A Simple List of Things I Love

Today's task in The Artist's Way was to make a simple list of things I love, and to post it somewhere where I can see it. If possible, I'm also supposed to get myself something off this list to enjoy. I've posted here before about my essentials for happiness and things I want, but making this list felt a little different. These are the simple things that bring me joy. They aren't necessarily essential to my well-being, but they make life richer and more meaningful.

THINGS I LOVE

1.  CATS!
2.  Slow meals with good friends and family
3. Candlelight
4. Bright colors and patterns, especially exotic ones
5. Wonderful smells like lavender, lilac, rosemary and onions cooking on the stove
6. Things that are soft and fluffy and silky to the touch
7. Bright fall days
8. Being surrounded by plants and flowers
9. Rain and thunderstorms
10. The sound of meditation bells
11. Lemon flavored desserts
12. Receiving cards and letters in the mail
13. Giving gifts
14. Traveling to new places
15. Indian food
16. The first glass of wine at the end of a long day
17. Hugs from my parents
18. Bringing a smile to someone’s face
19. Halloween
20. Feeling like part of a family
21. Listening to music while driving, and singing along
22. Street fairs and farmer’s markets
23. Claw machines, and the feeling I get when I win
24. Sunrises, and the quiet early morning hours
25. Being in nature, and seeing animals in their natural habitats
26. The first cup of coffee in the morning
27. The anticipation of travel, of fun upcoming events, and of seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time
28. Dramatic sunsets
29. Clean sheets
30. Pretty little flowers in a vase

What do you love? I challenge you to make a simple list. It feels good, and it's a great reminder to add these little things to your life whenever possible. You deserve it.

My cats, Murray and Venus, enjoying a fresh breeze.  I love them!

Lazy Sunday

LAZY SUNDAY

Sit still and listen,
listen to the breezes
making their tireless journeys through the trees, tickling their leaves and playing
their endless song.

Distant dogs
bark at passing trucks, kicking up gravel as their tires
spin past in a muddy blur.

Slips of conversation
are passed like notes in class
surreptitiously
not meant to be heard by unknown ears.

The creaking of exhausted hinges on a door that has
so much experience
it can no longer fit into the jamb that once so easily contained it,
that door is an old man
stubbornly refusing to fit in
and telling stories of old times in rusty whispers
that come and go with warm, decomposing breaths of air.

Death floats by on the wind
as the leaves force out their last bit of brilliance under a magnificent ombre sky,
almost in competition.

The grass is too long in the tooth
and a million crazy mouths try to bite you as you walk past
on your way to pin yesterday's damp clothes on the line, having been
washed of their secrets.
They'll soak up the yellow air that
hugs and hugs and hugs them,
making them dance with the joy of
another day.

A Season of Beginning

Fall is descending upon the garden here in Southern California. It doesn't look like the fall of my youth, with the crisp, ripe air, the crimson, flaming trees, or the crackling logs on the fire. There are no frosty mornings or quiet, introspective, rainy days. No woolen sweaters or hot mugs of apple cider. You would sweat to death here.

But fall is here nonetheless. I can tell by how leggy the salvia has gotten, by how the mint, once a mad dictator claiming all neighboring lands as its own, has become dry and brittle and easily breaks like a tortured hostage. The squash vines have grasped their last fence post, their plump fruits ready to be plucked from their dirty brown hands. The hollyhocks have collapsed, unable to bear the weight of their beauty any longer, and the tiger lilies, once ferocious, have crawled back into their dens for the season.

It's time to cut back in the garden. Time to prune back the perennials and pull out the basil. It's time to weed the beds and cover them with a blanket of protective compost so they can have a cozy winter's nap.

I think fall is the perfect time to cut back in my life as well. Take a cue from nature and trim back the excess growth that doesn't serve me, only sucks away energy that could be put to better use, making my healthy parts stronger. It's time to shed the old habits that don't serve a creative purpose, and to let in some light and some air.

