Each Little World

In a vase on Monday: Soggy September

We had another two inches of rain yesterday morning, so I was not able to go out and cut a bouquet for Mark's bookclub who were meeting at our house. I did, however, manage to make Anna Thomas' "Cheese and Onion Pie" from an old favorite cookbook, "The Vegetarian Epicure."

This morning it was still too wet to do more than cut a few things hanging over the path or fallen onto the ground. This little bouquet has been in my bathroom for a week. This morning I just refreshed the stems of Italian parsley and Toad lilies (Tricyrtis). 

Toad lilies bloom so late that some years we have a killing frost when they are still in the bud stage. This year we are having perfect temperatures for me to be able to enjoy them. 

This is T. formosana which grows with a nice vertical stem that is quite narrow. Though the flowers look like delicate little orchids, this is a workhorse plant and well-worth growing if you are able.  

This arrangement includes a big fuzzy leaf from Bergenia ciliata, a maple-shaped leaf from Kirengeshoma, fallen oak leaves from the driveway and a stem of Cimicifuga whose flowers are going over to seeds. 

Be sure to visit Rambling in the Garden to see what other gardeners have put in a vase today. 

Summer recipes

I've been taking advantage of the summer weather to to try out new recipes, including a few from "Smitten Kitchen Every Day," the latest cookbook by Deb Perelman, of Smitten Kitchen blog fame. These days I am usually thinning cookbooks from my bookshelves but leafing through the pages of this one in A Room of One's Own bookstore, I found recipe after recipe that I wanted to try. 

Then the New York times published an interesting sounding recipe for marinated and grilled flank steak, one of my favorite meals. I bought fresh dill at the Farmers' Market for another recipe but used it first with Alliums for a tabletop bouquet. 

This is Smitten Kitchen's "potato and asparagus gribiche" which became my new favorite potato salad at first bite. The gribiche dressing (with the spoon, below) of mustard, hard boiled eggs, capers and cornichons may not be typical but I found it perfect. This dish is a great way to eat asparagus in season and a good way to enjoy it when it's not local. (Note that all her recipe titles are lower case type, so I followed suit).

I make quick cucumber pickles often in the summer, but Perelman turns hers into a bright new idea: "smashed cucumber salad with salted peanuts and wasabi peas." Another recipe where I fell in love immediately upon tasting. 

If you don't cook flank steak, the NYTimes' recipe for "Grilled Flank Steak with Worcertershire Butter" is a good starting point. Plus I froze the leftover Worcestershire butter so now I have a lovely little treat to make any meat special. 

Alas I did not take any photos of Perelman's "whitefish and pickled cucumber salad' which we ate on thick rye crackers along with "Charred Tomato Soup with Coriander and Cilantro" from the NYTimes. Both were great and they were also excellent paired. The Times suggested this was a good soup for gazpacho lovers, which we are. This soup was tasty and complex and much quicker to make than gazpacho. With fabulous tomatoes at my  local farmers' market, this is going to appear on our table a number of times before winter. 

Coffee in the Tea House

The break in the weather has brought pleasant temperatures and breezes: perfect weather for taking a break in the Tea House. Mark took these images with his phone as we got up off of our knees from weeding to relax.

Me in my full mosquito-proof gear including a veil on my sun hat. For the first time in years, I've managed to get ground covers to grow where you step across the stream. Everyone is always looking down to check their footing on the stepping stones, so it behooves me to provide a weed-free view. 

Look at the tray that Mark brought out with our coffee and a cookie to share. As he always likes to say, "Why wouldn't you line things up if you could?" Over the years he's done a lot of artwork that uses grids, stripes and checkerboards. He can't resist creating patterns.

We have cushions for sitting on the floor that are covered in beautiful blue and white Japanese fabrics. These days, however, we prefer to sit in chairs, especially if we've been on our knees weeding.

It's obvious my energy level is just about depleted at this point in the afternoon. 

Our Tea House is more rustic than the one I saw on the recent WHPS tour to an estate garden in Lake Forest, Illinois. 

It was fun to see one in a private garden, but I like ours better. 

The view out the full height door looking toward the upper pool. 

Looking out the same door around the back of the upper pool toward our weeping Serbian spruce. We bought it from Peter at Stonewall Nursery in 2014 and it has done beautifully. 

The views out the other door.

A narrow band of windows goes around the walls between the two doors. 

