REVERENCE

I spend a good portion of the day thinking about food in one form or another.  One of the things that I find stimulating and actually lots of fun, is mentally scouring the refrigerator, the garden and the larder 'looking' over what I have and what would combine to make a simple yet beautiful and delicious meal.  Actually this is something I don't do deliberately, but find my mind engaged in throughout the day.  Sometimes however, a meal comes together without what I consider to be that creative journey, and often I can see tomorrow night's meal while preparing tonight's meal.

However last Friday was one of the mental journey meals.  Having vowed to eat more fish (which I really haven't kept) I decided on salmon patties.

 A good can of pink salmon, chopped onions, fresh dill, Italian style bread crumbs, an egg, a dollop of mayonnaise, chopped fresh dill...form a patty and press it into Panko bread crumbs.  Fry in canola oil.

As my asparagus is quite abundant now, and as we love asparagus, I roasted a tray full lightly brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic powder.

Patties just out of the pan...

Asparagus just out of the oven...

Plated dinner.  I made a simple 'sauce' of mayo, sour cream, dill and a touch of lemon juice to add to the salmon...proved a good addition, mmmm.

...and at least for Freddie and I, a meal is just not complete without a fresh from the oven loaf of crusty bread...

And although we don't always have dessert, this puff pastry crust has become so easy, I keep some in the freezer always.  Simple to take out, roll out, add a filling, bake for 17 minutes and viola!  a great dessert.

I often think about the people who have so little to eat, who sometimes resort to garbage, to inedible things like sand, and yes, to 'junk' food.  We never fail to appreciate the fact that we are blessed to have such an abundance of good food at our table.  I feel it is a gift and a blessing to love to garden, to preserve, and to prepare good food.   I do not, by any means, ever take this for granted. 

CONTENT IN THE GARDEN

The second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, I travel to La Crosse for Spirited Women's writers group.  It is a very important part of my writing life.  Several weeks ago, our facilitator 'assigned' us five questions (regarding the group) to answer before the next session.  As poetry is what I most often choose to write, I answered each question in the form of a poem.  Here is the one entitled:  

The Meaning of the Group

Gathered at the glass-topped 
wooden table,
each here drawn by the magic
of words,
knowing how their placement,
just so on the page,
births a beauty
provocative and pure...
powerful, 
and above all,
essential.

We gather here 
knowing that the word
is the beginning,
the word
is with God,
the word
is God.

We gather here
on our journey
to the light.

  Despite this deep feeling for the group, yesterday I choose not to go, in order to plant the myriad tomatoes and peppers awaiting the garden in their tiny pots.

   Gardening, sinking my bare hands into the newly tilled soil, gently tamping each plant in place, carrying water, even weeding, are essential activities for me as well...just another journey to the light.

 I spent most of the morning, garden rake in hand, pulling the finely tilled soil up into mounds in which I would plant peppers, broccoli, etc.

  Looking west from my garden.  The tomato fences and the spade that replaced the garden rake when times really got tough.

A look at the garlic which was planted last November.  It seems to be doing really well.

The peas, which were planted in the early March warm spell.  They are profusely flowering, and we are anxious for their crisp sweetness.

I am trying, for the first time, growing my cucumbers on a trellis.  This saves garden space, and I think makes for better cucumbers.  (In my delight in purchasing plants, and seeing so many beautiful cucumber plants at my favorite Amish greenhouse, I realized when I got home that I had 12 cucumber plants.)  I gave two away.

)

Ten sweet potato plants, planted as the Amish, do under black plastic, in a mound of dirt.  I've done this now for many years, and the sweet potatoes are huge, and so easy to harvest.

Looking east towards the house.  Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, etc.  

I mulch between the rows with straw to keep the weeds down.  But mostly I mulch with straw because of its golden beauty.  Always I think of Rapunzel.

Lettuce and spinach and radishes, which we have been eating daily for many, many days.


I love my garden!  I love the chance to be vitally in the out of doors, I love the air, and the kiss of the sun, and the smell of the soil.  Such magic is holy.

ANOTHER LAMPSHADE

I had some multi-thread silk that I used for the warp of my latest lampshade.  For the weft I used a combination of reclaimed fabrics, light-weight cotton, silks, and rayon.  Some of these were old clothing that I cut into strips.

