Cherries
I finally had success with a new zucchini bread recipe! I was out of cinnamon and vanilla, so I just added some almond extract, and it worked out so well.
It is delicious, and 2 loaves use 3 cups of grated zucchini. So, a great use of the many summer squash coming our way at the moment each week via our CSA.
I saw an ad on Craigslist for local, organic cherries, already picked. So, tonight, 2 gallon size bags of cherries were delivered to us.
cherries!
I don’t think they are Rainier, even though they look it. But, they are super sweet! I weighed them, and the 2 bags totaled 9 pounds! We paid $12. Not a bad deal for local, organic cherries!
I’m already in the process of making 2 pints of pickled Russian cherries (which doesn’t require pitting). When I finish them up tomorrow, I’ll post some pictures.
Is it coming?
Every morning, I search River’s body over for the tiniest spot. I feel his forehead throughout the day, hoping for a fever.
It’s been 14 days since he swapped a lollipop with my friend’s son. Now, we are waiting, hoping.
For the pox.
A sweet Sunday
vegan carob cheesecake
We had all of the ingredients for this, so Walter and I made this together. After it was cooled down, we all had a tea party with River’s little tea set.
Wanna play?
How it’s played:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
1. What is your first name? Lennon
2. What is your favorite food? fresh blueberries (at the moment, anyhow)
3. What high school did you go to? Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, CA.
4. What is your favorite color? deep purple
5. favorite pastime? baking
6. Favorite drink? kombucha
7. Dream vacation? Ireland
8. Favorite dessert? beautiful cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? a grandmother
10. What do you love most in life? being a mother
11. One Word to describe you. overwhelmed
12. what town do you live in? salem, oregon
13. what is your occupation? homebirth midwife
14. what did you have for breakfast? homemade bread with homemade strawberry jam
15. favorite element? oxygen
16. favorite season? fall
17. favorite seasonal activity? berry picking
18. fave music when you dont know what else to listen to? Cocorosie
19. celeb you would like to meet? Tori Amos
20. what is on your computer desk top? pebbles
21. favorite shoes? danskos
22. favorite alcoholic drink? elderberry honeywine
23. favorite candy? caramel
24. favorite flower? wildflowers
25. what did you do today? breakfasted
1. dc_lennon & yoko, 2. Blueberry – Lime Curd Cake, 3. Carly, 4. deep purple, 5. 14th August 2007 / Day 226, 6. Kombucha, 7. Rocks of Gold, 8. Life is beautiful (unlike this cake), 9. ♫ YO Yo yo, there’s no place like a green penthouse… so i told the genie i wanted to be well hung. ^o^ ♫ nah… wildlife from singapore♫, 10. Step by step… steadily ♫♫, 11. Opera in a dream, 12. Silver Falls, South Falls, 13. Untitled, 14. Very English!, 15. Yearning for Spring, 16. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature’s Special Effects), 17. White-eared Sibia picking Idesia polycarpa.(白耳倒吃山桐子), 18. cocorosie, 19. ✳✳✳ drops powder ✳✳✳, 20. The Chesil Beach at Portland – Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, 21. 10:42am – I counted my shoes., 22. Alcohol after parties, 23. SWEETIE PIE, 24. you belong among the wildflowers, 25. Eid Mubarak – عید فطر مبارک
Christmas in July
Milo
This is a cat who, just hours earlier, had his testicles removed. Poor thing. He’s back to himself today, oblivious that he need not worry any longer fathering babies now!
decorated chard
While out in the garden yesterday, River spotted one of the chard plants that had began to go to seed. Somehow, this looked like a Christmas tree to him. When he came to me in the kitchen asking for our Christmas decorations, I couldn’t even imagine what had brought those to his mind. He directly brought in the chard plant that he’d cut and asked if I would use duct tape to make it stand up. I obliged him by bring 3 or 4 lightweight decorations out of the garage. So, we have our July Christmas tree.
