Travels with George and Marta – Page 19 – Journeys in the Botanical World

Spring Birding in the backyard

Posted on March 17, 2012 by MartaOctober 14, 2014

I love the birds that visit our garden in the Spring. Today was one of those busy bird days. We had visits from everyone. The Robins have been coming through the yard in packs – cocking their head from side to side listening for worms. Their cousins the varied thrush has been kicking through the bird seed detritus looking for grubs and seeds. The suet cakes have been busy. Mr and Mrs Downy woodpecker have visited several times along with their cousins the Northern Flicker. I had to chase one off twiss yesterday. He kept drilling on the side of the house. We have been really happy to see Mr. and Mrs Mallard Duck fly in the past couple of days. She must be getting ready to lay her eggs. He is so attentive over her but I know once she is one the nest he will leave. And of course, the usual squirrel traffic.

Here’s some pictures:

Female Downy woodpecker

Male Downy woodpecker with his brilliant red head patch

Female Northern Flicker

Varied Thrush

Finches at the feeder

Bushtits

Male Mallard – on alert

Every present Squirrels

Related Post: Spring Menagerie April 2009

February signs of Spring

Posted on February 20, 2012 by MartaJune 22, 2014

Cheerful PrimrosesDo I dare talk about Spring again? I asked if it was going to be an early Spring and what happened – we got 8 inches of snow the next week! I’m hesitant but I going to be brave and write the ‘S’ word again.

I have been watching the early bloomers in the garden; the snowdrops, cyclamen and crocus. The snowdrops and cyclamen are right on schedule but the crocuses seem a little behind. Maybe it is because we have not had a sunny day in a couple of weeks. But they are budded and there is promise.

We visited our first nursery at the end of January. Bouquet Banque specializes in cyclamens and had their once a year open house at the end of January. We loved talking with the owners who were very passionate about cyclamens. We have been curious and intrigued with the plants after our trip to Turkey last fall. We only saw one or two of the fall blooming species but were curious to see more. We loved the variety of colors and shapes on the leaves. We purchased a lovely Cyclamen coum with silvery leaves and a dark green Christmas tree pattern on the leaf. G planted it within view of our kitchen window to brighten up the dreary February days.

I also love snowdrops. We had a nice group way in the back of our yard and we moved them to the front. Unfortunately, we planted them too deep and only a few have come back. We found a few more from the far reaches of the garden and moved them into the bed close to the kitchen. We definitely need to get some more varieties and plants.

I did a walkabout in the garden today to see what else is waking up. The crocuses are in bud which has just happened this past week. It will not be long now until they open. The hellebore plants are budded. One or two primroses left over from last year are in bloom and the daffodils are budded. It will be another month until the daffodils open.

G has also been busy in the garden today. He pruned our rose and did some weeding. General cleanup on this cold February day But it won’t be long until we start our vegetable seeds. Come on Spring.

Cyclamen coum – common variety with green leaves

Cyclamen coum – from Bouquet Banque – a seed variety with silver leaves and dark ‘Christmas tree’ centers – from the 1988 Cyclamen Society expedition to Turkey

Common Snowdrops

Buds of Corsican hellebore – Helleborus argutifolius

Crocus

Skagit Birding

Posted on February 12, 2012 by MartaJuly 14, 2014

Skagit Valley barn near Big Ditch

It was time for our annual trip up to the Skagit Valley for a little bit of birding. This year I used the Snow Goose Festival website for some ideas on where to go along with a read through the local posts on Tweeters newsgroups. The best place seemed to be Boe or Thomle Road just south of Stanwood.

Our birding friend meet us with us at our house. We decided to start near Stanwood and then head north. Our first stop was Boe Road. We saw a large beautiful flock of snow geese but they were a bit away. Next we headed to Big Ditch. Surprisingly – no one was in the parking lot. We headed first towards the end of the stream but saw nothing and then headed back along the ditch where we saw a couple of raptors in the tree. We were surprised that there was little activity. We met a couple of groups and one said that they had seen some snowy owls back at Thomle. Hmmm..

I was hungry we we continued north. We stopped at Haydon reserve. The eagles that we normally see were not nesting there this year. There weren’t any geese near the road either. We saw lots of trumpeter swans in the fields. We headed on up to Anacortes for lunch at the Brown Lantern.

After lunch, we discussed where to go. We decided to make one more stop south of Stanwood along Thomle Road. G is so good at spotting and he saw the snowy owls along the dike. They were too far to get a picture with my camera but we were able to see them well in the bird scope.