Fall is also a time of planting in Southern California. There is no better time that right now to put new plants in the ground. While visible growth comes to a standstill in the ensuing months, there is a festival of activity happening in places the eyes can't see. Our warm, nourishing soil is prompting roots to grow, and once tender seedlings firmly establish themselves over the winter holidays. Come spring, they have a strong foundation on which to grow, and burst into life, wowing us with their color, their shape, their fragrance, their taste, and all their innumerable glories.

Now is the time for me to plant my ideas, to nourish them and let them establish themselves inside me in the coming months. Before long, those ideas will have taken root, and can burst forth and dazzle, seemingly effortlessly.

If we take the time to do important fall chores - to cut back, to clean up, to plant, and to nourish - we will have created the foundation on which to be resplendent.

If you need me, I'll be in the garden, preparing for the beginning.

How to Deal with the Worry Monster

I've always been a worrier. It's such a big part of my identity, I'm not sure I'd recognize myself if I didn't worry anymore. Who is that carefree woman in the mirror? I've never seen her before, I don't think she's from around here.

When I was young, I worried about the kinds of things young people often worry about. Are my grades good enough? Will I get into the right college? Will I ever find a boyfriend? Am I making enough money to survive?

Now that I'm older, the worries have become more profound. How much longer will my parents be around? Are we making the right decisions for our family? Is that mole cancerous? Is that semi going to tip over and crush me while I'm driving on the 405? Should I be worried about this lump? Does that confrontational guy living across the street have a gun, and is he going to use it someday? The worry monster just gets bigger as time goes on. It has a steady diet of potential calamities on which to dine.

It has become essential to my well-being that I learn how to manage all this worry. I can easily let my worry spiral out of control, until it consumes my mind and turns my stomach into an aching crater full of acid. I can't live like that, so I've made it a conscious practice to deal with it head on as much as possible. It ain't easy. I've remained steadfast in my conviction that my worry originates in my mind, that it is not a chemical imbalance, and I'm not interested in managing it with medication. I think that course is certainly right for some people, but I don't think it's right for me. So I've had to find other ways.

Meditation

I talked about starting a regular meditation practice for years, but never really found a way to begin. My mind is constantly chattering like a 14-year-old girl, and trying to sit quietly with it for more than five minutes can make me terribly irritable. But as the worry has gotten bigger, my need to quiet my mind has become non-negotiable. I made it my New Year's resolution to meditate regularly, and it has finally stuck. While my mind often prattles on during these meditation sessions, it has allowed me to disengage with the emotional reaction to the thought, and that has been essential to mitigating all this worry. If I can see the worry for what it is - a road block to my well-being - than it is easier to consciously turn it off.

Finding the Flow

"The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times... The best moments usually occur if a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means finding activities in which you experience flow. Some people call it the "zone." Basically, it's engaging with an activity that is so engrossing and enjoyable that you lose sense of the passage of time and become completely immersed in what you are doing. You are fully present. For me, that's gardening. When I am out in the garden, I'm fully present and engaged with what I'm doing. I'm not feeding the Worry Monster. The more you experience flow, the greater your overall happiness, so the theory goes. It seems to be working for me, so I'm going to keep digging up the dirt, planting seeds, and watching them grow.

Mindful Choices

Life is full of so many choices. Every day, we are presented with hundreds of choices, from what to wear to work that day to what we're going to eat for dinner. When I was younger, I often didn't put much thought into the decisions I was making about how I spent my time or who I was choosing to spend it with. I'm much more careful and mindful about those decisions now. I am more discerning about my friendships and who I want to have in my life. I take time to nurture the relationships that are worth keeping, and allow the ones that are not beneficial to my well-being to fall away. I am trying to do that with all aspects of my life, although some are harder than others. I really want to be mindful about not eating unhealthy foods, but that pizza is soooo delicious. At the very least, I will sit down and enjoy the experience of eating the pizza, savoring the flavors and texture, instead of eating it on the run or while performing another task. I have less guilt when I do something mindfully. Since guilt often leads to worry about making poor decisions and where they will lead me, making mindful choices helps to lessen my guilt and subsequent worry.

