Would ya look at you grow

Would you check out my meyer lemon tree? You may recall I bought it while in Baltimore and it has been as yet unsuccessful at producing any fruit.  Last year I was donated a massive pot when someone left  town and through the winter it started growing flowers which I cross-pollinated.  From those flowers, five small fruit are growing.  The poor thing gets a bit banged around in this wee apartment during the winter and I'm always glad when it gets warm enough to be able to keep it outdoors.  I don't know what we'll do next winter.  Perhaps I'll get a winter covering for its' trunk and pot and leave it below the overhang outside our apartment.  Or ask a friend to store it in their garage.  

Since I've had it outdoors again this year, it has been thriving.  There are loads of flowers and more baby fruit developing.  A few of the fruit are yellowing before they're even nearly big enough so I suspect they won't make it the long-haul.  I think the tree is probably too busy growing to provide its' whole system with the nutrients it needs.

 

A special Mother's Day

It is great to have Mum here finally.  She has been empowering me to face the labour room and I'm not feeling as nervous/scared as I was.  I feel...ready.  Almost.  I was especially excited to celebrate mother's day with her - it's a day I haven't cared too much for in the past because mum and dad both have birthdays within a week of mother's day so it's always felt a bit stressful to distinguish between the three celebrations.  This year felt different, probably because I'm about to become a mother and if pregnancy is anything to go by, motherhood is a big job.  We also enjoy any opportunity to celebrate with family members now that we live abroad.

In honour of my first mother's day (as a nearly-mum) Jbird made us a delicious breakfast first thing that morning.  He does a great French toast, using the Tartine baked method.  Mum and I were given a huge box of Godiva chocolates, I have been very restrained around so far and haven't eaten too many of them yet.  

For lunch, I'd planned a high tea for Mum.  I had wanted to take her to a hotel for high tea but I decided we could do just as good a job and enjoy doing it together here in my own kitchen.  I'm sure it was also much cheaper.  I did some of the preparation during the week which made our afternoon much easier.  This included Tartine's lemon cream, their chocolate souffle cake (which I made as cupcakes and froze), a loaf of bread, and some yummy strawberry lemonade syrup which I also froze, adding strawberry slices, soda water, ice, and mint leaves to serve it.  On the day, Mum and I prepared bread toppings - cucumber with salt and pepper on some, and boiled egg combined with fresh garden herbs, salt, and pepper on the others.  We baked fresh lemonade/soda scones which were served with blueberry jam, lemon cream, whipped cream, and strawberries.  Lastly we assembled a platter of salami, blue cheese, and sliced pear.  Someone had placed a beautiful long stemmed rose at our door while we were out at church that morning which we used alongside a few candles and a scarf as the table décor.  It was a delicious affair.  The only thing missing was the presence of Jbird's mum. 

 

Confusing seasons and a garden type update

I know I have complained extensively about the never ending winter but it seems that summer has arrived.  Which is confusing because we never really had a spring.  One day it was snowing and I was still wearing my winter coat, hat, and gloves.  The next day I put my shorts on and I haven't taken them off since.  I wonder if this means Jbird will avoid the intense allergic reactions he has to spring here in the States.  In retrospect, the long winter meant that Jbird was allergy free for his big week of recitals - in the past he has been so ill from them that I didn't know how he'd get through the concert. 

Despite the loss of spring, the spring flowers are out in full bloom.  Even mine are out, though they only receive afternoon sun so it seems to have taken them forever to grow and are perhaps the last to bloom in all of Bloomington.  I had been worried they were frost bitten and wouldn't bloom at all but I've learnt this year that the thing about daffodils is they survive everything.  One of them was even bitten by a bunny which frequents my garden when it was just a bud and it still opened up.  As a half flower.  Impressive. 

Here's a picture of our spring daffodils and yellow tulips. Can you see the famous meyer lemon tree from these posts: post 1, post 2, post 3?  He's growing one tiny little lemon and has a few buds that I've cross pollinated.  I'm hoping for a few more than just one lemon.  So long as I can keep the animals and insects away.  That tree has been a lot of work.  I don't know where I'll put him next winter, he takes up a lot of room and there'll be another little person to pull off the buds.

