I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since Tilth! We’ve done a lot, and I’ll try to show you some of it in pictures below.

First, I was so inspired by the Tilth melon-and-cheese salad (mentioned in the last post) that I had to make my own. I had to use an orange cantaloupe (instead of a green “French melon”) and I had to put the cheese on top (instead of mixing it into the cantaloupe — I tried that first and it looked terrible!), but it was a pretty successful and very silly appetizer.

We bought more melons from the farmer’s market. The one on the left is an heirloom cantaloupe and it wasn’t very good, unfortunately. The little yellow one on the right was great.

Also, I had tuna for the first time! It was really weird, but very good. It tasted nothing like fish. First we marinated it in a pile of delicious things (including dill). Here’s what was left of the marinade:

Then we cooked it:

When we flipped it over, it had become totally opaque and differently-colored. I was surprised because I’m used to salmon, and salmon doesn’t do that.

Then we made some dill cucumber pickles with Marie and Joel and James. We found a bunch of delicious spices around our kitchen (like a random cinnamon stick I’d forgotten about, which I then expertly crushed with a pair of pliers) and made a pickling spice mixture.

Pickles!

Joel and Marie brought even more apples, so we made even more applesauce.

The Fremont neighborhood nearby hosts a big Oktoberfest thing each year, which is an expensive event ($25 or $30) where you can sample a few moderately exciting beers. We decided to skip the Fremont Oktoberfest this year and host our own Wallingford Oktoberfest, where the only admission is an exciting beer. We provided the snacks, and everyone brought an exciting beer or cider (or two).

Toby made some amazing sourdough bread for the party:

The whole point of the party was to take tiny samples of as many exciting beers as possible. To facilitate this, we provided tiny tasting cups.

The party was great fun. Our friends played along and brought really interesting, exciting beers. We had a nice group of people and many of the beers were delicious. The snacks were neat too. I really enjoy a good, relaxing afternoon party.

After the party, a few of us decided to get dinner from a dumpling restaurant hidden away in a Fremont alley. After that, we found some grapes growing over a sidewalk in Fremont and decided to pick them. Joel and Marie took them home and made several jars of not-very-sweet grape jelly. They gave one to us and I am really excited. It wasn’t sealed so we have to eat it right away, but honestly I’d have wanted to do that anyway. Yum!