Whiteley Creek Homestead

i shan't go to town

No, I shall stay home today. The most beautiful pale pink hollyhock burst forth... a late bloomer on this final day of August.

 

...and my cosmos is so lovely, too. Yes, pink is my favorite color... for today anyway.

pear tree

Earlier this spring, I shared a photo I took of blossoms on my pear tree. So very pretty... but it never bore any fruit. Twenty years since I planted my pair of Minnesota-hardy Harbin Pear trees... never any fruit. 

 

Until about a month ago... To my amazement, the tree was heavily-laden with the most beautiful pears. Small... barely 2 inches across and very firm.

 

Today, I picked up some that had fallen on the ground to see if I can encourage ripening by placing them in a brown paper bag.

 

Such a pretty blush...

organic sweetie cherry tomato

As I walked down my garden path to dig a few potatoes to make a pot of soup, I noticed that my "Autumn Joy Sedum" has ever so slightly begun to take on its fall coloring. Sedum ranks just behind sumac as a marker of autumn's approach. A bee and a daddy long leg happily shared space together. (Click the photo to enlarge it.)

  

Look how the clusters of cherry tomatoes hang so neatly on the vine as they ripen...like a necklace of beads. I started these Organic Sweetie Tomatoes from seed last winter and transplanted them into my garden this spring. They live up to their name... so very sweet. My online research confirms my palate's analysis. This particular tomato variety is known for its low acidity and high sugar content.

 

I purchased the perfect metal pail from my friend Sandy, who owns "Country Roots Greenhouse" and a gardening gift shop 7 miles east of Brainerd, to gather each day's harvest. It came with a flat lid sporting a little round loop in the center just large enough to slip your finger through to lift it off. So fun...

 

my classroom

I have returned to the classroom... not as a teacher but as a student. A load of laundry is sloshing round and round in my front-loading washer, my dishwasher is so graciously cleaning my dishes for me, and my bread machine is kneading and providing a perfectly controlled temperature for my honey whole wheat bread's first rise so that I can then place it in a bread pan for its second rise before inserting in the oven. I picked a bouquet of cosmos from my garden and prepared a steaming cup of herbal orange spice tea (rosehips, orange peel, hibiscus, blackberry leaf, cloves, and roasted chicory) in my Grandma Grace's teacup. The birds feeding just off my backporch are supplying the most lovely melodies... no need for a nature CD. This is my classroom.  

 

I am earning my Bachelor's Degree in Holistic Nutrition. I have a jump start, since my general ED credits from the first two years of my Bachelor's and Master's education degrees transferred, so I am able to begin my core classes right away. I am taking two 3-credit classes to earn 6 credits this first term. One class is Basic Herbology and the other is Fundamentals of Holistic Nutrition. Since I will soon be mixing my own teas, tinctures, and creams, Dick has begun calling me the "Voodoo Queen". You see, there is a guy from Brainerd that provides music in the evenings in one of the entertainment buildings at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion at Rollag, Minnesota that is held every Labor Day Weekend.  He does an amazing rendition of a song named "Marie Laveau" about a voodoo lady who lived in a swamp in Louisiana. Every night, throughout the event, we request that he sing the song.

Marie Laveau Words & Music by Shel Silverstein & Baxter Taylor. 

Down in Lou´siana where the black trees grow

Lives a voodoo lady named Marie Laveaux.

She got a black cat tooth and a mojo bone,

And anyone wouldn´t leave her alone.

She go GREEEEEEEEEEEE...

Another man done gone.

She live in a swamp in a hollow log

With a one-eyed snake and a three-legged dog.

She got a bent bony body and stringy hair,

And if she ever seen you messin´ round there,

She go GREEEEEEEEEEEE...

Another man done gone.

And then one night when the moon was black,

Into the swamp came Handsome Jack.

A no-good man like you all know,

And he was lookin´ around for Marie Laveaux .

He said, "Marie Laveau, you lovely witch,

Why don´t you gimme a little charm that´ll make me rich.

Gimme million dollars, and I´ll tell you what I´ll do...

This very night I´m gonna marry you."

It´ll be UMMMMMMMM...

Another man done gone.

So Marie did some magic and she shook a little sand,

Made a million dollars, and she put it in his hand.

Then she looked and she said , "Hey hey,

I´m gettin´ ready for my wedding day."

But ol´ Handsome Jack said "Good-bye Marie.

You too damn ugly for a man like me."

So Marie started shakin´, her fangs started gnashin´,

Her body started shakin´, and her eyes started flashin´.

She went GREEEEEEEEEEEE...

Another man done gone.

So if you ever get down where the black tree grow

And meet a voodoo lady named Marie Laveaux,

And if she ever asks you to make her your wife,

Man, you better stay with her for the rest of your life

Or it´ll be GREEEEEEEEEEEE...

Another man done gone.

 

Copyright © 1972  /  Evil-Eye Music Inc , N.Y

clothesline

 

Oh, how I love to hang laundry outside... especially on these pre-autumn days in Minnesota when the morning and late evening/night are slightly crisp, the daytime shadows are different... longer, and the sumac has changed into its seasonal hues.

Just Food

My friend, Sheila, is an avid... oh, that word doesn't begin to accurately describe her voracious appetite for books. Voracious... grrrrrr... that's better. Her passion for books led to her starting a book club that she has been hosting for eight years which was naturally destined to develop into her most recent adventure. She has a book blog where she posts what she is reading along with her personal reviews of the books. Frequently, authors send her additional copies of their books to give away, which she graciously does through drawings. Her most recent drawing is for Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly by James E. McWilliams. I read a few pages inside the book on Amazon's listing... very thought-provoking. The author's premise is that the farm-to-table movement, which factors in how far a type of food must travel from where it is produced to finally end up on our plate determining whether it is a conscientious choice or not, is flawed. He believes that food miles are "only a minor link in the complex chain of food production". It peaks my interest to want to read more. If you'd like to enter Sheila's drawing for this book, click on this link to her One Person's Journey Through a World of Books Blog. Pour yourself a mug of aromatic coffee or a steaming a cup of herbal tea. She will draw you in like an impromptu visit with a good friend.    

