Lemongrass Thai Cuisine
109 N McDowell Ave, Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 789-9777

As we perused the menu, the waitress brought us a bowl of styrofoam.  I mean shrimp chips.  In pretty colors.  With dip.  I asked if there was egg (my daughter is quite allergic) and she was sure there was not but offered to show us the box.  She was right but, given they were from a box and the list of artificial food dyes in them was longer than the list of the other ingredients, we asked her to take it away.

We started with the coconut soup, or at least we tried to.

Tom Kha, “coconut soup based seasoned with lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, onions, and carrots.”  $8.50 for a large (ordered with 3 bowls) plus $2 for “prawns.”  It was served with the rest of the meal, not in the 15 minutes or so while we were waiting.  It came with no bowls and the only spoon was a soup spoon, nothing to serve with.

I love coconut soup and order it whenever I get the chance.  Picking out all the pieces of roots and leaves that make up the complex flavors is part of the fun.  Except there weren’t any.  No flavors from them either.  The mushrooms were white button, cut in half, the onions were undercooked slices of plain yellow onion, and the carrots were flavorless and too uniformly cut (with scallops) to be house prepped.  There were at least a fair number of shrimp (does keeping the tails on turn them into prawns?) for the $2.

How do you make coconut soup?  I imagine fresh coconut milk seeped in herbs and spices and tangy from lime.  I don’t know what recipe Lemongrass used but it was something like: open cans of coconut milk, add to pot with several cups of sugar, add vegetables, cook until light gel stage.  I make coconut ice cream with canned coconut milk and the soup was actually sweeter.  Finally, I gave up and asked for fish sauce (which came in a small bowl, tasting mostly of water and salt)  and dumped it, plus the “hot” sauce from Michael’s dish into my soup bowl, but nothing cut through all that sugar.

Unfortunately, I also ordered a peanut sauce dish.  I expect this to be sweet, but it should fundamentally be savory, with complex flavors.  Like the soup, it felt more like dessert.

Pad Peanut Sauce, “stir fried mixed vegetables and fried tofu with peanut sauce.”  $8.50.

More of the same mushrooms, carrots, and onions, plus some welcome nicely cooked green beans, red bell pepper, pod peas, and a bit of raw cabbage.  No sprouts, no chopped peanuts, just some cilantro and a slice of orange.  We knew this version didn’t come with noodles and we asked for all our dishes to be egg free. The sauce was not thick or cloying, like I feared, but the overwhelming flavor was sugar.

We fared a bit better with the other two dishes.  Miriam of course wanted some chicken.

Barbecue Chicken Rice Pot, “vegetarian fried rice, with sliced barbecue chicken on top.”  $10.50.

Miriam loved the soup and tofu (such a sad comparison to when she was a toddler sucking on a piece of ginger pulled from a bowl of soup at a different, better, Thai restaurant) and ate plenty.  She claimed to enjoy this dish but barely touched it.  Michael says the chicken was pretty good, though a little bit–surprise–sweet.

The oddity was the rice.  Since we saw brown rice on the menu we asked if they could use it here, done with no egg.  Yes, we’ll give you steamed brown rice.  We don’t want steamed rice, we said, the menu says stir fried.  They promised they would do it, in a freshly washed pan.  So what did we get? steamed white rice with raisins.  I’m not joking…raisins.  Had I noticed this early enough I would have sent it back.

Michael’s dish was the best of the night, though not for him.

Prig Pow Seafood, “prawns, calamari, mussels, scallops, and sole.  Sauteed with vegetables in dry chili paste.”  $12.95.

Since it was Father’s Day, I encouraged him to order the dish the way he liked it, even if no one else would touch it.  So he asked the waitress (a different one from above) to make it extremely hot.  What followed was a comedy of sorts.  So no spice? she asked.  No, I want spice, make it the way you would for a Thai person, not an American.  So do you want spice or no spice?  Very spicy, he insisted.  He ended up with a nice bowl of seafood, some beans, peas, carrot, and cilantro, in a sweet mildly spicy sauce.  Mild enough for me to pour into my soup and onto my plate.  At least it had a flavor beyond sugar.

Most of the reviews I’ve seen talk about the wonderful friendly service.  Again, I have to wonder if we went to the same restaurant.  The waitresses were nice enough, and always topped up our water, but they messed up the soup and didn’t provide serving utensils for all the dishes (plus included a steak knife with the already sliced chicken). There were no condiments and it took some doing just to get fish sauce.

Our primary waitress laughed, actually laughed, each time we asked for something or made a comment.  I am sure it was just a nervous titter over her English being so poor she didn’t understand us, but my mind couldn’t help interpreting it as rude.  This is how we ended up with things like mild vs hot spices or the disaster which they called rice.  Instead of telling us she didn’t understand, or grabbing the other waitress (which she did at times), she nodded and told us it was fine.

My guess is that other reviewers have both a higher sugar tolerance than we do (it’s the next day and my head is still buzzing) and happened to hit the better dishes but miss the awful ones.  In fairness, it’s a huge menu and we only had 4 dishes.  If we hadn’t had the soup, we probably wouldn’t be panning the place so badly.  The food was cooked well.  The problem was the ingredients.

Menu Pages:

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©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This was my first time at this “low-waste, alcohol free, pet free, smoke free and must have fun event.”  I went with my blogging friend Laureen Hudson, her daughter (Michael stayed in Petaluma with Miriam and Aurora’s big brothers), and Laureen’s friend Lisa.

Held at the beautiful and green Salmon Creek School (pause a moment to lament that we don’t live near enough for my daughter to attend a school with such clean air and lack of chemical stink), it was a mix of hippie aesthetic with practical advice, local businesses, and of course samples galore.

Fermentation roughly falls into two categories: dead and alive.  This event covered both.  Alcohol and bread are the two best examples of the former.  You can’t make them without fermentation (excluding things like crackers or tortillas) but we eat them for the taste and general nutrition (and they preserve foods without winter or electricity).  There are few to no probiotics.  Probiotics are what make ferments live.  You eat these for all the usual reasons but also for the nutritional powerhouse of the yeasts and bacteria.  Yoghurt, kefir, krauts, and pickles are the best known live ferments (though they aren’t always sold live).

As regular readers of my blog know, I make a variety of vegetable ferments (krauts and pickles).  And I long to make more.  I’ve tried my hand at coconut yoghurt and have plans to make water kefir next.  Another project on my list is dairy-free cheese (something pungent, like blue).

Many attendees lamented the lack of alcohol at a festival dedicated in part to its production.  But there were workshops covering spirits; my guess is logistical concerns kept out the samples.  Cheese (from cow, sheep, or goat milk) was another large component.  Since dairy and I don’t get along well, I had to skip that part.  No one there makes non-dairy cheese but I will make this my mission to find out how.

The Beverage People in Santa Rosa has classes and equipment/ingredients for sale for a wide variety of fermented products, but their specialities are beer, wine, and cheese.  My friend Gabe Jackson, who works there, even made us a case and a half of blackberry wine (picked from our garden–and yes, a post on that is coming!).  He’s promised to keep his eyes open for information on non-dairy cheesemaking.  His dairy cheese class at the festival was a big hit.

I attended classes on sauerkraut and pickle making, both with demos and fairly straightforward advice for beginners.  Kathryn Lukas, the owner of The Farmhouse Culture, demonstrated a simple cabbage ferment.  The woman next to me sounded peals of joy when Kathryn said don’t bother to pound your cabbage, just massage it a bit with salt to release the juices.  Since it had never occurred to me to pound my veggies, I just smiled, but now I wonder what I do that isn’t necessary or what little things I might be missing.  Kraut making is pretty easy, but there is a lot that can go wrong too.

Another thing that that hadn’t occurred to me was the sugar content of the vegetables.  Usually with ferments sugar is a good thing, even necessary, as it feeds the yeasts.  But *aha moment* what makes krauts go off often is the yeasts gaining control; krauts and pickles are a bacterial ferment, not so much yeast.

