Each Little World

IVOM: Home and away

I see so many floral arrangements in print and online where the designer notes that many of the flowers or pods or branches used in the bouquet were "foraged." Living in a state with a lot of agriculture, "forage" is most commonly used here as a noun meaning food for livestock. If someone is "foraging" then they are typically looking for food. But all these hip young bloggers and floristas mean they found the material for their creations in the wild. I am always curious about where they actually go looking since it is illegal to remove natural material from public parks or gardens and the same goes for private property.

On the other hand, I did a little urban foraging over the weekend when I was at a bookstore in a mini-mall that's lost its main tenant. As a result the parking lot is almost entirely empty and the plantings are a mass of weeds and wildlings. Things were suffering from reflected heat and lack of attention. Since it was a public parking lot but unattended and barely used, I decided it was ripe for the kind of foraging I keep reading about. So I cut a bunch of goldenrod and asters, brought them home and put them in my largest wood fired stoneware pitcher. 

From my garden I cut flowering stems of an assertive pond plant — Penthorum seloides aka star fruit — that currently needs some stern attention before it takes over. Though commonly known as "star fruit," I've seen its branches described as "upside down turkey's feet" which seems pretty accurate to me. 

The third member of this trio has foliage from Aralia cordata 'Sun King' which is begin to turn yellow with a stem of pods from the same plant, along with a stem of Goldenrod that is past its prime.

All three pitchers are by local potter Mark Skudlarek of Cambridge Woodfired Pottery. The two smaller ones were bought as a pair that we thought would complement the big pitcher. The next three images are closeups of the patterns on each pitcher. 

When I pulled out these three pitchers from our basement pottery stash, I decided to change the entire table top. The fabric is African mud cloth, if I remember correctly. And the lamp is Japanese. American art and craft paired with African and Asian items is pretty much the design motif everywhere in our house. 

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She is the host of the long-running meme that has become the favorite way to start the week for many of us gardeners around the world. 

In pots and bowls on Monday

Roger Banks-Pye was the interior design director for the decorating division of of the famed British firm, Colefax & Fowler. He had strong opinions on many subjects, including one I whole-heartedly agree with: "Though there are moments when plain white walls might seem a relief, these moments are rare, and should be discouraged."

His interiors often included flowers and plants. One of the other lessons I took away from him is the concept that "all greens go together." Since my garden is still presenting more white (snow) than green, I'm using these small green indoor plants in pots as my offering this week. I bought them at the grocery store at least a month ago and am managing to keep them alive, though none of them will survive outdoors in my Zone.

I put my three little pots of greenery where I could see them but they were dwarfed by the space. Thus I decided that if all greens worked together then I might as well add some other types and colors of green to the mix — like my new ceramic frog. He's destined to go outdoors hidden in the garden come Spring.

When I was in grad school I traded one of my textile art works, for a group of three pears. They are hand-knit of hand-dyed wool and are life size with real stems. Over the years they've been joined by a wide variety of other pears which I display periodically in this very large glass bowl. 

To read about Roger Banks-Pye's other floral concepts and to see how I interpreted them, click on these links: No. 1, 2 and 3. If you would like to see what gardeners around the world have put into a vase this morning, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this long-running meme.

Winter desserts: Roasted pears

In my family an assortment of homemade cookies was the traditional dessert for Christmas. My sister Meg's birthday is December 25 so she rarely celebrated with a birthday cake. I remember one year my mom did make her a cake and it felt unnatural to be eating cake instead of cookies on Christmas.

Once I moved away from home after college, I started a new tradition when I began to make Linzer Torte for Christmas Eve, which was father's birthday. It was spicy and wintry and yet still not a cake. Then I made a dozen plum puddings for quite a few years. They were a labor of love but I don't have enough friends who like this dessert as much as I do so it fell out of my repertoire. 

But winter always seems like the time of year for fancy desserts. I make these roasted pears with candied hazelnuts and a nutty Frangelico sauce every few years because it's fairly easy, tastes good and is very dramatic visually. The recipe came from the November 1997 issue of Gourmet Magazine as the finishing touch on "A Pacific Northwest Thanksgiving." 

Though it would be a lovely ending to a holiday dinner, it would work with any winter meal or just invite a few neighbors over for dessert and coffee and wow 'em with this.

. . .

ROASTED PEARS

WITH HAZELNUT SYRUP & CANDIED HAZELNUTS 

 

1 cup water

1 1/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup hazelnuts

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

6 firm-ripe Bosc pears (about 2 1/4 pounds total, one pear per person), stems intact

3 tablespoons hazelnut-flavored liqueur like Frangelico

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

In a small heavy saucepan simmer water with 1 cup sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. (Syrup may be made up to this point 2 days ahead and cooled completely before being chilled, covered.)

Preheat oven to 350° F and lightly butter a shallow baking pan.

Coarsely chop hazelnuts. Stir nuts into syrup and simmer 1 minute. With a slotted spoon transfer nuts to baking pan, arranging in one layer, and reserve syrup. Cut butter into pieces. Bake nuts in middle of oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Immediately add butter to nuts, tossing to coat and separate, and with a spatula transfer nuts to a plate to cool Nuts will crisp as they cool. (Nuts may be candied 2 days ahead and kept in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Reserved syrup may be kept, covered and chilled, 2 days.)

Lightly butter a shallow ovenproof kettle or casserole dish (about 12 by 2 1/2 inches). With a sharp knife trim a very thin slice from bottom of each pear to enable pears to stand upright. Dip and roll each pear in reserved syrup to coat completely. Transfer pears as coated to kettle, standing them upright, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Add liqueur, lemon juice, and vanilla to remaining reserved syrup and pour down side of kettle or casserole.

Roast pears, uncovered, in middle of oven until undersides are tender when pierced with a knife, about 30 minutes.

