I moved :)

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August Daring Bakers: Swans!

So, every month you see the "Mandatory blog checking lines" somewhere in my Daring Bakers posts.  The lines that follow the statement are used by the Daring Bakers coinstabualry to make sure we've completed teh challlenge each month.  The lines are composed by Lis of the Daring Bakers.  She's our chief baker and wonderwoman extraoridinaire.

Check out this month's Mandatory blog checking lines:

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Gulp.

Deep. Breath.

Gulp.

 

Yep.  I was this month's host.  How crazy is that?  Hosts are usually the elitest of the elite of the Daring Bakers.  It's not something I ever wanted to do, but I was called to do it so I jumped right in.  Luckily, there are a lot of safety nets!  Thanks, Lis, Audax, Scooney, and all the other bloggers who helped me out this month.

On top of the challenge, Mr Boom and I actually boarded a plane and flew to Hawaii to our niece's wedding.  In the seventeen years we've been married, Mr Boom and I have been on a plane exactly twice.  This was his first time flying over water.  Lis had to post the challenge for me since we were gone on August first, the day the post goes up. Oh, and and top of that?  BIG fires all around us this month.  Several friends lost homes, pets, and livestock.  We had foster animals at our house, and then were a few hours away from having to evacuate ourselves.

Interesting month.  Needed friends.  Had friends.  Was a friend.  It's all good.

Anyway, swans!

I've wanted to make pate a choux swans since I was in third grade.  Thirty two years later, I'm finally getting around to it.  What I found to be even more exciting than my own sense of accomplishment, was the thrill of seeing other bakers' amazing creations.  We had ladybugs, crabs, sharks...we had chocolate, vanilla, berry....we had it all and we had a lot of fun.

Here's the challenge as presented.  I hope you'll try it out!

Daring Bakers August challenge: Crackers!

I'VE GONE CRACKERS!

Actually, all of us Daring Bakers have gone crackers! 

Blog-checking lines: Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.

This month's challenge was a heck of a lot of fun, and extremely timely for me. Since my cow is off at summer camp with a very handsome bull, I decided to lease a goat.  The ideas was that she'd eat down the pasture while the bovines were absent. This wasn't an animal I'd keep...just a weed eater and a milking trainer for me.  What better animal to learn to milk on than a sweet little goat who loves her job? This way I'd be ready for that crazy cow when she returned home! 

We were NOT to fall in love with the goat. 

Absolutely not...

Anyway, I made two types of crackers and several types of goat cheese. Based on a Smitten Kitchen recipe, I made Crisp Rosemary Flatbreads.  YUM!

Then, based on several different Ritz rip-off recipes, I made some ritzy crackers.

The ritzy crackers were okay, but the flatbreads were divine!  But is there anything from Deb that isn't????  If you haven't made her graham crackers yet, please just do that now. I made those when we did the Nanaimo Bars for Daring Bakers.  Sooooo good. 

To go with the crackers, I made mozzarella, ricotta, and to types of pressed curd cheeses.  If Blogger wasn't such a pain in the butter, I'd show you more pics, but I can't take any more of this!

Tanya: I think you're just about the only person who reads this lost and dejected blog, and this message is just for you.  I'm hosting DB next month, and if you want in on the action you have to sign up before the end of the month! 

Cheese and crackers.

Cheese OR crackers?

Which would you rather be?

Oh, and by the way?  We're keeping the goat.

Daring Bakers June challenge: Battenberg cakes

The June Daring Bakers challenge was so yummy, and was one of the challenges that showcased individual bakers' kitchen personalities to the hilt.  Choose a flavor, choose a color, choose a shape...

Blog-checking lines:
Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

Battenberg cakes are essentially a charming combination of two or more types of cake, presented in a neat little checkerboard pattern, with a choice of filling and a firm covering wrapped around. For my first attempt, I made a pink and yellow Battenberg, covered with my first attempt ever at making a fondant.  The cake was so pretty, and the apricot glaze between the layers was super tasty in combination with the almond and vanilla cakes.

