livin' sassy

So I realize I’ve been a bad, bad blogger the last few months. Life — as it does — has thrown both challenges and amazing experiences at me. For one thing, work really turned it up to 11. By the end of June basically my entire team had left the company and since we decided to delay hiring, I’ve been a one-woman marketing operation. There have also been lots of good times. One of my best friends married a wonderful, caring man in October and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the events leading up to their special day. Several of my good friends have also brought their first or second child into this world and are beginning the nesting process. It is amazing to see how rapidly these little tykes are growing and developing into little people!

Plus, when its summer in the Pacific Northwest, who wants to sit inside at a computer blogging about fun things to do when they can be out there having fun?

Highlights from this summer include:

Destination Bachelorette in Austin, TX

On the Bat Bridge enjoying the breeze in 100 degree heat

Live bluegrass music at the Salt Lick BBQ joint

Downtown Austin

Best Taco Truck EVER!

Relaxing Weekend on Whidbey Island with Family

View from our vacation rental

Historic Coupeville

Artisan Street Fair in Coupeville

Riding the RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party!)

Enjoying the view from Chuckanut Drive (Fairhaven, WA)

Saddle Sluts downing a victory beer in Vancouver

Gorgeous view of Vancouver on our bike ride around Stanley Park...that's right the previous 188 miles weren't enough

Backpacking the Enchanted Valley and Alpine Loop in the Olympics

Big ole' trees!

Being in the Rainforest means lots of crazy awesome fungi! Check out the size of these chicken of the woods mushrooms.

Big views all around! This one is of Duckabush Mountain.

Wildflowers everywhere!

Trip to Shelton Cabin to celebrate September Birthday Girls and Mourn Emmy’s Going Away

Rowing out on Puget Sound in style

Improvised bouillabaisse made with local seafood and fresh summer produce

My Backyard and Garden

Yummy veggies!

The days may be getting shorter and the warm weather waning, but don’t tell my tomatoes that! The starts I  planted in the ground in late May are finally hitting their stride and I’ve had enough tomatoes in the last week to make both bruschetta and pappa al pomodoro and still had more to spare for salads and snacking. Those sweet, cherry tomatoes can be addictive!

First Tomato! 192 days later...

As far as my babies (the tomatoes I planted from seed), they have a been a bit slower to the ripening game, likely because I had to keep them in pots due to space limitations. However, back in mid-August, they really started producing fruit and since then I’ve been waiting and watching with anticipation for something to turn red. Finally on Wednesday night (192 days from first planting my seeds) I picked my very first ripe tomato! I do have a few more romas ripening up nicely, but I’m not ready to put my green tomato recipes away yet.

My baby seedlings all grown up!

For those of you looking to ripen your tomatoes in the limited fair weather we have left, here are a few tricks I know of.

1) Mineral Magic! Water each plant with a gallon of water mixed with a 1/4 cup epsom salt then wait a day or two and water them again with plain tap water.

2) De-green your plants! Pruning is important to do throughout the season, especially with indeterminate varieties, so that they focus on producing flowers and fruit and stop growing more branches and leaves. Now it is even more important to remove branches with only flowers and/or tomatoes that aren’t full size.

3) Survivor mode. This is a bit extreme and I haven’t tried it myself, but I hear it works. In this method you remove nearly all the leaves and stop watering your plant entirely. It is supposed to shock the plant into survivor/reproduction mode so that it focuses all its energy on ripening it tomatoes and the next generation of seeds they hold inside.

It has been a little over two months since I last filled you in on my “tomatoes-from-seed” challenge and I have some good news! Success!

While at first I was dismayed to see several of my 12 seedlings die days after I transplanted them, about half hung in there and now I have the final 4! By luck there is a bit of variety too: 1 Roma, 1 Yellow Pear cherry tomato, and 2 Sioux beefsteaks.

The Final Four!

With me out of town much of June (and of course the still cool, wet conditions we experienced much of the month), I let these final seedlings get a bit too tall for their containers before moving them outside. The extra coddling was for their own good, though, as my cilantro transplants didn’t last a week in the cold, sogginess that was June. However, with sunny 70-80 degree weather projected for the next couple of days and lows in the upper 50′s, I decided it was finally time to let the “birds out of the nest” so to speak.

With the amount of time it takes tomato plants to fruit in the Northwest, I figured it was now or never! So yesterday I re-potted them in large containers with a support stake to grow on. Depending on how well they do, I’ll probably need to get cages or set up some sort of twine/stake combination.

