sugar & pepper

garden questions~

These may be tricky, so follow along carefully~

What kind of flowering bush is this? Here's a photo of the whole bush:

Tiny pink puffs of wonderfulness~Lovely! But what is it?? Next question:

 

What is this flowering shrub? Again, puffs of wonderful. These are smaller, like the size of a shirt button and many fewer leaves on the plant as well as growing tall and more woody than shrub like. Any guesses? And finally~

How can we get this girl to work this hard at her everyday chores? Prizes will be awarded once questions have been answered. No reasonable answers refused!

{this moment}

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

via soulemama

Have a wonderful weekend!

Twenty @ Ten

One of the things we have been looking forward to the most as a benefit of owning our own home is having the type and number of pets that we would like. A dog? A cat? A couple of sheep for grazing and a cow for milk? No problem. 

As you may well know, we bought 6 hens in mid March~they referred to them as the Rainbow carton special, meaning that they'll be laying us some rainbow colored eggs. We've yet to see any of these eggs (note to hens: Hello, ladies, it's time! You are now officially being lazy as you are well into your 6 month age, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the flowers blooming. Nothing quite says "SPRING!" as finding fresh eggs in the hay. You've been warned.)

Since these hens came home with us, we made a trek to the feed store in Petaluma and purchased 8 baby chicks:

note: the redness here does not mean they are about to be broiled. too early for that! it's the brooder light, keeping them warm~

One tortoise: We call her Kitty. And no, we're not sure if "she" will be a he or a she, but we're hoping. Kitty is currently 5 months old and weighs in at a whopping 1.8 ounces, sopping wet. Literally. She has a soak every day, as this is how the African Sulcata Tortoise takes in its water each day.

And this weekend, feeling bereft and alone on the couch after watching the rain for several hours days, I needed someone cozy to cuddle with. And so we found Maybelle at Milo Foundation. Her name with them was Elise, but since she will turn a year old in May and we wanted her to have a bell from the get go (fair warning for all those hens, should she end up outside), we figured on Maybelle. Currently doing a fantastic job fulfilling all cat duties, though I'm happy to report that the rains have diminished since bringing her home!

Final count:

4 humans

14 hens

1 cat

1 tortoise

20 living beings at 10 Golf Avenue. I'm thinking we're heading towards Blackjack sometime soon, but have not yet determined whether that animal will have 2 or 4 legs. Stay tuned!

wacky cake, baked with ease

It is my habit, upon entering the library, to peruse the New Titles section each time. I am especially keen on the Non-Fiction section, it being the source of books on knitting, sewing, gardening, crafting and oh so much more. Today I was under the spell of the cooking gods, as they showed me the way to *both* The Craft of Baking and All Cakes Considered. I had read much about each of these in different reviews and spent time perusing them on the bookshelves at the store but had yet to crack open the pages in my own...kitchen.

Without further ado upon entering our home, I sped through All Cakes Considered. I stopped for a long visit at the "...Introduction to Cake Baking" then paused at "All about Pans" and finally tuned into the recipes. This is a collection to be proud of, Melissa, and I'm happy to be a part of your cake world. Each recipe has a wonderful story or comment to go with it, tips along the way for doing some things new (I'd never thought of separating an egg through my fingers before, and though I'm not likely to try it, as I was taught the "crack the egg in half and use each half back and forth to coax the whites from the yolk" method but was duly impressed that there was indeed more than one way to separate an egg) and some things the "old" way. Not much to be improved upon folding techniques at this time, I'll say.

Big sister in the kitchen, practicing her technique

We were in search of a chocolate cake and since we'd spent the last of our milk on our morning waffles, we had to go with something simple. Upon which we found:

Mary Carole Battle's Mother's Wacky Cake: Chocolate Cake with Less Fuss

serves 8 to 10~from All Cakes Considered

Bake in a 9 inch square or round baking pan

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

6 Tablesoons vegetable oil

1 cup cold water

In an 8-inch- or 9-inch-square cake pan, sift the dry ingredients. Make three holes; pour the vanilla in the first, vinegar in the second, and oil in the third.

Pour the cold water over the mixture, and stir until no longer lumpy. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. If desired, top with seven-minute frosting.

This cake is really wonderful. A nice refreshing chocolate taste, something that will have you hankering for more and not overwhelmed with the "too much" that chocolate cake can sometimes bring. Soft, moist and best of all, easy!

dinner~for everyone

Reader: I have married a man who is 98% averse to my cooking. He has many things to say about this, but the bottom line is: he won't eat it. I tried cooking to his tastes, but that run from one end of the 7-11 aisles to the other. And there they end. Refried beans in a can? Yes. White corn chips? Yes. Homemade salsa? Yes I'll give a bit of credit here, he does make a pretty good salsa. But a family cannot live on salsa alone. Vanilla ice cream? Yes. Lemonade? Yes.

I am not sure where this diet came from and I'm not certain that I need to find out. Our children don't do much better. He brings home white bread from the store and they go crazy for it. I slather it with butter and hope for the best. All I know is that I cook and hope that at least one other person (than myself) will eat it. 

Tonight I did well. Very well, indeed. I served Asparagus and Pancetta soup with Black Pepper and Rice. AND THEY ATE IT!! THEY ATE ALL OF IT!!! I'm still in shock. Before I pass out from crazy amazement, I'll share this S&P award winning family recipe with you. 

This is a picture of the empty(!) pot. It's all that's left! Thanks, mom, for the pot!

