Binding On

My friend Sue and I walked this morning. When we started out the sky was black and threatening, although there was only a 15% chance of rain. From where we stood, it looked like a 100% chance. Nevertheless, we managed our walk of around five miles with just a few sprinkles. As you might guess, I took pictures of every blooming thing along the way. Since loading the "Like That Garden" app on my phone, I've become much more aware of the blooming things along the path. Here are some of today's flowers:

The path was lined with wild roses all in bloom. These also produce pretty red rose hips in the fall, and so they are a dual purpose plant.

This next one is probably Victorian Laurel, but there are a lot of similar looking plants and flowers suggested in the app.

Sue and I think this one is probably viburnum, although again, there were several suggestions.

This one is White Meadowsweet, or spiraea alba, if you're feeling like showing off your Latin.

Sorry for the blur on this next one. Sometimes it's hard to see what you're getting on your phone in the bright sunlight. The app couldn't identify this one. It has a hard berry about the size of a glass pinhead that looks like it would crunch if you smashed it with your finger. If I'm remembering right, it begins with some tiny white flowers. There is one growing wild along our driveway, but I don't know its name. Maybe one of you knows. It's not a very good image, but maybe you can identify it anyway. The birds certainly go after its berries like there is no tomorrow.

The app easily identified this one as Jewelweeds. So pretty, and very tiny.

On the way home, I stopped off at the market. While I was standing at the cash register, Sue texted me to let me know it was pouring and acknowledging that, as walkers, we lead charmed lives. We do. It's true. There's no denying it. And check out these Hood Strawberries grown just over the hill in Cornelius, Oregon. Yum, yum, yum, As I've said before, Mike can't have those tiny seeds in strawberries, and so consumption of strawberries is limited around here. He loves them, and I can't bear to eat them in front of him knowing they mean death to him. Not death literally, but close. 

These are set to be eaten straight from the box by me, but first, I'm going to cut the seeds off the largest of them and make some strawberry ice cream. I can probably manage the tedium of this seed-cutting-off exercise for us to enjoy a couple of evenings of strawberry shortcake too. It's hard to get scale in this image, but some of them are good sized, and so it's easier to cut the seeds off of them. I'll use the naked ones in the ice cream. I save the seed sides and eat those myself in the strawberry shortcake and then give him the naked ones. Oregon strawberries are worth the effort. And, if you get right down to it, so is he.

When I got home, I fed the birds. Along the way I noticed that the rose buds are beginning to open. This is the most fragrant rose you can imagine. It was given to me many moons ago for my 50th birthday. It's a little tree rose, but it's been so neglected that it no long has it's nice little tree shape, and looks more like a traditional rose. It's a mini-rose however, and it packs a punch in fragrance when the blooms are fully opened. It didn't bloom for several years because the deer simply couldn't leave it alone. Last year, it bloomed for the first time in a long time, and so I'm happy to see a repeat showing this year.

Finally, the binding is on the Yard Art quilt. Since I started this project in November of 2012, I'm very happy to finally have it nearing the finish line. It'll probably take me a couple of days to hand-stitch the binding, and then I can check it off in the finished column. Yay!

And I'm happy to report that I can declare victory over our CSA share for Week 1. Yes, we are already into Week 2, but I still had a couple of things left over from Week 1 in the form of the celeriac (celery root) and the radish greens. Yesterday I made this Celeriac and Carrot Soup there on the right in the image below. It's a pureed soup and those are some chunks of Granny Smith apple there. I made a few changes to the recipe. I used the whole celery root instead of just half, and I used a whole 5.3 oz. container of plain yogurt, so about half a cup. Just so you know, I used the carrots from Week 2, so this is a meal that spans two CSA shares. Also, I used my homemade veggie stock instead of the water. When it was finished, I thought it needed just a little more zip and so I put in a dash of cayenne.

On the left of the image above are some little Radish Green and Avocado Mini Quiches. Those were adapted from this recipe. The original recipe was written by a woman originally from Hongkong who lives in Barcelona now. Reading the recipe, I believe a few ingredients were "lost in translation". For one thing, I couldn't find mini quiche shells, and so I used mini phyllo shells, and those worked out great. Also, I added half a teaspoon of lime juice because I made the filling ahead and I didn't want the avocado to turn brown. I just put it into the refrigerator with some plastic wrap snug over the top of the filling to cut its exposure to air, and that worked out great. Finally, I used a multi-pepper blend rather than the green peppercorns. It was really pretty simple and a nice accompaniment to the soup. I think a pureed soup needs something crunchy served alongside. I don't know about you, but my teeth tend to get into mischief if I don't give them something to do.

And then, anything that was sliced, diced, peeled, cut, trimmed, slashed, gashed, clipped, snipped, or otherwise fell off of a vegetable went into a bin in my refrigerator to be used for stock. This week's yield was four quarts. Think of it as honey from the vegetables. It's going to make a lovely soup someday.

So that's about it for Friday. Tomorrow Mae and I are going to the Beaverton Farmer's Market. I promised Mae an outing to purchase plants for her garden for her birthday that was way back on May 1st. We've both had things getting in the way of this outing until now, but finally, finally, finally, we're going to get it done. Looking forward to spending the morning with my dear daughter-in-law. Such a peach, that one.

We're looking forward to this three-day weekend. Lots to keep us busy. I hope you have something good planned for the weekend, even if your plan is simple relaxation....always a favorite around here.