And the sun shineth on!

Today was the best day of spring so far! Did I mention we have been having the coldest and wettest April on record? Only a tiny bit of drizzle (it is the Pacific Northwest!) this morning and then glorious sun! I immediately let the chickens out to forage in the backyard and went to work in the greenhouse, seeding. We set cilantro (coriander), marigolds, bib lettuce, sugar pumpkins, swan gourds, two vining flowers (to encourage those all important bees), and sunflowers. The broccoli rabe we seeded last week has sprouted. Yea! Later, I went for another long walk on the Sammamish River trail. Hopefully, spring has finally sprung and we can put away our webbed feet for a bit.

In other news, today we had dinner from the 100 foot diet. Instead of eating local stuff from within a hundred miles of home, we had an egg and chive frittata for dinner. The eggs came from our three cluckers and the chives from our garden. Total travel distance for dinner: 35 feet to the coop + 12 feet to the garden = 47 feet. Now that's local dining!

The sun breaketh through!

After planting tons of seeds last week, the sun decided to go on an extended vacation, and the rain moved back in. Today, the sun decided to poke through the clouds for a visit. We grabbed our shovels, trowels, and bags of soil and headed to the garden. Today, we repotted the orange tree in the green house and transplanted the small pots of cherry tomatoes from my kitchen windowsill to big pots in the green house. Some of the seeds we planted last week, the spicy lettuce mix and radishes, are already sprouting. We transplanted the Brussel sprouts, oregano, and some more marigolds from the green house to the garden. Why so many marigolds in the garden? They protect many plants from the attack of nematodes. Then it was time to hit the river trail for a nice long walk in the sunshine. It was one of those spring days when the jacket goes on and off every ten minutes, but ah sun! Ari and I went to see the new Jane Eyre film at the movies. It was awesomely good! Check it out. In cooking news, we are loving the rhubarb season. Last night, we had Dingle pies with oven roasted spuds and a rhubarb-strawberry pie with a lattice top. Delish! Next up for the rhubarb, an apple rhubarb tart.

EggsSeedingly

The chickens are earning their keep! Today, we hit the 1000 egg mark! Way to go, cluckers! This month we are making an effort to enjoy seasonal cuisine. Spring features eggs, poultry, early honeys, asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, spring onions, chives, lamb, and lots of delicious greens and herbs. We are also making more of an effort to spend more time outside as the weather is becoming ever so slightly less soggy. And in other news, I'm learning to play the guitar. So far, I know three whole chords. Stay tuned for progress updates. At the local thrift store, we scored this old fashioned crank apple peeler, corer, and slicer. We used it to prepare a couple of apples for the filling in our breakfast crepes on Sunday morning. Delish! Later, we headed into Seattle to visit SAM, the Seattle Art Museum. We each had a different favorite piece of art. Alex liked the enormous coat of mail composed of military dog tags. David like a crystal sculpture and a moving leaf painting by an Australian Aboriginal artist. Ari liked an Asian moving water and goldfish painting best. I loved a very minimal abstract of Leda and the Swan. Anni's favorite? Going to the Irish pub for fish and chips for an early dinner after the museum. She was famished!

It's that seed planting time of year again. Here I am scrubbing trays and pots on Saturday afternoon.

"Hey Mom! Did you drop a seed?" Anni on her radical red trike. Matilda chicken on the loose, and the lower half of Alex.

Today we seeded: tomatoes, tomatillos, ground cherries, Serrano and jalapeno peppers, lemon cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, leeks, green onions, basil, cantaloupe, zucchini, pumpkins, lacinato kale, broccoli rabe, snow peas, and 3 kinds of lettuce.

Tonight's dinner menu? Chicken glazed with spiced honey, rice with chives, and asparagus with Meyer lemons. Yum!

Gardening Day!

Today, we officially began our gardening season. First, we weeded and replanted in strawberry patch, adding a handful of new strawberry plants, coplanted with spinach.

Then, it was time to transplant the cilantro from the green house to the garden.