Good luck little guys!

Tomato seedlings in their new containers

Last weekend I hosted a barbeque at my house and spent much of sunny Saturday cooking up a storm. I did everything from scratch — coleslaw, potato salad, dips, and so on. For dessert, I made cupcakes since they are perfect for informal gatherings where most people are eating standing up and often don’t have a plate. With Seattle just on the cusp of summer, I picked a vanilla cake topped with buttercream frosting with real raspberries in it! These little beauties were quite a hit.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla (add more for a super-vanilla taste)
1 1/4 cups milk
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions

Prior to starting, get the eggs and butter to room temperature. Grease and flour two cupcake/muffin pans, or add cupcake wrappers to trays.

1. Stir together the salt, baking powder, and flour.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat butter with an electric mixer on high for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until combined. Continue to beat and add the eggs. Beat well and add vanilla.
3. Add part of the flour mixture then part of the milk, then beat on low. Repeat until all of the milk and flour mixture have been added. Pour batter into cupcake pans and fill 3/4′s of the way.
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Cool for at least 15 minutes then remove from pans. Frost.

Yields about 16 large cupcakes or 22 regular sized cupcakes

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

Adding berries to buttercream frosting

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!)
3 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
dash table salt
dash vanilla extract
up to 3 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
1/2 pint fresh raspberries or to taste

Instructions

1. Wash the raspberries several hours prior to preparing frosting and allow to dry at room temperature to ensure that nearly all the extra water has evaporated.
2. Beat butter for a few minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed.
3. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated into the butter.
4. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 3 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.
5. Finally add the raspberries a few at a time and mix until desired color, texture, and taste is reached!

It has been about 6 weeks since I planted my tomato seeds and on Monday I finally transplanted the seedlings from their egg cartons. Their first true set of leaves appeared about a week or so ago, but I’ve been busy and they still seemed pretty puny so I gave them a little extra time.

Tomato seedling with 'true leaves'

Late in the evening I bit the bullet and picked the 4 healthiest looking seedlings from each variety. It is always a little sad to discard the losers, but it had to be done. The winners were picked based on size, color, and root development. And now that they have a whole container to populate with roots, they better perk up and get growing!

One of the winners!

My seedling space station was not the nurturer I had hoped. After little to no germination in the first two weeks for most of my seedlings, I decided that no matter how much light they were getting down there, the air flow and temperature just wasn’t cutting it. So now they are upstairs by a window where the light isn’t quite as good, but the temperature is warm and the air flow is much better. Right now I figure my seedlings are about a week or so behind normal and I’m not sure they will get big enough to plant in June. They are completely dwarfed by the 3 tomato seedlings my roommate bought “just in case.” I just hope it doesn’t give them an inferiority complex.

With the recent sunny weather in Seattle, the feeling that summer is not far off is palpable. Everywhere I look I see people smiling, biking, taking walks, or working outside. It’s the time of year where we all start making grand schemes for the summer: vacations, hiking trips, fitness goals, and of course, the vegetable garden.

Vegetable Seedlings

For those itching to get started and interested in saving some cash, now is the time to sow seeds indoors. I’ve already planted a few hardy crops directly in the ground: peas, beets, carrots, chard, and kale. However, despite the recent, mild weather, the risk of frost is still present. Many plants still have a couple months to wait before they go in the ground and a few really need to be sown indoors ahead of time. Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, for example, need a little babying and must be started inside in a seedling mix (not potting soil or compost). Truly tiny seeds, like oregano, almost invariably fail to germinate and simply rot if planted in soil that is too heavy and water retentive. You also get a lot more for your money with herbs if you start them from seed rather than buying one or two starts.

You don’t need much to get started — a sunny window, seedling mix, seeds, and some kind of tray or container. Since I live in an old house I always seem to find old plastic trays from previously purchased starts in the basement, but you can pick these up at your local nursery or just use egg cartons. When I purchase seeds, I like to split them with friends and neighbors to save on cost and allow a greater diversity of plants to grow. Most seed packets have way more seeds then the average backyard gardener can use in a single season. Fortunately, most seeds are viable for at least 2 years, so your new stock of seeds is also an investment for next year’s crops.

Welcome to my Seedling Space Station!

