The Blackberries and I

Over the past few weeks, my relationship with blackberries has become very complex. I swing wildly from outright hatred to fierce desire. How should I feel about this prickly, stubborn, crazy delicious menace?

All along the back of our property is a gigantic swath of blackberry bushes. They are not even on our land and yet they encroach rapidly. Shanti hacks at them with a crazed fervor every few months, but they only return stronger to strangle our bushes and creep along our lawn. I spent an hour digging them from under a lilac the other day. The roots were so old and deep that there was no way I could dig them all up. Unfortunately digging them up is the only way to eradicate them....well that and evil poison.

At least once a day I silently curse them. Until 2 weeks ago.
I was running down the road to put some mail into a neighbours post box when I realized that the bushes lining the road were laden with plump, purpely black berries. I popped one in my mouth and then ran like a crazy lady back to the house to call the family to pick.

I have just spent 20 minutes harvesting along the back of the house. The picking itself is painful and hard...and yet the reward is so sweet. The berries burst in your mouth. They have quickly become my most favorite berry. I am baking pie and crumbles and sprinkling them in yogurt. I am having anxiety that I can not reach all of them and that many are going to waste. I am covered in scratches and itchy spores. Today when I went running, I actually had to stop mid stride to eat some beside the road...the temptation was too great.

So do I love this scourge of the island? If the blackberries suddenly all died, would I rejoice that a noxious weed had been vanquished, or would I shed a silent tear that the late months of summer on Vashon would no longer hold such sweet sweet morsels scattered along the roads for anyone to take?

Buying local

One of the things I am really appreciating about island life is the ease at which I can buy locally produced goods.
Today my neighbor clued me into a guy who makes bread in a wood fired oven and sells it at the Thriftway. It is called Bill's Bread, and when I grabbed it off the shelf it was warm. Apparently he bakes it in a wood fired, French style, outdoor oven. I cut up the loaf for dinner and it was gone in 10 minutes. It had a beautiful chewy crust and a very soft, spongy interior. The flavors were complex and nutty. At the Thriftway you can also find local meat, local cheese, Vashon coffee and hand made soaps. At the moment the veggie starts lined up outside the front doors have been sprouted down the road.
My eldest son gets to eat locally whenever he has school lunch. The lunch program here is outstanding, a dollar more than you pay in the city, but the food is fantastic and much of it is grown on the island. It is always a far superior lunch to one I could scrounge up for him before the caffeine has kicked in.

The Farmer's Market has opened for the season and I see farm stands cropping up all over the place. Soon our chickens will be big enough to lay and then maybe I'll be putting an honor box beside my mail box. I look forward to being able to contribute to this local food life.
I guess I should try and find these foodie folk. They are all over the island and are a big reason life here is so rich and appealing. For now I'll chat over the fence with my neighbor and hope he gives me more delicious tips. Did I mention that he has a vineyard...and a while back he gave us a bottle of his wine.

10 things I love about Island life

1. Leaving my car doors unlocked.
2. Looking out my kitchen window, and seeing an orchard, a vineyard and the Puget Sound.
3. Getting plants delivered along with my mail from my friendly Postman.
4. Rubber boots becoming completely acceptable footwear...anywhere.
5. Buying fresh eggs from Ferdie's Preschool teacher...(thanks Andrea!)
6. Getting my handwritten water bill.
7. Walking on the beach in the rain.
8. The General Store in Burton, which is exactly how a general store on an island should be. It even has the friends of the old lady who runs it sitting on a couch behind the cash register.
9. Birds everywhere...I am going through a feeder full of seed a day.
10. The most awesome school lunch program in the USA (I'd be willing to bet money on it anyways)

Frosting a train

Another Birthday for a small boy and this time I decided to tackle the dreaded train. I vaguely remember my Mum telling me never to attempt the train...but a girl never listens to her mother. Mum was right. It was a frosting nightmare. I had to pull out my whole bag of tricks; a crumb coat, a chill in the freezer, the palette knife in hot water, disguising mess ups with candy, the list goes on. The end result was great, but it took me many hours. Never mind, the look on Raf's face was worth all the effort. I like to think my cakes are edible Birthday cards to my kids. I am sure when they are adults they will remember every mistake I made as a parent, but I also hope that they will remember those cakes and how much love I frosted onto them.

Already hosed it....

