Kitty's Scratch Pad

Art Basel 2010

Photos are up!  Next time (2012) we bring two cameras and I will focus more on documenting and less on shameless gawking and drooling over art, parties, food and fun in Miami.

Highlights for 2010:

• Staying at the Fontainebleau
• Scope (Byrtynsky's photos of the burning Deepwell Horizon) 
• Beach Cruisers for riding between South Beach and Wynwood
• The Rubell Family Collection (Jennifer Rubell's food installation "Just Right")
• Shake Shack
• Aqua (Amy Casey, Tetsugo Hyakutake, Michele Mikesell)
• Metric at Oceanfront Park
• Dinner at Michael's Genuine in the Design District

(click on the image to view the full set)

 

 

 

 

 

School Shopping and Stunt Doubles

We got through most of our annual school shopping done tonight.  Binder - check, mechanical pencils - check, composition book - check, clothes - check. 

Now that Fen is 13, I have a lot less say in his appearance.  In our home we pick our battles and this one is very low on the list.  I won't lie, I still provide my opinion and reserve ultimate veto power.  Today we clobbered the sale rack at Urban Outfitters and Fen has a bunch of new t-shirts, a new hat and some super glasses.  Yep, glasses with plastic lenses that are only meant to be worn as a fashion accessory. 

When he put it all together, I couldn't help but think if Judah Friedlander needs a stunt double, Fen is all set to fill in...

 
 

 

 

Beans Beans

More canning adventures ensued this past weekend.  Alex insisted on two pounds of huckleberries from the Ballard Farmers Market which I smashed and cooked down into a wonderful jam.  We finished our weekend foraging in the garden and decided to pick some beans for dinner.  There were more than the two of us could ever consume in a single sitting so the rest went into a small batch of pickles.  I pulled the recipe from one of my favorite canning books, "Well Preserved" and got going.  The beans were super long and fit perfectly into my Weck asparagus jars.  The process was insanely simple - it took maybe a half hour to prepare.  Now we just have to wait for them to soak up as much salty, delicious vinegar as possible.  I am sure one jar won't make it past this weekend as we have high hopes for a homemade brunch coupled with Bloody Marys.

  


 
  

I Think I'm In Love

Best hair product EVER.  Absorbs oil and keeps your coiffure in check for days.

 

Scarecrows

I have a beautiful fig tree on the south side of the backyard and for the past few years, I haven't harvested a single piece of fruit.  I once heard that squirrels are simply rats with pretty tails.  After watching them steal my figs for th past few years, I decided to take charge and came up with a plan.  I planted catnip throughout the garden to encourage the neighbor kitties over to our house.  Yep, I am the neighborhood feline drug pusher.  And so far it is working!  I was surprised to find that instead of coming to our yard for a little kitty fix and chasing down some squirrels, they really come to our yard for a little kitty fix and just lay around.  So instead of attracting fierce hunters, I have attracted a bunch of scarecrows.  Either way, I cannot complain and so far the figs look great.

Eating Locally

A few weekends ago I was out in the garden doing my usual upkeep.  I provided some extra water, minor pruning and had a lengthy conversation with my cucumbers about our shortened season and their need to hurry up and grow.  Just as I finished my discussion, my neighbor Tom popped his head above the fence (Home Improvement style) and asked if we wanted some goat milk from their mama goats.  Uhh...yes...please!  Then he handed over a Chevre starter and a dozen eggs from their chickens! 

During the week, I prepped the cheese and the following weekend Alex made a wonderful frittata.  The best part was knowing every single ingredient (except the salt) was from no more than 100 yards of our house.

Farmhouse Frittata

Ingredients

1 small onion chopped finely

2 cloves garlic chopped finely

1 tbs each of chives, green onion, thyme, tarragon and basil

4 egg whites & 2 eggs beaten

2 tbs fresh chevre

salt to taste

Directions

Over medium-high heat, saute the onions and garlic In a lightly oiled small skillet, until soft and aromatic.  Slowly pour the beaten eggs over the onions.  Sprinkle the herbs evenly over the eggs and cover.  Allow eggs to cook almost completely.  Add small clumps of the chevre on top and cover again.  When eggs are fully cooked, remove from heat.  Add salt to taste and serve.

