Spring is in the air and I can't help but buy flowers every time I leave the house.
The air is warm,
the bees are out,
the apple trees are budding
and I love leaving the doors and windows open during lunch.
We had such a mild winter I almost can't believe its really over.
The locals tell me to expect a lot more rain this Spring.
I hope its warm and gentle.
It is the third week of August and I have felt the first signs of Fall. While walking Brae to her first day of school I noticed the early morning fog has a deeper wetness to it. The clouds threaten rain even though we shouldn't have a drop until Halloween. By mid morning the fog is burned off by the sun, who seems to have realized the coming of the dark half of the year, and is burning hotter then ever to make up for the cool summer we have had. By nightfall the wind picks up, cardigans are slipped over bare shoulders and flipflops are traded for socks.
A couple nights later while I was figuring out dinner I had a sudden craving for a warm and hearty potato leek soup. Not something I would normally make in the summer. It's a soup firmly anchored in my fall and winter menu.
Then last night, while sitting in bed, a craving for apples hit me so hard I had to go downstairs and eat one immediately. My first apple in at least 6 months. It just so happened that I saw beautiful apples at the market earlier that day and was drawn to their beauty like a moth to a flame. I bought a few for my daughter's lunch, but never intended to eat one myself. Apples are my fall & winter thing, they taste the best in season. Fresh from the fridge it was cold, crispy and sweet.
If I were still living in the high desert I would be looking for the first sign of fall in the scent of the north wind. It has a wet earth, deep forest smell. One of woodsmoke, falling leaves and the faintest hint of arctic ice. It appears in September right when my Mom's apple trees are ready to harvest. We could guesstimate the start of Fall by the ripening of those apples.
I imagine it takes at least a decade to get to know a place that well and I have yet to learn the first sign of Fall here in the SF Bay Area, but I am guessing it also begins with a craving for apples.
Photos - All taken by me on my new and amazing iphone using the Instagram App. Links and descriptions for each photo are below.
1. Summer Flowers 2. Banana Almond Butter Shake. 1 c milk, 2 tbsp nut butter, 1 banana, ice. Blend until thick & creamy.
3. My friend's cat was over for a visit. He really liked the chickens. 4. Swing Socks, recently finished.
5. Deep Chocolate Brownies 6. Everyday Lunch - Avocado, turkey, tomato, lettuce, and cucumber on whole wheat bread.
7. What natural dye should I use for the Kalajoki socks? 8. The garden. Over 40 lbs harvested so far.
9. We have 2 new quail, a boy and a girl. Thinking baby quail and eggs. They need names. Any suggestions? 10. Darwin, my favorite chicken but probably a rooster. Bummer. Check out the adventure.
11. My first ever home raised organic free range chicken egg laid by Ladyhawke. 12. I am freezing loads of tomato sauce this year. Recipe from Heart of the Artichoke by David Tanis.
This past week I...
Said goodbye to Tom for 2 months.
Made doughnuts.
Found chickens eating tomatoes.
Hung herbs to dry.
Bought some yarn from Knitpicks and Soulemama's new book.
Dragged a resentful daughter to the Renaissance faire, which she loved.
Took the light rail downtown for the first time.
Tested a new cookbook.
Savored an old favorite for lunch all week.
Our weather has been amazing this week! It is hard to stay inside with bright sunny skies and highs at 70 F. Brae and I have been spending our afternoons riding bikes, preparing for Spring garden planting and cleaning up a mossy overgrown winter backyard.
My little winter garden never got off the ground. With almost 4 inches of rain in December my little seedlings drowned in lakes of mud. Lesson learned. Note for next year: Next time make sure the plants have some cover from torrential downpours.
The last couple mornings I have rediscovered the joy of sitting on my back porch in the mornings with the sun warming my goose bumped skin, hot jasmine green tea warming my hands and a book in my lap. I think renewing this Summer habit has yanked me out of my Winter patterns. I am yearning for hot days when I have to pour a cup of cold water over my head to keep cool. I know this break from winter isn't going to last more then another week (rain is already in the forecast for Feb 3rd), but its too late for me. I am in the mood for Spring cleaning, Spring planting, and most of all Spring farmers markets.