Next, we moved the pea trellis to a different bed. This year, we are starting with shelling peas rather than sugar pea pods.

A happy little pea plant (happy after begin rescued from Waltzing Matilda, that greedy hen!). Matilda in her luxury accommodations in the green house. The other two hens are considerably bigger than her and decided to attack her awhile ago. We thought she was a goner, but she pulled through and now overnights in her own condo in the green house. She spends most of the day free foraging in the back yard, and we try to keep her out of the new plantings!

Heirloom lettuce starts in the green house. A row of Walla Wall sweet onions and chives, coplanted with marigolds.

We also harvested today; chives for culinary uses, thyme for soap and candle making and culinary use, and sage for smudge bundles.

And the rain comes pouring down!

Well, it's April in the beautiful Pacific Northwest which means a continuation of our rainy season. It poured all day today! We snuck out for a walk on the Woodinville portion of the Sammamish River Trail a couple of days ago. The cormorants were roosting in the trees anticipating the change in weather.

As we walked, the skies began to darken.

The clouds were amazing.

Our April cuisine has switched from Celtic recipes to spring recipes featuring fresh spring produce from the Pacific Northwest, Egg recipes in honor of lammas, and classic French cuisine. Tonight for dinner we had

Julie Ann's Spring Pasta:

1 box of bow tie pasta

1 Tbsp. butter

1 shallot finely diced 1 garlic clove minced

1/2 cup diced prosciutto (delicious without the meat too)

1/2 cup finely sliced mushrooms (I like crimini)

1/2 lb fresh asparagus (fresh peas would also be great in this dish)

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

1/4 tsp lemon pepper

Pinch of salt

1 and 1/2 cup milk (or cream or milk substitute)

1/2 cup favorite cheese grated (I used mild cheddar, but Parmesan would have been good too)

How to:

1) Put a large pot of water on to boil for pasta. Put a medium pot of water and steamer on to boil for asparagus.

2) In a large fry pan, saute shallots and garlic and onion in 1 Tbsp. of butter over medium low heat. Add prosciutto and mushrooms after 2 minutes.

3) While this cooks, add bow tie pasta to boiling water and cook according to package direction to al dente.

4) Rinse asparagus spears with water and cut each in half. Boil for 2 minutes. Drain and chop into bite size chunks. Add to fry pan. Stir well.

5) Prepare sauce. Melt 2 Tbsp butter in saucepan. Add flour. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Whisk in milk. Bring to boil. Add pepper and salt. When sauce begins to slightly thicken, add cheese. Pour over Prosciutto asparagus.

6) Place bow tie pasta in large bowl. Pour sauce over pasta and sprinkle lightly with parsley. Serve with a large fresh green salad and a good light wine. Enjoy. Delish!

Spring has sprung!

Happy vernal equinox! Oops, I mean Happy Spring!
We had another nice day here in the Pacific Northwest. Translation: It was not pouring!

We went for an afternoon walk at Juanita Bay Wildlife Refuge. Here's a cormorant enjoying the weather.

All the trees are beginning to show their spring finery.

A mud hen explores the shallows.

Lichens dot winter bark.

A hawk keeps watch.

Fluffy cattails blow in the breeze.

Filmy fungus grows amongus.

Intrepid springtime naturalists.

And a final shot of the amazing moon.

Folks have been wondering where the recipes went. They're still around! This month, we've been cooking up all kinds of Celtic recipes. Here's one of our favorite creations: Celtic Pizza. Don't let the number of ingredients intimidate you. It's easy and delish!

