Cheesy loaf

Tinkering with various recipes from cookbooks and the Web I came up with this cheese-suffused loaf that makes a fab companion to mid-afternoon (or morning) coffee. It makes two truly cheesy and faintly sweet, moist cakes/loaves that are yummy straight from the oven and also refrigerate well, though you might like to revive slices in the microwave prior to eating. You can decrease sugar by one tablespoon if you want it less sweet. Me, I think I would add two more spoonfuls of sugar next time to make a sweeter loaf.

You’ll need

1) 1 cup of sharp cheddar or Asiago, cubed
2) 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (about 10 oz)
3) 5 tbsp sugar
4) 1.25 tsp baking powder
5) 1/2 tsp baking soda
6) 1/2 tsp salt
7) 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
8) 1 cup whole milk
9) 3/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
10) 3 tbsp melted butter
11) 1 large egg

Plus: 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or Asiago

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease and flour two 8-inch loaf pans.

Combine ingredients 1 to 7 in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk. Make a well in the centre. Combine milk, egg, and melted butter. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Coat the pans with some of the shredded cheese. Spoon batter into pan and sprinkle the top of the loaves with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 C for 20 minutes or until done.

Oriental scarlet

Impudent, resplendent, exuberant. Presenting Papaver orientale in scarlet, blooming unfazed by the presence of the compost bin less than a meter away.

Versatile cottage pie

I made this partly from scratch (the mashed potato) and various leftovers (a cup of leftover eggplant/tomato sauce and 2 cups of a beef filling I prepared for H's burritos lunch). You could easily substitute sauteed ground lamb or even cubed chicken breasts sauteed in cream with some mushrooms and carrots. Easy-peasy.

A bit of coriander -- home-grown! -- went into my beef burrito filling.



I used yellow peppers for colour...



Threw in frozen peas and carrots to add some veggy goodness:



And here's the pie before it went in the oven:




But if you wanted to make it from scratch, this is how you could do it:

Versatile cottage pie
1 tbsp oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups frozen peas and carrots
560g/1¼ lb ground beef
400g/14oz canned tomatoes
290ml beef stock
1 bay leaf
fresh thyme leaves, about a teaspoon
2 tbsp tomato purée
salt and pepper to taste

For the mashed potato topping:
750g potatoes, about 3 large
1/3 cup milk
a knob of butter
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion, cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until soft.
3. Add the garlic and saute a couple of minutes.
4. Add the ground beef and cook for 3-5 minutes until browned.
4. Add the tomatoes, purée, beef stock, bay leaf and thyme.
5. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Season.
6. Make the mash: boil the potatoes in water until soft. Drain and mash with the butter and milk. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Spoon the meat into an ovenproof dish. Top with the mash and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

Diva in the house

Patsy is around 7, a Chihuahua-Pomeranian cross. She is an absolute diva. But occasionally, when she sees me aiming my camera in her general direction, she is not above hamming it up.

Scottish broom

Most of the Scottish brooms I've seen so far in BC carry yellow blooms, but ours are red with yellow streaks.

Split pea soup with chorizo

I guess this is more of a winter soup, but I was a bit under the weather and while I didn't want to prepare anything too complicated, I did want to have something hot for H when he comes home from his late shift. Pea soup is easy and warms the belly and yet still light enough even for a balmy spring night. Bonus: I got to use some of the rosemary I've been growing in the herb garden :-)

This is such a forgiving soup, you could even throw in a cup of chopped potato with the carrot, adding more stock as necessary. Next time I might add some fresh spinach when I take it off the heat, just before serving. You might also want to skim off the top layer of rendered chorizo fat for a leaner soup.

Split pea soup with spicy chorizo

1 chorizo (approx 7 oz), cooked and cut into half-inch cubes
1 cup carrot, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
A few cloves of garlic
1.5 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1.25 cups green split peas, and 1 cup split yellow peas, rinsed (or use 1 colour peas)
6 cups chicken broth

Sauté chorizo in heavy large pot over medium-high heat until fat begins to render, about 4 minutes. Add onion and saute till onion is softened. Add garlic, carrot and rosemary. Saute about 5 minutes.

