Pampers and Paklava

Jeepers creepers, where’d ya get those peepers: Chickadee fledlings

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We’ve got babies! Three of the chickadee babies nesting in our birdhouse fledged yesterday. They are absolutely adorable: fluffy and puffy with tiny yellow beaks. First we found two, and then three, amigos taking  voyages of short flight, and hopping around the yard. We are also hearing a lot of plaintive peeping because, unhappily, Mama and Papa are no where to be seen. We are concerned about these little ones since we are not sure they know how to forage for their meals yet.

For today, we’ve made a few excursions into the yard to check on them  and enjoy their cuteness (although Maggie-the-cat is on house arrest for the time being). Of course I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures. I put on my biggest zoom to give them wide berth. Here are a few shots of our chicks.

Open beak insert worm

Three amigos

Chickadee fledgling side view

Things are looking up for this chickadee fledgling

Hey brother chickadee, put that wood chip down

Postscript: Sadly, one of the three chicks didn’t make it overnight. We read that only 20% of chickadee babies survive their first year. The weather over the past couple days isn’t helping either: cold and rainy. But we are crossing our fingers and claws that at least one of them beats the odds and strikes out on his own.

Want to see more fluff and stuff? Check out Delicious Baby Photo Friday!

A slice of heaven in my own backyard

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Right outside my back door, a private sanctuary awaits. Our garden is the spot we go to recharge, a space where we can watch plants grow, listen to the birds, and claim a few moments away from the hustle-bustle world that lies outside our front door. Just a tiny slice of heaven, but it’s all ours.

Garden bedsGarden beds

CalendulaCalendula, which we sprinkle on salads

Espaliered applesEspaliered apples

Birds in the birdbathBirds in the birdbath

Kitty how does your garden growKitty, Kitty how does your garden grow?

Want to see more peaceful escapes? Check out Delicious Baby Photo Friday!

Where the wild things are

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Garden catGarden girlI read this morning that Maurice Sendak died. So much of his imagination fueled my own. From my early childhood and reading books like  Where the Wild Things Are –over and over and over–to my adult years in Seattle watching Sendak’s creativity come alive with the his brilliantly designed sets for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker.

This morning, after I heard the news, I sat in my garden watching my own “wild things”: Maggie-the-cat helping the fava beans grow by keeping a close eye on them.

…and Baby Bird, exploring the world outside the walls of her home. Hues of green, and pink and yellow, the sounds of birds all around us and everything us alive, filled with color and the possibility of adventures to come.

I hope, as she grows, these sights and sounds will inspire my daughter’s own creative mind and she’ll feel free to fly. And, in time, I hope she’ll also come to find–just like Max in the Wild Things— that a warm meal is always waiting at home.

An apple a day

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Baby apple trees, espalieredWhen Big Papa and I redesigned the Urban Cabin’s tiny yard after our house remodel, I wanted more plants that would literally climb the walls. The perimeter of our yard is walled with a wood fence which made me feel like we were spending our outdoor time “in a box.”

We put in a few vase-shaped shrubs (like the late-winter blooming Verbena Bodnantense Dawn), started several climbing vines and, on the east wall, planted two espaliered apple trees.

Espaliered apple trees Autumn 2011I took a class in espaliering fruit trees from the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture and learned a lot about the this ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth by pruning and tying branches so that they grow in relatively flat planes, frequently in formal patterns, against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis.

Baby apples developingThe instructor recommended purchasing root stock and grafting our own fruit to the root stock. There are about 100 rootstocks for the major tree-fruits, and more than twenty for apple. Some of these rootstocks-like M.7 and M.9-can be traced back hundreds or thousands of years in history. Doing this yourself is a way to optimize the strength and growth of your trees for you specific site, but it also take a long time and I wasn’t sure how much I felt like waiting five years before I could reap the fruits of our labor.

So, we purchased our trees, rootstock, grafts and all from City People’s Mercantile. We chose a three-tier “cordon” design which is like a basic vertical trunk with horizontal branches that grow out from each side. Each branch is a different apple varietal. We have: Macintosh, Braeburn, Gravenstein, Fuji, Gala and Jonagold on our trees.

