Rancho Gordo beans

 Now that I want to eat more frugally, I hauled out my crock pot to make some beans. Not just any beans:  Rancho Gordo beans. I used to be able to get them at the SF Ferry building but they closed down that store, so I got them at the Berkeley Bowl (Oh, how I miss the Berkeley Bowl!). They are very fresh, heirloom and special cultivars that have terrific flavor. I went to their web site and you can search for locations that carry them by zip code using a map tool, so I found a store that is about twenty minutes away on foot, and went on a shopping trip today. It's a cute little cafe with some pantry items. I didn't stay to eat or drink anything because I'm on my weight loss program but I got black beans and pinto beans, just the basics. The company also has a bean club that there is a waiting list for, so I signed up for the waiting list. Here's company founder Steve  Sandoz cooking his beans without soaking them:

Weight loss goals

At a yearly check-up, I had some blood work done and found that my LDL cholesterol level was high. This has nudged me to take weight loss more seriously. I lost about ten pounds when I moved but then things have plateaued and I'm maintaining the same weight, not losing but not gaining either. I'm tired to feeling so sad about all these extra pounds I'm carrying around. I don't like the way I look, I get tired easily, and it's hard to find clothes that fit. Since I moved, I find that my eating has not been as healthful as it could be because I'm finding it hard to shop for the foods I want to eat at the stores in my neighborhood. The produce is not great. I can buy cottage cheese in one store but not the others. There's one larger "organic" market about 20 minutes away where I can get coffee, the good chips, and that lemon fava bean dip. At a smaller organic deli about 10 minutes away, I can get a few things but not all I want. At the supermarkets--and there are three close by--everything looks sad. I can get potatoes and onions and beer. The other obstacle, which I need to eliminate today, is that I don't have enough food storage containers I have a few Pyrex bowls with lids, but I need a larger tupperware thingie for crudité storage and a few more for steamed broccoli or green beans. I will walk over to the housewares store and get some. I don't want to use old yogurt containers because you can't see inside them and I'll forget and the food will go bad. I had an appointment with a nutritionist but she really had nothing new to tell me except to drink lots of water, increase my fiber, and swap lower calorie foods for higher ones. I know what I need to do: I need to increase my intake of fresh veggies and fruits, not eat chips with my hummus or fava bean spreads, cut out sweets and foods like empanadas and chicken wings when I go out. My goal for this week is to cook the broccoli and green beans I got, steam the spinach and kale, cut up cucumber, bell pepper, and celery, wash the baby carrots and just eat veggies and eggs. I got a loaf of Dave's 21-grain bread, too.  I need to get a toaster oven.

 Today I joined my daughter, her friend Hannah and Hannah's mother for an excursion in Manhattan. We met up at the Chelsea Flea Market and then had Korean food. It was lovely weather--the perfect temperature and no wind. Hannah's mom and I talked about life in Minneapolis, moving to Brooklyn and those times in our lives when we've done a big purge of stuff. She tells me that things in the Twin Cities have really declined--so many places have closed, neighborhoods have lost their cohesion, there are murders and car-jackings, a big gang war, lots of unhoused campers. Uptown is apparently almost empty with most of the stores and restaurants closed down, the movie theater closed, Calhoun Square an empty shell. We really were lucky to have lived there when it was lively and fun. I'm sad to hear about the decline and the cost of living sky-rocketing at the same time.

watching in September

 what I"ve been watching lately:

Finished watching and liked:  A League of Their Own, Ted Lasso, Reservation Dogs.

Ongoing: The Good Fight. I binged ALL the seasons and caught up to the latest (and last) season's premiere and second episode. I find it both entertaining and a little disturbing because it is all about the anxiety of today's politics.

House of the Dragon. Creepy sexual politics in the third episode, still watching it to see what happens next.

Rings of Power: Good, lots of parallel storylines.

Industry: creepy characters behaving badly while conducting incomprehensible financial shenanigans. Not great but I'm hooked.

Kdramas: watching three, but need to start a new one that is good. Maybe I'll rewatch something.

Little Women, gripping, still early days. 

When I Wish Upon You, Ji Chang Wook is so beautiful, I will watch this show just for him. 

Once Upon a Small Town, another one of these slice of rural life shows in which the Seoul transplant is the fish out of water. Our hero is a veterinarian.