Most of our kraut is red onion.  Most of the time it comes out fabulous.  Once in a while we get an unwelcome surprise.  I asked Kathryn her opinion and she said it was likely the sugar in the onions.  Which can vary a lot.  I don’t know how to fix this…can I add some acid?  Can I measure the sugar to know which onions to avoid?  I don’t want to mix with large amounts of other vegetables.

Kathryn says to keep your vegetable blends no less than 75% cabbage so they come out well every time.  That works great for kim chee, which I also make, but sometimes you want something different.  I asked her if there was a chart of different buggies (desirable and undesirable) but she didn’t know of one.  I would find that very helpful, since I know what my off ferments look/smell/taste like and could match the bugs.

Jill Nussinow (the “Veggie Queen“) taught pickles.  These should be easy but even more can go wrong than with krauts.  I’ve made cucumber pickles and had one fantastic batch, a couple okay batches, and one batch we couldn’t eat.  Turnip pickles were so-so and tomato pickles were a total fail (though I sat near someone who said her green tomato pickles come out great, so I’ll give it another try).  Cool temperatures seem to be pretty important (you can get away with summer temps with kraut) and so is good technique.  Other than that, I’m not exactly sure why mine fail so often.

This very expensive crook was much touted at the festival.  What do the experts say? does it make better kraut or pickles?  The answer is no, but it does make it a lot easier.  You still have to weigh down the veggies (you never want them to contact air); this crock does come with weights.  But apparently when you fill the outside rim with water and put on the lid, you get a seal that lets CO2 leave without letting air in.  So less chance of trouble.

In addition to the pricey rimmed crock, Cultivate in Sebastopol had a variety of crocks and other equipment, at decent prices.

One ferment I’ve been wanting to make for a while is water kefir.  Dairy kefir is pretty common and makes a drink similar to liquid yoghurt, though the buggies are totally different.  Instead of using a bit as a starter, like you do with yoghurt, you strain and save the kefir grains, which are like tapioca.  You put the grains into your new liquid and go again.  The grains will multiply with time so there are plenty to share.

You can use dairy kefir grains in a non-dairy liquid and they will turn into water kefir grains.  It’s the same minus a few cultures that only reproduce with dairy.  So you can’t make dairy kefir with water kefir grains.

Water kefir is delicious and can be made fizzy or flat.  Apple juice is a common base, so is coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk).  But you can make it with water too, as long as you add some sugar to feed the yeastie beasties.  Like with all ferments, the bugs eat the sugar and you’re left with a low (or at least lower) carb product.

The folks at Cleansing Ministries Rejuvenation Center in Santa Rosa gave a demonstration on making ginger root beer water kefir.  I can’t wait to make it.  Once I get my hands on some water kefir grains, I’ll blog the full recipe and my results.  Miriam adores kefired apple juice, which she had at a friend’s once, but I am allergic to raw apples and apple juice and found that the symptoms kicked in after too many samples of apple ginger kefir.

Nowhere could you see the hippie/mainstream dichotomy of the festival better than by looking at the water kefir demo and the “Fermented Foods and your health” talk. Karen Miller-Youst admonished us not to make kefir in a room where there had been anger and Dr. John La Puma gave us isolated sounds bites about the medical wonders of fermented foods.

John started us off with his credentials (part his resume and part the famous people he’s worked with), accompanied by a glossy flyer advertising his book.  The flyer was similar to the talk, filled with little tips like “cooked carrots and cooked tomatoes are better for you than raw” (something that is not only banal but wrong: soft or ground carrots make it easier to get the nutrients out but raw whole ones still have them and there is exactly one nutrient, lycopene, in tomatoes that is present in higher amounts when cooked, not exactly a reason to give up raw produce).

But onward to the talk.  What would you consider the number one reason to eat live fermented foods?  John’s was that probiotics lower the incidence of antibiotic-induced diarrhea (he even said it twice and had it on a slide).  Yep, it’s true, but…  His other reasons were about how probiotics are good for various gut conditions.  Also true.  But very allopathic.  You can’t be a doctor unless you treat disease, and all bodily workings are mostly separate from each other.  Right? Not really.

Granted, I left the talk before the end (the room was giving me a headache, the only problem I had in the building), but not once did I hear him say anything about the normal role ferments play in human health.  How every traditional culture has them in spades.  How they exist in nature as well and are part of non-agricultural societies cuisines.  How they work and why they are not just “healthy” things we can eat but essential to keeping our bodies balanced.

Fortunately, the organizers and attendees in Freestone needed no convincing.  The emphasis was on how to get more ferments in our lives, not why.  A nice playground and a butterfly ride for the kids, tons of samples (I could could have drunk Farmhouse Culture’s pickle juice all day), foods for sale, and live music rounded out the day.  I’ll be back next year!

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This will be my last pregnancy update.

I was 36 weeks pregnant on Saturday, September 26, 2009.  40 weeks is the “due date” and 37 weeks is considered “full term.”  But 36 weeks is considered safe and close enough to full term.  It is the minimum gestation to have a home birth, which is what I was planning.

The pregnancy was very very hard on me with lots of fatigue and discomfort, but was going quite well from all other ways of looking at it.  The baby was growing at just the right rate.  He moved a lot and his heartbeat was always perfect.  I had an ultrasound at 20 weeks which showed he was a boy and that everything looked normal. My blood pressure was 110/60 or a bit less every time.  My last midwife appt was Wednesday before this all happened and my blood pressure was normal, along with everything else.

On Sunday, he only kicked and moved twice, at 11am and 6pm, no matter how much I poked and prodded.  And each of those times it was weak and short-lived.  When his position dropped a week and a half earlier (normal pre-birth occurrence), his movement also decreased but he checked out fine and started kicking at normal levels shortly afterward.  So I kept telling myself it was nothing.

Sunday night was the start of Yom Kippur services and we were at synagogue.  When services were over around 10pm, I went to one of the members who was a doctor and got her advice.  She said to call my midwife immediately.  I did and the midwife said to head directly to the ER.  The ER close to our house isn’t very home birth friendly and doesn’t have great OB services so we were going to go to my backup hospital way south of us.  But we already 10 mins north of our home and Michael was too tired to drive far, so we decided to go to Sutter Santa Rosa which our midwife often uses as a backup and where several doctor members of the synagogue happen to work.  The plan was to get monitored for an hour or two then go home.

We arrived about 11pm and were immediately sent up to labor and delivery and put on a monitor.  When I heard the perfect strong heartbeat I felt so relieved and thought that was it, we’d be sent home.  But the heartbeat was too perfect.  It’s supposed to go up and down with movement, only he didn’t move.

My blood pressure was high, in the 140′s to 160′s, with the bottom number in the 70′s I think (hard to remember) and there was protein in my urine.  I had had edema in my lower legs for ages.  Those three things together are not good though and I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.

They sent me for an ultrasound.  They do a rating out of 8 points.  He got a 2.  The heartbeat was strong but there was nothing but tiny movements and the blood flow through the cord was impaired.  One of his lungs was collapsed and they didn’t know why.  They told us he was better off outside of me than inside.  They thought his brain was probably not affected at this point and that he would probably be okay, though he’d need some intervention.  A c-section was the only possible choice.

They waited until my midwife Claudette arrived (once in the hospital she became my doula).  I am very anti-c-section except for medical emergencies but I knew this was the only option.  I chose my midwife precisely  because she does not follow mainstream thinking and has the skills and experience to safely help women choose to avoid interventions they are sometimes pushed into.  She told me to have the c-section.

I spoke with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist about my chemical sensitivities and drug reactions and they were very accommodating and worked with me well.  I was still scared to death and crying. But I would do anything to save my baby’s life and this seemed to be it.

