Harvest Market

Hello! Wednesdays are still farmers market days here.

And the crowds are less, as it is admittedly chilly. Good for me who is impatient when there's nowhere to park.

The vendors are few but they have lovely late fall produce. Big bags of baby spinach!

It seems too early for Christmas trees! But I love the idea that the local tree growers are bringing their trees to us.

This is the time for cabbage-y type cold weather crops:

And for root veggies...

Look at these turnips, big as a softball. I must try mashed turnips sometime?

I love the colored beets and turnips. No clue what one does with them.

All types of winter squash. Here a few acorn squash for my Thanksgiving menu:

And look how green everything is! Sweet tender fall lettuces...

Peppers and tomatillos and weird giant stalks of brussels sprouts.

Trader Joe's flyer says to roast the entire stalk. Hmmm. But then where will the turkey go?

 

 

I got these amazing colorful broccoli. [edit: correction, these are cauliflowers].

The green one just blows me away.

How can we eat this? It looks like a cactus or an undersea coral.

I plan to steam them and serve with a retro Velveeta cheese sauce! May add some chicken fingers that night, for the kids. For me the veggies are plenty!

This is a current favorite at my house: marinated goat cheese [olive oil/ tarragon/ flavored pepper/ a garlic clove]. I put it in the little Weck flat canning jar and smoosh it up.  [any jar or plastic tub works].

Spread on a fresh baguette.
The cheese guy wasn't at the market so I picked up supermarket goat cheese, which is fine. You can try a few brands to see which you like the best, my fave is Trader Joe's chevre, not sure of the brand name.

I also picked up some deep pinky-red tiny roses at the supermarket. They'll be a sweet constrast to me new autumn neutrals, a pretty punch of happy color.

Tonight is lazy night because I am helping my daughter bake for her Autumn bake sale. Making BLTs on 10 grain croissants and pre-made [okay, okay--canned!] corn chowder.

Easy meal for a windy November night while the house fills with the scent of pumpkin pound cake and pumpkin-cranberry scones.

Back to the baking! Have a lovely evening!

love  

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Nature Journals

 Hi everyone! Foggy here, a day for catching up...

I took some time earlier to update my current journal and to photograph some pages  from previous years.

Autumn, to me, is the prime time for watching nature, for collecting red leaves and shiny brown acorns, for watching the evening skies for "V"s of ducks and geese.

When I was a very little girl we lived in a rather rural area, with diverse, beautiful trees and fields, creeks and ancient apple orchards. Wildflowers, mosses, and what we believed were Indian trails through the woods.

In this era of playdates and sports and structured child time, it's hard to picture how simple and quiet our lives were then. My mom, a young woman in her twenties, invented for me the after-school Nature Walk---a way to get us out of the house, my nose out of a book. We'd hike and observe and I learned a lot. It gave me a lifelong interest in natural surroundings.

My mother said the orchards were planted by Johnny Appleseed! And that fairies (Tinkerbell!?) dwelled in the mossy gnarled roots. One snowy moonlit night she bundled us up and took me out to look for animals tracks in the snow: Look! Mouse tracks! I was enchanted.

I was given my first nature guide, a Golden Guide bird book, for I think my 5th birthday. It still sits with the rest of my collection, now heavily attuned to beach and seashore, on its special shelf. A birthday wish inside, in my mom's handwriting.....

I didn't begin doing my journals til I was a young mom myself, bored with just siting on the beach with my toddlers, I wanted them to see and enjoy what creatures and plants were here with us.

I began my watercolor books at that time.

I also sometimes collect and press flowers and plants---an entry can be as simple as a pressed pansy. This deep purple baby was planted Fall of 2012; it survived a hurricane, an icy winter, and went on to reseed itself at the base of one of my palm trees. I brought it inside for the winter, and pressed just one flower, to note its hardiness.

The current book is supposed to be seaweeds.

I collected them last summer (2012) and hoped they'd be well dried by now. Ooops. I discovered that seaweeds, mostly saltwater, must be pressed on their permanent page. The paper towels I'd used had fused to the wet plants, rendering them useless.
[leaves are easier!]