Worry will probably always be a part of my life, but that doesn't mean I have to let it control me. These practices are helping to take the power away from the Worry Monster a little at a time and are allowing me to be a more relaxed and confident person. It takes a conscious effort every day, but it's worth it.

Do you deal with the heaviness of worry? How does it affect you, and how do you try to deal with it?

I'll Take Your Crap, Thank You!

Those that know me know that I have an affinity for junk.  I'm the person that slows down when passing a pile of discarded crap on the side of the road, because you never know what kind of little treasure might be waiting there, disguised as trash.  These are basically the only types of items I like to put in my front yard garden - stuff that can be transformed into something interesting, but nothing of great value that will upset me if it gets stolen or destroyed by the elements.  I've found cement pedestals that have become plant stands and birdbaths, doll beds that have become flower planters, and stairway balusters that have become the bases for bird feeders and houses (and will one day be the body of a dragonfly sculpture, just as soon as I can find some discarded ceiling fan blades to be the wings).

I often find larger treasures such as weathered doors and old shutters that I've not been able to dash off with, simply because I owned a compact car.  Well - I'm delighted to say that is now a thing of the past.  We've finally secured an SUV so that I can pick up whatever damn thing I please.  :-)  I LOVE the new ride.  We were looking for something that we wouldn't mind getting dirty or scratched, and found our perfect match in a friend's busted-up, 2005 Cadillac SRX.  That's right - I'm now the proud owner of a luxury automobile, albeit one that has a big dent on the front passenger side.  I think that makes it even better.  I can ride in my bubble of perfectly controlled climatic bliss while the computer tells me exactly how many more miles I can drive before my next fill-up, AND I can shove a dirty, cobweb-encrusted park bench in the back if I so choose.  The damn thing even beeps if I back up too close to the object I'm about to abscond with.  I'M IN HEAVEN.

It didn't take long to find the first project.  While at a friend's house for a dinner party recently, I noticed his neighbors had just set out a fresh pile of dinged-up furniture.  I've been waiting patiently to snag something to make a potting table of sorts, and I found the perfect specimen in an old, beat-up girlie dresser that was missing a drawer and hardware.  My husband, being consummately accepting of my junk addiction, loaded her up in the back of the Caddy for me (I was wearing a nice dress and carrying a plate of chocolate-covered figs, after all), while my patient and tolerant passengers ate their knees on the way home.

I spent the weekend sprucing her up.  I repaired the drawer runners with some wood glue, sanded her down and gave her a fresh coat of paint.  She also got some new drawer pulls from Home Depot.  The whole thing set me back about $12.  She's now sitting on the front porch, my garden tools safely stashed in her drawers while some of the more attractive pieces show themselves off up top.  I'm pretty happy with how she turned out.

Lemme know if you have any junk you want me to take off your hands, I'll be right over!

Go Happy,
Amy

A Touch of Whimsy in the Garden

The birds have graciously planted many sunflowers for me

I have spring fever, y'all!  Spring was never my favorite season - until I became a gardener.  Now I have to stop myself from going out there every hour to see what has changed and if anything has noticeably grown, because at this time of year the plants and flowers are just exploding.  It's all I can do to concentrate on anything other than plants and planting, to the extent that Adam actually had to ask me to other night if I could please talk about something other than gardening...and it effectively shut me up.  Every time I had a thought or something to share, it was inevitably about how big the corn is getting, how many snow peas we might harvest for dinner tomorrow, or wondering how tall the hollyhocks are going to get and whether they will need staking.  Now he knows what to say to get some peace and quiet.

Now that the garden is in full spring swing, I thought it would be fun to add a little whimsy here and there.  I've always got ideas percolating about how I can turn some junk I found at a garage sale or on the side of the road into some little treasure for my front yard garden.  With all this gardening enthusiasm I've had of late, I've put that energy to good use by finally getting to many of these little projects.  I'm pretty pleased with how they've all turned out so far.