This year my seedling set up is the most elaborate of my gardening history. I’m calling it the “seedling space station.” Since I’m hoping for tomato and pepper starts, I got a fluorescent light to make sure they get enough light. After searching for a place to hang it in the basement, I found the perfect spot in the garage. Then I grabbed an unused patio table, covered it with a tarp, and draped two emergency blankets around it to insulate the seeds and reflect back the maximum amount of light. While I was poking around down there I also found a shop heater, basically a small space heater, which can sit on the table and is perfect for keeping the seedlings warm at night. (The blessing and curse of living in an old house is there is always random useful stuff lying around. It’s just a matter of finding it!)

When I was all done, I stepped back to admire my handiwork and realized that it looks like I’m growing a very different kind of herb (if you know what I mean). Oh, well. If the cops storm in, at least it will be pretty hilarious to see their faces when they realize they are busting me for a tiny crop of tomatoes and crookneck squash.

Speaking of squash, this year I’m also planting all my squash varieties indoors to give them a head start. While zucchini, pumpkins, and other squash often do fine when planted in the ground, starting them inside means they will likely get bigger and produce sooner. I’m doing the same thing with my Japanese cucumbers and bean varieties. Beans are generally very easy to sow outdoors, but not all of the seeds germinate so it’s nice to avoiding crowding in one area while another spot is too thin. Bean seeds are also a favorite with the birds, so you can save yourself some netting and re-planting by germinating them indoors.

Planting seeds indoors is pretty simple. I prepped my seedling soil by mixing it with water in a 5-gallon bucket and stirring it thoroughly to make sure it is evenly moist, but not overly wet. (If possible, leave it overnight to fully absorb.) Then I scooped the soil mix into containers and planted seeds at the soil depth recommended on the seed packet. For squash and cucumbers I usually only plant 3-5 seeds, hoping to get 1 or 2 plants. For herbs, I usually do about half the packet, but a full packet for basil since I like to grow a lot of it!

It has been a little over two weeks since I planted my tiny tomato seeds and voilà! Tomato babies!

Tomato Babies Week 2!

After over a week with no growth, I was starting to have my doubts (especially since I made the rookie mistake of not pre-moistening the seedling mix before adding the seeds). BUT! When I got back from my ski trip I noticed a handful of barely perceptible babies (or cotyledons) starting to pop up.

Now they’ve got their first set of cotyledon leaves and I’m going to need to find a more appropriate place for them – that isn’t my bathroom floor. These babies are going to need plenty of bright light to thrive. I know there’s a long way to go from tiny sprouts to a basket of tomatoes, but germination is the first step and gives me hope. With any luck, in a few weeks most of them will have their first set of “true leaves” and be ready for transplant.

Yesterday marked the “vernal equinox” or the “first official” day of spring. Yet with snow forecasted to dump on the mountains this week, it still seems pretty far off, doesn’t it? Spring season skiers are rejoicing, but I have a feeling gardeners are shaking their fists at the sky. While winter still seems to be hanging around, it doesn’t mean you have to completely put your gardening on hold.

When I awoke on Saturday, I had planned to spend most of my St. Paddy’s Day finishing off garden prep: weeding, turning the soil, and spreading compost. Typically, I would do this earlier in the winter or even in the fall, but an unexpected move in February set my garden plans back a bit. When I looked out the window and saw snow falling — in Greenwood — I was beginning to regret scheduling a compost delivery for that afternoon.

The blank page of my future veggie patch

Fortunately, the weather cooperated and at noon the snow had stopped and within a half hour the sun peeked out. When my compost arrived, I was happy not to be hauling heavy wheel barrels full of wet soil and between the sun and the hard work, spend the rest of the afternoon working in just jeans and a t-shirt. Despite the snow, the day’s bipolar weather seemed a sure indication that spring is on its way.

Following Saturday’s prep, I made a trip to the nursery for this year’s stock of seed. At home I crossed my fingers and planted seeds of cold loving sweet peas, cold tolerant carrots, beets, and lettuce, and even some kale and chard starts. They should be fine, but I would have liked to give the organic matter in my new soil more time to break down. And while I really don’t expect another heavy snowstorm like the one in January, in a La Niña year, you never know.

Roma and Yellow Pear tomato starts

On a whim, I also picked up some tomato seeds. This will be a new gardening adventure for 2012, since I’ve never grown tomatoes from seed before. After looking it up, though, I realized if I was going to try I had to plant them ASAP. I have seen this accomplished in Seattle before with the help of warm indoor heat and fluorescent lights. I plan to use both, but don’t quite have my set-up together so for now my seedlings are nestled in a couple of egg cartons in the brightest warmest, place in my house: the bathroom.