Mix in split peas, then broth. Bring soup to simmer. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until peas are tender, stirring occasionally, about 50 minutes. If you wish you can thin the soup with water or stock. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Singin' the blues!

I don't know about you, but blue has never seemed to me to be a particularly depressive colour. If anything it lifts my heart, especially when it comes in saturated colours such as I find in our garden. Moving along the color wheel, I also adore purple, with some violet thrown in.

Primroses with a yellow centre.



Cranesbills, also known as hardy or true geraniums. This variety is Geranium phaeum aka Mourning widow:



French lilac:



One of our few blue columbines (most bear pink blooms):



Another variety of hardy geraniums



Dame's rocket or Dame's Violet, a wildflower:



Purple iris, of course.



Cornflower:



The table in the back yard, where newly potted plants are babied:



The gardener's lady wears a blue floral skirt. Naturellement.

Fresh apple cake

As a home baker I do love a challenge and have got my eyes set on making various frosted and layered cakes this summer for someone's birthday or other. But strangely enough, H and I are more likely to finish a carrot cake or an apple cake faster than a grand cheesecake or iced gateau. My sweet tooth has its limits, as does his!

Yesterday I was pining for a simple fruit-based confection with a high comfort factor. Something easy to prepare with ingredients I already had. This fresh apple cake, which I adapted from Nick Malgieri's recipe, fit the bill perfectly. When it was done, it was aromatic, springy and moist, not too sweet, with a bit of crunch from the walnuts, and bursts of sweetness from the raisins.

Fresh Apple Cake
Adapted from Nick Malgieri

You'll need:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 large eggs
• 1 scant cup sugar
• 1 scant cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups peeled, cored, chopped Granny Smith apples
• 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
3. In a bowl sift together flour, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, just until broken. Whisk in sugar in a steady stream. Continue whisking for another minute, or until lightened. Whisk in oil in a slow stream, then add vanilla.
5. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour mixture. Then fold in apples, raisins and walnuts.

Scrape into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to a cooling rack and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack, right side up. Allow to cool completely.

This is delightful served warm and plain, or you can dollop some good vanilla ice cream over it. The maple walnut ice cream in the freezer is calling my name!

Super chokeberries

A chokeberry growing out in the front yard. It will bear red or black fruit that's rich in antioxidants. The purple variety has one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants in the plant kingdom, next only to blueberries and other purple/dark blue coloured fruit and vegetables (purple carrots make the grade too). So the next time you're shopping for fresh produce go for the blue!

Good desc here.

Closeup of the flowers and leaves. Each flower is just over a half-inch in size.



P.S. Funky gardener's lady wearing pearls, in the foreground.

Take that, Broomhilda!

Look what I found growing in the driveway! H calls it a mountain ash. I found online that it is also and probably more accurately called the rowan tree, as mountain ash refers to three distinct tree species.

Rowan grows throughout northern Europe (Sorbus Aucuparia) as well as in the northeast part of North America (Sorbus Americanus). It has lovely white flowers in May, as you can see from my shot. It has berries that turn bright red in winter.

I have always been interested in the rowan tree, having read about it for years. Apparently it has been revered for hundreds or years by many cultures, and its name could be related to the Norse word for rune, which means secret or magic. In Britain, it is also known as the witchen tree, witch wood, or wiggen tree and it's famous for giving protection against witches! This is just too magical. Here's more about the rowan.



Witches aside, it would be interesting to make rowan jelly when the fruits come. In the UK rowan berries are around from July/August through to November - I'll let you know when ours bear fruit. The berries are generally too bitter to be eaten raw but once transmogrified into jelly you can serve it, as the British have traditionally done, as an accompaniment to game and venison. I found a recipe for a rowan-and-crab apple jelly here.

Traditional Celtic ballad

"Laidley Wood"
The spells were vain
The hag returned
To the Queen in a sorrowful mood
Crying that witches have no power
Where there is Rowan tree wood.