At 2am they took me to the operating room.  The surgery was just awful.  No pain or anything but it felt just horrible all around. It was an emergency but not the full-out get the baby out right away kind so I had a spinal vs general anesthesia and they were able to take their time so my internal organs didn’t get too messed up.  Claudette held my hand the whole time and Michael stayed with Miriam in the room where she was sleeping on a mattress the staff set up.

William Gabriel Norwitz was born at 2:54am.

They wouldn’t let me see him.  I had almost no updates.  They had a team of doctors working on him.  He didn’t cry.  They intubated him but it took 3 tries.  I had to stay there for another long long while (I’m guessing half an hour but it felt much longer) to be sewn up.

I went to the recovery room but still didn’t know how my son was.  I knew he had been intubated and was in the NICU and that he had a cleft lip.  Post-surgery, my blood pressure went up.  And up.  At first they weren’t too worried and gave me meds.  But my pressure was more than 200/100 (dipping down to the 170′s or 180′s as well) for a couple of hours after several doses of a couple different meds.  I could tell how freaked out everyone was.  I knew I was in danger of a stroke or seizure or death.  I didn’t care.

They let Michael go see William and told him he was “probably not going to make it.”  I was shocked when I heard this.  I was worried about brain damage but thought he would survive.  We woke Miriam up.  A few minutes later, Michael and Miriam went to see him and Michael asked for some hard numbers.  What are his chances?  He was told “zero.”

I told them over and over again, do not let my son die before I can see him.  It took a very long time but they finally brought him into my room in an incubator.  I couldn’t move my lower body yet and could only reach his hand to hold it.  He looked so unhappy and uncomfortable.  I told them I wanted to hold him.  Our Rabbi was on her way and they were afraid of transferring him before she arrived.  I kept insisting but logistics kept it from happening.

When the Rabbi arrived it still took a while but they did give him to me.  I opened my gown and placed him skin to skin on my chest and arm, then we put a blanket over both of us.  He had the ventilator breathing for him and his eyes were gooey so I’m not sure he could see anything (I still don’t know what color his eyes were).  But he was awake.  Once on me he relaxed and seemed much more comfortable.

I held him for about half an hour while the Rabbi performed a naming ceremony for him.  Gabriel is his Hebrew name.  Michael held him for a little bit as well.  Miriam chose to stay in the room at times and to go out with Claudette at other times.  We gave her many chances to decide what she wanted to do.  She understood her brother was going to die and was very very upset about it.

This entire time was when my blood pressure was through the roof.  I had been getting over a cold and the crying and stress filled my sinuses and nose so I couldn’t breathe at all except through my mouth.  And then my throat started to swell up and I had trouble breathing.  I asked for oxygen and they said my sats (O2 saturation) were fine but I said give it to me anyway and they did.  It helped slightly.  The BP stuff didn’t scare me because I didn’t care at that point.  But my throat swelling did.  I did not want to not be able to say goodbye to my son.  The staff monitored me closely of course but they thought it was stress.

I did not find out until Thursday that my surgeon had given me an antibiotic during surgery that was a “cousin” to penicillin.  (I didn’t quite catch the name but it sounded like Ciprosporin.)  I told him about the throat swelling and how that is the reaction I got to amoxicillin (penicillin family) and his eyes got real big.  He said that was anaphylaxis and that I needed to add that class of antibiotics to the list of ones I couldn’t have.

When the 3 of us had said our goodbyes, we asked them to remove the ventilator.  They said we could have kept it in longer but we didn’t want William to suffer anymore and we knew there was no hope at all he would survive.  His lungs were hard and wouldn’t not inflate properly even though they were putting through pressures that were much higher than any newborn would get.  And his cord blood pH was so low that no baby ever survived it.  And the placenta was small with poor blood flow.

The neonatologist said he might live and gasp for a couple of hours, but he went in just 10 minutes.  Peacefully on my chest, in my arms.  He died with his little thumb in his mouth.  William died around 6:30am, after only 3 1/2 hours of life.

I held him for another hour or so.  My breathing improved and my blood pressure went down to insanely high but out of the danger zone (they’d cheer when it got down into the 170′s).  Michael held his body then and Claudette did briefly as well.  Miriam said goodbye but chose not to touch him.  Then they took him away and began the transfer to send me to my hospital room.

Although my doctors were still from Labor and Delivery, they put me one floor down, in Cardiac & Telemetry, in a private room.  Losing a baby is a rare occurrence in that hospital and they treated me with the utmost respect.  For my entire stay, every single person, from my nurses to the dietitian, was told what happened before meeting me.  Claudette had brought my birth plan (which had my chemical and medication restrictions listed) and my door sign, which they put up (asking perfumed people not to enter).  They also put a sign on the Purell dispenser outside my room asking people not to use before entering.

They took some care to get me unscented nurses though we had some laundry product issues.  Other staff with scent stayed away or worked with me by phone.  And the next morning Michael brought some safe liquid soap that staff used instead of the sink soap dispenser. With the door closed and the air conditioner on (the window didn’t open) my room wasn’t too bad.

I left for home Thursday late afternoon.  It’s been a difficult recovery, with lots of physical pain and a lot of work to find pain meds I tolerated that worked.  My blood pressure is still not normal but is mostly in the 140′s and 150′s now.  They gave me meds when it spiked to 161 and I spent the night feeling like half my head had been sawed off (this while being on heavy narcotics) so I know now that the recovery room migraine was caused by Labetalol (as opposed to any of the 100 other things it could have been caused by).  And I know I tolerate Toperol (anti-inflammatory) and Dilaudid (narcotic). My incision is healing well but I have welts and blisters and severe itching from the bandage adhesive.

My synagogue, Congregation Ner Shalom, was amazing and, between them and friends and family, I  had visitors and phone calls nearly around the clock, which comforted me to no end.  Being alone were the worst times, especially night and early morning. Although we had to delay the burial, we counted it as sitting Shiva.

As of Saturday afternoon.  I can get out of bed by myself (that feat took several days), use the computer, use the toilet, and stand for brief periods of time (a minute, maybe two).  I took a shower in the hospital which wiped me out and caused terrible pain.  I took one at home yesterday but needed much help with it.  Today I used a borrowed shower seat and was 95% independent.  I am eating and drinking normally.

We will meet with the neonatologist in a couple of weeks when all the test results are in.  They are waiting on some pathology slides and a chromosomal report.  But the diagnosis so far is pulmonary hypoplasia.  Or severe underdevelopment of the lungs, which were 1/10th the size they should have been.  This condition is usually secondary to other issues but, in this case, they think it is caused by a random genetic disorder, which also caused the other birth defects, and led to the failing placenta which led to my pre-eclampsia.  They say it is not related to my age or health but can happen to anyone, though it is rare.

The funeral was yesterday.  It was brutal but I needed to see him buried.  The cemetery is walking distance from our house with trees and grass.

That’s about all I have in me for now.  Thank you again to all who have visited, called, emailed, prayed, or otherwise supported us through this.  It means more than I can say.

William Gabriel Norwitz
Born and died September 28, 2009
10th of Tishrei, 5770

Goodbye my sweet boy.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

You can make these raw (with a dehydrator) or cooked.  I find that lower temperatures lead to a wetter bar and higher ones to a cakier one.  But the proportion of ingredients changes that up too.  If you do a very thorough blending job you end up with something like a Lara Bar, or you can leave the mix more chunky, which gives it more character.

I started using sunflower seed butter (aka sunbutter) a few months ago and discovered that they give the bars a chocolate-like look, mouth-feel, and even some taste.  Since chocolate is the worst of Miriam’s food intolerances, that’s a really cool find.

Here’s the version of this recipe I used for a submission to the baked goods, bar cookies, competition at the Sonoma County Fair last week.

