Grandma Pat's Email

Good news! My Gurneys order came! Well, most of it anyway. I have been thinking about my garden, and where to plant things... And today I get this email from my Grandma that reminds me of how my garden needs to be planted:

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,

PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:

1. Peas of mind
2. Peas of heart
3. Peas of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS COMPLETE WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for service
3. Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends

WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE. THERE IS

MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

Adventures in Sushi- A Fish Story

The class was held on March 16th, 2011 at Lake Washington Technical College. We were instructed to bring a sharp knife. Each person, I believe there were 8 of us, had a station with a package of sushi ingredients. We had:

• diced carrots
• cucumber     
• smoked salmon
• tuna
• avocado
• krab
• krab salad
• salmon roe
• fried tofu
• sesame seeds
• spicy sauce
• soy sauce
• wasabi
• green onions
• bean sprouts
• seaweed paper

The instructors would give us a demonstration and we would go to our station and try our hand at reproducing the sushi they made. After trying the rolling technique, I found in reminiscent of my youth and rolling cigarettes of various materials. I used to excel at rolling, so I found this to be a pleasant experience which could be mastered with time and practice.

One thing to learn about sushi rolls is that too much ingredients causes your roll to become over-stuffed, therefore not allowing closure...and we all want closure, don't we?

By the time I left, we were out of rice and the ingredients, which looked moderately fresh 2 1/2 hours ago, no longer looked very appealing, I managed to reproduce all the rolls and nagiri which we were shown. I thought the ingredients provided were lack-luster and definitely would modify the recipes. The concept itself and the applications I learned were valuable. I am excited to make sushi out of quality ingredients at my home, hopefully for guests. 

In the end, it was a satisfying experience. I left with a small box of sushi, most of which I didn't eat, but it was well worth the money invested for the class. Now I just have to buy a bamboo mat and cook up some rice!

Tater Turns Twelve!

Ugh! Where does the time go? My little Tater Tot turned twelve on Saturday! We didn't get to spend time with her on her birthday so we are celebrating tonight. There is a special ordered dinner planned, at the request of our beautiful girl, of gnocchi in whitesauce with chicken and caesar salad. It should be delicious! Last night I stayed up making "Funfetti" cupcakes with a homemade white vanilla buttercream. The cupcakes were made from the box but the frosting was a fun and easy adventure, now that I have my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer. I am truly in love with that sexy piece of machinery. I love her so much that I named her Stella Bella Kitty. I adorned the cupckes with some colored hard candy in multiple colors. The bottom layer of cupcakes all had a corresponding color to the larger candy in the middle. The overall effect made them look like flowers. The next two layers of cupcakes were made with multiple colored candies. In addition, the number "12" tops it off for the perfect birthday candles!

In addition to making Tater's cupcakes, my boss turns 70 tomorrow! I made him dark chocolate cupcakes, filled with a rich chocolate mousse, and topped with orange chocolate frosting, infused with dark chilli chocolate chunks... I can't wait to try them...Death by Chocolate anyone?

Gurney's Order

Here it is 3/22/11. I placed my Gurney's order on 3/7/11. WHY HASN'T it shipped yet? I am feeling frustrated. I think it is because in the world we live in, online ordering provides me with a small form of instant gratification followed closely by anticipation of the arriving package. By this time last year, I was heavy into planting and sprouting seeds. This year, I haven't yet had any time to prep my yard, sow seeds, pluck weeks or even mow. The closest I have come is Tom Sawyering my loverly into building my a cold frame. Oh Gurneys, PLEASE ship my order soon!

Reflection of growing adventures

YAY! I found my first blog post! It didn't disappear, it was just in drafts! Silly rabbit!

There haven't been many attempts from me to grow a vegetable garden. Last year (2010), the Spring looked promising. With the help of my partner in crime, we prepared our small yard to hopefully yield some nice crops of veggies and herbs. By early March, I had vegetable starts on peas and tomatoes growing on my window sill. It was a marvelous sight to watch the daily growth of my potential new food source. We made some raised beds along side the house, which would later hold cauliflower, peas, broccoli, lettuce, carrots and radishes...or such was my hope.  The boxes were spectacular and my partner once again proved to me why I find him so appealing. There is nothing like a man who knows how to wield tools. A few trips to the local hardware store for bags of soil and we were ready to go. Everything was in place, from the seeds, to the starts. Spring cleaning of the yard became a daily ritual of mine, along with watering and observing my gardens growth. Then it became cold...

And pretty much stayed cold the remainder of Spring and most of the Summer. My tomatoes cowered away from the wind and rain. The broccoli and cauliflower did exceptionally well for my first attempt. I did not realize (RTFM) that they would grow so large and take up so much space in my very small garden. I had to transplant them to their own individual pots to allow for optimal growth. Now I know!

