Late Bloomers

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Aster ‘Monch’

I just had an OMG moment.  I had planned to write about asters in my garden, but I got interested in the “late bloomers” phrase and googled it.  The first article that popped up had just what I wanted – a description of some of our more colorful late bloomers.  People – not plants.

The OMG moment hit when I began reading through the posted list.  The average age was probably 58!  Is there a category for Incredibly Late Bloomers? or I-Can’t-Believe-They’re Still-Alive Late Bloomers?

Julia Child was a bit of a late bloomer, at least in regards to her cooking prowess.  She was 49 when her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was published, and she was over 80 when her last cookbook came out.  Our daughter was delighted to get to sit beside her when “Julia’s Kitchen,” opened in Napa in 2002.  Julia was about 90 at the time (and we hear she slept through much of the ceremony).

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Julia Child with her husband Paul

The marriage of Paul and Julia Child was described in a great article in Town and Country.  When Paul was 59, he retired from his career in the Foreign Service – just as Julia’s cooking career was taking off.  In one of her cookbooks, Julia described Paul as “the man who is always there: porter, dishwasher, official photographer, mushroom dicer and onion chopper, editor, fish illustrator, manager, taster, idea man, resident poet, and husband.”

Paul, too, it appears, was a late bloomer in many ways.

Of course, early bloomers are adored by one and all.  The spring blossoms pop out – often as early as February or March in our Northern California garden – and give new color and vitality after the drizzly cold gloomy winter.  Mind you, I don’t do daffodils – or any spring bulbs for that matter (too short of bloom time and too raggedy out of bloom, in my opinion), but I do love the deciduous azaleas and geum and euphorbias and hellebores – as well as the plum and peach tree blossoms – that brighten up our spring flower bed.

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Spring brings peach and plum tree blossoms to our garden

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Geum ‘Mai Tai’ looking lovely in April

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the spring-blooming, deciduous ‘Northern Lights’ azalea – almost iridescent

But by the time August rolls around those spring bloomers are pretty much spent….weary from their heavy blooms and the summer’s heat.   It’s just then that the asters and caryopteris and goldenrod begin their display.  Admittedly, the blossoms on these fall perennial bloomers may not be as big and in-your-face as those spring ones, but oh well.  Small can be lovely too.   And they’re there for you when you need them most.  Timing is everything.

We’ve got three varieties of asters just starting to bloom – ‘Purple Dome’, ‘Mönch’, and a purplish one which may be ‘Winston Churchill.’  I was wary of planting them, thinking they were too water-needy for our drought-tolerant garden, but they’ve done beautifully.

Andy (see today’s Andy’s Corner) and I recommend you seek out the late-bloomers.  They have a lot to offer.  And we’re very partial to these desserts from Julia Child too.

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The aster ‘September Ruby’ just barely breaking into bloom – the 1st day of August

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A lovely little aster – most likely ‘Winston Churchill’ (do you wonder, as I do, why it was named that?  Did it have anything to do with Lady Astor? 🙂

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A Best of the Besties and a Cure for a Worstie

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The beautifully set table at Chris and Sharon’s – and the delicious gazpacho.  If you’re from Sonoma you may recognize the bread from Mike the Bejkr.

It’s been a while since we published a Best of the Besties.  At a dinner party last week we had a marvelous gazpacho – with avocado as the surprise ingredient; it was the perfect recipe for the late summer garden bounty.  Thanks to Besties Sharon and Chris for the recipe (see it below).

And we bemoaned – in our last blog – about the yucky things that disturb our flower and vegetable gardens, including the water-needy roots from a eucalyptus tree.

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Neighboring eucalyptus tree, enjoying the moisture from our flower garden

Here is one sure-fire cure for those pesky eucalyptus roots.  Just be sure your neighbors are ok with this.

 

Avocado and Tomato Gazpacho

The easy way to peel tomatoes is to drop them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then into ice water.  Serving the gazpacho in small drinking glasses is a fun alternative to soup bowls. Recipe adapted from Martha Rose Shulman.

