Holiday Weekend

Yesterday was a frustrating day. Too hot to work in the garden, a flat tire that meant long hot delays getting where we were going, and a mysterious leak in the basement. Today the only productive thing I did was make these cherry hand pies. They are on my great grandma McDonald's hand painted Bavarian china.

Gluten free, from a King Arthur Flour recipe. My kitchen was too hot for the pastry to stay cold and bake up flaky, but everyone liked them. R visited with the chickens and we marveled that we still have four of our original (she calls them the OGs) girls. This is Cricket, who at age 5 still lays beautiful bluegreen eggs. We still have the OGs Marigold, Egglantine, and Stellaluna, and the later additions Flannery and Willa. We've lost Iris, Colette, Poppy June, Felicity, Fialka and Charlotte to what appeared to be natural causes. All of them just passed away overnight in their coop over the course of five years, no illnesses or predator injuries. (Thank you Charlie the livestock guardian!) Tilda turned out to be a rooster and went to live on a farm since we can't keep roosters in the city.  The next year, Poppy Junior and Bonnie turned out to be roosters although they were sold as pullet chicks, and we adopted them to a farm along with their sister Sylvie who was attached to them.

We have a new batch of chicks who are almost big enough to leave the brooder inside and join the big chickens in the coop. This is Frances and Ginger the day we brought them home. They are bigger than this now. Charlie takes his chicken protector job very seriously. Ginger is a Bielenfelder and Frances is a Cream Legbar, who will lay sky blue eggs. Males and females have different coloring from birth in those breeds, so we know we won't have the heartbreak of raising a chick by hand and then hearing a crow. Then we added Flora the Speckled Sussex and Mila the Red Star, who is also certain to be a girl. Flora is supposed to be a pullet also, but we've had bad luck with pullets turning out to be surprise roosters. We love her and really hope she's a girl. Flora came with Evangeline, who got progressively sicker after we brought her home. She was tiny and unsteady on her feet and we couldn't get her to drink or eat. I stayed up all night keeping her warm and feeding her electrolyte water, but she died in my hands near dawn. It is always hard to lose a chicken, but this was our first chick who didn't make it, and it was heartbreaking. She was the shape of a little bumblebee. I still feel so sad thinking about her.

I'm going to try to wake up early enough tomorrow to work in the garden while it's still cool. After letting the front yard garden languish for a few years as life events got in the way, it feels so good to have it up and running again. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

9th Birthday Family Party

 On R's actual birthday, we had her family party.

This year she wanted garlic bread, "frozen lasagna from the store," cherry tomatoes, peaches and "NO other vegetables, no salad or sides at all" for her birthday dinner. I put fresh basil on the lasagna but she picked hers off. Sparkling water and fresh raspberries in the champagne flutes.

She wanted red velvet cake with pink frosting. She examined her cake when she got home from school and said, "Hmmm, the sprinkles are a surprise. I guess I like them. I know those flowers are eatable, but is it ok if I don't eat them?"

Flowers from the garden.
I am really not good at photographing dark red in lamplight.

My brother, her Uncle D, likes to taunt her with a nickname he made up just for her. She wanted me to take a picture of her getting mad while she read the card from his family.

Some how-to-draw books, the Wolf Almanac, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by request, some more people and furnishings for her dollhouse, ("I always get Calico Critters, but I would like to branch out into people this year!") and a pocket full of grandparent cash. Such a lucky and well-loved little girl.

Happy Birthday to our sweet nine year old. Last year in the single digits.

When Life Gives You Apples

Our generous neighbor B gave us all the organic, unsprayed apples from her tree that we could pick. After we got home from raspberrying yesterday, we climbed ladders and D got on the roof and we filled bag after bag after box with apples. Some of them will go to the food bank when I work my shift there on Thursday, and I'll can some and freeze some.

But today I made pies. I found this little pocket pie mold from Williams Sonoma at a thrift store over the summer. It seemed like the pies looked better when I cut out the apple shapes and pressed them together by hand, sealing with fork tines, rather than using the press. Here it is (above) unbaked, with egg wash and sprinkled with turbinado sugar . . .

 . . . and here it is hot from the oven.

I made some little free-form apple galettes, just the right size for a lunchbox.

Some gallettes had blueberries, and I made a batch of pocket pies with a whole wheat crust.

And one full-size apple galette, with some of the raspberries we picked yesterday. I dropped some pies off as a thank you to our wonderful apple neighbors, we'll eat the raspberry version tonight, and the rest I'll freeze to pop into lunches. And now I really do have a lot of canning to do.