The lettuce also did well in the cold of the Spring. The constant rainfall of the Northwest assisted in nurturing the lettuce. It was difficult to keep the slugs off though. It seems they come along with the Northwest rainfall. *sigh* At least I was able to have a salad or two before my lettuce was gone.

I could go on about the various vegetables which failed to come to life under my watchful eye but this year will be different! This year the Spring weather will not hinder my garden's growth. I have taken various measures (mostly which involve large amounts of Visqueen) to ensure my plants stay warm and slug-free. My man built me a small cold frame, large enough for 4-5 trays of starts. Also, my raised beds will be covered to keep the soil and plants warmer. Spring is always such an exciting time for me.

I placed my Gurneys order yesterday.

Cake Decorating Final Project

I took a cake decorating class at the local technical college. It was for 2 hours, every Wednesday for four weeks. Through my years in college (8 total so far), I have learned that there are good teachers and there are bad teachers. I didn't have a very good teacher but I was encouraged to seek out information on my own, just for educations sake. Fortunately, what the class did teach me was to not be afraid of all those decorating tips! Really, it was a very basic decorating class, which is exactly what I needed. As much as I wasn't impressed by the teacher, I did learn a thing or two...

1) I learned about crumb-coating. I wish I had known about crumb-coating YEARS ago. Basically, you frost and coat the cake with a thin layer, not worrying about being perfect. Once you have a good layer on the cake, you place the cake inside a freezer or refrigerator and cool the cake until it's time to decorate it. Once you are ready, pull the cake from the cold storage and frost it with the decorative frosting. The crumb-coating will eliminate any crumbs from getting in your decorative frosting. This is SO SIMPLE and yet, until class, I totally missed it.

2) I learned how to make buttercream. This may be a skill I eventually would have picked up but after tasting real buttercream (not from the store), I can see why it is a bakers choice. It is creamy and delicious and can be cooled or heated to reach the desired consistency.

3) I learned how to make buttercream roses. Why is this important? As mentioned above, it got me over my fear of decorating tips! Once you get a buttercream rose down, you realize that nothing has to be perfect to look good and a cake is like a canvas, open to the artist's interpretation. Different tips can teach the artist different techniques. It was a fascinating adventure to try all my decorating tips and see their results.

After the second class, I began practicing a few nights a week at home. I made my own buttercream and practiced until I felt I could do roses, no problem. I even taught my daughter and a friend of mine how to make them. It was very exciting to pass the knowledge along.

The fourth and final class came. For our certificate, we had to decorate a cake, on our own, without the teacher's assistance. I had an idea in my head of a field of sunflowers. Though I had not made sunflowers in the class or at home, I was confident that I could do it.

Although I would have liked the base colors of the cake start with green (for the field) and fade to blue (for the sky), I think the cake turned out fairly well. The teacher let me know that my centers could have been done with dot tips, starting large on the outside and working my way in with smaller dots. Next time....

Gurneys order

It's that time of the year. Spring is just around the corner and the beautiful Pacific Northwest temperatures begin to climb. My partner in crime spent all of Sunday building me the best cold frame a girl could ask for. It should hold about four to five trays of veggie starts and shield them from the ever changing weather.

I just got done placing this year's vegetable order with Gurneys. They had a wonderful deal this year that if you order $50 or more of products, you get $25 free. I purchased:

• 2 TOMATO HEIRLOOM RAINBOW BLEND PKT
• 1 TOMATO RAINBOW BELLS BLEND PKT.
• 1 PEPPER SWEET BELL MIX PKT/G
• 1 ARTICHOKE GREEN GLOBE PKT.
• 1 BEAN BUSH EARLY CONTENDER PKT./G
• 1 BEAN BUSH DERBY PKT/G
• 1 PEA MIRAGREEN PKT.
• 1 LETTUCE BLEND PKT.
• 1 CHARD BRIGHT LIGHTS PKT.
• 2 CARROT RAINBOW BLEND PKT.
• 1 CUCUMBER EUREKA HYBRID PKT
• 1 HERB - ROSEMARY PKT/G
• 1 RADISH BLACK SPANISH ROUND PKT.
• 1 TOMATO BLACK KRIM PKT.
• 1 SQUASH SUMMER BLACK MAGIC 燾UCCHINI PKT.
• 1 CARROT DANVERS HALF LONG PKT/G

Needless to say, I am very excited to see how my garden grows! I still have to purchase my Farmer's Almanac so I know when to plant everything. Last year, the weather hindered my garden growth but this year I have a plan, and it's a good one!

My first impression of blogging.

I spent a full hour typing and editing my first blog. It was all about the toils and triumphs of gardening I went through during the Spring of 2010. When I went to "publish post" my blog had vanished. How sad it was for me to be so excited to share my adventures with you, only to be crushed that I didn't save it elsewhere first. I will try this one and see if it fares better, although complaining is not how I intended to introduce my blog....