Valentine’s Day

Wing Nut, will you be my Valentine?

Breakfast at our house

Hey Diva Dog, what’s that you’re eating?  It smells good. Can I try some?

 

Hey, this stuff is good! You don’t mind if I have some, do you? There’s enough in that bowl to share, right?

 

Do you mind? I’m trying to eat here. Could you step back and give me some space?

 

Let me help you finish that off. I wouldn’t want you to get indigestion from eating all that by yourself. No need to thank me, Diva Dog. What are friends for, after all?

 

  Psst. Tomorrow, same time, same place?

Season’s Greetings from the Wenches & the critters

Mugsy

Charlie

Sierra

Dakota & her groupies

Lemon Basil Scones

For the August SAGBUTT gathering the Wenches  contributed lemon basil scones, made with basil picked fresh from our garden.

Lemon Basil Scones

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• zest of 1 large lemon
• 5 Tbsp butter, cold and cut into small cubes OR 5 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used oil)
• 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• generous 1/4 cup basil leaves, sliced thinly (stack leaves together, roll up, and snip with kitchen shears)
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp milk (can substitute cream or half and half)
• raw or granular sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375*F.

Blend together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, salt, lemon zest, and basil.

Cut in butter until the texture resembles a course meal. Alternately, you can use a food processor to do this. Just pulse until you get pea-sized lumps.

Mix together lemon juice and milk and add to the scone mixture. Combine until dough just comes together. Do not over-mix -- dough will get stretchy and scone texture will be soft and spongy.

On a lightly floured surface, shape dough into a disc shape about 8 inches in diameter, leaving the center slightly higher.

Using a pizza cutter, slice the disc into 8 pieces like a pizza.

Place scones on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

NOTE: If you use vegetable oil instead of butter, you can treat the scone batter like drop cookie dough -- simply take a large spoonful and drop it on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. I usually get 10 to 12 scones this way.

Brush with remaining tablespoon of milk and sprinkle tops lightly with sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

Enjoy!

A Different Kind of Adventure

Kitty yoga? White Socks NEVER lies on her back like this. I think she's trying to imitate Wing Nut. This is what Wing Nut has been looking like the last few days.

 

Diva Dog napping? Don't let her fool you. This is one seriously stubborn GSD. Since Thursday she has been refusing to leave the house except for potty breaks.

Why are the critters acting so oddly? I think Wing Nut should tell you--the rest of the story.

 

What's wrong with this picture?

Wait a minute, those aren't Wellies. And those silver things are not garden implements. What's going on?

I (Wing Nut) had a bit of an accident this week. My right foot was squashed when a rack of potted plants tipped over and landed on it. Fortunately, I only broke one bone and it was a clean break. Things could have been much, much worse, and we are grateful that they weren't.

I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to all of my AWESOME co-workers and managers for scooping me up, giving me some ibuprofen, taping ice packs to my foot, and finding a pair of crutches within a matter of minutes. I'd also like to say a special thank you to MARY for shuttling me to the doctor, the pharmacy and then home, and for putting up with me while I tried not to freak out or fall apart too much.

So now I'm at home for a while -- eating, sleeping, taking pain meds, surrounding my foot with ice packs, and wearing this spiffy new boot.

Diva Dog is most supportive and loyal -- snuggling with me for my afternoon naps (of which there have been several the last few days). 

But she is also being stubborn and not going for her afternoon walks with Curmudgeon! The weather is absolutely gorgeous this holiday weekend, and they could be having wonderful long walks to Fremont or Ballard. Instead, she's usually sleeping beside me while I'm stretched out with my foot raised on a pillow and covered in ice packs. What a great dog! An under-exercised dog, but a great dog!

I'm sad that we aren't enjoying family adventures this weekend like we did previous weekends. According to the tide charts, there was a really low tide yesterday morning. We could have had fun at the beach, playing on the sand flats. But no -- I'm homebound and not moving much.

Going back to work may be an adventure too. I'm allowed to do desk work, but the computers are all located upstairs. In a few days, I should be able to climb stairs, as long as I don't do it frequently. I'm also not sure how I'll get to work -- I broke my right foot and can't drive with the boot.  There's no way I can do my regular job for a while --- 8 hours on my feet on concrete floors, running around stocking plants, unloading trucks, assisting customers and such. Sigh... this is not the summer adventure I wanted to have this year.