Arrange pears on a serving platter. Spoon syrup around pears and sprinkle with candied nuts. Serve pears warm or at room temperature.

Note: I think the hardest part of this recipe is figuring out if the pears are ripe enough when they are still firm. The photo shows my version of the dessert so you can see what a pretty presentation it makes.

In a vase on Monday: A fruitful display

This week's arrangement is all about filling a vase with fruit instead of flowers. And, as I've been doing for the last few weeks, my "bouquet" doesn't include anything from the garden that is alive and thriving.

My fruit is all decorative rather than edible, part of my collection of 3-dimensional pears. These pears can't be pear-shaped boxes or candles. They can have no purpose other than being a pear, though a number of them were intended as ornaments for the Christmas tree. 

 To see what gardeners who are lucky enough to be able to go outdoors to gather items for their arrangements are doing, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who has been hosting this weekly meme for over a year. 

Fiber Friday: Winter pears

Nothing beats a pear eaten at the peak of ripe perfection. Out-of-hand, in a salad, with cheese as an appetizer or baked in a tart, I like pears any and every way. That includes their sculptural shape and rich coloration. It's rare that we have pears at home that don't wind up in a display: lined up in a row along the windowsill above the kitchen sink or in a photograph like the group below (with a black radish).

My collection of deliciously decorative pears began inadvertantly at the end of grad school. Like most art students, I had more art than money and traded work with friend and fellow student Leslee Nelson. Leslee crocheted the pears in the foreground (below) using stems from real pears for a touch of authenticity. She dyed the wool with natural dyes to create wonderful soft colors that are hard to describe. 

Before I knew it, I was bringing home pears of all kinds to display with my wooly examples. 

The group above has pears of made of sandalwood, wool, gourd and lentils. The group below is the same but with a straw-wrapped pear replacing the gourd

Pears of wood, metal, clay, wax, different types of gourds, hand-painted silk and papier mache joined the group. The only rule was that the pear had to be three-dimensional and have no other use. So no pear boxes or candles or paintings. Just pears as pears. 

I now have enough to fill this big glass bowl solidly with pears. It replaces my arrangment of Christmas ornaments once the holidays are over. This view includes mercury glass, beaded, marble and jade pears.

On this side of the bowl you can see the variety in size and material of my pear collection. Fabric pears like the felted and beaded ones shown below are among my favorites but seem to be the hardest to find. 

The pears are stored in a big cardboard box designed to hold Christmas ornaments. It has three trays with dividers to safely store the more delicate pears. 

If you look closely you can see that a number of the pears are intended as Christmas tree ornaments, though I no longer use them for that purpose.

 

I consider the collection complete since there is no more empty space left in the storage box. If fact, I couldn't fit all the pears I own into this bowl. I left a few of the larger ones to languish in the dark.

You can read about another of Leslee's crocheted pieces that we own here.

Wreath re-do No. 2

I always buy an evergreen wreath from my nephew whose Scout troop sells them as a fundraiser. His dad delivered it on the weekend before Thanksgiving and I got right to work on it. I believe in having holiday decorations that suit your style and house color. Forget the red ribbon and pine cones. Those are the first things I remove each year as soon as my wreath is delivered.

This year I pumped up the volume with assorted prunings from some of our evergreens. I swapped the red ribbon for a bright purple one that I created using yardage from a big spool of the stuff that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago. It is great for adding drama. Then I toned it down a notch by  decorating the wreath with two deep red-violet pears (artificial). It's very subdued and a nice shift from the pumpkins that have been piled by the front door.

The fact that the wreath hangs above our Asian stele means that it needs to be able to work in a multi-cultural environment. And I like to put it up early and leave it up til Valentine's Day so using a palette and decorations that are less Christmas-y works best.

You can see my other wreath re-do here. If you are looking for imaginative and sophisticated holiday decorating ideas that use fresh greens and natural materials be sure to check out the work of Deborah Silver and her staff at Dirt Simple.

Playing with food

 

 

 

 

 

Nikon D-70 DSLR, Micro Nikkor 105mm lens, Adobe Lightroom 2, Apple MacBook Pro, four pears and a day off from work.

~Mark

Food Fest: Pears

It’s official. Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden and Deb Puchalla of Dinner Tonight sent out the last call for recipes in the food fest blog sharing that they’ve been doing all summer.

Pears were Margaret’s final challenge and I left one of my favorite recipes on her site. But I’m reprinting it here for those who love pears and marzipan and chocolate. It’s an elegant though not particularly difficult dessert to make.

I call it Mazarintarta, a rather Scandinavian nomenclature, based on its original source as a plain marzipan tart. The addition of pears and chocolate as well as the reference to Frangipane filling, however, make for a bit of culture clash. Feel free to call it what you will as long as you make it this fall when pears are plentiful.

MAZARINTARTA

THE CRUST
The recipe calls for “your favorite short crust recipe.” I use Martha Stewart’s Pate Sucree crust from “Pies and Tarts.”

THE CHOCOLATE LAYER
Spread three ounces of melted, semi-sweet chocolate on the bottom crust. This works best if the crust is frozen (or at least chilled).

THE PEAR LAYER
Peel, core and slice three pears. Arrange them over the chocolate in concentric circles. (There are showier ways to present the pears but this way they are a surprise along with the chocolate when you cut the tart).

THE FRANGIPANE FILLING
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 eggs
one cup almond paste
one tablespoon flour
grated lemon rind to taste

Cream butter until fluffy. Beat in almond paste two tablespoons at a time. Beat in the eggs and rind and blend until smooth. Spread over the pears and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 50 minutes. Cool and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Original recipe by Nancy Christy. Illustration by Linda Brazill. From a broadside printed by The Red Ozier Press, Madison.