CELTIC PIZZA

Ingredients (makes enough for 2 pizzas)

White Sauce:
3 Tbsp margarine or butter

1.5 Tbsp flour

1 cup milk (soy works fine)

3/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp sage

salt and pepper to taste

Toppings List:

8 oz. sliced mushrooms

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2-3 breakfast sausages, sliced into 1/4 pieces (or more mushrooms)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2-3 small Yukon gold or any good new potato, washed and sliced very thin

1 cup chopped fresh baby spinach

1 Tbsp fresh parsley

1 cup finely grated monzarella cheese (or your fav. cheese)

Olive oil

Crust:

Your favorite 12" pizza crusts

Garlic salt

1 Tbsp dried minced parsley

How to:

1) Place sausages, mushrooms, olive oil, thyme in nonstick skillet. Cook over medium until sausages are cooked through and mushrooms are browing. Turn off heat.

2) Make white sauce. Heat butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk for 1 min. Whisk in milk, spices. Bring to bubbling boil while stirring. Remove from heat.

3) Boil potatoes in salted water for 1 min. Drain immediately. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Drain and place on kitchen towel to dry.

4) Prepare crusts. Sprinkle crust lightly with garlic salt and dried parsley.

5) Preheat oven. I used 425 degrees.

6) To assemble: Spread 1/2 of white sauce over bottom of each crust. Top with spinach, sausage, and mushrooms. Add a good handful of cheese over each. Layer potatoe slices and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.

7) Bake for 16-18 minutes, but check after 12.

8) Remove from oven. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Serve up with large leafy green salad and an Irish red brewski. Delish!
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Calling coyotes under a big, full moon

Today, we did two really cool things. First, we attended the high school robotics championships in Seattle. Lots of schools from all over the west were taking their creations through robotic games to be the supreme champions. There was music, millions of high schoolers, mayhem, and lots of fun. We had a blast!

This is the beginning of moonrise over the by the Sammamish River trail.

We went for a long evening walk after dinner.

We heard a coyote howl and howled back. It answered and came closer. We kept calling until it was about twenty yards from us. Then it figured out we were human.It took off down the trial to howl with its two other brother and sisters.

Tonight was a special moon. By the horizon, it appeared much larger than a normal full moon as it was much closer to earth than usual. Way cool!

Back from the Rain Forest!

I recently attended the Rain Forest Writers' Retreat.

No, this would not be the balmy warm tropical rain forest.

This would be the temperate, or more rightly temperamental, rain forest of Washington state.

We stayed right along the banks of beautiful Lake Quinault.

The sunsets were spectacular!

We had every kind of weather: rain, snow, light rain, ice, heavy rain, thick clouds, more rain, light clouds, and finally a bit of cool sun.

Bear's bread on a log.

Snow on the elk field.

One of many impromptu waterfalls, I encountered on a hike.

An early skunk cabbage beginning to bloom.

Ice patterns, taken on my early morning run. Brrr!

The writers in full retreat! (I'm in the middle.)

Oscar Night down on the Funny Farm

We had our annual Oscar night appetizer dinner last night. Here's the champagne, soda, shrimp, and stuffed mushrooms,

Accompanied by mini crab cakes, flatbread sandwich rolls, artichoke spinach dip, smoked salmon spread, cukes, roasted peanuts, ham roll-ups, pretzel sticks, crackers, flax chips, a trio of tasty sauces, and (not pictured) lemon chocolate drizzle cookies.

Anni watching the Oscars. She liked the music.

Alex and Ari watching the Oscars. They were pulling for our favorite movie of the year: The King's Speech. We all think Geoffrey Rush got gipped. He was fab!

Huh?

A strange pink landed among the kitchen clutter this evening.

It popped its hatch to reveal...

the extraterrestrial cupcake.

Okay, okay, it was Anni's fabulous peanut butter cupcake,

made in her very own cupcake oven. So much cooler than an Easy Bake!

And here are the rest of the crew, a half dozen peanut butter cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and orange zest.

I think I need to turn around and go back to the gym for a few more miles! Groan.

Julie Ann: Eek! Is this another space critter? An intergalactic space slug?
David: No, this is my world infamous raisin braid bread.

Julie Ann: Don't you mean famous?

David: You haven't tasted it yet.

Julie Ann: I think I might be full.

David: Chicken.

Julie Ann: Cluck!

(I did eventually try some. It was delish! Back to the gym again!)