Very-special French toast

It was Martin Luther King Jr. day on Monday and to celebrate we had some very-special friends over for breakfast.  They're very-special because the girl lives all the way in up-state New York so we only rarely see them together.  That makes all of our friends in NZ and other parts of the country and world very-special too.  Just so you know.

Because they're so very-special, I wanted to make the breakfast a special affair.  I found a lovely recipe in my new book Tartine Bread for delicious French toast designed specifically for that fussy country bread I've been making.  I call it fussy because last time we tried using it for French toast, the egg cooked so that it was like having a fried egg inside bread.  Weird.  I found this horrid concoction so stressful that I had to take some time in our bedroom to myself.  The recipe calls for first sealing the custard mixture and bread with a quick burst on heat on the stove top and then baking it for 30 - 40 minutes.  This gives the base a caramelised, crispy texture while the egg mixture custardises beautifully as it slowly cooks in the oven.  The baking time also takes the stress off kitchen deadlines as everything else can be prepared in the meantime.

We insisted on the favourite NZ combo topping - syrup, banana, and bacon.  Jbird has been given a large bottle - at least a litre (!) of real maple syrup which shone in this meal.  I also threw a few blueberries on top and Jbird sifted icing sugar over everything.  As side dishes we served some mini lemon/poppy seed cupcakes - my current favourite since my birthday - and we chopped up some grapefruit.  We offered plunger coffee and tea.  It was a pretty special breakfast, worthy of any NZ cafe.  And any very-special friends.

The common beet root

After doing some research, Mum and I found out that beet root* (as well as their leaves) are an incredibly nutritious vegetable.  They have a high percentage of folate and manganese, as well as fiber, vitamin C, tryptophan, magnesium, and other trace minerals like iron, copper and phosphorus.   You can read all about what that means for our bodies here.

I had generally avoided this vegetable growing up because it seemed so slippery and likely to stain.  At home we often use the canned version which leaves it's texture bland at best.  I wrote it off as Grandma food.  However, it's such a commonly used vegetable at home that I am at least accustomed to the taste, and had grown to enjoy it, even if I don't regularly seek it out.  I do miss the kiwi burger and Jbird and I had recently tried the canned version on our home made burgers.  However they're canned in water here instead of vinegar and don't quite taste right.  Anyway, while mum was here we sourced some fresh beet root tucked away in the leafy green section of the produce department in the supermarket.  That night we made a delicious fresh salad by grating some of the root, adding some of the leaves alongside other lettuce type leaves - alone, their flavour is overpower, mixing in some grated carrot, grated garlic, and a vinaigrette of olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.  Since then Jbird and I have enjoyed a version of this salad many times.  He doesn't love the fresh garlic on it and I agree it steals a lot of the flavour so I only add it rarely and sparingly.  The only vegetable I have found that didn't seem to improve this salad were fresh mushrooms.  I think they absorbed the oil, leaving the salad dry tasting instead of sweet and moist.  It's a lovely salad to enjoy in these winter months when fresh vegetables don't seem so appetising.   

*beet root - beets

Crepes for brekkie

Jbird made me crepes for brekkie this morning.  I would say that is one of my very favourite ways to wake.  It could probably only be topped by the sound of waves hitting a stony beach outside my window.  We've been using Julia child's recipe.  It's not much different from the recipe I grew up with but it uses an extra egg, a little less milk (she uses water as well), and some melted butter.  Of course there's butter, this is Mrs. Child we're talking about.  I think the extra egg makes all the difference because you can still get them paper thin but they have a bit more substance to them.  Our favourite toppings at the moment are lemon and sugar, and nutella.  I've been trying to substitute sugar for honey but it doesn't quite taste right on crepes.  

