Bobbies

First Strawberries, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

When I was a little, little girl, my father had a strawberry patch. I *loved* strawberries. I would eat anything with strawberries in it or on it. I would crawl out, before I could even walk, into the strawberry patch and eat any strawberry I could get my little fingers on, even the green ones. I called them "bobbies" (once I could talk...I was eating strawberries long before I was verbal). There's a great picture on my wall of my father holding me out like a little airplane by the straps of my overalls. I'm covered in mud and strawberry juice, with a big grin on my face. Today I decided to forgo the mud, and only go for the ripe ones, but I'm just as ecstatic at 36 as I was at less than one to be eating bobbies from the backyard.

Fair Trade Eggs

Fair Trade Eggs, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

My friend Sarah's daughter turned 9 this past weekend, but didn't want birthday cake. She wanted lemon cupcakes. I volunteered to make them, and as payment was given 8 beautiful eggs from the chickens in their yard. I think it was a very fair trade.

Eatwell vs. Eatwell

Cookie Bake-off, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

After discovering the most brilliant recipe for whole wheat cookies ever (thanks, Julia for the link) and trying out the recipe a few times, I decided to have a bake-off. My lovely friends at Eatwell Farms gave me two types of flour to try. The top cookie is made with Blanco Fuerte and the bottom with Bolero. I took the results to the market this morning and had friends from Massa Organics, Tierra Vegetables, Will's Avocados, McGinnis Ranch, Hidden Star Orchards, and of course Eatwell Farms do a taste test. Votes for looks went entirely to the Blanco Fuerte, taste was half and half. The Blanco Fuerte had a nutty texture to them, a bit chewy. The Bolero were more of a traditional chocolate chip cookie. Sadly, I didn't manage to get a picture until they were almost gone. In fact, I didn't get a picture at all, but Laurel's iPhone did.

Wine and WI Cheese Night

Wine and WI Cheese Night, a photo by zostra on Flickr.

I shared my Wisconsin cheese stash with Seth & Laurel. Accompanied by a bottle of Tramin Pinot Bianco 2009 (thank you, Solano Cellars, for the recommendation) and Powder Keg Petite Sirah 2008 (thank you, Seth), some other goodies, and followed by whole wheat chocolate chip cookies made with flour from Eatwell Farms. It was lovely. The fourth member of our party couldn't make it because his son was sick. While we were saddened by the loss of his company, this did not deter us from eating his portion of the cheese. Sorry, Jan. The cheese was amazing.

Exploring Madison

After an early-morning presentation I left The Dells and headed down to explore Madison. I stopped at a fabulous knitting shop, Lakeside Fibers, which has a very tempting selection of yarns and an attached coffee shop where there was live music playing an a selection of local pastries and other goodies. Down the street was this view of downtown Madison:



Then I was off to Avol's Books near the University, which houses a great collection of used and antiquarian books. I restrained myself, due to over-full luggage, and only bought one small paperback. Drove through some detours to get around the protesters at the capital building:



Parked the car, and headed to a restaurant on the capitol square that specializes in local foods, Graze, where I had positively scrumptious buttermilk pancakes with spiced butter, Wisconsin maple syrup, and tart cherries:



then made my way to a positively brilliant cheese shop, Fromagination. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable, and most importantly gave me samples. I made it out the door with only four cheeses, Bandaged Cheddar by Bleu Mont Dairy, Dunbarton Blue by Roelli Cheese, Pleasant Ridge Reserve by Uplands Cheese, and Evalon Saxon Creamery from La Clare farm. For those of you who are wondering, yes, I am still lactose intolerant but some things are just worth the suffering.

Last stop was at my friend Erik's house for coffee and to meet the chickens, who have one of the most fabulous chicken "coops" I've ever seen, not to mention a killer view:



Then I headed home, to wind, rain, and hail in California after four sunny days in Wisconsin. To be fair there are parts of WI that are still a bit frozen:



but still, as I sit at my kitchen table listening to the rain, I do have to wonder if those Midwest winters are all they're cracked up to be...or if I'm just lucky. I think it's the later.

One Tree In

White Pearmain a photo by zostra on Flickr.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Dad and I headed down to pick up our bare root apple trees from Trees of Antiquity. We spent the night in Carmel playing double solitaire, then took the "country" route out to pick up the trees from Nature's Touch nursery, which also houses a natural grocery with a lot of local products (food products and things like soap, lotions, etc.) in Templeton. My tree is a White Pearmain, which some date back to 1200 AD in England (first "official" record is 1867). Good for eating, baking, saucing, and more. In a few years, that is. Dad got a Cinnamon Spice, which is supposed to taste like apple pie and first found near Bolinas!

Chocolate Balsamic Genie

Chocolate Balsamic
Originally uploaded by zostra

One of the Christmas gifts I made this year was chocolate balsamic vinegar. It's quite tasty, very thick and chocolatey with a decided tang from the balsamic. I found these bottles at the Ecology Center in Berkeley, and I love the way the vinegar separated into layers. It looks like a genie is going to come flying out as soon as you open up the bottle.

Eggnog Demitasse

Eggnog Demitasse
Originally uploaded by zostra

Bray made eggnog on Christmas eve. Real, thick, creamy, traditional eggnog. Nothing healthy. Nothing lowfat. Nothing non-dairy. That last one put me into the "I'll just have a taste" category, but oh what a taste it was.

