quote education

"I learned about gardening soon after I learned to walk. Tagging after my grandpa with my little watering can, I sprinkled where he hosed, jabbed at the earth with my toy shovel where he cultivated the soil, peered at the flowers that he examined."
- Ruth Shaw Ernst

quote Life

Posted by a FBF:
"we are rowing down a river of burning garbage with snipers on both shores. Many of us know we’re not crewing a ship, but a tea cup with sails made of memories of the
worst and the best of what we’ve lived. And, there under one of the small rowing benches,... is the Life Force protected under a worn tarp, still glowing. Our work: to ...carry that forward unharmed."
- Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

quote life

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
- Nelson Henderson

quote flowers

"I think the reason that Grandma's garden is so well remembered is that children were allowed to pick as many flowers as they needed, for there was nothing rare or choice in the flower beds: petunias, four o'clocks, roses - the more they were picked, the better they bloomed."
- Elizabeth Lawrence

busy,busy,busy

 Back, for a moment.
*I've just been blogging on the Genesee County Herb Society blog about our April meeting, if you're interested.

**If you're wondering about those extra page links above,  so am I. I still haven't figured out what to do with them yet. All in good time, Grasshoppa.

***And, I ran across a Google feature that lets me make a custom search engine - and put in my favorite, personal favorite  "herbal living"  blogs as the sites to search, which should bypass a lot of digging if you want a herbal response to a question you might have. It's posted over there on the right side of the page and I call it Google For Herbs (recommended sites).
Want to test it out? Just type say, violets, or huckleberries, into the search line and see what happens.
Cool, huh? (Btw, when you want to clear the search, click on the x.) Just don't forget to come back after your wanders.
I've added a bunch of my favorite herbally oriented blogs and websites that I read with my Google Reader (RSS), and I'll add more as I remember or run across them.

 Now for my personal update....
"It's been a week." That's what I used to say after a particularly awful week, but I'm updating my complaint to March was a month.
Well, not all of March - it did come in 'like a lamb', weatherwise, and I got a wonderful head start on pruning and flowerbed maintenance, though that was cut short. Herb had a heart attack, his third. Yep, TGFHI (Thank Goodness For Health Insurance - I pray everyone will someday have the same quality of health care he got, without being forced into bankruptcy and lifetime peonage).
And... he caught a cold from a sick nurse in the hospital (why do you go to work in a cardiac ward when you're sick? Is the money that important?) and then he gave it to me. It musta been some super germ, 'cause it knocked me flat for a week. But NOW Herb is well, feeling better in fact, back to work - he got a consulting job with a friend, so it suits him perfectly, and I'm getting back to life as well.
But like the poem says, April is cruel. We've lost our tentative hold on spring - the daffodils are blooming, and though it hasn't snowed on them (my personal weather adage) it's definitely cold enough for that to happen. The incredible pure white blossoms of the star magnolia browned after last night's heavy frost, and working outdoors isn't fun in these temperatures.
And the ground is finally wet after a long dry spell. We had 2 inches of rain in a day... it seems like the weather isn't as moderate as it used to be.

The holiday was great. Patrick and Mary Clare flew home and we all were together the weekend after Herb checked out of the hospital, but for actual Easter the family gathered at Skip and Tree's house. I left my camera at home. I'm not a great photographer anyways, but it would have been nice to help recall how beautifully Ashley dresses up my little K and A. and how animated they were over their Egg Hunt.
Skip and Tree are such good "from scratch" cooks, too, we really get a gourmet meal when they host the party. Skip is the master of the grill and served barbecued hot wings of his own recipe to nosh, and later, grilled pork roast on a bed of onion and fennel, with salads and a side of his incredible risotto. Followed by strawberries and whipped cream.

And here's the quote that was previously scheduled for today:
"When there is personal darkness, when there is pain to be overcome, when we are forced to renew ourselves against all the odds, the psychic energy required simply to survive has tremendous force, as great as that of a bulb pushing up through icy ground in spring, so after the overcoming, there is extra energy, a flood of energy that can go into creation. "
- May Sarton

my artist, K, 4 years old

Can you see me in this portrait? Head, hair, ears, eyes, mouth, body (with shirt), legs, feet and at the last moment, arms.
And the script at the left reads: "Grama, I love you."
Sweet.
My heart melts.