Chandelier Bird Feeder

I saw others like this on Pinterest, so when I happened across a dirt-encrusted chandelier at a garage sale for $20 (it still had the antique store price tag on it, where it was listed for $395!) I knew it needed to be the new upscale restaurant in the yard for my bird friends.  A little cleaning and spray paint was in order, and I made the feed cups from some Trader Joes chicken breast cans which I attached with a little epoxy.  I think it adds just the touch of whimsy I was hoping for, and the birds definitely seem to like it (especially the house finches you see here).

Black tie optional

 Gnome Home

Another Pinterest creation, I've been thinking about adding a little "gnome home" to the tree in the front yard since last summer.  I finally dug up the soil around the tree and purchased the miniature door on Amazon.  It's about the most adorable thing out there.  I planted some alyssum and some dead nettle, and decided to keep the oxalis weeds growing there, too, since they are awfully pretty.

Please wipe your feet before entering

Oh the Places We've Been

Another project I've been daydreaming about since last year was adding a signpost to the front yard with signs pointing to some of the places we've visited over the years.  The most challenging part of the project was choosing which places to include.  I learned a neat trick from another blog about how to add the lettering, and Adam borrowed a post-hole digger from the neighbor to install it for me.  Of course, no signpost is complete without a birdhouse on top (which I snatched for $1 from a garage sale in Indiana while I was home visiting the folks).  Now when I look out the kitchen window I'm reminded of some of our adventures, and the birds have yet another place to perch.

Where have you been?

I hope this inspires you to create some whimsy of your own!  If you need me, I'll be in the garden.

Go Happy, Dear Friends-
Amy

Best. Halloween. Ever.

To say that I was excited about Halloween this year would be an understatement. 

You see, for the past dozen or so years I've lived in an apartment.  Which means no front yard to decorate, and no trick or treaters. I have been utterly deprived of partaking in the type of Halloween shenanigans that I love.  No jack o' lanterns.  No bowls of Snickers.  No gushing over the adorable cuteness of two-year-olds dressed up as ladybugs brought to my door by encouraging parents.  No scaring the crap out of teenagers dressed as, well, teenagers, who are too old to trick or treat but who come to my door nonetheless.  DEPRIVED. 

But this year was different.  This year I live in a HOUSE.  With a FRONT YARD.   I promised Adam that I wouldn't decorate until October.  In my mind, that meant October 1st.  He thought that was excessive. I thought it was being appopriately conservative.  Who wants to see ghosts and goblins in September?  Well...I do, but I tried very hard to contain my enthusiasm.  Adam thought I was crazy.

Until about a week before Halloween.  Adam started questioning me about how I was planning to make the front yard scary.  I thought it was scary already - four gravestones, two ghosts, a severed hand, a giant black widow spider crawling up the side of the house, the front porch encased in spiderwebs.   Isn't that scary?  I didn't even know if we were going to get any trick or treaters.  The only neighbor I talked to about it is never home that night.  I was hesitant to spend too many hours on what would amount to four kids.  I'd already spent an entire Saturday tarting up the yard.

"But we need a fresh grave," Adam said.  "I could be digging a grave in the yard, and when kids come up to the house I could tell them it's for them." 

What?  Since when did the Halloween Scrooge become Dr. Death himself?  I latched onto this idea real quick, and told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to back out now that he made the offer.  And since our landlord is in the process of tearing up our front yard, digging a big hole wasn't as reckless as it sounds.

"And I could make us up like zombies!" I suggested.  "And I could make some dead bodies so the kids won't know which of us is real and which is fake!  And I'll get a fog machine!  And a strobe light! And play scary music!"  I was gushing.  This was too exciting.