Recipe:

Sunflower seed butter (sunflower seeds, cane sugar, salt), 16 oz
Raw cashews, 2 cups
Dates, 14 oz
Ginger root, fresh, 2 TB
Cinnamon, 2 tsp
Cardamon, 1 tsp
Vanilla extract (vanilla, organic alcohol), 1 TB
Sea Salt to taste
Water as needed

Don’t worry about the amounts of the main ingredients.  I used full containers so that’s what it came out as.  My sunbutter is from Trader Joe’s.  The dates are pitted deglet noor dates in a pre-packed container from Whole Foods.  You can use any kind as long as they’re fresh (don’t use dried date pieces, the ones that look like elongated pellets).  For the cashews, I just poured them into the empty sunbutter container to measure (and to scoop out residual butter).

As for the flavorings, those amounts are guesses.  I did a lot of add and taste, add and taste again.  I will note though that the batter was spiced beautifully but the bars came out very mild; the spices were in the background.  When I do it again, I’ll double (or triple) the amounts.  If they come out nice and strong I’ll call them gingerbread bars, but I was careful with the naming for the contest because I didn’t want them to be judged that way when they were so mild.

Chop the ginger root and put it in the food processor first.  You want to make sure it’s well processed.  Now add your other ingredients and blend until smooth.  If you want a chunkier bar, take some of the cashews and process them before anything else and turn out to a bowl when they’re at the right consistency.  Do this in as many batches as it takes for the size of your food processor.

Date notes: take the time to feel each one with your fingers before putting it in the processor.  I usually find one pit for every 2 containers or so.  And there are often the little end caps left on.  Just one of these things will spoil your entire batch if left in.

Ingredients in the food processor

Why add water if your goal is to bake or dehydrate out the liquid?  Because food processor motors can only handle so much and it helps the mix come together.  Don’t add too much water or baking will take forever and the bars will be overcooked and thin.  I used perhaps a cup total for this batch, which is more than I usually need but my ingredients may have been dryer than normal.  Just add a small amount at a time, as needed.  Don’t measure because the amount you need will vary based on a lot of factors.

When it’s ready, mix in a bowl if needed, and turn out into a baking pan.  You want the mix to be about 3/4 or 2/3 inches deep.  My pan was enamelled so I did nothing to it but you may want to lightly oil a less smooth pan.

Bar mix ready to go into the oven

I baked at 250*F for about an hour.  I prefer lower temps (150*F) for longer periods of time but of course I waited until evening of the night before the Fair contest to start these.  Check often for burning (if you bake at a higher temp, they are easy to overcook).  At lower temps you may need to flip them part way through to dry out the bottoms.

They came out perfect.  When I use less cashew and bake at a lower temperature I get more a fudge-like bar.  These surprised me by coming out cakey.  In fact, Michael just assumed I used flour.  They tasted like they had flour to me too.  They were still great, even if they weren’t what I expected.

I chose the six best bars for the contest.  The recipe made about 3 times this amount.  Those were good sized bars too.

Finished bars ready for Fair delivery

So…did I win anything?  Nope.  I wasn’t really expecting to.  Aside from a touch of sugar in the sunbutter, the only sweetener was the dates.  These weren’t really dessert bars, they were snack bars.  And if you were a judge tasting cookie after cookie and suddenly came upon a low-sugar one, it would taste flat to you.  I think they were delicious (and so did Miriam and Michael) but they weren’t really right for this contest.

I don’t know where I fell but there were 12 entries in the “bar cookie: other” category and I didn’t get one of the 5 prizes.

County Fair display case

These bars were great for just eating but even better heated up in the toaster oven and served under vanilla ice cream (vegan of course).

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Real Doner (Gyro)
307 F St, Petaluma, CA 94952
(707) 765-9555
Open daily: 7 am – 7 pm

Real Doner Counter

I figured I would have hummus and other standard Middle Eastern fare, while my family and the friend who joined us would have meat dishes (the ones reviewers were raving about).  To my dismay though, the owner informed me that they added mayonnaise to the hummus and baba ganoush.  Even a touch of mayo is a no-no because Miriam reacts to the tiniest bit of eggs, including when I eat it.

As we spoke further, I discovered food allergies also ran in her family and she turned out to be very knowledgeable about how to put together substitutes.  I ordered the eggplant salad and falafel but she made me an amazing meal that didn’t feel like second best at all.

Falafel with salad

I got five large beautiful falafels, perfectly cooked in oil that does not see egg or wheat batter, pickled red cabbage, cucumbers, and a lettuce and tomato salad.  My only regret was not getting several containers of the delicious vegan tahini dressing.

Eggplant salad

The menu claims the eggplant salad is pureed, but this one was certainly not.  Perhaps the best eggplant salad I’ve ever had.  Cooked just so with a hint of heat.

Michael ordered the chicken shish kebab and Miriam ate from both our plates.

Chicken shish kebab

Our friend got the Cigarette Borek and some lovely looking bread.

Cigarette Borek

Bread

I didn’t taste the meat or bread dishes but the others liked them very much.

My only complaint about the place is that service is extremely slow.  I think it took about half an hour to get our food after ordering, even though the only other people in there were served a couple minutes after we arrived.  Everything is made to order and is extremely fresh, but I hope they find a way to speed things up without cutting corners.  The long wait is part of why I haven’t been back yet, though the food is calling to me.

Menu, outer page

Menu, inner page

Reviews:

Chowhound Places
Chowhound: Real Doner (Gyro) is destination worthy … amazing great
Chowhound: Real Gyro Re-Opens

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I got my chance May 8, 2009.  I announced the meal as vegan and gluten-free (the other meals there are vegetarian or vegetarian plus some fish), planned a menu, and set to work.  I quickly realized that, while my cooking skills are pretty good, my catering skills are quite lacking.  It didn’t help that we were never sure exactly how many people would show up (RSVPs are due two days before, but they’re flexible).

I planned for 20, got 18 (equivalent of 15 since several were small children), and cooked enough for 30.  Whoops.

A few folks lingering over dinner

After many years of cooking Passover Seders for upwards of 20 people, I have learned the trick of saving complex or new recipes for smaller venues.  Everything I made was simple to moderate and something I’d cooked many times before.

The Menu:

Chili-Cornbread Casserole
Roasted vegetables (red beets, golden beets, rutabaga, & leek with rosemary)
Green salad (romaine, cherry tomato, daikon radish, carrot, orange cauliflower, & mustard balsamic dressing)
Fresh strawberries with cashew cream
Challah (from masa) with sesame seed & oatmeal

Chili Cornbread Casserole

The good news is the food all came out fabulous.  No mishaps at all.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that.  The bad news is we had some disasters with the timing.  One of the disadvantages to cooking a large meal outside of your home is that you tend to forget things.  Well, Michael and I left a box of miscellaneous items behind.  Unfortunately, they were essential items for both of the dishes I had to finish up and bake in the synagogue kitchen.

Michael running home to get it set us back about 45 minutes, and we were already running 15 minutes late.  So everything was pushed back an hour (which means at least my time estimates were dead on).  The challah also took longer than expected, even though I had deliberately made them thinner than usual so they’d cook faster.

Salad and strawberries

All in all, I’d call it a success.  The next time I get the chance to cook for a crowd, I’ll have a clearer idea of amounts.  And hopefully the timing will work out better.

Roasted root vegetables

For anyone interested in the amounts of ingredients I used and what it all cost, check out my blog entry Catering Lessons: The Cost of Cooking for 30.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

So this year we decided to go to Gourmet Garden, a non-chain Japanese/Chinese/American buffet with a smaller selection at half the price.  The real plus? it’s 3 miles from our house.

