Can’t help it…had to share these!
Handmade Ottoman
We’ve been working on this ottoman for-ev-er and we finally finished it a few weeks ago. If you look closely, you can see all of its little imperfections but that’s part of why I love it so much. We started by sketching the designs, Greg built the frame and put furniture foam on the frame. Then, Dwight helped by chewing some of the foam off, but we were determined. After the sewing and quilting was finished, we pulled the fabric over the foam and stapled it to the bottom. There are tiny rubber feet on the bottom to keep it just a touch elevated off the ground. Let me know which side is your favorite…I’m still deciding!
Sunset Magazine Inspired Pissaladiere
We recently made this Pissaladiere recipe from Sunset and it was delicious! If you love caramelized onions, anchovies (yes, I do actually like anchovies) and puff pastry, I definitely recommend that you make this. The magazine recommended that you pair it with a nice Rose and we did just that. We’ll be making this one again!
Noro Socks #4
I’m obsessed with Noro yarn, and I’m obsessed with knitting striped socks with them. This is my 4th pair and I’m already looking for my next skein. The yarn is a beautifully dyed self striping yarn. I usually use the Noro Kureyon Sock, but wanted to try the Silk Garden Sock. The Silk Garden is a bit thicker than the Kureyon, but both are really fun to work with.
I knit these on a long Size 1 circular needle using a toe up, magic loop technique. I like the toe up method because I don’t have to guess how long to make the leg before turning the heel and, in turn, I end up wasting less yarn this way. I have many other knitting projects in progress, but once I start on a pair of these socks, I usually can’t stop until they’re done…it’s that addicting.
The yarn gradually fades from one color to the next, so to get the distinct stripes that you see in these socks, I made 4 equal sized yarn balls (2 for each sock), and alternated the balls of yarn every 4 rows.
Anyway, if you have any questions about how I did this, let me know!
Canning Bonanza
Sorry for the lapse. There’s a lot to catch you all up on. I’ll start with what’s been going on in the kitchen. We recently had a pickling bonanza. We made some dill pickles and we canned 10 pints of roma tomatoes from our garden. Here are some highlights.
Solar Eclipse Viewing
Snow Plant in the middle of the road
Last weekend, we headed to Tahoe to view the solar eclipse. We met up with Greg’s family, and since the eclipse lasted only for a couple of hours, we filled the rest of the weekend with hiking and exploring. The dogs got to swim and Greg got to fish.
Pickle, in his usual fashion, got extremely dirty.
Once the eclipse started, everyone got in on the action…
This is my very poor attempt at trying to capture the annular ring of sun around the moon through the welding mask. Sadly, it just looks like the sun.
Dukka and Carrot Puree
We made this dish a while ago, and it was SO good. I had my first taste of dukka a few years ago and have been excited to recreate it at home. It’s a ground up nut and spice mix that you dip bread in after dipping it in olive oil. It was surprisingly easy to make. For this snack, you dip your bread in the olive oil and dukka and then top off with the carrot puree…super good! I used the recipe from a great blog called Lottie and Doof. Below are some photos from the process and, of course, some photos of the dogs.
Dukka and Carrot Puree
We made this dish a while ago, and it was SO good. I had my first taste of dukka a few years ago and have been excited to recreate it at home. It’s a ground up nut and spice mix that you dip bread in after dipping it in olive oil. It was surprisingly easy to make. For this snack, you dip your bread in the olive oil and dukka and then top off with the carrot puree…super good! I used the recipe from a great blog called Lottie and Doof. Below are some photos from the process and, of course, some photos of the dogs.
The Garden is Happy Too…Mostly
We’ve had our fair share of garden woes this year. We planned our raised bed in the perfect location, only to realize that it got full sun only a couple of hours each day. We’ve had slugs and white flies. When the weather was unseasonably warm earlier in the year, our fig tree put out a bunch of fruit only to drop them all a few weeks later when the weather turned cold again. Despite all this, our garden seems to be pushing through. We’ve planted a bunch of things in containers, we’ve applied some B.thuringiensis to the plants and our fig tree is producing a whole new batch of figs.
Here’s one of the tomatillos around the time we first planted it…
and here it is now.
Our tomato plants are starting produce the first of the tomatoes. I’m excited to can them and use them through the winter.
Here’s the Napa cabbage last month…
and here they are now. I see kimchi making in the near future!
Our horseradish plant has gone crazy in the last 2 weeks. It grew a bunch of leaves and started to flower as well.
Here’s our fig tree. The big fig is the 1 fig leftover from before the tree dropped its fruit. All the little ones just popped up this last week.
While the tomatoes in the raised bed aren’t doing as well as the one in the pots, the kale seems to be doing just fine.
The beets are starting grow nicely too.
The sugar snap peas, also in the raised bed, aren’t doing as well as expected, but we started seeing the first of the actual peas this week.
We’re enjoying our lazy, almost summer days…or at least Dwight is.
The Carnivores Are Happy
I know we’ve been MIA. Both of us have been rotating through various ICUs with crazy schedules. Now we’re finally on a rotation with normal people hours, and it’s been grand. Our garden has had its fair share of issues, but in general, the plants have gone crazy with the warmer weather.
Today, I wanted to share some photos of the flowers that have been blooming on the various carnivorous plants we have. Also, if you want to get carnivorous plants of your own and you live in Northern CA, check out California Carnivores…it’s awesome.
Filed under garden