K told a joke

A was fruitlessly trying to jump up, grunt, jump up, grunt, jump up... to get herself a second helping of "rewards" (M&Ms - hey, they work!) for peeing in the potty, and we were all enjoying her struggle With gravity (sooo easily amused), when K said, "We need to buy A a trampoline so she can jump up high enough to get her M&Ms". I guess you had to be there. We did enjoy repeating the word trampoline for the rest of the evening, though. Peace.

Cwaazy Cwis-mas

It was a Great Party!



At least we had one adult in the house...

Home.

Safe, and well hugged by his mother, for two, no three days. Verifiably healthy and whole. The best gift.



And he brought his dear friend. Makes it easier to say goodbye again.



What did we do? We watched movies that Pat brought (District 9, Up (which I loved!), and Lost season 5) we ate too much, he read and rested, we talked and opened presents, we looked at phone photos of his kitten, we went out to dinner at his favorite Italian restaurant with Tony and the girls, Mom took his picture, we hugged goodbye.

Recipe: (Roll and Cut Out) Sugar Cookies

Our little baker's helpers made Christmas cookies for Santa. 'A' wouldn't sit still enough for a photo, confirming the effect of too much sugar on 2-year olds, but 'K' seems to be enjoying herself as she shows off her handiwork.



The girls took home gingerbread cookies and sugar cut outs for their daddy and mommy, and to leave a few for Santa on The Big Night. Mission accomplished.
This is my new favorite recipe for a rich, short-but still soft- Christmas cookie.

RECIPE: Christmas Sugar Cut Outs

Sift together into a bowl and set aside:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a stand mixer bowl, combine thoroughly:
1 cup butter, softened
1 three-ounce package Philly cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar

Beat in:
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla

Then gradually stir in the dry ingredients, at medium speed, until incorporated. By hand, form the dough into two balls, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll dough 1/8 to 1/4" thick.
Cut out shapes and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake about 7 minutes, until the bottoms just begin to show color.
Cool pans a minute on racks, then remove cookies to rack and cool.

When thoroughly cool, decorate with icing as desired.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cut-out Cookies

I made the sugar cut out dough (above) and this dough for gingerbread boys on Friday, and refrigerated it so we'd have it ready for the girls to cut, bake and decorate.
The MOST fun about being a grandmother is when K comes over and tells me she wants to do a 'project'.

This recipe for Gingerbread Boys has been our favorite for 33 or so years.
Now A grabs one in her little fist, runs around the table, and chants,
"Run, run, run, as fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

Gingerbread Boys

Sift together, and set aside:
3 cups flour (you can go 2:1 A.P. to whole wheat)
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cloves
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda

In a stand mixer bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract

Stir in dry ingredients until well incorporated. Form dough into two flattened balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll dough on a lightly floured board, to 1/4". Cut shapes and place on parchment.
Reroll and cut rest of dough.
Bake 8-10 minutes.
Cool 2 minutes on sheet before removing to rack to cool.
Makes about 8 big Gingerbread Men and a lot of small ones.

Gingerbread and p.j.s

The girls spent the night on Sunday, and we made a "project"... Here they are Monday morning, taking turns yawning and admiring 'our' handiwork from the evening before.




They're so cute. They pick up words and phrases so seriously. They like things placed just so, and done they way we did them last time they were here. When they insisted on staying up past Grandma's bedtime, I told them I was going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight. A week later, K surprised me by using the same phrase, as in "Gramma, A's going to turn into a pumpkin!"

Our weekend adventure

On Sunday we took K and A to a local Christmas tree farm to find a small fresh tree for our Christmas. When the boys were young we used to go out to the saw-your-own tree farm and agonize in the snowdrifts over the perfect tree, but lately I've become the master of Not Sweating The Small Things.
Last year we cut a volunteer seedling Norway spruce from our backyard, and the year before we bought a generic whatever tree from a lot. It's been a few years since we bothered to get out to a farm, and all I can say is, "Wow! Tree farms are really getting to be somethin'!"



