o for a bit of earth...

Tonight I stole J.'s camera and shot some photos on my way to the last choir rehearsal of the summer. I'm so proud of my little seedlings that I couldn't wait to show them to y'all! I wish I had pictures of the garden-before-it-was-a-garden, i.e. a weedpatch. But alas. I was too excited to dig things out to take photos that day. 

How did our little garden come to be? We asked the dudes-in-charge if we could plant a garden in the weedpatch that bordered the parking lot on the west side of our church's property. Word got out, and a friend D. asked to plant a few things, too. So, we broke sod together, tearing out all the weeds, double digging the beds, and prepping the soil. It's quite sandy soil... perhaps because it's so close to the preschool's playground? :) D. brought in bags and bags of good ol' Vancouver Island Sea Soil, but I just added Gaia Organic Fertilizer to the soil. He already had seedlings started, but I had yet to order all my seeds. I bought them through Bob at The Natural Gardener, and he has become my most valued resource! Most of them came from West Coast Seeds, and I basically went through their catalogue page by page, making a list of everything I wanted to grow.  

Now, all the seedlings are coming up, including the yellow bell peppers, patty pan squash, and bush beans I planted in the last two weeks, and I will have to be creative about spacing and making room for all the plants I have going. I gave a cucumber plant to E. and M. tonight after choir... E. used to work in Africa as an agriculturalist, so I figured he would give the yellow-blossomed plant a good home. 

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the garden: 

Little bull's blood beetlings! I need to thin them out so they'll grow properly. I'm not going to have enough room for all my veggies... it's a serious problem. I've been so blessed to get permission to plant a garden in this space at all, but I have a problem with moderation. Meaning, I don't do anything half-way. So, I planted ALL of my seeds, not realizing that 2 summer squash plants feed a family of FOUR! Plus, they sprawl. I also planted ALL of my pepper, tomato, cuke, beet, carrot, and pea seeds. Oops. 

Arugula seedlings! My friend E. said they look like little hearts. Sweet little hearts I want to put in my mouth. 

These berry canes were in the weedpatch before we started. When I met a a few neighborhood friends (little two-year old W. and his nanny A.) I found out that they actually "harvested" the raspberries last summer! I pruned and fertilized them, and now they're showing beautiful buds and flowers. I'll have to bake a little tart for W. and A. when August rolls around. 

We trellised our Alderman tall telephone peas on these metal trellises from Ikea. They come in boxes of 9 and you can screw them together to make any shape or height you need. We will definitely be adding to these. I'm sure J. was glad to be doing some "construction" work this last weekend putting these trellises together after digging and screening the last of our four beds last weekend! At the end of that day he said, "I feel like I've been digging holes and filling them back in all day!" Yup. Thank you, my dear husband. 

Our mixed greens (and reds) are growing! Okay, so maybe lettuce isn't sexy to everyone. But I think it's beautiful. Because this is my first year gardening, I'm just ecstatic that anything is growing at all! 

I've been noticing plants, flowers, and veggies everywhere. I've been especially impressed by the rising number of places where Vancouverites are planting veggie beds! It's incredible! 

I happened upon this one just the other day. 

It has been growing right under my nose for years. I walk past this backyard nearly every day on my way from home to my church. Maybe the gardener just put it in... or maybe I'm just growing a new pair of eyes. 

This garden is particularly interesting to me. First, the tall poles all lined up in a row there are deliciously exciting. What is the gardener growing? There were some berry bushes behind the poles, and I noticed at least one fruit tree. There are some things growing in pots, and good Vancouverite that this gardener is, the compost bin is in the front right. 

When I notice these little gardens springing up all over the city, what should I do? Try to take a photo surreptitiously... without seeming creepy? Introduce myself to the gardener in person or by a note left in the mailbox? I'm not shy about chatting with someone who's out in the yard working. After all, since I've started my little garden at church, I've met SO many people from the neighborhood! It's a lovely feeling to see little gardens coming to life in my neighborhood, and I want to make friends with the kind of people who would tear up the sod in their whole backyard to plant a veggie garden. At the very least, I have yard-lust. So, I will garden vicariously through my neighbor-gardeners, savoring my own small bit of earth. 

Honey Hazelnut Cake

This morning I went to visit my friend M. for tea. And I always want something sweet and baked to go with my tea. My ideal cake is one that is light, moist, fragrant, filled with subtle flavors, with an interesting texture. Especially if that texture is slightly caramelized and crunchy on top. Going through the cake recipes on Chocolate and Zucchini (Clotilde's recipes never fail!), the Honey Hazelnut Cake filled all these requirements in my baker's imagination. 

Of course, I made my own adjustments. I find most recipes have too much sugar. This one definitely did, since it called for twice as much (yes, you read that correctly) sugar as it did flour. I changed that ratio around, and because of the addition of melted honey to the batter, I didn't miss the sugar one bit. In fact, next time I might try reducing it even more. I also took Clotilde's advice on doubling the recipe and toasting the hazelnuts. 

You could probably make some substitutions to this cake - trying other nuts instead of hazelnuts, for example - but who wants to mess with a good thing? (Apparently I do, blatantly thumbing my nose at even Clotilde!) The combination of toasted hazelnuts and fragrant honey is ethereal and earthy. (You ask me if this is possible, and I say "yes!") The crust is slightly crunchy, and the inside is a moist and cakey. And what a combo... honey and hazelnuts completely infuse the cake, making it absolutely irresistible. 

