Cutting azaleas, picking tomatoes & spinning yarn

Fall is the time to make cuttings of azaleas and root them. Several years ago I put a cutting of one of the pink azaleas in a clay pot, put it on the north side of the house and literally forgot about it. It took root and I transplanted it to the back yard beside the deck. It has grown so much over the years that now it gets pruned in the summer after the blooms are finished.

Don built the rooting box in that same spot on the north side (shady) and this year constructed  the potter's bench beside the rooting box. It is a great shady spot for working on projects for the garden.

To root the azaleas, I cut a section so that there are either leaf nodes or branches that will be below ground. Remove the leaves or cut the branching stems short, then apply powered Rootone to that part and put it in the soil conditioner that fills the rooting box. Then I watered gently and thoroughly and replaced the windows covering the rooting box. The box is now filled with pink and lilac azalea cuttings. Next year they will be added to the garden.

The garden also yielded the last crop of tomatoes. These were from one of the 'volunteer' plants that appeared in the compost dirt that was added to the new part of the garden. 

They were just perfect for a salad!

Six pots of violas are handing from the deck, lots of pretty blooms for winter!

Spent time spinning on the front porch, now that the bobbin is full, 

the double ply yarn will be wound onto a nitty noddy.

My nitty noddy measures 1 and 1/2 yards each time you wind the yarn around. I wound around this nitty noddy 204 times, so I have 306 yards in this skein of yarn. 

Now with the bobbin empty, I can begin to ply two single strands of yarn together again. Only a little more roving to go and I will have spun this entire fleece. Then I can decide what to make with it.

When you are spinning, everyone always asks, "What are you making?" 

The answer is always the same, yarn. 

Sometimes I don't know what the yarn will become,

 a sweater, blanket, shawl, 

but it will always start as yarn!

Wandering around in Savannah, Georgia

On the way down to Michelle and Scott's wedding in Orlando, we stopped in Savannah, Georgia. We stopped there on the way back too, and this time we had more time for seeing the sights.

You can barely read the sign, Lady and Sons, for Paula Dean's restaurant in Savannah. We wanted to eat there, but there was a long wait. I did manage to get inside just to see it.  Guess I will just have to enjoy her recipes!

One of the streets is always closed to traffic and pedestrians can enjoy strolling past the stores and restaurants. this was just outside one! 

Johnny Mercer wrote "Moon River" and this statue is dedicated to him.

We also found Moon River Brewery. This is a sweet potato ale, with pumpkin pie spice and crushed pumpkin seeds around the rim of the glass, delicious!

There were lots of spacious parks in Savannah, like this one.

A 50 foot tall marble obelisk marks the remains of Nathanael Greene in the center of the park.

Dinner that night was at Churchill's next door to the Moon River Brewery. Service was impeccable, the food delicious and you had the feeling that you were in a pub in London! Don was very British that night, ordering prime rib with Yorkshire Pudding!

Life is good and the food is delicious!

Great food, great fun, oh yes and a wedding!

A wedding? In Florida? In October? What a great time for a road trip! The daughter of good friends is getting married and we can't miss the fun. Festivities on Saturday included a visit to a tapas bar, mi Tomatina, in Winter Park.

Mi Tomatina is located in a quaint historic district of Winter Park. The brick covered streets are lined with shops and restaurants.

For those who have heard this name, Tomatina, there is a festival in Spain, La Tomatina which is only slightly crazier than running with the bulls in Pamplona.


The elegance and gracious service we experienced at the tapas bar mi Tomatina in no way resembles the antics that are experienced during the festival in Spain! The tapas were delicious, stuffed mushrooms, croquettes, all kinds of delicious morsels. The three bartenders were gracious and attentive. They  were from Spain, Venezuela and Cuba, in the order you see them below.

Michelle and her brother Ryan enjoyed the evening.

Fran and Annabel entertain Raylen.

Jill and Michelle, friends in college, enjoyed this celebration.

Ryan and his future (tomorrow) brother-in-law, Scott. 

K Restaurant, the site of the wedding and reception has amazing food! Kevin, the chef and owner, treated us to grilled oysters and shrimp, pulled pork, roasted lamb, lobster mac and cheese (oh my!), the food was planned by Scott Copeland, the groom, and Kevin. 

Grilling oysters, so yummy!

Pulled pork, delicious!

Oysters and shrimp !

Lamb, pita, potatoes, tzatziki sauce, so scrumptious!

In back of the restaurant, near the restaurant's herb garden, the guests wait for the ceremony to start.

Ryan, the brother of the bride and his wife Jessamyn and son Raylen wait for the wedding to start.

Michelle and Nicholas enjoy the party!

Michelle and Scott Copeland

Scott's family with Nicholas and Annabel

Michelle's family with Jill and Sally

Fran Rubio, mother of the bride and Don, my sweetie, enjoyed the festivities!

