Brilliant Penstemon

Every spring I get unreasonably excited when the Penstemon starts to bloom.
I believe the variety I own is "Electric Blue"

I bought one gallon from a local backyard nursery many years ago, and this plant has earned a top spot in my "Favorite Perennials" list for these qualities:

• Long lasting blooming season in spring (with some repeat blooms throughout the summer)
• Drought hardy
• Cold hardy 
• Dividable *
• Gorgeous blossoms
• Attracts bees, butterflies and humming birds
• Evergreen - does not go dormant in winter
• Lovely cut flower
• Not invasive
• Easy to grow

* To divide this plant, I purposefully buried some of the stems in dirt to encourage root growth, and once established I dug up my start. Here is the original plant.

Here is the one I grew by division, just a couple years later! (I think it's happy)

Early in bloom season

Drawbacks:

• Foliage for this variety is OK, but not exceptional. I cut mine back after blooming and usually place annuals in the bare space. Cutting it back encourages more bloom.
• Stems are weak, so the plant becomes rangy. Another reason to cut it back after blooming. 

Later in bloom season, heavy blossoms & rain have collapsed the stems.

 Just more pictures. 

A Garden Planner

We enjoyed an early Spring this year, and last week I planted the first few rows of my vegetable garden.

This year I spent some time studying the theory of companion planting, and put a little more thought than usual to the placement of my plantings.

Because I tend to lose my hand drawn diagrams,  this year I decided to plot my garden using a Google Spreadsheet.

I discovered it is quite easy to put images inside the spreadsheet cells, and then once entered, all you have to do to "Plant a Row" is highlight the image, click on the little square at the edge and drag.

This is far too much nerdy fun.

Here is what I hope my garden layout will be when everything is in the ground. (Click on the image to see it in better resolution)

If you want to design your own planner using a google spreadsheet, here are a few tips:

I made the cells 45 x 50 to allow my images to be large enough.
-- do this by selecting all the rows or columns (highlight an area and then use the keystrokes shift-space for rows, or control-space for columns)
-- while they are selected, right-click and choose "re-size rows" or re-size columns".

I filled everything with a tan color. Select All, and then find the color you want using the Custom Color Selector.

There are two ways to insert images in a Google Spreadsheet. One is simply using the Insert menu. Images inserted this way can be freely moved around and re-sized. My little ladybugs and butterfly are inserted this way.

I wanted the vegetables to be inserted directly into the cells however, so I used a function dialog for images: =images("URL")
I also wanted to manipulate the size of each image, so I added ,4 and then the size of the image, for example, the marigold function reads like this:

I wanted to use copyright-free images, so just to be safe (and have fun) I drew my own primitive little images using Microsoft's paint tool.
Take this link to my hidden resource page.
Right click on the image and "copy URL" to insert them into your own spreadsheet project.

They are not fine art, but they worked for my purpose, and you are welcome to use them.

The ADVANTAGE to going to all this trouble -- besides knowing which row has what! -- is I will know exactly how to rotate crops in next year's garden. I can just make a new planner further down the page, copy-pasting my images already loaded into the spreadsheet. Easy!

A New Lefse Generation

I have two sons in law now. They have heard stories about the Great Grandparents who came from Norway and settled here, working the land to create this beautiful farm.

So for Christmas I gave my daughters their very own lefse rolling pins and a copy of Julia Peterson Tufford's Norwegian Recipes. Our local hardware store happens to carry these! We made lefse a few days later, using leftover mashed potatoes.

Our mashed potatoes were just the standard made with butter, salt, pepper & a little cream.

A simple lefse recipe is a half cup flour for each cup of mashed potatoes.
I cut the flour in with a pastry tool.

We learned that cold mashed potatoes are lumpy and we had to work the dough far too long. Next time we will warm them up and make sure they are smooth! I might try using a little less flour as well.

We combined the flour & potatoes into a workable dough, and kneaded it until it felt ready to roll.

My Grandmother would roll all the dough into a large cylinder which she called an "emne": a rough translation would be "something that is made to be processed into something else".

She would cut a disk off the end of the emne and shape it with her hands,

then turn it onto a floured surface and roll it round and thin.

My sons in law learned quickly. They found out why we keep adequate flour on the board and let the weight of the pin do the work; pulling the dough out from the center. Both of them are engineers, so they needed little help from me in working out the most effective techniques!

Lifting off the board with a paddle

 Lefse dough is handled more delicately than flatbread, but the methods are much the same. See my flatbread post for a description of the tools we use.

Tapping off the excess flour

If you can cook outside you will have an easier time cleaning up all the flour that gets swept off the lefse grill.