Two Jonagolds, apple espalierBig Papa did the hard labor of building a fence system for them to grow along. We used wood posts for side support and plastic-coated wire for the branches to grow along.

This year, the second summer the trees have been in our yard, we got fruit buds on two sides. Unfortunately Twitchy, our resident pesky squirrel, managed to break the stems of the two apples growing on the right side of the trees as he was running up and down (and up and down and up and down) the fence post near where they were growing.

Thankfully, the two dwarf Jonagold buds on the left side survived. As they grew, I protected them by surrounding them with plastic chicken wire. And…they made it!

Apple sliced JonagoldJust this past weekend, we picked our two ripe dwarf Jonagolds. And we ate ‘em. They were tart, crisp and downright delicious.

Want your pick of more deliciousness? Check out Wanderfood Wednesday!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

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Figs and caramelized Walla Walla onionsThere’s no doubt about it, me and the Mr. dine well at home. If we go out to dinner (a rarity), it’s because we want good food that someone else serves us, emphasis on the service. Which is why we tend to go to the same restaurants over and over again: we know we’ll eat well and be treated well too.

St. Clouds, Volunteer Park Café and Bistro Turkuaz are three of our favorite places to go out for dinner Seattle. And when we dine at each of them, there are a few tried-and-true-favorite dishes we order over and over. We know a good thing when we see it. Plus it’s comforting to feel confident we’ll have a good experience time and time again.

That said, every now and then I really have a hankering for a couple dishes we’ve enjoyed while dining out. That’s why I recently tried my hand at recreating two of them. They turned out pretty well (albeit the presentation was not nearly as lovely as it is when it’s served to us), so I decided to share. Because good dining, whether dining in or dining out, is meant to be shared.

Fig and Walla Walla CrostiniWalla Walla and Fig Crostini

Thank you St. Clouds for the inspiration!

Ingredients

  • Baguette
  • Figs, sliced
  • Caramelized Walla Walla or other sweet onions (See recipe below)
  • Olive oil

How to

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.       Slice the baguette into ½”-3/4” rounds

3.       Brush olive oil onto the baguette slices

4.       Layer about a tablespoon of the caramelized Walla Walla onions on the baguette slices or, alternately, a couple sliced figs (or even both together!)

5.       Place crostini on a baking sheet or metal pan and bake in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 pounds Walla Walla onions (About 4 medium-sized onions), halved and sliced thin (I like to cut mine “round,” not sliver moon shaped)
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • Salt
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • Black Pepper

How to Caramelize Onions

1. Add butter and oil to a cold non-stick skillet; melt the butter over high heat.

2. Once the butter melts, stir in the onions, brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

3. Let it cook, stir on occasion until the onion softens down and is slightly wilted. This should take about 5 to10 minutes.

4. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stir often until the onions turn to deep brown color. It usually takes me about 40 to 50 minutes to cook down and caramelize the onion. Patience is a virtue.

5. Once the onions are caramelized and you achieve the color you are looking for take it off the heat. I like mine mahogany colored. Add a dash of water and season it with salt and pepper.

Note: Don’t stare at the clock. Instead pay close attention to the pan. If you want caramelized onions, not burnt onions, keep stirring often and check to make sure it is that the onions are not getting burnt. I can’t stress this enough. Once the onions start to brown, they can burn quickly. You’ve been warned.

 

Beet and Goat Cheese torte

Thank you Bistro Turkuaz for the inspiration!

Ingredients

  • Beets, baked or steamed
  • Goat cheese
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Olive oil
  • 1 Orange
  • Fresh (or dried) thyme

How to

1.       Bake or steam the beets and let them cool

2.       Remove the skin from the beets and slice into ½-inch rounds

3.       Mix together 1/3 cup of goat cheese with juice from ½ orange and about a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves; mash with fork until blended and smooth

4.       Make a layer of beets on a plate

5.       Alternate with a layer of  the goat cheese mixture (about half of the mixture)

6.       Make a second layer of beets

7.       Add a second layer of goat cheese mixture

8.       Add a final, third, layer of beets

9.       Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar

10.   Chill for about 15 minutes (longer is fine) in the refrigerator

Want more tasty creations? Check out Wanderfood Wednesday!