Roasting

Roasted Kabocha
Originally uploaded by zostra

A rainy, grey day really does call for roasted squash. I'm wondering if it is possible to do oneself harm with too much roasted squash in one sitting. Death by squash is not what I would choose for my epitaph, but freshly roasted kabocha is so difficult to resist.

Pasta Sauce

Cooling Sauce
Originally uploaded by zostra

Cross 20 pounds of Dirty Girl Farms dry-farmed early girl tomatoes, 2.5 pounds of onions, 15 cloves of garlic, 2 cups of herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary), and one bottle of Cline Los Carneros Syrah 2006 and you get two gallons of very, very yummy pasta sauce.

Gift of Tomatoes

Gift of Tomatoes
Originally uploaded by zostra

This morning, as I went out the back door to go water the garden, I found these. My neighbor had reached over the fence and left them for me as a gift. As I was weeding the front yard, another neighbor stopped by to bring me a full container of tomatoes from his garden. Yesterday, my friend at work brought me apples to make applesauce for our group. The apples were from her friend's orchard.

From the Garden

Derves
Originally uploaded by zostra

Dad came over for dinner, and for our first course we had veggies from the garden. Not a lot of them, mind you. But still...

Firsts

First Tomato
Originally uploaded by zostra

There's an almost ripe tomato in my garden. It's a sungold, so it won't ever get red. A few days and it will be ready to eat. I did pick and eat a handful of blackberries, and admired the first dahlia. The picture turned out fuzzy though. Perhaps I should rename this "Knitting Tomatoes"?

First Canning Project

Peach Jam
Originally uploaded by zostra

There was a half-price sale on peaches at the market this weekend. Two flats for $20. I'd been planning on it for several weeks. Now I have three batches worth of jam, a batch of peach ice cream, and still have half a flat of peaches to eat. Somehow I think I'll survive.

First Dinner Party

Dobos Torte
Originally uploaded by zostra

I've come to the conclusion that I will feel truly settled when two things happen. Number one, I'm down to one trip to the hardware store a week. Number two, the drill goes to live in the garage. Not necessarily in that order.

I did host my first dinner party in the new house. We celebrated Daniel's birthday with our parents. Unfortunately, I screwed up my back a few days prior, so I didn't finish all the things I wanted to finish. Paintings are not hung, boxes are not all unpacked, there is still a bit of general disarray. However, the food was great, the company wonderful, and the dessert was to die for. Daniel ordered a dobos torte for the occasion. I'd never had one before, but can understand now why he likes them so much. It's a Hungarian dessert with many layers of very light sponge cake alternating with German buttercream (only the slightest hint of chocolate) and slices of hard caramel on top. It was as good as it sounds.

The good news is my back is about 98% back to normal, which means I've been trying to get back to doing little things. I hung the bathroom mirror today. Towel racks have been ordered (had the worst time trying to find the ones I wanted, no idea towel racks could be such a challenge!). Leak under the sink is fixed. Garage is painted (yay, Dad!) Broken closet rod has been replaced. I own two new drill bits, plumber's putty AND plumber's caulk, and have started fantasizing about procuring various and sundry power tools and gardening implements. Is it bad that I'd rather be at the hardware store than in a clothing boutique?

Artichoke Gratin

Artichoke Gratin
Originally uploaded by zostra

We went for dinner at my college roommate's house down in Mountain View. Got to meet her husband and 6-month-old daughter for the first time, saw another college dorm-mate and her husband, and sat around chatting and making Vietnamese spring rolls which turned out quite well. Vegan German chocolate cake for dessert. The door prizes? Artichokes from their backyard! The next night Daniel made an Artichoke Gratin from Richard Olney's "Simple French Food." This is all that was left by the time I managed to stop eating and get out my camera to take a picture.

Night off with Pizza

Night off with Pizza
Originally uploaded by zostra

Stopped working early yesterday, and took the night off. Daniel made pizza with caramelized onions and goat cheese, but we forgot to check the date on the yeast so the first batch of dough had...some issues. Luckily the local Italian restaurant has a wonderful owner who felt our pain and gave us (wouldn't take any money) not one, but two pizzas worth of dough. If you need a very friendly Italian place with yummy pizza dough (I hear the rest of their food's pretty good too) check out Villa Romano on Irving & 9th.

Aioli

Aioli
Originally uploaded by zostra

Friday night I took the night off and went to Daniel's for dinner. He'd made a full aioli, which means not just the mayonnaise-cum-garlic sauce, but the blanched vegetables, poached fish, boiled eggs, bread, olives, and rose wine (OK, he didn't have boiled snails, which technically do go with it, but I wasn't too critical...). It was marvelous. Way too marvelous. We decided once a year is our max, since we both couldn't stop eating the sauce (or the rest of it).

Today we put protective paper all through the house to keep the shiny floors beautiful while we sheetrock & paint. We didn't finish until well after dark, and there are still no lights in the house except the one clip-on construction light we had to work by, so I didn't take any pics. I'll get some in the morning before the sheetrocking starts.

Dinner a la Daniel

Dinner a la Daniel
Originally uploaded by zostra

I am so spoiled.

Christmas Train

Christmas Train
Originally uploaded by zostra

A slightly fuzzy picture of the cake that Amanda & Peter made to start off the holiday season. The ensemble covered their entire coffee table (and I'm told it tasted pretty good after the fact, too!).