Friday night grateful list

I should have two weeks worth of gratitude saved up, shouldn't I? Well, as a matter of fact, I do. (I know, you're shocked.) Truth is, with all the nuttiness near and far, I am increasingly grateful on a daily basis for the peace of my surroundings, the love in my home, and the ability to find joy in the smallest of moments.

We have been so blessed with the pace of this summer, heat-wise. We popped back up into the 90s one day this week, but other than that, it's been 70s and 80s. This has really helped the apricots not ripen at the speed they usually do, which has also been helpful since I have not been especially motivated to pick them. I can only eat so many, we have proven that we're not big jammy people, and I've already inflicted them on friends and co-workers. But I think this weekend, jam will be made, and more will be picked, and eaten, and baked. I do so love their color and flavor. A true sign of summer, to me.

Also a sign of summer in this valley are the sunsets. Pretty much every evening is beautiful. Even if the day is nothing special and even blah and cloudy, something happens about a half hour before sunset, and the light filters across the valley. I haven't tired of it in all the years I've lived here, and being out of town a bit the past decade, with more unobstructed views, my appreciation has only grown. I am often struck by sunrises as well, being a morning person, but there is truly something special about a Walla Walla sunset.

Still loving having the boy home. Thankfully, haven't quite started the countdown to the college return (well, the parents haven't, but the boy probably has), and having our little family routines and chats brings me great joy. Husband and I talk all the time about the process of tossing youngsters out of the nest (well, our youngster in particular) and this sweet little comic resonated with me. I think a great deal about what it was like for me to leave home at various stages: boarding school, college, Australia for a bit of school and then a bit of work, then more college. It feels more complicated for Seth and his generation. I don't know if it actually *is* or whether it's just the press around millennials and the challenges of employment and how many end up back home with the 'rents.

 

It can be easy to fall into thinking how the world is more complicated, with various and frequent violent actions taking place near and far. Seems out of whack, unreal. I think, has it always been like this? And of course will see opinions posted, "No! It's worse than ever!" and two seconds later, "Things are really much better than ever before in human history." Sure. Whatever. I'll just keep telling the people I love that I love them, and not take a single day for granted.

This week I am most grateful for:

My mix of introversion and extroversion. I like people well enough, but boy howdy I like my quiet time too. I'm glad to (mostly) get a good balance, even if it means some weekends I don't leave the house for 48 hours. 

Singing. Singing is awesome, even if one is not especially gifted with the voice. It is lovely to hear coworkers pipe up with songs at various times throughout the day too. But, it sure would be nice if a few of them were old enough to know who Rick Astley is, is all I have to say about that. Sheesh. 

This song got shared a bunch this week, and I loved it. I have always appreciated this song--I think I went so far as to make a mix tape (well, CD, but you know what I mean) a few years back of various artists covering it. Rufus' version has very much popularized the song for the less-Leonard-Cohen crowd, and the addition of the choir is quite powerful.

Memories. I had an old friend from my Australia school days reach out on Facebook recently, and it compelled me to dig up some old pictures and relive some pretty fun times down under. Hard to believe how long ago that was, and some things are fuzzy while other memories are pretty clear.

Greenery. I found a baby tears plant recently, and have loved seeing it flourish. Totally takes me back to my childhood, when I usually had a baby tears plant around. Very sweet and green.

Words. This piece, "Thirty Things I've Learned," popped up as something I'd shared on Facebook a couple of years back, and I re-read it. Good stuff. Probably need to schedule an annual reading of it. Also popping back into my feed lately have been Pema words, which always always always resonate.

Patience is not learned in safety. It is not learned when everything is harmonious and going well. When everything is smooth sailing, who needs patience? If you stay in your room with the door locked and the curtains drawn, everything may seem harmonious, but the minute anything doesn’t go your way, you blow up. There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies willingness to be alive rather than trying to seek harmony. -Pema Chodron

Love that woman. Should probably schedule an annual reading of that nugget, too.

Do you remember what we did before emjois? I don't. It's very strange, that we all end sentences with smiles and winks and hearts and little slices of cake. Oh I know, YOU probably don't. But I do, and it's weird. I would never have thought that I'd be searching on my phone for a little celebratory emoji to wish a friend a happy birthday with. Go figure.

All that is to say, if I could put a little emoji here for you, I would. Oh wait, I can.