Gourmet Garden Buffet
100 S. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 778-3899
http://www.gourmetgardenbuffet.com/
Open: 7 days, Lunch 11am-4pm, Dinner 4pm-9pm
Party room, party trays, and takeout available
Lunch $8.29 (kids 6-10 $5.79, kids 2-5 $3.79)
Dinner (M-Th) $11.99 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Dinner (F 4-9pm, Sat, Sun, Holiday all day) $12.49 (kids 6-10 $7.79, kids 2-5 $4.79)
Kids under 2 free, Seniors over 65 10% off

We went once before and I came away disappointed, so was reluctant to go again.  On this trip, I realized I had misremembered.  The food is actually pretty good.  Everything is made fresh and tastes like something you’d get in a home kitchen.  The disappointment was simply that most of the food has meat or egg or both and that doesn’t leave much I can eat.  There are several safe dishes to be sure, but not the full variety you expect from a buffet.

Let’s start with the sushi.  At Gourmet Garden, the sushi station is the heart and soul of the place.

Raymond the sushi chef

A young smiling man (his picture doesn’t do him justice) named Raymond creates both standard and masterful sushi and sashimi dishes with the few ingredients he has in front of him. Unfortunately, each and every one of the sushi pieces has wasabi mayonnaise, which means Miriam poison (eggs).

Raymond though is more than happy to make sushi to order.  He offered Miriam a vegetable maki roll but she said nope, she wanted one with raw fish, and chose the salmon.  He also made me a maki roll with eel and pickled turnip and some salmon nigiri (there’s a sushi FAQ with pictures so you can sound as educated as I do).

Salmon nigiri sushi and shrimp dumplings

Sushi is my favorite part of these buffets and it’s hard not to just be able to choose what I want and put it on my plate (some of the creations were just gorgeous too).  So I limited myself to 3 special orders (16 small pieces, which Miriam ate several of) and enjoyed the rest of the food offerings.

My usual way of working a buffet is to grab an employee (not a server, as they rarely know anything about the food) and get a rundown of what is and isn’t safe for me to eat.  Unfortunately, not a single one of the buffet workers I asked spoke English.  Several of them spoke Spanish (which I also speak) but were only guessing about the food ingredients.

Raymond to the rescue again.  He knew how every dish was made.  He was so knowledgeable, in fact, that I asked if he owned the restaurant.  No, he’s just the sushi chef, but he goes through the kitchen to see how all the food is made and then retains it all somehow.  After I got permission to take his picture for my review, he asked me to tell my readers that he’s looking to find a young American girlfriend.  A sweet man who knows how to cook, not a bad catch.

Plate of sushi and hot foods

I ended up with several plates of good food.  Above we have (from top and clockwise): salt & pepper shrimp (very good but messy), green beans (moderately spiced), seaweed salad (one of my favorites), family style tofu (I had a craving for braised cabbage as we drove to the restaurant and this dish satisfied it, the tofu was cooked perfectly too), eel maki, and shrimp with vegetables.

On the plate below we have: steamed cod (the only miss of the night…it was cooked adequately but was too bland, it would have be good with a spicy sauce or mixed into another dish), broiled oysters (delicious if you get them fresh and choose the bigger juicier ones), and more family style tofu.

Plate of oysters, fish, and tofu

Miriam asked for, surprise surprise, chicken and I found two she could eat: teriyaki and 5 spice. She also had noodles, sushi, fruit, and several pieces of marinated sashimi, before deciding it was too spicy.

Miriam polishing off several plates of food

I didn’t ask about dairy but I suspect most of the dishes were dairy-free.  There was cheese in the salad bar and butter in some of the American dishes. I didn’t bother to ask about gluten either.  Though, except for the noodles and dumplings, I would guess that the only gluten we ate was soy sauce (which was in almost every hot dish).  A few choices were breaded but they all had egg in them so we didn’t eat them anyway.

Because it’s a buffet and you can ignore rice and other starches, you can eat here lowcarb.  Sashimi, seaweed, vegetables, tofu, a salad bar, meat, and soups.  Some of the sauces might be a bit on the carby side for those who need to keep their carb counts way down. Vegetarians have good choices too with a lot of the lowcarb items plus rice, noodles, vegetable sushi, and bread.

All of the desserts appeared to have dairy and eggs and wheat.  They had some (out of season) fresh fruit and several canned fruits including lychees.

Fruit bowls

The restaurant is all on one level with easy wheelchair access to tables an the buffet area.  The buffet stations themselves are a bit hard to reach from a sitting position, but no worse than any salad bar.  Nothing was burning inside and there was no noticeable propane or other smells, aside from the yummy food.  We did not check out the bathrooms.

With some careful navigation, Gourmet Garden can accommodate a variety of dietary restrictions.  For those with none, you’ll find a decent variety of hot and cold dishes, all fresh and inviting.

(Note: Prices & website updated as of 9/18/09.)

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Namaste Cafe
1390 No McDowell Blvd., Ste, A
Petaluma CA 94954
(707) 664-9245

Open Monday through Saturday – Lunch 11:30 am – 2:30 pm, Dinner 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Lunch buffet is $8.95 ($5 for kids) and dinner entrees run around $9-14.  Lunch buffet $8.95 ($5 for children).

My brother and his girlfriend got two chicken dishes, tandoori and tikka masala ($14), both of which they liked very much.  Miriam had some too and kept asking for more of the masala sauce spooned over rice.

Chicken Tandoori

Tikka masala is a protein of choice buried in a fragrant fenugreek sauce.  Tandoori has no sauce at all and the protein is baked in a clay oven then served on a sizzling hot platter with some vegetables.  Michael and I got the mahi mahi tandoori and the fish was ever so slightly underdone, but still flaky and flavorful.  That iron platter stayed hot for the entire meal and the vegetables left behind burned.  At that point it occurred to me is what we should have done is to have let it cook for a couple more minutes then quickly transferred it all to our plates.

Mahi Mahi Tandoori

I asked the staff about egg in their food and, fortunately for us, they don’t use very much.  Only in the naan (bread).  They told me most of their dishes have cream added and all of their breads are wheat-based.  Because Miriam and I can both get away with occasional dairy and gluten, I didn’t worry about it.  But another reviewer mentioned getting dishes made without cream, so it seems dairy-free is possible.

We started off with complementary crackers and a tamarind dipping sauce.  They were light and crispy but had little flavor, despite being studded with spices.

Cousins eating crackers

We got ourselves some roti, which is a plain wheat grilled bread (we ordered it without butter, which is how it usually comes) but that turned out to be a mistake.  It was rather plain but hardened up just enough so you couldn’t soak up sauces with it.  The basmati rice with peas ($1.50) was delicious.  My brother’s family ordered aloo paratha ($3) which was a baked flatbread with potatoes and spices and raved about it all night.

Michael’s and my other dish was channa amchaur, a beautifully spiced chickpea dish with enough sauce to justify eating the perfect (but carby) rice.  I could have easily finished the bowl of it myself.

Chickpeas, rice, and bread

Michael had an Indian beer and my brother some chai tea.  We all skipped dessert.

The inside of the restaurant is warm and inviting with no scents except for the lovely ones coming from the kitchen.  Because the place is small, there is a single door to the outside and no way to sit away from the drafts.  It was cold outside and we had to wear our jackets during the meal to stay warm.  In summer it wouldn’t matter, and it has been unseasonably cold here (30′s and 40′s at night).  I didn’t check out the restroom.  The dining area is wheelchair accessible.

I do look forward to coming again but next time I want to try the lunch buffet.  Hopefully it will have more of those chickpeas.

Namaste Dinner

Other Reviews:

Chowhound Places
Chowhound Review Dec 2007
Chowhound Review May 2008

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

So when I heard an Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant was finally opening in Sonoma County, I had to go.  It took a while–it actually opened in early 2008, and another I never made it to was open briefly before it–because eating out regularly was the first thing we cut from our budget as money got tight.  But after a bad day Thursday, when I had an appointment near Michael’s office, I emailed him and said that after the appointment I was picking him up at work and we were going to lunch.

