Weekend baking

Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing = yum

Raised bed progress

Our raised beds are built! It was quite a process to tell you the truth. I thought I had it all under control. I had taken notes from three different raised bed instructions and thought I knew exactly what we needed, but when confronted with the confusing vastness of wood aisles in The Home Improvement Store, all of my notes seemed like they were written in Chinese. Actually that's not true, the tags on the wood were written in Chinese, I could read my notes just fine.

I knew I needed cedar, or something else that did not rot. The only cedar we found was "treated" and there was a little tear-off pamphlet that talked about what treated cedar was and it said things like "DO NOT get near water source! DO NOT use with food items! WASH your clothes, hair and body once done working with this wood!" "KEEP AWAY from pets and children! It was like plutonium or something. So there we are, standing in the aisle looking completely lost when a very nice, but hungover looking employee asked if we needed help. HELP? YES! We told him what we wanted and before I could even get the words "raised beds" out of my mouth he told us we needed treated wood. He himself just made a flower box for his wife out of the treated wood and she loved it. This is where I felt like a dork - I am standing there, clutching my little pamphlet reciting the warnings about food.
"It says here we shouldn't use this wood for vegetables."
"Oh it'll be fine!" he says.
"Even for vegetables?
He hesitated for a split-second and in retrospect this moment is where my gut knew he was full of shit. "Flowers, vegetables...you want the treated wood."
So we got the treated wood because we don't know what the hell we are doing. It didn't sit well with me and after we brought it home and cut it, and even after Jeff put together two of the beds I just couldn't bring myself to actually use it for my vegetables. I voiced my concerns to him and he agreed and like the Home Improvement Stud-in-Training he is, (he'll get there eventually) he went to the Other Home Improvement Store and got untreated wood. We also bought a circular saw and he and I cut and drilled and put these babies together in one hour and eighteen minutes (he was timing us.)


Now all I need to do is lay down the chicken wire to prevent the moles from getting our veggies, buy some topsoil and get planting. The center square will have flagstone and hopefully a birdbath. I am quite pleased.

Some of the coolest things I have seen lately...

I first saw these in Australian Vogue Living. 'D-Bros Fairy Tale in a Glass'

The water magnifies the images of the witch and the wolf. Genius! I wonder if I could replicate these with some glass paint.

Also from the D-Bros site:

A beautiful paper brooch! I LOVE this!

Unfortunately the D-Bros site is flash so I can't link to the individual items, but there a bunch of other items worth checking out.

And the winner is...

Did you see the Food Network Awards the other night? It seems like they had been advertising that event for YEARS before they finally aired it. It was mostly lame, but perhaps I am being harsh as this is the first time they have done something like this so there is bound to be room for improvement. Nigella was there looking gorgeous as ever and the Culinary Institute of America scholarship award segment had both J and I on the verge of tears so that made up for the musical performance by G. Love.

One of the awards was for "Hot" Chocolate - "Artisan confectioners raising the bar" and I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the nominees and the eventual winner was the author of a fantastic book I got last week:

I really like this book a lot and can't wait to start making some of the confections once school is done.

Another winner that just totally blew me away was artist Liz Hickok. She makes cities out of jello and oh my God! - that's just incredible.

Somewhat off topic but food related is a link from Not Martha that I just DIED over. It's the cake baked in egg shells tutorial from Delicious Days. I just can't even tell you how much I love that. I can see coating the eggs in a poured fondant like you do with Petit Fours. Oh they would be so cute! Sometimes things connect and I get sort of an affirmation to the ideas I am attracted to. This magazine clipping I ripped from the now defunct Victoria magazine a few years ago fell out of a cupboard yesterday when I was reaching for a cookbook:

Chocolates in egg shells. It's like two worlds colliding.

Green Procrastination

Oh lordy, I have a ton of homework to do and I am just really, really, really not wanting to do any of it at all. I have totally hit a wall and am stewing in a nice pot of unmotivation. It's pretty much all painting with gouache that I need to get done and..just...ugh. I have been feeling like this all week and sometimes I think wonder what my problem is. I mean it's not like I have to do really sucky math or read something really boring. I'm painting! Colors! Patterns! Yay! Right?

Wrong. Instead I have been watching Beauty and the Geek reruns recorded on the DVR. That says it ALL.

So I thought I would procrastinate even more by posting some progress I have been making on the yard.

Tomorrow Jeff and I are going to the Home Improvement Store to buy materials for my raised garden beds. At first we were going to do two of these raised beds from Sunset:

But the other day I was going through my "Garden" magazine clipping file and came across another configuration of raised beds, again from Sunset. (Although I cannot for the life of me find the article online):
I love it! I knew there was a reason I hung onto this. So, plans have changed and I have already started removing the sod. Picture taken from upstairs window:

I really like that the center square is pavers, which was our first garden project J and I tackled together over at the old place so I feel pretty confident we can do this.

