Heat Wave

Sweltering hot and only the first week in April. April is cool breezes, rain showers, cold dew in the morning, and always unpredictable. Where is spring? All anyone can talk about around here is how to avoid turning on the AC.

I got to get my hands dirty again, this time really feeling the sweat and heat. A little taste of the torture I will endure this summer. My garden is starting to fill up! Cilantro, parsley, and borage are planted, but I think I might have planted them too deep. They might not make it up to see the light of day. Insert sad face here. But now I have a row of red onions, lavender, cinnamon basil, sweet basil, and radishes. I've always liked deer, such sweet and quiet creatures. But if one of those doe-eyed animals decides my onions will make a sweet snack, I might be tempted to go hunting come this September...or invest in a crazy, electric deer fence.

My dad is thirty some years older than I am yet could have done five-times the amount of work as I did. I've got to build up some endurance to withstand the heat and back aches. There is something very satisfying about doing physical labor. I don't experience it often, but I do know that my beer tasted better and a bath felt luxurious.

Baking disaster #193: Red Velvet Cake
Kevin requested a red velvet cake for his birthday, so I made him banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. They were truly yummy. But mom wanted another cake made for the weekend and I had to cave in and try the trashiest cake known to humanity, red velvet. The name reminds me of molded carpet heavy with the scent of cigarettes. Three tablespoons of red food coloring made the cake smell like play dough and taste like it too. Never again, never again. At least it looked pretty. Oh, and the frosting was good. Everybody ate the frosting.

Picnic Blanket

Four or five years ago I found this quilt made by my grandmother. I pretty much stole it from my mother...but I think she knows and is okay with that. I guess parents are used to such crimes. It has been my faithful companion through the spring and summer months, holding up as a beautiful and comfortable picnic blanket. It's covered in stains and would shred into a thousand tiny little pieces if I put it in a washing machine. I once hand washed it and hung it from a shower rack, which immediately gave way and broke due to the weight. I don't know why I'm writing about the blanket. It's just kind of special to me and part of the backdrop to many special memories.

Finally the rows were run and I got three types of seeds into the ground: cilantro, parsley, and borage. According to dad most people around here plant their seeds around Easter. I guess that means tomorrow or Sunday I'll be planting the remainder of my plants. I just hope there won't be any more frosts between now and then. Kevin helped me till the rows, remove a ridiculous amount of wire grass, and crumble giant dirt clods into manageable soil. I am very thankful that someone was there to help. You don't just sprinkling seeds and cover them up. Did you know that watering the seeds after planting isn't the wisest thing to do? Instead plant when there is a little moisture in the soil, so the seed can get some water to produce growth. But if you water the seed, the growth starts immediately and then lack of rain stops the growing process and your seed is stunned.

As I was working on Wednesday I had several run-in's with dad's bees. We might have a problem since my garden is right beside their hive. I hate getting stung by a bee. You'd think I would be used to it by now. When we were little my cousins told me that after May you had to go outside barefooted. I was always trusting enough to agree to whatever truths they declared, and therefore got my share of splinters, stings, cuts, and scrapes. Our drive way was shaded by chestnut tree after chestnut tree for heaven's sake! If I had any sense I would have always wore shoes.

Almost forgot! I love the bread dough from Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. I was really amazed at how little effort I put forth into making really great loaves of bread. There is a great crust on the bread and a tasty chewy center. The dough that had been refrigerated longer tasted more yeasty, which I loved. We ate an entire loaf with goat cheese and apples for lunch today. YUM!

Things in motion

Finally I got some good manure on the ground to make my garden feel ripe and ready for some seeds and plants. I'm a little late on the parsley and cilantro. Hopefully we'll get one more good frost to help the out. I say that for the sake of the plants, because I would be just fine saying goodbye to cool weather. I'm going to test my soil tomorrow. You take a jar and fill it 2/3rds the way full with water, a squirt of dish liquid (not sure why), and fill with soil. Shake it up and allow it to settle for two days. When it settles you will see the ratio of clay, sand, and silt. I think that's right...I'm looking for something called loam soil. Let's hope.


I really love cooking greek food. It really doesn't require much cooking at all and it's usually healthy. My husband and I really enjoyed making this pan seared tilapia with quinoa, cucumbers, and feta from Everyday Food. For the recipe go to Shutterbean, a great food blog. Here was our addition:
TZATZIKI SAUCE! We bought a small container of Fage plain greek yogurt, used some of the diced cucumber, three garlic cloves, plenty of chopped fresh dill, a squirt of lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. I've been snacking on it all week. I really love it piled onto a wheat cracker.