Abyssinia Restaurant
913 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA
(707) 568-6455
Hours: M-F 11am – 3pm; 4:30pm – 9pm (closed Tuesday)
Sat 9:30am – 10pm; Sun 9:30am – 9pm

Vegetarian Combo

I’ve eaten in perhaps a dozen different Ethiopian restaurants in my time and they’ve ranged from barely passable to excellent.  My current favorite is Café Eritrea D’Afrique in Oakland, CA.  For the most part, they all have very similar dishes: Injera (the bread) served with we’t (meat or legume/vegetable spiced stews, also spelled wat or wet or wot).

Before I knew I was gluten-intolerant, I took a friend with celiac to Cafe Eritrea and she made sure that their injera was made from teff (a non-gluten African grain) only.  When they said it was, she tasted a bit and waited 20 minutes.  She is so gluten sensitive that she would have known by then.  She then ate a full meal (and many others on different occasions) and never had any symptoms.

I’d encountered wheat flour in some injera recipes (and even some restaurants) but assumed it was a Westernization of traditional cuisine.  Turns out it’s a valid variation, along with the use of barley flour.  I thought perhaps it was a regional difference, maybe Eritrea vs Ethiopia, but my readings tell me it’s more of a family or personal difference.

In one Vancouver restaurant that used barley flour with the teff, they said the bread was less sour than the 100% teff versions (the woman made a face as she thought about sour injera) and I’ve found this to be true.  Cafe Eritrea’s injera is thick and soft (but with body) and very sour; I love it.  Abyssinia’s injera is made with teff, wheat, and barley and is thin, dense, and with very little sour taste at all.  Both versions are good, it’s a matter of personal preference and of course of food tolerance.  If you can not have barley or wheat, check ahead of time what the injera you’re thinking of getting is made from.

I was disappointed: Miriam and I can eat gluten once in a while without any problems, but I prefer not to and this means we can’t bring gluten or wheat intolerant friends there.  And I really miss the sour stuff; it doesn’t hit my comfort food buttons without it.

Abyssinia is a nice place and it has received a boatload of good reviews.  It’s very clean and white with touches of native art and eating baskets (which I didn’t see in use).  Aside from the staff, I didn’t see anyone in the restaurant who looked like they came from Ethiopia, though I’m not sure how large the community is in Sonoma County so that may not be a true sign.

Our server (who may have been the owner’s son) was accommodating and quick.  We asked for water as we perused the menus.  I wanted hot water with lemon.  Michael asked for regular water.  And Miriam said “warm water.”  Our server obliged with a tray of drinks fit for the three bears.

Miriam's water is just right

Miriam had expressed an interest in chicken and that’s what Michael wanted too, but the sole chicken dish on the menu (Doro We’t $13.95) came with a hard-boiled egg.  The server said the eggs are already in the sauce but he’d check to see what he could do.  The kitchen was about to start a new sauce and they had no problem doing one egg-free (he seemed to understand that sauce that had touched egg was not safe).

Unfortunately, he mentioned that the chicken was spicy so Miriam refused to even try it, but Michael enjoyed it (and was glad not to have to worry about cross contamination).  He said it was “sufficiently spicy” but not so much that I wouldn’t have been okay with it (I’m a former spice wimp who is fine with medium hot).

Doro We't

I had the vegetarian combo ($18.95 for two, $10.95 for one), which they say is vegan (some of the meat dishes use a spiced butter).  It has a bit of every one of their six vegetarian dishes: garbanzo beans, split yellow peas, two lentil dishes, collard greens, and cabbage/carrot/potato.  Plus some green salad.  Only one was spicy (the lentils (miser) or garbanzos (shiro) on the far left of the plate, see top of page).  The collards had a deep green leafy flavor which was quite good.  Some reviews praise them for not being bitter, but I like that depth in collards.

The we’ts had a flat taste to them, like they lacked salt, though adding salt didn’t help much.  The food was also quite oily.  I’m someone who tends to cook with a fair bit of oil but this put me off.  I’ve had Ethiopian food before that had no oil and it is flavorless.  The excess here might have accounted for the dampening of the spice flavors. Part of the fun with this cuisine is eating the plate, the injera on the bottom that has soaked up the sauces.  But in this case, the injera had little sauce but lots of grease.

Considering Abyssina is only 20 minutes from my home, and 5 minutes from Michael’s work, it made a nice meal and I may go back again.  I can’t say it is as good as the Oakland ones (though those vary a lot as well), but they’re a good hour away.

Parking is difficult but we found a place around the corner.  It’s a few blocks from the center of downtown so there is street parking here and there.  The restaurant is wheelchair accessible and there is no incense or other strong smell.  But the bathrooms had so much air freshener that Michael and Miriam turned away at the door (when a 3 year old is willing to hold it, you know it’s bad).

To see the menu, click on the picture below and use your browser’s zoom function if needed.

Abyssinia Menu

Other reviews:

The Press Democrat (May 2008)
Chowhound (March 2008)
Yelp

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Peterson’s Farm
636 Gossage Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952
ettamarie@petersonsfarm.com
http://www.petersonsfarm.com/

The Peterson Farm as viewed from our driveway

Yes, we are lucky enough to live across the street from a small, working, chemical-free farm.  In a mere 6 acres, Ettamarie and Ray Peterson manage to raise hundreds of pumpkins (including several delicious varieties, not just ornamental ones), fresh eggs, glorious raw honey, and a few miscellaneous things depending on the season.

Naturally, we always get our Halloween pumpkins here.  This year they graced our Sukkah too.  They make good pie when they’re done being pretty.

Cyndi & Miriam pick out pumpkins

Neighbors wander in as needed for a carton of eggs or a jar of honey but this isn’t an attraction you can just drive over to: make an appointment first.  Mostly, they host school groups.  The joyous noise of children discovering their perfect pumpkin floats through our windows all October.

Peterson's Farm barn

There is a picnic area.

Peterson's Farm picnic area

And a large barn for workshops and classes.

Peterson's Farm Barn Interior

But what Peterson’s Farm is famous for is Ettamarie and her bees.  Here she is showing off a real hive inside a glass display case (there is a hose off to the right, through the window, that lets the bees go outside as desired).

Ettamarie Peterson & her bees

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

“Using masa harina [masa flour] is like making mashed potatoes from a box.”

So says Karen Waikiki, owner of Primavera, the Sonoma company that makes masa, tortillas, and tamales from organic stoneground corn. And she has a point. Though the tortillas I made from masa harina were way better than the store-bought tortillas I’ve had and were definitely worth making as an alternative to them (a million times cheaper too).

I’ve used Primavera masa before. I got it from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market and froze it because the guy at the booth said I could to preserve it. Karen says no no don’t freeze it. I chronicled my adventures using the defrosted masa when I made tortilla pie. The short version is: they still tasted great and worked in larger applications, but I couldn’t make tortillas that didn’t fall apart.

I’ve been trying to find Primavera masa to try this again with the fresh stuff. But no store carries it. I can find the tortillas and tamales easily enough though. So I called Primavera and Karen called me back. Because the masa is more perishable than the finished products, it’s not currently sold in stores. My choices were to go to Farmer’s Markets in Berkeley, San Francisco (Ferry Building), or Sonoma, or to their shop in Sonoma (the closest but still about 40 mins each way).

Or I could special order it. I decided to have them send a bag to the Petaluma Whole Foods. Karen sweetly offered to comp it for me, since I told her I had blogged about them. I said I wanted to get it regularly so I didn’t mind paying.

I went to Whole Foods and ordered it and, a few days later, they called me to say it was in. And there was a big “no charge” label on it. I went to pick it up that afternoon and oh my God, the shock when I saw the bag.

10 lbs of Primavera Masa

That’s with some already used up. We’re talking 10 lbs of masa. Not the 2 or so lbs I had gotten before. What on earth was I going to do with it?

Well, over the next week I made some pupusas.

Pupusas

I made some tortillas and tortilla pie.