Next up we have a few progress shots of the area adjacent to raised beds above. This was actually the very first thing I "broke ground" on so-to-speak when we bought the house:

I don't know what the hell I thought I was going to do...I just started digging. Actually I take that back, I do know sort of know what I was trying to achieve and it was basically regrading the slope of this section of the yard because as you can see from the pic below it slopes toward the house, which is a no-no.


My mom suggested creating tiers so that is what I was/am trying to do. This hot mess is an in progress shot:

You can probably, maybe, kind of (?) see the tiers starting to take shape. Master Kim has been watching this progress thinking that I was actually going to start planting something. He told me somewhat exasperated the other day "I see you build garden for two years and nothing growing!" That's because I have just been moving dirt and sod from here to there. This picture actually looks a lot better than it used to. Jeff finally had enough and staged a shovel intervention and threw down an ultimatum because it was pretty much becoming an even larger unguided mess. So, here we are today. It's still a mess, but it's getting closer to something cohesive:

This needs some explaining I think:

1. and 2. - Blueberries

3. I put calla lily tubers here that I dug up from another area of the yard, but I am worried that they are staging a protest because I see no evidence of their awakening. I am trying to be patient.

4. I put more calla lilies here after I forgot that I also transplanted some Asiatic lilies, so we'll see who wins. So far the Asiatic lilies are kicking the calla lily's little tuber asses.

5. More Asiatic lilies and a red hot poker which is NOT looking happy. He's not exactly red-hot and not really poking. He's more of a yellow-green and decidedly limp.

6. I have a sedum black magic, dahlias, and some of those really yummy smelling lilies which I can't remember the names of. Everything but the dahlias are looking good, but I think it's just too early for dahlias right now.
7. Transplanted day lilies and bearded iris, both of which are looking great. There are also crocosmia bulbs that have yet to show any sign of growth.

8. Transplanted azalea, which so far is looking good even though I beat the heck out of it trying to extricate it from crowded gloom of the fence. It was behind the #2 circle in that mess of ivy. There is also a peony here which I took from the same place last fall. It came up, and it's a bit tiny but it's got a ton of blooms on it.

9. I am eventually going to put an arched trellis here that will lead over into that other plot, but we need to build a fence first.

As you can tell I am trying to remove pretty much every blade of grass in my yard and convert it to garden. There are just so many benefits to the health of our environment in terms of water consumption, absorption, ground water health, not to mention cultivating habitats for animals and insects. It has occurred to me lately that this would probably go a lot quicker if I rented a sod cutter, but that is an issue for another post. I have already yammered on too much as it is.

Molten Love

Our friend Les was here this past weekend and we did fondue. Again.

When we find something we like to eat we eat it to death until we can't even stand the thought of it anymore. There are several much loved dishes that we have eaten into extinction: Hot Dog Melts, Chili Bacon Pasta...and I think fondue is on the endangered species list. No more fondue for a verrrrry long time.

Anyway, I made Molten Chocolate Cake for dessert as sort of a belated Birthday cake pour moi. I usually make Red Velvet for my birthday but this year I decided to branch out. At first I was going to explore the cupcake trend and make Ina Garten's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. But instead I was inspired by a dessert we had in San Francisco at a lovely little bistro-style restaurant called Florio Bar and Cafe. I had a great meal there (pasta al amatriciana-with homemade noodles!) but the Molten Chocolate Cake I had for dessert was a spiritual experience. It was SOOOOOOOO good. I had been holding on to a recipe for these for quite a while and decided that cupcakes be damned! - my chocolate is going to be hot and gooey.

These are really easy to make. The great part about them is that you can make the batter the day before, pour it into the molds or ramekins and stick it in the fridge until you are ready for the glory.

I learned a valuable lesson making these that seems so totally elementary that I can't believe I didn't pay more attention. The lesson being if the recipe calls for unsalted butter, use unsalted butter. I have a lot of recipes like this and since we buy our butter by the gross at Costco, I am limited to the salted sticks they carry and usually do not give it any thought. I hear chefs say it all of the time but for some reason I don't think that it really matters. Stupid, I know. The really sad part about this is that I HAD unsalted butter that I especially bought for this recipe but I stuck it in the freezer and promptly forgot about it.

The recipe calls for a whole stick of butter which you melt with only about 4oz of chocolate. That is a large butter to chocolate ratio and I knew I was in trouble when I tasted the salty chocolate goo I had melted over my double boiler. I told myself that the sugar and egg mixture would probably diffuse the saltiness and don't all of those chefs tell us that salt brings out the flavor of other ingredients?

Here is another tip I learned. If you do make the batter ahead of time and keep it in the fridge, you will either have to take the cakes out and bring them up to room temperature before you bake them. OR, if you pop them in the oven right from the fridge you will have to extend the baking time allotted on the recipe (which I had to do).