Grissini

Grissini, thick and thin and all ready for Thanksgiving. Whole wheat glazed with butter and honey; whole grain herb and garlic; seeded sourdough. 

Lemon Raspberry Birthday Cake

My lovely cousin Lara had a birthday yesterday, and I made her a lemon cake with raspberry syrup and lemon curd in between the layers, frosted with lemon buttercream. Sometimes short, two-layer cakes are nice. I used lemon extract, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, so it was really zing-y and lemony. I kept the raspberry syrup on the tart side too.


I made a mini-cake with the leftover batter for D & R. I frosted it with whipped cream (that I whipped a little too long, it almost turned into butter). They loved it, but they were sad it wasn't bigger.

Rustic Ciabatta

Cooler weather makes me want to start baking bread again, keeping a starter and experimenting. I have been reading this book by Jim Lahey, the originator of the no-knead bread method that was popularized by Mark Bittman in the New York Times. I have been playing around with it, using a sourdough starter and then following the book's instructions for proofing and baking. Pre-heating a dutch oven and then baking the dough in the hot pan is one secret to the brick-oven like crust and fantastic oven rise. Today I made a dough so wet that it had to be poured into the heated pan. I was hoping for a very free-form flat ciabatta, with a big open crumb and blistered crust. The dough is mostly white bread flour, with some rye and whole wheat flours, wheat germ and flax meal added.

It made such a beautiful, messy rustic loaf. 

I dusted the top with kosher salt before baking, and it developed a shattering, crisp crust almost like a handmade pretzel.

The crumb could have been more open, but the flecks of flax and wheat germ, and the grey cast of the rye flour, make it interesting. This differed from the no-knead method in that I used a sourdough starter, and proofed it for only six hours instead of the 18-24 the book recommends. I have half of this dough on a slow rise in the refrigerator. I'll bake that off tomorrow and see what the difference is. In the meantime, a fantastic loaf for sandwiches or just eating plain. D loves it.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Summer birthdays are the best. We had a party Thursday night for my friend Amanda.

I love this picture, with her Mom's arm around her.

I made this Cake for her, still my favorite cake recipe, Classic Yellow cake from Sylvia Weinstock. I doubled the recipe and made four layers. It was the tallest cake I've ever tried. I put plastic drinking straws through the layers to keep them from sliding around in the heat.

It's such a moist cake, it works really well at high altitude with the adjustments I made. Raspberry filling is between the layers. I carved it to make it even all around, which made it pretty crumby . . .

. . . but buckets of buttercream cover everything.

The cake is almost level, but then I piped the top in a crooked circle so it looks like it's not. Everything is a learning experience.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Right before the party, I put edible flowers from our garden on the cake.

Amanda's littlest son is a big fan of cake, and, as you can see from his face, ketchup.

Our neighbor Julie made this beautiful tribute to Amanda, using words we all gave to describe her.

Success! We made her cry.


Lemonade on the alligator as the sun goes down. Summer is good.

First Day of Summer

After a frenetic school year and a blog hiatus, it's summer! The last day of school was Friday. We made celebration cupcakes on Saturday.

And picked flowers on Sunday. Today is our first day at the pool.

School Bake Sale Cupcakes

The school had a bake sale today to benefit a family with six kids who lost their home and are living in a motel. It was kind of meditative to spend an afternoon piping and sprinkling.

And a good reminder to thank God for my house, my kitchen, my family's peace and security. My box of sprinkles and pastry bags and piping tips that is always in the same place in the cabinet. The stairs we go up at night and the roof we sleep under. I pray that the bake sale family is sleeping under a roof of their own very soon.

And finally, here is today's lunch--heavy on the Vitamin C.

Derailed

So, our plans to drive to the wine country near Palisade CO for the week were derailed by the two dreaded S's, Sickness and Snow. R got sick, and big spring snowstorms were forecast for most of the state. Luckily all we had were hotel reservations, and those were easily canceled. It's surprising how much fun it is to just stay home and enjoy each others' company with no school or work. The best part has definitely been waking up every morning to find D home with us all day. We're working in the yard and on the house. We even took the money we had saved for two nights at a hotel, and bought a cherry tree.

That was our big trip for the year, and I'm sure we will get restless later. But the only loss I can see right now is all the hours of online planning it took to scrounge a week's vacation on a shoestring. We came up with some economical coups, that's for sure. I'm kind of sorry we didn't get a chance to use them. And someday I would love to go to Palisade.