  • 1 large ripe avocado, peeled and halved
  • 1 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and peeled; delicious, peak-of-the-season tomatoes are a must
  • 2-4 garlic cloves, to taste
  • 2 heaped tablespoons coarsely chopped red or white onion, soaked for five minutes in cold water, drained and rinsed
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons wine vinegar 
  • 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 
  • ½ to 1 cup ice water, depending on how thick you want your soup to be
  •  Kosher salt
  •  freshly ground pepper

Garnish each bowl before serving with one or more of the following:

  • ½ cup finely chopped cucumber(more to taste)
  • ½ cup finely chopped tomato (more to taste)
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh basil or parsley, or fresh basil or parsley leaves
  • ½ cup finely chopped green pepper
  • ½ cup small croutons

Combine the avocado, tomatoes, garlic, onion, olive oil, vinegar, paprika and salt in a blender, and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings. Pour into a bowl or pitcher, thin out as desired with ice water, cover and chill for several hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the garnishes and add to the each individual dish of gazpacho before serving.

Recipe brought to you by Chris and Sharon and BigLittleMeals.com.

In the Garden

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I should have read more carefully: the first stated requirement for membership in the FCHS choir was “ability to sing.”

Whether a good singing voice is a nature or nurture hand-me-down, I didn’t get one from my parents.  My nerve-wracking try-out for my FCHS’s wonderful a cappella choir was soundly rejected, much to my embarrassment and disappointment, since my Besties had all been granted admittance to that tight and fun – and very talented – group.

My dad’s family were all musical and they credited their Welsh heritage for that. Family get-togethers always involved time around the piano with my aunt playing and singing and the rest of the Hills joining in.  One of the favorite songs of my granddad was “In the Garden” and my dad and he could belt it out in a beautiful duet.

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A typical song-fest – but this time with Edna Griffin on the piano, joined by Hill family and friends

Little did I know that years later that song would be recorded by many singers whom I held near and dear – Tennessee Ernie Ford, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, and Johnny Cash.  But the rendition that reminds me most of my family’s is the duet by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacCrae, recorded in 1962.

Andy may not have happy memories of his family singing that song, but he does have happy memories of Oakley, our Aussie, being in the garden.  See today’s Andy’s Corner.

As for me, hearing “In the Garden” still reminds me that our garden is often an almost spiritual place – butterflies flitting around, hummingbirds searching for nectar, bumblebees checking out the blossoms, a whiff of the sweet salvia, the hint of licorice from the agastache, the gorgeous glimmering iridescent orange in the echinacea ‘Julia’ – and the intriguing scent of the foliage of the coleonema and variegated mint bush when you brush by them.

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But just as often our garden is beastly: gopher mounds, aphid attacks, tomato hornworms, voles uncovered and carried into the house by our sweet kitties, drip system malfunctions, rampaging yellow jackets, eucalyptus tree roots sucking up the moisture.  You name it, we’ve had it happen.

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Gophers!
Tobacco hornworms!
Eucalyptus roots!
Ha!

Our vegetable garden is even more problematic.  Tomatoes, of course, are notorious for having issues.  Even zucchini plants, which notoriously over-produce for normal gardeners, are annoyingly sparse in producing for us for us.  Cucumbers often wither on the bush.  So each little healthy tomato or bean or zucchini or cucumber we find in our garden is an unbounded joy to us.

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Today’s garden bounty

Once you’ve picked these precious veggies you don’t really want to cover up their just-picked flavor with a complex, ingredient-heavy recipe, so here are three minimalist ideas for your tomatoes, string beans and summer squash. Continue reading →

Be Nice

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Nice kids from SF’s Mission H.S., eating at T-lish

Tacolicious, our kids’ restaurant, has a new company mission statement – which has been enhanced in a way that only Joe, our son-in-law, could do it.  But I can restate it simply – and family-friendly – as “Be Nice.”

“Nice” is such a plain word.  I’m sure my CC English professors would have winced if we’d used it in our writing.  But I’m thinking that simple – or plain – or basic – is sometimes all we need.   For example, “You can do it!”  Those were words of encouragement shouted to the bicyclists at the beginning of Andy’s famous Tour de Friends bicycle ride.  Even better for this blog, one of the cyclists reminded everyone to “Be nice” (see today’s Andy’s Corner for more).

One simple line that gets me teary every time I read it is the dedication in our daughter Sara’s first cookbook,  Asian Vegetables.

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“to Mom, of course”

Or maybe it’s ending each phone conversation with “love you.”  Our grandsons routinely say it as they hang up (obviously from their cell phones), and I love it.  I’ve read that the Scandinavians are famous for being uneffusive, so that may explain why my Swedish mother was not known for lots of “I love you’s,” though those were the final words we exchanged when I visited her the last time at the Fort Collins hospital.

