

this looks like it’ll be interesting.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/10/in-videos-greenhorns-trailer-new-documenatary-young-farmers.html

Hi Harriet,

You might have already seen this, but I thought you’d be interested to see that the MacArthur genius grants are getting in on the movement - an award to urban farming in Milwaukie, Wisconsin.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=10162905&ch=4226713&src=news

I so admire you and Sarah and all the others who are attempting to change lives and systems.

I complete agree - I think once we all begin to realize how truly and deeply politics are imbedded in our every day decisions is the moment in which we can really begin to to not only advocate political and social change, but really BEGIN to change. And I also believe that it is once we recognize the politics of our choices and begin to take responsibility for them is when we can go back to enjoying the daily pleasures of producing and providing.

I consider it a privilege to be able to teach. And my students are a great joy in my life. I’m thinking about teaching a course about the history and politics of food next summer, about consumption. I wonder how well that would go over here - but it’s a fascinating topic. And I would include urban homesteading as a contemporary form of food politics. So many of you all inspire me.

Luca loves roasted asparagus as well. But our favorite way to stuff ourselves silly is to wrap roasted asparagus with a good smidgen of local Lubbock chevre in prosciutto di parma. You may even get Truman that way...

My other favorite - fresh made pasta with roasted asparagus and fresh Oregon crab, drizzled with browned butter and shallots, hint of lemon. Deconstructed lasagna if you’re lazy. Raviolis if you’re going fancy.

The joy of blogging allows me to make that trip twice - once with my family and another time with all of you. Thank you.

To Katharine - the section of the Great Wall in the picture is MuTianYu. It does have a long toboggan slide down at the end, which my son absolutely loved.

I’ll send in my next post on Peking Duck next week. I look forward to sharing it with you.

I am so gratified to see so many people concerned about our children. I want school to be a “whole” experience - and that means teaching them how to truly take care of themselves and each other. Obesity, physical and mental health, the earth, education - these are not matters of “convenience.”

Luca’s school requires them to take milk regardless of whether they drink it. A lot of milk boobies are being thrown away, whole, wasted. This school lunch topic is not just about food choices and budget cutting, it’s about an entire process that teaches our kids that we somehow have the “luxury” to waste.

Meanwhile, Luca brings sushi rolls to school and asks why we can’t pack clams in white wine sauce in his lunch bag...