Turning lefse on the grill

Try to turn the lefse when there are light brown speckles (lift it to check underneath from time to time). If it is burning (black specks) you are cooking too long or your grill is too hot.

Once the lefse is cooked, you need to place it between dampened cloths to soften. I stacked our lefse about 3-4 high before adding another cloth. Let them soften until they have no stiffness left at least 15 minutes or more.

 One side will have larger spots. That is normal.

Traditionally we eat our lefse rolled up with butter and cinnamon sugar, but we also love to experiment with savory fillings the same as you might use a wrap or tortilla.

Chick Pea Coconut Curry

Important note: I have read the ingredient list on the Red Curry Paste, and it contains shrimp. For this reason I no longer call this a Vegan dish, but all you have to do is skip the Curry Paste and add more spices, or find a Curry Paste without shrimp in the ingredients.

So many people wanted this recipe after Liz & Jake's wedding, I thought I would share it here to make it easy.

I took the basic recipe from ABC's page here.

But changed it to our tastes.

MOST important, use  FRESH spices!

I have finally found a wonderful yellow curry and won't use bad curry EVER again. It makes all the difference.

I added Thai red curry paste to the recipe also, and we love it.

 Here's the recipe!
Click here for printable version.

Chickpea Coconut Curry

I cook the whole recipe in my wok.

2 large cloves garlic, pressed, saute in olive oil

add:

2 cans chickpeas, rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes

2 parboiled potatoes, cubed (I used peeled baked potatoes)

3 cups baby spinach

1 can coconut milk

1 tsp Thai red curry paste 

3 tsp yellow curry powder

1 ¼ tsp tumeric

⅛  tsp ground cloves

½ tsp cumin

1 ¼ tsp salt

stir all together, bring to boil, simmer, stirring to help combine 20-30 minutes.

Serve with:

Greens

Rice

If you use dairy, some greek yogurt goes very nicely with this dish!

Norwegian Flat Bread (flatbrød)

Everyone loves lefse, but I think fewer Americans have experienced the dry "flatbrød" I grew up enjoying with my family.

While lefse is like a soft, potato based tortilla, flatbread is a thin, crisp cracker, intended for long storage and delicious with tiny bit of butter.

Making it has always been a big social experience as well, and I had depended on my parents to organize the event, usually just before Christmas. Many years have passed since our last flatbread party, and I realized it was up to me to start the tradition anew.

I invited my sister-in-law, who isn't a speck Norwegian but can cook just about anything. You need people like that on your team when you are re-building something only vaguely remembered! I had to promise we'd make lefse as well (which we did).

I happened to have the special equipment favored for the task:

• a large flat lefse grill, 
• a giant lefse rolling pin (the checkered surface gives you the needed pull on the dough), 
• a clean Bethany board to make rolling easier, and 
• plenty of flat, thin wooden paddles for lifting & transferring the rolled dough.
• an oven set to warm, with a tray for catching crumbs
• The only important piece missing was a large soft brush for dusting excess flour off the dough & griddle. I substituted a clean, unused paint brush, but had to be very careful not to let it touch the 500 degree griddle (would melt instantly!)

 If you don't have these:

• If you don't have access to a lefse grill, you could experiment with a very hot non-stick skillet or other flat grilling surface. Lefse grills go up to 500 degrees - on a skillet the cooking times may be a little longer. Here's another blogger's advice.
• A standard rolling pin may work also, but if you can borrow something with more clout you'll be happier!
• Any clean surface you would use for rolling a pie crust would work also, just keep it well floured
• You could come up with something to replace the wooden sticks. I saw one lefse blogger who made their own by sanding down smooth lath pieces or paint stirring sticks. Basically you want a stick that is long (about 18-24"), thin, smooth & strong and has ROUNDED edges. 

My folks experimented for YEARS with the recipe. Here is the only one I wrote down, with a note about what I actually did:

Anderson's Flatbrød

6 C white flour
3 C whole wheat flour
2 C cornmeal (I ended up using about a half cup cornmeal and 1 & 1/2 Cups Masa flour)
heaping Tb Salt
5 C water
1 stick butter, softened

We mixed all the dry ingredients, cut the butter into the flours, and then gradually added the water. When it was pretty well combined, we turned the stiff dough onto a board and kneaded it just enough to make sure it was well mixed.
Then we divided it into smaller portions, and from those into balls of dough.

My family used to make massive flatbrød that
filled the grills from side to side! My sister-in-law made them smaller, but this made them much easier to work with and store.

The cloth covered Bethany board really makes rolling much easier than a plain wooden board, but you still need to keep it well floured.

