wine barrels, or what I did to the yard.

I wanted an herb garden, I wanted one really bad. I just didn't want to spend the money on it. When we were down in Santa Maria visiting my mother for belated Mother's Day, we were driving around trying to find the house I'd lived in... fifteen years ago? Anyhow, we drove past a house with about fifty half-wine barrels in the yard, for ten dollars each. These go for $25.00 at garden centers! I threatened to tie Mom to the roof so we could fit them in the car, but we just dropped her off at home and came back to wedged them into the car.

I can get free compost at the barn, so I filled them all up, bought some herbs, and I have a garden!


(Yard pictures taken with the new iPhone 3gs.)


You can see Grandma's awesome Geranium in the second photo, and the lady who's horses are next to Whisper at the barn gave me that HUGE rosemary plant in the first photo. :)

The shelf thing is actually a ladder for MorganCat. Morgan and Pandora taught me: you can teach and old cat new tricks, you can't even pick up a young cat. Morgan uses the ladder all of the time, Pandi won't touch it. Oh well.


(1st Gen iPhone photos)

June the first

The sixth month has arrived, and I sometimes feel like I've been very productive, but usually not so much. We've danced, Whisper has a new home, we planted an herb garden, learned how to make new drinks, and we've enjoyed our CSA produce. I make bread and sweets. We discovered pan sauce. We visited Mom for a belated Mother's Day. We had our anniversary. I had a birthday. We were in a wedding. We saw Bolt (Mittens is totally channeling Morgan) and Up. Up was an AWESOME movie. I actually swam in our pool.

But the house is a disaster, I haven't been climbing (or exercising in general) very much, and we're not seeing as much of our friends as I had planned.

I guess when I write it out that way, it all looks pretty good. I guess I should go do something today.

Upcoming posts:
- My shrub odyssey
- Whisper's new home (101in1001#86)
* herb garden featuring cat ladder (101in1001#50)
- bread retrospective (101in1001#100)
- my knitting project (which I may never start) (101in1001#4)
- that apron (101in1001#5)
- that skirt (101in1001#1)

Amish Friendship Bread

I received an Amish Friend Bread a few days ago. The concept is sort of a food chain letter. You receive a starter that has to be cared for for ten days, then before you cook it you create 4 new starters. It appears to be more like a cake than "bread." It's quite delicious! I'll share the instruction here:

NOTE:
* DO not use metal spoon or bowl for mixing
* DO not refrigerate
* Open the bag daily to release air

Day 1 - Do nothing
Day 2 - Mash Bag
Day 3 - Mash Bag
Day 4 - Mash Bag
Day 5 - Mash Bag
Day 6 - Mash Bag. Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Mash again.
Day 7 - Mash Bag
Day 8 - Mash Bag
Day 9 - Mash Bag
Day 10 - Divide and bake.

Instructions for Divide:
1. Pour all contents of bag into NON-METAL bowl. Add:
1.5 cups flour, 1.5 cups sugar, 1.5 cups milk
2. Measure 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 zip lock bags (1 gallon)
3. Distribute to friends.

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Add
 3 eggs
 1 cup veg. oil
 1/5 cup milk
 1 cup sugar
 1 tsp cinnamon
 1/2 tsp vanilla
 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
 1/2 tsp baking soda
 1/2 tsp salt
 2 cups flour
 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).
3. Grease 2 large (or three small) loaf pans. Mix an additional 1/4 cup sugar and 1.5 tsp cinnamon in separate bowl. Dust greased pans with half the mixture.
4. Pour batter into pans and then sprinkle sugar on top
5. Bake 1 hour.

Don't have anyone to give the starter to? Here's a tip: Just divide all of the starter (before "divide" step) in half and make two batches.

You can start your own Amish Friendship Bread starter:
Instructions and recipe for starter.
Starter Recipe
Story and variations

too much brownie...

With the amount of chocolate, butter, cream cheese and sugar that goes into them, making a single batch of these cream cheese swirl brownies is hard to believe. Making a double batch was mind boggling. But still very tasty. These are for the recital tomorrow, and maybe for SND (if there's any left...there were 48 pieces...now there's only 45...)

I made french bread!

I made French bread! I'm not sure how I do it, but I've managed to mess up nearly every major step for all of the bread I've made, and it's still great.

proofing!

I'm proofing my pâte fermentée so I can make french bread tomorrow to go with the french breakfast radishes, that came today in our CSA. We'll also have fava beans with oyster mushrooms and green garlic. And maybe leeks with a sauteed Tatsoi/Mizuna mix. Food is fun. Pictures tomorrow.

[EDIT: Recipe seems to be missing from previous entry. This one is very close]

French Breakfast Radishes with Rosemary Garlic Butter

French Breakfast Radishes are not eaten in the morning with coffee and a croissant, as the name implies; but rather as a second breakfast, around 10 am with butter, a crusty baguette and a glass of red wine... What a civilized way to live!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (either salted or unsalted), softened
1 8oz pkg Cream Cheese, softened
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary - approx. 4 stems
3 teaspoons chopped fresh Thyme
1 clove minced fresh Garlic
Salt to taste
2 bunches French Breakfast Radishes, washed and tasty tops trimmed

Preparation: Mix all ingredients together except radishes. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour or up to three days. Bring Rosemary Garlic Butter to room temperature before serving with radishes.

Cook’s Notes:
The Garlic, Rosemary, Thyme and a little salt can be smashed together with a mortar and pestle. The herb leaves will come off the stems and create a lovely chunky green paste to mix with the cream cheese and butter.

The radishes can also be cut in half the long way and the Rosemary Garlic Butter can be piped on each half and finished with a sprig of Rosemary or Thyme.

Recipe can be cut in half.

The substitution of fresh herbs and dried herbs follows the general rule: 3 teaspoons fresh = 1 teaspoon dried.

fields of gold

My voice instructor and I have been trying to find something I feel confident singing. We've done "The Bare Necessities," "The Sound of Music" (I might be confused on that one) and "Indian Love Call." If you know me, you probably know how much I love to wail the last two songs. As for the "Bare Necessities," we had a record that we listened to over and over and over again as a child. I have my own, "special" way of singing that, too. But today we hit gold, actually it was "Fields of Gold" by Sting. We sang the song in a higher range than Sting does. I didn't realize how much easier it was for me to sing higher until I put the song on in the car afterward. Using my chest voice with my pallet lifted is very hard for me.

My instructor is going to do a Benefit Concert for Team in Training. You should come enjoy the concert and contribute to the cause!