Garden Blogger Bloom Day, November 15th

In November, I consider my garden a sloppy mess and focus on clean up work on sunny days, but today was different.  As I read my favorite garden blog, Danger Garden, I looked at Loree's bloomday post and wondered how many flowers were blooming in my garden.  I pulled out my camera and enjoyed the beautiful day while I poked around the garden looking for flowers.  Here's what I found. 

I started in the back yard and found that my hardy begonia is still blooming on the back patio.  The blooms are beautiful and the red veining in the leaves looks stunning when backlit.  

This common wax begonia is glowing in the sun and I'm reminded that we still haven't had a hard frost yet.

I missed this bloom when I pruned my Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea earlier in the season.

The leaves on my Variegated Giant Dogwood, Cornus C. 'Variegata' are turning a lovely shade of pink in the white edges of the variegation. 

The fuchsia, Ladies' Eardrops, is a powerhouse bloomer and the hummingbirds love it. It reached five feet tall this year.  

I found the last common japanese anemone bloom today.  It's been blooming since late July.

The bears breeches are still blooming. 

I enjoy the beautyberry this time of year. It has recovered from it's move last year and is completely covered with berries. 

The Assistant helped me look for flowers.

In my front yard, the Husker Red Penstemon is putting on a second set of blossoms for a late season show.

The Mohania eurybracteata 'Soft Caress' is blooming this year for the first time.

The neighbors Harlequin Glory Bower Tree is a beautiful weed in my yard. If you want one, let me know.  

The lemon thyme is blooming in the front victory garden.  I use it when I make roasted chicken.

The rosemary has started blooming too.  

The gold oregano is blooming around the base of my new Japanese Bitter Orange tree. 

I recently hacked back the borage because it keeps leaning over the sidewalk.

  

The cape fuchsia is winding down for the season.

A new seedling of autumn joy is blooming it's heart out at the base of my new honey bush.  I need to move it next spring.

The hebe is still blooming.  Will it survive the winter?  

The chocolate cosmos is still cranking out blooms.  They are such a treat in November. 

The Kaleidoscope Abelia is blooming at the base of the tetrapanax.  

The fatsia japonica recently pushed up a bloom stalk.  

The Tiny Tim Spurge is blooming on the edge of the sidewalk. 

I stopped by the community plot today to see what was blooming.  The purple cosmos were undeterred by my neglect.

The zinnias continue to bloom.  They recovered from a wild brown rabbit shearing them earlier in the season. It moved into my cucumber patch and sampled the produce.

This variegated orange Alaskan nasturtium charmed me this year.  I planted three packets of seed alongside the pathways and I added the blooms to my salads and offered them to brave guests.  

Here is one of the last sunflower blooms of the season.  It's sitting in a vase on my table.

Thanks for taking a walk through my garden with me. 

One Year Later

One year ago today, on 11-11-11, my dog Maya was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.  My Pirate and I were warned that she would live a maximum of two months if we pursued surgery and chemotherapy.  So, we opted to let her live out her final days comfortably.  I scribbled out a life list for Maya in my notebook and started knocking them out with her.  And now the list is completely scratched out, and she is still here, an old lady at 13 years old. The vet is baffled and I am so grateful that I could break out into song at any moment.     

Today, we enjoyed a cozy Sunday afternoon, scrubbing out the dishwasher filter, which was completely caked in dog hair, food particles, and detergent.  And while we laughed and chipped away at it, chicken thighs were roasting in the oven for a delicious lunch.  After we reassembled the dishwasher, I made gravy from the pan drippings.  We sat down to our celebratory lunch and shared nibbles with Maya and The Assistant, who greedily gobbled them down.  

This is how we made our roasted chicken thighs and gravy.

We took 12 chicken thighs and dried them thoroughly with paper towels.  Then we seasoned the bottom side with salt and laid them out on an olive oil rubbed cookie sheet.  We seasoned the tops of the chicken thighs with more kosher salt, pepper, and a few shakes of red cayenne pepper. We sat them on the counter for thirty or so minutes until they reached room temperature.  We slid them into a 430-degree oven for 55 minutes until the skin was crunchy and brown.

We moved the chicken onto a platter and poured the oil off of the cookie sheet into the sink, being careful not to lose the good brown drippings.  Added some hot water, not too much, into the cookie sheet and let it sit for a couple of minutes to soak, while we sampled some crispy chicken skin. Then scraped out the cookie sheet drippings and water into a small saucepan.  Tasted the liquid.  Added water and chicken stock until it tasted just right and poured in a slosh of heavy cream.  Brought the saucepan mixture to a simmer and whisked in Wondra until the mixture thickened.  We added three drops of lemon juice. Tasted it and served it up. 

