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TasteFood: Too many tomatoes? Make a buttery, savory confit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

If you have the luxury — I mean, the problem — of too many end-of-season tomatoes, then this confit is for you. Confit is an ancient form of preservation in which perishable food is slowly cooked at a low temperature in fat and then stored in fat. It was (and is) an efficient and safe method to cook and store meat and fish that would otherwise perish. The term “confit” also applies to preserving fruits and vegetables, which may be slowly cooked in oil or a sugar syrup — a method that yields jams, chutneys and candied fruit.This end-of-summer confit is a rich, bright and buttery blend of tomatoes and garlic. The key to the recipe is its simplicity of ingredients and the slow cooking time, which allows the tomatoes to reduce to a juicy sludge and a whole head of garlic to collapse and melt into a buttery paste. Your reward is a savory jam with myriad uses. Smear the confit on crostini, spoon a dollop into a bowl of pasta, use as a pizza sauce, or dilute i...

‘Our school is in crisis’: James Lick High School teachers call for action after violence on East San Jose campus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

SAN JOSE — Mike Gatenby decided to go public because he felt he had nowhere else to go.Two students had been hospitalized Aug. 17 after an on-campus stabbing in broad daylight, during school hours. It was the second major violent incident of the barely-begun school year.The 25-year English teacher at James Lick High School turned on his camera and pleaded to the community. Clearly shaken, he said his letters to the board of trustees at San Jose’s East Side Union High School District had gone unanswered.“Our community has always had its fair share of challenges but I’ve never experienced anything like the start of this school year,” Gatenby said in the video, posted to multiple social media feeds.“Our school is in crisis,” he added.The stabbing left one of the two students with life-threatening injuries, though both are now recovering. Police have not released any information publicly about arrests or potential suspects.On the night of the stabbing, at an East...

What’s happened to the barn owls in a Santa Clara neighborhood?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

DEAR JOAN: I used to see barn owls around my neighborhood a lot. Most nights I would hear or see one flying high overhead northwards and other nights I would see one flying around lower. But I have not seen or heard them for nearly a year. Where could they have gone? Do individual barn owls have their own territories that change over time?— Tim Avila, Santa ClaraDEAR TIM: It’s always awesome, I think, to have a barn owl for a neighbor, but there are a couple of things that might make them move to a different neighborhood.The first is a lack of food. Although it’s hard to imagine a shortage of rats, if other predators are taking a share and your neighbors are doing their best to keep the rodents at bay, the supply might be limited.Scientists believe barn owls eat at least one rat a day, so a mom and dad, plus a couple of kids, would need four a day. That comes to more than 1,000 in a year. One of their biggest enemies is the great horned owl, which loves nothing more than eatin...

Fremont is buying a big downtown office building — what for?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

The Fremont City Council has bought an office building next to its City Hall complex, with an eye toward possibly converting the building into a new City Hall at some point.The 23,000-square-foot building at 39180 Liberty St. is in Fremont’s budding downtown district. It currently houses several commercial tenants, including real estate and financial firms, law offices and a mental health clinic, according to business listings on Google.The council unanimously approved buying the building for $6.54 million at its Aug. 15 meeting.The purchase agreement does not require any changes to the terms of existing leases, and city officials did not specify any immediate plans for the businesses that call the building home.Mayor Lily Mei reflected on Fremont’s past — “five small towns that came together” — and used the building purchase to look toward the next phases of the city’s development.“This is something that would hopefully be an opportun...

Apartment construction in Silicon Valley grinds to a halt amid cost crunch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

If the Bay Area hopes to solve its housing crunch, it will need to build a lot more apartment buildings. But after adding thousands of units in recent years, construction is grinding to a halt.In fact, no apartment projects broke ground in Silicon Valley during the first half of 2023, according to data from CoStar, an international real estate analytics company. Compare that to the last six months of 2022, when developers started construction on 5,298 multifamily units in the region.There’s also a slowdown in the East Bay, where construction began on just 672 apartments, condos or townhomes, down from 1,170 during the last half of 2022. In San Francisco and on the Peninsula, work started on only 229 multifamily units, falling just slightly from the back end of last year but well below the 1,846 units during the first six months of 2022.The reasons for the downturn are plenty: Higher interest rates are making financing development more expensive, project lenders and investors a...