So I am supposed to post every week. That good intention lasted exactly one week. See how bad I am at New Years resolutions. I am going to tell myself that my post last week was actually my decision on the name for my blog, a weighty task indeed. I wanted to call it something that didn't lock me into rants about baked goods and kids, so I chose 'Isthmus". I live very close to an isthmus; a narrow strip of land, bordered on both sides by water, connecting two larger bodies of land. I get a thrill every time I drive over it, seeing one harbor and then the other...almost touching. We went for a walk this past weekend, down to the beach at low tide.  In the old days, this was the only time Vashon and Maury were joined and you had to wait until then to cross by foot, but then the isthmus was built and the two became more like one. 

My boys ran like wild things. The littlest one could scarcely tear himself away from the rocks and the water and all the things crawling around on the shore. It made me so happy that I have brought them here to grow up. We are lucky indeed.

New Year's Resolution

I make resolutions every year. I never keep them.

My most common one is to floss every day. I didn't even bother to make that one this year. However I did make one that I am actually going to attempt to keep.

I resolved to post something on my blog once a week. Crazy talk I know.

So here I am . I have moved to an old farmhouse, on an acre of land, on an island in Puget Sound. My kitchen is from way back in the 70's and lacks a dishwasher and anything that even resembles a decent stove. But I love it here, and am looking forward to a year in which I try out lots of new adventures. As I type this, the chicken coop is under construction, the compost pile is growing, and hubby is reading up on vegetable gardens.

I am still baking as usual.

For New Years I made monkey bread. It is a pull apart sticky bun loaf that is delicious and looks way more complicated than it actually is. I used the recipe from the Cook's Illustrated Baking Book. I loved the fact that I could put it in the fridge, and let it rise the next morning.

So let's see what I can pull out of my oven this year, assuming I don't attack it with a sledge hammer out of frustration that is.

latest Birthday cake

My oldest son requested an ice cream cake for his 8th Birthday. He gave me free reign on how to decorate it, so I went with a spy theme. With a little help, I made a bunch of fondant spy tools that I was able to place on top at the last moment. Ice cream cakes are pretty easy really. I baked a plain vanilla cake, split it in half and filled the middle with ice cream. Old School Frozen Custard was having strawberry as the flavor of the day, so I had them do a Neapolitan style....3 stripes, 13 scoops in all. I frosted the cake with a very simple whipped cream icing, with a bunch of powdered sugar in it to stabilize it. I was pretty pleased with the result. I reminded me how fun and easy it is to work with fondant. It really is edible play dough.

All things crazy

It has been a busy summer. Hubby has worked non stop, we are in the process of trying to buy a house and the daily life of 3 small boys is a chaotic ride. Birthday season is now upon us, so I will hopefully update with cake photos very soon. My son has requested an ice cream cake. I am down with his....nothing better than ice cream and cake in one glorious creation. I have talked with the folks at Old School Frozen Custard, and they are going to fill up my cake pan with their seriously awesome ice cream. I'll have a layer of cake already in there, then I'll turn the whole thing out and frost it with a powered sugar infused whipped cream.

Isaac is very into spying right now, so I am going to attempt some spy like stuff with fondant. This could be tragic. Ice cream cakes don't lend themselves to intricate decoration as they melt, thus I must have stuff that I can just throw on the top. Results to follow!

Best Birthday cake ever.

When I was a kid...this was the Birthday cake I most often requested.

It is a classic. I made it for my eldest son's first Birthday as well.

If you have kids, then you simply must own "The Australian Women's weekly Birthday Cake Books". My boys pour over them on rainy days. My brothers and I can tell you every cake we had from them, and Birthday parties we went to that featured a Women's Weekly creation. It is hard to find the original from the 70's but well worth the search. I'd lend you mine, but it is too treasured to part with for even a day.

Best pound cake ever. Thanks Elvis!

I did a ton of cooking this past weekend, and one thing I made for the second time was Elvis's favorite pound cake. I got the recipe from Gourmet- back in the day when it was still around. I am a lover of pound cake...so simple and so comforting. This one is the King of them all (bad pun I know).

Take the time to sift the flour 3 times. It is important. The cake is a very fine, dense crumb, quite sturdy and spongy. I like to serve it with strawberries or even a yummy ice cream. It also has a yummy 'crust" that forms on the top of the cake that is almost chewy. Maybe Elvis was onto something here. Watch me if I start to fry up PB&J sandwiches though.

