BostonZest

Cutting Celery, Chinese Celery, Smallage, Par-Cel, Have You Tried It?

A few weeks ago, after asking Halley Stillman at the Copley Farmers Market Stillman's Farm stand why so few local farms grew celery, she offered to bring in some of the cutting celery they were trying out back on the farm.

The next week, she had it on the stand. I bought it, popped it into a vase of cold water by my kitchen sink to refresh it, and proceeded to add it to a variety of salads, pasta dishes, and other recipes where I might have used celery or parsley. Each morning, I changed the water, washed down the stems, and continued to clip away at my bunch.

A week later, I was pleased to report to Halley that I loved this product and would be a customer for cutting celery – if it became a regular offering.

Reporting back to local vendors is important. While some of these experiments may never make it to the mainstream, others will, if they make good business sense for the farmers.

Here it played a supporting role in a Sicilian Cauliflower Salad. It is much stronger in flavor than celery and I learned that the strength of the flavor can vary from bunch-to-bunch.

In her book, Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes, Jennifer McLagan explained that in 15th Century Italy growers began to reduce the bitterness of wild celery and this has continued until it resulted in the blanched stalks we know today.

Cutting celery, on the other hand, still has that strong flavor. It also has hollow stems and was sometimes use as we use straws.

One of my favorite food writers Deborah Madison in Vegetable Literacy had a great approach for those new to the powerful flavoring agent. 

"When using the stalks or the leaves of cutting celery, such as Chinese celery or Par-Cel, taste them to judge their strength. Start small and add more, as if it were chile."

If you have a home garden, you should think about adding this to your herb patch. It's widely used as an herb by Asian and European cooks. 

 

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Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny Cherubino  

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Phones and Dogs, Uses Beyond Photos

Bet you have a large collection of photos of your dogs and cats on your phone. We certainly do.

However, I recently reviewed a study on dogs who are doing a lot of licking and it sparked a far more important use of my phone as a way to provide my veterinary team with vital information to help them with a diagnosis.

Take a Video of the Problem

The next time your dog or cat is limping, licking, gagging, or showing any other visible symptom that makes you think about a trip to the vet or a behaviorist, take a video of the symptom or behavior. If you upload the video to an Internet-based site, you can send a link to your vet or play it during your visit.

We all laugh about the number of times a symptom magically disappears when the cat or dog is on the examination table. If that occurs, you can present the video as a part of your report to the doctor.

 

Take Progressive Photos

In some cases, a close up photo might work better to help you determine if an issue is getting worse or getting better. Taking a photo a day of an injury or problem can be a sure way for you and your vet to assess progress.

We did this recently when Poppy was under treatment for an irritated paw. Each day, after I cleaned and treated her paw, Ed would hold it as open as he could and I’d photograph the area. Looking at the photos together assured us the treatment was working and her paw was healing. You could do the same thing with videos if that works better.

  

Tips For Photo & Video Communication

• Practice your photo video taking skills before you need them.
• Set up an online account with services like Google Photos, iCloud, or Youtube and learn how to use them to upload your photos and videos, send links to them by email, and show them on your phone.
• If movement is part of the symptom, try to take videos with the animal walking towards you, away from you, and across the screen to give the doctor more points of view.
• Create an album for specific ongoing issues. For example, if your dog is showing signs of seasonal allergies with goopy eyes, take photos of them for a few days and after treatment is underway.
• Do your best in stressful situations. We don’t know if we would have been great videographers when our first Westie Sassy was having seizures. However, it would have been wonderful to have been able to show the veterinary team exactly what her seizures looked like.
• Ask your veterinarian if they would like to be sent a video of a symptom prior to a visit and what they would charge for that type of consultation.

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2012-2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

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What's Open on Labor Day in Boston, Plus Parking, Trash & MBTA Information

Here's a rundown of what's open and what's closed in Boston on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 2017. We'll also keep up with parking information, trash schedules, and changes to MBTA schedules. This is now a permanent page that we'll update from year-to-year.

 All information is updated as of 08/30/17

Rather than an end to summer, we call Labor Day the beginning of the golden days of summer that last well beyond the Autumnal Equinox (September 22nd is this year's date.)

We feature these reminders well before a holiday (especially big ones like this) to give you a nudge to finalize your holiday plans. Follow along on Twitter (@bostonzest) or bookmark this page to check back. We'll update as information comes to us.

Restaurants, Bars: Open

Convenience stores: Open

Supermarkets: Open

Liquor stores: Open

Retail stores: Are allowed to open, if the owners wish to open.

City, Town, State and Federal offices and facilities are closed: This includes Schools, Libraries, and the Postal Service (express mail will be delivered). Only emergency services are available.

Financial Services: In general, as the British would say, this is a Bank Holiday with both Banks and the stock markets in the United State closed. Some international markets are open. And, check with your bank, they might have some offices open.

Boston Parking: You don't have to feed the meters. Other parking rules apply. (Be sure to check these parking restrictions for the big college move-in areas on the city's site.)

