Radishes!

I'm just now getting around to putting some commentary to these radish pics. but holy Toledo! For some reason, I saw fit to plant dozens upon dozens of these among other things. As usual, I went overboard with my Spring planting and we have way more stuff than we can possibly eat. I've been bringing squash, lettuce, chard, carrots, sugar snap peas and radish in to work all week, trying to coax my co-workers to take them home! I even demonstrated how they can all be used simultaneously in a salad. After a bit of searching, I found a tasty recipe for pickled radishes that may help to use up some of this overabundance.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sliced radish (8 oz.)
• 1 small onion, cut into thin wedges and separated
• 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

1. Slice radishes by hand or use the slicing blade of a food processor. Place radish slices and onions in a large bowl or crock. In another bowl stir together vinegar, sugar, and salt until sugar is dissolved. Pour over radish mixture.

2. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight before serving. (Radish mixture will have a very pungent aroma.) Makes 2 cups.

Kitty Skulduggery

It's been 6 days since our beloved female kitty Buffy went missing. We've gone to the local shelter, scoured the neighborhood and posted signs with her picture promising a reward. Unfortunately, I know from personal experience, when a cat goes missing for this long it's usually curtains. We adopted Buffy and her biological brother Bingo from the Fairmont Shelter almost 6 years ago. Even though it's far fetched, I always consider certain neighbors to be prime suspects, capable of kitty skulduggery. I know for a fact that on the last street we resided, a certain neighbor admitted to another that she was trying to trap our cats. Lo and behold after a time, they did go missing.

Anyhow, I suppose it's beside the point to speculate. Now I am left dealing with my two teary eyed kids obsessively drawing little reward posters with cute pictures of Buffy on them. Michael asked me how much of a reward we could afford to offer and I simply replied that "we would pay a lot to have her back." Meanwhile, Bingo her brother, is beside himself and trying like mad to remain in our house indefinitely. He's was an outdoor cat but I guess moving forward, he'll be more of an indoor cat if anything.

R.I.P. Buffy

Good Morning Sunshine!

This lovely opened up over night and graced me with its' presence this morning. It's in a pot on my front porch. I did not actually plant it there it grew from seeds that fell in to the flower pot from a plant that had gone to seed near it. I like to call this serendipitous gardening. The other two pictures are of my Rumbalo Pumpkin Vine and a picture of our very first tiny little pumpkin. Our neighbor Vern has graciously agreed to allow the vine to take over as much of his front planter as it would like. This is a good thing as I am out of room and when this thing takes off, it will be massive. We will take all but two pumpkins off of this vine and allow them to become as large as possible. Rumbalo Pumkins are also known as "Fairytale" pumpkins.

More Pictures From the Garden

From top to bottom:
Red Oakleaf Lettuce, Aunt Ginny's Yellow Cherry Tomato, Fordhook Swiss Chard with Yellow Crookneck Squash and Lettuce Melange.

Memorial Day Menu Prep...

Lets start from the top. This is my own recipe for fresh raspberry ice cream. The trick to this recipe besides using fresh raspberries, is adding 1/2 cup buttermilk to the heavy cream. It adds tang and an element of complexity. Further down are two pots, one containing red chili con carne the other is full of pinto beans. This has been cooking for upwards of 6 hours now on low hear. These will be served at a Memorial Day party tomorrow. The beans and the chili will gain flavor and benefit from sitting over night.

A Dirty Green Thumb

Jason helped pick tonights salad from the gardens. He loves picking vegetables which he knows he had a hand in planting. In the bucket he's holding are snap peas, three types of radish, deer's tongue lettuce, key lime lettuce, spreckled lettuce, chives, spimpson lettuce, and lolita lettuce.

We went to a viewing yesterday...

Mauricio's assistant manager's wife had a stroke. She was only 49. It was hard to see such a young woman lying in a casket. Her two sons in attendance were 17 and 19. Viewings are always difficult but this one put me over the edge. I did a good bit of crying.

Playing in the garden with our doggles

Michael and Jason adore playing in the garden. I've had to spend a lot of time teaching them how to respect the garden but they do a pretty good job now. The fringe benefit to allowing them to lolly gag is that they are the ultimate organic pest control. They'll spend long blocks of time happily looking for green cucumber beetles, slugs, snails aphids and horned worms.