Her recipe (makes 8 crepes):

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter (I only use 1 at the most)

1 cup sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

I tend to mix the wet ingredients, then add the dry and mix again.  Leave to rest for up to an hour.  Add more water or milk to the desired consistency.  After pouring into frying pan, I use a spatula to help spread them really thinly.  I only learnt this tip very recently even though these are the first things I ever made alone in the kitchen.  In those days, there was butter everywhere and they were fried crepes.  I thought butter was the only way to keep them from sticking to the pan. 

Buying fish

Our first three fish: Fish, Chips, and Ketchup, have all gone to fishy heaven and are buried under the lemon tree - unless a critter has smelt them and dug them up for an unusual garden snack.  The poor things suffered shock because of poor water changes or a lack of a water change, though Fish himself lasted a good seven months.  We are a fish collector's night mare.  Our tank is a vase.  It doesn't have a filter or a heater.  And we have no plans to upgrade. 

After scrubbing out the vase, replacing its water, and leaving it to sit for twenty four hours in the hope that any added chemicals would dissipate, we went to the local pet store to buy a new fish.  Every time we go in there we see a different person and I know they have to refrain themselves from shuddering visibly when we describe our 'tank'.  This time the lady told us she couldn't guarantee our fish in such a set up, but she did give us some helpful advice on their individual characteristics.  They didn't have any more guppies like the ones we're accustomed too.  We like them because they are really active and have nice colours.  Instead we bought a shy little tiger barb, named Hobbs, who would prefer a school of at least three.  Unfortunately he's all along because our tank's not really big enough and we're not sure he'll survive the winter without a heater.  He's pretty cute but very sedate - I don't watch him swim round and round, I watch him chill.  He's not very interested in food so far.  Maybe one day we'll go for a proper tank and all the hook ups and they'll guarantee our fishes.

Raspberry lemon bars

We were asked to bring dessert for dinner at a friends in the weekend and I remembered this favourite I'd made several times last year.  I discovered this recipe around the time that I realised 'bars' are what we call a 'slice' at home.   I once substituted lime for the lemon.  It was too tart - I probably needed to put less in but I'd recommend sticking to lemon.  Be careful to bake it for long enough too, you want it to feel pretty firm in the middle.  I know you probably know this, but take the time to read the recipe before you want to bake it, I was caught out several times with timing issues! It. Is. Really. Delicious.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line an 8" circular pie pan with parchment paper.  Set aside.

For the crust:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup flour

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Preparing the crust:
Prepare the crust:  Combine all the crust ingredients in a medium bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.  Press evenly into the prepared pan.  Refrigerate for 10 minutes.  Bake the crust for 15 minutes, then let cool for 15 minutes.

For the lemon topping:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 zest of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp flour

around 1/2 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

Lemon topping:  Seive dry ingredients.  Combine all the topping ingredients, except the raspberries, in a medium bowl and whisk until well blended.  Spread the raspberries evenly over the baked crust.  Slowly pour the lemon topping mixture over the raspberries.  Bake for 22-24 minutes.  Lower the oven temperature to 325F and continue baking for 20-25 minutes longer or until topping is set.  Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cutting.  Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Strawberry Shortcake and its complimentary cocktail

We were invited to a friend's for strawberry shortcake on Sunday night.  We wanted to take a drink but you can't buy alcohol on Sundays in Indiana so I had me a little think about what we had at home, grabbed that, and concocted a delicious cocktail at his house.  

The items I found were: 12oz of some fancy gingerbeer*, 2 10 oz bottles of tonic water*, a lemon, 12 raspberries, a bottle of gin and a bottle of vodka.  There were four of us, and I had enough to make a pretty nice sized cocktail each.  I gave a squeeze of lemon and a half shot of each of the alcohols to each glass.  In that, I muddled (smashed) the raspberries and then distributed out the sodas to each glass.  They were arguably the best drink I'd had in a long time.  The raspberries made them look a little bit girlie but the three boys I was drinking with savoured them over the next hour.  A lovely compliment to strawberry shortcake.  The strawberry shortcake itself was a variation from mine which I will have to bake some day.  It had a sweet scone as the cake.  Also, it was made by a boy (kudos to him), and was absolutely delicious.  That combined with several round of Pit and some decent piano playing and conversation called for a very successful Sunday evening.  Well, I think it was successful, but I was little chatty Kathy...