We like our flatbread as thin as possible - about the width of a piece of cardstock! You can experiment with yours. Thick flatbread can be hard to eat.



Rolling tip: work the ball into a flat round with your hands, and keeping it floured, work the roller from the middle out, working all the way around the dough (don't roll all the way across from side to side). As it expands, you can leave the middle alone and focus on the edges. You want the dough to be as even as possible. Let the heavy roller do the work. If you lean onto the dough too much you'll tear it or get it stuck to the board or pin.

My sister-in-law didn't care if it was perfectly round, and I decided that was just fine. It all tastes the same!

Once it's rolled out, slide the stick under the middle & gently lift off the board. Tap it to remove excess flour, and if you are ahead of the baker, it's good to have a place to store them (like those we have wedged in the laundry hamper!)

 To put on the grill, lay half the dough on the dry grill, (no grease or oil is used) and unfold the rest by flipping the stick over until it's all flat on the grill. Use the brush to gently flick off excess flour and re-position the dough if need be.

In a few minutes (grills vary) the first side will be done. Check by lifting with the stick to see if small brown freckles are appearing. Use the stick to flip it over, and do the other side.

When both sides have nice brown spots like this, you are ready to move it to the oven, where it will need to be for several hours to finish drying. (It will probably be a little chewy yet if you try it now, even though it should seem very dry & stiff.)

brushing flour off the dough. You can simply blow flour off the grill.

Clean any flour left on the grill by swiping it quickly with a cotton cloth. We set our grill up outside so the house doesn't get full of flour.

When it was finally completely dry, we broke the pieces in half (or more) to put in gallon size ziplock bags. My husband was sure we'd made enough to last through Christmas, but we didn't even make it to Thanksgiving. Oh well! Gotta have another party I guess!

Leaf Collage Fabric Table Runners

Before tackling this project, please verify that the leaves you are working with are not toxic. Many popular garden plants and shrubs are highly poisonous, and you do not want to get the leaf sap on your skin.

Some to avoid:
Euphorbia, also known as Spurge, is a common nursery plant and poisonous. Getting the sap on your hands may produce blisters, but getting it in your eyes may produce blindness.

Angel's Trumpet is highly toxic - I will not grow this in my garden. Oleander is another extremely toxic plant, and the smoke from burning the wood is deadly.

Cherry, peach, plum, apricot and almond leaves are reportedly poisonous, as are Caladium, Elderberry, Horse Chestnut, Golden Chain (Laburnum), Mountain Laurel, Oak, Rhododendron & Azalea, and Red Leaf Maple.

Here are a couple resources for checking this out:
http://naturalbird.com/mcwatters/toxic.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poisonous_plants

Generally safe -- but please verify on your own -- are Japanese Maple, Big Leaf Maple & Vine Maples (West Coast natives)  and Sweet Gum.

Place your fabric on a sturdy and disposable piece of lumber. It will get stained from the leaves. Using Non-Toxic leaves, put the top side down on your fabric and pound with a hammer. It is very tedious, and ear protection is a good idea. Watch your fingers! 

Here is a close up of the runner I made years ago on a light brown fabric, still my favorite!

Step 2, I simply used a zigzag stitch and trimmed with scissors. A satin stitch would have been very nice also.

Step 3, I took it outside & sprayed it with Scotch Guard & hung it to dry. The colors bled a little from this, but not too much. I wanted to create an irregular shape, like a "leaf puddle". 
This did not turn out quite like I wanted --lace helped.

This is for my "Banquette" table.

And the brown runner for the dining table.

Winter Container Arrangements from your Garden

The tender annuals are nearly done for the year. Time to raid the garden and woods for materials to fill the flower pots until spring.

Here's today's project.


1. An antique woodstove sits by my front door. The begonias gone, I started by arranging various greens (evergreens and Bay Laurel) and some hydrangeas.
The hydrangeas won't last too long. I will probably replace them by Christmas. 

 Silver Nettle grows out of the pitcher.

 2. The Heuchera coming out the top of the stove is getting leggy. I filled in with sprigs of Santolina -- jammed into the pot, they may even take root!












3.  Cottoneaster added to the pot to partially cover the rusty stovepipe. I discovered the stems were easy to bend into shape.













 4. Sword Ferns for a little drama. Almost done.








 5. (below) A few rose hips was just what it needed.

I put a plastic salad container in a wooden box to hold water for the next arrangement. Evergreens will last a long time in the cool temperatures even without water.



Step one, something big to help hold things together, then add some Santolina & Russian Sage...








Weeping spruce and red twigs, Variegated evergreen broadleaf.
This might take root also!




Finally, Cedar Berries and some Bay Laurel.
 Not bad for free.