Strawberry & Lemon Mascarpone Trifle

Last night I made a traditional "Sunday Gravy" with meatballs over pasta. I also plucked baby greens, lettuce, radish and carrots from the garden and made a delightful garden salad. Just as we were about to sit down to eat, the door bell rang and lo and behold there was our good friend Knute standing upon the step. I being Italian and Irish always prepare a feast large enough to feed 10 extra people that never seem to materialize so we invited him in to help us eat all the food I had prepared. He is no longer with Monica and has since moved on to "greener" pastures, but I digress.

Needless to say, we had a great time. The kids were delighted to see him and wrapped their arms around him for a big hug. After the table was cleared, I made a fresh pot of good coffee and brought out the pièce de résistance of the meal. Earlier in the day I had picked a bunch of strawberries and some Meyer Lemons from my garden and wanted to highlight them in a cool refreshing dessert. Here's what I came up with. It's a very easy to make, especially if you use store bought angle food cake.

Rae's Strawberry Mascarpone Trifle

16 oz. Mascarpone
2 quarts fresh ripe strawberries
1 pint heavy cream
1 angle food cake (I made mine but you can buy one to save time)
2 meyer or Eureka lemons
2/3 cup of sugar

First off, make a Meyer Lemon simple syrup by juicing both lemons along with 2 tablespoons of water in to a small heavy sauce pan. Add 1/3 cup sugar and and the zest of one lemon. Simmer gently until the mixture is reduced by half. Strain and cool. Meanwhile, cut the angle food cake in to 1" cubes. Slice and macerate the strawberries in the remaining 1/3 cup sugar. Once the syrup is cooled, place the mascarpone in to the bowl of a mixer or use a hand held mixer. Add half of the simple syrup to the mascarpone and blend until light an fluffy.

To assemble, place one layer of the cake on the bottom of a bowl or trifle dish, brush with lemon simple syrup. Spread 1/3 of the lemon mascarpone over the cubes and top with 1/3 of the strawberries. Don't worry about draining the juice, just add it all in. Repeat the layers and top with fresh whipped cream. Chill the trifle for at least one hour. I garnished mine with a dainty pink floret of Lemon Geranium.

Serves 8.

It's Friday! Can You Say Mojitos?

Well, Pina Coladas at least. I worked out of my home office yesterday. This allowed me to accomplish the following:

1. Keep our house cool sans air conditioning.
2. Save my garden and particularly my lettuce from the blistering heat.
3. Make a coconut panna cotta layered with pineapple gelee
4. keep my doggies nice and cool

I'm going to start working from home more often, I think. It's an option available to me most of the time but I tend to feel more productive in the office. From home I log in to to work via PC Anywhere but I tend to feel slightly disconnected. With gas being what it is, financially it makes all the sense to just log in as opposed to driving in. Plus, I am still looking to start my own business in the food service sector so this would seem to be a natural progression towards that goal.

Friday Night Dinner Party...

I guess you could say that we've been in a social mood lately. We are hosting yet another small gathering at our house Friday evening. Mauricio and I decided on the menu last night. We took in to consideration the record temperatures predicted for this week and the fact that we would both be working earlier that day and planned the meal accordingly.

We'll be having:

Korean Style Grilled Beef
Skewered Sesame shrimp
Asparagus with toasted sesame seeds and Asian Vinaigrette
Japanese Style Steamed Rice
for dessert, a Layered terrine of Pineapple Gelee and Coconut Panna Cotta
We will also have Pina Coladas and beer on tap

Before I bid you adieu, my chocolate pot de creme recipe

Rae's Sinful Pot de Creme

3 cups heavy cream

7 oz. decadent, deep, rich, high quality dark chocolate ( I used Valhona 71% )

1/4 cup sugar

9 large egg yolks

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt - yes, salt can make chocolate taste even better