Asparagus and Rice soup with Pancetta and Black Pepper

- serves 4 - from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups diced yellow onions

Salt
1/4 cup white rice *I used brown rice*And they still ate it!!
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup water
8 ounces trimmed asparagus (woody ends snapped off)
3 to 4 ounces pancetta, finely minced
freshly ground black pepper

Procedure

1. In a heavy 4 quart saucepan, heat half the oil (2 tablespoons) over medium heat, then add the onions and sweat gently for about ten minutes until translucent but not browned, stirring regularly.

2. In the meantime, dice the pancetta and slice the asparagus on an angle into 1/8-inch slices. Don't worry too much about uniform width, since the resulting unevenness in cooking will add pleasing textural differences.

3. Add the rice, stock, and water to the onions, then bring to a simmer and cook, covered tightly, until the rice is tender, 15-20 minutes depending upon the type of rice used.

4. In a 12-inch skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat, then add the asparagus slivers and pancetta and stir to coat. Cook untouched until the edges begin to color, then stir and cook again, untouched, repeating the process until everything has nice color and has shrunk by about 1/3.

5. Add the pancetta/asparagus mixture to the soup, along with incredible amounts of black pepper. Boil for 1 minute and serve with crusty bread.

**I also topped the girls' soup with a nice sharp cheese, grated and about a 1/2 T. of butter. Viola! They loved it. I'm clearly in awe.

for Laura~

Dear Laura~

I'm not sure if you are ever going to see this, but when we are wailing our lungs out in the car (much to the vast amusement of dear baby sister, who just looks at us as though she's thinking "What in the hell~if this is what talking leads to, I want no part of it!"~but I digress.

Laura~we're thinking of you and so we made you a playlist of songs you might/not know of and might/not want to sing!

Wail away and wait for it...wait for that look from the littlest baby sister. And remember that *you* used to be that blonde baby sister. Love you.

hair/cut

I've been toying with cutting my hair short for a while now. It seems that, despite the miracle worker named Rachel, all it seems to want to do is be dry and flat and, well, very uninspiring. My hair history is quite like a stock market chart: from "I want short and easy and frisky fun" to "I want to grow it out all long and beautiful": an unending cycle from which I am now at the can't-get-it-long-quite-fast-enough-to-want-to-keep-growing-it and therefore these photos look so very tempting:

Erica Tanov Spring 2010: photo by Erica Shires

Erica Tanov Spring 2010: photo by Erica Shires 

Clearly this is a departure from the shoulder/little bit past shoulder length to which I seem interminably stuck. My sweet friend Anise came over yesterday and arrived with a jaunty red beret atop some very cute hair~not much longer than her chin. So sweet and easy! She looked adorable as usual~I can't tell right now if I'm trying to get to something that will never happen (it hasn't yet, anyway!) or if I should take some baby steps to getting to something shorter and see what evolves. Thoughts? Opinions?

today, for dad

Today is a mostly regular day~not a momentous occasion like Father's Day or his birthday or his mother's birthday or the day of his retirement, but I'm going to tell you all about how I love my dad.

We have not always had a harmonious relationship.

There were the years I spent living out of the house, by choice, because we both knew it was the best thing for me and yet I look back on the times during those years when we did get together~either heartbreaking sadness on each of our faces or heartbreaking words from each of our mouths.

There were the years that I don't remember seeing him much at all and yet I look back and thank him for his hard work and being away for it gave me a chance to grow up in a very wild and beautiful place, exploring each and every day.

There were the years we didn't communicate at all. Really. These are one of my few regrets in life. I am trying each day in my heart to mend those years, selfishly for myself but I think that some of that mending makes its way to him. I can only hope.

There are the years I am spending parenting and he is *so good* about advising when he should and staying out when he should. Most all of the time.

There are the moments we argue. Sometimes the hard feelings last longer than they should but we always seem to mend the fabric.

There are the years he has spent fighting the urge, the desperate physical urge to say something awful about people who have treated him (or anyone he knows and loves) poorly or even horribly. No matter how awful the other person is towards him he holds his head above that and keeps going. I used to think this was timid. Now I recognize it as courage.

I appreciate and use his advice. Maybe not the very minute he tells it to me. But eventually, which is what matters. To both of us.

Each day I am reminded, through my own actions and those of my children and my interactions with them, just how much like my father I am. I am hoping that each day that fabric grows stronger. 

I love you dad. Always have. Always will. I want to call you every day and yet I don't want to bother you with an abundance of feeling or oversharing so I stay in my corner. But you are always with me and for that I am an especially lucky and happy girl. Yours, always.

Thoughtful Shallow Thoughts~not mine, but oh so clever!

These are so clever and accurate for me it's a little bit scary! How about you?

* Nothing ticks you off more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

* I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. 

* There is a great need for a sarcasm font. 

* I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die. 

* I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

* I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers & sisters!!!! 

* Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. 

* Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. 

* I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired. 

* Bad decisions make good stories 

* You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

* There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

* I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my thirty page insurance policy that I swear I did not make any changes to. 

* I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

* I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste. 

* Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is. 

* I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call. 

* Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it. 

* I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

* I think the freezer deserves a light as well. 

* I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with liquor than with "Kay" 

where I'm at

I am at a familiar crossroads in life. I have been here before perhaps many times. Some times I am too busy to see the intersection: at others it is all about the red the green the yellow lights and the flashing walk or don't walk signals.

I often know what to do and yet like each of us, sometimes I don't. This is one of the latter.

Words can describe this place for me. C.S. Lewis has done a good job of it here: Sehnsucht

Where am I when I'm not here? In the middle somewhere. Feeling a bit disconnected and not sure where the next step on the path will be. Unsure how to get there. Trying and not finding the tread. Hoping to avoid regret and missteps along the way.