Have salmon, will travel

Early last week, our dear friend RantWoman had a salmon emergency on her hands. She had been gifted with a piece of salmon too large for her to handle on her own. The problem was not all inside her head. But since she took it logically, the answer was quite easy. She got on the phone and called the Wenches. Of course, we told her, we'd be more than happy to help her in her struggle to be free--of the salmon.

The oracle that dispenses freeze dried salmon--i.e., the lid to the box that holds the kitty treats

Back in January the Wenches had a bit of a seafood emergency of our own, a mussels emergency to be exact. When our favorite fishmonger at the local market was more than generous with our request for a pound of mussels, it was RantWoman who came to our rescue. It grieved her so to see us in such a pickle that she dropped everything on the spot and rushed right over to help us eat up all those mussels. I might add that RantWoman is always more than accommodating whenever we ask her to come over and be our guinea pig, I mean taste tester, for a new recipe that we're trying out. So when she called, asking for our help with the salmon, we did not hesitate or misconstrue. We offered our services without intruding or being crude. It is not in RantWoman's nature to be coy; she could see clearly that we had the key--Salmon: A Cookbook, by Diane Morgan. There certainly was no need to discuss much; we quickly made a new plan--the salmon would be frozen in RantWoman's fridge until the weekend.

The salmon after its uptown journey

Saturday evening RantWoman hopped on the bus and made her way to our house. When she arrived, her many bags contained all manner of surprises that she'd picked up at the Pike Place Market--rhubarb, pears, chocolate, a bouquet of lilies. And of course the salmon. We opted for simplicity when it came to cooking the salmon--mostly because we were too exhausted and not very coherent after a day of teaching, for Curmudgeon, and a day of mandatory work meetings and vet appointments, for Wing Nut (even though it was her day off and her b-day to boot). The salmon was drizzled with olive oil. A few shakes of salt and pepper and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary were added, and into the oven it went. While the fish baked, RantWoman prepared a rhubarb pear crisp, Curmudgeon made a side dish of sauteed red peppers, kale and great northern beans, and Wing Nut tossed together a salad of spring greens with apples, toasted walnuts and grated parmesan. Half an hour later, we were sitting down to a scrumptious meal together.

Wing Nut's birthday lilies

Here in the Pacific Northwest these types of seafood emergencies are not uncommon. Luckily for those of us living here, there are at least 50 ways to eat your salmon.

Oh my aching...

Fill in whatever body part you want here. They all hurt! You know, it's really too bad Tiger Balm only comes in tiny jars -- I'd like to dip myself in a vat of it.

Yesterday afternoon, while the temps were low but the sun was warm, Curmudgeon and I worked on the garden bed for about 4 hours or so. Today we're feeling it.

We had planted crimson clover and fava beans in the fall for a winter cover crop. We thought it was now time to churn them under so we can start planting in another week or two. Plus we added 4 bags of steer manure. We did all of this work by hand, by hoe, by shovel, by Garden Claw, and by rake. No mechanical equipment. Uff da hey -- that was hard work! Next year, if we have a winter cover crop, I want a rototiller!!

Hopefully all of our efforts will pay off with a bumper-crop of veggies this summer. In the meanwhile, if White Socks will share, I'm going to sit on the sofa, covered in Tiger Balm, sip my coffee and read a book. And maybe dream of rototillers...

-- Wing Nut

Cranky Curmudgeon Experiencing Blotanical Withdrawl

Today my morning routine did not go as planned.  I was looking forward to a round-the-world tour of my favorite gardening blogs. But when I tried to log on to Blotanical,  the site was down. I raced around the blogosphere checking in with other blogs to see if there was any news as to why the site was down. I even checked the weather in Australia--Blotanical's founder Stuart Robinson is from  Busselton, Western Australia--to make sure mother nature was not to blame for Blotanical's disappearance from the radar screen. When I came up short on answers I was forced to move on to Plan B--laundry and vacuuming. This made for a very cranky Curmudgeon. 