My second attempt was a chocolate and coconut rendition of an Almond Joy candy bar.  I simply altered the original recipe by adding some unsweetened toasted coconut to the cake batter, and then adding some unsweetened cocoa powder to one half of the batter.
Yum.

This post has taken just short of three hours to put up. It was due a month ago, but I had do many problems I gave up.  Since I'm hosting Daring Bakers in August, I decided I'd better get caught up. This has been just short of hell.

I'm not in love with Blogger. 

I am in love with Daring Bakers and Battenberg Cakes!

May 2012 Daring Bakers Challege: Challah!!!

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

This month's challenge was so amazing!  I just slipped it in under the deadline this evening.

Last month's nazook was the very last food cooked in my old oven before we started the kitchen remodel.  This evening I made the challah and guess what?!! It was the first thing I baked in my new oven!  I was so scared something would go awry, seeing as this was the first time we turned the oven on, but I'm so happy to report success! 

This bread was/is tasty, easy to make, and so rewarding.  I can't wait to serve it to company tomorrow, and take them on a turn around the new place.  They'll see the bees that made the honey and the hens that laid the eggs.  Hopefully their eyes will be so full of those things they won't see the horrid mess the house has become as we fix it up!


Recipe here

Daring Bakers February Challenge: Quick Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Wow! First time I completed a challenge on the first day! And luckily I did as I've spent the rest of the month in a cast.  It's still on, making typing a chore...

The day the challenge was issued, I had an apple on the counter that needed to be used, so I made an apple cinnamon quick bread. I mostly followed the Serious Eats recipe, but I substituted a little spelt flour for regular flour, upped the spices, and sprinkled the top with turbinado sugar before baking. 

Yum!
I love the sparkly top and the deep rich flavor. This pairs up well with a straight shot of espresso, especially after the second day when the bread becomes just a little drier.
The next bread I made was inspired by the Barefoot Contessa. I have her gorgeous book "Barefoot Contessa Parties!" and refer to if often--if for no other reason than to droooooool. Luckily, the recipe for her lemon cake is also available online. (Lemon cake, we DB'ers decided, becomes a healthy bread if you bake it in a loaf pan...)

Now, I had no fresh lemons in the house, so I just substituted the stuff from a jar.  Amazingly, it still tasted divine.  The pretty yellow color comes not from rind, which I didn't have, but from the wonderful eggs my chucks are laying.  They've adjusted to the move and are back on track with their egg-provision duties. 

Okay, the fingers are cramping up, the dog is tangled in the keyboard cord, and the pain meds are wearing off.  I'll leave you to drool over the other Daring Bakers' challenges, which you'll find right here!

January Daring Bakers: Biscuits with Audax

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

I've always wanted Audax Artifex to host a Daring Bakers challenge.  I've always fantasized about what he'd challenge us to bake.

Well this month I discovered the steamy answer to my fantasy.....

Biscuits. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful biscuits. 

The best part of the challenge was Audax, of course. 

Second best part was seeing all the rainbows in the steam and (barely) managing to catch them on the camera.  Chirp-chirp held the biscuits, steaming hot, up in front of the window as the sun was setting.  At first I didn't believe her about the rainbows, but there they were!  Go back and look for yourself.  Rainbows!

Third best part was tasting a new, simple, easy base for tonight's chicken divan.  I usually serve this with rice or potatoes.  This year, due to our bumper crop of Yukon Golds from the garden, it's almost always been served on taters. 

Fourth best part, or maybe a second first best part, is looking forward to dessert later on.  Strawberry jam and fresh-whipped cream?  Yes, please!

Oh, and fifth best part was a mid-winter challenge that didn't require eggs.  The chooks are giving me one egg a day right now, which doesn't stretch very far for our family. 

Here's the recipe and exhaustive technique review from Audax.  Have fun!

It's not the height that counts...continued!