So Christmassy

Shown here is one of the few holly trees around the house. When I was little holly figured prominently in the Christmas cards I browsed in stores and was ever present in many "imported" TV shows and movies. To have it growing so casually around me now is magic because I loved all Christmas mythology, from our very own Pinoy dawn masses (voices lifted in song in the chilly dawn) to Santa Claus to fir and pine trees and of course, the holly. With its spiny prickly leaves and red berries it was strangely alluring. I hope we get a few red berries this winter.

Hollies are shrubs and trees from 2–25 m tall, with a wide distribution in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America. Most species are found in the tropics and subtropics of America and Asia - China has 204 native species. The leaves are simple, and can be either deciduous or evergreen depending on the species, and may be entire, finely toothed, or with widely-spaced, spine-tipped serrations. They are mostly dioecious, with male and female flowers on different plants, with some exceptions. Pollination is mainly by bees and other insects. The fruits are small drupes, usually with four to six pits, and range in color from red to purple-black.

Holly berries are mildly toxic and will cause vomiting and/or diarrhea when ingested by people. However they are extremely important food for numerous species of birds, and also are eaten by other wild animals. In the fall and early winter the berries are hard and apparently unpalatable. After being frozen or frosted several times, the berries soften, and become milder in taste. During winter storms, birds often take refuge in hollies, which provide shelter, protection from predators (by the spiny leaves), and food. The flowers are sometimes eaten by the larva of the Double-striped Pug moth (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata). Other Lepidoptera whose larvae feed on holly include Bucculatrix ilecella (which feeds exclusively on hollies) and The Engrailed (Ectropis crepuscularia). The Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica) is another well-known animal feeding on holly leaves. Holly is commonly referenced at Christmas time. The berries are red.

- From Wikipedia

Atomic poppies

Still no peonies but the oriental poppies in one corner of the house surprised us yesterday with this extravagant show. They were still tightly furled the day before. It must be the spike in temperature that nudged them into finally raising the curtains on the Grand Poppy Show. There are other poppies, less showy and smaller, already blooming elsewhere in the garden. But these ones! Rich purplish hearts like bruises, huge burning-orange petals. Galactic!

Waiting for peonies

Any day now....

All bedded

We now have a second raised vegetable bed cheek by jowl with the first. Where the first bed is a rough circle defined by hewn weeping willow logs, the second is a neat rectangle. Yesterday in the midst of a steady monsoony downpour I planted four tomato plants, a dozen kale plants and I sowed seeds: four rows of carrots, four of chard, six of spinach. In between the tomatoes I also transplanted a few corn thinnings from the other vegetable patch. The soil was a rich dark brown. The rain beat out a soft pelting tattoo. Fat earthworms wriggled out as if to smell the rain.

I have a grand total of six tomato plants now. Two "Better Boy", one beef tomato, one Sweet Baby Girl, one Patio and one cherry tomato. One of the Better Boys* has tiny fruit already:



Very excited and reading up on how to protect the fruit. From what I've seen so far BB is indeterminate and will produce deep red, meaty fruit until late in the growing season. It's a VFN variety, which means it is resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and root-knot nematodes. This is what it should look like once it ripens (thanks to Peoria Gardens for the pic):



* Correction: May 21. Just inspected the garden. It's SBG that has the fruit, but BB also has flowers. SBG will yield small, sweet cherry tomatoes in big clusters over a long life. I heard you can have as much as 2 pounds of fruit in one week once the girl gets going. Hurrah!

What's maple and yellow and fresh all over?

A long day that started early and featured: soft drizzly rain interrupted by bursts of sunshine and clear skies, a trip to two local nurseries, the purchase of various seeds and 4 tomato plants of different varieties -- Better Boy, Sweet Baby Girl, a cherry tomato and another variety I can't remember that the nursery owner (another Pinay) gave me as a gift.

H didn't have to work, so we happily kept busy preparing and planting vegetable bed #2, puttering around the house in preparation for the arrival of my shipment of 13 boxes full of my personal effects from Hong Kong, and making some lovely things including a pasta with bolognese sauce for dinner and two desserts: a rhubarb-apple-pineapple crumble that used our newly harvested rhubarb stalks (yes!) and a batch of largely sugar-free carrot-banana muffins adapted from here.

