serendipity

thinking ahead to spring

"You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet."   --  Hal Borland

A few more flowers from my Glass Prairie series. Violets are among my favorite flowers.  I love their vibrant color and delicate fragrance.

Their arrival each spring is a sure sign that winter's frosty spell has finally lifted.  While the Prairie Violet and Arrow-Leaved Violet favor the prairie, the common blue violet can be found throughout one's garden and lawn.  I love to add them to salads for a dash of color and some extra Vitamin C, but this coming spring I think I will make some violet jelly.

These recipes show a gorgeous jelly, light purple in color and sure to be delicious.  Just imagine it with some lemon scones!

The Taste of Spring

A Sustainable Life

Prairieland Herbs

they draw and cook, sam

"Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie."  -- Jim Davis

I have been in love with this recipe / gift card since I received it in the mail for Christmas.  How cute! What fun! And so tasty! I've been meaning to ask Sam about it, but never quite got around to it.  Well, today I came across the website They Draw & Cook and fell in love.  Great recipes and amazing illustrations.  They are even coming out with a cookbook.  Then as I sat here looking and reading, it suddenly dawned on me that the format of the recipes was similar to The Card.  And yes indeedy, there was her recipe card on the website.  

Don't take my word for it.  Take a look for yourself.  I've been wanting to illustrate my own recipes ever since reading a post on Oh Joy .  Now I have even more enticement to give it a whirl.  I can see my holiday gift giving in the making.  A series of recipe cards, or better yet, a self-published illustrated recipe book.  Oh, la, la! 

Make Day!

 

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Make Day!  Leave it to the Corn Lady (also known as Cathi Bouzide) to come up with such a fantastic idea.  Get off the computer, gather with friends, and make stuff.  

Each person signed up with what they would bring to share with others.  We decorated cupcakes, made paper silhouettes, learned how to rework the circuits on electronic toys, and played instruments.  I brought knitting needles and yarn to show how to make an i-cord.  That's me with Alexis.   

We of course ate a ridiculous amount of yummy food.  (Note to self - get guacamole recipe.)   The wine I brought is called Kitchen Sink.  I couldn't resist a wine with such a name, and it was delicious too!

Thank you David for sharing the photo you took of Alexis and me!

hot chocolate

 

"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate." --Katherine Hepburn

After a gorgeous week in Los Angeles, I am back in Chicago surrounded by mountains of snow.  My cure for the winter blues - hot chocolate.  Normally I'm a bit lazy when it comes to making it.  I pour the milk into the mug, zap it in the microwave, stir in a heaping teaspoon of instant hot coco mix and I'm good to go.  Sometimes when I'm feeling decadent, I'll add a dash of Frangelico.  Simple.  But today, I need to mix it up.

Check out this recipe from Cooking Light.  The above confection is called Barcelona Hot Chocolate, a mix of espresso and bittersweet chocolate with a twist of orange peel.  Does it not look amazing?!

This white chocolate latte recipe from Southern Living is another to try. I love almond extract!  

And for some variation, I'm going to make this mulled cranberry cider.  It would be perfect with a lemon poppy seed muffin.

 

New Year Scones

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."

-- Henry Moore

For our New Year's Day brunch, I made some chocolate scones to go with the veggie sausage and mimosas.  Scones have always alluded me.  I either make them too crumbly or too dense, but these came out perfect.  The recipe is from the December 2010 issue of Southern Living and is foolproof.  There is a chocolate variation which substitutes the cranberries and pistachios with 2oz of coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate and a 1/4 cup of dried cherries.  I skipped the cherries and used 2oz of 70% cocoa dark chocolate.  DIVINE!  

My next experiment will be with asiago cheese, pear and rosemary.  A savory to complement the sweet of the chocolate scones.    

summer's end

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.  ~Stanley Horowitz

Yesterday I had a few moments in my garden.  I picked the last of the tomatoes (soon be green tomato chutney), raked leaves, cut back the peonies, and planted a few more daffodil bulbs.  It's a bittersweet time.  I'm relieved to be finishing up the chores, but already begin to mourn the garden's bounty.

This year I planted the base for a formal herb garden complete with a boxwood hedge.  The geometry of such a garden is to reign in my more casual gardening style, to add a bit of structure to it.  I also want a garden that brings year round pleasure.  I love the look of these hedges peeking through the snow. A textured oval on a blank white canvas.

In the meantime, I continue to work on "Glass Prairie," adding more to those already captured.

Photo credits: Larry Sanders.

harvesting

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

is hung with bloom along the bough."

-- A. E. Housman

 

I didn't think I would have much of a harvest.  My poor sour cherry tree is riddled with a disease I have yet to name, but she managed to provide enough fruit to make a couple of pies and 4 pints of jam.  It's not a bumper crop, but enough to tell me that she is waiting patiently for me to help her.