“Peace” is another beautiful word, considerably more eloquent in its monosyllable-ism than “nice.”  Go in peace, my friend.

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But back to “nice.”   When Andy and I are eating out,  we’re total suckers if the waitstaff is attentive, happy, polite, kind, considerate – i.e. nice (NICE!).  Even if the food is just good, we’re still happy campers.

Want to have a nice dinner party?  Of course you’ll be nice to your guests, so I want to focus on how you can entertain – and be nice to yourself.  Sure you can bring food in, but guests really love home-cooking (it’s so “yesterday!”)

Give up the notion that you have to always prepare an appetizer and a salad and a vegetable and a main dish and a dessert, if company’s coming.  And by all means, avoid picking a menu which requires you to do a lot of stuff at the last minute.  Most of us will be so worn out at the mere thought of all that work that we’ll forgo entertaining altogether – or be too frazzled to enjoy the occasion.

Here’s what I recommend for a height-of-the-summer super simple dinner party:

#1: buy good cheese – and delicious crackers.  That’s your appetizer.

#2: make the main dish a one-dish stand and something that can be done hours ahead of time.

#3: bake a really simple summery dessert (recipe follows) and buy the most wonderful gelato or ice cream you can find to go with it (here in Sonoma County I’d pick Fiorello’s).  It’s all so do-able – and so so SO nice.  Have a good one.

My quick and easy summer meal for 4:

Appetizer – Simple Feta Cheese: about a 7 oz block of feta cheese (enough for 4-6) cut into bite-size cubes, drizzled with lemon juice, then olive oil and sprinkled with a bit of dried oregano and a pinch of red chile flakes – if you like spice.  Serve it with lentil or pita chips – and maybe some Greek olives along side.  This simply-marinated feta will improve in flavor if it sits for a while before serving; what more could you want – and easy peasy!

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Feta cheese appetizer

 

One-dish main dish – Easy Lamb and Lentils with Pita Bread

Dessert – Marion Cunningham’s Fruit Crisp – with ice cream or gelato, optional but delicious

(another meal idea could be something retro and fun – and very very easy:  Triscuits with Yellow Cheddar Cheese,  Sloppy Joes served with iceberg lettuce topped with Blue Cheese Dressing  and Katharine Hepburn Brownies – and ice cream – for dessert.)

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Lagniappe: Lawn Mowing and WC Breakfasts

A follow-up to the World of 1950’s grilling and lawn mowing – as mentioned in last week’s blog –  and to World Cup soccer:  a picture is worth a thousand words and an addendum to our World Cup Soccer predictions!

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Raise your hand if you used to get the Saturday Evening Post.  How we women and girls were duped by an ad like this!  Circa 1955.

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My first lawnmower.  My dad convinced me it would be fun to drive this Craftsman around.  Right.

And now about the World Cup: I was all ready to recommend favorite brunch recipes for a Belgium vs England final.   I would have said fix a Belgian gaufre de liège Waffle (a recipe from Smitten Kitchen’s blog – one of my most favorites) and a “stress free” recipe from the BBC for a full English breakfast.

Now we’re dealing with France vs Croatia, and I’ll be damned if I can think of a fun brunch recipe from Croatia.  I still recommend Chouquettes and French Toast, if you’re rooting for France.  If Croatia is your team, how about grilled oysters?  When Andy did research at LSU he studied the oyster harvesters in South Louisiana – and many were Croatian.  He laughed because someone said that if a fisherman’s name ended with the sound “itch” they were Croatian.  This was expected to be the starting line-up for Croatia vs England.  Lots and lots of “ic’s” (pronounced like itch):

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But for heaven’s sake don’t serve juice with your brunch!  Be sure to read the article – as well as some of the interesting comments – on why many experts say we should avoid that standard breakfast offering.  We recommend fresh fruit and yogurt instead.

And one final soccer-related note.  After we all breathed a universal sigh of relief that the young Thai soccer team had been successfully rescued from the cave, I read an article about the boys which said that what they really craved was spicy basil pork and rice.  Sounds delicious to me too – and here’s a quick and easy Thai recipe for that from a great blog – the Woks of Life.

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