We rode a two-horse drawn wagon out to the tree fields, visited (no waiting in line!) Santa Claus who gave the girls candy canes, fed apples to the reindeers, chased (not really) chickens, toasted and ate s'mores (the girls got marshmallow in their hair and their new hats, but they had such fun), picked out a Frasier Fir tree, rode back to the tree care area for a tree-shaking and tying onto the car while we noshed on more cider and doughnuts. The weather was warm enough to have fun with toddlers, and the operation, Trim Pine Farms, was so smoothly run, it made for a great afternoon.



Cute hat, huh? A picked it out herself - the minute she saw it she said "I have ears" and that was that. At least she wants to wear a hat this year!

She loves chickens - she remembered feeding the chickens at the orchard back in September, when we picked plantain and dandelion leaves to feed to the birds, and she began rooting around in the weeds.



Here is K talking to Santa. She actually sat on his knee twice, to get more apples to feed the reindeer, but A is still shy of Santa. She gets close, but just can't bear to sit on that lap, even for reindeer apples and candy canes.

Easy, Flaky Pie Crust

As long as we're talking pie...
It's not that hard to make a good pie crust! People keep fiddling around with recipes, but the smartest thing to do, frankly, is to spend time fiddling around with your technique.

Pie crusts are 'short'. That means they don't like to be over heated or over handled. So cool it!

I learned my Mom's pie when I was a kid, and even (surprise!) won a pie contest with my blueberry pie, at the El Rancho restaurant, if anyone remembers that Flint area moment in time.

As a young wife, I over worked the task. tried variations, and even tripped myself up in the making of pie shells. For a while I'd forgotten the fact that although empty baked pie shells required pricking with a fork to keep them in shape, baked in the crust filled pies, like pumpkin for instance, do not need pricking.
And if fact, if you prick a raw crust and fill it, it will not bake properly. It was a head slapping moment when I realized my mistake after a few failures. Live and learn. Mom was "gone" by then, or I'm sure she would have helped me figure it out faster.

After 20 years or so, I taught my Mom's crust to Herb, and he'd taken it over. I rarely make a pie crust any more, but we have cut WAY back on the pie desserts, due to the cholesterol. It's nice Crisco has decided to make their shortening with non-trans fat, but a few years ago at a Slow Food workshop at Applewood (The Ruth Mott estate in Flint), the chef-owner of a Fenton restaurant, The French Laundry, shared some excellent locally sourced fruit pie, and his recipe, and it was mmmm. lovely.
His crust recipe was, by the way, a lot like mine with the emphasis on technique, only he uses half lard or butter. Can't eat that too often, but the flavor was a memory revived.

Here are the basics of Mom's piecrust:

Sift together:
2 cups flour (I like unbleached King Arthur A.P.)
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. baking powder

Cut in to crumbly crumbs:
3/4 cup cold shortening

Don't cut together too finely - that is overworking the 'short'.
Mix in a scant 1/3 cup ice cold water - don't overmix. With fingers, gather and shape dough into 2 flattened balls, put in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Roll one chilled ball on a floured pastry cloth with a floured rolling pin, to 1/8". Transfer to pie plate and trim edges.

For baked pie shell: Shape ruffled edge with thumb and fingers. Prick with a fork, and bake at 475 degree for 8-10 minutes. Cool and fill.

For single crust filled pie: Shape ruffled edge, fill and bake as directed in recipe. You can also prebake this crust but I never needed to do that.

For double crust (filled of course) pie: Fill, then roll second ball and fit top crust on top of filling. Dampen edges of bottom crust, trim both crusts to fit, and press together to seal. Shape ruffled edge. Bake as directed. You can sprinkle with granulated sugar before baking, I only do that with rhubarb pie. I never glaze with milk or egg wash either.

There you have it. Practice.

