A couple of weekends ago we ventured out on the last activity on our list before summer ended, my new job started, and Whitney had her back repaired with fusion of L5/ S1. We head North to the Berry Patch in Brighton to pick our own strawberries and rasPberries. They had a few farm animals in residence.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Berry Patch, ride out to the fields
We rode tractor pulled trailer out to the fields. {Notice Whitney is in a seated position- something she hasn't been able to do since back surgery 7 days ago} Then out to search for strawberries!
fresh picked strawberries
And here's my harvest. Then I went inside the garden barn and picked up some salsa ingredients:
Peppers and garlic on the grill
The Berry Farm had a brown bag of salsa ingredients so I had to pick one up. These veggies went on the grill
Grilled salsa veggies
Then peel and seed the peppers, chop by hand or in the blender/Cuisinart. Add the fresh salsa veggies and cilantro. This amount of vegetables made 2 quarts of salsa. Bueno Appetit!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Apple bounty
When I moved from California I left an apple tree in full fruit in my Zen Garden. I was sick to leave this little tree that I planted 6 years ago when it was finally mature enough to give me yummy apples all summer long. I have since planted 3 new apple trees in my back yard but it will be many years before I will have much to harvest. Well my neighbors' tree is already there and is so weighted down by fruit that it is burdened and branches are threatened to break. So the tree was trimmed this week before the fruit had been picked. The neighbors were very gracious and offered me any of the fallen fruit. I was across the street with my basket and scissors in an instant. Now with over 25 pounds of apples I now have to scurry around to make good use of them. Serendipity?
apple crostata
A crostata is a rustic form of an apple pie. The pate sucre or sweet pastry dough is rolled out into a 11-12 inch circle and transferred to a parchment lined baking pan. Then a filling of apple wedges ( about a pound and a half or 2 cups), 1/2 cup raisins, 1 TBS flour, 1 Tbs sugar, zest of 1 orange or lemon, 2 Tbs of the same juice and a healthy tsp of cinnamon is mixed and added to the center of the pastry circle leaving about a 1 1/2 inch border free to roll up and over the fruit to form a baking vessel. Then a softer dough of 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 Tbs butter and enough cold water to make a dough is mixed in the Cuisinart and then added in pieces on top of the fruit. Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven. Rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool at least 10 minutes. For the original recipe from Ina Garten here is the link.
Bon Appetit!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
make a wish!
Happy birthday to my daughter, Whitney! It is your special day and I hope you enjoy it with lots of love and hugs! You have been such a great help to me making this big move to Denver and I appreciate it so much. Planning for your birthday reminded me of the gift you used to ask for, "Can I have something with a blue box and a white ribbon, please?" My Lord, Tiffany's has raised their prices so that even the "affordable" silver section is tiny but at least we can have the Tiffany blue and elegance in our celebrations!
Kate helps with the frosting
My little helper in the kitchen. Kate adds the powdered sugar to the Royal Icing before dying it blue.
cakes under glass
Here's the result: Lemon cake with Tiffany blue royal icing, lemon meringue buttercream frosting and lemon curd. These little cakelet pans are from Williams-Sonoma. Lots of fun!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Messy Room Studio, II
Welcome to my new Messy Room Studio. My basement has a big room to house my studio stuff. Last week I finally got it put together enough to start some upholstery projects. This is my workspace. And here are my projects from the last 2 weeks. No more rooms to put together. Now I can have some fun.
bench with new cushion
This fabric has been in my stash for several years. i pulled it out and made this blue cushion for my entry bench.
Re-used linens, bedroom
The pillow shams were made for Whitney's first home about 10 years ago. I added some new ribbon ties and some fresh stitching.
new recovered chair, ottoman
This chair and ottoman were covered in a green plaid for 10 years. Now it has a linen "flour sack" fabric
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Visit to Seattle
Joy to the world! My entire family was together in Seattle this past weekend. It has been two years+ since we all assembled last in California and now Gabriela (age 7 months) has joined our family. We had 4 days to travel and play searching for adventures around every corner. The girls really had fun playing together and the baby took it all in stride. The kitchen was busy non-stop. Brad made too many trips to the market to keep us fed. It was a great trip!!
Planes, trains, and ferries
One of our goals was to ride everything possible. In Denver we took the CAR to the airport; rode the BUS from the parking lot; ESCALATORS to the TRAINS that took us to the AIRPLANE. The next day we took the MONORAIL to the space needle and ELEVATORS to and from. Sunday we drove to the FERRY to Bainbridge island and did some park hopping. Gabriela had her own ride in the BABY BJORN. Is there anything we missed? Maybe next time we'll take a ride on a seaplane or a hang glider.
Kate has found the beach
My Kate loves the beach. As soon as the water was in sight off came her shoes and socks and in she went. "It's warm!"
Bainbridge Island
The beach was full of rocks and these giant driftwood trees. They made great obstacles to climb on.
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