The big night came.  It may as well have been prom, what with my ridiculous gangbusters attitude and my decision to devote the entire day to getting ready.  We rigged up all the special lighting.  I got the music going.  We decked ourselves in full zombie attire complete with dripping, gooey (and chocolaty-tasting!) blood.  We lit torches.  Adam got out the shovel and started digging.

And we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  5:30 - no early birds.  Okay, no problem, I thought, it's a school night.  6pm.  No kids.  6:30pm.  No kids.  Adam and I started to realize this may be a colossal let down and waste of time.  But hey - we were entertaining each other, walking around the yard in our zombie walk as people driving by gave us weird and slightly concerned looks.

And then, finally, we got a couple kids.    And a couple more.  Then 20 showed up at once and we started to get a pretty steady stream.  And then I realized that over half the houses on our street had their lights off.  There was a serious case of non-participation going on in our neighborhood.  These poor kids sometimes walked by 3, 4, even 5 houses before they came to one that was giving out candy.  How lame is that?

And then I started to notice that every kid that I gave candy to - every single one - said thank you.  Even the high school kids.  And we got alot of high school kids.  We live in what some consider a rough neighborhood, and the high school down the street - Reseda High School - has had shootings and gang activity.  Our mailbox was tagged when we moved in.  Many of the kids had on Reseda High School shirts, and if I saw them walking down my street on a normal night they'd be on my radar.  But all of them were so polite and seemed genuinely appreciative - not only for the candy, but for the house, for really doing it up, for the effort.  For caring.  For caring enough to try to scare the crap out of them.  And we did.  There were 5 kids who wouldn't even come into the yard.  Quite a few I made scream (much to their parents' delight).  And I can't tell you how many times we could hear people talking to each other on their way out of the yard, saying "that was the best house I ever went to!".  I started to realize that by making such a big deal out of doing up our yard, that we were in our own small way, participating in the community.  We were saying that, hey, we're part of this neighborhood too, let's have some fun!  Instead of turning off the lights and pretending we weren't home.  I think our neighborhood could use some more of that kind of attitude.  And I'm glad we did it.  I think I would have been glad even if we only got 4 kids.  4 kids are worth it, too.

At the end of the night, after giving candy and screams to about 75 kids, Adam says to me "That was really fun. I'm glad we did it.  Now lets go to the market across the street before they close and walk in as zombies and ask if the butcher if he has brains".  He even looked up how to say "brains" in Spanish.

So we dragged ourselves to the market, and asked for "cereeeeeeebrooooos".  But we ended up getting chocolate ice cream instead.  And a sprinkle cookie.

Best.  Halloween.  Ever.

Go Happy!
Amy

From Garden to Plate

After waiting patiently all spring and summer, I'm happy to say it's finally time to harvest the corn!  As a first time gardener, you just can't go wrong with corn.  It definitely gives the biggest bang for the buck.  It's pretty easy to grow and it grows fast plus it's magnificiently tall and creates a wonderful green border in front of my ugly wooden fence.  And in my particular case it was almost entirely free since I got the seeds gratis from the Sowing Millions Project.  The only real expense was time spent, which was pretty pleasant all around.

However, I really didn't pay too close attention to exactly what kind of corn seeds I was sent, so color me surprised when I discovered that I had purple corn.

Turns out I have Inca corn, with is a South American strain of corn.  Ever had it?  If you've ever eaten Peruvian food you probably have.  The first time I ate at  Peruvian restaurant here in LA I was taken aback by how BIG the corn was - and chewy.  The first couple of ears we pulled off we prepared on the cob - you know, like they do with sweet corn in Indiana where I'm from.  That's pretty much the only way to eat corn there.  Well, that is not an appetizing way to eat this kind of corn.  It's dry and chewy and most of it ends up coating your teeth like paste.  We decided that since we're about to have about, oh, 50 ears of corn ready to eat we best come up with some new recipes for this corn.