Maybe I should go rescue that Yellow Pages I just put out in the recycle bin? Hmmmm.

click on photos to enlarge/ or for slideshow.

 

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

November Flea-ing and Thrifting---plus a recipe!

 

Hello everyone! It's been oddly chilly here but oh so pretty and November-blustery.

Last week my friend B drove down to visit. Off we went to the thrift shops. (You can see above that the urban mainland towns have no picturesque charm whatsoever!)
But first we found a new-to-me yarn shop. B drives so I can navigate. Good thing, as this was so teeny tiny and in a one way alley---I'd never have found it on my own.
I do love to be able to see and touch the yarns I use, so I was happy discover this tiny shop. Good and bad: the owner was nice, they had a small selection of fine yarns. The not so great [but I can see why they do it]: there was a knitting club in session that day and to me it felt like I was intruding, like I walked into someone's home! The shop is about the size of my kitchen and the ten or so ladies filled it to bursting. Maybe we'll go back, next time with a friend who crochets?

Nearby, a shop that B likes a lot.

This is a better quality thrift shop---consignment clothing and vintage clothes, a few pieces of furniture and home decor. LOL, cute turkeys! I resisted.

I have had my eye on this Venetian glass mirror.

Been wanting it for a year or more. The price is right too...but it is just too ornate for my cottage. I wanted it for that dining room wall where I just hung the driftwood star. A mirror would look neat there..it would reflect the ocean and light. But, sadly not this one. The good news is that B got a gorgeous black wool Tahari suit in her size. $15.oo! Wow.

After that we went to the thrift shop by the flea market. It can be a treasure trove. But not last Friday. The shelves were pretty bare! Do you think spring is a better thrifting time? When people spring clean and do not want to store all the winter-y junk?
By then we were starving! We had dinner at  our favorite Thai restaurant. We keep saying we'll try someplace new---but the alternative good place had a 45 minute wait---to eat at the bar! That's not fun, so Padh thai and spring rolls, yummy!

I did the flea market alone this past Sunday:

Yeah I fell for another big mixing bowl...

It looks like a Red Wing bowl...and the guy swore it was.

But it also kinda looks like a repro with its satiny perfect glaze. No markings.... I've paid in the hundred-plus dollars for Red Wing bowls so it was well worth 15.oo.

The same dealer had this very large platter stashed in his van but he brought it out for me. It's bigger than it looks in the photos, like a very large turkey platter. Beautiful cobalt blue sponge design--again, though: repro? The dealer said 1920s? Hmmm.

It has markings on the reverse but they are faint and indecipherable. 20.00. Great photo prop for my handmades.

 

The background quilt top is a recent eBay treasure.

 

 

 

It is rather fragile but I hope to have it quilted; that would help preserve it. I think it will require a narrow border to stabilize it. This calico is not as pink as it seems, it's a nice red. Or I can use something from my antique fabric stash. I want a double pink calico for the backing!

 

 

Wonderful design and colors; I love the red triangles mixed in the tan points. Probably that tan was also red and has now faded with age.

 

                             

Recipe! I love to bake and I use any excuse to do so. A friend is coming? Gotta bake a cake! When B to visit came I made a blueberry lemon pound pound cake, to serve with Double Bergamot Earl Grey tea, on that windy and chilly Friday.  I'd seen the cake on Pinterest, zillions of choices here

I cheated! I used a pound cake mix. Subbed Greek yogurt and skim milk for the water; added lots of lemon extract flavoring and a box of fresh blueberries. Baked in my old bundt pan. For the glaze, I mixed more lemon flavoring with confectioners sugar, drizzled that on top. It must have been a good cake because my kids, who usually refuse to eat my baked goods, gobbled it up! The point is, you can have the fun of baking and make your house smell warm and delicious without endless hard work and expense...just picture the end result you want and experiment! Can hardly go wrong with a mix and a bundt pan...

have a great weekend! Bake a cake?

love


lizzy





.........gone to the beach

 

 

 

 

 Original recipe here I think.....