I would eat this anytime of the day. Breakfast, tea, dessert, midnight snack... you doubt my gluttony? This is what's left of the cake and it's only 5 o'clock! 

I'm pretty sure J. and I will polish the rest off for breakfast tomorrow. I am also pretty sure I will be making this at least two more times this week. 

Honey Hazelnut Cake 

(adapted from Chocolate and Zucchini)

1/2 cup sugar (or 1/3, if you want a little less sugar, like I might)

1 cup flour (of your choice, unbleached all purpose is just fine)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

2/3 cups whole raw hazelnuts

10 Tablespoons butter (1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp)

6 tablespoons honey

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Have a rack set in the middle of the oven. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is somewhat incorporated before adding the next one. 

Then, toast the hazelnuts. Rub them in a teatowel to remove the brown skins, which can get bitter. Chop them roughly (I pulsed them a few times in my food processor), and let them cool before folding them into the batter. 

Meanwhile, melt the butter and honey in a small saucepan, and let it cool just a bit before adding it to the batter. Fold in until just incorporated. 

Pour batter into a greased and floured cake pan or tart pan (I did mine in my tart pan, as you can see in the photo above), and make sure the top is level. 

Bake at 350 F for 25 - 30 minutes, until the middle of the cake is set and the top is golden brown. Serve with a little bit of whipped cream, or just as it is, slightly warm. 

I could also see this cake modified a little bit to make a stunning informal layered cake. Reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup, and make a double batch. Bake the batter in two separate cake pans, and layer the cakes when cool with whipped cream flavored with honey, and perhaps a little buttered rum? Go nuts. 

Snowboarding SnackPacks

Okay, okay, I get the picture. Post a new recipe already, Tora!

Last week some friends of ours flew in from Toronto for a weekend of skiing at Whistler. I was more excited to "play mom" than to get my rear end flattened and my knees knocked out by hard-packed snow. This is only my second season boarding, you know. Give me a break. However, being a dutiful wife to my snowboarding husband, I got up at 6.00am with everyone else to drive up to Whistler for a day on the slopes.

Wouldn't you know it? I barely made it down one run. One green run, nonetheless. By lunchtime I was ready to call it a day and go sip cocoa in front of a TV while wearing warm clothes. Oh, and get the feeling back in my toes.

But, the highlights of the day were: beautiful clear blue skies, a comfortable temperature, good friends, stunning views from the Peak2Peak Gondola, and tasty snacks. On the ride up we had blueberry-banana muffins topped with a oaty-cinnamony-brown-sugary streusel, and I sent everyone up the lifts with snackpacks of homemade granola bars and sugar baby mandarins.


So, my friends. Today, as penance for not posting since November 24 (shame, I know), you will get two recipes. For the days ahead of skiing and snowboarding which I hope will come to all of us. I, however, plan to stick to the local mountains (Seymour, Grouse, Cypress) in hopes of mastering the bunny hills by the end of this season so I don't continue this trend of breaking myself attempting to slide down a hill while nailed to a plank of wood, trying desperately to look cool.

Road-Trip Blueberry Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, using a pastry cutter, blend the following until it forms pea-sized lumps:

1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
dash of cinnamon

Set the streusel mixture aside. In a large bowl, whisk together:

1 large ripe banana, peeled and mashed
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
3 Tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla

Stir the dry ingredients into the banana-buttermilk mixture, until it is just mixed. DO NOT OVERMIX! Fold in:

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. Top each muffin with a teaspoon of streusel, patting it down gently so it just sticks to the batter.

Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are puffy and the streusel is golden brown and you just can't wait any longer to eat them.

ALTERNATIVE RECIPE:
To make apple-streusel muffins, substitute one cup of unsweetened applesauce for the banana, and add 1 tsp of cinnamon to the flour mixture. Top with streusel and bake just as for the blueberry-banana muffins.


Granola Bars (to make you swear off Chewy forever)
adapted from a forum post on 101cookbooks.com

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, stir together:

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 cup of dried fruit of your choice (I like cranberries, but cherries, blueberries, or raisins would all work fine here)
1 cup of nuts, whole or lightly chopped (I like whole almonds, but peanuts, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, would all be delicious!)
1/3 cup chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans (optional... but highly recommended)

In a pyrex liquid measuring glass, stir together:

1/2 cup butter, cut into chunks
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut or almond butter

Microwave for a few minutes until you can stir it into a smooth mixture. Add:

2 tsp vanilla

Pour the liquid honey/butter/peanut butter mix over the dry oat mixture, tossing to coat everything evenly (this is to ensure your bars stick together!). Pour the mixture into a 9 inch X 13 inch pan, lined with parchment paper (or greased and floured... but you don't really want more grease in these bars), leaving enough paper hanging over for you to pull the bars out of the pan. Press down firmly on the mixture to make sure it will stick together.

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. Let the pan cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Then, getting your roommate, husband, or boyfriend to help, grab two opposite sides of the parchment paper while s/he grabs the other side (a large spatula slid under the bars helps immensely), and lift the bars out of the pan and let them cool on a rack (still on the paper) until they are completely cool and set.

Cut into small-ish sized bars and wrap in plastic or tinfoil. I underestimated the richness of my bars, and so cut pretty large ones. Taste a bit of yours before you cut so you know how much you can stand to eat in one sitting. These are pretty packed with energy!