Overall a nice birding day.

Big Ditch Slough

Marshes at Big Ditch

Raptors in tree at Big Ditch Slough

Skagit farmland from Hayton Bird Reserve

Trumpter Swans on Fir Island

Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

Posted on January 25, 2012 by MartaJanuary 25, 2012

I don’t know how I did it. I survived Christmas without craving or eating chocolate. But I think the subtle chocolate messages being sent out for Valentine Day did it. I started craving chocolate ice cream two weeks ago. I made the lovely medium dark spicy chocolate from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream book. It includes a bit of cinnamon and cayenne pepper which makes it a lovely warm chocolate – perfect for mid-January. In her book it is called “Queen City Cayenne”.

We polished off the first batch and I got a craving for hazelnuts with the chocolate. Two of my favorite gelatos are Gianduja and Baci. I love the Gianduja chocolate squares from Leonidas chocolates in Holland. Hmmm…

There wasn’t a specific recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut ice cream in the book. I googled around and found several using Nutella but that wasn’t the flavor I was looking for. Nutella is a little too sweet. I remembered an technique that was used in the book for making pistachio ice cream. She roasted the pistachios and then ground them in a food process until they formed a paste. Ding!

I decided to use the chocolate recipe minus the spices and add the hazelnut paste. I’d also add a tablespoon of Frangelico for flavoring. And to make it extra special, I’d also add melted dark chocolate at the end to make chocolate freckles/chips to give it that dark chocolate crunch similar to Baci.

Let’s just say it was fabulous!

Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream
Based loosely on Queen City Cayenne from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream

1/2 cup shelled unsalted hazelnuts

Chocolate Paste
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Ice Cream Base
2 cups whole milk
1 Tbs + 1 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 oz (3 Tbs) cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbs light corn syrup
1 Tbs Frangelico

Freckles
2 oz bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread 1/2 cup hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in oven for 10-12 minute until just starting to brown. Remove, cool slightly and whirl in a food processor until the hazelnuts become a smooth paste.

Combine cocoa, sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil stirring to dissolve sugar and boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate stirring until smooth. Set aside.

Mix about 2 TBS of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl.

Whisk together the cream cheese, hazelnut paste, salt and warm chocolate paste in a medium bowl until smooth.

Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup in saucepan, bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture.

Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium high heat and cook stirring until slightly thickened – about 1 minute.

Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Stir in Frangelico and chill until cold.

Pour in to frozen canister and start to spin to freeze the ice cream. While it is freezing, melt the bittersweet chocolate for the freckles and let cool until tepid but still fluid.

When the ice cream is thick and almost finished, drizzle the melted chocolate slowly through the opening in the top of the ice cream machine and allow it to solidify and break up in the ice cream for about 2 minutes.

Pack into storage container and seal. Freeze in freezer until firm – about 4 hours.

Hazelnuts after whirling in food processor to make a paste

Chocolate Hazelnut paste mixture – a little grainy but not bad

Final mixture chilling before the freeze

January Snow

Posted on January 16, 2012 by MartaJanuary 16, 2012

Okay… okay… I will take the blame. I should not have written about Spring in my previous post. Yes, I know… I was tempting the Fates and I jinked us. Snow arrived in the Puget Sound area on Saturday. The Arctic cold that had been shy and staying up in the Northern Territories and Alaska decided to spread out and finally swung down to the northern US.

It started on Saturday. We went out for our weekly errands and it started coming down fast and big flaked. Always a sign that it is not that cold. It was so funny at the store. It was suddenly empty – everyone was rushing to get checked out and home. The Civic was fine on the few hills home.

Sunday we had thought about going out to the movies and see “The Artist” but we decided to stay home and we were a couple of couch and internet potatoes. G watched the football games and later we watched the first episode of Downton Abbey. Dinner was a warming sweet potato enchilada casserole.

I have Monday off for Martin Luther King Day (gotta love union contracts). I decided to head out for a walk around the neighborhood. It was surprising quiet for a Monday. The temperature was just above freezing so the streets were slushy but still slick. I watched my balance. Not much going on a few snow ball fights and a couple of interesting snow people. The wind was slightly biting but refreshing.

Here are few pictures from my walk and a tune from Fleet Foxes which were perfect tune for a snowy walk.

