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This has been a fantastic year for hot peppers in our garden. Some years we barely get any, others we do pretty well, but this year? Abundance. We grew cherry peppers, habaneros, jalapenos, peppinos, cayennes, and poblanos. There are still a lot of them out there ripening on the vine, and we’ve made good use of the ones we’ve already harvested.
In this case, Bill really wanted a jalapeno hot sauce.
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I’m not always great at organizing my time. If I’m working on a post, for instance, I feel like I should be dusting a bookcase or vacuuming in the basement. And when I’m cleaning out the pantry, I feel a definite pull from unfinished Etsy projects.
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Crickent-Catcher, our adult, female, Cuban Knight Anole, is starting to shed.
They shed every, I don’t know, month…two months…something like that. When they shed, or are about to, they don’t eat as much.
They don’t shed all their skin at once, either. Usually it’s the head first…then it starts becoming noticeable at the tail end, until eventually the whole body seems loosely wrapped in fine, white paper.
Anyway, here’s Cricket-Catcher shedding the skin on her head.
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At the beginning of this month I made a double batch of Feta. And I wrote about it here.
I was very excited. I love Feta. And making it was nice – it was similar, a bit, to making hard cheese like Cheddar, but shorter. Not so much pressing and air drying and all that.
Half of the curds were tossed with salt and left in the fridge to cure for about 5 days.
The other half went into a brine and would be soaking in that brine for a month....
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But at the time, the name seemed appropriate.
Lucky.
Hatched from an unexpected egg, and he survived being in the same tank as his huge, predatory mother.
So “Lucky” seemed like a valid name.
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I know.
Kind of a weird post title.
It’s early Sunday morning. I’m the only one awake, besides the cats, of course.
I’m listening to a succession of cooking shows on the tv – all of them on PBS channels, because I like those the best. More information, less desperate and over-the-top entertainment, with a warm, cozy feeling of home. Really. Julia Child and my mother were somehow related to each other in my mind when I was a kid. My mom was a great cook, and hey, so was Julia! Julia would always be on the tv (it seemed) and my mom (it seemed) would be in the kitchen – when she wasn’t in the living room with Julia (on the tv). (Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet, was kind of a wacky uncle in all this.) I know, it’s a bit nuts, but that’s how it all melds together in my memory.
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As you may (or may not) remember, a big part of our summer was spent scraping, sanding, repairing, shingling, and (finally) painting our house and garage.
Actually, we’re still not done. The project took much longer than we naively anticipated. Maybe we should have known better.
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My husband woke up not feeling well this morning. He only ate a little of his scrambled eggs, didn’t finish his coffee, and really looked like he should be going back to bed instead of getting in the car and driving to work.
I wondered if I’d see him home earlier than usual.
Sure enough, a couple of hours earlier then his normal arrival time, Bill pulled into the driveway. He changed into comfier clothes and crashed on the couch with the tv on.
There wasn’t a whole lot I could do for him at that point other than let him fall asleep. I picked up the kids, got them squared away with snacks and homework and so forth, and got started on dinner.
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I was named after my two grandmothers. My mother’s mother’s name was Emma Jane, and my mom thought “Emma” was a bit too old fashioned at the time (it’s fairly popular now, I’ve noticed), so she just used the “Jane” part, and, I don’t know, modernized it a bit by sticking the Y in the middle of everything. And my middle name is my dad’s mother’s maiden name. If I’d been a boy, I’d have been named after the two grandfathers; maternal grandfather’s first name, paternal grandfather’s middle name.
Anyway, when I was pregnant with Alex, we, of course, started thinking about names.
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Nearly a year ago I posted a recipe and photos for a version of Caldo Verde, Portuguese Kale Soup, that came from our neighbors when I was a kid. You can read that post here.
I received a bunch of comments from readers of Portuguese descent – not to mention a phone call from a friend of ours – letting me know that the version I’d posted was only ONE way of making this much-loved national dish.
And one reader, Ana Rocha, provided (in the comments) a recipe that she said was a version very close to the original Caldo Verde. Here’s the comment, which includes the recipe:
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The smell of a roasting chicken says “home” to me. The aroma is cozy and comforting and evocative of childhood…Sunday afternoons…cool Autumn days…dark, early evenings…cribbage games in the living room, and – a real treat – glasses of ginger ale mixed with orange juice for my sister and me.
We didn’t move – ever – when I was a child. Our house was also my father’s place of business, so we were pretty well tied to that spot. But once I was in college and then on my own, I lived in a variety of places in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and again in Rhode Island.