Since I did take a vacation from the computer, I will make this one long post but try to date these in order.

Tuesday, March 24

We took the train downtown to the Denver Art Museum and the main library. Back home that afternoon, I couldn't find R anywhere, and then I heard her reading outside.

I asked her why she was sitting with her back to the house and she told me she was reading to the dogs next door. The black dog ignores her, but the white dog was sitting attentively with his ears up.

I got my own book from the library, Sensational Cakes by Sylvia Weinstock. I'm not much of a cake baker, but I like to look at books about decorating them. It had a recipe for Classic Yellow Cake that said "The name says it all. This is the only yellow cake recipe you will ever need. Everybody loves this buttery cake."

I was so curious that I made it that afternoon. I have to say, it's easily the best tasting cake I have ever made. D agreed. You can see how the recipe would be good for a wedding cake because it's so perfectly moist and rich. The frosting I made (not from the book) was terrible, but it didn't matter. I put some crocus blossoms on top. Spring crocus is non-toxic, unlike fall crocus, so they're ok for decorations but I took them off before serving the cake.

It was a big hit.

Here is the recipe:

Sylvia Weinstock's Classic Yellow Cake
* 2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ginger
* 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 2 cups sugar
* 4 large egg yolks
* 1 cup milk
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup sour cream
* 4 large egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8 x 3-inch round baking pans or one 12 x 3-inch round or square pan and line them with parchment.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter until fluffy and light in color, about 2 minutes on medium speed. Add the sugar and continue to mix until fluffy and light.

4. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, being sure each is blended before adding the next. Add the milk and vanilla.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour. Be sure the mixture is completely blended after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and beat for 1 minute.

6. In a separate bowl, using a clean whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form.

7. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter with a rubber spatula.

8. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and smooth with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the center of the oven and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the sides of the cake pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top of the cake should be nicely browned.

I think this will be our family cake from now on, whenever I don't have time to make my mom and grandma's Icebox Cake. I did adjust it for high altitude: reduce baking powder to 1 3/4 tsp; reduce sugar by 2 T; add 2 T milk; increase oven temp to 375. It baked more quickly than the time given above, so watch it carefully.

Wednesday, March 25


R made some labels for the flats of seedlings we're going to start indoors.

First daffodil and crocus. A lot of snow is coming, but I think they like that.

Thursday, March 26

And by 8 a.m., here came the snow. Now that was fun, a blizzard with everyone safely at home, the house stocked with groceries and firewood, nowhere to go and nothing to do but watch the storm. R played outside for a little while, but she came in when the winds picked up and the snow started blowing sideways. We knew we had made the right decision about our vacation when we saw the news and the multi-car pileups on the mountain highways. At 2 p.m., they shut down the city of Denver for all but emergency services.

Sideways snow.

Boots, toes and sock monkeys

Window art

Pot roast and apple tarte tatin is a good dinner for a snowy night. The beautiful concentric circles of apples and caramel stuck to the pan and it had to be dug out and reassembled. It tasted fine.

Cream to pour over it is in my grandma's flowered china creamer that is always on our kitchen windowsill.

For the first time since Christmas, it was cold enough for a fire. We put the two tables together for R's cookie decorating party at Christmas, and I have just left the extra one up because it comes in so handy for projects. They're covered with the white table pad right now. It doesn't look very good, but it wipes clean and protects the table from glue sticks and potting soil.

Blue light outside. Unretouched, this is how it photographed at dusk. The picture on the door is R's "stained glass" project from the Denver art museum on Wednesday. It was such a good idea, tissue paper cut out and glued to a piece of wax paper and then framed in cardboard. They look pretty with window light shining through.

Roasting marshmallows.

We found this little rocker by the curb when R was a baby and she still sits in it every day.

Friday, March 27


Lots of snow by the morning. This is 7:30 a.m.

Daddy's gloves

Front of the house

Back yard junipers. By 10, the sky was blue again.

Kitchen window. Ranunculus, geranium and primroses from the nursery where we got the cherry tree. I traded one restaurant meal from our phantom vacation for them.

All week we've been adding more flats of seedlings to the guest bedroom. It gets a lot of sun all day so I thought it would be a better setup than the basement, in case the lights don't cover all the flats. Which they don't. We bought three more $9 shop lights from Home Depot today and that should help. If we have guests between now and May, maybe they will appreciate the highly oxygenated air.

Tonight was mom's night off for dinner. They collaborated and came up with this. They cooked and served and cleaned up. Everything was delicious.