daily photo | funky leek

january 31, 2010 | found this funky, wavy leek this afternoon while making soup

wishlist | barn light electric

en-light-enment... I've been on a five-year-long quest of pendant lighting. Over that time, I have found a lot of lighting options that thrill my aesthetics, but sadden my budget. Needless to say, I was thrilled to come across Barn Light Electric this weekend. They have an awesome selection of cool rustic and modern pendants for pretty reasonable prices. The majority of options are under $200. Truth be told, my budget is still lacking even at $200, so I'll have to shop virtually for now, but I definitely have flagged these pendants here as some favorites for the future.

Shown above, clockwise from top left: CGU Retro Pendant $217, Laramie Pendant $110, Moss Pendant, and Outlaw Pendant $159.

daily photo | j. d. salinger

january 28, 2010 | in memoriam of the wonderful J.D. Salinger. thank you.

garden | attracting bees to your garden

bee kind... I've always had a fondness for bees, especially big, fat, round, buzzing honeybees. Now, I feel it is my duty as a gardener to help support the increasingly fragile bee population any way I can. Just check out PBS's documentary Silence of the Bees and you'll be racing to plant an extra stash of echinacea and tomatoes. It is mindboggling to think of how massive the shrinking honeybee population has become worldwide. From killing mites to Colony Collapse Disorder to chemical pollution, these past few years have taken the bee population to a critical level. I cannot (and will not) fathom a world without bees and all of the beauty they create.

I aspire to be a beekeeper one day, but until then, there are some easy gardening practices that I do to help out my neighborhood bee population:

• Garden! The more gardens we plant with bee-friendly flowers and vegetables, the happier the bees.

• Don't use pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides!

• Plant a a little of everything: flowers, veggies, and herbs with bloom times from spring until frost. Bees especially love old-fashion wildflowers, so add some lavender, geraniums, honeysuckle, rosemary, violets and foxgloves to the mix. And don't forget the tomatoes, cranberries, blueberries, and eggplant.

• Create a "wild spot" for foraging and nesting bumblebees by planting native grasses and wildflowers.

• Buy bee! Buy local honey, bees wax and other bee-friendly products to help the struggling bee keepers.

• Give them shelter from the storm... Native bees don't live in hives, so in a sheltered, shady area, set a flat rock on the ground. Lay a handful of cotton or fine, dry grasses on the rock. Set a 6" pot over the grasses; prop the pot up 5/8ths of an inch with a piece of wood. Set a brick or flat stone on top of the pot to cover the drainage hole (bees nests must be kept dry).

daily photo | snowy echinacea seed head

january 24, 2010 | snowy echinacea seed head

recipe | peanut butter whole wheat muffins

but will my four-year-old eat it?... As I begin this post, I realize that yet once again, I am typing up a baking recipe from King Arthur Flour. Though I do have a bookshelf full of cookbooks to reference, whenever I do anything baking related, I always reach for my old stand-by from King Arthur. Their Baker's Companion cookbook is a great source for all my bread baking, but yesterday I was very excited to test out my newest cookbook addition, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.

Though my tastebuds delight in the joys of unbleached white flour, the guilt of the empty nutrition quickly tempers that joy. So I try to use whole grains as much as possible in my family's diet. But try explaining that to my very picky four-year-old. It was the intro line to this recipe that motivated my baking... "These muffins could well be the answer for parents of problem eaters." And, well, Boyd wolfed these muffins right down, so it worked.

King Arthur Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Muffins

makes 1 dozen

note: This recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour. In lieu of this, you can use regular whole wheat flour (or white flour), but the muffins will be much more dense. I used the whole wheat flour and the muffin is a mouthful, but pairs perfectly with a cold glass of milk.

2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsps unsalted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375º.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light. Add the peanut butter and mix until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl often, making sure everything is evenly mixed. Add one-third of the dry ingredients and mix until moistened. Add half of the buttermilk, mix until combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients and remaining buttermilk. Scrape the bowl and ensure even mixing. Add in the chocolate chips (this is an optional ingredient).

