alexandra’s kitchen: Grilled Cheese, The Mission & A Petting Zoo

Friday, March 14, 2008

Grilled Cheese, The Mission & A Petting Zoo

Yesterday, around 12:30, I found myself in San Juan Capistrano with an hour to spare. I considered all my options: feeding the goats at the Petting Zoo; dining at The Ramos House Café; or visiting The Mission. As I approached the railroad tracks, however, I spotted a new café, Blendz, and walked in to check it out.

Now, I have to admit, I’m sort of going through an anti-fine dining phase. I’m not into the smoked sundried tomato pestos and lemon-basil aiolis right now. Sometimes I just want a sandwich. Anyway, Blendz offers salads, smoothies, paninis, and apart from its "intoxicating champagne dressing" basically keeps things pretty simple. I ordered the kids grilled cheese, made with a combination of Monterey Jack and cheddar, and was very pleased — no tapenades; no pestos; no vegetables. Just plain grilled cheese pressed on a panini machine. Yum.

Let’s see. Not much else too report. Here’s the second article in The Bulletin series: Ten Days

This is just one of many beautiful citrus trees inside the Mission San Juan Capistrano. Tomorrow, the Mission is celebrating the return of the swallows. Come visit!

The Eggmobile

The eggmobile houses laying hens. It follows the herd of cattle, arriving to grass they've grazed on four days earlier.The hens peck at the four-day-old cow pies, eating various insects, larvae and parasites - rich sources of protein - and accomplishing a whole lot more along the way: By eating the fly larvae and parasites, they rid the land of potential pathogens and disease; by scratching through the droppings and spreading them across the grass, they enable the manure to sink into the ground and fertilize the soil; and by eating the pesky insects, they reduce the presence of one of the cows' biggest irritants.

The Barn

Joel Salatin stands in the open-sided shelter where his cows spends a portion of the winter. During the winter, the cows eat hay (dried grass accumulated throughout the growing season), and live on a bedding consisting of woodchips, sawdust and old hay to absorb the cows' excrement. When the heavy cows tread on their nitrogen-rich manure and on the carbon-rich bedding, packing it together, they allow the mixture to ferment (anaerobic composting). By adding corn to the bedding, Salatin entices his pigs to turn the bedding into compost: When the cows return to pasture in March, the pigs dig through the densely packed bedding, searching for the tasty fermented corn, aerating the pile and turning it into compost for the spring.

Corn Pudding