And whenever I’ve moved, I’ve had to roast a chicken soon after moving in. I need to. It’s my way, I think, of blessing the place. Of saying “this is my home.” Instead of burning sage or incense, or popping open a bottle of champagne, I roast a chicken.
Continue reading "Rosemary Garlic Chicken and Potatoes, and a Question" »
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Hot Paper Lantern Habanero Peppers, ripening in our garden.
We grew a variety of hot peppers this year and, amazingly, they’ve all done really well. We’ve made fresh salsa with them, and recently I canned some Jalapeno salsa and will probably make another batch of that when more of the peppers have reached maturity.
A couple of years ago our friend, John, made some sort of hot pepper jam or marmalade and gave us a jar. I don’t remember all the details, just that it was hot and sweet and completely addictive.
With our lovely selection of peppers this year, I really wanted to make a jam or jelly myself. Over the winter I’d gone through various canning books and recipes, and marked the pages of the jellies I wanted to try. And finally, with our peppers ripening, and some of them turning brilliant shades of red, it was time.
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This is a variation on the childhood favorite – the Snickerdoodle. I’ve also found it listed (in Christopher Kimball’s The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook) as “Snipdoodles,” which I think I like better, name-wise.
Since the start of school, I’ve been trying to several different batches of cookie dough, freezing portions of it and then baking whatever strikes my fancy any given week.
I made, among other things, a batch of Snickerdoodles (or Snipdoodles) recently, and my kids, Bill, and the kids from across the street all liked them very much. There’s something really nice about a simple cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar.
So the other day I was thinking of the next batches of cookie dough to make, and I wanted something kind of plain, like the Snicker/Snip-doodles, but…different.
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Did you know that September is National Rice Month?
I didn’t, but now I do.
And to celebrate and promote rice as part of a healthy diet, the USA Rice Federation is having a contest!
Want to learn more? Click here!
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
This is the beginning of Part 10, the last part of my Zoo Tour.
This bird here is a Coscoroba Swan. It is very pretty and white. They live in the southern part of South America. Hey, it sort of looks like the swans we have in Rhode Island!
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Yesterday afternoon.
I’d just brought the kids home from school. I told them they could hang out or whatever for about half an hour before starting their homework.
I was in the kitchen working on dinner.
Bill wasn’t home yet.
And then, a loud cry interrupted the peace.
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This recipe comes from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving. The book says you'll get about six 8-ounce jars or three pints. I got five 8-ounce jars plus a little (maybe a quarter cup) left over, which was nice because I got to taste it. The rest of the jars will sit for at least 3 more weeks, as the book recommends letting the salsa mature "to mellow and round out the outstanding flavor."
Here are the ingredients (and some pictures and my commentary):
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This works with any kind of pepper – hot or sweet. In the images below, I’m slicing a jalapeño.
First, slice off the stem end so you can stand the pepper up, like this:
Continue reading "An Easy Way to Separate Peppers from Their Seeds" »
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Julia wanted to make a necklace for me.
And here it is.
"I put your name on it!" she told me proudly.
And so she did.
She's a very sweet, thoughtful girl.
I'll keep her.
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
This is the beginning of Part 9.
The first animal of part 9 is this Toucan. Toucans live where Jaguars live, in South American rain forests. Do you know that the rainforest is coming down? So Toucans are very helpful in one way: If they eat a berry they’ll spit out the seed so then the seed can become another tree. The more trees that come up, the more nature is alive.
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My freshman or sophomore year in college - I don't remember which it was - I had five papers due in one week, all for different classes, each one due on a different day, probably. I think it may have been the week after Thanksgiving, perhaps the last papers for the semester before finals and Christmas break.
Whatever it was, I actively chose not to bring ANY of that stuff home with me to work on over Thanksgiving break. It was supposed to be a BREAK, right? So I took one.
And then I came back on a Sunday and wrote my paper for Monday. I wrote Tuesday's paper Monday night, and so on through the week. No drafts, no outlines. I was an English major. It probably was freshman year, now that I think about it. I had at least two classes...Chaucer, maybe, and something else...Poetry. And some sort of history class, I think, and I don't remember what else. Intro to Theatre comes to mind.
Anyway, I cranked out my papers....
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Both kids were snuggled in bed with me this morning for a few minutes.
Julia had left a stuffed animal bald eagle in the bed last night - a gift for me earlier in the day. She likes to give gifts of "living" creatures.
Anyway, we're snuggled together in bed, and Alex said something like "Wow, Part 9 next!" in reference to his Zoo Tour with Alex series. And then he said that maybe next time we go to Southwick's Zoo or Roger Williams Zoo (which still sounds like he's saying "Woger Williams"), maybe Julia could talk (on my blog) about that.