Jeffery and Les thought the cakes were DELICIOUS, but all I could taste was the salt. I couldn't even finish my wee cake, which tells you how bad it was. I learned my lesson and will not make THAT mistake again.

I will leave you with my new favorite food blog I found yesterday when I was searching for info on Entremets. Entremets are mousse cakes, which I learned watching Sugar Rush when they featured Vanille Patisserie. Anyway..oh yes...link: Foodbeam.

Oo! Oo! Oooo!

I picked up an Interweave Crochet magazine yesterday and spotted this:

I have her knitting book which is gorgeous and beautiful and awsome and I am SOOOOOO excited she has a crochet version coming out. I can't wait.

And on a somewhat related subject, does anyone have a Summer 04 issue of Interweave Knits that has Teva Durham's Ballet Sweater pattern? Below:

I have knitted the Ballet T-Shirt which is in the book, (which I love) but I want to make it with the longer sleeves but I am not sure how to do it. I would be much obliged if anyone knows. I may head on down to my local yarn shop to see if they have a back issue. I know if involves keeping the sleeve stiches on holders, and probably involves picking up some stitches, knitting in the round etc.....then again I may just try it and see if I can figure it out.

Ringy Dingy

Kim posted these FABULOUS castle rings today and oh my god, I am completely in LOVE. They are just beautiful, whimsical, and spark the imagination which is my favorite thing about them. They are made by Studio Numen.

And speaking of fantastic rings that spark the imagination, I recently ordered the Pearl, Dish, Branch ring from Rachel Lavin of Pio Playground. I have been dreaming about this ring ever since I saw it and I am finally going to own it. I love Rachel's designs and already own a pair of her earrings.

I have been becoming more and more interested in silversmithing and jewelry making and I keep thinking that one day I am going to take a class and learn how to do it. Especially after watching all of the amazing crafters on shows like Crafters Coast to Coast or That's Clever! I have started a little file of inspiration for whenever that day comes.

Making Patterns

I thought I would post some of my schoolwork since it's been a while. This is my homework for a Design Project for my Color and Design class. We had to create a pattern, then apply values to it and then apply a complementary tertiary analagous color scheme (got that?) with the colors muted by tinting, toning, or shading. Here is the patten with the value. I did two different versions but I like this one the best:

For the color scheme I chose red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green/blue-violet.

Now all I have to do is paint it with gouache, which is always the hardest part. I really, really, enjoyed this assignment as I have thought about printing my own fabric (like a lot of crafters) and even started with some preliminary ideas. There is something so satisfying about making a pattern that fits and repeats well.

San Francisco Part Deux

I have to apologize for being such a lame picture taker. I brought my camera with me to San Fran but I forgot it in the hotel room a lot of the time and I guess I am just too self conscious to whip it out the rest.

So, that being said, you are looking at a picture of the view from the Top of the Mark. The Top of the Mark is a bar at the very tip-top of the Mark Hopkins hotel. This little adventure did not start out well at all and sparked the only Erica melt-down of the trip.

Jeff called to see what time the bar opened and said something vague like "Are you guys open this afternoon?" and the person on the other end said "Of course!". Off we go. We arrived at our destination at about 3:45 pm and got into an elevator. I hit the "Top of the Mark" button and the elevator stopped at floor 9 and refused to go any higher. In fact, it felt like floor 9 was high enough thank you very much, and decided to head back down to the lobby. Ding! Doors open and here we are back where we started from. We got into the other elevator and tried again. And again. We decided that we would try to go as highest floor and walk the rest of the way as the elevators were obviously NOT cooperating. Floor 18 is the penthouse and let me tell you, there are only two doors on this floor. One to the penthouse itself and the other to an alarmed emergency exit. Crap. Foiled again. We headed back down to the lobby (they must have thought we were total idiots) where Jeff asked the Doorman just how the hell we get up to the Top. We were informed that the bar didn't open until 5 p.m. Ugh.

Insert Erica melt-down.

I had had it. My feet hurt and I just wanted to go back to the hotel and no stupid legendary bar was worth all of the fuss and frustration. We headed back to the car where I changed shoes and tried to calm myself. We decided to wait it out because having a martini at the Top of the Mark was something Jeff had always wanted to do and blah, blah, blah... So, we hung out at that park you can see in the picture above in front of that beautiful church. Apparently this is where the neighborhood brings its doggies and there is nothing in the world that raises my spirits more than watching a bunch of dogs frolic and sniff and bark. An old yellow Lab named Petunia latched on to Jeffery and INSISTED he throw her slobbery Frisbee until her owner yelled at her to stop bugging him.

Five o'clock rolled around and we headed back to the Top of the Mark were miraculously the elevators decided to get over their petulance and allowed us to ascend. This place is pretty stunning. The views are spectacular and I can see the appeal. One Charcuterie plate and a Manhattan later all was right with the world. Dogs, pork and bourbon a happy Erica make.