Dinner Party!

On Saturday night I had the pleasure of hosting my very first "field" dinner (i.e dinner on our back lawn) in honor of Graham's 29th birthday. I dream of making these dinner parties a regular occurrence when we own a "farm" someday. But I must admit I was quite pleased with how our little backyard turned into an outdoor oasis in the meantime.

The birthday boy requested a Franco-Italian 5-course meal and his Mrs happily jumped at the opportunity to make it fancy and special. When our guest arrived, we lounged on the patio and nibbled on an antipasti of salami, pecorino romano, parmesan, crackers, marinated artichokes and assorted olives along with glasses of a chilled Italian Prosecco and Raspberry Lime-infused water.

Graham's been dreaming of hanging white lights in our backyard for years and we finally made it happen. The ambiance they created was perfect!

  We have beautiful friends (as the following pictures illustrate). And we felt so blessed to have these very special people gather to honor Graham. Jaymie and Aleah are pictured below (Justin & Eli, we missed you!)

Britta & Jon

Jeremy & Rachel

Isla & Olivia. Amazingly enough, there were 6 kids present at the party but we managed to get them all to sleep by the end of the night - they filled every nook and cranny of our little place!

Jason & Earecka (sorry Ben & Oliver - you guys must not have slowed down long enough for me to get a picture!)

Once (most of) the kids were in bed, we began the sit-down portion of the evening with an appetizer: Pinot Grigio-Steamed Mussels with Garlic Toasts (my first time cooking mussels!) Graham picked out a delicious white wine that the our lovely sommelier Jason poured for us (2011 Les Pouches Saumur Blanc).

 For a little added excitement, each guest found a little slip of paper under their chair on which was written a unique sentence that they were to casually incorporate into the conversation at some point in the evening. This proved to be both challenging and quite hilarious!

Next I served a Roasted Beet Salad with Toasted Pistachios, Blue Cheese Cream and Walnut Vinaigrette (along with glasses of 2010 Briccontondo Barbera). I'd never made this recipe before but I must say the combination of blue cheese and beets was divine!

Because I worked during the day on Saturday, Graham prepared the majority of our main dish: Braised Beef Short Ribs with Wine & Cream, Roasted Mushrooms and Polenta rounds. This course was paired with a 2009 Incanto Vino Nobile de Montepulciano and a 2010 Sainte-Croix Syrah-Merlot.

 We finished with cups of decaffeinated espresso and Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Vanilla Ice Cream and Harvold Farm Raspberries. 

The meal was leisurely and we stayed outside the whole time. The party wrapped up just before midnight when our guests gathered up their sleeping kids and headed out. I'm already dreaming up my next opportunity to do this again...

My Garden, 2012

I took the opportunity to put Graham's new camera lens to good use yesterday and captured my garden (and a couple gardeners) that is almost in full bloom. For living in a small condo with only a couple small beds, I'd say we're doing pretty good! I LOVE my perennials -- they get better every year! And the produce in my planter box is providing enough for a couple of salads or side veggies a week which makes me oh so very happy. Truly. There is something about visualizing the fruits of your labor that is so fulfilling! We've been joking lately about someday owning "vast tracts of land" in Woodinville where I'll have my "real" garden. And where we'll host dinner parties in our field with white lights hung overhead....Maybe someday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's that time of year again...

It's almost spring! And we all know what that means.....time to put some seeds in the soil! I'm excited because in a couple weeks we will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. Apparently the traditional gift for 5 years of marriage is something made of wood so how perfect is it that I would request a new garden planter this year? My father-in-law ever so kindly agreed to make me one and I plan to try my thumb at square foot gardening, thanks to the recommendation of my mom. I have a book on hold at the library that I hope will offer a little more insight but it seems like a pretty effective way of growing the most bang for my buck in my limited space. My planter is going to be 2' x 6' which will give me 12 squares to work with. I just placed an order last night for the following: bush beans, both red and golden beets, a broccoli seed that is sort of a cross between traditional broccoli and broccoli rabe, carrots, arugula, a variety of lettuces (including romaine) and kale. I am so excited (and hopeful!) that I will be successful. I plan to do hanging tomato plants and strawberries again and will probably add some cilantro, basil and maybe chives somewhere in there as well. I moved my rhubarb out of a planter and into one of my garden beds at the end of last year and was pleased to see some buds on it yesterday. Hooray! I didn't kill it!

Savoring sunshine

As I type this, I am sitting outside on the patio, wearing long sleeves and sipping a mug of hot cocoa, the combination of which keeps me just warm enough to fool myself into thinking it might be summer. I can't even tell you how invigorating these past few days of sun have been for me. It's a little bit ridiculous actually, just how giddy I am over the whole thing. All I can say is that this lady was in desperate need of feeling warm again as my maternity attire is more summer-appropriate. I've spent the past couple months shivering and sitting in front of the heater, wrapped in a blanket, waiting for the day when my pregnancy would provide the needed warmth (don't they always say pregnant women are hot?)

I have spent a good number of the sun breaks digging in my dirt, prepping my pots and planters for the fruits of early summer. My blueberry bushes (may they rest in peace) finally found their way into the trash, which saddened my heart greatly. I only hope I can be a better mother to my real children that I (apparently!) was to those bushes. Man, I invested a lot into them though! I checked the acidity of their soil, gave them plenty of mulch, kept them well-watered during the hot summer months and basically did what any good blueberry mother would do. Sigh. Hopefully I will do better next time (if Graham let's there be a next time!!)

The one positive thing that came from the death of my blueberry plants is that I now have 2 large and vacant half barrels in which to plant vegetables. I don't think a lot of people realize what an incredible privilege it is to have sunny patches of yard where raised beds can be created. There are some of us who give up our pinky toe to have that kind of real estate! Isla and I went on a walk yesterday and I found myself in a deep state of garden envy as I passed huge raised beds that were left completely to waste, overgrown with weeds and obviously not in use. I almost knocked on one person's door to say "Umm, excuse me. If you're not going to use this garden bed here, well then can I?!" But I didn't. Instead, I came home to dote on my precious pots, seeing if any "action" had occurred overnight. I just love spring.

So far, I have planted my strawberries (tristar and quinault) in my sort of lovely/sort of trashy-looking hanging strawberry baskets. The tulips in my flower boxes are beginning to pop open. I have butter lettuce and arugula starts going in one long and skinny planter and oregano and cilantro in another (to be joined by basil when it's a bit warmer). I planted a combination of Touchstone golden beets and Bull's Blood (red) beets in one of my barrels and will plant a hill of zucchini in the other when the right time comes. My patio table is now adorned with fresh pots of sage, rosemary and thyme which I must say makes a mighty fine centerpiece (see above). I plan to replace the butter lettuce with romaine later on in the season and plant some miniature yellow peppers in another vacant pot. Oh and I'm gonna see if I can line the back fence with sunflowers just for fun. Of course I'll also plant my hanging tomato baskets (these are definitely trashy-looking and not so lovely but oh well) come Mayish. And as I mentioned before, my rhubarb is rhubarbing at full force in it's pot!

Did I mention that I love spring? And sunshine!?