* all of these drinks are from single serve bottles, if you don't measure in ounces

Strawberry granita

Granita is an icy dessert which has been stirred with a fork while it freezes from Italy.  I did not try granita when I was in Italy back in '05.  I was so fixated with their gelati, I didn't even notice if it was available.  But my ice cream making recipe book tells me it's very popular - so popular that some Italians put it in bread and eat it for breakfast.  I thought I'd take a small hiatus from making summer popsicles and see what the granita fuss is all about.  I had a pound of strawberries in my fridge just waiting for this event.  I added more water because compared to popsicles, granita is very intensely flavoured. Too intense, in my opinion.

1 pound strawberries

3 tablespoons honey (the recipe called for sugar)

1 cup water (or more, you'll have to decide, the recipe calls for a half cup)

A few drops freshly squeezed lemon - I used lime and it was delicious

Slice strawberries and toss with honey, stirring until it starts to dissolve.  Let sit for up to an hour, stirring every so often.

Combine with liquids.  Purée in blender until smooth.  Press through a strainer to remove seeds.  This is optional, but I think it adds a nice smooth texture to your liquid. 

Pour into a dish and place in freezer.  Start checking after the first hour.  Once it begins to freeze around the edges, stir with a fork, breaking up the frozen parts and raking towards centre.  If you leave it too long, leave it out to melt a bit.  Keep stirring until it's all frozen, similar to shaved ice.

Enjoy with ice cream, whipped cream, or alone.

Local Carny

When we first arrived in America, we went to the Maryland State Fair with our buddy Alana.  I had been surprised to see they had 'circus freaks' on show for fair tokens.  I'd thought they were an 1800s kind of thing.  One of the highlights at that fair was a squealer race, racing piglets on their own miniature race track.  We enjoyed wandering through the produce, flower, pie, and jam competitions, and tasting local honey.  Funnel cakes and candy floss, face painting and corn dogs.  We were new to America and looking for the American experience.  And we got it.  Not that these things aren't available elsewhere in the world. They are.  But this was all done with an American accent.

Jbird spontaneously took me on a surprise date to the Monroe County Fair this weekend.  I have been feeling stuck inside with my books all week and it was time we made use of the car we've been lent, it was a treat.  We went on the ferris wheel and the tornado for a dollar a piece.  We had pineapple whip and country style lemonade (aka: cordial).  We sat and people watched, spotting cowboy boots and screaming toddlers, as well as Miss Monroe County Fair stuffing her face with fair food.  Everybody was stuffing their face with fair food.  Then we finished the night off at the derby.  What more fun could you ask for than watching beat up old cars purposefully ram into each other until they can't move any more?  It was loud, adrenaline fuelled, and exhilarating.

Reflection on a grow-lamp

I met some hippies at a market recently.  They offered me a free watermelon plant, heard my accent, asked where I came from, and wondered if I could give them access to some specific Tasmanian plant they wanted to grow.  I told them probably not, as we belong to different countries, but we got talking despite their slight geographical confusion.  

Our conversation ambled around gardens, growing, indoor growing, hydroponics.  I even learnt a thing or two about transplanting (light shocks roots, do it at night time).  I asked them about the lack of Vitamin D offered from growing indoors.  Apparently the indoor lighting provides enough that it's even noticeable in their own lack of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) which I have become familiar with during my time in the States.  They then suggested I buy a water-bed as it is a pre-lined container perfect for growing indoor plants, or at least set up a kitchen and bathroom garden.  They obviously haven't seen the size of our bathroom but I told them I'd talk to Jbird.

There are many reasons to grow indoors: containers can be made to self water so that water is reused efficiently, you can grow year-long without worry about frost and snow killing your plants, and now I hear SAD is all but wiped out from your own feeble human condition.  These things aside, I love the hardiness of an outdoor plant, and the reliance on natural conditions which allow it to grow.  We finally had a good rain last night and this morning all these tiny little wild flower seedlings, and larger more dramatic bean seedlings, are unfolding from the earth of a new bed I planted just last week.  Rain always seems to bring 'em out.  I'm not convinced, but I may consider putting a growing lamp in my study, for my own winter blues and perhaps to help the meyer lemon. 

