Just a quick Yucca post, and general update.

There are new foods everywhere, new staples, and new exotics.  The Yucca here is a super ugly, delicious staple.  It's starchy like a potato.  I was grocery shopping this morning, and happened into the 20% discount day, so I bought more than usual.  The thinking?  I'd rather thaw a loaf of bread for the kids' sandwiches than go to the store.  I left with two carts.  They had nut-free Safeway brand "oreos" on special too-that means there's a little treat in the lunch boxes...I enjoyed the amble through a new market.

There were yuccas, already peeled and sliced, and there were whole ones.  There was also a lady looking at them so skeptically>>>so I waited for her to finish, and then went in.  I found a couple small ones, thinking as I often do, that the smaller ones taste better-like potatoes, carrots, beets, zucchini, butternut squash, etc...  And now, they're in the soup.

The are a straight-up ornery things to remove the peel from.  Once that's complete though (and now I can do it myself, having gotten a lesson from our housekeeper! Still sounds like a confession whenever I write it-but I console myself as usual with "it's ok, I've subbed in 40 hours of schoolwork, and we're making a job").  She hacked at it like it had harmed her in the past, or might still...

Copy and paste the link from here if you want to read about them...
http://www.buyselltrees.com/itemdetail.aspx?id=91&p=14&type=0&name=&aspect=0&height=0&feature=0&climate=0&col=

Cassava roots in a market. Photo courtesy: Karin Dalzeil

So, according to the photo, they're cassava roots in English, yucca in Spanish...

I started the soup today by sauteing a small, diced, red onion, in about 3 tbsp olive oil, then peeled and diced a bag of carrots, and crushed in 4 small cloves of garlic.  I briefly lamented not having any gluten free stock to use, and then moved on; but if you have stock, use it, or at least use some cubes or paste-then you can skip the lamenting.

After sauteing all that together until the carrots were softened, and a few were starting to brown, I added in a lb of ground beef, and browned that.  When that was well on its way, I snipped in a half a bunch of fresh dill, which was special, because it's not always in the stores here...

I usually use fresh herbs and stock paste, but since I don't have that, I've tried to compensate with dried.  I threw in some fajita spice, some Montreal Steak Spice, salt, pepper, and more powdered garlic.  I stirred it really well, and added a can of organic pinto beans, to add in some more nutrition.  It's bubbling away now, so I hope it's ready for lunch.  And if it's a dud--there's always the salt and pepper remedy!  I'll advise if it turns out that way-hopeful that it won't, because it smells like I'm hungry.

Speaking of hunger, reminds me of weight and fitness:  quick update, I'm doing the daily workouts in the gym here at home, bike, weights, and yoga mat--and TV:)  I'm concentrating on the yoga again because I'm spending so much time in the writing chair--I'm in two classes this round, and then only three more to go-so I'm thinking about work again this fall...I am in a class that I find maddeningly frustrating, so I'm actually meditating to offset that stress...I'm feeling quite fit, still missing the swims though..., and the scale says heavier than the mirror indicates-so I'm taking that as a sign that I've been building muscle mass...in all-Yay.  If the scale's true and the mirror's a liar, then at least my body image is intact!

Cheers and Chao!