Lunch
Polenta fries. They look greasy, but in reality they are practically fat free; just baked in the oven and glossy.
baby's bath
I walked into the bathroom just a few minutes ago to find River giving his baby doll a bath.
me, shot by River
Not a very good picture of me, but worthy of posting, since River actually got my head into the photo. It’s usually just a body shot.
When things go wrong
Last night, we received our produce box:
celery, lettuce, cabbage, sugar snap peas, basic, and zucchini
As proof that my cooking adventures don’t always work out, here is a loaf of zucchini bread that I made this morning that was a disaster. I followed the recipe exactly, and it is wet in the middle, and sank in when I removed it from the pan.
River still likes it, so at least he’ll be eating some version of a vegetable today!
Pickling
Since we are getting our CSA delivery tomorrow, I realized I had better do something with the sugar snaps that we still had.
sugar snap pickles
They’ll be ready for munching in about 2 weeks.
This week is proving to be yet another busy week. I’m looking forward to a week full of lounging around, with little to do…though I will likely then be complaining that I am bored and will be finding some way or another to keep myself busy. If I were Walter, I would just sleep. That’s what he does for fun when he has free time. I guess our house would be crazy hectic if we were both the type that always had to stay busy. Balance is important.
The post of many things
The last few days have been busy! Early Friday morning, I attended an unassisted birth of a sweet baby boy; came home and slept a couple of hours; went and picked;and then went to bed as soon as I could manage.
boysenberries, raspberries, blueberries, and black currants
Yesterday, I made those black currants into jam; pickled and canned the beets from our garden:
pickled beets
made this recipe;
everything mixed up
steaming
finished!
made homemade granola; then went for an evening run. It was a long day on my feet in the kitchen, and I slept so well last night.
River painted some artwork while I was cooking yesterday. Here is one that he described this way:
"This is me sitting in the rain waiting for you to pick me up"
He is such an amazing person. Last night he said “I’m exhausted! Mommy, why am I so exhausted?” Yesterday he said to me ‘Mommy, you like to make me happy, don’t you?”. It wasn’t followed by any request or anything; just an observation.
More vegetables
You will probably grow tired of pictures of vegetables. Oh well. It is just really exciting for me to see document the amazing things that the earth can grow.
I peeked out at our garden today and saw a head of lettuce starting to bolt. So, I realized it was time to go out and see what needed to be harvested.
I got some lettuce:
And our first carrots! (along side a whole bunch of beets)
Here was a little friend that came in along with the veggies, hidden i the dirt:
(sorry for the lack of focus in the photo)
The beets will likely become either pickled beets (a sweetish recipe) or canned soup.
Sugar Snap Peas
I picked up this book from the used book store a few months ago, and I am so glad I did! I love going through it and planning out what I will make with the end-of-summer-harvest deliveries.
My first experiment from the book was her ‘Pickled Sugar Snap Peas’. It is a fresh pickle, as opposed to a fermented pickle. Very easy to make, as well.
1 1/4 c white wine vinegar (I bought a gallon of it for $6)
1 1/4 c water
1 Tbl pickling salt (this just means pure, finely granulated salt…no iodine or anti-caking additives. I used sea salt)
1 Tbl sugar
1 lb sugar snap peas, stemmed and strung
4 garlic cloves
1 or 2 small dried chile peppers, slit lengthwise
2 tarragon sprigs (I didn’t have any, so I omitted this)
In a nonreactive pan , bring to boil vinegar, water, salt and sugar, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Let the liquid cool.
Pack the peas, garlic, chile peppers and tarragon into a 1-qt jar. If you pack them in really tight, they won’t float to the top and risk getting moldy months down the line. But, if you plan on eating them within a few weeks, don’t worry about it. Pour the cooled liquid over the peas, and cover the jar with a nonreactive cap. (Those plastic mason jar lids are ideal). Store the jar in the fridge for at least 2 weeks before eating. If kept refrigerated, they will keep for several months.
I made mine last week, and I haven’t been able to resist grabbing a pea here and there. They are already so good! Nice and tart, with a slight hint of garlic and spice. I’m thinking I will make one more batch before the crop is over, which will be soon I expect.