With so much work going on around the house, this French Fridays with Dorie selection was a pretty little light beckoning my return to the fold.  I've missed my Doristas!

Quartre-quarts is a simple, tasty, almost-rustic cake.  It's similar to the American Pound Cake in that the old-timey way to make it consists of incorporating equal weights of eggs, butter, flour, and sugar into a batter.  Vanilla (if you remember to add it, which I didn't!) adds more flavor, baking powder adds to the loft provided by beaten egg whites, and a sprinkle of brown sugar over the top adds color and an extra little hint of sweetness.

This is a snacking cake.  The recipe called for an 8" pan, and I baked it in a 10" pan, so the finished version is even easier to eat out of hand.  I'm going to claim that I planned it that way.  You'll forgive me my delusion, yes?

This weekend we're finishing the demolition of the hall bathroom, and I'm sure lots of snacking will be called for.  This is the PERFECT little cake for that!

Be sure to visit the other Doristas and see their (much more stunning) versions of this sweet little french treat. As with the other French Friday concoctions, we've been asked not to share the recipe. However, many versions are available all over the internets, and I'm sure you can find a recipe to suit you!

December Daring Bakers Challenge: Letting Nature do the Work

Subtitle:  It's not the height that counts, right?

Another whole month gone by with nary a word on this blog.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that I have TONS to write about, I just drop into bed exhausted every night without having shared a single little bit with you. 

Part of the problem is the very buggy nature of Blogger on my computer these days.  Due to the hack, I can no longer long in as the administrator, only as a contributor.  Therefore, I don't get the standard full module, and on top of that, the module I do get to use is buggy and inconsistent.  For instance, the photo below should be centered.  Blogger will not let me center it.  After a frustrating day of working on the new house, I just can't stand to be teased and mocked by a computer. 

Also, simply adding pictures, much less editing them?  Nearly impossible. 

But I whine and digress.  Back to business!

So, you wonder, what's up with the plastic cup sitting on the counter?  Is is the drink I sorely need to deal with a buggy Blogger module?  Is it to keep myself hydrated?  Is it just a reminder of the time Bet and I took our little girls to the zoo to see the wild animals? 

Well, here's a peek inside...

In a sense, we do have wildlife in here.  But these guys aren't behind bars in a zoo, they're free range!  It's wild yeast given a habitat in which to flourish.  It's sourdough starter!



Mandatory Blog-checking lines:  Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Now, the goal was to have a nice lofty loaf.  Goals are nice to have, but lately, well, they don't seem to be something to actually attain. As you can see above, after turning out from the banneton where it rose sat there for five hours, the result was doomed to be flat.

I did however get a very tasty loaf bread product. And I did eat it.

Oh, yes I did.

I named my starter Beth, and she resides in the fridge.  I will be pulling her out again soon, and next time I'm determined to get a good lofty loaf.  Or at least enjoy my result, no matter the height. 

November Daring Bakers: Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

Hello, my name is Kat, and I'm a prodigal blogger.

Actually, I heard on the radio today, but haven't otherwise verified it yet, that prodigal means to be welcomed back. If they don't take you back with a feast of fatted pig or lamb or whatever, you're not prodigal, you're just back.

Anywho...

We moved.

The internets came on just last night.

My job, after the move was complete, was decreased by 75%.

Things are, shall we say, up in the air?

Oh, and we got a dog.

So tonight, I thought I could just eke out the November challenge. I did the October challenge, and I'll post about that later. I couldn't at the time because all my internet accounts were hacked. That was fun. Don't use one password, no matter how strong, for multiple (or all) your accounts. One site gets hacked, evil people get your password, and they have fun playing with all your other accounts.

Anywho...

I thought I could just eke out the November challenge tonight after a full day's worth of moving. And an oven that doesn't work. I had my ten eggs, I had my almonds, I had a couple of hours before I could justify crashing into bed...