Best topping ever...

Jbird and I love to have dessert for breakfast at least once a week.  Either pancakes, waffles, crepes, or french toast.  They're our lie-in then brunch kind of breakfast.   This year we discovered a most excellent topping.  It's a combination of lemon curd, a berry sauce of some kind, and a creamy dairy.  Preferably heavy whipping cream or greek yoghurt.  This works well in home-made ice cream too.  It's just so good.  Jbird always adds a little maple syrup on his.  

What's your favourite topping?

Mostly Meyer Marmalade

On my quest to give mostly homemade presents for Christmas this year, I decided to tackle some meyer lemon marmalade in the kitchen yesterday.  I have unsuccessfully tried to make marmalade on two previous occasions, so I was dubious about it working this time.  I think those failed attempts taught me a thing or two regarding pectin, candy thermometers, cheese cloth, when I should add sugar, thinking twice about reducing the sugar amount, and over-cooking. 

I found a recipe which suggested the ratio 1:1:1 (sugar, lemon, and water) for Meyer lemons.  As they’re fairly sweet and have thin skin (and therefore less pectin), they require a little bit less sugar and water.  It also warned me not to try substituting real lemons into the recipe but I was short on Meyer so I ended up referring to my mother’s recipe too, adding in a little bit more sugar and water, and using a couple oranges and plain lemons.  It was a gutsy decision to make, but it turned into a sweet yummy marmalade and I can't wait to give it away. 

I’m excited about the day that my Meyer lemon tree starts producing fruit and I can use my own home grown fruit!

Meyer lemon are native to China and are a mix between orange and lemon.  My mother has a tree, I think she calls them lemonades.

We brought them back from the dead

We bought our very first American pot plant – a kind of burgundy/green creeper – for our first apartment.  I wouldn't let Jbird get any more, that apartment was too small and too depressing.  Let's call it the cave from now on.  Luckily we had so much light in our next apartment, I didn't know what to do with it, and I became a pot-plant-aholic. 

That first poor plant was not looked after very well and it grew soft and weak from being indoors.  It was down to being a stem stuck in some dirt with four leaves for A YEAR. It would not die and it would not grow.  Since I’ve had it here, outdoors and in the sun, it’s grown lovely and healthy into five different plants (at least).  It's all ready to come in and keep our apartment cheery (and the air nice and clean) for the winter.  I hope the dry, still apartment air doesn't shock it too much!

An exciting update: the Meyer Lemon tree which was a bare stick with a few leaves that were falling off and had been overtaken by the capsicum plant (this was mentioned in a previous post - tree spotting).  It recently DOUBLED its leaf population, from 12 to 24. There are early signs of more new growth <phew>.  Lemons next year?  Here’s hoping!

Tree Spotting

I love sitting out in our garden, surrounded by our pot plants and the few plants I’ve managed to grow, contemplating what they need from me next.  Today I had to perform surgery on a pot which housed my dinosaur plant (a cycad), two succulents, and a mysterious sprout we noticed last night.  I bought the cycad recently because it’s native to NZ and I hope to grow it into a magnificent house tree.  Upon digging down, I discovered that the sprout had a huge root!

A similar thing happened to my Meyer lemon tree when I let a little wee sprout live in it's pot for a month as a tiny little being.  Spring warmed up and the thing grew into a capsicum tree.  This tree overshadowed any possibility of performance from my poor lemon tree which nearly died.  It lost all but three of its’ already miniscule leaves.  I couldn’t really do anything to help them until we moved properly to Indiana after our visit home so that lemon tree has lost nearly a year of growth!  I've separated them out and it’s looking good now though, with 12 quite big leaves and a few more on the way.  I’m glad it’s healthy looking before the long months of near dormancy during winter.