I found this wonderful recipe online for South American tamales, or humitas.  I found it on this wonderful blog called Laylita's Recipes.  It's the same place where I found the recipe for Dulce de Higos after we came back from Ecuador.  Laylita's blog is a treasure trove of South American recipes, complete with stories from growing up and preparing these dishes with her family.  Love it!  Here's the recipe I used, with a few tweaks:

Ingredients:

6-7 fresh ears of corn, with husks

3 cups grated or crumbled cheese, mozzarella or a fresh farmers cheese (I used a mix of both)

1 cup diced white onions, about ½ large onion

1 tsp ground coriander

2 garlic cloves, crushed

About 1 cup corn meal

¼ cup of heavy cream (I used half and half)

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

Sides – Aji de tomate de arbol or tree tomato hot sauce (I couldn't find tamarillos at either the Mexican market across the street or at the Mexican chain grocer Vallarta, so I made a roasted tomatillo salsa)

Preparation:

1. Remove the husks from the corn; try to keep each husk intact, the large ones will be used as wrappers for the humitas and the smaller ones will be broken into long strips to tie around the humitas. (I found it helpful to cut off the bottom of the corn so that the wide husks wouldn't tear down the middle when you peel the corn)
2. To help make the corn husks more pliable place them in a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drain the water and save the husks until ready to use.
3. Remove the silky hairs from the corn and use a knife to cut the corn kernels from the cob, if you don’t have a steamer save the cobs to use as a steamer.
4. Place the corn kernels, 1 cup of cheese, diced onions, crushed garlic, ground coriander, corn meal, cream, eggs, and salt in the food processor, mix until the corn is pureed.
5. In large deep pot place about 2 ½ cups of water and a steamer, the water should be just below the steamer, if you don’t have a steamer arrange the cobs on the bottom of the pan instead and cover them with some of the leftover husks.
6. To fill each humita use 2 of the large corn husks per humita, place them on top of each other, fold the left side of the husks, then fold the top half over the bottom half, this creates a semi-pocket, fill it with a spoonful of the mixture (how much mixture will depend on the size of the husks, the larger the husks the more filling you can add) and stuff some of the remaining cheese in the middle, now fold over the right side of the husk and tighten it up a little bit, use the thin strips to tie around the wrapper and keep it closed. (okay, this was really, really hard for me, and I cheated a bit and tied them with kitchen string because the husks were just too delicate for my large, clumsy hands)
7. Place the humitas in the pot on top of the steamer, I like to keep them slightly inclined with the open end on top. Place any leftover husks on top and cover well.
8. Place the pot on the stove over high heat until you hear the water boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 35-40 minutes, the cooked humitas will be slightly firm to firm when they are done.
9. Serve warm with aji de tomate de arbol or tree tomato hot sauce. (I used roasted tomatillo salsa and a I also made a yummy Peruvian green sauce which I found a recipe for here)

Adam and I decided these were super yummy and perhaps I'll make them again so I can practice my tamale-rolling skills.  So there you have it - from garden to plate!

Go Happy!
Amy

I Don't Give a Flying Fig...I Just Make Them

The quest for fig recipes continues, and tonight I think we found a winner. 

Adam is the chef of the family, and I'm the mixologist, so when I happened upon a recipe online for a Flying Fig cocktail, I knew I had to try it.  Original recipe is found here, I made just a couple of slight variations based on the ingredients I had on hand:

3 fresh organic figs

1/2 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur

2 ounces lemon-flavored vodka

juice of half a lemon 

2 ounces simple syrup, or 2 tbsp sugar (to taste)

Fresh mint sprig

Muddle diced fig in the elderflower liqueur (reserve one slice for garnish). Add cracked ice, vodka, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Shake vigorously. Rim chilled martini glass with one mint leaf dropped in.  Garnish with reserved fig slice. Strain cocktail into glass.

Can you say yum?  The muddled fig gives it a most lovely pink color, like a Cosmo.  This will go excellently with the Hawaiian burgers with caramelized pineapple and bacon that Adam is making tonight, recipe courtesy of Bitchin' Kitchen.