Hand-shaped tortilla pie stuffed with veggie burger and vegetables

And I generally tried to just use it up. But I was barely making a dent. So, finally, I decided to do a giant batch of pupusas. I made 16 of them (that’s 32 tortillas) and was too tired to go on (4 for our tummies and 12 for the freezer). But the bag isn’t empty yet.

Pupusas cooking on the griddle

With all that, the masa is holding up incredibly well. In the beginning, I only used clean spoons to pull out masa, not my hands. So it would last a long time. And it has. It’s been 10 days since I bought it and it’s still fresh.

In the first few days, the masa was like heaven. It rolled out into perfect discs with either a press or my hands. It never stuck to anything. Now it has dried out ever so slightly and the tortillas are starting to stick and crack a bit. I added some water which helped but nothing brings back the super freshness I started with. Even so, it’s amazing stuff. Puts that powdered business to shame.

Next time though, I’m going to specify the small bags.

Foods I’ve made with masa (fresh or flour):

1. Tortillas
2. Omelet stuffed tortilla pie frittata
3. Pupusas
4. Cornbread Challah
5. Corn Dogs

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This year, a first-night seder on April 19, 2008, wasn’t the most stressful, but it was the weirdest.  All the food came out well but, otherwise, everything that could have gone wrong did.

I always find dietary and other restrictions to be a challenge (in a fun competitive sense) and I pride myself on creating a safe space for all of my guests, with food they can eat (perhaps not everything, but a decent meal).  But this year pushed me to the brink.

We had our own restrictions: no meat, nothing that Miriam is allergic to (she can get sick from crumbs and I want her to have a few days a year with other people where she can eat anything she wants), no chemical products on the guests, etc, but they’re seamless for us.  And we can still have a full seder.

(In foreground: matzoh plate next to my seat; in background: the main table with Miriam (brown dress), her Aunties Connie and Jan (holding babies), 3 other friends, and Grandma Julie standing at right.  The note on the door to our bedroom warns people not to open it, since that’s where the kitties spent the evening.)

This year, due to medical issues with guests, we had to leave the doors and windows wide open but couldn’t turn on the heat, we couldn’t light our candles (beeswax even), we couldn’t take photographs (except when the reactive guest left the room, so my food and other photos are lacking), we had two guests who invited themselves at the last minute (and one arrived scented and had to scramble to change clothes and wash-up), dinner was completely out of order and late, we had 4 (yes, four) cancellations the day of the seder, there were 2 guests who simply didn’t show up (medical emergency and they had a bad email address for me), oh and we nearly killed one guest (her fish allergy, which we always managed to accomodate in the past by being careful, was far worse that day, and we did more last minute cooking than usual, which made for more fumes)

Add to that the fact that I dropped a few of the usual rituals and customs to save time, but then ended up with even more gone due to the above restrictions.  We didn’t start with eating hardboiled eggs like we have in most years, due to Miriam’s allergy.  Two years in a row now I’ve had the idea of using whole walnuts instead, but then I can’t find any.  We skipped the handwashing and didn’t sing a single song.  And the post meal sections got lost entirely.  No Elijah’s cup, which I’m still upset over.  We only did the hunt for the affikomen.  It felt more like a dinner party than a seder.

Oy.

We were supposed to have 20 guests (including 5 children) but, with all the additions and subtractions, we ended up with 16 (including 4 children).  Three were new to our seder (2 had never been to any seder).

We had two tables.  The main one is our regular dining room table.  Michael always sits there, at the end furthest from the kitchen.  Then we move a buffet and desk back to add another table.  I always sit at this one, in the chair nearest the kitchen (behind the wood doors to the right).

(Main table to left has Grandma Julie (white shirt) and 2 friends; secondary table has my cousin Sara next to Miriam (visiting from the other table) and 3 friends)

Ritual Foods:

Oat flour matzoh
Horseradish
Parsley
Wine
Grape juice
Charoset
Salt water
Roasted beet (an ancient alternative to a roasted lamb shank)
Roasted egg

(Seder Plate: Parsley, horseradish root, roasted egg, roasted beet, salt water, charoset)

Dinner Menu:

Beet borscht
Gefilte fish
Mushroom and olive compote
Baked yams
Pan seared roasted halibut with rosemary
Drinks: Wine (red & white), grape juice, water, seltzer, lemon slices
Dessert: Macadamia Nut Torte

(Connie offers a toast)

(Sara gets Miriam some yams, as a friend looks on)

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Fortunately, we discovered the Boys and Girls Club. They are national, and Petaluma alone has 10 clubhouses. We used the main Petaluma location:

Boys & Girls Club Petaluma
Lucchesi Park Clubhouse
203 Maria Dr., Petaluma, CA 94954
(707) 769-5322
http://www.petalumabgc.org/

This is a large building with several function rooms, a gymnasium, a commercial kitchen, a teen room, and a central space with game tables. Most are for rent by the hour. We chose the multi-purpose room, which is quite large, with plenty of tables and chairs. There are lights and electrical outlets, but no water. Bathrooms are across the hall. The kitchen is a couple rooms down.

(Miriam watching her friends play musical chairs)

The cost? $40/hour for the room and $10/hour for a staff person to be on site. We chose Sunday, March 2, 2008, and had the place completely to ourselves. These folks are very accommodating. I didn’t even have to negotiate but they gave us kitchen privileges and an extra half hour before and after the party at no additional cost. They even allowed us to have the gym as a backup for the piñata if the weather was bad. So, for a two hour party and an hour of setup/cleanup, the total was $110 (2 hours for the room, 3 hours for the staff person).

One wrinkle: to rent the space, you must provide a liability insurance waiver. If you have homeowner’s insurance (or possibly renter’s insurance), you simply go to your provider and they give you the waiver for next to nothing. But ours said they didn’t do that. The only other solution was to go with the independent insurance the club recommended. But they wanted $175!! For a two-hour children’s party! Others were similar.

After a day or two of sheer panic, we simply switched homeowner’s insurance companies. We ended up saving hundreds of dollars a year on our premium and the waiver cost a whopping $4.

(Miriam in background with her cousin Jaiden. In front, from left, Aunt Kim, cousin Kalea, cousin Stephanie, Grandma Julie)

A rare trait among public buildings: The Boys and Girls Club doesn’t use pesticides or herbicides inside or outside. They also don’t have air fresheners. (The director couldn’t understand why anyone would consider using stuff like this around kids.) When I went during the week to check it out, the bathrooms and other rooms had little to no scent at all (except for some paint smell in the art room). It was very nice.

The day of the party though, the whole place had a mild but persistent cleaning chemical scent. We opened the windows in the party room and wiped down the tables (they were thick with cleaning residues) with our own cleaner. This made a big difference and the chemically sensitive among us survived.

It’s important to me to be able to provide my own food (too many allergies to risk it) and that was no problem here. Just no alcohol (you can…but it costs extra). And I liked having our own games and other activities, not orchestrated by staff or a preset menu of options.

Partway into the party, some of the older kids (age 6 or so) told me they were bored (they loved the games I had but they weren’t nonstop so they didn’t know what to do with themselves). I resisted the urge to fix it and entertain them. I expressed sympathy and told them what was coming up and went to work on something else. Before I even turned back around, they had discovered the crayons I brought and a stack of paper plates make great fun.

The one thing I wasn’t crazy about with the rental is that you’re required to clean up, or you forfeit all or part of your hefty deposit (ours was $400). That sounds reasonable in theory…until you’re rushing to get folks outside for a piñata (without them going home) and, in addition to picking up, wiping off food residue, and putting the chairs back, you have to scrub all the tables, vacuum the floor (they loaned us a vacuum), and even take out the trash (hey, at least they didn’t make us clean the bathrooms, though I was required to check them). I would have gladly paid the staff person another $5 for a half hour of cleaning, but it wasn’t an option. On the bright side, I totally forgot to take out the trash (it was all in one bag in the can) and they didn’t ding us for it.

The club had some nice outdoor space too. Since it was a gorgeous day, we had our piñata outside. It was a huge errr…hit.