It's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll

One of the things I miss about my home country,(and there are many-but that is another post), is the ability to go into any bakery and buy a sausage roll. So flaky and hot, with a weird film of fatty goodness that coats your tongue for hours afterward. Sometimes I get a hankering so bad that I simply must have one, so I came up with my own recipe. They are always a huge hit, and are super simple to make. I use ground turkey cause hubby won't eat the red meat...but you can sub in a mix of beef and pork if you like.

SAUSAGE ROLLS

Ingredients:

2 full sheets puff pastry (pepperidge farm or Aussie puff is good)

1 package of ground turkey-standard size

2 crusts bread -or regular slices if you don't have crust

4tbs milk

1 small onion

4 cloves garlic

1tbs Worcestershire sauce

3tbs tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp celery seed

2 tbs Dijon mustard

egg wash if you like....not necessary.

Method:

*Oven at 400 F

*defrost pastry while making filling

*whiz up the bread crusts in a food processor until fine crumbs. Mix with milk in a large bowl to form a panade and set aside.

*chop onion and garlic fine in a food processor, add to bread panade

* add in rest of ingredients (not pastry) and mix very well.

* open up pastry sheet and divide into 3. Roll each piece to form a nice rectangle....lay a line of turkey sausage mix down the center and fold over to make a roll. Wet pastry seam with water to seal. Cut into inch long pieces and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, an inch and a half apart.

*Bake for 25 mins or until golden.

Serve with ketchup.....mmmmmmmm.

I always make the recipe up as I go along so this is an approximation. Feel free to add spices.

Bake Sale Love

This past weekend, my oldest son's school held a fun little art festival, and the PTSA held a bake sale at it. I am co-chair of the PTSA, and a bake sale is what I live for!

It was a smashing success. At the end of 2 hours we had sold all but a few lonesome bundt cakes. We even made pretty good money considering it was all donated goods, and cookies were going for a buck a piece. It was more than the money though that made it so great. It really built a sense of community. It was so lovely to be able to point across the room and say "there is the person who baked that cupcake", while kids hassled their parents to buy them one. It was also nice that even though what was being sold was definitely not health food, it was food made from scratch, with real, honest ingredients. Food has great power. It can enrich us and it can destroy us. It was nice that for an afternoon anyways, kids were being bought a treat that was made by real hands and wasn't able to be supersized.

As a passionate baker, it also thrilled me to see lots of other people getting in on the act. Now I am daydreaming of holding multiple bake sales, bake sales that span whole city blocks, bake sales that bring world peace....one cupcake at a time.

Hot cross buns!

Easter would not be complete without these delicious treat. I baked them from scratch and they were quite easy! I used the recipe in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living.

There is a big article about the importance of breastfeeding in the news today. I am pleased to see that both the Seattle Times and CNN were carrying it. I have very strong feelings about breastfeeding, and I think it is time that women were educated and knowledgeable about this important topic.

In the article it says that only 12 to 14% of babies in the US are breastfed up to 6 months of age. This is appalling. I almost did not believe it...until I thought back on all the Moms and babies I know. A great number of women that I admire, that are highly educated and very invested in parenting, did not make it past 6 weeks. Sometimes they supplemented with formula unnecessarily. Breastfeeding was difficult and inconvenient and tiring. They had formula as infants...and they turned out just fine. What's the big deal anyways? I can't tell you how many times I heard this.

I think it needs to be said that it is a big deal. I feel we should stigmatize bottle feeding. It should be the norm to breastfeed your child...and if you don't, people should assume that something went horribly wrong. For too long, breastfeeding has been something out of the mainstream. Something those hippy, crunchy Moms did with a self righteous air wafting around them. Sure it was great if it worked out, but no biggie if it didn't.

I have breastfed all my boys, and am currently still nursing the youngest. I nursed the other two until they were older than 2. I had a very hard start with my first son, and was almost unprepared for how difficult it was. I stuck with it because I honestly felt it was the most important thing I could do for him at that time of his life. I never gave any of them a drop of formula. When my first was born, I had a series of nurses coming into the room slapping down the bottle of formula on the table - telling me I was going to have to give it to him. I refused. I was prepared to pump every hour and jam it down his throat with a tube if I had to.