I whipped up my meringue to perfection. Then I added the nuts. Instead of folding the nuts into my beautiful bowl of my last ten eggwhites, I spaced out and turned the mixer back on. Faster than you can say "oh heck," or something similar, the entire bowl deflated into a puddle of liquid.

Did I mention our new house is out in the country? Yeah. No way to convince my little hens to squeeze out another ten eggs, and no way to get back into town to buy any to repeat the challenge.

I poured the slop into a greased cake pan, instead of spreading fluffy layers of meringue onto my carefully drawn circles on parchment paper. I threw it in the oven and walked away. About an hour and a half later, Mr. Boom appeared and asked about the cake.

The cake?

Oh heck! The cake!

(again, the word heck may have been replaced by another, stronger, and perhaps whole string of other words)

I took it out of the oven, tipped it over a cooling rack, and out thumped something that looked surprisingly tasty, if not that pretty.

I added some leftover cranberry sauce (homemade, of course) and called it a dessert.

People, it may be a wreck, but it's tasty.

Hopefully, this wreck of a house and my wrecked job will be at least as tasty. Or whatever.

Oh. To see what a Sans Rival is supposed to look like, and to get the wonderful recipe for yourself, go here.

September 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge: Croissants

Mandatory Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Ummmm.  Has it really been two whole weeks since I posted?
Has it really been ONLY two weeks since I posted?
Wait, first I need to swear you to secrecy. 
I am NOT on the internet, m-kay?
I am packing up the piles and piles of junk on my desk.  The tapping Mr. Boom thinks he might be hearing is simply the clacking of items falling into boxes.  That's my story and you have to help me stick with it!
You see, we've made an offer on a house, and that offer has been accepted.  It's a foreclosure, so we couldn't make the sale contingent on selling our current house.  Ergo, we really must get this one cleaned up and sold ASAP.  No time for blogging.
Or baking.
BUT!!!!
I had already made this month's Daring Baker's Challenge before we ever lay eyes on the new house. That's the good news.  The bad news is that my attempt failed.  It sucked.  It was awful.  It needed to be redone but I never did it.
I'm sure if YOU tried it, though, you'd meet with great success.  Please please please don't let my failure sway your own judgement about whether or not to try.
You can find the recipe we used right here.

 

Now, I know the recipe is from good ol' Julia herself.  But honestly?  While I was going to give it one more attempt for the sake of the challenge, in the future I'll undoubtedly use the recipe I've used before from Julie at Willow Bird Baking.  That recipe is here.  And you can see my results on her blog here.
Excuse me a  moment, gentle reader!
(Yes dear, I'm most certainly packing!  Things are flying into boxes!  Honey, how do you spell croissant?  No reason!  Just curious!!!)
I'm back. 
For my definitive croissant post, go here.
For the world's most definitivest croissant post ever, go talk to Audax.
I'm outta here!

Another year gone by

Make new friends, but keep the old

One is silver and the other is gold.

Do you know this song? As a young Girl Scout we sang it all the time as a round. Some would say the tune is old and worn out, but I've never fallen out of love with it's simplicity and straightforward message.

Today I broke a beautiful new mug that I purchased only last Sunday. It was a porcelain travel mug with blue swirls and brown dragonflies. Sitting on the shelf of the kitchen shop it sparkled, it called to me, I was instantly enamored and smitten and head over heels. It was expensive, but resistance was futile and the purchase was made.

But today, after using it twice, I dropped it on the sidewalk outside my office. The pretty mug shattered into a jillion buhzillion little pieces.

I'm sitting here now, in front of my computer at home, drinking a mug of tea. This mug is old. It's practically from another lifetime. It was one of two that my dear friend Bet (Hi Bet!) sent as part of a care package when my first husband came out of remission from cancer. This mug isn't pretty, but it's solid. I've had it and used it excessively for nearly twenty years. I love this mug.

Today Mr. Boom and I looked at a house. I'm pretty sure the house was designed and built by Mr. Brady. Planters are built into the stairs on the inside of the house. The wallpaper in the laundry room is bright! and yellow! with flowers! and ribbons! that blind! It's kinda like this.