I find the whole local food phenomena rather befuddling.  Doesn't everyone already eat this way?  Growing up, we had our sources.  Yes, we shopped at farmers markets, but my grandmother took it a step further.  She knew several farmers who would give her a call as different crops were harvested.  She'd tell them how many bushels to set aside and when she'd be out to pick them up.  As I grew older, it became my job to get the food.  All summer long we pickled, canned, baked, dried and froze for winter.  To this day, nothing thrills me more than a kitchen full of fresh fruit and veggie.

I wish I knew how to make my Gam's pies.  I just don't have her magic touch with pie crust. The other day I stopped by Wholefoods and found Eckerts peaches on sale.  Eckerts is a farm outside Belleville, IL and was just 30 miles east of Gam's apartment.  They have a large operation, but they sure knew my Gam.  Out I'd go to get different fruits as they came into season.  Peaches were her favorite.  I've already put up 6 pints of ginger peach jam from a fantastic farmer selling at Logan Square market, but when I saw these peaches, I had to buy some.  They spell home.  Maybe I'll try making another pie or some fresh peach ice cream.  Then again, I may just eat them as they are.  Yum.

Tonight's dinner comes courtesy of my garden, a pasta of roasted eggplant and tomatoes.  The pasta is handmade and the veggie and herbs freshly picked.  I don't grow enough to do much more than immediately enjoy, but enjoy I do.

So does Rosie the Rabbit.  Look carefully, you can just see her ears (hint, she's in the middle of the photo). 

urban eggs

"A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked."  --  Bernard Miltzer

Cathy the Corn Lady delivered a gift from The Girls - a gorgeous 1/2 dozen eggs.

The Girls are hens sharing quarters in her backyard.  These are urban chicks living in the middle of Chicago.  I love the concept of urban farming and am thrilled to see it taking root in my home town.  The other day I bought honey from a co-op down the road.   The city of Chicago even boasts an agricultural high school!  My own garden is lush, bursting with green beans, tomatoes, hot peppers, cabbage, winter squash and over a dozen herbs. 

As pretty as these eggs were, I had to make a quiche.  The crust is a yeast dough, very light and flavored with just a little lemon zest.  The custard was ad hoc - summer squash from Vera's farm, basil from my backyard and some caramelized onion with a sprinkling of grated mozzarella.  

Delicious!

strawberry rhubarb jam

"In the childhood memories of every good cook, there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom."  --  Barbara Costikyan

My last conversation with Mom was less than two days before she died.  We discussed her funeral arrangements and the green tomato pickle I'd be making.  I had finally found a farmer who'd sell me a peck of green tomatoes.  Just as important, I had tracked down a source for half pint jars within the city limits that didn't cost a fortune and were plentiful in supply.  Yet I never did make the pickle, instead I let the tomatoes turn red and served them at the reception following Mom's funeral.  

Today I got out those very same jars and made tons and tons of strawberry jam.  In my family the canning season officially starts with strawberries.  Mom always made her jam with the strawberries left whole, but I prefer chopping them up made for easier spreading on toast.  

I also did some experimenting with strawberry rhubarb jam.  The fruits of my labor produced 4 cups delicious, sweet-tart jam that will be perfect on an English muffin or better yet, with cheesecake.  

2 lbs of washed, hulled, and quartered strawberries (cut them so the chunks are approx. same in size)

1 lb of washed rhubarb, cut in 1/2" chunks (if stalk is wide, split in half)

10 lemon peels approx. 3" long and 1/4" wide

1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

Add these to a large steel pot with 1 cup of water.  Cover and turn to medium heat.  Bring to a boil.  Remove lid.  Turn heat to low.  Add 2 cups of sugar in 1/2 cup increments waiting for sugar to fully dissolve before adding more.  Keep on low and cook until the jam reaches a temperature of 212 degrees.  It took me approx an hour to get to this temperature with the heat on low, but it kept the sugar from burning.  The strawberries and rhubarb will have turned to a pulp mixture by the time you finish.

Let cool and freeze in sterile containers or use the rolling boil method of canning with jars for 10 minutes.  

friday fiber fun #7

"What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life." -- Emil Brunner

This week's Friday Fiber Fun theme revolves around the body.  Tomorrow morning (Friday) I'm having a CT scan of my lungs and heart.  I've recently developed a mild form of asthma, but it doesn't explain my rapid heart rate.  Given that I've had cancer twice, the doctors are being their usual cautious selves.  I'm grateful to be alive, but rather fed up with feeling like a lab rat or zombie from the Land of the Ill.  

Thinking of lab rats, I love this knitter's rendition.

Knit organs seem to be a trend.  Check out this heart and this soft and fuzzy brain (a bit like my own prior to my morning coffee).

I recently came across the work of Austrian artist Melli Ink.  I love her glass installations and can't wait to see images of her current work in textiles.

The work of Louise Bourgeois has always been an inspiration, as has the work of Kiki Smith.

But right now, at this very moment, it is the work of Christoph Brach that resonates most with me.  His anatomical rendering in balloons (see above image) look as soft and squishy as I currently feel, each breath noticeably expanding and contracting like a worn out balloon.  

In honor of tomorrow, the first warm day of the year in Chicago -  my perception of watering my garden is changed forever.