I was inspired by my own Mum, who pumped every 3 hours for a month so that I could have her milk while I was in the ICU in the hospital. If she could do that for me, then I could buckle down for my boy.

If you read the facts about breastfeeding, it is actually very rare that a woman cannot nurse. With the right support and education, most hurdles can be overcome. It is also very very rare that a woman does not produce enough milk - 2 to 5 %. I have probably spoken with over a hundred women who claim to not have produced a sufficient supply. This is indeed the most common response given as to why they stopped nursing.

I resolve to be more outspoken about breastfeeding. I won't keep quiet.

Breastfeeding is the hardest thing I have ever done. It is also one of the very best.

Lets put those formula companies out of business!

Mag Hag

I am addicted to magazines.

Wow, it felt good to say that. This is not a recent thing. I remember as a teenager desperately wanting my Mum to let me buy "Dolly", a type of Aussie teen Cosmo. She wouldn't, and thus the obsession began.

Over the years I have always had subscriptions to at least 5 magazines a month and sometimes as many as 20. I have gone through periods where I try to whittle them down and then six months later my mailbox is stuffed again. My main love is cooking magazines. The death of "Gourmet" was very tough on me and I still tear up when I receive my substitute "Bon Appetit" in the mail. I also get "Cooks Illustrated", "Cooks Country"and "Everyday Food". I am a proud subscriber to "Martha Stewart Living". The photography and styling in that mag is just gorgeous.

I went through a long period of getting "Harpers", but I never had enough time to read all the articles, and I often found myself getting depressed by them. I read the whole magazine. I am not a flicker. I read every page, and sometimes "Harpers" just did me in. I also have several years worth of "National Geographic s" stuffed in my spare room.

I could go on and on. So many magazines that I have once welcomed into my home, or still do.

I think I love magazines for the possibilities and mini motivational pep talks they give you. I always feel inspired, for a brief moment, to turn my life around. I will organize that closet. I will bake that 7 layer truffle cake. I will launch into a month of awesome weight loss and hard core fitness. It all seems so doable laid out on those glossy, friendly pages. Never mind that the craft projects and cooking adventures never quite come off as fabulous as the photos. For that brief moment one can luxuriate in the possibility that they will, and that your house will look sparkly and oh so perfect while you are doing them.

Magazines are also tailor made for my Mum life. I often have 5 mins to sit and read. But no more than that. A book would be far too dangerous to pick up. I might get sucked in. I might neglect my children. A magazine however can be set down with ease, and I can still feel like I have read something.

I must confess. The one type of magazine I never read. Parenting Publications! Can't stand them. I usually disagree with so much they have to say that I get quite worked up and start firing off letters to editors. Best to leave them alone.

And lastly, the best local magazine is "Edible Seattle", edited by a dear friend of mine. Do yourself a favor and check it out. I'm signing off now to go read what the best figure flattering skirt for me is....seriously.

Cooking Contests

I just entered my first cooking contest. I don't know whether to be elated or worried. My entry was pretty slap dash and I haven't actually cooked the dish in a long time, so I was going from memory. I am simultaneously excited and repulsed by the cooking contest world. It seems almost like playing the lotto, such big prizes at stake, and yet it is not the kind of cooking I normally aspire to. I just finished reading "The Ungarnished truth" by Ellie Matthews about her Pillsbury Bake-off win. It was an OK read, though I got the feeling that Ellie is a pretty underwhelmed person, and thus I had trouble mustering up enthusiasm when she seemed to lack it as well. It got me to thinking about food contests, and how for years now I have entertained the notion of entering Pillsbury. I get all fired up and then sputter out when I see all the rules and regulations. Not to mention I never actually cook with biscuits in a can and ready to go pie crust. I always kick myself when the entry period is closed. So, I've resolved to start taking action and tonight I entered the Dole California cook-off. I could win a 4-day, 3-night trip to California to compete for cash and a chance to have my recipe printed on 1000s of DOLE Canned Fruit or Juice labels! (as the flyer so nicely pointed out). That is if I have filled out those submission forms correctly! Stay tuned, and if I don't win I'll put the recipe here instead.

Back again

So it seems I got locked out of my last blog.....and then life conspired to stop me from doing anything about it. Never fear. I am back! I've got things I need to say, absolutely no time to say it, and friends who deserve better than listening to me prattle on. Thus I will send these thoughts out into the internet void...and to you dear reader, whoever you are.