We're making an offer on the house, and I hope we get it. At the same time, a brick sided split level is quite a change from a 1910 Victorian. But who can argue with acres, and a pond, and a pasture, and a totally huge woodshop? Be still my heart, but there are ducks on the pond that the realtor assured me would come with the house. Did I mention the realtor has known me since I was eight years old? She patted me on the arm as she assured me the wild mallards would definitely want to live with me! Of course, she winked at Mr. Boom at the same time...

All day long I've been racking my brain, looking for something to say or do to celebrate another blog-o-versary--our 2nd! I might come up with something later on in the week, but don't hold your breath since we have all kinds of ducks to get in a row (get it?) to make the offer and get things straight with the bank.

All I have is this: thanks friends, old and new. Some are near, some are far, but I think of all of you as gold. True gold.

Gasp!

Gasp!

I'm the mother of a high-schooler. Part of me keeps thinking "how the heck did this happen?"
The snarky/romantic side keeps answering "well, a man and a woman got together..."
This plays in my head over and over.
When Chirp chirp was just a babe, people, older ladies in particular, would constantly advise to enjoy it now, it goes by so fast. I'm a freak of nature, or something, because it hasn't felt fast at all. It just feels odd that now I'm one of those people who has high school kids--and I'm not sure how I reached this point. Wasn't there supposed to be a manual handed out or something? Shouldn't there have been an official letter in the mail? "Hey Lady--your daughter's going into the high-school!"
I don't know. I just have this discomfited feeling.
Chirp-chirp, on the other hand, is rockin' her new status and making me proud. Changes aren't her strong point, but you'd never know it to see how she's handling it all. I am SO proud of her!

This past week, I've made three fail foods. The first was zucchini frit-foo-young. That's when you try to make zucchini fritters for a crowd, but omit the flour from the mix. The second was creme bruleaky. That's creme brulee that doesn't set up, but it's your aunt's birthday and everyone at the table is dying to see what incredible treat you've made for dessert. The third fail food was coconut ice crud. That's where you take a lovely recipe for coconut ice cream and forget to put the sugar in. That was for Grandma's 89th birthday, a mere three days after the creme bruleaky incident. With the same crowd. I tired to hand over my baking crown, but no one would take it. Maybe that has to do with the crusty smears of ravioli stuffing gone awry decorating it?

Grouse season has started. This means that turkeys can be viewed at every turn in the road, but the grouse are invisible. This shouldn't be confused with turkey season, when grouse fly up from under your feet with every other step you take and turkeys don't seem to exist. Turkey season does start here in a couple of weeks, at which point I'm sure we'll see lots of something else. Of course, I don't hunt for anything else, so I'm looking forward to it!

We did see a badger the other day. Thankfully, the badger saw us and decided it was easier to melt back into the trees than to stake a claim on his territory. Also saw a couple of snakes that day engaged in a little bow-chicka-bow-bow. But no grouse, of course.

Today I'm attempting this month's Daring Bakers challenge. Hopefully my streak of bad performance in the kitchen is over and I'll meet with success. Of course, it's such a yummy challenge that I won't mind repeating it over. And over.

Neither will the resident high-schooler! (Gasp!)

August Daring Bakers: Candylicious!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

While I know my entry isn't nearly awesome enough to go for the prize, I had soooo much fun with this project! 

My first candy was a sweet coconut-stuffed candy.  Inspired by recipes from around the web (Joy the Baker and Have Fork Will Eat) I ended up with this combination for the moist, chewy interior:

1 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 7 or 8 oz)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 good dash of salt
2 1/12 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes (I always get this from the bulk section at our market, it's fresher and less plastic-tasting)

Stir the first four ingredients together, then add the coconut.  Cover tightly and throw into the refrigerator for several hours before using.  With your sticky little fingers, form into your desired shapes.  If your kitchen is warm, you'll want to re-chill the shapes before dipping into the chocolate. Also, the harder you pack the mixture into your mold ( I used an oblong Tablespoon measure-er thing), the easier it will be to to dip.  My looser-ly packed shapes tended to fall apart in the bowl of chocolate.  The only way to save the situation was to dig it out with a spoon and eat it.  Chirp-chirp was of great help here!

