New locations for my azaleas

Tags

candy, postaday2015, scent, work

    

I am so proud of myself, I was going to blow off the whole transplant and weed project today and put it off until tomorrow, but I went ahead and did it today. It actually wasn’t so hard, all I needed to do was go outside and get started and then I fell into the easy rhythm of working with the earth. It is so calming, between the buzzing of the bees, the chirping of the birds, the scent of lilac and other plant scents wafting through the air, working my fingers through the cool dirt, I spent hours in the back.

The transplant part of the day was easy, it was the weeding that took the most time and that was because I was fighting with my usual bane, the invasive Bishop’s weed. At some point in the afternoon, I was thinking “look at me being prideful, thinking that I could even assert a modicum of control over Mother Nature” it is a losing battle, but I kept at it because if I let the Bishop’s weed go, it would eventually overtake and choke the life out of the rest of my plants and I don’t want that so I get plowing forward.

   
 

I am going to leave these holes as is because as soon June 1 comes I am going to fill these holes with something perennial, hardy, self-seeding and beauttiful.  I don’t know what colors, but hopefully  something bright and colorful.

  
The honeysuckle is all set to bloom, the garden may smell lovely now, however just wait until the buds burst open, their scent is so sweet, it is like candy. I’ll be standing near the flowers inhaling their sweet scent in just a day or two, mark my words.

My hat is off to all artisanal cofectioners

Tags

candy, homemade, postaday2014

It is time for the annual making of the Fleur de Sel caramels. I have the recipe down pat; one cup of heavy cream, 5 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of Fleur de Sel salt, 1/4 cup of light corn syrup, 1/4 water, 1 1/2 of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. The heavy cream, salt and butter are brought to a boil and then taken off the heat while the sugar, corn syrup and water are brought to a boil and to the desired caramel color. The hot cream mixture is poured into the sugar mixture, it will roil up violently and this is when the vanilla is added, with a wooden spoon the mixture needs to be stirred until the caramel registers at 248F on a candy thermometer. This is always the tricky moment, a few seconds too soon or a few seconds too late and your caramel will be different: either perfect or too hard or too soft, like I said it is tricky; basically I don’t quite have the technique down pat.

This is why I say my hat is off to the artisanal chocolate and candy makers, it is hard work in a professional space, but even more challenging in the home because you might not have all of the proper equipment and for those who are starting their small businesses, it seems almost impossible to juggle your normal demands on top of new candy orders. I had made pizza for dinner and then I took my cooled off batch of caramels out to cut up into pieces, dip into Fleur de Sel and then wrapping each piece individually in foil-lined parchment paper. This part isn’t difficult just a little tedious, I am lucky that I don’t get tempted by the caramel because then the job would be even more challenging. lol. 😀

One batch of caramels yields about 50 to 60 pieces; I can just imagine how overwhelming it can be if you are lucky enough to have say 20 batches to make, at the home how would you figure out how to make the twenty batches, do you double up on the recipe and make two batches ten times or do you take the time to figure out how to bulk up the recipe, but that is a whole other ratio problem to tackle. I admire these entrepreneurs very much and I haven’t even gotten past the surface in terms of challenges.

I am happy making my small batches of whatever tickles my fancy; I don’t think that going beyond my small circle would give me more satisfaction. Often bigger doesn’t mean better.

Happy Halloween

Tags

candy, Happy Halloween, holidays, postaday2013, trick or treat

This is the first year that my hubby and I haven’t been home for Halloween. I won’t be answering the door armed with a basket full of all kinds of different candy for the trick or treaters, both tiny and big. I won’t be listening for Jack’s high pitched bark alerting me to new customers waiting for their candy. It is weird not having purchased loads of temptation to hand out to others. Actually I have to confess that last year, I filled our copper tub with bags of candy and taped a sign saying “Help Yourself” and that worked like a charm. This year the poor kids aren’t even getting that, I’m sure that they won’t cry too hard. Blandford is a very generous town when it comes to Halloween parties and candy giving.

