The last 72 hours in the life of our Tulip Magnolia in the front yard.
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Category: garden
Signs of spring.
Despite the fact that there is still little piles of snow tucked away here & there, spring is on it’s way. My allergies tell me so.
As does the tulip magnolia across the street in Jennifer’s back yard.
The tulip magnolia has exactly 2 buds that have cracked open at the top of the tree. If you look very closely, you can see it.
The cherry tree has the beginnings of blossoms.
As does the one next door.
And in Brian’s back yard, the maples are turning red.
Sometimes, really.
It’s Mid-January.
I’m starting to get cabin fever. I know, it’s way too early for that. I think it’s mostly due to Edie being home sick 2 days last week with yet another bug going around, that I managed to catch as well.
It’s just a mild cold. But the idea that I’ve got another one after the back to back ones that kept me out between Halloween and Christmas has me cranky.
Also, I’ve now spent the better part of the last 3 weeks in my tiny, dark house with my family. I love my tiny dark house, I love my family. But enough.
Thankfully, the weather was warm this past weekend. Warm enough I wandered around outside and noticed my hellebore starting to bloom.
They aren’t supposed to do this until closer to the end of February.
I’d love to regal you with tales of my outdoor adventures this weekend, but not long into my soaking up the sun out there Saturday, I had a run-in with nature. A bird perched itself on a tree branch above me and proceeded to relieve itself, all over my lap. That was enough nature for me for the day.
I headed back inside, where I was inspired to do some cleaning – not only did I get the Christmas cookie tins and holiday china packed away, I re-organized the upstairs linen closet. Admittedly, balling up sheets and shoving them in wasn’t working anymore, which is what prompted that bit of organizational madness.
Once I got the house clean, I have to admit, I was sort of looking for an excuse to sit and work on my two big projects – Pat’s sweater and the quilt. I’d recently realized I’d made major progress over the holiday break where we sat and watched tv almost incessantly when we weren’t hosting friends.
Several inches worth of progress on the sweater. It finally is starting to look like something.
Friday night, as I was sitting and ripping out delicate little stitches, I realized I was over halfway done ripping apart the quilt. More like, 75% done disassembling the back from the front. That definitely went faster than I thought it was going to.
Both are projects I had pie in sky visions of being done by Pat’s birthday, which is a week from today. The quilt isn’t going to make it – even if I do get the back fully removed, I still have quite a bit of repairs to make to the top of the quilt. It could be an anniversary gift. But the sweater? I think I could make that happen in the next week. The weather forecast for the week looks conducive to sitting and knitting. And having spent a big chunk of Saturday cleaning, I think I could reasonably pull it off.
Fall Purge.
Last week when I shoveled out the bottom of the chicken coop to put on my garden, I couldn’t help but notice that my tomatoes had the end of season blight. Having given up the bulk of the harvest to the psycho squirrels this summer, I was very grateful for the late season comeback, only to be disappointed by what I called the funk.
Sigh.
So, Saturday I commenced to ripping out my tomato plants, leaving my pole beans, tomatillos and malabar spinach. Along the way I pulled up some volunteer butternut squash plants too. I yielded 6 squash (with a few more left in the garden), a nice size basket of green tomatoes for us, the bulk of which I pickled (of course) and a really nice size bucket of tomatoes with blight for the chickens.
I always like to wait until first frost to rip out my tomatoes – they will produce until then and I hate to think of any tomatoes I won’t get. This year though, it was just too pathetic looking.
Maybe I can put in a little fall crop though.
Sunday morning, I got up and decided it was the day to finally clean out the attic, a task I’d been putting off for some time. Years to be honest.
Cleaning out the attic is actually part of the greater list of projects I have lined up for this fall. Technically, it was the last one on the list, but since it was the one I could do by myself and cleaning the attic meant making space in our room, I decided to jump on that instead.
I have a bad habit of just opening the door to the attic space off our bedroom and shoving stuff in. It had gotten so crammed with stuff, you couldn’t just open the door and shove in. So, sitting outside the door, spilling into our bedroom was a collection of suitcases (from all the roadtrips this summer), as well as Edie’s camp trunk, the cover for her upright bass and countless other items that didn’t fit in there.
As I made my way to the back of the attic, I realized I hadn’t gotten rid of any of Edie’s clothes since about the time she finished up preschool. (She started 5th grade last month.) Worse, there were infant things I had been hanging onto – her crib mobile, a bouncy seat, the toddler bed rail she used for all of about a week before she convinced us she didn’t need it and a baby gate. I’m sure I was saving most of this for when we had visits from friends with younger kids, but the fact is, they were totally inaccessible in the back of the attic and by the time I got them out, I realized they just needed to go elsewhere.
A few freecycle posts, a facebook post, an email or two and a shout to the second grade girl across the street and I had those 17 bags of clothes and miscellaneous baby gear out of here. 5 bags went to a refugee family a neighbor is collecting for, one went to Li across the street (including some pieces that have been passed around this neighborhood from little girl to little girl to little girl, like the purple chenille cardigan with fringe that is most beloved) and when Mo came by to take a bag, she offered to haul it all away. Score! Thanks Mo. Still left are the pieces of plywood, 2x’s and tile grout I pulled out of the attic, left over from when we built it out, when I was pregnant with Edie almost 11 years ago. Pat says he will find a use for them. I’m seriously eyeballing at hauling them to the habitat store, as we have a basement full of things we might use.
It felt great to purge. I kept a few things – mostly dresses I made Edie or some of her favorite pieces I couldn’t bear to part with, like the seersucker skirt she insisted on sledding in a few times and the adored BabyGap faux fur leopard print jumper that is too fabulous for words. A few favorite toys and books. And the rest? Gone. I was able to put her trunk away and find a spot for the suitcases not piled on top of other stuff and still have room for more treasures.
Meanwhile, Pat was outside doing his own fall purging.
He pruned the peach tree.
It’s supposed to help it put out more fruit.
Considering the squirrels get all the fruit, I applaud him for trying.
Although a smaller tree will make it easier to net and keep the rodents out, so maybe we might get a peach off that thing one of these days.
He also trimmed the saucer magnolia back. He removed one of the trunks and trimmed many of the lower branches off, so that you don’t have to duck to walk under the tree.
By the front porch there you can see the piles of plywood and bouncy seat I dragged down from the attic, never to be in there again. And the window we replaced last fall that needs to become a coldbox for my garden.
Clearly, getting things out of our house is my happy place, while cutting things is his.
Up next is the basement cleanout. We need to make room so that the ping pong table can be opened up down there, per Edie’s requests, so she & her friends can hang out down there when the weather is subpar per my request. I also need to get going on refinishing the desk I got for her room, but I need space to work (which is what really is spurring on the basement cleanout, while the things coming out of her room is what spurred the attic purge.) It seems to be a never ending cycle of get rid of stuff to make room for more stuff, with one project leading to another and another…. Does it ever end?
Not Pickled.
I put some produce up this week that believe it or not, wasn’t pickled. I know, right?
I stumbled upon this last summer and it worked well, so I decided to try it again. I take an assortment of chili peppers and roast them in the oven until they are done.
Most were from my garden.
The thing about chili peppers is that one plant produces buckets of them. There is always plenty to share.
I happened to be the lucky beneficiary of a chili pepper enthusiast I met at Leni’s Second Wednesdays last week who brought a few extras along.
I’m digging the Peruvian Purple Peppers. I may need to grow some next summer. I grow purple basil & purple pole beans, why not purple hot peppers?
You can also find chili peppers for about 10 cents each at the farmer’s market this time of year. $1 worth of peppers is a great deal. Enough to make a nice hot sauce. (That’s my next experiment.)
Roasting helps the skins pop off and I read somewhere that it makes them hotter because the roasting releases the capsaicin. Don’t quote me on that. It does make them easier to chop up and throw in the freezer.
Last year, I filled small jars with them, but by the time I would finish a small jar, some of them had gone bad in the fridge. So I thought I’d freeze them in ice cube trays and have smaller portions I could work with. It doesn’t always take much of my mix to flavor a dish and I like having my own, local chilis, you know?
I didn’t think about wearing gloves though, so my hands tingled for a good few hours yesterday afternoon and evening. I think I did that last year too. I blame my blondeness. I’m good about washing my hands after chopping peppers, but I did two cookie sheets full of peppers, a grocery bag worth. When you deal with that amount of peppers, you really should consider gloves.
Last year I tried making a hot sauce with cayenne peppers and vinegar and Pat didn’t care for it. So, I’m going to try again, but get a little fancy with it. Maybe add some fruit? I don’t know. Anyone ever make one? Know someone that makes one? I’m now accepting recipes.
Updates
I have a gazillion things to do, but being the structured procrastinator that I am, I thought I’d use a blog post to help me organize my thoughts and photos. Or continue to put off what I really need to be doing…
First up, the chickens.
They are almost full size hens.
Ozzy has gotten even more bizarre looking.
Although she is beautiful, isn’t she?
We love our funky chicken.
Butters may very well be a he.
But he’s well mannered and as long as he stays that way, he is welcome in the coop.
The first time he gets mean to anyone, he’s chicken pot pie. I’ve explained this to him/her and I think he/she gets it.
Harriet and Cuddles. Cuddles is still the fluffiest chicken around.
Brian named Harriet in honor of the old show ‘Ozzie and Harriet’, trying to balance out the fact that we named a chicken after a bat-eating heavy metal rock star. At least someone around here has family values.
Remember last spring when I was all about ripping up the back yard by hand and I was on a mission to find a metal table and chairs for back there?
Well, I found one. When Edie’s bff and family moved to Guatemala, I offered to save them the trouble of shipping their table and chairs by letting them store it in my back yard. We plan on painting it at some point, but in the meantime, it’s getting alot of good use.
And the butterfly bush that I thought I killed not only made a come back, but it bloomed this year! A small one and only one, but it’s a bloom.
The patchouli plant has taken off too.
I’ve been playing around with a nice camera these days and I just happened to snap this as I was wandering around the back yard. I sort of like how it turned out.
All that time spent digging weeds up by hand, we still have lots of weeds back there. Sigh. Every time I think I make headway, it rains and things grow back. Still, it’s getting there. I do like the lush, overgrown look.
Although this zebra grass by the side of the road needs to go. I seriously thinned it this spring and look at it. Anyone want some zebra grass? I’m hacking it back to a tiny amount and I hate to throw out living plants, but I have no other place for it. Drop me a line if you want some ornamental grasses.
Another view of my new table and chairs. Don’t they look sweet back there? What color should we paint them? Definitely something to hide the gunk that seems to collect on outdoor furniture. Chocolate brown? I know white is classic and I’d love, LOVE to paint them white, but they will show so much dirt and I’ll have to repaint them every year and I’m way too lazy for that.
The weather has finally cooled down, the humidity has gone away and after I tackle this deadline this week, I’ve got some house reorganization plans I’m a little excited about. It’s never a dull moment here.
Although, I do wonder how many more moments like this we have left – where she drags her kitchen set and babydolls outside for a picnic while Pat paints the boat. She yelled at me for taking pictures “WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO TAKE PICTURES?” but someday, she’s going to look back and be happy I did.
At least I hope she is.
Gardening (mis)adventures that tasted good.
It’s almost September. It’s been a long hot summer and my garden is looking scraggly.
I finally found some time to give it the attention it has been craving. I weeded, ripped out some dead things, cut some things back hoping for a fall revival, planted some new greens.
In my enthusiasm, I cut back what I thought was a dead branch of sage.
Turns out it was just leggy, because at the other end of the foot long branch were some happy new sage leaves.
The only squash plant that has produced anything in my garden this summer were a few volunteer compost bin butternut squash plants. When the squirrels were on their rampage to eat everything in sight just a few short weeks ago, they had gnawed through the vine, causing an unripe (green) squash to become unattached. I was not about to let them have it, so I brought it in and hoped to be able to do something with it. It actually did ripen sitting on my counter for a few weeks.
So, with the sage I hadn’t meant to cut back and the butternut squash that I hadn’t planted, I made our first fallish dinner the other night – Roasted Butternut Squash, Sage & Feta Pizza.
I peeled and diced the squash, tossed it with some sliced onions, salt, pepper & olive oil and popped it in the oven at 350 or until it was browning nicely. Probably close to an hour, but I tend to not keep an eye on the clock and just depend on things smelling right. Highly technical cooking skills in use there.
For the pizza, I prebaked a crust for about 5 minutes, then covered it lightly in olive oil. I had some jack cheese in the drawer, so a light sprinkle of that, spread the squash & onions on top of that, added some feta and the fresh sage leaves. I covered all of that in a light dusting of more jack cheese and then baked the whole thing until it was golden and well, looked right.
That’s a highly technical cooking term. Use it at your own risk.
I refuse to live in that sort of neighborhood.
I live in the sort of neighborhood where we leave doors open all the time, especially the back screen door. The kitchen door pretty much only gets closed and locked when we go out of town. It’s that kind of neighborhood. Or was, until yesterday.
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| (Click on the photo for a larger view of our unwanted guest.) |
The squirrels that I spent most of last summer complaining about because they ate everything in my garden, a dozen plants worth of green tomatoes plus every last peach on the peach tree, leaving me exactly none last summer, have now chewed through the back screen door and as I discovered yesterday, are now entering our house and helping themselves to whatever they can find in my kitchen when we aren’t looking. I came home from the pool yesterday to find jars of dried fruit scattered on the floor and two packs of buns nibbled through. Needless to say, it’s ON.
Pat set the hav-a-heart trap
immediately as I walked around ranting about how the squirrels must GO and this morning I discovered we caught a raccoon. Seems there’s endless wildlife feasting around our urban homestead. I guess I should be happy the raccoon didn’t enter through the ‘wildlife door’ because it might not be able to let itself back out the way the squirrels seem to have figured out and I don’t want to deal with a raccoon in my kitchen.
We still have some peaches left on the tree (it’s a late ripening variety, so they aren’t anywhere near ready to be picked) and there are plenty of tomatoes left on the vine, although while weeding yesterday I found 4 green ones that had been picked for me and something ate the first two ripe ones. I don’t mind sharing a little bit of food with our neighbors, no matter what persuasion they are, but this breaking & entering has gone too far. I’m taking the neighborhood and my house, back from the squirrels, because dammit, I like living in a world where I can leave my back door open all the time. It’s a good world to live in.
Second Wednesday in June.
During the warmer months, I block the second Wednesdays of each month off on my calendar, for those nights my dear friend Leni hosts a gathering on her front porch, simply known as “Second Wednesdays”. There are always interesting people to meet and good conversations to be had, mostly revolving around gardens and food, two of my favorite subjects.
Leni is one of those people that I firmly believe the universe dropped into my life for a reason. She’s an amazing woman. Her website is currently down right now, but I can share this wonderful article published in Virginia Living two years ago about her. I’m proud to not just call her friend, but a kindred spirit. Through my friendship with Leni, I have made connections that have literally, transformed my life, starting with the discovery of lemon basil and how it sends my green bean basil pickles to a whole new level.
Yesterday was the second Wednesday in June. It was one of those perfectly beautiful sunny June days, not too hot, breeze just right. I enjoy the drive out to Leni and her husband Kip’s almost as much as I enjoy my visits. Beautiful views of farmland and rolling hills nestled up against the Blue Ridge give way to windy, narrow country roads as you make your way there.
While wandering through Leni’s garden, I had a serious case of Romaine envy.
How gorgeous is that? I have never had romaine look that good, not for lack of trying.
She also had a new batch of chicks. I only stopped to ooh and aah over them briefly, as our chicks are expected to arrive sometime after Sunday and I am saving all my baby chick love for them.
The piggies however, were another story.
How cute are they? Edie suggested naming them Wilbur & Babe, but Leni had already thought of Prune and Pork Chop. Seriously adorable.
When I asked Edie what she thought about us getting a pig though, she shut me down fast with a firm “No”. This as she was nibbling on some of Leni’s freshly baked bread spread with some of my Bacon Jam. Seems she’s content to leave it to our friends to raise pigs while we visit them and enjoy them in other forms later on.
Also quite lovely to take in were the poppies. One of these days I’ll get around to growing some of my own. Until then, I’ll make myself content to admire those grown by my friends.
There is something in the combination of landscape, conversation and company that always leads me feeling realigned in a way that I don’t always know that I need after an evening at Leni and Kip’s. Last night was no exception. As we made our way back into town, we couldn’t help but notice the sky to the west beyond the Blue Ridge still had a glow about it, which I like to think was the universe smiling in agreement as well.
A Cake AND A Pie.
In the midst of the craziness of the last week of school, a dear friend had her birthday. We got together to celebrate it Saturday night with dinner and drinks. I was asked to bring dessert, which I was more than happy to do, as she had made me a yummy chocolate cake for my birthday last fall and I wanted to return the favor. In addition to our two families were two others, with a kid count close to 10, so after some thought, I decided that the kids needed their own dessert. I realized that I wasn’t up for making two cakes, so when I woke up in the middle of the night with the genius idea of making a chocolate pudding pie for the girls, I was pretty proud of myself. When I realized I could use my mac daddy cake carrier to transport my two desserts, I was even more proud of myself. I used the stacking cupcake levels to hold the two desserts. What I love best about that thing is that it collapses for storage, so while it can hold 24 cupcakes, two cakes or a cake and pie as the case may be, it doesn’t sit around taking up the space of two cakes.
I made a chocolate pudding pie with a chocolate graham cracker crust for the kids. I smashed a packet of chocolate graham crackers, sprinkled in a little bit of sugar, melted 6 tablespoons of butter, poured it on top and combined it all, then spread it out in the pie plate. I chilled it briefly before pouring the pudding on top.
I used the chocolate pudding recipe from Wayne Harley Brachman’s Retro Desserts cookbook. I’ve blogged about this cookbook before – it’s my go-to dessert cookbook. Not only does it have great recipes, it talks about techniques, which are really key to baking. Homemade pudding is fairly easy and once you’ve had the homemade version, you will find it hard to eat the instant boxed version. (I’m including it here at the end of the post. Try it for yourself.)
I think the key to good pudding is using fresh, whole milk. I use a local dairy, Homestead Creamery, who bottle their products in glass. The difference in taste from any other dairy product you’ve ever had is something you just have to try for yourself.
After the pie cooled for a few hours, I spread a layer of fresh whipped cream on top of the pudding, then garnished the pie with fresh cherries.
As for the grown-ups dessert a few weeks ago, I happened to notice an old Bon Appetit my birthday celebrating friend was getting rid of that had a picture of what looked to be an amazing chocolate cake on the cover. I ended up ripping the recipe out and bringing it home. As I was looking for a cake to bake, I realized this cake was the perfect one to bring with us Saturday.
It’s from the September 2006 issue, La Bete Noire. I have never ever made a cake with this much chocolate in it – just the cake calls for 18 ounces, with the ganache on top calling for another 8 ounces. It’s a flourless cake, with the ingredients being butter, chocolate, eggs and a simple syrup. I think what appealed to me the most was the fact that you left the cake in the springform pan you baked it in, then dumped the ganache on top, making sure it was evenly distributed and then let it chill for a few hours. That is definitely my kind of frosting.
I garnished this cake with dollops of whipped cream and blueberries from our bushes and served it with more whipped cream and berries.
A chorus of girls serenaded the birthday girl. Once everyone tried the cake, it was agreed that chocolate pudding pie was a much better dessert for the girls. “The Black Beast” was intense. And divine. And actually pretty darn easy to make, which is key, because when you make a pie and a cake in the same day, you don’t want to spend the day slaving over them, especially when it’s close to 90 degrees outside.
I brought home the remnants of the chocolate pie as well as a little bit of the birthday cake, leaving the bulk of it for the birthday girl. I think I have found a new go-to cake that will leave everyone impressed with my baking abilities, although honestly, it’s just an ability to read a recipe and know which ingredients to use. You can never go wrong with 60% cacoa. Ever.
Chocolate Pudding
from Retro Desserts
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 1/2 cups milk, divided
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
Melt butter and chocolate.
Whisk the cornstarch, cocoa and 1/4 cup of the sugar into 1/2 cup of the milk, then whisk in eggs and yolks.
In heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat, bring the remaining 2 cups of milk and 1/4 cup sugar just to the simmering point (it will wiggle in the pot). Drizzle this hot liquid into the egg mixture, while whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan, whisking constantly. Cook until the mixture thickens. Mix in the melted chocolate. Pour into serving bowls,covering the surface with wax paper to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool, then refrigerate until chilled. Makes 6 servings or one pie.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 