Scoop the batter into a prepared muffin pan. Bake until golden brown, 23-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for five minutes, then turn out to complete cooling on a wire rack.

garden | seed viability

maybe I'm a little too excited... Have you ever been so excited about doing something that you plow straight ahead in your planning until you realize that you forgot one significant detail that brings your whole plan to a screeching halt? Not since my seventh grade roller skating party debacle (uhm... you can't really make plans to go roller skating with your friends when your leg is in a cast... that fact seemed to slip from everyone's mind when planning the party), have I slipped up this bad. I was SO excited to start my onion seeds this weekend that I transformed my entire dining room into my green room. Yes, this involves actually removing our dining table from the room and replacing it with growing shelves and grow lights (my kind family plays nicely with my gardening obsession). I then sterilized my seed trays, sifted through my seed starting soil, and labeled the plant markers. It was then, and only then, that I realized the hole in my master scheme... uhm, my seed order from Fedco hasn't been delivered yet, sooooo, I have no actually onion seeds to plant. Foiled again! So I am now staring manically out the window in hopes of pouncing on my poor mail person in hopes that she is bearing a little brown box of seed happiness this morning.

So, long story short, this brings me to the lesson of seed viability. If it were any other vegetables, I could have started with my seeds from last year, but onions have the shortest seed viability. On average, these seeds only have a shelf life of one year.

How about the rest of your seeds, how long do they last? Well, here's an easy reference list to keep on hand: (by the way, don't forget to test out your germination rate by placing 10 seeds on a damp paper towel and place in a zip locked plastic bag and put in a warm area. you'll be able to figure out the rate of germination by the number of seeds that have sprouted. If 7 out of 10 seeds sprouted, then your germination rate is 70%. That's a number you'll want to keep in mind when planting out your seeds.)

Seed Viability

beans, includes bush, pole, dry and soy beans = 2-3 years

beets = 3-5 years

broccoli = 3-5 years

brussel sprouts = 3-5 years

carrots = 2-3 years

cucumbers = 5-10 years

leeks = 1 year

lettuce = 2-3 years

onions = 1 year

peas, includes shell, snap and snow peas = 2-3 years

peppers = 2-3 years

pumpkins = 2-5 years

radishes = 3-5 years

scallions = 1 year

spinach = 2-3 years

squash, both summer and winter = 2-5 years

sweet corn = 2-3 years

tomatoes = 5-10 years

daily photo | burdock

january 19, 2010 | prickly burdock

daily photo | mushrooms in january

january 17, 2010 | mushrooms on birch

daily photo | witch hazel

january 16, 2010 | more witch hazel discovered in our woods

from my window | the changing of the gourd

gourds are just plain cool... Yes, it is January and I am still writing about my gourds from last season's garden. I just think that it is so cool that these pretty little objects are still kicking around these many months later. Though I did finally have to release the majority to a new compost bin after Christmas, I kept a handful around just to enjoy their ever changing hues. I'm simply fascinated by the slow evolution of these things. Just check out the shot below... that is the same gourd that is shown above, just a few months earlier.

Gourds are not the most practical item for your garden in the fact that you can't eat them, but they really do provide so much visual enjoyment. Just when the majority of the garden begins to die back, the tangling vines of the gourds grow and fill the emptying spaces adding a punch of much needed color back into the garden.

My boys and I have kept track of the changing hues of the different varieties... some went from white to a soft blue, others transformed from a quiet yellow to a screaming orange. Each is different, unique, and full of personality. This is yet another crop that will be a must-have in my garden for many years to come.

garden | garden planning and fall crops

seedling season... Last weeked officially kicked off my 2010 gardening season. I ordered my seed packets—72 in total. You would think that seemingly excessive quantity may tip you off on my inability to show restraint when in the company of a good seed catalog. But in an effort towards full disclosure, I probably should also mention the 68 seed packages that are carry-overs from past summers that I also plan on planting. Does one family really need to grow 12 different varieties of lettuce and 10 different types of tomatoes? Probably no, but therein lies all the fun and adventure of continually experimenting with difference kinds/varieties of vegetables and herbs.

My goal this year is to have a fully stocked root cellar come this time next winter. I am still chomping on Borrettana Cipollini onions and Prisma shallots from last summer, so those are both definite keepers to continue planting this year. I'm also planning on adding on fall crop heavy hitters that have fabulous storage ability like Sunshine and Nutty Delica winter squash, Round Black Spanish radishes, Atomic Red carrots, and Jarrahdale pumpkins.