A-Z blogging challenge: F is for Frangipane

I remember the first time I tasted frangipane (around 1988-89). My reaction was pretty straightforward: What is this heavenly mixture, and where can I get more? I was working at a local deli/bakery, and one of the owners looked at me as if I must have just ridden into town on the back of the proverbial turnip wagon. Seriously, you've never tasted this before? Now, he didn't actually call it frangipane, but he did identify it as a very common pastry filling, sometimes combined with fruit. (In this case, it was embedded in a puff pastry pretzel. Oh, sweet memories...)

Since then, I have eaten, made and experimented with frangipane, many times. A few variations/tweaks from epicurious.com over the years, and it's practically tattooed on my brain. I simply adore the very basic combination of eggs, butter, sugar and nuts (most commonly: almonds). Maybe a little vanilla or almond extract. That's it. Easy as can be, and flavorful.

1 cup blanched almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
5 Tbsp. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract

Grind almonds finely in food processor, pulsing to get fine, but not too fine. Add other ingredients and process to combine.

If using a pastry shell, have that prepared and chilled. I have had great luck just putting fruit and frangipane in ramekins and baking sans pastry--also, it's gluten-free that way, if that's important. (Again, the options are endless.)

When ready to bake the frangipane, preheat oven to 350 F. If using multiple small baking dishes, place them on a cookie sheet to make it easier to get them into and out of the oven. Bake 20-35 minutes, depending on baking dish (frangipane will bake faster in shallower dishes than deeper ones), until the top is golden and has puffed just slightly.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes. Store leftovers in refrigerator for up to a week.

Makes 2 generous servings or 4 smaller ones, or a dozen tart-size.

Summer berries with frangipane (top)
Fresh apricot frangipane tarts (bottom)

I consider it a sign--providential, coincidental, serendipitous, whatever you want to call it--that my very favorite flower in the world, plumeria:

...is also known as frangipani. Not exactly the same, but very close...

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

Salads of the season

t's hard to believe it's already more than a couple of weeks since girlfriend Kate came to town and we staycationed for a couple of days. It was lovely, and our time together so looked forward to, and then in a blip (but a very relaxing blip) it was over...

One of our meal outings was to a dinner event that Kate had participated in last year, called Outstanding in the Field. The setting was lovely, the food fresh and local and tasty, and the group of friends that Kate invited for the meal (this was a wee bit belated birthday celebration) entirely lovely.

One of the dishes from the evening that got the most ooohs and ahhs was an apricot fattoush, and I instantly knew that given the state of our apricot tree, I would be making this at home, many times.

For some strange reason, I knew that the herb was mint, but as I went to make it for myself at home, later, all I heard in my head was "dill." And in true Sher fashion, I of course didn't look back at the picture from the dinner, so my ratio of greens to bread is very different as well. But, I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my take on the salad immensely.

Apricot, arugula and chevre salad
Serves one as a meal or two as an accompaniment
3 cups arugula mixture with some additional greens (in my case, a few basil leaves as well)
1 cup homemade baguette croutons
1 lemon cucumber, peeled, quartered and sliced
6 apricots, pitted and quartered
2 Tbsp dill, very roughly chopped off the stem
1/3 cup thinly sliced Walla Walla Sweet Onions
2 Tbsp light dressing of olive oil, garlic and citrus balsamic
1/2 cup chevre, crumbled (the original salad had feta listed, but it is such a fresh, soft feta, I thought I could get away with chevre, and it was very yummy of course)
Salt and pepper to taste

Toss the greens with the dressing in a medium bowl and makes sure the leaves are well coated. Add the apricots, croutons, cucumber and dill and mix again; add the chevre and toss gently. Turn out onto a serving plate or platter (this would double nicely for a dinner party), and add a bit more chevre to the top, as seems appropriate (when is additional chevre NOT appropriate?).

Enjoy!

Of course, as soon as I was done photographing the salad for the sake of the experiment, out came the figs and I halved up a number of those for on top as well! They went extremely well with all the other ingredients, and added to my overall enjoyment of the salad, definitely.

The following day I felt the need to mix it up a bit further. Same greens, same croutons, but I dressed it in the arugula pesto I've been enjoying, and added blue cheese instead of chevre. Also, I replaced the apricots with nectarines, and kept the figs (of course!).