Preheat the oven to 325. Combine the cream and sugar and salt in a heavy bottom medium sauce pan. Cook until just simmering - do not boil. If you used a large 5 pound block of chocolate as I did, you'll need to grate or chip the chocolate - if you use chips, mix them in to the cream now. Beat the egg yolks in a separate large bowl. Once the chocolate is completely melted in to the cream, mix it in to the beaten egg yolks very slowly at first to avoid cooking them. Whisk in the vanilla last. Pour the mixture in to 8 - 6oz. custard or souffle cups, filling to 3/4 way full. Gently place the cups in to a bain-marie or water bath. To make a bain-marie, place the cups in to a large high sided baking pan without allowing them to touch. Fill the pan with very hot water 1/2 way up the sides of the custards and slide in to the oven for 25 minutes. When done, the little lovelies should be slightly set at the edges and jiggle enticingly in the center. Remove the custards from the bath immediately and chill uncovered for at least 2 hours. Whip up some fresh Chantilly Cream with a dash of vanilla to top each pot de creme. Enjoy!!!

Serves 8

LLL

I am now an official member of La Leche League! I decided to join in order to gain the necessary training needed to assist other mothers who need help with breast feeding.

Meeting Info.

LLL of Hayward meets on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 PM. Meetings are held at Kaiser Hayward, 27400 Hesperian Boulevard, Room C2

Some snaps from the garden and...

The back vegetable garden is faring well! It was entirely started from seed, most of which was direct seeded in the bed just a few weeks ago. In another month, the stepping stones will be obscured from sight and the deer fence to the right will be enveloped in the sweet peas vines which are just poking up through the soil along the border. I've also included some new floral additions from my front garden and a dwarf suger spint pea plant that is spilling over with peas. Mother's Day was splendid! We went to brunch at a wonderful restaurant in Pleasanton on Main St. called Mahalo Grill. Good stuff! Then for dinner that night I made Osso Bucco, haricot vert with wild mushrooms in a wine garlic and butter reduction, and chocolate pots de creme for dessert. I had my whole family over. Mauricio got me a beautiful Peony plant and a chinos, which I sorely needed. What a sweetie pie pookie he is to have gotten me gifts for both my garden and kitchen!

I'm grumpy and mad for no reason today.

I just woke up that way. I'm usually in a neutral or chipper mood until my day dictates otherwise so I'm taking note of this unusual mood swing. I helped get the kids ready for school and was just quiet the whole time. Mauricio who has the day off today asked me what was wrong and I couldn't answer him. I even drove to work and without listening to my favorite radio station, NPR.

Perhaps it's because of some adjustments and additions to my medications as of late. It may be a result of one of the following:

1. I'm taking Domperidone which as mentioned a post or two below, has some unusual side effects but depression is not one of them. I am now suspicious though.

2. I have changed my birth control pill from Levelen to Micronor (or the mini pill). I did this because the side effects are supposed to be minimal. It is such a low dose pill that if it's not taken within the same 2 hour window each day its' effectiveness vanishes.

3. I stopped taking my usual regimen of multivitamins and B vitamins recently because they were really exacerbating a stomach issue which is why I'm taking Domperidone in the first place.

Perhaps it is all or none of the above. All I know is that I do not have time to be grumpy and unproductive. I only have time to be a blithely inundated mom and wife.

So Proud of My Little Kitchen Helper...

Jason has become the star sous chef of my kitchen! At the age of 5 he can flawlessly and quickly crack a dozen eggs, knows how to safely and properly use my sharpest knives (with close supervision of course), can follow a simple 5+ step recipe from start to finish, can properly identify all sizes of measuring spoons and measuring cups, knows how to use all of the heavy duty appliances in the kitchen such as the stand mixer and food processor, knows most basic herbs and seasonings by smell and or taste. The culmination of all this knowledge aided him to read and follow a simple recipe for cream of tomato soup last night. I hovered and fussed but did very little in the way of actually touching anything or assisting. After about an hour and a half he had measured, chopped, seasoned and cooked a perfect, from scratch, cream of tomato soup.

To flesh out the meal, I made home made Gnocchi with pesto sauce right along side him. As I watched him, I was very impressed with his confidence. He got angry with me a couple times because I tried to get involved and sternly said, "Mom, I can do it, stop trying to help me!!!" Unfortunately, he also made a tremendous mess so I'll need to work on his "cleaning as he goes skills".

We sat down to dinner last night and enjoyed his cream of tomato soup. We were all so proud of him! It was in fact very good but for some reason he needed additional validation and asked every one repeatedly how much they liked his soup and soon became annoying.