With each gardening season comes the opportunity to open my family and myself up to a new taste adventure. Beets, rutabagas, chicory, chinese cabbage, kale and celeriac will be our choice for this year. I've never been a beet kinda gal, but I swear by this time next year I will be!

So this weekend I will be sterilizing seed trays (and my large collection of yogurt cups that I've been stealing out of the recycling bin), drafting up lofty garden layouts and marking the calender with succession planting dates. And I will be doing it all with the biggest grin on my face. Merry garden planning to each of you!

daily photo | beech pod

january 13, 2010 | beech pod

wishlist | amy butler laminated cotton

think of it as fancy oilcloth... Maybe it is a case of cabin fever, but I can't seem to shake my ever growing excitement for spring. I've always been a fan of vintage oil cloth prints, but when I stumbled upon these gorgeous laminated cotton prints by Amy Butler and Michael Miller, I automatically envisioned picnics at Pineland, summer dinners out on the deck, and impromptu camping adventures. All of these outdoor activities can be spruced up with a these great patterned textiles. With very little skill, anyone can turn these easy-to-clean fabrics into picnic tablecloths, placemats, and aprons.

Though oil cloth is still the best bargain out there, at around $15-17 per yard, laminated cotton still won't break the bank too bad. Now if only my sewing skills were a little better...

(The above two patterns are from Amy Butler Love Laminated. Below is a classic damask from Michael Miller.)

daily photo | beech in bright blue

january 9, 2010 | beech in bright blue

recipe | kaiser rolls

all hail the kaiser... These billowy, sesame-seeded puffs of happiness have converted me to the love of the kaiser. When I pick up a bag of these at the deli, they are often dry or nondescript in both taste and texture. That's the complete opposite of this recipe from King Arthur Flour. These rolls came out awesome. Tasty and light as a feather.

The recipe calls for using a kaiser roll cutter, something I didn't even know existed. I used a razor blade instead making five 1/4" sharp curved cuts into the top of the roll. Remember to let the rolls rise cut side down... it sounds odd at first, but that creates the classic Kaiser look. Keep them plain, or sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or onion flakes.

Kaiser Rolls

makes 6 large rolls

3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour


1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast


1 1/2 teaspoons sugar


1 1/4 teaspoons salt


1 large egg


2 tablespoons unsalted butter


3/4 cup water

Manual Method: In a large bowl, or the bowl of your electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients, stirring till the dough forms a cohesive mass and begins to clear the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then allow it to rest for 10 minutes (which gives the dough a chance to absorb the liquid, and the gluten in the flour a chance to relax.) Knead the dough for an additional 5 minutes, or until it's smooth and supple. The dough should be quite stiff, but not at all "gnarly;" adjust its consistency with additional flour or water, as necessary. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till it's noticeably puffy, about 1 hour.



Bread Machine Method: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your machine, program the machine for manual or dough, and press start. About 10 minutes before the end of the final kneading cycle, examine the dough's consistency; it should be quite stiff, but not at all "gnarly;" adjust it consistency with additional flour or water, as necessary. Allow the machine to complete its cycle.



Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into six equal pieces. Shape the pieces into round balls, and place them on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Working with one ball of dough at a time, center your kaiser stamp over the dough. Press down frimly, cutting to the bottom but not all the way through the dough. This is important; if you don't cut deeply enough, the shape disappears as the roll bakes; if you cut too deeply (all the way through), the roll will form "petals" as it rises and look like a daisy, not a kaiser roll. Practice makes perfect! Repeat with the remaining rolls.

Place the rolls cut-side down (yes-cut-side down--this helps them retain their shape) onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the rolls, and allow them to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until they've almost doubled in volume.

Turn the rolls cut-side up. Dip tops in milk and coat with poppy or sesame seeds, if desired.

Bake the rolls in a preheated 425°F oven vor 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.

garden | seed ordering season

FedCo, Johnny's, Pine Tree, oh my!... It's the most wonderful time of the year, seed ordering time. I am admittedly completely obsessed with seeds and I will rationalize my way into each seed purchase. I have spent the past week curled up on my chair with seed catalogs galore splayed out in front of me and an ever growing wish list that is wearing down my pencil.