The garden was dripping and bejewelled with the constant drizzle. There was a bit of a chill in the air but everything, especially the red maple and the golden buttercups, looked fresh and new. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the second vegetable garden and its plantings.

Hope your day was as fruitful and happy.

The Great Catalogue Project

When I say great, I mean it in the sense not of "fantastic" or “flawless” or "awe-inspiring" scientific cataloguing by me. It's more in the sense of, oh my God what have I started, there's just too many thingies and seedies growing in this blessed half acre to identify. You see, H is an inveterate plant collector; he's invariably got cuttings growing in the heat mat and seedling tray. Or he's outside in the garden pushing seeds into the loamy muck, watering in the early morning or late afternoon, or cadging a cutting from the neighbours from some new plant variety he hasn't seen before. When we go for walks he'll often get distracted by a strange rose bush or ground cover and itching to get his hands on a cutting or two. I don't even mention the plant nurseries; he may have single-handedly kept the ones in the immediate vicinity alive with his copious orders over the years!

This is the current layout: at the back of the house is the Big Garden, also known as the Jungle. This is dominated by a dozen blueberries growing alongside various annuals and perennials: tulips, wild apples, the odd raspberry and blackcurrant trees, a glorious ornamental cherry, poppies and daffodils, hydrangeas and geraniums, a few unfortunately sickly rhododendrons, a couple of taro plants, bleeding hearts and many varieties of decorative grasses and pines. Near the kitchen we have lavender, chives and various ornamentals, perennials and annuals including countless columbines and some really outstanding alliums (onions).

Front of the house is a lovely, sunlit (if soggy in places) squarish garden where we now have two raised beds for growing vegetables. The first bed is flourishing with lettuces, chives, squash, asparagus, peas and beans. H built the second one just yesterday and today we plan to get seeds and plants from the nursery. I plan to make the second bed a tri-season affair planted with different things growing through late spring to late autumn.

Both beds sit on a sea of dandelions which have mostly gone to seed now, replaced by a sunny army of buttercups which H keeps threatening to mow down. I’ve begged him to keep them around for a while; they make me so happy just to look at them.

At the edge of the front garden the rather charming, weathered wooden deck. Here sit my tubs of herbs – basil, dill, rosemary, a handsome laurel, sage, a wildly growing oregano and so on. This is where I sometimes sunbathe – it gets tons of sunshine like the rest of the front yard.

The Great Catalogue Project consists simply of this: photographing everything as they grow, getting to know all their names, and putting them online in some form (on this blog or Flickr or Google albums). It’s going to be my mnemonic aid in getting to know the thousands of plants – so many beautiful ones, and mostly all new to me - that grow in this corner of North America which is now also my home.

Lushly lettuce

These are the lettuces flourishing in the vegetable bed in our front yard. Having read My Tiny Plot I am inspired to grow even more of these leafy beauties. Think of all the salads I can make and toss and dress this summer.

The community garden system (or allotments) seems to me a fantastic way to grow your own produce if you have even a little bit of spare time. Failing that, a kitchen garden or potted herbs on the window sill would be lovely...and useful.

But wait! Link-hopping has led me to this site which reviews square-foot gardening. Might be worth looking into.

New shoots, o Joy

Over a dozen corn plants and 13 or 14 asparagus plants in the vegetable bed. The lettuces are flourishing, same with the rhubarb. There's even a couple of beans and peans sprouting, the seedlings just mere flecks against the soil. Over at the deck, the first dill and basil shoots showed up yesterday. The basil looks like it's been frostbitten - brown spots have appeared on the previously healthy leaves. But the coriander and parsley are thriving. I hope to have the herb pots just bursting with herbs in a month or so.

I believe these are basil, below:



And these tiny slivers of pale green must be dill:



Yellow or green bean coming up:



Tiny asparagus, looking almost military:



A purple asparagus cosies up to a bunch of stalwart corn:



And more corn:



Bonus shots: the frog guardians!

Spring colours, May 11

Today in the garden: Blues and yellows, greens and silver. And a rainbow. The spring rains have drenched everything with life.