...an up close look at the completed frame....

The completed lampshade set on a lamp.

And here with the warmth of the light bulb shining through

Using the metal fram of an old lampshade for the 'loom' provides an interesting and sturdy base for weaving.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I have been thinking about my mother more than usual these past days.  I am filled with a deep nostalgia and wish she were still near, despite knowing that I carry her within me at all times.  

As my father was a traveling salesman she did much of the parenting without his being there....granted we heard a lot of "wait until your father gets home!"

We were fortunate to live with my grandmother's (my mother's mother) along with one of my mother's sisters, Minnie.  So we grew up surrounded by lots of 'Mothers' and owe each of them much of what we are.

I am profoundly grateful to them...their way of life and their parenting skills.  We had a large garden, a small vineyard, a huge larder filled with home canned goods, and always, always wonderful fresh, 'organic' food to eat.  We had little money, but we had plenty, plenty, plenty.

These woman gave me freedom to roam the woods behind the house and a love for all things natural.

They live in my heart and in my very flesh and blood and bones.  

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

My mother, me, my sisters Barbara and Jackie. (Our dear brother Vic, was not yet born.)

 

A BLUEBERRY KIND OF DAY

One of the things I always loved about being a mother was birthdays, where I could make a special cake, such as a train, a doll's dress, a piano, etc.  It was always such fun to think of a cake that matched something current in Jonel's life.  I think of all the cakes I made her, the upright piano cake was my favorite.  She was in high school, and studying the recorder as well as the piano.  I made a tiny sheet of the music which I propped on the piano, and a little vase of flowers on the top.

Now with granddaughters I get to do this double-fold.  I have made a dog, a monkey, a chick to name just a few.  This year I asked Elsa what she wanted me to make for her cake...Elsa the blueberry lover said "a blueberry cake"  I asked what shape and she said round.  So I initially thought, easy a blueberry layer cake.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this soon-to-be-three year old, plucked the blueberries out of muffins and mostly just ate those, so I doubted she wanted a cake with blueberries in it.  Giving it all a bit more thought over the days, I realized she probably really did not have a concept of a 9" layer cake as round, to her round probably meant round like a blueberry.  Duh!

Now this was a challenge.

 

 

 

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!!

The start of the birthday cake.  This was a great tasting cake and I, if anyone wished, could include the recipe.  I thought a lot about how I was going to accomplish a 'round' blueberry like cake, and decided the best I could do was a bunch of blueberries.  I used the smallest of my stainless steel bowls, of which I had two.  It took quite a while to bake all of the batter, two bowls at a time.

...butter and floured bowls before baking...

While the first two 'berries' were baking, I toyed around with cream cheese for frosting.  I had wanted to frost each small cake a deep blue and thought I could accomplish coloring with the blueberries.  Wrong, this only gave me a pinkish hue.  I tried blue food dye, (see above) but knew I really did not want the children ingesting this stuff.  It surely isn't a friendly food.  So searching for another idea.

First two 'berries' out of the oven.

 

All of them out of the oven and split in the middle.

A blueberry sauce spread on each....

Cream cheese frosting applied all around....

....blueberries covering each little round berry, was the closest I could come to a blue frosting....

A few flowers from the yard, an actual blueberry blossom and blueberry bush leaves from a neighbors bushes, and the cake is complete.   Elsa loved it!!!

SO WHO NEEDS HIGH TECH TOYS????????????

Not these girls................

GIVE A KID A BOX

...CUT A WINDOW...

....CUT ANOTHER WINDOW...

....TAPE, KIDS JUST LOVE TAPE...

....HOW CUTE IS THIS...

...A HOME IS MADE...

 ...PILLOWS AND BLANKETS...

...PRETTY RESTFUL....

...MORE BOXES...LOTS MORE...

...COOPERATION....

...ADDING MUCH NEEDED ROOF FOR PRIVACY...

AND THIS WENT ON FOR HOURS!!

What a joy to see such imagination in action with such simple 'toys'.  No need for fancy talking toys or remotes, etc.  Rich in the ways of childhood.  As an ex-Waldorf teacher, this just couldn't get any better.