New Things Growing

A purple poppy exploded in our front yard. We've been growing these poppies for years, ever since my husband saw one in, ahem, someone else's yard and harvested one of the dried pods. There were lots of them and the plants seemed a bit abandoned, so ... I think it's ok. He sprinkled the tiny seeds on the ground in our yard and, like magic, up they came. Most years he sprinkles a few more seeds around, or sometimes not at all, and they still pop up every year. This photo is the first one I took with my new camera that I got for my birthday: a Kodak EasyShare 10 mp with a nice big 3" LCD screen. I still have a lot of playing around to do with the different modes, etc.
A few weeks ago I planted a bunch of new starts in the raised bed. I keep meaning to go out and photograph them but I haven't done it yet. There are romano beans, Lollo Rosso and Red Oak Leaf lettuces, and some new chervil. Also I sprinkled some more beet seeds around and they have sprouted already. This last week of rain was sent from above just for gardens: gentle and warm, it moistened the soil every day just at the time I was beginning to crank up the watering schedule. Looks like tomorrow the little sprouts might needs some irrigation again.

Walnut Tart

This is the homeliest tart I have ever made. It was billed in Gourmet magazine as "Périgord Walnut Tart" and my son was reading the magazine and saw the recipe and said, "We have to make that!" So we did. For a walnut tart, it is a bit light on the walnuts. There is only one thin, genteel layer of nuts. And the photo in the magazine shows a darling little tartlet piled high with mahagony nuts. Hmmmm. Well, the tart is scrumptious, but needs more walnuts. And that white bomb-blast looking patch on the tart? That's white sugar, that the recipe said should be sprinkled onto the top of the tart before baking. It's certainly not for sweetness since the tart is already tooth-achingly sweet. And it does nothing to gussy it up, since carmel and walnuts need no gussying. I say, leave it off. And that's what I said in my review on the epicurious site, if you want to see the recipe for yourself. (For some reason my review hasn't posted yet--it should be the first one!)
I call my tart "Woodland Walnut Tart" since the walnuts are from trees on our friends' farm in Woodland.

Beans are Cooking

I just took this pot of beans out of the oven. I love the variations in colors. I'm using my friend Karen's method, which I reproduce below (I didn't have bacon grease, so I omitted that):

I found that the best method for cooking beans is as follows: put beans in a large ceramic pot, add plenty of water, a tablespoon of bacon grease, and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil on the stove top. Cover and place in a preheated 325 or 350 degree oven and set the timer for 1hour. Check beans in an hour, stir and add water if needed. Cover and cook according to tenderness of beans to finish, usually another hour or less. Now you have beautifully cooked beans ready to be made into soup or other dishes. It is foolproof and defeats the problems I have had in the past with our hard water. No soaking and it can be done while you are doing things in the morning.

These beans were soft and meaty but not mushy after 1-1/2 hours. I am going to add this tomato and chili mixture below and cook them together for another 1/2 hour or so just to blend the flavors.
I tried her method the other day with garbanzo beans, which always seem to cook and cook for hours and without getting tender. I did soak the garbanzos overnight first, because I doubted that her method could conquer garbanzo beans. But after the soaking I followed her instructions exactly and they were soft and ready to eat after ONE HOUR in the oven. So now I am a believer and will go cold turkey with no soaking next time. My Spanish cazuela makes a good vessel for this and I like to think it adds a certain yo-no-se-que to my Spanish recipes. I made a garbanzo and vegetable soup with some of these garbanzos, and a pasta with garbanzos with the rest.

Speaking of garbanzos, on Monday I heard Spanish chef Jose Andres on NPR describing how to make his soup, Garbanzos con Espinacas (spinach). You can read this irresistible and economical recipe (part of a series of recession-busting recipes) here or, better yet, listen to his rich Spanish accent and dream of Spain. Over the years I've collected several Spanish garbanzo recipes but I always shrink from making them because of long cooking time. I'll be making Jose Andres' Garbanzos con Espinacas next, but using Karen's cooking method. Maybe a plate of good Serrano ham on the side...