Go Happy (and slightly Tipsy)!
Amy

In a Jam and Gardenly Pursuits

Well, the figging continues.  Figs, figs, figs, figsfigsfigsfigs everywhere!  Another round of figs has ripened on the tree and we took in a harvest of I would guess about 10 pounds.  Yikes.  What to do with that many figs?

Well, first I made my dulce de higos, or sweet Ecuadorian figs (recipe found here).  I hope y'all are coming over to eat them because we'll never, ever eat all of them.

Second, I made wine soaked figs, recipe found here.  We had had a little party last weekend, and I had some half-empty bottles of red wine so, well, necessity was the mother of invention here. 

Third, I made my first foray into the world of jam-making and canning.  I'll admit I was scared, but now that I made it through relatively unscathed (there was a bit of scalding-hot splatter, so not entirely unscathed) I am anxious to get to the next batch.  This time I made two:  a quick, microwave type of jam you can make in single can sizes.  It's spicy orange fig jam and it is utterly delicious!  The second I made the old fashioned way which produced about a dozen cans.  Aptly, it is old-fashioned fig preserves.  I thought I'd start with that as the base and try different types of jam for the next batches.

The moral of the story here is that if you like fig jam, you best let me know and I'll be sending you some.


Aren't they lovely?

 In other news, the corn I've planted is going gangbusters and will be ready to harvest anytime now.  This is the first time I've grown any kind of vegetable and I'm ecstatic by how well it's doing!  I feel like I'm at home in Indiana.

I'm also hard at work trying to make the front yard look nice.  We rent, so we don't want to spend a ton of money on plants and things, so my thrifty self is hard at work on this project.  I just made two small beds by the front gate with plants salvaged from a restaurant in Long Beach (they were pulling them out of their planters and putting them in bags as I was walking by they gladly let me take them) and the bricks are salvaged from our backyard.  Just the beginning.

Before



After

Go Happy, Dear Blog Friends!
Amy

Here figgy figgy!

We have an embarrassment of figs here at my house.

I don't think I ever even ate a fig until I moved to LA.  Figs were something that made brief appearances in songs around Christmastime, not something I'm accustomed to having on my plate in the summer. 

But now we have an enormous fig tree in our yard, with my hammock from El Salvador hanging underneath - I'm so excited to finally be using it!

view of the tree from the hammock

About two weeks ago we started getting our first ripe ones.  From what I can tell, it seems we'll have fresh figs from now until mid-fall.  At least 100 pounds of them.  Question is - what the hell do you do with all those figs?  I certainly don't want them to go to waste.

When Adam and I went to Ecuador last November, we stopped for some street food at an outdoor market in Otavalo.  A black, bubbling concoction served with cheese on a roll.

Turns out they were figs, and they were beyond delicious.  As soon as we got home I tried to find the recipe, which I finally did online at http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/09/23/dulce-de-higos-or-figs-in-syrup/ and is reprinted below.  At the time it was hard to find figs, but now that I'm pulling about 20 a day from our tree, I've made it twice in the last two weeks.  It takes three days to prepare, but it is worth it!

some lovelies from our tree

Ingredients:

20 fresh ripe but firm figs, washed

Pinch of baking soda

1 ¾ lb brown sugar

Cinnamon sticks, cloves and other spices – optional

Water

Sides – Slices of cheese, bread (we found Hawaiian bread particularly tasty with this)

Preparation:

1. Make a crosswise cut on the thin side of each fig.
2. Place the figs in a bowl, cover them with water and let them soak for 24 hours.
3. Rinse the figs, place them in a saucepan, and cover them with water, about 8 cups.
4. Add the baking soda and bring the water to a boil over medium heat, cook for about 15-20 minutes or until soft.
5. Remove from the heat and let the figs soak in the water they cooked in for another 24 hours.
6. Drain all the water from figs and gently squeeze each fig to remove as much water as possible.
7. Place the brown sugar and the spices in a large saucepan, cover with about 6 cups of water and cook on low heat until it is completely dissolved.
8. Add the figs and simmer until the syrup begins to thicken, at least a couple of hours, stir occasionally.
9. Serve either warm or cold with a slice of quesillo, fresh mozzarella, queso fresco, farmer’s cheese or the cheese of your preference.

the finished product - so tasty!