Around the corner – other people were also out for a walk

A two headed snowman

I loved the humor in this snow woman

Chase Lake which is just behind our house

The lake is just barely hardening in a freeze and the ducks were walking on the frozen lake

Another view of Chase Lake

Here is one of my favorite tunes while out for a walk

Will it be an early spring?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by MartaJanuary 10, 2012

This has been a very mild winter. Temperatures and rainfall have been average but we have not any major freezes and snow. Winter has really just gotten started but we usually have some significant freezes or long periods of cold but not so far this year.

We went for a walk this morning along the Edmonds waterfront and we were both surprised to see some signs of spring. Witch hazel and camellias were in bloom. I have been seeing camellias since Christmas. It is so different from last year and the witch hazel was not blooming until almost February. But looking back two years – we are right on schedule.

Let’s hope it continues to be mild.

Witch Hazel

Camellia trained along the fence

Flag at half-mast in memory of the ranger who was killed at Mt. Rainier on New Years Day

USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier arriving in Puget Sound

Dock were the fire occured on Dec 30th

Favorite Winter Walks in Seattle region – Discovery Park

Posted on January 1, 2012 by MartaNovember 23, 2014

The winter can be tough here in the Puget Sound region. You learn to adapt to the gray but the short days of winter can really challenge a spirit. We try to get out and do short walks in the Seattle region during the winter to boost the spirit and get a bit of vitamin D. I thought I might highlight some of our favorite spots to walk starting with Discovery Park.

Discovery Park is the largest park in Seattle. It is located on the bluffs in west Magnolia over looking the Puget Sound. The terrain in the park is very diverse – from expansive views across the Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains, the gravely beach of West Point, the alder forests where the trail winds to the remnants of the the Army’s Fort Lawton.

We visited recently on New Years Day and did the Loop Trail with a side trip out to South Beach and views of the lighthouse at West Point.

The day was very mild – in the upper 40’s so it was not surprising to find the South parking lot full. But it was surprising to find the overflow lot barricaded and we ended up parking on the street. We decided to do a reverse loop. We usually walk first to the bluffs and the loop around back to parking lot but for a change we reversed the walk. Everything seemed so different so it was the perfect way to start the New Years. Come along with us on our walk through Discovery Park.

Trail through the maple leaves

Overlooking North Seattle and Cascades

Sun breaking out to shadow the photographer

Sunrays on the trail

Busy day at West Point

Kayakers with Mt Rainier in the distance across the sound

Climbing back up towards the bluff

Tree trunks in the winter sun

Across the bluff meadow

Thanksgiving memories

Posted on November 24, 2011 by martaOctober 11, 2014

We went out for a walk before the next rain storm arrived and thought about the Thanksgivings in our past. I remember the grammar school days of paper turkeys out of brown craft paper and black and white pilgrim hats. We always had Thanksgiving at my parents house and occasionally my half brother or sister’s family join us. The meal was almost always the same.

Roast Turkey with a bread stuffing in the bird was the centerpiece of the meal. The day before my mother would do the initial prep work for the stuffing. We always had stuffing made of ground bread instead of the bread cubes. She would take a loaf of white bread and toast the slices in the oven until they were light brown. We had a metal food grinder that would clamp on the counters. We would break up the bread and grind it the food grinder for a course breadcrumb . The food grinder looked a lot like the one on this page.

Next she would take the turkey neck, wings along with vegetables and make broth. She would also saute onions and celery which she would mix with the breadcrumbs, moisten with broth and add spices. I remember sage was very important. We always had to taste it to see if it had enough sage or salt. She would then add an egg which would give it a rich flavor and then stuff it into the turkey. We never worried about food poisoning. She would start the turkey usually about 9 am so we could eat in the late afternoon.

We never had the famous green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. I don’t think I really had it until I left home. I don’t know why we didn’t especially since it was common in our house to have casseroles made with cream of mushroom soup. Our sides were usually lots of mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, a baked yam for my Dad, a green salad, a fruit salad and jelled cranberry sauce. We might have also had canned green beans.

Our fruit salad was interesting. My mother made a cooked dressing. I never got the exact recipe for the salad dressing but I remember it had pineapple juice, flour and egg. It was actually quite good. The fruit was always the same, apple, banana and pineapple with small marshmallows.

For dessert, it was always pumpkin pie. We would usually make three and they didn’t last long. Our recipe was from a cookbook that my mother got when she married her first husband back in the ’30’s. She would vary a little from the recipe because she didn’t like as much ginger and cloves but otherwise always the same. Not too far from the recipe on the Libby Pumpkin Pie can – pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, eggs and spices.