 

refrigerator pickles

Snatching a small enamel pan to gather today's garden bounty, I headed to my garden to dig enough potatoes for today's lunch. The beef bourguignon that I prepared yesterday was so tasty that I thought, to change it up a bit for a second meal, I would serve it over mashed potatoes. (It turned out to be a great idea! I would, without hesitation, serve it that way again.) I picked two cukes to make refrigerator pickles as a side... 

 

and popped some cherry tomatoes in my mouth as a treat.

 

This is a recipe that my sister, Rita, shared with me many years ago. It's quick... no need to fuss with the whole canning process as these pickles are stored in the fridge.

Refrigerator Pickles

Combine:

1 cup sliced cucumbers

1 cup onion, sliced

1 cup green pepper, sliced (I omitted this.)

Stir together:

1 cup vinegar

2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup... just the perfect sweetness.)

1 tsp celery seed

1 tbsp salt

Pour over and let set 24 hours. You can reuse the vinegar solution. Just toss in some more cuke slices.

birthday card

 

It is my youngest daughter Jessie's 29th birthday today. She loves to craft as much as I do, so I couldn't wait to give her this card. She even has a mannequin in her craft room, which increased the perfectness quotient. 

 

Here's the inside of the card... Oh, yeah. It's so fun to stumble upon the perfect card. (I received an inquiry as to where I found this card. I purchased it at Walmart. There were three left in the rack after I bought mine. I went back two days later to purchase another. Nope... none left, and there hasn't been any since. It's gotta be out there somewhere.)

35th wedding anniversary

Today is Dick's and my 35th wedding anniversary. We decided to eat at Lost Lake Lodge north of Brainerd.

 

We ordered a dinner for two "special" for $69.00!! We each ordered walleye that was steamed in a parchment pouch. 

 

 

The restaurant has a grist mill where they grind their own flour and make their own bread. That is what drew me to them.

 

We were seated next to a window with the most spectacular view... as the sun sank lower and lower and we reminisced about puttering along in our boat with our three little girls in that very Gull Lake Channel so many years ago... until darkness fell... and we began the first day of our 36th year together.

beef bourguignon

Well, we saw it tonight... the Julie and Julia movie. I don't know that I will emmulate real-life Julie Powell's year-long challenge of cooking her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging about it, but the story was so down-to-earth... so current... so easy to immerse oneself into Julie's world and understand her motivation and determination. FYI: Julia Child died in 2004 two days before her 92nd birthday. Real-life Julie Powell began her Julie/Julia Project in 2002. Her blog caught the attention of a major newspaper that wanted to do a feature on her, so she chose to prepare Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon when the reporter came to her tiny apartment above a pizza shop in Queens to interview her. Wouldn't you know it, when I grabbed a box of Imagine Organic Beef Cooking Stock from my pantry to rehydrate my TVP (textured vegetable protein) to make vegetarian taco salad, there was a recipe on the back of the box for... you guessed it... Beef Bourguignon! I try to be alert and look for signs to direct me down paths in life. I figured this was a sign. If Julia Child has a version of it in her book, it must be good, right? If it showed up on the big screen, how can it not be worth trying?  So I trekked off to the grocery store to purchase some stew meat and Pinot Noir (wine). I omitted the small white onions and button mushrooms. I had everything else. I even found a bottle of organic Pinot Noir with an adorable picture of a 1950 or 1951 Ford pickup parked by a barn at a vineyard. 

 

The recipe really turned out very tasty. Dick and I even took a nap while it simmered unattended on the stove for two hours. If you viewed the Julie & Julia movie, you know what happened when Julie fell asleep on the couch while her pot simmered on the stove (or baked in the oven). Go ahead and let it simmer and forget it. It turns out beautifully.

 

I had some Pinot Noir remaining in the bottle, so here it is three weeks later (August 31, 2009) and I made another batch. This time I simmered it 1/2 hour longer, so it would thicken a bit more making it the perfect consistency to serve over mashed freshly dug potatoes... not at all proper according to French cuisine I'm sure, but no matter.   

Beef Bourguignon

1 lb boneless lean chuck steak, trimmed (I used stew meat and cut each chunk into 3 smaller pieces.)

¼ cup flour

4 tbsp oil (I used 2 tbsp olive oil.)             

1 cup diced onions

12 oz small white onions, peeled and blanched (I omitted.)

4 cloves garlic crushed (or diced)

1 cup sliced carrots

2 tbsp herbes de Provence or other mixed dried herbs (I used 2 tsp marjoram, 2 tsp thyme, and 2 tsp leaf oregano.)

3 cups beef stock

1 tsp turbinado sugar

2 cups Pinot Noir

4 oz small button mushrooms (I omitted.)

2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

Sea salt, to taste

Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Cut the chuck steak into small cubes (or use stew meat), pat dry, and coat with flour. Heat the oil in soup pot, add the onions and garlic and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the beef and brown for 2 minutes (or until you get some nice caramelization going on in the bottom of the pan). Add carrots and herbs. Gradually stir in the beef stock, sugar, and wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Add mushrooms (or not) and tomatoes and simmer gently, covered, for 2 hours (or 2 1/2 hours for a bit thicker consistency that is perfect for serving over mashed potatoes). There is no need to stir. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with warmed crusty French bread. Serves 4.