Blotanical, where garden blogs bloom

Blotanical is a social site that brings together blogging gardeners of different ilks and stripes from all over the world. From professional gardeners, garden writers and nature photographers to complete novices like the Wenches, you can find it on Blotanical. I have my own page on the site, "My Plot", which contains info about me and my garden. I learn about other gardeners and their blogs by visiting their plots. My favorite tool on Blotanical is the ability to search for garden blogs by geographical location--France, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Caribbean and of course all across the US and Canada.

Hey! I just checked and Blotanical is back. But it's way past lunchtime now. Making it around the world before I need to leave for work is going to be a challenge. Heck with laundry! Who needs clean socks anyway!

--Curmudgeon

A tale of two patients

Snuggle Bug is now on antibiotics because she has a bladder infection. When Snuggle Bug is not feeling well she vocalizes A LOT. And she sleeps in odd places. Like the fruit bowl.

Wing Nut is now ALSO on antibiotics because Snuggle Bug bit her. It wasn't really a bite though. We were trying to give SB her antibiotics and Wing Nut's finger got in the way. It was a teeny tiny prick on her finger. But we figured better safe than sorry. So, off to the doctor she went.

Snuggle Bug gets meds that taste and smell like bananas. She gets to sleep in the fruit bowl under warm lights. And she gets to eat as much canned food as she wants.

Wing Nut gets meds that are the size of horse pills and taste chalky. PLUS she had to get a booster to her tetanus shot. Ouch. She's NOT allowed to eat all the chocolate zucchini cake. And she can't sleep in the fruit bowl. Life is so not fair sometimes!

 

--Curmudgeon

Lessons on friendship

A good friend shared this with us and we'd like to share it with you. Thanks MK!

The video is of Steve Hartman reporting for CBS Assignment America from The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, TN (Jan. 2, 2009).

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

Gâteau chocolat & courgette

Yesterday evening when I got home from work there was a delicious surprise waiting for me on the kitchen counter. Wing Nut had the day off and spent part of it baking. She tried her hand at a new recipe and it was a grand success in my opinion. She made a chocolate zucchini cake. But this wasn't just any chocolate zucchini cake. This was  Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate & Zucchini Cake.

If you look carefully at the picture, you can see flecks of green in the cake. Wing Nut didn't put any nuts in the cake as the recipe on Dusoulier's website calls for. One thing I really liked about this particular recipe is that it calls for less fat and sugar than most other recipes for C&Z cake that I've found out there on the Internet. And the cake is so incredibly rich! Dusoulier mentions one possible alteration to her recipe which I'm curious to try; she gives the option of using olive oil instead of butter for a slightly peppery flavor.

My 2009 continues to smell and taste of chocolate. How about yours?

--Curmudgeon

Sleeping cheek to cheek

White Socks and Diva Dog taking their afternoon nap.

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

2009 is smelling like chocolate

What resolutions did the Wenches make for 2009? Only one:

EAT MORE CHOCOLATE!!!

Okay, okay. I'm not really serious about this being our 2009 resolution. But a chocolate recipe does follow. So all those of you who made resolutions involving diets, dieting, and weight loss for 2009 should probably stop reading right now and click away to a different blog.

This year we started what I hope will become a New Year's tradition at our house. On the first morning of 2009, Wing Nut made chocolate waffles for breakfast. Yes, I did write waffles and chocolate together. The intoxicating perfume of chocolate lingered throughout the house for hours after breakfast. We topped our waffles with baked pears and a sprinkle of cardamom.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE WAFFLES

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa, preferably Dutch processed
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups reduced fat milk
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels

Place all the ingredients except the chocolate morsels in a large bowl and combine until well blended and smooth. Let batter sit 5 minutes before using.

Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your waffle maker regarding preheating and cooking. Once you've poured the batter sprinkle chocolate morsels over each waffle and let batter bubble a few seconds before closing the cover of the waffle maker.

Makes twelve 4-inch waffles. A serving is one waffle.

Nutritional Analysis per serving: Calories 265 (39% from fat), carbs 37 g, protein 5 g, fat 12 g, sat. fat 3 g, cholesterol 38 mg, sodium 187 mg, calcium 62 mg, fiber 3 g

*This recipe is from the instruction booklet that came with our waffle maker.

Here's wishing you a great smelling 2009!