We change the scroll and other items in the Tea House periodically. Sometimes there is an antique Japanese pot or ikebana basket. Currently the interior is more multi-cultural with an African mask and a mid-century Raku pot from a local antiques mall. 

Wordless Wednesday

My favorite Irish food

Though many restaurants, taverns and families serve corned beef and cabbage in a nod to St. Patrick's Day, I am not one of them. A nice piece of salmon or trout is my preferred main dish to celebrate my Irish heritage. If I am feeling fancy, I start the meal with a small bowl of potato watercress soup. If I am feeling lazy, the soup is the main course, with a salad on the side. And that's just what we had for dinner this last week. 

I don't follow a recipe for this soup. It's by guess and by golly as I go along: salute chopped onions in butter, add peeled and roughly chopped Yukon gold or similar potatoes. Simmer in broth until the potatoes are fork tender. I use commercial vegetable or chicken broth. I put the liquid and half the veggies in the Cuisinart, along with a handful of watercress leaves, and give it a whirl. You can make an entirely smooth soup if you prefer, but I keep half the potatoes and onions in pieces in the liquid, because Mark is a fan of chunky soup. (DON'T YOU HATE IT WHEN AUTO CORRECT TURNS SAUTE INTO SALUTE AND THE BLOGGER NEVER NOTICES IT! Saute those onions. No need to stand at attention. Thanks to my sweet husband who always reads my posts and just noticed this glitch.)

The veggies and thick soup make this a great winter comfort food — but the watercress gives it a vibrant taste of Spring. Should I want to go all out and all Irish, I have Darina Allen's cookbook, "A Year at Ballymaloe" on my bookshelf for inspiration and recipes! Ballymaloe's restaurant, cooking school and garden (below) brought respect and international prestige to Irish cuisine. They put out a number of cookbooks, all of them worth a look. 

Fiber Friday

The two galleries in Nancy Nicholas Hall on the UW-Madison campus were filled with visitors last Sunday afternoon. Despite the cold temperatures, everyone came out to enjoy the beautiful textiles on display before the next storm hit. I snapped these two images because I was charmed by the ideas they encapsulated and thought they might inspire other party givers.

Given that the event was a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the new Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, the table with hors d'oeuvres and desserts was decorated with spools of fiber appropriate to celebrate the weaver whose memory we were honoring. 

And many of the foods were fiber-licious: Candy cotton, French Silk (chocolate pie), Red Velvet Cake and Brownie Buttons (chocolate cookies that looked like big buttons with four holes in the center where one would stitch a real button). As clever as they were delicious. 

Happy 2019!

I'm hopeful that political changes on the state and national level may lead to some positive forward momentum this coming year. To get that momentum started, we're noshing and drinking coffee with all of our friends from the EVP coffeeshop where we gather every Saturday morning. 

Since the shop is closed for today's holiday, we're hosting the group at our house for the 9th year in a row. We think it's the perfect way to start our year. Hope you are off to a good start as well!

Merry Christmas to us!

It was a chilly, grey day on Wednesday when Mark and I went downtown to sign our wills and a "durable power of attorney for financial management" document. Mark and I figured out that the first time the two of us sat down and started to talk about getting a will was 12 years ago. Every time the subject came up, it always seemed too confusing and frustrating so we kept putting it off.

But Mark's A-fib event in April and some sudden serious health issues among close friends finally spurred us to do it. I have to say it is a wonderful feeling to know that it's all done and witnessed and signed, along with our health care power of attorney documents. We don't have to wonder and worry about those aspects of our future any longer. It's a lovely Christmas gift to each other.

To celebrate finally getting this big step out of the way, we took advantage of being on State Street and lunched at the wonderful Himal Chuli. Mark had Cauli, our favorite variation of Takari, aka "fresh vegetables stewed with turmeric, coriander, cumin, fresh garlic and ginger." Cauli features cauliflower, carrots and peas.

But this time I opted for the combination platter (above and below): Two meat-filled momos with a tomato coriander sauce (right), one samosa, roti (bread) and a cup of dal (soup). Samosas are veggie pastries filled with onions, potatoes and peas in a blend of Nepali herbs. They're served with yogurt sauce.

Himal Chuli was the first Nepali restaurant in the country when it opened in the 1980s. Today it is a stalwart of State Street. And there is nowhere with food as comforting or an atmosphere more welcoming, especially on a cold winter day. 

Lunch was followed by shopping at The Soap Opera, a stop to check out some of the new art books at the downtown public library and a visit to MMoCA. The Joel Shapiro bronzes were stunning and may be the largest sculptures I've ever seen inside a museum. Our last stop was a visit with good ol' Frida.