Cooking everyday in the winter is essential at our house. The oven keeps the downstairs living areas warm during cold rainy weather. We also need hot & filling meals to give us enough energy to get through a long cold day outdoors. The past couple weeks our kitchen has been full of spicy Indian curry, pear and apple galettes, recipes with roots and no knead bread.
I love sweet winter pears. They are only in season for a short time and I don't want to miss out so I started making galettes with them and its pretty easy. Roll out some homemade or store bought pie crust into a circle on parchment paper and spread sliced fruit in the center leaving about 1 1/2 inches around the edges. My favorite recipe is the tart/pie dough from Alice Waters cookbook The Art of Simple Food. Probably one of the best cookbooks out there.
Sprinkle everything with cinnamon, sugar and a little flour. I added a little cheddar cheese because it brings out the apple flavor. Fold over the edges and baste the whole thing with apricot jam. Slide the whole shebang to a cookie sheet and bake on the bottom rack of the oven for 40 minutes at 400 degrees F.
Let it cool about 10 minutes before digging in. We ventured outside to enjoy a rare semi warm day while the galette cooked and mine got a little darker then it should be, but it still tasted great.
Sweet potato fries are also another winter favorite of ours. I slice these, toss with olive oil and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. I sprinkle a little more brown sugar before I scarf down half the plate. This is one of the only ways my daughter will eat them.
I also rediscovered my favorite bread recipe this week and we made it together.
It was finally warm enough to go out back and gauge the yard. Its going to need lots of work come spring. My veggie garden has been hibernating for the winter. I didnt really plan it that way, but I haven't had enough dry days to work outside. All my seedlings died in our first series of rainstorms, probably drowned. The only plants still hanging on are the mint, rosemary and oregano, all of which I am still enjoying every time I can squeeze them into a meal.
What's cooking in your winter kitchen?
I can't believe a week has gone by since my last post! I had myself convinced it hadn't been that long. This week has been sad. A relative passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. That was rough. While waiting for hospital updates I finished my Thinking of Autumn hat. Pictures to come. I am always amazed by how calm I feel when I knit. My mind is able to focus instead of flying off into a million different directions. The relative that passed away was young, a couple years younger then me. When someone younger then you passes away it is scary. It brings the fragility of life smack into your face reminding me to savor every moment I have with my family on this earth.
I promise the rest of this post is full of happier things. The other way I have been occupying my time is taking pictures of food. I have finally picked a photography project that I cant wait to see finished. I would like to make a family photo cookbook of my favorite and most memorable family recipes. I will cook them, photograph them and eventually make them into a book for us to keep. More on this in a future post.
Since I had food and photography on the brain I took some pretty pictures of our harvest. Hope they make you hungry!
Thank you for the birthday wishes! It was just us this weekend for our birthday. Our only plan was to avoid leaving the house for as long as possible, eat yummy food whenever we wanted, and to have fun together. We built a little table for the backyard out of scrap, fried chicken together at midnight, ate a cake of donuts (because neither of us like traditional cake), and otherwise enjoyed each others company. A perfect way to greet 28 and 33.
It may not be pretty, but it sure was delicious! Of course, we didn't eat them ALL!
The table we built, which still needs a coat of stain and varnish, was commandeered as a storefront. What began as a firewood stand quickly turned into a full hardware store.
Look what I got to start on! Guess who is already finished! Hers is gorgeous too!
I fiddled with a new recipe for pumpkin muffins. They came out moist and filled with Autumnal yumminess. I will share it later this week.
Meet Jane, my second try on a giant pumpkin. She is a little over a week old and about the size of a soccer ball! And NO HOLES! We might carve our names into her side so that they will scar over and get huge but I am a little worried about hurting this one. She is our backup in case James goes south.
James, the Giant Pumpkin, as he is now called, is still growing. His hole has gotten bigger and I am a little worried about what is going on inside. I am afraid when I open it up its going to look like the night of the living dead. Which is why I named it James. Like James and the Giant Peach. I know I am just a little crazy, but it makes life more interesting. The hole will be, with luck, used to our advantage. His nose or maybe a tooth? We will have to wait another couple weeks to see if he survives.