Pumpkin Recipe - Two Pumpkin Pies

Two! years ago, around Thanksgiving, I wrote my definitive comments on pie, pumpkin pie, and the coming holidays. But I never actually wrote out my pie recipe. So this year, I'll fix that sin of omission.
I've used the popular condensed milk recipe for many years, with a few personal additions (vanilla extract and molasses) - it's a foolproof recipe for a busy cook. Should I include it here? okay.

Creamy Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a single 9-inch crust pie shell, unbaked.

Blend together in a large bowl:
1 egg (or 2), beaten
16 0z canned pumpkin (2 generous cups of homemade puree)
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
1/8 cup molasses
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t each: nutmeg, allspice, ginger
1/4 t. cloves

Pour into a prepared pie shell. Bake 50 minutes or until done. Test with a dinner knife inserted 1" from the edge. If you watch carefully, pull the pie out just as the center is inflating. Wait longer, and the pie will be overcooked. Cool.
Best served still slightly warm from the oven. Refrigerate leftovers.

***

Well, that is a fine pie, but this year I made Mom's old evaporated milk recipe with my little variation, and I think it beats the other.

My Mom's Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a single 9-inch crust pie shell, unbaked.

Beat together in a large bowl:
2 eggs (3)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
a good slurp of molasses
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. cloves

Stir in, blending well:
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (up to 2 cups)
1 1/2 cup Carnation evaporated milk

Pour into a prepared pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30-35 minutes, or until tests done (see above). Cool.
Best served still slightly warm from the oven. Refrigerate leftovers.

NOTE: This is different from the recipe on the can which, among other differences, adds flour (?) and only brown sugar. I've experimented by adding more pumpkin, but, if you do, remember it all has to fit in the pie shell, and the pie filling level does rise slightly from the action of the beaten eggs. So have a pyrex cup nearby to cook the extra in, just in case.

Nostalgia: Mom's recipe starts with a hotter oven, and the tradition was to bake the mincemeat pie first at the hotter temperature, and removing it and putting in the pumpkin pie. This is the first year in my life that we didn't have a mince pie for Thanksgiving. Times change and tastes change. My son brought a cherry pie with three kinds of cherries that he's been perfecting. We can have a mince pie for Christmas.

"In the sheltered heart of the clumps last year's foliage still clings to the lower branches, tatters of orange that mutter with the passage of the wind, the talk of old women warning the green generation of what they, too, must come to when the sap runs back."
- Jacquetta Hawkes

Whoooo. The remaining leaves all fell at once on one rainy windy day. The world looks as old as me, spooky for Halloween, not like last year's glorious last hurrah.
This evening I found a sweet little mouse in my kitchen; her name was Minnie.



And a beautiful purple fairy (with green woolies underneath her gossamer costume) was discovered in my living room, stealing candy, as fairies will do.

A walk in the woods

Our favorite cider mill was so crowded with tourists out for their once yearly trek to buy pumpkins and jump in the bounce house that Pa just drove right past, even though K does dearly love bounce houses.
I know, the business world is tough, and this is what brings in the spenders... sigh.
We'll be back when the bounce house is gone.

We went for a walk instead.


At the State Park, we hiked in the woods (two miles is a lot for little ones! SOME of us got carried part way) we collected pretty leaves, and we threw rocks in the lake.


We saw native Witch Hazel blooming, and found Sassafras 'mittens' shaped like Michigan.


After a snack in the pavilion, we played on the old swingset until thoroughly tuckered out.

October's flaming leaves 'lighting the way to winter', indeed.

The shame of it is, we saw a total of two other couples walking their dogs, during the whole afternoon. A few miles away, the plastic bounce house was jumpin' and shakin'. Do I worry about America? Yes.

Our Big Day

Ashley was already Family, this day made it official. She was a beautiful, earnest, optimistic, lovely bride. And Tony looked dreamily happy. I wish I had more photos to post... maybe I'll get some soon.

