Sweet Yet Sour

The First Tomato

Monday, July 27th, 2009 | Cooking | 2 Comments

Being a gardener in Colorado has many challenges, not the least of which is our short growing season.  Most plants and vegetables can’t be planted until after Mother’s Day when the threat of frost finally ends.  There’s also the summer heat, no humidity and therefore constant watering that most plants require.

The recycled garden has done well nonetheless.  I’ve harvested lots of herbs, a few small strawberries, and now, our first tomato!

Here she is, the little beauty:

The First Tomato

This is from my “Celebrity” tomato plant.  I also have tomatoes (although they’re all green) growing on the patio and cherry tomato plants.  I’m getting really good at making pico de gallo this summer (as usual I made up a recipe), so I’m going to use as many of these tomatoes for that as I can, along with throwing them on salads, sandwiches, etc.

Oh to live in the Northwest! My grandmother, who lives in Oregon, always calls to tell me that she’s harvesting her peas for Easter Dinner.  Instead, I got my first tomato in mid-July.  But she really is lovely and definitely worth the wait!

Baking and Julia

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 | Books, Cooking | 2 Comments

In the ongoing search for more ways to have fun in the kitchen, a friend of mine has come up with “Have the Cake” – a blogging and baking group.  Starting August 1st, those of us participating will be baking a selected item, one recipe per month, making our own adjustments, and blogging about the process.  It sounds like so much fun and I can’t wait to get started in a few days…

If you would like to participate, go to the Have the Cake website, and sign up! The more the merrier!

On another note, I am all about Julia Child these past few months. First, for our June bookclub we read “My Life in France”, Julia Child’s autobiography. I was struck by several things reading this book, but most notably how scientifically Julia approached cooking.  The woman made mayonnaise every day for two weeks to get the perfect recipe!  Julia carefully took notes on each recipe, including things like how the weather would affect something and what not to do to avoid pitfalls.  This is kitchen science that I can really appreciate – although I don’t practice it myself.  I’m much more of a “throw stuff together without measuring” kind of cook – but I think Julia’s method is great.

I was also struck by how much Julia loved France and the French people.  The Paris and Parisians of her time in France are so different from my experiences in France.  She speaks of kind, open people, when I was generally met with snootiness – but I think Parisians in general get sick of tourists.  I do remember fondly a woman who saw my sister and I dragging our bags along a road in the outskirts of Paris, stopped her car, got out and said, “Etes-vous perdu?” (”Are you lost?”) and carefully directed us to where we were going.

Reading the book did not, however, make me fall in love with French food.  There is far too much veal, duck (both of which I don’t eat or don’t like), and things like squib (baby pidgeon) for my taste.  There is a horrid description of a “pressed duck” that involves actually pressing the duck (it’s dead – don’t worry) in a canister… Bleech!

But, the book did make me want to add “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” to add to my cookbook collection.  Julia’s careful research and recipe writing would be nice to have in my inventory.

Now, in between continuing to try to get through, “Eat, Pray, Love”, I’m reading “Julie and Julia”.  A movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams is coming out soon based on this book and “My Life in France”.  “Julie and Julia” is a non-fiction account of a woman in New York city who decided to cook all of the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and blog about it.  I’m not finished yet, but so far I’m impressed that someone would attempt this in a New York city sized kitchen and a deep seated hatred of eggs.  There’s a lot of eggs in Julia Child’s world.  Thankfully Julie didn’t hate butter or she’d really have been in trouble.

All this reading about cooking (and watching “Top Chef Masters” every week) has really made me hungry and in a baking mood.  I’m glad “Have the Cake” is coming up so I can have some kitchen science of my own to dig into!

Anna’s 15 Month Check-Up

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | Anna | 4 Comments

Anna turned 15 months old last Sunday and we celebrated by taking her to the doctor on Tuesday.  I don’t think she appreciated the shots we gave her for 15 month birthday…

It was a struggle to get her to stay still long enough to weigh her, but the scale briefly flashed “17lbs 11oz.” so we went with that weight.  This means that Anna has gained almost a pound in a month and is continuing on her weight gain curve.  Our doctor is hopeful that if we continue to feed her butter, cream and cheese, that she will be back on the 3rd percentile curve by 18 months.

Otherwise Anna is 30 3/4 inches tall – putting her at the 50th percentile for height. Tall and skinny – that’s my girl!  At the risk of finger loss her doctor delved into Anna’s mouth and found 2 molars erupting – which nicely explains the finger chewing that Anna has been doing.

Prior to going to the doctor we made a list of Anna’s words and counted about 25 words that she says.  Just as a note, we count them as words if they sound “mostly” like the real word and she uses them in the right context.   For example, “dow”, which she says as we go down the stairs or when she wants to get down.  But other easier words she does quite well, like “Hi”, “bye” and “bee”.  We beamed with pride when told by the doctor that at 15 months most children only have 6 words.

Oh, and she’s still pretty cute – even when her faced is stuffed full of watermelon:

Cutie

But, I must make a mental note and not allow Mike to clean her up after a meal.  He has a tendency to do some hairstyling reminiscent of his long ago punk days:

Anna/Sid Vicious

Granted, Anna did comply and do her most Sid Vicious of looks for the camera.  I’m sure Mike is so proud!