My pumpkin has grown a hole. So far it doesn't seem to be affecting its growth, but I am a little worried. The hole is growing with the pumpkin and is now large enough for me to stick my fingers into. Hopefully it wont ruin it. Anyone have any experience with sudden holes in large squash? Maybe it was that fat squirrel I keep seeing...
Here I stand preparing my Fall/Winter garden which will help nourish my family through the dark half of the year.
I am feeling lots better after the flu made a short trip through our house. Beware, its here early this year. I have heard of at least 10 other people who have it. I got the worst of it. Tom, who has an immune system of steel, felt a "little off" for a few days. His remedy? Sleep. Tom takes more naps then a 2 year old. As soon as he starts "feeling a little off" he will take a 4 hour nap ASAP, then wake up, eat, and rest most of the day. That night he will go to sleep hours early and sleep for 12 hours or more. If he isn't feeling better by then another 4 hour nap and he is good to go.
Us moms, we cant do that. People need to be fed, dishes done, laundry washed, and booboo's kissed. It doesn't help that I am an insomniac and taking a nap makes me feel like I was repeatedly run over by a train. After waking up I never feel quite right. 20 minutes with my eyes closed is all I can handle or have time for.
I still have a rough cough that makes people look at me like a leper, but I was feeling well enough to do some garage sale shopping this weekend and scored big time in the furniture department.
- 5 dining chairs, 2 armchairs - They all match each other, but they don't match my house... yet! I have plans on recovering the seats in a lighter fabric to lighten them up a bit. Stain resistant tan suede has been a front runner so far with a pretty canvas print coming in second. 7 chairs for $30.
- 1 antique wood & wrought iron school desk - This was the best find of the weekend. I did a little research and this desk is worth about $200! I bought it for $8. Can you believe it?! (Excuse the mess in the photo, I am still behind from my flu week)
- 1 white dresser in great condition - Finally! No more hanging up little clothes and I get more closet space for those shelves I need to install. $8.00!
- a wood magazine rack/table - great for getting all the papers I don't want to go through yet off the table. You can see it behind the clock. $4.00
- a wooden mini grandfather clock with cabinet - It needs hands but I couldn't turn it down for $5.00
- a bookshelf - Not pictured. Its yellow, its big, it holds all the books that didn't have a home. It was free. I love it.
- a strong, but dirty wooden ladder - I have wanted an old wood ladder for a long time. I love them as photography props, but also to use in the garden. My beans were so high that I cant reach them anymore. Of course I have to admit that the same day I brought this ladder home to harvest my beans a squirrel came through and harvested everything that was over 6 ft high. AND he did it with all the falcons in the backyard. Talk about a suicidal squirrel. If I were a squirrel I wouldn't sneak past 4 sleeping falcons to steal a bushel of beans, let alone a handful. Total spent on ladder = $2
Getting all this home was quite a feat. One woman was sure we wouldn't get it all in the car, but after 30 minutes of reorganizing we got it all in. The bookshelf was more funny. We unloaded half the chairs and tried to get it in the back of the Volvo station wagon my friend brought. When it wouldn't fit we tied it to the roof and drove SLOWLY home. I cant imagine what those people in the house thought, but I love that bookshelf. I am happy we took the time to get it home. I've crossed so much off my furniture list! My house looks less and less like a dorm room every day. Yea!
The last part of my weekend that I want to tell you about has to do with these...
These are the victims of Chaser and the Squirrel. The squirrel, who has eaten at least 3 pounds of tomatoes, who has been caught in the act with a stolen cherry tomato in his paws & his face dripping with juice, has enticed my squirrel chasing dog to repeatedly climb his way through my tomato patch in an attempt to catch and eat him.
My Lemon Boy is dead. Trampled to death by Chaser in his insane attempt to catch himself a snack. Now I have all these green tomatoes. I never saw the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, I have never eaten a fried green tomato, or any other green tomato. I have no clue where to start. Any ideas?
(Also, click out of your blog reader and check out my new banner and About Me page! I am loving the new look for Autumn.)