I remember years of going door to door with my two no matter what the weather was, we trudged through snow, we braved the rain and we shivered through windy nights. There were two, I think, balmy Halloweens which were awesome, no freezing, it was bliss. My two loved Halloween, or at least coming back home to go through their stash, they loved that. So did I when my sister and I would come back home, to go through all of the candy, getting happier with each piece that turned out to be a favorite. My favorites, notice that there is more than one, were Snickers, Three Musketeers, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, M & M’s, Nestle Crunch, Hersey’s Kisses, Kit-Kat and Twix, quite a list don’t you think? This year for once I won’t have to be tempted for days by any leftover candy, that will be a change. Actually Halloween is usually the gate opener for the holiday season of copious eating because in just a few more weeks we have Thanksgiving to prepare for and then devour. Shortly afterwards comes Christmas and all of its own goodies. So the eating season commences for one and all, an American tradition in the best sense. Personally I can’t wait to start cooking pies, stuffing, birds and other delectable treats.

So Happy Halloween everyone, and for those who live across the ocean, have a piece of candy just for kicks, it’ll be yummy I promise. 🙂

Halloween has come and gone

Tags

candy, Halloween, November, postaday2012, sweets

Yes, Halloween has come and gone and I still have candy left. My plan of leaving the galvanized tub full of candy out on the breezeway for all the trick o treaters worked fairly well, I still have a half of a tub left. Our trick o treaters really held true to the honor system, it was evidenced by how much was left. Moreover, the whole town was in impeccable condition, there weren’t any trees papered with toilet paper, no eggs thrown or pumpkins smashed. Halloween was a fun yet quiet night. October has since been put to bed and now I can start thinking of the next celebration soon to come to come, Thanksgiving.

I love getting all the catalogs from Pottery Barn, Williams & Sonoma and Petrossian. They start me dreaming of roasted turkey, vegetable gratins, various pies and other pastries. I have never had pecan pie, it is one of my mommy’s favorites, so I’d be curious to make one, just for kicks. My Papa used to say that all the time, “what if we tried it this way Pousee, (that is me) just for kicks”. I miss him a lot especially in the kitchen. He was a marvelous cook, Thanksgiving wasn’t his thing but every other holiday certainly was. Thanksgiving is my mommy’s day to shine and during the past few years, it has been the both of us making the turkey and all the sides and I really love being in the kitchen with her, it’s a lot of fun and funny because we distract each other, not on purpose, and we sometimes lose track of what we are doing. We haven’t burned anything or set fire to the kitchen as of this writing.

It is already November 2nd and before we know it, it will be pumpkin pie making time when the house will smell full of goodness, cinnamon and spice and everything nice. Hooray.

Vending Machines

Tags

candy, healthy snacks, postaday2012, soups, vending machines, yogurt

• 
• Name something that you wish you could buy from vending machines.

• June 21, 2012

• Vending Machines
• IMG_0563.JPG

  I don’t normally use vending machines because they house candy, chips and other unhealthy snacks. If a vending machine were able to stock fresh fruit, yogurt or healthy soups that would be pretty great, I would think. If the French can have their baguette available from a vending machine nowadays than why not other healthy options?

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet…

Tags

candy, old-fashioned roses, postaday2012, roses

I think that for the next few weeks, I will be showing the evolving nature of my garden. I will try to keep the photography to small milestones to keep the interest and the excitement alive. I thought of this as I was pruning the big rosebush late this morning in between rain drops. Those two rosebushes which have to be about 6 feet in height and 5 feet across were planted about 10 years ago, they weren’t even what I would call a rose bush, they were the basic cane and look at them now. What I love most about them is their sweet smell. This picture is of one of the two bushes, its pinkish/purple rose blooms once and that’s it for the season.


The pictures of the rosebuds just shy of opening are the old-fashioned roses that I inherited with the house. I rescued them from getting smothered by a huge swath of bittersweet, that took a few days of a lot of digging, pruning and hauling all the debris away. I was so happy to have done them that service, because once their roots were able to breath,they started to produce and multiply and now I have to prune them quite aggressively along the stairway leading to the pool. I even got a baby rosebush pop up last year, right next to the diving board and this year it is producing its first blooms. I was so happy to see those little blooms and their scent is just like candy. When it finally stops raining I’m sure that the bumble bees will be busy cultivating the nectar.

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