Kahlo's painting, "Pitahayas," is part of the museum's permanent collection and we've seen it many times over the years. In MMoCA's former State St. iteration, I loved the room at the top of the stairs that typically showcased work from their permanent collection. I would always make a point of seeing what was on display and visiting favorite pieces like "Pitahayas" while they were out to be enjoyed. 

This time, "Pitahayas," was on the 2nd floor of the museum, outside the main gallery featuring Shapir's sculptures. It was all alone in a small darkened room with a staff member keeping vigil. Somehow this special showing didn't feel right. Kahlo never struck me as an artist who wanted her work to be enshrined in a darkened room like icons from a dead saint. Still, it was a treat to visit it again. A lovely end to a memorable day.    

Recent Reads: One for the holidays

When I first became aware of blogs in the early 2000s, all the bloggers I followed lived in the United Kingdom. They were bakers and gardeners and knitters and cooks and above all, readers of books. It's on those blogs that I discovered so many books and authors that were new to me and have since become favorites. It's also where I found Persephone Books which I've written about so many times that I made it a category on my blog

I still read many of those blogs, though not as often. But every time I visit I learn about a new book that I want to read. My latest discovery is "The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, stories and essential recipes for midwinter" by Nigel Slater. Slater is described as an "award-winning author, journalist and television presenter." He's also written a food column for the Observer, a UK newspaper, for 25 years. I knew his name but that's about all. I had not come across this book locally and thus took a chance and ordered it sight unseen. I could not be more pleased with the result of my leap of faith as I found the book to be much richer than its title implies.

The book does not have a dust jacket; instead there's a nice fabric cover with gold and a ribbon page marker. There are lots of food photos as well as holiday store windows, Christmas trees, Advent calendars and the like. The pages are bright white with type that's easy to read and recipes printed in a size that is useful — though the measurements are all metric. There's an index in the back so you can easily find a recipe but no table of contents.

Instead the book opens with a generous introductory essay and then offers a daily dose from November 1st until February 2nd aka Candlemas Day. That was always a church-going occasion when we were growing up. But now the recipe for "Lemon, orange and basil ice" and Slater's description of a snowy morning in Japan are of much more interest to me. Since Slater was generally unknown to me, I looked him up online and discovered that he also has a lovely garden behind his house. A dreamy garden (below) to say the least, if you are an Anglophile like me. 

I found Slater to be a witty, opinionated, knowledgeable and amusing writer. He describes looking at bare trees in winter "when they are at their most peaceful . . . like watching a loved one asleep." Or how about this: "The flavors of winter come at us like paper-wrapped presents in a Christmas stocking." And then he goes on for half a page enumerating those flavors and fragrances. Each evening I sit in front of my fire and read that day's entry. I'm not sure if I will ever make any of Slater's recipes but the text is evocative enough to satisfy my needs. 

Nigel Slater portrait by 4th Estate; the other photos are from Wiki

Since  we''re already at the end of November, you will have missed reading a third of the book if you follow along day-by-day the way I am. But then just think of all that you will have to enjoy next November when you pull it off the shelf and open it again. Reading this could easily become an annual holiday tradition. 

NOTE: Since I bought this book in September, I have seen it in the holiday listings of a number of independent bookstores. So I would first check with your favorite local bookstore before you go online.   

Cold weather means time to cook

Cold and snow mean only one thing to me and that is cooking. It's the perfect time to try new recipes. Last night we made Ina Garten's Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts. Since we were enjoying a nice meal together we didn't take any photos. The recipe and a video of Ina making this dish can be found here. The sprouts were tasty and the quickest, easiest way I've ever prepared them. I've done a shredded Brussels sprouts slaw now and then, but Mark announced this version was his favorite out of all the ways we've had this veggie over the years. 

We also made Ina's Tuscan Roasted Potatoes and Lemon for the second time in a week or so. This image and copy of the recipe below are all I could find online. We decided that her cooking time was longer than needed in this recipe. Thirty to forty minutes was what we did. The potatoes were crisp on the outside and meltingly smooth on the inside. The flavor was subtle; just a whisper of lemon and rosemary. 

I'm a big fan of Garten but I don't slavishly follow her lead. My rule when cooking most Ina Garten recipes is to cut back on the fats and salt. She is way too liberal with both for my taste and health. Otherwise they're perfect and perfectly delicious.