Person shot and killed near Rodeo shoreline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

(BCN) -- A person was shot and killed Saturday night in Rodeo. Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Jimmy Lee said deputies were dispatched at about 10:34 p.m. to a report of suspicious circumstance on the 100 block of Rodeo Avenue in Rodeo. Dispatchers received "several" calls around the same time of shots being fired in the area. Deputies and fire department personnel located a person suffering from a gunshot wound. Violent crowds of teens shut down Emeryville mall, 1 stabbed Despite firefighters attempting lifesaving measures, the victim died at the scene. Lee said Sunday the victim wasn't being identified yet. Anyone with information about the shooting can contact investigators at (925) 313-2600 or through dispatch at (925) 646-2441. For any tips, email: [email protected] or call (866) 846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.

3 people killed in separate collisions in SF, including pedestrian

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

(KRON) -- The California Highway Patrol is investigating two deadly crashes that occurred early Sunday morning in San Francisco. First collisionAround 2:30 a.m., a car hit and killed a pedestrian in the southbound lanes on Interstate 280. According to CHP, the pedestrian died at the scene. Second collisionA fatal head-on collision occurred on northbound Highway 101 near Silver Avenue. CHP received reports of a wrong way driver who was traveling southbound on the northbound lanes. Violent crowds of teens shut down Emeryville mall, 1 stabbed The driver crashed into another car, killing two people. Firefighters had to remove the two victims from their car, police said.It is unknown whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in this collision.

16-year-old in custody after chase across Bay Bridge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

(KRON) -- California Highway Patrol confirmed it was involved in a chase Friday across the Bay Bridge in both directions. The suspect was taken into custody just after 9 p.m. in Richmond. CHP said the pursuit began at about 3:20 p.m. when a Costa Costa County Sheriff's deputy attempted to stop a white Infinity traveling westbound on State Route 4. Police pursued as the car went onto Interstate 80, CHP said. The suspect then went across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. The deputy chose not to follow the car for the sake of the other drivers on the road, but a sheriff's helicopter followed the vehicle overhead as it drove recklessly and at high speeds, per CHP. The driver eventually crashed into cars in San Francisco, and CHP officers arrived at the scene. As officers prepared to possibly chase the suspect on foot, he took off driving, striking two cars and a police K9, CHP said. The dog has non-life-threatening injuries. The chase then crossed back over the Bay Bridge into the East B...

The US Open is filled with players making comebacks from retirement, pregnancy or injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Comebacks are nothing new in tennis. There’s quite a history of that sort of thing, including by stars such as Martina Navratilova, John McEnroe, Martina Hingis, Bjorn Borg, Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray.Perhaps that’s why so many fans of Serena Williams hold out hope she’ll return after playing her last match a year ago at the U.S. Open.Williams recently gave birth to her second child so she will not be at Flushing Meadows, but this year’s tournament features several players who left the tour for a significant amount of time and now are back. The Day 1 schedule included Ajla Tomljanovic — who beat Williams in the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s farewell contest last September but has been sidelined by injury since November — and 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady (injured) in the afternoon. Then 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic (injured) and 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki (retirement) were scheduled to appear at Louis Armstrong Stadium...

Stock market today: US futures inch slightly higher with more earnings, economic data on tap

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

Wall Street is poised for a modestly higher open Monday as attention shifts from the Federal Reserve to more corporate earnings and new economic data that could provide clues about the health of the U.S. economy.Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.3% and the S&P 500 inched up 0.2% before the opening bell.Wall Street appeared to break out of a slump Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the nation’s central bank will “proceed carefully” on interest rates. “The muted reaction of treasury yields to the rhetoric from Jackson Hole shows that U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell probably hit the right tone when it comes to keeping further policy tightening on the table but at the same time not rattling market confidence,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.In a highly anticipated speech, Powell said Friday that the Federal Reserve will base upcoming interest rate decisions on the latest data about inflation and the economy. He sa...