Ryan, Scott, Don and Al, the bride's father 

So much fun packed into two days, 

Wishing Scott and Michelle a lifetime of happiness!

A day at the farm!

When you live in the city, sometimes you just need to commune with nature on a farm. My favorite kind of a farm is a sheep farm, specifically Rising Meadow Farm in Liberty, North Carolina. Once a month I go to sit and spin and knit and eat dessert with friends at the farm. On clear nights we stop at the end of the driveway and have a little star gazing time. There is so much less light there than in the city that we can see lots of stars.

But this visit to the farm was all about Farm Fest. It is a once-a-year event with animals, crafts and food that is a real treat.

The alpacas were very friendly and really soft. 

There was music under the big tent, which we enjoyed while eating a lamb burger with spinach and feta cheese---yummy.

While waiting in line for the lamb burgers we passed the time with a dish of ice cream from Homeland Creamery. Dessert first is a good idea, don't you think?

These angora goats have built in back scratchers, you wouldn't believe how they can bend around to scratch their backs with those horns, I envy them. They produce mohair and I love to combine it with the sheep's wool to spin.

These lambs were born last spring. The dark one in the middle is a Navarro-Churro. His fleece is great for rugs. The one with the dark face on the right is a Corriedale. Maybe next shearing day (Feb. 2014) I can try to buy his fleece.

Farm Fest occurs each year in the fall at Rising Meadow Farm. In February they shear the sheep. Watch their website for information.

www.risingmeadow.com

Variations on a theme--more bread flavors!

The basic recipe for the Whole Wheat Curry Bread (see the previous post) is a great one-loaf recipe. The bread is soft and great for sandwiches, has a nice crumb (internal texture) and browns nicely in the baking process.

This time I added Smoked Sundried Tomatoes, shredded sharp cheddar cheese and sunflower seeds. Instead of making a long loaf, I tried a round boule shape. Just be sure to omit the curry and tumeric in the original recipe.

I used about 1/2 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds and 1/3 cup of minced smoked sun dried tomatoes. These amounts worked well and didn't adversely affect the texture of the bread. The smoky flavor of the sun dried tomatoes seems to be the prominent flavor and the cheddar melts in the cooking process and colors the bread a light orange. It was yummy and smelled great right out of the oven. I added these new ingredients when I added the last of the flour. All of the kneading was done in the mixer with the dough hook, just about 5 minutes. This recipe is so easy!

I wish the color of the bread showed up better here, but you can see the bits of sunflower seeds (no need to mince them at all) and sun dried tomatoes.

Here is the recipe again. Go to this link and remember to omit the curry and tumeric. Add the cheese, tomatoes and sunflower seeds with the last 3/4 cup of flour. Kneading the bread in the mixer with the dough hook and these added ingredients was not a problem. 

Whole Wheat Curry Bread Recipe

To get that design in the top of the bread try these steps:

• after the 2nd rising of the dough dust the surface lightly with flour, I use a little bit of flour in a sieve
• use a serrated knife and cut the slices or a crisscross design about 1/4 inch deep in the surface of the bread.
• the surface will open slightly and will open more while baking
• the results will be like the first picture above

This was a delicious experiment...

Wonder what we can try next?

Curry Wheat Bread

While searching for a recipe for curry flavored bread I found this link:
Curry Wheat Bread Recipe

The recipe is easy to follow and creates one beautiful loaf of a soft crust bread that is great to eat with dinner or use to make sandwiches.

I added more tumeric than the recipe calls for to get a deep yellow color and also added shelled raw sunflower seeds, about 1/8 of a cup. Next time I will add close to 1/4 of a cup and maybe some pumpkin seeds too!

The resulting loaf was beautiful and delicious.

I love the yellow color and the loaf slices like a dream. Just before you bake it you dust the top with a little flour and make 1/4 inch deep slices with a serrated knife. The top photo shows this best.

If you aren't interested in making a bread like this but want to try one, go to Loaf Bakery, South Elm St. Greensboro, NC, on Saturday mornings. That is the day that they make their curry bread. It is marvelous! See their link on the right.

Cool weather, time for soup, yummy!

There are a lot of great soup recipes on the Food Network website. One is a white bean soup with ham and potatoes by Cathy Lowe.

Senate Bean Soup

I followed the recipe except that I added 3 potatoes instead of one. Slices of country ham with the hock included provided most of the salt and little bits of meat. I also think it would be good with the left over ham bone from a baked ham. More salt would be needed though. Just season the onions, celery and carrots with salt and pepper when cooking them prior to adding to the beans if using the baked ham.

After everything is tender, take a couple of cups of the broth including the beans and potatoes (no meat) and put it into the blender to puree. Then add it back to the soup pot. This makes the soup wonderfully thick.

All you need is some good home made bread to dip and enjoy!