Things that Bring Me Joy

In the last few days I have been concentrating on things that give me joy. Maybe you could even say, things that make me glad I'm alive (see previous post).
Here are some recent ones:
-Scones
-Notes that say "I love you" from my son
-Snuggling with my husband
-Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies on top of Mt. Davidson
-Seeing my son win both the 1600 and 800 races--easily--at a track meet
-The wondrous birdhouse/treehouse constructions of Patrick Dougherty woven out of willow trimmings on top of the trees at SF Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall
-Red worms in my compost

Car Crash

This is where the front of my car hit the guardrail on Hwy 280 yesterday. Someone was merging onto the freeway and clipped my rear bumper. My car slammed into the guardrail on the right and then slid across 4 lanes of traffic to stop against the center divider, blocking the left hand lane. I'm ok, just some bruises on my arm from the seatbelt and some ambivalent feelings about driving on the freeway. But our car is considered a total loss by our insurance company, which has not yet decided what we will get for it. The strange thing is, the damage above is about the worst of it. Yes, there are scratches and dents all along the passenger side where the car scraped the guardrail, a messed up rear hatchback door, and a crunched back fender where the SUV hit it. But you wouldn't think it was "totalled."

I am very very grateful to all the people who stopped to help me, especially the sheriffs' dept. guys who stopped right behind me about 15 seconds after I did and turned on all their flashing lights to warn oncoming drivers before I had even dialed 911. They may have saved my life. Then the tow druck driver who stopped about 30 seconds after that, also shielding my car, and tried to help me get my car started again, and the highway patrolman who arrived a few minutes later and took total control of the situation, got us off the freeway, and started the police report. Also the witnesses who waited by the side of the road to make sure I was ok and told the whole story to the officers. And even the driver of the SUV, who also stopped and waited, apologized to me, and cooperated fully with the CHP. I am so glad to be alive.

April Garden Report

The sugar snap peas are 4-5' high now, dominating the raised bed. (I like how it looks like the two vines above are holding hands.) Time to start picking peas! And time to plant something else. My transplanted beets are stunted little things; I think I will plant more beets, carrots, and lettuces. Over the last month a bunch of volunteers popped up, from either seeds or runners from last year's plants: camomile, mint, bee balm, tarragon, sweet peas, and sunflowers. The sweet peas need staking since they are beginning to sprawl. Here's the sweet little columbine flower, nestled with some mint:

A 5-Pound Bundle of Joy

Meet the newest member of our family, baby Ireland. My 8th grader's teacher assigned everyone in the class a 5-pound bag of flour to haul around for a week and treat like a baby. You 've probably heard of this assignment, designed to give teenagers a glimpse of what having a real baby would be like. Before I knew it, I was making Ireland a sling and asking my son how baby Ireland slept last night. It was kind of spooky how easy it was to slip into the role of Grandma. My son took on fatherhood with grace. He made a little diaper for Ireland out of construction paper and a plastic bag, and wouldn't even leave the baby alone downstairs while he did his homework. On the ride home from school on Monday, he and his friend made sure Ireland had a seatbelt around him. In math class, the kids put all the flour babies on a table together for a "playdate," and they worked out a complicated genealogy for the babies among their friends. Later in the week, they were going to have to wake up at 3-hour intervals and email the teacher to verify their "feedings."

But today, my son came home without baby Ireland. His science teacher had called off the project. Apparently some mean boys got hold of the babies and destroyed 8 of them, creating a big mess in the hallway with the 40 pounds of flour. They were caught, fortunately, and had to clean it all up. My son was disappointed, but resigned, almost as if he found the boys' behavior inevitable. There has been an epidemic of egging incidents at schools so I guess he wasn't surprised. I find the idea of boys destroying the babies disturbing and discouraging, but I treated it lightly with him. For him, it was a game anyway, and he took away from it what he was supposed to: if you're not mature enough to take care of a 5-pound bag of flour, you're not mature enough to take care of a baby.