nw2s

I always enjoy the first real gardening of the season. At least here in the city, the late winter and early spring is very wet. It seems all of the plants are waterlogged for a couple of months, and I’m surpised anything survives. Things are coming back, so I took the time to clean up and repot what I can keep and to compost the things I can’t. Since we’re moving to a house in a month or so, we won’t have any tomatoes this year. That’ll be a lot less work, but I will miss not having to buy a single tomato at the store for a significant portion of the year.

Here’s a list of what made it:

• Bird’s Foot Violet (viola pedata) – It still hasn’t flowered. I covered it with mulch before the winter thinking that would be the last I saw of it, but it’s there! I really like this plant and would like to try growing more of it sometime.
• English Ivy – This was inherited from a friend who moved overseas. It’s never been extremely productive, so I decided to let it overwinter outside. It’s still there.
• Peppermint – This is a great plant, and although it’s died back to nothing two winters in a row, it’s still coming back.
• Lime Thyme and some regular Thyme- Another couple of plants that are good about coming back just enough. Hopefully when grown in the ground, these guys will be a little more productive.
• Salem Rosemary – I started trimming this guy. Rosemary can get out of hand and turn completely shapeless, so I’m treating it a little like a bonsai.
• Christmas Fern – I’ll definitely be growing more ferns soon. These are only in their second year, starting out as rhizomes from Home Depot, so they haven’t yet taken off.
• Lillies – I picked up some lillies on a whim. I have to say that alone, they don’t do much for me. I’m impressed though, that this year where I had one stalk per bulb, there are three to five stalks starting to poke up through the soil.
• Blue Star Juniper – Another evergreen that was threatening to turn into a shapeless mass that I made some dramatic cuts to.
• White Pine (pinus strobus ’soft touch’) – This guy is still doing well, and is a good slow grower.
• Japanese Maple (acer palmatum) – Still doing great. It’s starting to spread a little. I’ll definitely have to cut back next season.
• Cliff Stonecrop Sedum (glaucophyllum) – This is one of the native area plants, and it’s doing really well. Somehow, I noticed there was a little growing in one of my spare pots that was just soil, so I planted it. It seems this stuff might try to take over if left to its own devices.

This is a recipe from my great grandmonther – Gonnie is what she went by in the family, not that that was her name, just I think what her grandkids called her. I remember having these a lot when I was growing up, but oddly enough, I’ve never met anyone else who’s ever had them. I’m thinking they must be an old-timey southern thing. This is a doubled recipe – feel free to cut it in half if two dozen cookies is enough for you.

Cookies:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter
• 300g white sugar
• 300g grated carrots
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of one orange
• 620g unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Combine the eggs, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix in a little at a time until incorporated. Mix in the grated carrots. I use the smaller size of the grater that otherwise never gets used. With the mixer on low, add flour a little at a time, allowing to incorporate before adding more. Once this is mostly combined, stop the mixer and continue by hand.

Spoon the cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat (or parchment paper). The dough is really sticky, so keep a the tips of your fingers wet to avoid sticking. If you’re going to ice them, flatten them a little before putting in the oven. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 11 minutes. Allow to cool completely before icing.

Icing:

If you have a recipe for a good cream cheese frosting, use it. The stuff I made this time was way too runny, so I’m going to have to try something else. Put it into a ziplock bag, snip a corner off, and pipe onto the cookies.

They’re really hard to store after they’ve been iced, but they won’t last long anyway.

Now that we’re officially in contract, I feel more comfortable about sharing! Barb and I are buying a house. It’s a crazy 1951 modern design. I’m afraid we won’t be able to fix it up all fancy like the current owners, but we’ll try. The garden certainly is nice. I took most of these pictures while walking around with the inspector. For anyone wanting to visit from the city, it’s only about $15 round trip to the Cortlandt station, and I promise I won’t make you do any yard work while you visit. Here are the pictures.

I’ve been on a cake binge lately. Partly driven by the fact that I am trying to cut back on junk food and told myself that I had to make my own. Here’s this weekend’s recipe:

Tres Leches Cake

Cake:

• 6.75 oz cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 8 oz white sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1.5 tsp vanilla

Grease and flour a 9×13 cake pan. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. With the mixer on low, add the eggs allowing each one to incorporate before adding the next. Add the vanilla. Pour into the pan and bake at 350 until the internal temperature is 200F – about 20 minutes.

3 milks:

• 1 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 c half and half

When the cake comes out of the oven, set aside and allow to cool completely. While waiting, whisk the three milks together. Prodigiously poke the cake full of holes with a chopstick or something to that effect. Pour the milks over the cake and allow to sit overnight in the fridge to ensure everything is soaked up.

Topping:

• 2 c heavy cream
• 6 oz white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp unflavored gelatin

Place the whisk and mixing bowl in the freezer and allow to cool. Pour about half a cup of the cream into a metal measuring cup or small metal bowl. Sprinkle in the gelatin and allow to sit for a few minutes. Gently heat over a low flame until dissolved, being careful not to bring to a full boil. Pour the cream and gelatin into the mixer and begin to whisk while adding the sugar and vanilla. Whisk on medium-high until thick. You can ‘ice’ the cake with the whipped topping, but I prefer to allow the topping to set in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight with the rest of the cake) and serve the cake slices with a hefty dollop of cream on top.