My second combination was peanut butter and chocolate.  This one was the request (maybe a little more like a demand? How about insistent request? ) from Mr. Boom.  For peanut butter and chocolate, one need look no further than the Brown Eyed Baker for inspiration.  I tweaked her peanut butter cup recipe until we all agreed we'd gone to heaven. 

1 cup cheap creamy peanut butter (the good stuff will separate)

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine all the ingredients and chill, just like the coconut recipe above.



Confession here on the marshmallow.  I used store-bought marshmallows. It's just too dang hot to play with melted sugar.  I'm so sorrrrrrrry.  What I should have done was this, from a previous Daring Baker challenge.

This may or may not have been by second breakfast, elevensies, and perhaps first and second lunch today...

You could have it too, just follow this link to the printable directions on tempering chocolate and making all kinds of delicious candies in your OWN (and hopefully cooler) kitchen.



Zucchini fritters (spell that one ten times fast!)

My garden runneth over, with zucchini.  I've made zucchini bread a few times already, and while we all like zucchini bread a lot, we are getting a little tired of the same ol' same ol'.  Mr. Boom and Chirp-chirp refuse to eat fried zucchini, no matter how much Parmesan cheese is melted over the top, so I'm trying to find new ways to use up the squash. 

A fellow Master Gardener brought me a piece of zucchini cake the other day, and it was sooooo good!  The recipe came from her CSA (a weekly fruit and vegetable delivery service straight from the farm), and she said she'd pass the recipe along to me.  She did send me a bunch of recipes for zucchini, but not for the particular slice of cake in question.

I finally e~mailed the CSA and asked if they'd share it with me.  They said sure, no problem, it's form Martha Stewart.  Lo and behold, I had the recipe here in my own home!  The cake was featured in the July Martha Stewart magazine.  Hooray!

In the same article, a picture of zucchini fritters caught my eye.  The fritter recipe called for exactly twice the amount of zucchini I had in the fridge, twice the eggs, and twice the onion.  Perfect!  I made the fritters for myself, and began reheating leftovers for the sure-to-be naysayers.  You know, of course, that I can't follow a recipe to save my soul, so here's what I did.

About one cup of zucchini, about one half an onion, together strained through a bit of cheesecloth.  About one cup of grated Parmesan cheese (another leftover), and a palmful of flour.  Also salt and pepper, but you can't really see those.

Mix it all up gently with one egg.  The last egg.  A store-bought egg because the hens refuse to lay in this heat.

Fry them up in a bit of oil in a cast-iron skillet set to blazing hot.  Throw the first three onto a plate and cook up the second three.

Come back to find the first three MISSING ENTIRELY!  Mr. Boom and Chirp-chirp like zucchini fritters, it turns out.  Like them a lot, it turns out.

Well, we've got lots of zucchini, but I'll need to get some eggs and onions.  Both of which, by the way, should be coming from the yard but aren't.  Thank goodness for the modern supermarket, and thank goodness for  a new way to serve the family squash.

I'll make the cake next, after I get the eggs.

I'm sorry to say that neither of these recipes are on the Marth Stewart Website, but I don't think you need a real recipe for the fritters, anyway.  Try it and let me know what you think!

And some stuff I forgot!

Yesterday I told you I only recently learned about hornworms and sphinx moths.  What I forgot to tell you was where I learned it!  You've got to check out this blog post by Lauren Scheuer of Hunt and Peck who writes and illustrates about her adventures with chicken ownership.  She always makes me laugh!

