Tuesday, May 26, 2009

may just flew by

Where did this month go? I swear it was yesterday that it was april.......how does time seem to fly so quickly? We have warm days here with lows still below 40 degrees, my seedlings are dying everytime I transplant them to a bigger container, so sad my babies that I got to grow indoors from a wee seed are now shrively dead leaves, that never fed us a thing! I am going to try to grow some stuff by direct sowing seeds next month outdoors Just cannot believe it will be June next week! our munchkin son is a gallant bike rider and is loving his time outdoors, most days more time is spent out than in, he told me today that he loves to grocery shop with me, of course he had a kiddy cart.......but he can be a big help, he also however, ran out into the parking lot at work, gladly no cars moving, but he is just pushing his limits, needless to say my stomach and heart are still not recovered, he scared me so.....and yet seems to not understand why i got so mad and repeated over and over that we do not walk or run in parking lots without holding an adult's hand! my nightmares have new visuals now, ugh!

Friday, May 22, 2009

bread

I have some favorite breads, anything from Boudin, truckee sourdough country walnut loaf, bouchon's brioche, pioneer sourdough sliced deli loaf, bialy bagels from I&joy bagels, pumpernickle from western bagel......so in my attempts at bread making I have had meager success.....my highlight being the pretzel rolls, most recently made into hot dog buns.....i attempted the rustic walnut loaf and it was a disaster to clean up as I overfilled the food processor, who thinks it is a good idea to make bread in that thing? not me! but i did it again, ugh with leaking yeast laden warm water running down the counter, I prayed the dough would double, it did, and the resulting baked bread is a bit wonder white smushy, but great a day old and toasted! next time I am using sourdough starter and wheat flour.....but it is at leat edible and great for a pb&j, which is what i ate for dinner last night on my own rustic walnut loaf!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

meyer lemons

I love lemons, especially meyer lemons, so last winter, when we had a visitor bring us a HUGE bag of his home grown meyer lemons, pesticide free, organic and gorgeous I was grateful, the first time I cut into one, I was amazed these were special lemons, the segments were perfectly proportioned, the pith was pristine and white the scent was heavenly, the juice sweeter than orange juice....I baked with the juice, making lemon bread, lemon bars, lemon cookies, home brewed ginger beer with those lemon's juice, made lemonade, used it on fish, in homemade cheese, in pasta sauce, salad dressing, in tea, and then about 2 weeks into the lemon fest I cut into a rather large meyer and for whatever reason the idea HIT me, hey save these seeds.......i did some online research and discovered the method to attempt to sprout a seedling from the citrus seed, I decided to try because the citrus seeds cannot be saved and used later, if you are going to attempt to sprout them they have to stay wet....so in January I put them in seed starting pellets, in the tray on top of the fridge and hoped for some green luck.........I was verbally joking in February and March how I must have been an idiot to think I could do this, the tray had no signs of life, I even opened a pellet to see the seed still there untouched, unchanged........I have been tempted to toss the seed pellets into the composter, or reuse them to grow beets, but for some unknown, uncharacteristic motive of patience I just left them on top of the fridge, keeping them lightly moist and warm with the dome on the case......about late march I saw what I thought was mold on them and again thought to toss them into the trash........but something in me could not do it..........late in April I had forgotten what was in the tray, I have two and never labeled them, so when I saw green under the dome I took the top off and assumed it was the tomatoes I had put in earlier in the month.........but today as they sat on my window ledge I looked at them closer and noticing they seemed to grow an inch overnight, with waxy, shiny leaves, it hit me like a brick...Oh MY freaking Heck, those are Lemon seedlings, not just any lemon but the meyer lemons gifted to me that I respected so much for their perfection I thought I should preserve them.......now ecstatic and joyful, I worry how I will mother them for the 15 years it will take for them to bear fruit!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

tortillas

I have always preferred corn tortillas to flour, when I found the brand locally made in sacramento, ca "mi abuelita" I was profoundly happy, just kept only buying those, or the mega pack from costco, guerrero brand mostly for the freezer and casseroles, well the past month I have been unable to find the mi abuelita brand, so I bought some other brand, brought it home, read the label and was dumbfounded with the 11 ingredient count and the chemicals......decided to make some on cinco de mayo, they were good in taste but not perfectly round, easy to make and I will make them again...with prettier results! I took this challenge from Whatscooking, this photo on flickr got me thinking T for tuesday tortilla and it happened to be cinco de mayo, the challenge changes monthly and this month was Tortillas so I looked around online for a recipe and used this recipe
  • 2 cups masa flour
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
  • 1/2 t sea salt
I mixed it together with a fork, then kneaded it into a ball, put that in a ziploc mashed it into a disc, let it sit 30 minutes then formed 8 equal sized balls, smashed and rolled them (with a french pin) -no tortilla press here, but that would make it way easier to get them into tortilla shapes, sadly mine resembled some free form boot like italian border rather than a circle, I then griddled them on a HOT dry griddle 30 seconds 1st side, 1 minute 2nd, let them rest in a warm place and then fried them in oil and topped them like a toastada, and the bits that broke apart were used to dunk in homemade refried beans very very yummy and delicate Here is hoping next time they are as pretty as the challenge photo, nice and uniform in shape and professional looking!