End-of-summer tart recipe

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Garden fresh tomatoesFor the past three years, Big Papa and I have found ourselves abroad in September. While I love to travel, the fact is September in Seattle is glorious. The days are warm and clear; the mountains are crisp and in view; and, there is an abundance of fresh local bounty—right in our very own backyard.

Our cool maritime climate inevitably delays many crops until the cusp of fall. So I’ve felt considerable angst as we’ve headed out of town just when everything is finally ripe…our tomatoes in particular.

This September we managed to stay put. Despite the sorry excuse for a summer we experienced in Seattle this year, the weather over the past few weeks has been spectacular. Our plants couldn’t be happier. To celebrate, I decided to pick some of the best of the bunch and feature them in a tart.

End-of-summer tart makes use of the same basic recipe that I wrote about a few weeks ago (Channeling my inner Martha: Zucchini Tart), but changes up the zucchini topping for colorful medley of halved cherry tomatoes, caramelized Walla Walla onions, and a sprinkling of fresh basil. Sungold tomatoes (always a winner in our garden) taste sugary sweet and play nicely with the caramelized onions. The bright notes from the fresh basil offer a bit of herbal balance.

Tomato and Caramelized Wala Walla onion tartHere’s to summer in Seattle…even if we had to wait until September to enjoy it!

End-of-summer-tart

Recipe makes one 10-by-15-inch tart. Use an inverted backing sheet in the oven helps give the tart an extra-crisp crust.

Tart Ingredients

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
  • 9 sheets frozen phyllo dough (12 by 17 inches) thawed (I think I ended up using more)
  • 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • ¾ cup whole milk
  • ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1-1/2 ounces)
  • 1/3 cup fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 2 cups of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
  • Caramelized Onions (see recipe below)

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 pounds Walla Walla onions (About 4 medium-sized onions), halved and sliced thin (I like to cut mine “round,” not sliver moon shaped)
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • Salt
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • Black Pepper

How to Caramelize Onions

1. Add butter and oil to a cold non-stick skillet; melt the butter over high heat.

2. Once the butter melts, stir in the onions, brown sugar, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

3. Let it cook, stir on occasion until the onion softens down and is slightly wilted. This should take about 5 to10 minutes.

4. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stir often until the onions turn to deep brown color. It usually takes me about 40 to 50 minutes to cook down and caramelize the onion. Patience is a virtue.

5. Once the onions are caramelized and you achieve the color you are looking for take it off the heat. I like mine mahogany colored. Add a dash of water and season it with salt and pepper.

Note: Don’t stare at the clock. Instead pay close attention to the pan. If you want caramelized onions, not burnt onions, keep stirring often and check to make sure it is that the onions are not getting burnt. I can’t stress this enough. Once the onions start to brown, they can burn quickly. You’ve been warned.

How to make the tart

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and place an inverted baking sheet on the middle rack.  Brush a 10-by-15 inch rimmed baking sheet with butter.

2.  Brush 1 phyllo sheet with butter, and overhand (keep remaining phyllo covered with plastic wrap as you work). Top with a second phyllo sheet in a slightly different position and brush with butter.  Repeat with remaining phyllo and butter, creating a crust with a 1-inch overhand on all sides.  Fold edges under to double the thickness. (Don’t worry if some pieces crack along the edge.)

3.  Whisk together eggs, cream, milk, Parmesan cheese, basil, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

4.  Crumple 6 layers of foil into a rectangle the size of the tart, and fit into crust.  Bake crust, set on inverted sheet, until edges are golden, 7 to 8 minutes.  Remove foil.  Bake until surface is golden, 4 to 5 minutes.

5.  Immediately pour custard carefully into crust (do not overfill).  Slather caramelized onion evenly over the top and then distribute cherry tomato halves round side up all over the tart.  Bake on inverted sheet until custard is set in center, 20 to 22 minutes.  Immediately slide tart onto wire rack, lifting from one end using a large, wide spatula.  Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Slice of Tomato-Walla Walla Tart

Want to celebrate more deliciousness? Check out Wanderfood Wednesday!