We've been working hard to make sure we don't lose any more of our own little chooks. This morning we found another skunk in one of our live traps.  This little guy makes the fourth we've removed from our property.  Since it was already pretty warm outside before we rolled out of bed this morning, I was concerned about hydration.  I used a spouted water bottle to squirt a little water in through the fine mesh of the trap, and the sweet little skunk came right over, put one paw through the mesh to support his/her weight, and then proceeded to sip the water so delicately from the stream of water. 

So.  Freaking.  Cute.

Mr. Boom said we couldnt' keep the skunk as a pet.  Mr. Boom said I couldn't hug him, squeeze him, and call him George.  Mr. Boom didn't look into the cute little brown eyes of the skunk and fall in love.

We took him (the skunk, that is) up to a little canyon nearby, away from all homes and chicken coops, and set him free.  After he came out of the trap he circled back around to take a good look at us.  Mr. Boom backed away, but I was ready to embrace him (the skunk, that is).  At the last second, though, he turned away and ran off into the bush.  He was my favorite little pet skunk I've never had.

Today we're tackling the beautification of the side of our shop/garage.  It's a long, narrow, ugly spot that grows weeds and nothing else.  It needs help. 

I need a cold drink. 

Bottoms up, everyone!

Just some random stuff

Check out this link!  This site linked on the Google Earth Blog tells you exactly which satellites are above you at any given time.  From playing around, I've also determined there's NO WAY aliens could, or would ever want to, land here on our earth.  I know they wouldn't come to live, and I doubt they'd even think it a nice place to visit.  Seriously, there's just too much detritus out there to navigate around: it looks like the earth has fleas.  If our planet was a Snoopy character it would be Pigpen with his tenacious cloud of dust encompassing him at all times. 

In other news! We made an offer on a house.  We didn't get the house.  I wasn't going to fall in love with it before we knew our offer was accepted, but I did anyway.  Three acres, a pond, outbuildings, brick walkways, big gazebo, tall trees along both edges of the property and all the way up the driveway.  Fruit trees, raised beds, cold frames.  This place had it all.  But someone else got it.  Ah well.  C'est la vie.

In other news!  A Sphinx moth flew into our office this evening.  I never knew until this past week that tomato horn worms grow up into Sphinx moths, aka hummingbird moths.  I did a post last year, showing a local tomato hornworm.  These guys are just too cool for words, not that I let that stop me.  Ever. Ahem.

In other news! Plantars warts suck.  Liquid nitrogen does not belong in the proximity of bare skin.  I reminded my doctor of this.  I told him we could go out in the parking lot and use the liquid nitrogen to make ice cream instead.  I told him that if I was being expected to pay good money for the treatment, the  canister of gas ought to look fancier than a regular ol' helium canister.  I told him I should at least get some drugs.  My doctor never listens to me.  I will brag a little and say I never cried nor swore in the treatment room as he masochistically held the wand of nitrogen to the base of my foot.  He didn't see my cry one single tear (unless he looked out the window and saw me yelling, cursing, and screaming in my car).

In other news!  Anyone want zucchini?  I have some to share...

July Daring Bakers Challenge: Fresh Frasiers!

Mandatory Blog Checkin Lines: Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

This month's challenge was super-tasty and a wonderfully seasonal challenge.  While Jana suggested using strawberries and blueberries to complement a vanilla chiffon and pastry creme, I just couldn't see buying two types of fruit at the store when my garden was overflowing with other varieties.

My cherry tree has gone berserk, and we have a few lingering strawberries still on the plants.  The blueberries are dead.  Completely dead.  Blueberries, then, were a no-go.

Trouble is, cherries and vanilla are a fine combination, but not my definition of gotta have it.  Chocolate and cherries?  Well, that might be good....especially when combined with the disk of almond paste she directed us to put on top.  Wait a minute!  I've reinvented the black forest cake.  Inspiration was a long time coming, but this was an inspiration worth the wait.  Chocolate chiffon, kirsch-enriched simple syrup, and the last of the cherries from the tree.