All in all, I was happy with the space. The room fit our needs perfectly. I would have preferred another hour though (people showed up late so there wasn’t enough time to do everything; we skipped present opening and held the piñata bash after the official end time). From an MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) perspective, it was a decent choice, though I’d look into the possibility of providing them with some cleaning products ahead of time for a larger event.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

That’s right, an hour drive turned into a 13 hour trip. Despite the nasty weather, Miriam and I drove to San Francisco yesterday around noon. The rain was pounding and visibility was pretty awful, so we drove slowly. Plus a piece of Park Presidio (a major road in SF) was shut and the detour added a few minutes. Still, we felt lucky to make it in just an hour and a half.

As I got ready to go home in the evening, I promised my hosts I would call 511 (local traffic advisory, also at 511.org) before leaving, but of course I forgot. Shortly after crossing the Golden Gate, I heard on the radio that highway 101 (which I was on) was closed at the Novato Narrows (inbetween where I was and my house). I pulled off at an exit and called 511 to verify. Yep. Highway closed, travellers advised to avoid the area and take alternate routes.

Only there are no alternate routes. To the east you can take highway 37 to Lakeville highway (about 40 min detour with normal traffic) but Lakeville is a fast, dangerous (1 lane in each direction, no divider), rural road in the best of conditions, and it was still pouring rain with little visibility. And it turns out that 37 was flooded near 101 too (the news reports say they were able to divert traffic this way, but it took 2 hours!). To the west you can go through Novato and take Novato Blvd to the Petaluma Pt Reyes road to the D Street Extension into Petaluma (also about 40 mins extra) but it is dark, rural, and I had no way of knowing if it was even open.

Because the 101 closure happened at the north end of Novato, the next town up was Petaluma, about 12 miles away, with the next exit maybe 5 miles up. In a prolonged emergency, they could have routed northbound traffic (the only one affected by the flooding, though southbound flooded and closed elsewhere) into the southbound lanes. And maybe they did, but the radio and 511 didn’t say and the flashing sign they set up before the closure just said it was closed. (The news says the entire freeway had to be closed and no lanes were usable.)

So Miriam and I drove to a friend’s empty house in Novato (after getting gas and picking up the keys in San Rafael) and spent the night. Miriam managed to sleep through all of this. She was out maybe 5 mins after leaving our friend’s house in SF and didn’t wake up until I brought her inside. And what an angel. Not only was she polite and sweet (though needy) during my hours of helping a friend pack, but she woke right up in Novato and helped me traipse around the house looking for sheets.

We woke up this morning and the rain had stopped and the highway was open (though highway 37 and some others are still closed). At the place where the closure was reported, I could see why…the huge (multiple acres) lake to the east there must have overflowed its banks. Only there isn’t a lake there, just pasture. Most of the year anyway.

We got home at 9:30am, about 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. Thank God for cell phones and generous friends. It could have been a lot worse.

News:

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: Deluge closes 101 at county line

“As the water rose, freeway traffic was able to get by in single lanes, but by 8 p.m. the CHP was forced to close the highway entirely. Traffic was reported to be backed up for miles at times in both directions. Eventually, Highway 101 was closed between Petaluma and Atherton in Marin. Vehicles were stalled in water and had to be towed out”

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: More showers on the way

“The Friday evening commute on Highway 101 turned to disastrous gridlock when the San Antonio Creek overflowed south of Petaluma. The highway, which was closed at 8 p.m., finally was opened to traffic at 5 a.m. this morning.”

Marin Independent Journal, Jan 25, 2008: Marin reels as slow storm keeps ‘pumping rain’

Drivers in both directions were diverted to Highway 37 and Sonoma County side roads, said Officer Tom Stewart of the California Highway Patrol. A drive time of more than 2 hours was reported between Novato and Petaluma.”

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

CHEAP EATS
Authentic means good
Here’s what I look for in a Thai restaurant: reasonable (read: cheap) prices, good-sized portions, organic ingredients whenever possible, friendly folks, and an authentic way with Thai specialties like Pad Thai. That’s what you’ll find at Thai Hut Valley, 8492 Highway 116 South, #M,Cotati; (707) 665-0186.

Dear Mr. Cox,

Last night my husband and I, along with our 11 month old daughter, went to Thai Hut Valley based on your mini-review. We were disappointed. The food was mixed though and I wonder if you just got lucky and hit the few good dishes.

You claim the place is cheap, with big servings, organic ingredients, friendly service, and authentic tastes. Well, it was inexpensive, though the plates were about average or even small. If there were organic ingredients used, I couldn’t tell. The service was friendly but incompetent. And the flavors were Americanized.

One thing I loved about Thai Hut is that when we asked if we could get the coconut soup without chicken, the waiter replied, “would you like to see our vegetarian menu?” Music to our ears! We ordered vegetarian and seafood dishes, including coconut soup with tofu.

The soup base was delicious. A mix of Thai flavors that went very well together. But the tofu was bland and the vegetables were the usual “Asian” mix. What’s an “Asian” mix? it’s that ubiquitous blend of boring Middle America vegetables cooked to minimize flavor. White onion, green cabbage, carrot, zucchini, and white button mushrooms. These excuses for vegetables were not only in the soup but another dish we ordered, in a slightly different combination. The soup was salvaged by a meaty slice of ginger root (which my daughter spent a good 10 minutes chewing on), Thai basil, and what appeared to be a kaffir lime leaf. My daughter adored this soup and my husband and I enjoyed it as well, once we’d passed the vegetables along to our daughter.

We had freshly poured water and menus at our table when we sat down, but nothing else. We had to ask for a highchair. When the soup came, the waiter asked if we’d like rice with it. “No,” I replied, “just bowls.” He looked down at the table, registered some shock, and left to bring us bowls and spoons. A couple minutes later, he brought plates. We had to remind him to bring us napkins. When the plated dishes came, we had to ask for silverware. We also had to ask for a plate and napkin for our daughter.

The first of two plated dishes we ordered came soon after starting our soup. The other came about 15 minutes later, after we’d finished the first dish. The first dish was a seafood combination with sauteed eggplant. The shellfish (mussels, scallops, and shrimp) were cooked the right amount of time, the eggplant was perfectly creamy (my husband called it mushy and tasteless but I thought it was just right), and the sauce was wonderful.

My biggest problem with that dish was that it was advertised as hot. We asked the waiter to bring it medium and, when he heard how blistering my husband liked his food, volunteered to bring some spicy sauce on the side. Well, the dish had no heat whatsoever. It tasted fine but it wasn’t what we were promised. No extra sauce appeared. My daughter enjoyed the sauce as she isn’t yet appreciative of heat.

The last dish was a disaster. Mixed vegetables with tofu and a peanut sauce. The vegetables were all the “Asian” mix I describe above and they were bland as could be. The tofu had no flavor at all (tofu is supposed to be mild but, when it’s cooked properly, it should convey the seasoning, not just add to the mush factor).

And the sauce…probably the worst peanut sauce I’ve ever had. It tasted like cheap crunchy peanut butter with a lot of sugar. There was no heat, no seasoning, no subtlety of flavors. Just sweetness and a cloying chemical flavor. Shortly after my first bite, I got a tell-tale headache that let me know I’d ingested a preservative (potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, or something like that). While I suspect the peanut sauce, it could have been anything. So much for homemade.

If we had gone there and had nothing but coconut soup and seafood combination, I’d probably consider the place a nice little find, worth going to again if we were already in Cotati. But given the full experience, it was less than noteworthy.

Good Thai restaurants are so hard to find. We haven’t had any luck in Sonoma County, though I admit only trying a couple. Our favorite in the Bay Area is Phuping Thai in Richmond (next to 99 Ranch–they also have one in San Francisco) [note: the place has new owners and the food has suffered]. Unfortunately, Thai Hut Valley was far from the mark.

©2010 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.