Today, my Thanksgiving is different. G does not eat meat but I wanted to have Turkey. I’m certain it was a subconscious thing reading all the recipes for Thanksgiving. So instead I took a boned Turkey breast and thigh, pounded them flat, spread my Mom’s dressing over the meat and rolled. I baked it for about 2 hours at 325. Fresh mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted Brussels sprouts with caramelized onions and homemade vanilla ice cream and pears for dessert. I realize I actually don’t miss the large spread. We enjoy the smaller dinner and are thankful for the bounty and freshness.

I look back over the past year and I am so thankful for having good health, wonderful family, friends and the opportunity to travel. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Now don’t eat too much!

Cannelloni with Spinach, Goat cheese and Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce

Posted on November 19, 2011 by martaNovember 19, 2011

I blame this on Ken at Living the life in Saint Aigan. A couple of weeks ago, Ken posted that he had made goat cheese cannelloni. I was so hungry after seeing his post that I wanted to make something similar.I made this recipe twice now in the past two weeks.

I picked up some goat cheese at Costco recently. It is not as good as the fresh goat cheese you can get in France but for about $7.00 US for two 11oz logs – it is a steal! It has also been awhile since I made fresh pasta.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Field of Greens by Annie Somerville. The vegetarian recipes are wonderful. I decided to make the Cannelloni with Spinach, Goat cheese and Roasted Garlic-Tomato Sauce. I recommend making on a weekend or a day where you have time. It is not hard but it does have several steps so set aside an afternoon to make this delicious recipe. I reduced the quantities to make it for four services but I’ll post it for serving six.

Cannelloni with Spinach, Goat Cheese and Roasted Garlic-Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Fields of Greens

Roasted Garlic-Tomato Sauce
1 head of roasted garlic
1 1/2 TBS EVOO
3 cups canned tomatoes with juice
1/2 cup onion diced
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 bay leaf

Mash 1/2 of the head of roasted garlic. Heat olive oil in saucepan and add the onion, 1/2 tsp salt and a few pinches of pepper; saute over medium heat for 5 minutes. When the onion is soft, add the sherry and gay leaf and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes until the pan is nearly dry. Add the tomato and mashed roasted garlic. (You can also puree the tomatoes and garlic). and a pinch more of salt. Simmer, uncovered, over low heat for 30 minutes.

The filling
1 1/2 TBS EVOO
1 cup red onion diced
Salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 large bunches of spinach, stems removed and leaves washed about 16 cups (note: I used a package of Fresh Express Spinach – removing a few of the larger stems)
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (original recipe called for walnuts)
1/4 cup chopped herbs, marjoram, thyme, chives, and parsley
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 oz Parmesan cheese, about 1 cup
2 oz mild goat cheese

Heat 1 TBS olive oil in skillet. Add the onions, 1/2 tsp salt and a few pinches peppers; Saute over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add half of the garlic and saute until the onions are soft 2-3 minutes. Transfer to bowl

heat the remaining 1/2 tbs olive oil in skillet and quickly wilt the spinach over medium high heat with 1/2 tsp salt, a few pinches of pepper and the remaining garlic. Remove the spinach from the heat, drain and cools. Squeeze out the excess moisture and coarsely chop.

Add the spinach to the onion along with the pine nuts. Add the herbs.

In another bowl, stir together the ricotta and egg. Add half of the Parmesan cheese with 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Combine with the spinach and onions and crumble in the goat cheese.

Assembling the Cannelloni

2 fresh pasta sheets (1 batch of fresh pasta – 3/4 cup flour to 1 egg will make 8 cannelloni)

Cut the pasta sheets into 12 4 inches squares or comparable size to accommodate the sheets.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay the past squares on a work surface and spread 1/4 cup of the filling along the edge of each square. Roll loosely.

Ladle 1 1/2 cup tomato sauce into the bottom of a 9 by13 inch baking dish. Place the cannello9ni close together in the dish. seam side down, and ladle the remaining sauce over until all the past is covered with sauce.
Cover and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with reserved Parmesan and serve.

Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce

Rolling out the fresh pasta

Fresh pasta squares with semollina

Just out of the oven

Can’t wait to eat…

Christmas Card

Posted on November 15, 2011 by martaNovember 15, 2011

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas 2011

It’s time to do our annual Christmas Card. We usually do something from the travels. This year we took one of those crazy digital self-portaits at Ephesus. It turned out to be perfect.

I’m posting also because I get a coupon for a discount on another order at Shutterfly. I need to get my calendars done next.