the northern geese fly south instead

[ursamajor]

In August, it's going to have been six years since we moved to California.

I've whined before about the lack of actual proper apple cider donuts in the Bay Area, that we'd apparently have to drive 120 miles out to freaking Placerville to get them. Because of this, I've developed an annual habit of loading up the Atkins Farm website every October on the first day cool enough to feel like fall, checking on the cost of overnighting a dozen apple cider donuts from western Mass to the Bay Area. In 2024, it was $145, or $12.08 per donut. In 2022, it was $133.50 ($11 for the donuts, $122.50 for shipping). I swear I wrote down what it cost in 2023 somewhere but I can't find it now. But at least it's consistently been $11 for the donuts themselves the last few years, it's the shipping that makes it prohibitive.

(As much as I miss apple cider donuts, the tradeoff is that I'm now back in the land of reliably good, reasonably sized $2 crullers and old fashioneds, instead of Dunkies' donut mediocrity.)

I've also been researching clam chowder recipes; I'm back on my quest to replicate the clam chowder that Oga's used to serve in Natick until they closed last summer.

Which means that when I stumbled across the following quote this weekend in Yankee Magazine, I FELT KINSHIP ACROSS THE CENTURIES:

"Common cracker love was a deep and loyal love that sometimes refused to be denied. In 1927 the Miami News reported that a woman from Maine that had moved to California missed her common crackers so much that “she ordered 34 cents worth of old-fashioned common crackers for her chowder and is having it shipped airmail, special delivery, at a cost of $15.76.” How’s that for looking the other way when it comes to Yankee thrift?"

(In modern terms, that's $6.21 worth of common crackers with a shipping cost of $288.00. Also note their recipe for clam chowder calls for common crackers.)

*

Back to Oga's clam chowder: I know from looking at their old menu that it's a traditional chowder base with added saikyu miso, served with an ume sauce and wasabi on the side. From what I've posted about said clam chowder in the past, I know there were mushrooms involved as well; I would bet on some combination of shiitakes, enoki, and maybe shimeji?

I am going to have to tweak any clam chowder recipe to not use or at least seriously minimize cream or milk, too; I know, chowder inherently means a milk and cream base. Dratted aging. I still have half my Fenton's mocha royale shake sitting in the fridge from Friday, as well as a strawberry cream mini pie from Veronica, because Lactaid helps but isn't perfect for me, and H is much more sensitive to milk and cream than I am. For him, aged cheese is fine, yogurt is fine, fresh soft cheeses are fine in limited quantities, but I don't make baked pasta as much as I used to even though it's one of my top ten faves, because it needs the cream, but H will take maybe one piece out of the pan.

*

In the meantime, H and I continue to be 900% ourselves:

H, texting me: "Hey, there's a class action lawsuit settlement on unintended Siri activations."
Me: "Heh, I can't even count how many times I've said 'oh my fucking God, [Siri,] I wasn't talking to you!'"
Me: "... and voice-to-text dropped the fact that I said the word [Siri] in there WTF."
Me: "SIRI. IT DROPPED IT TWICE. WTAF."
H: "Might as well sign up and get your two dollars."
Me: "I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS."

Me: *sends hyounpark an article for work*
hyounpark: 😂 Nerrrd.
Me: On your behalf! This topic is boooring to me.
H: Even for me, that's a pretty deep cut.
Me: Like Tori Amos' Cool on Your Island/Hey Jupiter bootleg level?
H: More like Daisy Dead Petals.
Me: Oh, come on! That's a known B-side, it's not that obscure.
H: Daisy Dead Petals is better known than Cool on Your Island?!
Me: I played Daisy Dead Petals on my radio show for years! I didn't find out about Cool on Your Island until after I'd quit radio.