treats

J. very obligingly made me graham crackers a couple of nights ago, to go with the peach ice cream he also very obligingly made me. I actually was going to make the grahams myself, from the recipe in that new book I was telling you about, but when I suggested replacing about 5 ingredients and at least one technique I was scoffed at and asked to step aside, probably for the best, but who knows, mine could have been genius. It's not that I didn't like the recipe, it's just that we didn't have all the exact ingredients and I didn't want to wait. You know, one dairy product is as good as another right? Apparently not, so he pulled out his very precise little digital scale and went to work. Results? Excellent.

These are the cookies he made during our informal bake-off the other day:

For the record, here are things I added and removed from my bake-off recipe:

added:

Strawberry jam, whole oats, buttermilk, extra flour, extra baking powder, extra egg

removed:

white sugar, candied ginger, whole milk

and it came out just fine, thank you very much, no scale required.

so close

we had a late, weekend, dinner

Let's see, boasting first, I grew the cucumbers and the sesame leaf. The sesame leaf I transplanted from J.'s father's garden for the second year in a row, wrapped in paper towels in my carry-on. I'm hoping it will establish itself and self-sow this year.

J. made dinner, of course, I propped up my bicycle, headlight on, next to the grill, good enough in a pinch.

It was delicious, if you aren't jealous, you really should be.

busy day of recreation lunch

strata:

old bread, eggs, buttermilk, kale, white beans, herbs ( a lot), hot pepper, parmesan, pesto, breadcrumbs, oh and bacon, smoky cheek bacon, from here. I added the bacon because it is delicious, but also to entice J. to eat it. Guess what? He still wants to eat it with a pork chop. And actually, I'd put that on a menu: brined ham shoulder steak with savory white bean and kale bread pudding, pesto, chive blossoms, what do you think? Would you order it?

J. and I also had a bake-off this morning. I made oat flour, ginger, and peach muffins. He made chocolate nut cookies. The muffins are gone but maybe I'll take some photos of the cookies later. I don't know who won, I'd have to say we both did and the neighbors made out pretty well too. But I've decided to revise my position on muffins, from total rejection to partial acceptance. I like my muffins, fresh, moist, small, not especially sweet, plenty of fruit. I'm really excited about this new cookbook, more on that later, of course I couldn't just follow a dang recipe, had to make changes, luckily no disasters, this time, though I almost did forget to add the eggs.

is it enough? yes!

good food, good day

I grew it, but I'm not sure I completely understand it. . .

When I planted it, I thought it might be an italian squash I used to get in New York that I only know as "the gagootz."

It might be a cousin, but it isn't quite the same. It is solid inside, no seeds, smooth flesh, steams quickly and tastes great with some salt and pepper, olive oil and a little sesame seed.



Other things working out really well for me today? This amazing whole wheat croissant from my favorite bakery, smeared with the blackberry jam I made last week:

sunshine + water

sunshine + water = lunch, or at least it will in another week or so.

new crush

Here are a few of my collections photographed this morning as an homage to Lisa Congdon's collection a day blog. I am in serious full swoon with her blog, please go check it out.

1. Vintage wrapping paper.

This is a fairly recently started collection for me. I made a commitment to myself not to buy new wrapping paper a few years ago, and mostly I use comics or old maps and calendars, but when I see this stuff at estate sales or the goodwill I just can't help myself. It feels a little bit like adhering to the letter but not the spirit of the law, but I just can't help myself.

2. Thumb tacks and push pins.

I've shown you some of these before. I have a related thing for cork boards.

3 & 3.5. Security envelope linings and rubber bands.

Here are two things that have become kind of a tic for me, now that I've started seeing them I can't stop and I see new ones, ripe for scavenging, everywhere. The linings I first started noticing when I read Collections of Nothing by William Davies King, and I saw an almost volley ball sized rubber band ball at someone's house last year and just had to have one for my very own. It's coming along, check back next year.

One aspect of the King book is the idea of his collections interfering with his life. I would have to call him a borderline hoarder, and the hoarder border is something all of us collectors face to some extent I think. How much is too much, how much is amazing? Sometimes I walk into an estate sale and a horror washes over me, I want to go home and get rid of everything I own (but I never do.) Sometimes I see something like ACAD and I get the tingle, I want to go find more. Photography is helpful, I photograph a lot of stuff that I get rid of and it makes it easier. Blogging is helpful too, it is a place to put stuff, I think that is part of what LC is getting at with her lovely year long project.

A few other awesome books I pulled down while I was writing this:

Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan,

Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors,

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder,

and

Typologies

Would you call this #4 for today? Collection of books on collecting?

eat your broccoli, kiddo

Here is my broccoli less than a week and a half ago:

and here it is yesterday right before I picked it, can you tell how much bigger it is? In real life it was at least 5 times as big, maybe more!

Anyway, my first broccoli ever harvested! I am so proud, so so proud. Even though I'm not totally sure growing broccoli is really worth the effort in limited space situations, wouldn't another plant produce more stuff and can't you get perfectly good and fresh broccoli for not much money at any old farmer's market? Anyway, back to being proud, what to do with my very first broccoli ever? I like broccoli, I like it a lot, but there is only one broccoli dish that I feel really profoundly in love with, potato gnocchi with broccoli, nuts, raisins and lemon. O.k. you might be scratching your head right now, but the first time I tasted this was truly revelatory. It was my first working interview with R. & C. on Nantucket, and he gave me a little taste of this dish and I just remember looking at the ingredients and barely being able to believe that that much flavor and goodness could come out of so little.

here are the raisins soaking with a few capers in a little vinegar and sugar, also, a tiny tiny bit of anchovy is a secret ingredient.

a little garlic and hot pepper flake with olive oil to start, a little basil and parmesan to finish, along with that last squeeze of fresh lemon juice that ties it all together. I used delicious oregon walnuts, but pine nuts are good too.

I haven't made gnocchi in a while, but it worked perfectly for me last night. Of course it is much easier to make a smaller, home sized batch than it is to make a restaurant sized one.

J. had his with a pork chop. He likes to imagine almost everything I eat "with a pork chop" but in this case, I think it went together quite well. Especially since this was a super delicious pork shoulder steak from square peg farm.

R. didn't include this recipe in his awesome pasta book, but there is a good recipe for potato gnocchi, the best potato gnocchi ever, really, and you can improvise from there, but don't forget the lemon!

feeling free

We had a great 4th. J. did an excellent job as cruise director and discovered the St. Paul Rodeo. I think my favorite part was the banter of the announcers with each other and with the rodeo clown. I don't know how to describe it other than as wholesome American humor. I can say that one of my new favorite phrases for the year is going to be "stronger than a field of mown garlic." I'm already working on my outfit for next year. I kept it pretty subtle for this year, but now I know that at the rodeo, subtlety is out.

just a friday lunch

This was really pretty special, and all mostly leftovers too. We have been on a major oyster bender lately, and I've been on a strawberry shortcake bender. So, fried oyster and shrimp sandwiches and strawberry shortcake with lavender creme anglaise. My current theory is that the trick to totally satisfying strawberry shortcake, other than making sure that the strawberries and the biscuits are really good, is lots of sauce. So in addition to the whipped cream we do strawberry sauce, which is just berries pureed with a little simple syrup, and now we've added on the anglaise, made with lavender from the yard and eggs from C.'s chickens. Here they are, the chickens, trying to get in her house.