Chirp-chirp, of course, just wanted chocolate. Straight chocolate. No fruit, no thank you.  None whatsoever. 

And, as a nod to Jana, here's the last of the strawberries for 2011...

Here's a link to the recipes.  Try this!

How does this make sense?

I really like listening to Science Friday on NPR. Have you ever listened in? Sometimes the ramblings become too political, but generally speaking this radio show is totally golden.

Friday afternoons generally find me at home, cleaning up a week's worth of unfinished chores, washing the laundry and hanging it to dry, scrubbing the toilets, sweeping the floors, and altogether acting out the part of Cinderella, except for the good part at the end where she ends up with an entire staff to clean her sparkly castle. Well, like Cinderella, I did get a prince, so I won't complain! I am still waiting for the cook to appear, and one of the mice had a little something going for him which I wouldn't mind having at hand!

Anyway, the auditory backdrop for the day is Science Friday. Good stuff.

Today was different. Since I took yesterday off for our camping trip, I had to work today. There isn't a radio in my lab, which is really a hallway, so I usually listen to tunes on my Droid phone and try not to rock too hard, which could ruin my samples. Not that I'd know anything about that. At all.

Today, though, I wanted to listen to Science Friday. My Droid phone has a radio station listening function (oh wait! that's an ap, right?) so I turned that on. Well, you can only listen to the radio if you have earplugs in. I do not need any more wires hanging off my body while running samples, so that was out.

All righty, then, I'll listen online! Except that none of the "three easy ways to listen online" (please use your deepest testosterone tone when reading that phrase) work on my phone. I tried to download Windows Media Player, but it wouldn't download to my phone. I tried I-tunes, but that only works if you have an I-phone. The last choice was Real Player. I select that download, and the NPR page takes me to the Real Player page.

Where the page tells me to

USE
MY
PHONE'S
CAMERA
TO SCAN
THE $^%@!^
CODE

You know, the code that is on my phone's screen

in order to complete the download.

Excuse me, but how do I use my phone's camera to take a picture of my phone? Seriously, people. What the heck??????

I couldn't make this up.

And I didn't get to listen to Science Friday.

OH look! Here's the page so you can see it yourself!
http://www.real.com/realplayer/android

Conversation whilst packing

Mr. Boom and I took a little camping trip yesterday. Chirp-chirp is away at her cousins' house*, so we decided to make the most of the opportunity by sneaking in a little car-camping excursion.


Where to go, where to go? We made a deal. I'd pack, and Mr. Boom would pick the location.

I finished up at the office at 3:00, went home, and packed the car. I also made sure all the animals had food and water to last overnight, and that the gardens all had enough water to survive a day without our love and care. Or something like that.


Anyway, I threw our sleeping mats, sleeping bags, and pillows in the car. I put cereal, peanut-butter, bread, crackers, and marshmallows into a box. Into the cooler went several shots of espresso, milk, goat cheese, jar cheese, frozen steaks, garlic, and cottage cheese. I grabbed our camping kitchen box, the Coleman stove, and a lighter. Car packed--hooray!


When Mr. Boom walked in the door just after 4:00, I told him to pack his own bag and we could hit the road. He had a few questions...

Him (with a hand on the cookie jar): Did you pack cookies?
Me: No, but I did pack the cheese!

Him: Insect repellant?
Me: No, but I packed the field guides?


Him: Something to start a fire?
Me: No, but I did bring the backlog of newspapers.
Him: That's what I meant.



Amazingly, we had all we needed, and not too much more. Perfect getaway. Well, it would be perfect if we didn't have to work in the morning!

So where'd we go? Little Naches River for the night, Ohanapecosh the next day. Cayuse Pass, Chinook Pass, and lots of high mountain driving in between!

*She's spent a lot of time at her cousins' this summer. The girl is two weeks older than her, the boy is two years younger. They have a hot tub, a movie theater, their own private bit of forest, and a three minute drive to the mall. Home just can't compete.