I am a proud FedCo co-op customer. Living in Maine, I tend to find more crop success sticking with Maine seed providers. I figure, if they've been able to do test trials up here, then I should have at least a fighting chance at success. I also love Johnny's Selected Seeds and Pine Tree Gardens. Pine Tree is especially great if you are looking for small packets of exotic vegetables at a really afforable price. FedCo seeds have delivered awesome germination rates for me, so they are my first stop each year. Their catalog is a definite keeper. Printed in black and white on newsprint, FedCo passes along the savings of not printing a bright glossy catalog to the consumer with cheap seed packet prices.

I do save all my seed from season to season, but I use each new year as an opportunity to try out new varieties or introduce my family to a new vegetable. This year I'm thinking of adding celeraic, turnips, parsnips, kale, mache, and beets to the mix. There are always new heirloom dry beans and heirloom tomato seeds that I try each summer as well.

My goal for this upcoming year is to go as four season as possible. I was fairly successful this past growing year, but it was more by luck than by plan. I've been reading Four-Season Harvest by fellow Mainer, Eliot Coleman. I'll be adding some more storage varieties of onion, carrots, and squash to the gardens. I'm also excited to break back out the row covers and maybe transform a couple of old windows into some coldframes.

Gotta go now... FedCo awaits!

recipe | homemade marshmallows

hot chocolate's best friend... 'Tis the season for warming cold snowy tummies with the delights of a good cup of hot chocolate. Until now, our mugs remained bare of the topping feastivities of marshmallows. I always pondered the notion of trying my hand at homemade marshmallows, but it wasn't until last week that I finally tried. It's a hoot to make and completely easy for any level chef.

These plump pillows also made a great hostess gift as well. I wrapped a few up in wax paper and embroidery floss and presented them to friends along with some Ghiradelli cocoa. Best of all, they have a pretty long shelf life of several weeks when sealed in an airtight container.

Marshmallows

by Richard Donnelly

Yields about 1-1/2 lb., or 32 marshmallows.

4 Tbs. unflavored powdered gelatin

1-1/2 cups water

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

1 Tbs. light corn syrup

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/2 cup each cornstarch and confectioners' sugar, mixed in a bowl, for dusting the pans and waxed paper

Soften the gelatin in 3/4 cup of the water in a small saucepan. Heat the gelatin slowly to fully dissolve it, but don't let it fully boil. Stir in the vanilla.

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, the corn syrup, and the remaining 3/4 cup water. Set over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Set a candy thermometer in the pan and, without stirring, let the mixture boil until it reaches 250° to 260°F (hard-ball stage). While the sugar mixture is boiling, beat the egg whites in the large bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or on high speed with a handheld mixer) until they form medium-stiff peaks.

When the sugar syrup reaches temperature, whisk in the dissolved gelatin. Turn the mixer back on to the highest speed. Slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the whisked egg whites, avoiding the whisk. The whites will get liquidy at first but will eventually thicken. Continue beating until the marshmallow mixture thickens enough to hold its shape, about 5 min.; it will still be slightly warm.

Lightly oil two 8-inch-square pans and then dust them with some of the cornstarch and confectioners' sugar mixture. Divide the marshmallow mixture between the two pans, smooth it as flat as you can with a spatula, and let it sit uncovered until it's springy and firm, 4 to 6 hours. Using your fingers or a sharp knife, loosen the marshmallows from the sides of the pans. Dust a long sheet of waxed paper with more of the cornstarch mixture. Flip the marshmallows onto the paper. Dust the surface with more of the cornstarch mixture and let the marshmallows sit for about 2 hours.

With a sharp knife or scissors, cut the marshmallows into even strips about 1-1/2 inches wide and then into squares. The marshmallows probably won't stick to the knife or scissors, but if they do, try oiling the blade.

From Fine Cooking 36, December 1, 1999

from my window | snowy botanicals in sepia

a snowy wine walk... I was treated to a gift of time this holiday to participate in my much loved, but completely neglected weekly wine walk. I slugged on my snow boots and grabbed my camera to see what was shaking in my white blanketed garden. The incredibly bright white of the snow created a really cool stark backdrop to some stunning organic forms.