 
  

A Case of the Peculiar Tomato and Other Tales from the Garden

Summer finally came and with it our garden is finally full of life.  Through the CEL plant start program I ended up with more tomatoes than I knew what to do with.  We have a total of eleven different plants!  Through the season I have been diligent with my care.  I fed them kelp, compost tea and hand watered them when they seemed thirsty.  I have carefully tied them as they have grown  - some nearly six feet tall.  Throughout the season, I have removed the suckers at the axial of the plants.  Removing the secondary and tertiary growth is usually the last step in my care and by this point, I am feeling lazy.  So typically, I toss the unwanted suckers off the deck into a small pile which is eventually composted.  A month or so ago, I noticed a little tomato plant growing in between the rock pathway on the south side of the garden.  It was so peculiar and neat that we decided to keep it.  In this time, it has grown into a full size plant and is full of flowers just waiting to fruit.  With eleven plants, we are sure to have a bumper crop and I cannot wait to devour it with a little salt and some fresh burrata.

Since gardening is all about trial and error, I figured I would throw things in my new vegetable beds just to see what happens.  My biggest mistake was over-planting.  And while my tomatillas are a little crowded by the squash everything seems to be growing anyhow.  For fun, I planted a cinderella pumpkin.  This has been the probably been the main attraction and surely the biggest conversational piece when folks come to visit.  I imagine it could be the main character in a terrible B movie, "The Pumpkin that Ate Seattle".  It will be fun to track the growth and see how many pumpkins we are able to harvest.

Some of the other highlights so far include salad greens, snap peas, rhubarb, strawberries, zucchini, onions, shallots and soon we should have cucumbers.

Before and After

Our yard is going through a fairly big transformation this year.  The irrigation is in and the trees have come down.  Without realizing, we scheduled the removal of four trees on Earth Day.  It was accidental, completely ironic and totally worth it.  In an effort to win back some gratitude from Mother Earth, I spread the mulch leftover from the massive removal around the yard.  The cedar aroma fills the yard and the unsightly drip lines are now neatly tucked away. 

I have been undecided about what to do with my new sunny space.  I was sure more veggies and flowers but was at a loss for how to get it to a workable state.  I finally decided raised beds were the solution.  Alex was extremely patient with me this morning after I insisted we do this...today.  I found a great plan on Sunset's website.  We made only one minor adjustment in deciding to go with 2x12's rather than stacking 2x6's.  While Alex and Fen built the frame, I worked to finish preparing the site.  And I am happy to say that in less than a day, we have new raised beds!

Before and after photos are below:

 

Garden Update!

Our irrigation project is nearly complete!  This was the one thing I insisted we MUST do this spring.  We are shaping up for a very dry summer and I am hoping we won't lose all of our lovely veggies.  We will have one command center where we can control each zones water output and timing.  So cool!

This segues nicely to the next exciting announcement...our first starts arrive tomorrow!  We signed up for a year with Cascadian Edible Landscapes which essentially runs a Community Supported Plant program.  As a member I sign up in the beginning of the year and receive  4 seasonal flats of vegetables starts based on a farmers crop succession.  Gardeners get a full flat of the right crops for the right time of the year delivered to a drop off location in their neighborhood. 

Another fairly major undertaking has been the decision to remove the Leyland Cedars in our back yard.  As much as we love trees, we have to take them down.  This was not our initial intent however, after having more than five different estimates we found that all of them really seemed to agree that rather than continue to fight to save them, we should cut our losses.  These trees belong in a forest or park - not in our puny little urban lot.  The great news about this is we will gain a ton of light for the back yard.  Planter boxes off of our deck we initially had thought were useless can now house lovely veggies and our neighbors should be much happier with us too.

And finally, since we are gaining a bit of space along our south-facing fence, I am dreaming up a DIY potting bench.  I have dug around online and found some great ideas using salvaged windows and doors.  It will be great to have a place to store my tools and keep soil and planters too.  I posted one of my favorite pictures below and will be sure to add ours once I have completed it.

Best flats EVER

I finally found the perfect flats.  No annoying emblems or labels.  Just perfect supple leather - no need to break them in.  They come in wonderful colors and while they are an investment, they aren't insanely priced.