Okay, I admit a minor fantasy today regarding chocolate. I haven't had any for nearly a month now. Pretty amazing, actually, that this hasn't happened before.

Getting off a heroin addiction is probably more difficult.

Luckily, I don't work in some mega mall with a "Fudge Factory" at each end.

Breakfast

Standard fare.

Oct 25 Breakfast

That's tea again, steeped in local water, and local milk and honey at least.

(Hey, don't chuckle about the local water. If you live in LA your water probably comes through the San Francisco Bay Delta and could be gonners in a big quake, if sea levels rise too much, or a pineapple express meets a high tide. But let's not raise taxes to fix anything. Go for a bond and have our kids pay for it later).

Eggs are from Laytonville and our backyard hens. Watermelon from Ukiah Valley and Sebastapol goat milk yogurt atop. Bagels baked in Garberville, spread with Petaluma butter and plum butter from my friend Holly who lives several blocks east of here.

Holly is also on the City Council so she pretty much controls what goes on in this town.

Lunch

Leftoverville.

Oct 25 Lunch

That's the squash-pesto dish I've described earlier. Walnuts from St. Helena. Feta cheese from Sebastapol. Tomatoes and tomatillos from our garden. Spectacularly delicious and fizzy grape juice pressed at the Harvest Festival this weekend with grapes from Frey Vineyards of Redwood Valley.

Some gratuitous promotion: http://www.freywine.com/freywine/

At lunch time I also made a stew pot and put in on the solar oven. This made dinner a breeze.

Dinner

I took a meat cleaver to the shoulder and broke it up to fit in the pot. I missed a little at first and snapped one of our cutting boards in half. I think I need to practice this more often. I am hoping my wife reads this and I don't have to tell her what happened to her face. Sorry honey.

As it stewed, the meat just pulled away from the bones, so the stew is a real pleasure to consume. In my opinion, this compensates for the ruined cutting board. I should be redeemed and forgiven.

Oct 25 Dinner

That was a very good mug of beer brewed with Hale. The stew has lamb shoulder, garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, bay leaves and thyme stems, all from Willits. Over a bed of mashed potatoes from our garden, with Petaluma (Clover) dairy products blended in. Tomato, tomatillo and feta cheese salad on the side.

Just finished my mug of warm milk and honey. Think I should get to bed soon.

Goodnight.