Yes, it's the big Move-In Weekend!

Traffic Advisory for College Move-Ins 2017

The city press release advises, "The student move-in process at Boston’s colleges and universities will significantly impact local streets and parking."

"Students and their families are asked to plan accordingly to ensure a smooth transition. Drivers are asked to allow for extra time and to pay extra attention to all posted signs."

Street Sweeping: The City says, "On City holidays, we suspend street sweeping during the day, but we still sweep streets at night."

Boston Trash Collection:

The city has changed the way it publishes the schedule for holidays so that you now have to go to the city site and look up your specific address in order to get information. 

MBTA 2017 Labor Day Schedule Changes

MBTA Service Schedule for Labor Day 2016 can be found at this link through the holiday.  The headline on the MBTA site was concise. 

Download MBTA Labor Day Schedule

MBTA 2017 Labor Day Service Quick Look:

Subway, Commuter Rail, Buses, and The Ride will operate on a Sunday schedule.

The Hingham and Hull boats will operate on a Sunday schedule.

The Charlestown boat will operate on a Weekend schedule.

For additional, specific information on routes, schedules, and fares, please contact the MBTA at (617) 222-3200, TTY 617-222-5146, or visit www.mbta.com.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2015 Penny &  Ed Cherubino  

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Gettin' Harder to Find a Place to Hang Your Hat in Boston ...

This week brought news that the number of homes for sale in Boston is down, while the prices for those homes listed are up.

It's hard to find a place to hang your hat, but this cowhand has picked a fence on Marlborough Street to stake a claim. 

A day later, that claim was left hangin' by a string.

Two days later, an eviction had taken place.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

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Reacquainting Ourselves with Aquitaine Boston

Aquitaine Boston is the latest on what we're happily calling our "Sand Pail List" of long-time Boston-area restaurants we're looking forward to visiting this summer. In this case, it's the recently reopened Aquitaine that has undergone a charming redo. (In case you missed it, here's The Boston Sun report on the reopening.)

We love welcoming bar spaces and opted for two seats right at the front windows with a people watching view of the street. 

Light, bright, and classy is certainly the new theme of the room.

This menu does a nice job of living up to the spirit of the Aquitaine region of France. Traditional favorites of the area like duck, mushrooms, truffles, foie gras, apples, and walnuts all appear among the offerings. 

Penny's lunch choice (photo above) was the "Duck Confit Presse with Duck Rillette, Dijon Mustard, Gruyere Cheese, on Pan au Levain." This was a great sandwich. Balance of the few ingredients and just enough pressing and grilling made it memorable. 

Ed is a fan of Salade Nicoise. The one he ordered for lunch was described as, "Ventresca Tuna, Shaved Fennel, Nicoise Olives, Golden Egg, Haricot Verts, Green Herb Vinaigrette."

We each found an old favorite on the sparkling wines by the glass menu. Ed opted for Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut with the traditional Champagne blend. Penny went the rosé, cabernet franc route with Louis de Grenelle Saumur. 

It was such a comfortable, relaxing atmosphere that we lingered over a scrumptious Apple Tart with creme fraiche while chatting with others at the bar.

It's good the have this corner open and filled with life again. The reopening of Aquitaine shows the importance of restaurants and active retail shops to a streetscape.  

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino  

Disclosure: The Boston Sun is one of our freelance writing and photography clients.

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We Finally Met the Famous Westie Puppy Skye!

The past month, everyone has had the same question when they see us out walking, "Have you met Skye, yet?" There is nothing like a new puppy to generate excitement among the neighborhood dog walkers.

Then one day, we spotted this adorable Westie puppy and asked, "Is that Skye?"

Skye and her person must have been on the other end of the questioning because when we introduced our girl, "We know all about Poppy." was the reply.

Skye spent a few minutes asking Poppy some questions and trying to get our little Duchess to play. As usual, her highness declined but did allow a round of sniffs.

Skye was in one of those adorable, one-ear-up-one-ear-down phases. But she was talkative and a little cuddle bug. After Penny was given permission, this little sweetie was picked up for a good snuggle. Then Poppy took notice! (Hey, no stealing my people!)

She was named for the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland and we look forward to learning more about her as this little neighbor grows up under the watchful eyes of her fan club.

Here is our Poppy at Skye's age with her favorite Kong toys!

We ran into Skye again and her person said that Ms. Skye is now a fan of goat cheese in a Kong Extreme! Poppy recommended this for times when a dog girl has to stay home alone and might get bored enough to HOWL! We wrote about that toy in this post:

Special Toys for Special Purposes

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

Thanks to everyone who Hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.

 

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

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The Lawn Is Brown and the River Is Green!

On a walk this week, we passed the Muddy River and saw this contrast in colors.

The lawn in the small park at Charlesgate East is dry and brown, while the surface of the Muddy River running alongside is emerald green.

What the specific growth on the river's surface is, we don't know. But this page from the Charles River Watershed Association does give some alerts for some types of blooms. In the past, there have been potentially toxic blooms on the Muddy.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino