Bubbles

We made homemade bubbles yesterday. Finally something to do with that jar of corn syrup. Of course, if it keeps going like it's going, I'll need to buy more corn syrup to make more bubbles. Wish I could use the extra molasses that's still sitting up there as well...





Here's the recipe that came on the back of the bubble wands we just bought-
Mix together 12 cups water, 3 cups liquid soap, 3/4 cup corn syrup. And it worked! Really well, in fact. And- the same mixture is still working today!

galette inspiration

So I've made 3 galettes this week, inspired by the fruit still in my freezer, the fruit starting to show up at the farmers market, and the fruit picking season, which does not seem quite as distant as it once did. I used a new recipe for pate brisee with corn meal that I found on Martha Stewart when I went searching for how to cook rhubarb in a galette. I was struck by how different each galette turned out, depending on how long I left the dough (or did not) in the refrigerator and how dry (or moist) the dough was. The first was a rhubarb-raspberry galette that turned out picture perfect. The second was blueberry and had much drier crust and therefore didn't roll out nearly as well. (Still tasted good...) And the third was peach-strawberry-blueberry. It ended up being fantastic, but was a bit concerned during the cooking process because of all of the liquid. The dough was also a little soft, due in part to me not having time to refrigerate it at all. All were equally tasty, though, regardless of their form. I'm leaning toward a savory one next, with the extra dough currently in my refrigerator. I've got some extra greens lingering that would be perfect, I think.

Here are the galettes and some chocolate covered raspberries thrown in for good measure-





Also- two recent pictures {I liked} of Samuel, age 11 (with bedroom light behind him) and Eva, age 8.

salad

Today I finished up the last of the blueberries I dried last summer. Suffice it to say, I will definitely be drying more next summer. They take quite a bit of time in the dehydrator but are completely worth it. I still have several bags of frozen blueberries in the berry freezer and while we are enjoying them immensely, I wish I had dried a few more. Next time. The dried pears are also good, but not nearly as versatile.

My favorite way to eat the dried blueberries has been in salads, particularly the ones I have been making since the bitter spring greens have started in my CSA basket over the last month or so. Today I had dried blueberries, tangelos and pink lady apples in a salad with walnuts, carrots, scallions (the first of the season!) and our first radishes from the farmers market. All of this was chopped and tossed with fresh baby greens, also from the farmers market. I like salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil on my salad. It took me a while to get used to this simple dressing, but now I love it.

I love this time of year for so many reasons, not the least of which being that I can finally stop buying the California baby greens every week for the guinea pigs. I eat mainly local, seasonal vegetables from my year round CSA, which I love and am happy and grateful to be able to do. The guinea pigs, however, really love their morning greens and unfortunately, there are a few months in Oregon when there are no local greens to be found. Even the Romaine lettuces go away. While the greens and lettuces haven't returned yet to our grocery store, they can be found in abundance at the farmers market. This last week, the pigs have been enjoying their new local fare, but request that I hold the spinach and bok choi, please. They prefer dandelions. I don't blame them. I must say, I was excited to see if I had found someone who would finally eat the spring bok choi that starts showing up this time of year. Of course, I prefer kale.

early december

yesterday was an incredibly stressful day. today was *much* better. i took samuel and eva to the last art class in a series they have been attending wednesday mornings for the past several weeks. last week they did miniature natural worlds with plants, each building tiny houses and putting in fairy-sized pathways among the plants. this week they each made a geoboard. the project was complete with sawing, sanding, designing, hammering and finally rubber-banding. i was worried about it when we arrived late to the class and everyone who was already there had been sawing for a half hour already, but eventually everyone had their wooden square and the rest of the project proceeded well.

then we went out for lunch with good friends from the class and met another friend at the park for some lovely december sunshine. tonight eva and i made both {our annual} pomegranate granita (technically, a sorbet this year {again}) and meringue puff {cookies} for the tween holiday party we are attending tomorrow. the tween group is a new group for us and is specifically for the westside of portland. we went to a book club last month sponsored by another woman in the group. it's funny to me calling samuel a tween. not since my kids were preschoolers-although i don't remember using that term often, so maybe it goes back all the way to when i had toddlers?- did we have a specific label for one of my kid's age range. so tween it is. at least in this group.

incidentally, i doubled the granita recipe this year and used 4 pomegranates (for 2 cups pomegranate juice) and added that to 1 cup water combined with 1/2 cup sugar (cooked until dissolved) and put in the ice cream maker until done. you can make a true granita by pouring it into a bowl and setting it in the freezer. periodically go in and break up the forming chunks so that it doesn't freeze solid.

the meringue cookies are 4 egg whites with 1 cup sugar added 1/4 cup at a time after the egg whites have been beat to stiff peaks (but not dry- because they always say that, although to be honest, i have never actually seen dry peaks, that i know of...). when you have stiff peaks with the sugar, spoon onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets and cook- watch carefully- at 200 for an hour or so. remove before they darken, although it's not the end of the world if they darken. i'm going to experiment with drizzling chocolate onto them tomorrow after they have cooled. should be a fun experiment.

pumpkin thoughts revisited

I went with the pumpkin cheesecake. It was delish. (I'm happy to say it also turned out.) And- I'm also happy to say, I'm happy I made it. It was definitely the right decision {even if I did break my mixer while trying to whip up the cream cheese}.

immunity tea

I was checking out an immune boosting herbal tea mix at New Seasons the other day and was disappointed to see there was echinacea in it. Ah well, echinacea is a wonderful herb for immunity but I am unfortunately allergic to it. So, I checked out the other ingredients and decided to try and recreate it as best I could at home. This is what I came up with-

2 bags rose hips
1 bag peppermint tea
1 bag tulsi tea with green tea
something like 3 Tbsp dried red clover
2-3 Tbsp dried nettles
fresh grated ginger
orange peel

I realize that in this mix echinacea looks like it would be the immunity power horse and that without it, the tea doesn't look like much of an immune booster. I really think, though, that with all of the different herbs together, particularly the red clover, it still makes for a good mix. Next time I will probably add fewer rose hips and more peppermint and ginger. Fennel seed and cayenne were also suggested to me, but I'm not sure how I feel about those flavors in this mix right now. I think calendula would make a nice addition as well and was in the original mix I saw at New Seasons. But- it was raining torrents outside that night and I knew if I went outside to pick calendula in the back garden I would melt. I actually didn't dry any calendula flowers this year either. I thought about adding chamomile as well but I don't always like how that flavor takes over. Oh- and someone also suggested thyme, which I have definitely enjoyed in tea in the past and which I have in large quantities on my patio. Next time.

more pumpkin

I just read through my pumpkin post discussing what type of desserts there will be on Thanksgiving. And while I like my practical side because it is so much a part of who I am. I like where it gets me. How thoughtful it can be. How it can take care of everything. Sometimes- sometimes- it leaves just a little bit to be desired in the choose-what-you-really-want category. I don't want to say it's lackluster. That seems a bit harsh. Let's put it this way. It's not exactly the part of me that chose to go ahead and buy the cashmere yarn today. But! it is the part of me that chose the neutral color. So- the idea is that when I put the two sides together, something lovely can come out of their agreement. When one side or the other goes crazy alone, it can feel more than slightly off balance. Not exactly what I want.

After thinking about it a bit more (Thankfully, both sides like to over-think things. {Ahem.} Or is it think-things-through?) I feel like I'm actually leaning more toward the pumpkin chocolate tart or the spicy pumpkin bundt cake. Or cheesecake. I've been thinking about cheesecake a lot lately but am still not {quite} convinced about pumpkin cheesecake. Plus, I need to buy a springform pan for that recipe. Although, the bundt cake needs a pan, too... Ah. So many recipes. This could be another reason my practical side sometimes steps in. It can be oh-so-much-easier to make choices from my practical side. And then? Then it's all taken care of. Decision made.

Right now, though, I'm going to think a little bit more about pumpkin recipes and if I still can't find one I am absolutely thrilled with (and choose from that place), I will go ahead and make the squares. Which, by the way, I am sure will be tasty in their own right. Not really lackluster, as I said, just not as exciting as I would like either. So there you go.

pumpkins

I've been thinking quite a bit about Thanksgiving dinner lately. Or should I say, Thanksgiving dessert. Even going so far as to peruse Martha Stewart for pumpkin recipe ideas today. The problem for me is not whether I can make a particular recipe, but rather whether anyone else will actually eat said recipe. I mean, I will eat some. On Thanksgiving Day, Ellen and Evan will eat some. Then I will send some more home with Ellen and Evan. But if I make a pumpkin cheesecake, for instance, that will still leave quite a bit of cheesecake sitting around. Because you know there will be other desserts as well. Ellen might make a pie. And there will also be pomegranate granita. Maybe some of those Pepperidge Farm cookies of the Milano variety because the kids like to keep that tradition going. Samuel will want fizzy apple cider as he so lovingly calls it. And, you know, it's just a huge influx of food all at once to keep track of.

So- while the ginger pumpkin bundt cake looks amazing- or the pumpkin cheesecake- or the refrigerator pumpkin pie- or or or- I am going to go with the pumpkin-chocolate-chip squares (so far) and hope that the chocolate chips do enough talking to persuade everyone that the pumpkin really is alright after all. Otherwise, if that doesn't work, I can always freeze those really easily and eat them one-at-a-time until the other Holiday cookies start kicking in.

Dinner tonight

was ground mild Italian chicken sausage with a few potatoes from this week's CSA basket and sauteed greens (from last weeks basket)- what looked a bit like collards, but smaller than you usually see them. Plus apple crisp with three different local apples- Pink Ladies, Gala and Braeburn. I really must get to the farmers market this week for more apples because as local and seasonal as the ones I bought from New Seasons were, they were nothing like the ones we bought a few weeks ago at the market. I missed the apple upick this year and am definitely feeling it now. Still, three kinds of apples will make a very good crisp. Plus- and here's the best part, in my opinion- this amazing salad with cabbage, mesclun mix, arugula and carrots, all fresh from my own garden tonight! I added pomegranate and slivered almonds, our first pomegranates of the season. We have all been nibbling on those and the first satsumas of the year all evening with visions of pomegranate granita dancing in our heads. I had all but forgotten about satsumas (how does that even happen?) until a woman at the grocery had some in line ahead of me and I rushed back to pick out a few of my own. It is still a little early so they are on the expensive side, but so worth it for the boost in spirit alone. {Not to mention the taste.} {Not to mention how excited Eva is.}

The day started out slow as they have been of late and I bought two blues buster light bulbs at the store this afternoon AND took a walk in the middle of the day in the sunshine AND went out to the garden to find vegetables for a fresh salad. All of this contributes to a better mind-set. The salad was the icing on the cake, to make it stick a little longer. Plus, I found a few baby sunflowers just now blooming on thick stems bending down toward the ground and still so many flowers outside for November. My Wisconsin-trained-mind never can remember how warm it stays here for so long.



Carrots planted a few months ago picked tonight. Petunias still blooming...



Baby sunflowers blooming, several on an already bent stalk. Salad!

galettes

Yesterday was a two tart day- or two galettes, as the case may be. The first was a Gravenstein apple- blackberry galette. The apples were from our own tree out back. I *think* they are Gravensteins, mainly because they are so early each year. This year they are delicious and decidedly more edible than in past years. And some of the apples look {more} suspiciously like Gravensteins {than other apples} or than they ever have before, so I am going with that.

The blackberries were Triple Crown thornless blackberries, picked on Thursday at the upick. There are three varieties of thornless blackberries at this particular upick right now and my favorite changes from year to year. I think last year- if I remember correctly- I picked more Chesters than anything else. I'm hoping to go early next week to get some of their fall raspberries.

The second galette was savory. The filling was sauteed zucchini, onions, green peppers and garlic which I mixed with grated raw mild cheddar (I think the recipe I was originally inspired by called for a stronger cheese...). I put sliced tomatoes on top of this filling and baked it for nearly an hour. I loved it. When I offered it to Eva this morning, she eyed both the galette and me suspiciously and said she didn't like zucchini and she was wary of things that looked like that. Then she said, "I'll have more of the other one, though," with a smile. Indeed. Blackberries and apples with sugar and crust. What more?



What's left of the apple-blackberry galette and the whole savory galette.

peaches [still? yes, still.]

i can't resist. peachy peaches peachily peaching. frozen peaches. canning peaches. peach watermelon beet juice. peaches with blueberries. peach cobbler. peaches in the buckle cake. peaches for breakfast. peaches dunked in sugar. peaches. peach season.

i sliced my finger at an inopportune time. what with all the slicing and dicing that needs to happen during the peach process (or processing peaches), having one less working thumb than usual has been turning peach time into a time of reflection. i honestly wasn't sure if i was going to be able to {actually} can the peaches. my hands can slice peaches, albeit slowly. and the slices won't win any awards in the peaches-sliced-to-perfection contest, but that's fine. it's always {mostly} good to test those perfection boundaries and make sure they are realistic and livable. it turned out eva wanted to help in the peach process and while i had decided to simply freeze the bulk of them this year and be done with the idea of canning, at least for the time being, eva's enthusiasm with skin removal and then joining in the slicing herself, definitely helped in my decision to go ahead and can. so i froze two gallons and canned 11 pints. it seems small by some standards but should be perfect for us, what with all the berries and my hope to can pears as well. i try to keep the canning and processing very manageable because i dislike feeling overwhelmed with processing fruit (or anything, for that matter). the minute it become too much, i know i have gone too far. from play to work, and all that.



eva taking the skins off of peaches.

peaches

The date on this post is a little off as I started to write about peaches last week. I finished the post on the Monday morning after the Friday it is posted as~

We picked out first peaches Thursday. We set off to pick at one farm and were told they hadn't started picking yet. Then- synchronistically- we ended up at another farm with the same variety of peaches (Red Haven) as well as some phenomenal red raspberries. These red raspberries had the best flavor of any of the raspberries I have picked this season. It was definitely a case for unfortunately/fortunately in action. (Unfortunately, the farm we had planned to pick peaches at was closed for picking. Yikes! What to do? Fortunately, we ended up at another farm with the same peaches for picking AND some of the best raspberries I have ever eaten!)

I am planning to can some of the peaches we picked. Perhaps we'll pick some more to can once others start ripening if I feel up to it. Sometimes the enthusiasm runs a little dry and I have to decide if I really want to do something or if I want to want to do something. In which case, as in this case, it's better to find something else to do with the fruit. I *am* going to buy a food dehydrator and am excited by the prospects of drying so many pints of blueberries, at least. And maybe some peaches? We'll see how exciting the dehydrator turns out to be before making any predictions. I am planning to can pears this year as I noticed we did indeed miss them last winter.



Close up of peach clafoutis I made last night. Definitely a keeper. I highly recommend clafoutis if you haven't already tried it. It's like a custardy pancake with fruit that you bake in the oven. And so versatile. I was thinking today of apple season and putting cooked apples inside. We'll see.



We did some chocolate covered raspberries for a friend's birthday on Saturday and yesterday Eva did a whole bunch more in both milk chocolate and dark chocolate. She wants to do more today, but of course. I guess we will go buy some more milk chocolate to fuel the chocolate fire. What I love about this is that there is more than one way to chocolate a raspberry. I love watching Eva play around with all the different ways she can think of. And then eating them. That's fun too.

Took off for the upick today without anything in particular on my mind to pick, except maybe a few pints of black caps (or black raspberries, depending on where you grew up). We ended up picking more raspberries (and two pints of black caps. Eva also picked two pints of currants, unbeknownst to me. I am pretty sure we will be making more currant-raspberry granita. The first batch was eaten up lickety split, even if it was a little sweet!) which I intend to cover with chocolate at some point. At least some of them. I haven't been paying attention to how quickly (or slowly) the month of July has been moving. Trying to focus on the present {and all that} lest I be consumed with panic over the passage of time when really it turns out fine in the end. The woman at the upick started talking about their summer berries coming to an end and I knew that was why I had a peach picking session planned tomorrow with Ellen. It never fails, just this time of year, the berries I have been picking come to an end and there is a berry lull of sorts. I have plenty of blueberries, thanks to the two trips to pick and the abundance in my own front yard. So it's to peach picking and canning until the blackberries and fall raspberries ripen in August. And then all sorts of goodness with pears and apples and tomatoes. It's times like these summer tastes so sweet.

Tonight I made my first clafoutis- inspired by the book I just read, Five Quarters of the Orange. I'm waiting for it to finish cooking in the oven. It looks tasty and was incredibly easy to concoct with loads of blueberries, boysenberries and, of course, red raspberries. I was going to serve it with turkey bacon and some chard with zucchini and garlic, but all of that has already been consumed. I'm sure it will stand up well on its own with a little Harry Potter this evening. We've finished book two and are well on our way with book three!




And here it is- blueberry-boysenberry-raspberry clafoutis. I used whole spelt flour and almond milk rather than cows milk, cream and white flour.

We picked marionberries and boysenberries for the first time yesterday. I made a mostly-marionberry cobbler this morning with a few boysenberries thrown in for good measure and between Eva and I, half of it is gone. I am planning to make marionberry jam either later today or tomorrow and hoping to pick more of these berries to freeze and enjoy either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week with some blueberry picking thrown in tomorrow to keep things balanced.

Eva picked up some more currants and yellow raspberries from the u-pick's farm stand after we had finished picking. I told her I would make currant-raspberry granita if we had enough. Which we now do. Yum!

summer bites

Last night Eva and I took Jack for a walk in the rain. We've been taking him every night lately and he was all jazzed up for a walk, even as I had completely forgotten. I was glad we decided to take him, though, because it gave me an opportunity to watch Eva and myself in the rain together picking up earthworms and slugs every few houses and moving them to safety on the grass or off the pavement... {This was meant to be an entire blog post but I can't seem to catch the feeling of last night, so taken with the current berry goodness that has washed over me and my kitchen currently. Suffice it to say that Eva and I tread lightly and think deeply about the other creatures out on damp nights like these. I leave you with that image as I move along to berry love.}

We've been to the upick three times this week. Once to pick strawberries, when I came back with the first raspberries of the season. The second time to pick raspberries, when I came back with the first sylvan blackberries of the season (and Tayberries!). The third time, today, to pick raspberries. And I came back with the most glorious flat of raspberries that I can remember ever having picked. These are the sort of raspberries that drip off the vine when I hold my hand under a few of them and they are so large I can fit at least three chocolate chips inside of one raspberry (I'd forgotten that raspberries are *made* perfectly for fitting chocolate chips inside).

One thing that I love about the upick is that sometimes- if you stay open to it- you can come away with abundance in unexpected forms. And sometimes, you can come away with abundance in exactly how you had hoped. And sometimes, you can come away with something far better than you had imagined. Any way you look at it, it's a pretty good deal to stand in the middle of rows of berries, listening to the hawks calling. But I wax poetical about the upick fairly often and am in sheer heaven this time of year with the abundance and variety of it all.



Inspired by the amazing raspberries I was presented with today and a camping trip we are heading out to tomorrow with friends, I made the cutest little raspberry hand pies you have ever seen. It has become a bit of a Fourth of July tradition for me at this point. Check them out-



These were inspired by Martha Stewart's Strawberry Hand Pies. I used a little less sugar and whole spelt flour. I also used a very small circle to make these hand pies around 2 1/2 inches across the back. I also made a few slightly bigger ones for variety and different tastes. Some like a small bite, some a larger, after all.

And then last, but certainly not least, the kids and I finished the first Harry Potter. They are, as I type, watching the first movie as well. I hope to catch it in the next couple of days when one of them is bound to want to re-watch it. Samuel has also been playing the new Lego Harry Potter for the Wii, so we have full immersion going on for sure. (I wanted to add that Samuel has taken to carrying around his magic wand a good part of the time as well.)

a little fluff on what i froze last winter

I am making tamales tonight. They are a great way to use up left over chicken and corn from last summer. I have been going through the freezer trying to use up what is still in there from last year's bounty and because last year was such an amazing year for corn and because I subscribed to not one but two CSA's last summer and because I thought the kids would be more into the frozen corn over the winter than they actually were, I still have some corn left. A little. After making the tamales, there is a little less. Corn isn't my favorite vegetable by a long shot and it was a stretch for me to figure out what to do with all of that corn. Tamales work out really well. I wish there was something like tamales for me to do with all of those green beans.

Green beans obviously make the list of vegetable I-shouldn't-have-frozen-so-many-of. Zucchini too. Definitely yellow squash. At least with zucchini I can make muffins. The yellow squash and most of the green beans simply lingered. I ate all of the peas. All of the tomatoes. None of the hot peppers. {Here's a good rule of thumb. If the peppers are too hot for me to eat during the summer, I will not magically want to eat them in January, no matter how cold it is outside. Yep.} I could probably do with a few more jars of canned tomatoes, but not really more than that. Hmmm. More broccoli. That is always appreciated by someone. Maybe some more chopped greens like kale and chard for when they are sparse? This winter was sort of a bummer for greens because all of the cabbage froze in December. I hadn't realized how much I had come to appreciate cabbage in January. One of the nice perks of having a CSA is learning about and looking forward to which vegetables will be around when.

Going to check on my tamales. Mine aren't very traditional and haven't been wrapped in corn husks. I use parchment paper and like to think I am wrapping up little packets off goodness when I fold them up. Hoping they are done so that I can share some of that goodness with Eva. And then off to push my girl on the swing. I know when she says, "Do you think you will have time today to push me on the swing?" that it is time to get pushing.

cake

Imagine me saying it out loud. I am in the process of making Samuel's birthday cake(s) for his 10th! birthday tomorrow. The cake that I have been making for the past- 4 years? is that right? (and as always, thanks to Kerry for the inspiration and introduction to this particular cake...)- is an angel food roll cake with raspberry jam (homemade, upicked, but of course...) inside. Last year or the year before? Samuel started requesting two cakes because one cake was eaten up so quickly. I agreed and to be honest I don't have the heart to go back to one. How many years, after all, will there be with me making angel food roll cakes with raspberry jam inside? So here I am on the eve of his 10th birthday making cakes and researching, you got it, how to get the roll to actually roll this year. Last year's roll was more of a smoosh. Delicious, I agree. Delicious, I was told. A smoosh, nonetheless.

So I found a site with instructions on how to roll the roll. The recipe is different than the one I used but I am definitely trying out their roll technique.

Don't run. The cake will fall...she said as she questioned whether this were really true. Looks like it isn't true. At least so far. I will try to stop cringing when people run by the cake baking in the oven. Even if it is an angel food cake. Even if it is the day before Samuel's 10th birthday. Wisegeek knows...

OK- so far so good. The instructions for rolling the cake are as follows-

Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioners' sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up jelly-roll style in the towel, starting with a short side. Cool on a wire rack.

That worked well. Now for the cooling and the second cake...

Ready? And now for the unrolling-

Unroll cake; spread filling evenly over cake.

Tried that. Sorry to say it did not work quite as well as I would have liked. The warm cake cooled into the shape of a roll and when I tried to unroll it, it broke. It's not quite a smoosh, more like a flop. It broke at the hinge where it should have rolled. (Where I wanted it to roll.) So it is basically a roll cake with a lid. I spread the jam and put the lid back on. (Boysenberry for this one, raspberry for the other. If I can find a jar of raspberry jam! I'm still searching the jam shelf...) It should be yummy regardless. Samuel came in and tasted it and looked at it and said, "Mmmm there's that same flavor of the raspberry roll cake." He asked for a slice. And then he said, "Does it always do that?" Ha. I wish I had the answer to that one. I have one more cake to try this year. We shall see.

While you are waiting to see about the roll, here's a little reading about the history of meringue and angel food cakes.

Ah ha! Success! I am excited to say that I tried rolling up the second cake while it was still warm after spreading the raspberry jam (Yep. I found a jar!) on the warm cake and it worked! So that makes one rolled cake and one cake with a lid for this year's birthday celebration. A pretty satisfying outcome, if I do say so myself. Here's to cake. Cake for all.

This year's stuffing-
sprouted grain bread
apples (Oregon)
shallots (CSA)
garlic (my garden)
celery (CSA)
thyme (my garden)
giblet broth

Also this year I am making pomegranate sorbet which is based on the pomegranate granita recipe from Chez Panisse Fruit. We love it! I am making extra because it is gone before I know it every time!

Juice of one pomegranate
1/4 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water, simmered until dissolved. Mix. Put in ice cream maker until done. You can make it into a granita by putting it into a bowl and putting it in the freezer and taking it out to break up the pieces every once in a while. Either way it is delish!

And the thankfuls? Last night I asked the kids to think of something they were thankful for. Samuel said, "I'm thankful for you guys. For making this such a great life." That about sums it up I thought.