The Catering Bug Rears It's Head... Again

So after cooking for a friend's party last weekend I was persuaded by people at the party to look in to the wonderful world of catering again. Most of the people trying to persuade me were from Castro Valley or Hayward and therefore lament the woeful food offerings in these areas.

Mika, a good friend of mine who shares my love of cooking and all things culinary, is also keenly interested in developing a little side business in catering. She was at the party and we started to toss the following idea around:

The pitch: Mika and I are both mothers with multiple children and therefore know the hardships involved in raising a family which for many includes working either part or full time, cleaning, transporting kids, homework, errands etc. Many families these days sit down to lousy store, restaurant or fast food chain dinner each night that eats away at their pocket book and are sadly laden with unhealthy ingredients. We would offer a healthy and delicious alternative to this modern day dilemma. We would develop meals plans from Monday through Friday of each week and allow people to sign up ahead of time based on the portions they desire and the meals they are interested in partaking of. We could rent a kitchen very easily and provide a much needed service to fellow mothers and their families. We would either have a centralized pick up location or perhaps even a delivery service for an additional fee. Mika happens to be Japanese and a fantastic gourmet chef that specializes in Asian food. We would really be able to offer a wide spectrum of food pulling from our different backgrounds.

Anyhow, I'm hot on the idea today and actually feel like looking for a kitchen to rent. Tomorrow, who knows how hot or lukewarm I'll be. At the end of the day, I too am a busy mother. Furthermore, I like my lucrative job and think this is a bad time to be starting a business of any sort based on current economic woes. Perhaps there's a way to have my cake and eat it too. We'll see.

Random Tid Bits From Last Weekend...

Hubby and the kids made it through the weekend without getting the flu so I am also very grateful for that. We went to a good friend's Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday. Upon request, I made a traditional flan and a giant pot of chili verde. It was a fun party with great food and lots of Corona, of course. The kids had a blast as many other couples brought their kids.

Yesterday, we had all of the exposed wood in our backyard sealed and the fences painted. We used the most environmentally friendly products we could find. Now all of our fences are protected, match in color and the retaining walls also have a dark weatherproof stain on them.

There's a large vacant lot (1.25 acres) at the end of our court which is now for sale. It was purchased by investors approximately two years ago when the market was steaming hot, for
1M. The same party is now trying to dump it for $864,000. A bunch of us in the neighborhood think that it would make a fantastic private neighborhood park or rec. center if we were to buy it and fix it up. Of course I think it would make for some excellent organic gardening. Anyhow, we're looking at all going in on purchasing the property. It would be legally challenging and super messy for so many parties to own a single property, but worth a look all the same. Furthermore, no one in the neighborhood is keen on having it developed so buying it would be one way to prevent that from happening.

On an embarrassing side note, I'm temporarily on medication for a stomach issue. The medication is very safe and tolerable except for one extremely annoying side effect - it has caused me to re lactate. I found myself going to the grocery store yesterday to buy nursing pads so that I could spare my shirts. My doctor mentioned that there was a small chance that it might occur as a side effect but said it was VERY rare. What's worse is that it can actually make men who take it develop "man boobs" and begin to lactate too! Whoa. The medication increases prolactin secretion indirectly by interfering with the action of dopamine. Anyhow, sorry if this was TMI. I'm just glad I've been blessed with a sense of humor that allows me to laugh at my own misfortune.

Sad.

I am mourning for my good friend who lost her father over the weekend. Mary, my heart is with you.

Stomach Flu!

Blech!!! I contracted stomach flu from my parents who were sick from it last weekend. I started feeling the pain at 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning and I am just now beginning to feel normal, although still far from it. I would rather be afflicted with just about anything other than the stomach flu. I was bedridden the entire day but Mauricio was a champ and handled business with the kids and around the house so that all I was left to do was agonize in solitude. Dinner, homework, laundry, feeding the animals and cleaning was all taken care of, I love my pookie. He's such a Mr. Mom. Anyhow, we are praying that our vigilance in terms of sanitizing surfaces and avoidance of contact with me spared the rest of our family my fate. Unfortunately, the kids were at my folks house over the weekend while we attended a wedding. We will be very lucky indeed if they come away from all this exposure unscathed. To make matters worse, between now and Sunday we have THREE little league games and a Cinco de Mayo party to attend. Cross your fingers for us.