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September 2007

September 29, 2007

wcb: the bowtie throne

the bowtie throne

In a pose that is, I imagine, somewhat like the Princess and the Pea, 'ssouri Bowtie-face sits atop what was a momentary "get this out of my way" stack: detritus from my desk topped by the box that Dell shipped with replacement parts for my computer. (but why did they ship me a motherboard instead of a power supply? and why, oh why, did the dweeb I called to have it corrected refuse to replace it, choosing instead to argue with me about it? not a good move to make on someone who writes about technology...)

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September 23, 2007

whb: Sausage-stuffed Lovage recipe

sausage stuffed lovage

Lovage is one of those obscure, sort of old-world herbs, that few people seem to have heard of. You may even have some in your garden, like some friends of mine, who were nevertheless, unsure exactly what it was - it looks, smells and tastes like celery, after all, but it never actually grows any celery stalks. Confusing beast.

My first recollection of lovage only goes back a decade, to one of those 9 course tasting menus at the Herbfarm, which included Columbia River sturgeon in a ragout of apples, leeks and lovage. While I liked it quite a bit, someoneElse announced then and there that he was going to have to figure out how to make it. I offered, "It's in his cookbook," and someoneElse has been offering me food with lovage ever since.

Most of the time, youngish leaves are used - they toughen as they get older, so save the mature stalks for soups and other dishes where you will remove them before serving - chopped up to lend a slightly more complex celery flavor to food.

lovage The stalks, however, are hollow and lend themselves to all sorts of interesting uses. As a straw, for example, for a bloody mary or other vegetable juice based drink. Rumor has it that you can candy the stems like angelica, although I have never done it. You can even make them into decorative thingies by slicing them and tossing the cut pieces into ice water. Strange but true. What I wanted to try was a bit different: creating an appetizer by stuffing the fattest stems I could find with...something.

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September 22, 2007

Honey wheatBerry bread ~ for the boy

honey 'n wheatBerries

He’s as sweet as Skamokawa honey
Just like honey from the bee.
           Tupelo Honey, with apologies to Van Morrison

Sometimes it is, as the kids say, all about the boy.

We all know people who have done odd things for love: ran up multi-thousand phone bills, changed names and careers, moved to a city they would never have considered otherwise, or tried to replicate a mass-market loaf of bread.

This week at A Year in Bread, I make bread for the boy...

September 17, 2007

What I ate on my summer nonVacation ~ part 2

  baby artichoke in hands Everywhere you look these days, there are lamentations of summer's demise. I know fall is coming, and darned quickly too - but it is still harvest time out there in the fields and the local farm market is still bursting with goodness. Some seasons are just starting - last week's CSA bag was heavy with the first of the Stockhouse's sweet, tender corn. Not the last, mind you, the first.

Besides, summer is eternal in the photo archives.

Herewith, I offer part two of What I ate while I was notBlogging this summer: the farmer's market edition.

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September 16, 2007

ofvp: webs in the mist

misted web
It may be coming up on Fall but that isn't so bad. It simply means it changes to a different kind of beauty.

September 12, 2007

a little chicken? (update)

chicken

This is actually a test post to help figure out why my new posts aren't showing up on my main page. I think they are a little bit chicken. Not even as chicken as this lovely critter, just chicken enough to hide.

later that same evening...

Turns out that my main index page got deleted somehow. Oops! I've been mucking about in templates and such lately but I am pretty sure I didn't do it on purpose. in any case, it's fixed and now I can go back to writing up all the stuff that I haven't gotten to...

September 11, 2007

What I ate on my summer nonVacation - part 1

All of this lovely food came from over in the next valley where a couple of my friends have spent the last six months toiling away from dusk to dawn, building an organic farm for a new bed and breakfast. How cool of a job is that?

While it is also really hard work, as Dubya might say, Sarah (yes, our lady of the Cookie Lavender) and Connor always seem to glow with the accomplishment of creating a thriving organic farm. And who can blame them, just look at this stuff!

magical purple beans

I just know Alice would love these magical purple beans! What's not to love?

That iridescent purple that cloaks the mundane green bean is absolutely stunning. Yet by the time the bean is served, it has disappeared! It is a special treat just for the cooks, a tiny bit of backstage magic that makes it that much more fun to have a small person, like Alice, helping you in the kitchen and the garden.

Continue reading "What I ate on my summer nonVacation - part 1" »

September 02, 2007

it's a bouncing baby blog!

adorable tomatoes I feel almost like a proud parent on the first day of school, watching my baby walk off alone into the big, bad world. (Somewhere, theKid is reading this and cringing.) In this case my baby is a it more virtual, and luckily the labor pains were much less painful. Welcome kitchenMage's Herb Garden to the World Wide Web!

Grown less than a mile from me on an organic farm, these tomatoes were downright inspiring. So much so that I had to let the garden open its gates before it was fully leafed out, so to speak, but I'd love it if you'd go visit.weekend herb blogging icon

Not much bigger than those tiny little tomatoes, the Herb Garden is showing off a recipe I made up last night for Three Tomato Pasta - a fast and delectable way to use up a bit of the season's bounty (and my contribution to weekend herb blogging). And don't forget to wander over to Kalyn's Kitchen to check out this week's herb blogging roundup.

September 01, 2007

WCB: Let's Do the Time Warp Wrapup

Go. Read. This.

That is all.

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