Then conversation turned to bald eagles, with Alex saying Southwick's has them, and Julia pointing out (or maybe I have that backwards) that so does Roger Williams. And Alex said that maybe the pair at Roger Williams are mating.
"What's that?" Julia asked.
I waited, curious myself.
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Figured I’d post a couple of pictures of the “kittens” – as Alex and Julia still refer to these two sometimes.
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
This animal is the starting of part 8.
Now we are in the reptile house. This reptile is a type of snake. It’s called a Gray-Banded King Snake. You can’t see its head, though, in the picture.
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I'm trying to remember what Alex was like when he went into first grade. Did he have the same hard time adjusting to the big change from half-day kindergarten to all-day elementary school? I don't think he did, really. Or, if he did have any sort of adjustment issues, they manifested themselves differently than they are with his sister.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong. I probably am. I know, actually, that there were days he didn't WANT to do his homework, it was TOO HARD, there was TOO MUCH TO DO. I remember alternately sympathizing and reprimanding, hugging and ignoring frustrated tears. I do remember, after all.
But still.
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
Hi again. This is the porcupine habitat. The porcupine is real hard to see because of the fence and also its camouflage.
Here’s a closer picture:
There are a few different kinds of porcupines. This one, I think, lives all through the north of North America, but not in the Arctic. Another one that I know lives in Asia. It has black and white thorns – really helps when it comes to a tiger emergency.
Porcupines eat leaves from trees and sometimes grasses. But with all these spikes, it’s hard to climb a tree. Sometimes they’ll fall and break one off. But they have great claws, so it shouldn’t happen a lot.
That’s it for the porcupines!
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I recently made Feta. And a batch of Chèvre.
We’ve got tomatoes ripening…and plenty of basil. I decided to make a batch of mozzarella, too. And I used some of the tomatoes to make a sauce. And we had some gorgeous eggplant that needed to be picked.
The time was ripe for pizza.
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As we often do, Bill and I took a walk around the gardens yesterday, checking to see what is ripe, what is dying, what has started growing (we’ve planted a lot of greens and peas recently).
Once our patrol of the grounds was complete, we headed toward the back door.
And as I came around the side of the steps, a little dark dangling something caught my eye.
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Just about a week ago I made Feta for the first time. This weekend the short term batch was ready to sample.
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In case anyone else was wondering, this month's banner? It's a small head of red cabbage. We had harvested the last two on Sunday, and on Tuesday I finally figured I'd make something with them. So I trimmed off the roots (yes, Alex carried them in with extra leaves and roots intact, along with an armful of tomatoes) and the outer leaves, and then got sidetracked by the patterns of the leaves...
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Well, the first day of school went well yesterday. Both kids liked their teachers and their classmates (so far), and the school gave out popsicles to all the students because it has been in the 90s and HUMID this week. Alex said there were four fans going in his room.
No homework for the kids – just for me. All the usual bits and pieces of paper to look over and/or fill out and/or sign. I did all that right away, just to get it over with.
And today? Today will be another humid one, with rain (Hurricane Earl side effects) on the way, so instead of painting a side of the garage today as I’d planned, I’m going to make salsa to can. Because, as I mentioned to my sister a moment ago, it’s JUST NOT HUMID ENOUGH!
We’ve got a ton of tomatoes that need something done to them, and lots of our assorted chili peppers are ripe, too. We’ve got cilantro growing as well (some reseeded itself), and we have shallots and small onions – I just need lime juice (which – yay, me – I have frozen in ice cube sized chunks in the freezer! Actually it’s Yay, Bill! because he’s the one who squeezed all the limes) and I’m good to go.
That’s about it for the moment. Have to make the kids’ lunches and get them out of the house off to their second day of school, and then get going on the salsa before I change my mind and spend the day in the air-conditioned basement.
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
Now we’re in the Australian area. This is the Laughing Kookaburra. It doesn’t really laugh that much, but its call kinda sounds like it’s laughing.
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This post is part of an ongoing series about Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA, written (well, dictated – I did the typing) and photographed by my 8-year-old son, Alex. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, links to those parts are at the end of this post.
We are now at the beginning of Part 5. To start it off, you can see a crow. This crow is eating some popcorn from the ground that people dropped.
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I took a quick snapshot of our shadows this morning as we walked up the road. That's me on the left, holding the camera. Then Julia, the big girl, and over on the right, kind of hidden in the tree shadows, is Alex.
First day of school.
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