Maya’s Life List 

Take a long car ride
Chew on a meaty T-bone in the backyard
Nap in the sun
Bark at the talking animals in the movie Babe
Watch sci-fi and bark at the aliens
Bath day followed by the blow drier and tail chase
Eat cookies—the human kind
Slow walks to stop and smell everything
Drink Corona on the back porch

 Chase pinecones in backyard 

My First Dragon Fruit

Each time I walked by the dragon fruit display at Chuck’s Produce for the past year, I imagined it tasting like the love child of a mango and papaya with hints of pineapple and kiwi.  And yet I denied myself this pleasure because it’s three bucks a fruit.  When I caught myself using this ridiculous logic a couple of days ago, I stopped and asked the produce man a couple of questions.  He pulled out his pocketknife and cut me off a slice to eat.  I briefly considered the cleanliness of his pocketknife and stuffed a bite of the white flesh speckled with black seeds into my mouth.  It tasted bland and slightly crunchy.  My eyes squinted into a question and he told me that it wasn’t ripe enough yet and that the fruit would ripen with time. 

I bought my gorgeous dragon fruit and sat it on my kitchen window sill.  Once there were white speckles of mold on it, I cut it open, just like the produce man had instructed. I chopped it up, sprinkled fleur de sel on it, took a picture and sampled it.  And it tasted like sweet Styrofoam with crunchy seeds.  Such a disappointment.  I can imagine using it in a salsa or a fruit salad, but the next time that I buy a dragon fruit it will be to decorate a fruit platter.  So, the next time I walk by it in the store, I’ll imagine that mango papaya flavored fruit and save myself three bucks.

Procrastination and Banana Cream Pie

The first thing I do whenever I learn that I have guests coming over is check the ice cube trays for dog hair.  When we renovated a little cottage in SE Portland ten years ago, I always stated that a painting project wasn’t done until a dog hair landed in it.  And apparently, the same goes for pie dough.  Because as I was rolling out my piecrust yesterday morning, I pulled out two dog hairs.  One was two inches long with a curve (Maya's) and the other hair was shorter and finer (The Assistant's).  Today, as I was scrolling through my pictures I found that there was The Assistant’s hair sitting on the edge of the pie dough.  Do you see it there, towards the left of the dough?  I wonder how many dog hairs I ingest in a week? I must live in a billowing cloud of black dog hair, so I sanitize my kitchen counters everyday and hope for the best.

I made a banana cream pie yesterday for dinner with My Kid, that I’ve been procrastinating on for at least ten years.  He used to tell me over and over how it was his favorite.  And I would read a few recipes and buy a few ingredients and then get conveniently busy.  But, yesterday with Maida Heatter’s piecrust recipe and Martha Stewart’s banana cream pie recipe, I dove in with confidence backed up by two strong cups of coffee.  I was thrilled with my baked piecrust.  This was my third attempt this week with the crust and I feel like I’m starting to get the feel for it.  So I propped up my cooling piecrust in my south facing kitchen window and took pictures of it.  Isn’t it pretty?

My pudding came together under ten minutes and then I folded the chopped up banana into it.  It tasted just like it should.  Then I posed it for some more pictures in my kitchen window, pulled out another dog hair that landed on it, and pushed a piece of plastic wrap on it and tucked it into the fridge. 

 After dinner, I whipped the cream, spooned it on top, and took a few more pictures before I shared it with My Kid.  I told him how I had meant to make this pie for the past ten years, since it was his favorite. Only to have him inform me that no, banana cream pie is not his favorite; my Bavarian Banana Cake is his favorite dessert.   Ok, good to know. I’ll send him a copy of my recipe.  But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy another bite of my banana cream pie!  

Banana Cream Pie 

from Martha Stewart's New Pies & Tarts

Baked pie crust

1/2 cup granulated sugar--I used vanilla sugar.

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

2 cups milk

4 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3 ripe bananas, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

chocolate curls, for garnish (optional)

Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl.  Prep bananas.  

Whisk together the granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan.  Add the milk and whisk together over medium-high heat.  Don't step away from the pan.  Keep stirring until it thickens.  It takes a little less than 10 minutes.

Slowly pour the thickened milk into the egg yolks while stirring.  Then pour it all back into the pan and cook over medium, whisking carefully, until it begins to boil.  Remove from heat and stir in the butter until it melts.

Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.  Fold in bananas.  Pour it into your crust.  Put plastic wrap on the surface and put it into the fridge.  You can refrigerate it for up to a day.  The flavor deepens over time.

Right before you serve the pie, whip the cream.  Chill your bowl and beaters.  And then whip the cream and add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla.  Taste and adjust flavoring to your preferences. Pipe  the whipped cream onto the pie or spoon it on top.  Garnish.  Serve.

The Assistant adores baked goods, even pie crust!

Bouquet of the Week: November Beauty

chocolate cosmos

Today, the sun came out and lit the autumn foliage on fire.  I went outside with my camera to capture the moment and I noticed that the chocolate cosmos were still blooming.  So, I grabbed my snips and picked some blooms.  I decided to use my three favorite bottles that I picked up at a garage sale a decade ago.  I know.  I really like these bottles.

I also picked a japanese anemone seed head and a stem of purple beautyberry.  And I laid three fiery Kousa dogwood leaves in front of them.  Then I snapped a few shots.  

purple beautyberry

An old Listerine bottle adds character to this bouquet.  

I caught The Assistant playing innocent after sniffing the chocolaty scent of the chocolate cosmos.  

It was a beautiful day in the garden with The Assistant!