Go Happy!
Amy

Guerilla Gardening

Seems my love of finding new uses for old items has extended to the garden.  Or at least my love of all things free.

Recently Adam and I were watching the Today show, and chef Rick Bayless was a guest.  He was talking about the Sowing Millions Project that he's involved in with the company Seeds of Change.  They committed to giving away 100 million seeds (you just pay the shipping).  Give away?  Free, you say?  Well, gee, I'll try anything if it's free.  So I went to the website, signed up for my free seeds, and promptly forgot all about it.  About six weeks later, after we moved into our new place, a big, unmarked manila envelope addressed to me showed up on my doorstep.  I love getting packages in the mail, and the best part is when I don't expect them, so the giddy anticipation of finding out what was inside was delicious.  I carefully opened the package to find...dozens of packets of seeds, of course!

There were sunflowers and corn (LOTS of corn) and eggplant and different kinds of radishes and lots of different kinds of lettuce and beets and on and on and on.  I have little (okay, no) experience with vegetable gardening, and my backyard is mostly cement, but I'm proud to say I've done quite a bit of container gardening in the last few days and I also dug up the soil next to our fence and planted two rows of corn and two rows of sunflowers.  The daily excitement of watering them and seeing how much they've grown since the day before makes me feel like a little kid.  I can't wait til they're all growed up!  Pictures to come when there's something a little more exciting to show you than just soil.

Speaking of gardening and free stuff, I've become addicted to trolling the free section on CraigsList looking for plants and pots and just about anything for the garden.  Having lived in an apartment for over a decade, I have no outdoor accoutrements.  But one man's trash is often my treasure, especially if it's going to live outside.  A little scrub, a little paint, and a little love is usually all it takes to make something usable and nice again.  And I can't believe the stuff people give away for free.  A couple of nights ago I happened to see a posting for some free palm trees and aloe vera plants that someone had dug out of their yard and were sitting by the curb.  My conversation with Adam went something along the lines of:

Me:  You wanna get some free palm trees and free aloe vera plants?

Adam:  Sure.

Pause.

Adam:  Oh, you mean now?

Me:  Duh.

So at 10pm we hopped in the car, basically in our pajamas (amateurs!) and drove to this house which wasn't too far from ours.  However, the street had no lights, and my flashlight didn't work, nor did we bring gloves or wear appropriae shoes (I had on flip flops - amateur!).  So hoisting a 5 foot tall, 100 pound palm tree covered in sharp spikes into the trunk of my car was amusing to say the least.  We made so much noise the owners came outside, although they were cool and informed us that one of the palm trees in their yard was in the movie The Ten Commandments.  Even trees in Hollywood get their 15 minutes, I guess.  They watched as we struggled with the palm.  Okay, we watched as Adam struggled with the palm, and I nonchalantly picked which of the 30 or so aloe cuttings I wanted.  Adam finallygot the palm in the trunk - incidentally, most of it sticking out the back end, and we gingerly and laughingly made our way home.  Okay, maybe I was the only one laughing.

Our plan is to plant the palm in a big pot, so we can take it with us wen we eventually leave, but Adam thought we needed to plant it somewhere right away so it didn't die.  So at 11pm we were in our front yard digging a big hole to put the body, I mean plam tree, in.  It'll be a little embarrasing when the gardener comes by (again, amateurs!), but so far it's hanging in there. 

Don't let the picket fence fool you, I'm mean!



Some of the aloe have made it into planters, but many are hanging out in a pot full of water at the moment.

Of course, the pots either came from garage sales ($2) or from the neighbor's trash (free!). 

Did I mention I love free stuff?

Go Happy!
Amy