Pureed Wild Radish and Rutabaga

I recently coordinated a little volunteer expedition with a few friends pulling invasive species for Golden Gate Park's department out on Land's End. Land's End is near Ocean beach in San Francisco, and is absolutely gorgeous and a great place to go running or walking.

Anyhow, they had us pulling wild radish, which is an invasive species that take over the area and make it tough for the native species to thrive (there's a better definition here).

Some of the radishes we pulled up were really big (see picture of our friends Paul and Alex for size reference), so I decided to take a couple home to see if I could cook them up.

On my way out, one of the other volunteers said that if I managed to make anything decent I should email this woman Cynthia who had an invasive species cook book for recipes that include, for example, fennel or nasturcium which are invasive yet very tasty plants. Isn't that cool that someone actually wrote an invasive species cook book?!

Well, I went home, did some experimenting, and finally ended up making a nice little side dish out of those big bitter radishes. I emailed this woman Cynthia to let her know, but she never emailed me back, so I decided I'd post the recipe here. Maybe I should write a compet invasive species cook book. This could be my first recipe.

Anyhow, the wild radishes are really tough so you have to eat them cooked instead of raw. First I tried to roast them but they got really dry, so then I tried boiling them which worked much better. Also, like I mentioned, they are super bitter. I ended up having to add a rutabaga to the recipe to cut the bitterness. The radishes taste a lot like a mustardy rutabaga when boiled, so that worked out really nicely.

Here's the recipe:

Pureed Wild Radish and Rutabaga

• Peel and cut wild radishes into chunks
• Peel and cut equal parts rutabaga into chunks
• Boil radish and rutabaga together in a pot for about 15-20 minutes or until they are both very tender
• Add some milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste
• Blend with a mixer like you would mashed potatoes until creamy
• Serve as a side dish with meat or fish or anything really.
  

And here's a pictures of the finished dish. I should have taken it when it was plated and looking pretty, but you can get the idea.

It would be great to hear if anyone else out there has ever attempted to eat Wild Radish and what your recipe was.

Obama's Speech in Cairo

If you haven't seen Obama's speech in Cairo that he gave last weekend, definitely check it out. It's absolutely amazing.



I still can't believe what a relief it is to have Obama as our president.

I'm very proud of him for being so bold and strong regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also reminding us that Muslims and Muslim countries have played an important role in America's history and culture.

This speech is going to be one for the history books. Also, I believe this president will be viewed by history with the same reverence as we now view Lincoln.

Moving

People keep asking for an update. Before when I was super busy with work and life I felt I had a reason to slack. But now that I just quit my job, I guess I don't anymore. So here goes.

The big update is that we are finally getting our act together and moving to New York. We've been saying we're going move for about 6 months now and haven't made any progress, and apparently a few of our friends are even making bets on our timing (I think Maryam already won some money betting against our former claims we were moving in March).

But I quit my job two weeks ago so that was the first real tangible step. The next step is finding a place in NYC. We're thinking of trying to do a house swap for the first three months so we can get a sense of the city before committing, and we wouldn't have to deal with either renting out or selling our house in San Francisco. Plus Sep wants to come back in the Spring to teach a semester at Stanford so it will be nice to have our house back for that.

We're actually in New Jersey right now but we're not looking for places, we're going to Sep's 10-year college reunion at Princeton. Then, over the next few weeks, we have like 5 weddings and my parents and Aunt Lisa coming to visit for a week. We'll start really looking for a place in July/August.

So I thought I was going to be excited to be unemployed for a couple months before moving and finding a job in New York, but it actually makes me very uncomfortable! I don't like uncertainty and I really don't like not being super busy. I also didn't realize how much of my identity is wrapped up in my work and my career path. I think when I take breaks from work from now on, I need to be traveling so that it just feels like a temporary vacation instead of feeling like such a lofty transition. If I look at it objectively though, I know I'm super lucky to have this time off and I'm using it to do the things that make me really happy. Like spending more time with Sep, my family and friends, and also doing things like being in nature, getting more exercise, doing pottery, cooking, and reading a ton. So that has been really nice. I'm also looking into taking some computer science classes to get a little more technical and maybe also taking a Farsi class.

Anyhow, that's my update. I'm going to try to keep this a little more updated although I think I do a lot less political ranting than I used to. I do want to write some about my experiences cooking up an invasive species that we took out of Golden Gate park last weekend, walking Bay to Breakers, Maryam's wedding, and Emily's new baby, so those will be fun.

Also, if you're curious about the picture. That's me sitting here right now. Unemployed. In New Jersey. Sep is in the background. It's a crappy picture taken by my webcam, but I just think blog posts look better with pictures.

Speechless

Except to say that I feel so damn proud right now!

I thought this would be a good time to post one of my favorite photos from the 2004 Democratic Convention.


















p.s. I purposely said "I feel proud" in hopes of being prominently featured on Sep's website "We Feel Fine" which is reporting that since the election, people are "feeling proud" on blogs 8 times more often than usual.

My Election Day Conspiracy Theory

So I have to admit that I was one of those people who thought that for sure there would be at least one manufactured catastrophe like another anthrax scare or new Bin Laden video that would magically surface just before election day to instill tons of fear in Americans to vote Republican again.

But I am pleasantly surprised to say that election day is here and despite a few implicit connections and fear mongering throughout the campaign, it has been surprisingly clean.

I had been wondering how we got away so unscathed this year when I stumbled across this article this article on how Karl Rove recently predicted that Obama would win.

At first I wondered "Why in the heck would Rove say that??" It didn't make any sense to have a top Republican advisor conceding the race publicly during the final days of the election. That's when another conspiracy theory formed in my head. This one is entirely baseless, but kind of fun to imagine.

What if, Rove, known for his dirty tricks, went to McCain and said: "Okay McCain, you're 12 points down in PA and the economy is in the tank, were going to have to get down and dirty and fight back with the only weapon we have left: fear."

But McCain, who we know has at least some decency said back to Rove: "No way man. We're going to win this on merits and only a little ethical fear mongering (think William Ayers) or not at all."

Then Rove got all pissed off and stormed away to alert reporters that he thought McCain was going to lose.

It could have happened!

Either way, I was wrong in my cynicism and now I hope I'm wrong in my longstanding worry that this country was really going to have a hard time electing an African American.

Gobama! GO USA!

Best Wedding I've Ever Had

And the only wedding I've ever had of course... but I don't think I'm being biased in saying that it was the most incredible, magical evening and Sep and I were so happy and everyone around us seemed like they were having lots of fun.

We had great photographers and they posted the first professional photos on their blog but we won't get the rest for a couple weeks. Check them out. They are really nice.

Where have I been?

I've been busy.

1) Getting Married to Amazing Man in September: Sep Kamvar
2) New Job (and Career) at Cool Company: AngelPoints
3) Three Week Vacation/Pre-Wedding Honeymoon: Europe

I feel like that is a good update. It's got some meat in it.