And off the top of my head, here's what I am thankful for today- yarn and eva singing and guinea pigs, good food, plenty, now, love, friends, trees, rain, heat, pomegranates, satsumas, love, walks in the woods, upicking, berries, pie, chocolate, friends, love, joy, meditating, writing, feeling, being, alive, dreams, kale, pea shoots, reaching, growing...there's always more. The more I find to appreciate, the more there is. Cliche as it sounds these days, it is indeed true. Love and there is love. Trust and there is trust. Appreciate and there will be something to appreciate. Happy Thanksgiving!

tid bits

I walk with trepidation through the clover-filled lawn, wary of the honey makers buzzing around my feet, unable to talk myself into putting shoes on every time I go outside- it is summer after all!- and also understanding so well why the bee sting works, how it protects the hive and keeps its members safe. Yes, whereas before my bee sting (pre-bee-sting) a few weeks ago, I would have been respectful of the bees, I am now hyper-vigilant, uber-respectful, ever protective of my feet and their tiny stinger-filled bodies, hoping to create a yard where bare feet and bees can coexist peacefully. Perhaps if I told them how many flowers I plant in their honor? I am also much more aware- thanks to the bee sting and to Albert who loves to eat clover- of just how much clover is growing in my yard!

Mmmmm- there was finally some kale in one of my CSA baskets. I cooked it tonight in olive oil with squash, tomato, garlic and red pepper flakes. (Another word for this would be saute but I usually avoid this word, particularly in the past tense, because I can never remember how to make the little mark over the "e"...) I served it over sprouted grain pasta which was good but sort of a stretch to actually call pasta. This got me thinking and I looked up pasta, which, as it turns out, is "dough with flour, water and/ or eggs," so maybe sprouted grain pasta is not such a stretch after all. It would have been lovely with some Parmesan as well.

We have discovered that our guinea pig Albert loves strange singing and high pitched whistles and squeals and will make his happy purring noises over and over again when he hears these noises. Yesterday Eva was making high pitched squeak noises while blowing on a leaf and Albert sat on my lap purring again and again. It is great fun for all of us. He will also march right up to a plate filled with watermelon and begin eating a slice all on his own. Why wait? He is currently in his cage with a slice of watermelon Eva must have put in there with him, dubbing it "Albert's slice" and he is beside himself with guinea pig enthusiasm, jumping about, bubbling over with chirps and chortles, eyeing the watermelon from over here, from over there. Guinea pigs appreciate abundance as much as the next species.

Yesterday evening I was in our back yard checking on the garden after another hot day and I decided to check out Momma Yellow Jacket in the shed. I was surprised to see that after all that tug-of-war with her a few months ago, she was nowhere to be found. Her nest was gone and there was not a yellow jacket in sight. This was particularly perplexing to me because there have been a number of yellow jackets flying around the apple tree lately, presumably eating the tent worms living there? I had just assumed they were from Momma Yellow Jacket's brood and that the arrangement between us had worked out quite nicely after all. She had a safe, sheltered spot in which to raise her um baby yellow jackets and I had yellow jackets eating the tent worms. (Not a great proposition for the tent worms, I realize, but they seem to be maintaining their numbers regardless of the yellow jackets. At that level I chalk it all up to Mother Nature. What, really, can I do about yellow jackets eating tent worms, after all? Wait- if you use insecticides and other forms of whatnot, don't answer that question!)

Of course I also noticed the four large spider webs spanning the shed door in various permutations. There were two across each azalea bush, one higher up and one across the um lawn mower itself. The number and size of the spider webs and the fact that one was actually using the lawn mower as a web anchor really illustrates just how long it has been since I mowed the lawn. I had been thinking about mowing at least the part near the garden that keeps growing due to watering (It doesn't rain here during the summer, at least not enough to support a lawn, and I don't water the lawn. Whatever part of the lawn that survives the summer has to make do with what little rain we do get. This makes for very little mowing during the summer months, something I enjoy after the twice-a-week mowing in the spring.)

Like I said, I had been thinking about mowing the lawn but what with the spiders and their webs using the doorway and the actual lawn mower, I guess it can wait a few more days or weeks or gosh, how long is spider season again? And what about the clover? If I mow the lawn, there goes the clover and what would the bees think of our treaty if I mowed down their clover? Yes, I think the lawn can wait. I can use my energy to pick more blackberries, which I am hoping to do tomorrow!

what I did with the eggplant

This is a variation of a couple of different eggplant dips I looked at.

Chop everything up in the food processor (or do it by hand with a mortar and pestle for a different effect...)
roasted eggplant (at 350 with holes punched in it until soft- 30-45 minutes or so)
a little pepper to taste (these were hot but not the hottest)
basil
garlic
lemon juice- about a teaspoon
olive oil to desired consistency

I ate this with crackers, tomatoes and cheese. Crusty bread and focaccia come to mind as well.