Quite a heavenly lunch.

Tis the season for salad appreciation, and I am embracing it fully! Hope you enjoy the flavors of the season, too!

A few more photos from the evening, before it fades from memory...

To the left side is the airstream that the crew travels in (and Megan wanted to take home) and to the 

right is the outdoor kitchen.

Isn't that purple fabulous?

I made a friend at the farm.

Kate and her lovelies.

Summer photo shoot delights

Summer is the best time to take food photos. The ingredients... the ingredients... the ingredients! Produce abounds and it's so fresh from the farm!

I recently made four dishes that we shot for our editorial team at work to choose from. Since I can't really show you the pretty pictures... they belong to "work," and since I forgot (as ALWAYS) to take my camera with me to the shoot, my pictures are from home, and of only two of the recipes. But they are all worthy of a try. Check out the American Institute for Cancer Research and the Centers for Disease Control, where I found the recipes as well; both have many healthy options that are easy and delicious.

Other than the two recipes posted here, I made Savory Fresh Apricot Bites and Bruschetta with Plums and Fresh Basil--both lovely and summer-fresh beautiful.

Santa Fe Chilled Nectarine Soup
2 lbs (8 small) nectarines, sliced
1 cup apple juice
1 cup cranberry cocktail juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Combine nectarines with juices, salt, pepper flakes and vinegar in electric blender. Whirl until smooth and blended. Add cilantro leaves and whirl in a stop-and-go fashion a few seconds, just to chop. Serve chilled.

This soup was just a lovely and refreshing surprise. The fruit flavor came through loud and clear, with a bit of zip from the red pepper flakes, and a bit of zing from the balsamic. Definitely a make-again!


South of the Border Watermelon and Sweet Onion Salsa
2 cups chopped seedless watermelon
3/4 cup Walla Walla sweet onion
3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped and seeded jalapeno chilies
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbsp brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Stir together all ingredients in bowl. Refrigerate, covered at least 1 hour to blend flavors. Stir before serving.

A nice blend of flavors and textures. I would not normally think of putting black beans and watermelon together, and this was a bit of a "sell" for the husband, but it was good. If I were to make it again, I would absolutely add some lime juice to the mixture, for the zing.

Relish the thought

In preparation for the Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner photo shoot on Wednesday, I needed to come up with a couple of different relish/sauce/accompaniments for the turkey. One I knew would be a pretty traditional cranberry sauce, the other took a little more thought, and some creative license!

Cranberry sauce the way Sher likes it:
2 bags of fresh cranberries, picked over and washed
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
1 cup sweetener--you can use sugar, light corn syrup, honey or maple syrup
4 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 T vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan on the stove and heat slowly over medium-low heat, to avoid popping all the cranberries. Stir occasionally. When simmering and about 3/4 of the cranberries are open and bubbly, turn off and cool. Taste and adjust sweetener as needed.

The photo above is pretty monochromatic--I'm still working on ye olde food photography, and feel extremely limited with my kitchen lighting, especially with zero sunshine when I'm cooking most days. Anyway, all that is to say that when we're shooting the sauce on Wednesday, I think I'll zest some more orange and maybe even thinly strip off some rind to give some more texture and color to it.


For sauce No. 2, I went rummaging online and found a recipe for a pineapple relish that sounded good, and one for an apricot relish, and so I combined them, threw in a little grapefruit juice for an acid and some habaneros for heat and pomegranates for texture and color and, voila!, a pretty zesty little combo.

Pineapple-apricot-pomegranate relish
2 cups chopped fresh pineapple
1 cup chopped dried apricots
2 T grapefruit juice (you could easily use lime or orange instead)
1/2 cup sugar

Simmer over medium heat until apricots are softened and mixture is bubbly. Take off the heat and add:
1/2 cup fiinely diced shallots
2 habaneros, sliced cross-wise
1 cup pomegranate seeds

Stir until blended. Serve warm or cold.

When I was tasting I avoided actually chomping on a habanero since I'm kinda wimpy in the heat department, but the overall flavor of the sauce had been warmed through by the peppers and it had a nice fire to it--nothing radical, just tasty and glow-y! This relish would also work well with "other" white meats... not just Mr. Turkey. You could even pretend it's a salsa and serve with chips, or, dare I say it, a cheesey quesadilla!