THERE IS LOVE
by Noel ‘Paul’ Stookey

- Wedding Song -
He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts.
Rest assured this troubadour is acting on His part.
The union of your spirits here has caused Him to remain,
for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name,
There is love. There is love.
Oh, a man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home.
And they will travel on to where the two will be as one.
As it was in the beginning, is now until the end:
woman draws her life from man
and gives it back again and there is love.
Oh, there is love.
Well then what's to be the reason for becoming man and wife?
Is it love that brings you here or love that brings you life?
Or, if loving is the answer, then who's the giving for?
Do you believe in something that you've never seen before?
Oh, there is love. There is love.
He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts.
Rest assured this troubadour is acting on His part.
The union of your spirits here has caused Him to remain
for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name -
there is love. Oh, there is love.

Easter Egg Hunt

My grand-babies, aren't they lovely. Little Aubrey loves finding the eggs but puts them in Kayla's basket. Sweetheart.

 

I'm looking at other Easter Egg Hunt postings on Flikr and notice all of the lovely parts of the country where the grass is green and the leaves are unfolding. Hmpfh!

 

Nature's Easter colors hereabouts are mainly blue sky and dirt brown everything else, with a few hints and spots of promise in spring green alliums, inch high rhubarb with its pink green ruffles, reviving green primroses and greening up iris leaves.

 

The crocuses and scillas are most of what provides the spots of color in Mom Nature's cheeks, but what nature doesn't provide, we do for ourselves ... pretty dresses, colored eggs, plastic toys that hint of summer fun.

 

Birthdays galore and wandering off topic

It was a birthday weekend! Abe Lincoln, my fave president; my son Skip, an original Valentine baby who finally admitted it was okay, in fact all right, celebrating his birthday on a significant Hallmark holiday; AND yesterday we celebrated our granddaughter Kayla's third birthday. Oh, time does fly.
Here's a photo of our beautiful B'day girl!
Grandma can never get her to hold still and smile for a photo, but the frosting did.


Speaking of birthdays, in a gardening sense we're celebrating a biggie this year, Darwin's 200th birthday. I was listening to NPR's Joe Palka on All Things Considered (link) reporting on the fascination that worms held in the later life studies of Charles Darwin. Darwin was apparently an earthworm aficionado...
It was an interesting human interest story - telling how the scientist at home involved his young sons in the scientific method - one of his children playing a bassoon to the worm bed to see how worms responded to the vibrations.
And noting the importance of his seminal book on the value of earthworms to human agriculture, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms. Which you can read online, here (link) or in scanned book form here (link).
Anyway, today I was listening to Tom Hartmann demonstrating how to successfully debate an anti-Darwinist who had no concept of historical context (link). Sometimes I wonder at Hartmann giving so much free air time to proud members of the Know Nothing Party, but then I'm reminded that Tom is teaching by example how to counter the prevailing meme. But I'm diverging from my train of thought here. Back to Darwin's worms!
Recalling the previous story on NPR led me to Google Darwin and earthworm, and I found this interesting article from Wired Science dot com above the fold:

Darwin, Earthworms and the Importance of Individuality
By Brandon Keim
October 14, 2008
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/darwin-earthwor.html

(snip - The beginning of the article talks about a traditional activity called worm grunting.)

"Darwin's worm research began shortly after his historic voyage on the Beagle, culminating four decades later with the 1881 publication of Action of Worms; he showed, among other things, that earthworms do not respond to the notes of a whistle, a piano or a bassoon, and are "indifferent to shouts."

He also realized that England's lush topsoil was the product of ceaseless soil consumption and defecation by earthworms: about 54,000 per acre, depositing ten tons of fresh soil atop each acre of English countryside, every single year.

"It may be doubted whether there are any other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly, organized creatures," Darwin wrote.

This now-forgotten fascination was chronicled by David Quammen in an essay entitled "Thinking About Earthworms." To Quammen, Darwin didn't merely illuminate the importance of these underestimated invertebrates, but the importance of thinking individually.

"At the time, evolution by natural selection was the hottest idea in science; yet Charles Darwin spent his last year of work thinking about earthworms. And thank goodness he did," wrote Quammen. "More and more in recent years, we are all thinking about the same things at the same time.... Break stride. Wander off mentally. Pick a subject so perversely obscure that it can't help but have neglected significance."

That is, after all, what Darwin did. What about you?


This image is borrowed from the Wired article.