My (Alaska) Sweethearts

They're up!  My potatoes have started to poke their leafy heads through the ground.  Both the Alaska Sweethearts and the French Fingerlings have won the prize for Most Enthusiastic Potato Variety.  I've been checking them regularly and was rewarded yesterday with sprout sightings.

The weather has been on the cool side here, but my onions and peas have also sprouted.  I won't plant my warmer season veggies (beans, cukes, tomatoes) until it feels quite a bit warmer, probably in middle to late May.

Other reports from the garden:  Red Currants have finished flowering and are LOADED with berries.  Last year my mother-in-law was visiting when they were ready to harvest and she cheerfully picked them for me.  Hmmm....wonder if she'll come back again this year......

The Raspberries, Black Currants, Strawberries, Blueberries and Plums are all flowering now.  Warmer weather will hopefully bring some bees and I will get good crops from these as well. 

My thornless blackberries, alas, succumbed to my over-enthusiastic pruning in the spring.  I forgot that they fruit on old wood and cut them right back to the ground.  Probably won't get anything from them this season.

I have one fruit-bearing plant that continues to confound me with non-blooming behaviour.  But that's a subject of another post.  Until then......

Dancing Angel

It's funny how and when ideas come to me.  I was browsing at the Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store in Burnaby last week and came across these delightful angels.  Originally they were tops for weathervanes, but I have used them to grace our wine/oil bottle stoppers.

These are available on our website (supply is limited, so if you like them, order now):  http://www.mumscreations.com/bsda.html.  These are quite heavy (13 Ounces each) and  8 inches tall including the stopper base.

Hope you like!

Playoff Season

I'll start with the moral to this story:  "It is best to read the comments section before making a recipe".

I've lately been following the website www.101cookbooks.com and have made a couple of fabulous recipes from there.  This is NOT one of them.

I gravitate to recipes using lots of whole grains and minimal added fat.  This one seemed like a natural.  However, as one of 101cookbooks.com commenter said, "You could knock a cow over with one of these rolls!"

My patties turned out like hockey pucks.  Sami Salo could use these things for slapshots from the blue line and they'd remain intact.

Now, I'm not outright diss-ing these things.  I think there's potential here.

Here is the recipe I used:

Big Sur Bakery Hide Bread Recipe

I have bolded the ingredients I used:

5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for dusting
1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 cups oat bran
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup amaranth, quinoa, millet, or poppy seeds (or any combo of these)
2 tablespoons dulse flakes, or 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons beer
2 1/2 cups buttermilk, half-and-half, milk, or water
unsalted butter, softened for serving

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 375F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper if desired.
Place all the dry ingredients in an (extra-large) bowl, stir them together, and make a well in the center. Add the beer and the buttermilk. Mix with the handle of a wooden spoon until a thick, wet batter forms. Sprinkle a layer of flour over the top. Turn the batter onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a loose log about 2 inches in diameter. Cut it into 1 1/2-inch-thick slices and par them down with your hands to form patties. Place the patties on the baking sheet and bake them for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Let them cook completely.
To serve, slice each patty in half, toast it well, and smear with butter (hs note: a sprinkling of salt works wonder here as well). And seriously, make sure to toast it. Hide bread is similar to an English muffin in that if you don't toast it, it'll taste raw.
Makes about fifteen 4-inch patties.


Here's my challenge to you:  Look over the recipe -- try it out -- and see if you can make something edible from it.

California 1889

The Arbuckles' Illustrated Atlas of the United States of America was published in 1889 and includes maps and representative scenes from each state. Beautiful Victorian imagery adorns each page.

The images were also published as "trading cards".  Customers were able to collect cards from the Arbuckle's Coffee they purchased until they, hopefully, had a complete set.

I just completed a serving tray for a customer in Oakland, California (Someone's in the Kitchen) showing the California page from this Atlas. I thought I would share it with you.

You can see all of these state images, plus many others on my website:
http://www.mumscreations.com/arbuckle.html

Potato Heaven

I know that vegetable gardening is becoming popular (even trendy) these days, but rest assured, I have been way ahead of the curve on this one. I think I have gardened all my life. My mother used to plant flowers wherever we lived. Even if we were in a basement suite or apartment, she found a patch of earth to plant.

It wasn't until I was in my teens that my family owned their own home with room enough for a vegetable garden. Any place I have lived since has included space for agriculture.

Coming from a (partly) eastern European background, the potato has long been the Official Family Vegetable. I was taught by my father to simply dig a hole, throw in a couple of potatoes, cover them up and wait. That is traditionally the way I have gardened potatoes ever since. Until this year.

For 2010 I ordered six varieties of seed potatoes from Eagle Creek Farms in Bowden, AB www.seedpotatoes.ca -- two early (Caribe and Warba), two mid-season (Alaska Sweetheart and Yukon Gold) and two late (Green Mountain and French Fingerling).

The instructions that came with the planting potatoes suggested they be planted in rows. Gasp!! I've never done that before. But, what the heck -- you're never too late to learn.
So, friends, this year my potatoes are planted in six neat rows in my garden, all labeled and ready for this darned spring weather to figure itself out.

I'll keep you posted!