--Curmudgeon

Season's Greetings from the Wenches

From Wing Nut

Feliz Lattedad!

This IS Seattle after all...

*

 

From Curmudgeon

Bah           Hum           Bug!

This IS Curmudgeon after all..

 

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

A Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas

The Wenches can't make it back east for the holidays this year, but we received a very special card reminding us of home.

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

 

 

Strange visitor

We've had visitors in our yard before...

But we've never seen anything like this...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

--Curmudgeon & Wing Nut

Pink odium

It's in the Code of Curmudgeonly Conduct--Thou shalt loathe pink! I realize my pink petulance may lose us the few blog readers we have, but what can I say.  I much prefer the lavenders, blues and purples, the yellows, oranges and reds, white, even the recent trends favoring chartreuse and black in the garden. I guess you could say I prefer all colors to pink. I would not willingly welcome a pink flowering plant to my garden solely for its pinkness. Yes, we do have bergenia in our garden. But I did not plant it--and it looks just horrid next to the forsythia--not to mention the dandelions!

So how do I survive spring you ask. It's not easy being me during spring. Let me show you. Come with me on a walk around our neighborhood this afternoon and you'll see just what I have to endure. This is not going to be a bucolic stroll in the country or even the suburbs. Ours is going to be an urban adventure. You're going to see concrete and cars and electrical poles and houses that sit very close together. This is the world of the weed whackin' wenches' urban potager and flower gardens. Let's pound the pavement people!

This is the first thing I see as I head out down our street. Isn't the shape and form of the trees just beautiful, despite their pinkness?

Even among the hyacinths some pink ones sneak in.  If you close your eyes and just enjoy the fragrance, you can more easily ignore the fact that they're pink.

 

This goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks! it's enough to drive a person right out of a grouchy, ill-tempered state of being.

Here and there, a splash of white or red or a cascading wall of evergreen clematis will break up the pink monotony.

But soon enough it's back to pink...

...this tree produces huge quantities of plums.

The scent of daphne odorosa keeps us energized as we work our way up the very steep hill that is the home stretch on our walk.

Is there anything more perfect than this beautiful white magnolia bud? What? It's tinged with pink you say? A pink tinge doesn't really count as pink, does it? And this rhodie is more lavender than pink, so it doesn't count either. 

Why am I standing under this tree and sighing? Well its branches reach out and over the sidewalk and they embrace the passer-by in a world of pink cotton candy and sweet fragrance. Oh no, please, don't tell the Committee in charge of Cranky Curmudgeonly Conduct, or the 4 Cs for short!

Look! It's CHARTREUSE! How's that to shock our eyeballs out of their rose-tinted trance? This is euphorbia wulfenii. 

 

By now we've covered about 2 miles and we're back home. In front of our house the ornamental cherry  trees are taking their sweet time--sweet indeed! They can't possibly be considered pink, can they?

 

Battening down the hatches

We're waiting for our first windstorm of the season--expecting winds 20-30 mph with gusts up to 40. That's half of what we got last year during the December 14th "Hanukkah Eve" storm. Nevertheless, 20-30 mph winds can make inanimate objects come to life! During a bit of a let up in the rain I ran out and put in the garage anything that would be likely to fly away--patio furniture, empty pots, etc. I found the dahlia tubers drowning in one of the empty containers. I also picked the remaining peppers--another 3 dozen! The first batch I picked did ripen to red sitting on the kitchen counter. Hopefully this batch will too!

I took this picture under our newly installed track lighting! Now we can read at the kitchen table--and see what we're eating too. We've been thinking about installing some kind of light over the table ever since we moved in. However, track lighting involving hardwiring sounded too overwhelming. But this weekend Wing Nut decided this was one project she wanted to cross off her list. WiNu rocks!

Around 2 the rain stopped completely and the sun came out. Yippy! A sun break! I dropped everything and headed out with Diva Dog for our walk. The sun only stayed with us for a couple of blocks. The leaves were whirling and whooshing and whizzing by! But we managed to catch a few pretty ones. We made it back just in time to see the neighbor's patio furniture start to fly away, oh my! And while listening to the radio just in the past 20 minutes we've gone from 4,000 homes without power to 10,000.