where did she go? i don't know!

Here is one of my baby tomato plants! Getting bigger every day. Almost ready to leave the nest.

Here is one of my favorite things I've thrifted in awhile. I love the idea of eating popcorn out of this giant bucket. Because of my packrat ways I am not allowing smiller to throw away the box. There is a lot of text on the box about how it's made by a cooperage firm that opened in the 1800s. This popcorn bucket is solid-hand staved! No cheap Chinese popcorn buckets for me.
Spring has sprung in our yard.
These beautiful bulbs come up every year and we don't do a thing.
Every year there are more and more. This year a yellow crocus even snuck in.
Here's a kind of hard to read flier for a Mike C. production show tonight. Read about it on undietacos. The show last night in Oakland was beyond epic. It was more of an epoch. Splinters were cute punk young ladies. Mayyors were the odd band out on the poppy bill but a pit quickly started. They sounded really, really good and put on an entertaining show, complete with nipple tweaking, and a crowd surfer with no panties on! You know that I love the Rantouls, and that love was consumated for the first time in too long. Mike R. Mike didn't show up to play with the bananas but some guy with an afro wig stepped in and it was fine. The crowd went wild! I saw a girl with a big bananas tattoo on her sternum. No Bunny whipped the crowd into a real frenzy. He is a consumate showman. And what about that DJ? I want that soundtrack to be piped into my house. The Heats, FM Knives, and a million other bubblegum, glam, pop rock songs that I wished I knew the names of. After the show, I was the designated driver and the room sort of degenerated into absurdity. One person who I will not mention but that I will hereafter designate as "weed rage" was being sooooo funny. Not like "I'm laughing at you because you're drunk" but like "you are hilarious, sir!" or madam, as the case may be.
Now for some food talk. Much like the undercover caterer, I was inspired by the new Saveur's story on "Roman food" (as in the food of city of Rome). Instead of the bucatini alla amatricia that she made, I drooled over this oxtail stew.
On Saturday, I happened to be eating at the little lunch counter at Toledo's (which by the way, if my article with Rick Ele didn't persuade you to try that place I'm going to urge you once again to try the al pastor), when I noted that their spick n' span little meat department had oxtails (or "rabo" in Spanish). Easy!
Here's the holy triad to make the sofrito.
Here are the oxtails. Two pounds for around 9 bucks. One question-is that the spinal cord in the middle? OK, two questions-does this mean I'm going to get mad cow?
First you brown them in some oil for about ten minutes.
Then you take them out and saute the sofrito. My knife skills are bad so the ingredients are a long way from "mince".
After the saute, you add the tomato paste and cook for about 6 minutes. Then you add wine and evaporate it for 6 more. I used some nastay chardonnay so I really took care to evaporate it out. Then a whole can of San Marzano tomatoes, the oxtails, and some water. Simmer for almost three hours until the meat is sliding off the bone. You really need to skim some of the fat. Oxtails are really fatty.
Here's the finished product! The only bullshit part of the recipe was the whole stalks of celery. That prep just made them impossible to eat. The strings seemed to toughen up in the cooking.
This is a wall sculpture at The Graduate in Davis. Does anyone know anything about it? Is it Stan Bitters? No one there seems to know.