Embroidery Beginnings

The coolest thing about embroidery, by far, are these awesome golden crane scissors. They remind me of The Decemberists album The Crane Wife. Embroidery isn't nearly as easy as it looked, but I'm learning it's like that with most things. I'm amazed at how awkward these stitches can feel and look. But I think the idea is very interesting. It's really drawing on fabric with thread, instead of using paints on canvas. A very cheesy thought indeed, but I've always wanted to have the ability to pick up a paint brush and create a beautiful impressionistic landscape to frame and hang on my walls. This is how I get to feel like an artist.

Practice, practice, practice.

I saw two really good movies over the weekend. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was heart wrenching but excellent. Everyone in the room was crying at the end. The sickening horror of what inhumanity took place during Nazi Germany is hard to shake. What's worse is that mass murders are happening all over the world and it's not just a thing of the past. We also watched Precious which was very difficult but managed to bring up excellent points about overcoming hate, poverty, and abuse. I wouldn't give my job up for anything in the world, because I have the privilege of helping, even if it's only teaching a student how to write a sentence or divide a large number. That's precious to me.

Spring Things

Yes, I know the fabric resembles something worn by Blanche Devereaux on a spring date with a white haired man, but I found it enduring because it not only screams old lady from the 80's but spring, spring, SPRING! Can't you hear her drawn out southern voice saying it seductively? I was hoping that this project, like the wallet, would be easy like the front of the pattern stated. I found it to be more of a challenge then I had hoped for, and had to get help from the hubby who, thanks to years of playing with legos as a child, has the talent for visualizing how to create certain shapes. If I have a daughter she will play with legos. I hope she doesn't feel as crippled as I do in these situations. Next on the to do list is an apron for mom which I hope to give her for mother's day.

My two weeks of spring break are almost here. I have so many projects that I want to begin. First off is baking lots of homemade bread! I recently purchased Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which promises dough that will last two weeks in the fridge. You make a big batch and scoop out what you need, shape, let it rise for twenty minutes, then bake for 30 minutes. If that is the case, I might be finally won over to the idea of baking my own bread. Before I saw this book, I was never really tempted with all the rising and kneading and TIME. You need rhythm to knead and I have none.

There is a hill at school that is covered with tiny blue flowers and the students and I can't help but comment on them every day on our walk back from recess. Anticipation for more blooming is almost overwhelming. No seeds have been sown in my garden yet. Tomorrow I have some time off and I hope I remember my camera.

Hobbies

I don't like the word hobbies. That word makes the learning process sound always enjoyable and easy. You don't call school a "hobby." Is a hobby something that isn't necessary, or something that's less important? Pursed for pleasure? Point is, I didn't like it when Matt referred to my sewing/crocheting/etc as hobbies. I told him Div School was a hobby. He shakes his head.
I do think that it's pleasurable, but I have other motives and reasons. Reasons that include not making the highlight of my week a shopping trip or only tasting culinary magic at a restaurant. Creating is a powerful thing. Power to the people.



I'm pretty excited about these two books. I heard about A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg from several of the blogs I follow, but also because she writes baking articles for Bon Appetit that I look forward to reading every month. Her and her husband just opened up a pizzeria. I think this, like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, would be a great book to read with a book club. I don't have enough friends close by, but maybe Kerri would be interested in it or Whitney. That's an idea...
Embroidered Effects looks to be full of valuable information for someone who knows nothing about the subject, like myself.

Today in class I played soccer for approximately two seconds with the boys. I thought I was cool running down the gym towards the unsuspecting goalie, boys screaming behind, at my very heels, when I go to kick, miss the ball and send my shoe flying right at the goalie's head. There's no one cooler than Mrs. Ballard. Same thing happened with the shoe during science. I didn't realize how much kicking teaching involves.

I went to the library in search for gardening books. I'm pretty obsessed and I'm thinking about naming it or something. I've already called Dad asking when will I get a chance to come over and feed the soil some cow poop. I feel like it's a pet or child or something that needs my love and attention. As if the plowed patch of dirt is lonely all by itself, feeling unloved. By the way, Matt went back on his word and is so excited about our baby garden.

Obsession

Quickly wanted to post a few blogs that I waste hours of my life reading.
Posie Gets Cozy
Joy the Baker
Smitten Kitchen (this place is packed full of some of the most delicious meals/sweets I've ever seen!)
Shutterbean