The bathroom, my temporary greenhouse

Seeing my empty beds with a fresh layer of rich, dark soil always gives me faith in spring and excitement for the summer. It is like a blank page on which to paint my rows of beets and carrots and eventually forests of basil and bushes of tomatoes. Handling those tiny tomato seeds on Sunday, so dainty and delicate yet so full of potential, gave me hope. It never ceases to amaze me that something as fresh as a basil leaf or as big and wonderful as a tomato plant can come from something so small. Here’s to the wonder of germination and the hope of tomato plant sprouts in the coming weeks!

This festive salad is perfect for any winter or fall gathering. While the final product is delicious, I call this the “1-hour salad” because it takes longer to prepare than your typical lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad due to the scratch dressing and roasted potatoes and squash. If you’ve got the time though, it is definitely worth the effort.

Delicata Squash Salad

The recipe below is based on one I found here. Feel free to use the original, but when I made this I subbed out a few ingredients because I either couldn’t find them (champagne vinegar) or preferred the alternative (spinach vs. arugula) and also used several different kinds of potatoes to add color.

1 1/2 lb small potatoes (I choose a combination of red, yukon gold, and purple)
Olive oil as needed
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 small to medium delicata squash
2 tbsp minced shallot
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
10 cups of spinach
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
Grated parmesan cheese as needed (1/2 cup to 1 cup)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Then slice your potatoes into 1/4 inch rounds and mound them on a baking sheet. Toss them with olive oil and 1/4 tsp of salt. Roast in the oven for about 25 minutes until tender.

Colorful tatters!

While the potatoes are cooking, prep your squash by cutting them in half lengthwise and removing the seeds and strings. You do not need to peel them before you slice them into 1/4 inch half moons. Transfer them to a bowl and toss them in olive oil and 1/4 tsp of salt. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and arrange your half moons on them in a single layer.

Once the potatoes are done, remove them and place your squash into the middle oven racks. After 10-12 minutes rotate the pans and at 20-25 minutes they should be just tender and starting to brown. When cool enough to handle, carefully peel them off the parchment since they sometimes stick. Allow both potatoes and squash to cool to room temperature.

Browned delicata squash cooling

Prepare the dressing in a small bowl by combining the shallot, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, honey, and 1/8 tsp salt. Whisk to blend and then slowly add up to 1/2 cup of olive oil. I try to skimp to keep the dressing from being overly oily.

Just before serving, toss the potatoes and squash with 1/2 of the dressing. For best presentation start with a large bowl and add your spinach, potatoes, and squash. Top with half the pomegranate seeds, cheese, and the rest of the dressing. Toss thoroughly and then sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese and pomegranate seeds.

Looking for a recipe to impress your friends and family at an upcoming holiday gathering? Here’s a classic dessert with a new kick adapted from Better Homes and Gardens and my trusty pie crust recipe from Mark Bittman. Teetotalers be warned, while you add less than two shots of whiskey to this filling, you can really taste it!

Whiskey Molasses Pecan Pie

Filling (makes 2 pies)

3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup corn syrup
6 eggs, beaten
4 1/2 tbsp whiskey or bourbon
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
4-5 cups pecans, whole or in halves
pinch of salt

Crust (makes 1 crust)

1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling surface and pin
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 stick cold butter, cut in 8 pieces
3 tbsp ice water, plus more as needed

Start by first making your crusts. Combine dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and run the machine for 10 seconds or so until the mixture has a cornmeal like texture, but do not over process.

Move the mixture to a bowl and sprinkle the ice water over it. Using your hands work the dough into a ball adding more water if it is too dry and more flour if it gets too soggy. Once successful, wrap the dough ball in plastic and chill it in the freezer for 10 minutes or the refrigerator for 30 minutes. You’re last step is rolling out the dough into a rough circle and getting it into your pie pan. Refer to my previous post for pie crust handling tips.

Next preheat the oven to 350 degrees and while the dough is chilling, start making the filling (love it when I rhyme by accident!). In a large bowl beat the eggs then add the molasses, corn syrup, sugar, eggs, whiskey, butter, vanilla, and salt. Next spread the pecans evenly in your pie crusts and pour the filling over them.

Let the filling settle for a moment before placing the pies in the center racks of your oven on tin foil lined baking sheets (to avoid messy spills). Check and rotate them at 25 – 30 minutes. Total baking time is roughly 45 minutes to 1 hour. The finished pies should be firm around the edges, but still slightly loose in the middle. Cool for several hours before serving.