Calamari spaghetti

This weekend's project is to hide all the wires going to and from the TV. Nobody ever tells you the amount of effort required to have that wall mounted television floating in air without seeing the 13 wires trailing out of it like a mutant squid. I will be hiding all the wires in the guest room closet behind the television.



Tearing open the walls to install electrical outlets, cable, telephone, and surround speaker connections.



I made a big mess and broke my vacuum cleaner. I don't think the Greene brothers realized the need for electrical outlets inside closets when they designed the house 90 years ago.

Order please

Pesketti and meatballs. Not like Momma used to make. Which is a good thing.



Went a bit overboard with my craving for junk food. And I have to eat them in a specific order.

What's left

Fennel and artichoke harvest.



Tricia and Terry brought Preston a snakey yesterday. Preston promptly filed it away in his toy area.



And transforming a crudite platter that Suparna brought into mirepoix.



For making tomato sauce.



With meatballs made from leftover hamburgers.



And leftover hamburger buns will be turned into breadcrumbs.

Finger lickin' good

In hopes of achieving master baker status (or at least not suck,) assorted flours are nerdily stored in matching bins. I labeled one of the bins "Some-purpose flour" because it's not really "All-purpose."



Grinding my own meat for memorial day burgers. I looked like an axe murderer afterwards. Such messy work with bits of meat flying here and there.



Hamburger patties, lovingly ground and formed with garlic and rosemary. And I still have all 6 of my fingers!

Digging pits

A most sensuous Rated PG-13 chocolate hazelnut gelato.



The kitchen junk drawer.



Now organized and stored out of the way.



To make way for the baking and Kitchenaid drawer.



Oh Lord! I have commited bread sin again. Why have thou forsaken me! These are not lovely lumps at all. My humps are sad.



I need more freezer space, so I made chicken stock from all the frozen bits of bones and veggies I've been saving.



Farfalle with tomato cream sauce and salmon. Made from leftover jar of tomato sauce. Leftover bottle of heavy cream. Leftover salmon. Leftover bag of peas. And some of the above leftover chicken stock. This is the best leftover meal ever!



Undaunted by bread failure. I shall attempt baking cherry pie from scratch. Most recipes call for store bought crust, and 3 jars of cherries. At which point, you have to ask, why don't you just buy the finished pie then?



Looks good so far.



Tada! And I even got some target practice using the cherry pitter.

Limon

I think Hannah would rather have lobster instead of chicken goo.



New York style cheesecake. There are five boxes of cream cheese in this. It weighs 35 pounds.



And bottling Ed's limoncello! Well, not really Ed's recipe anymore as I didn't have enough lemons, so it's half lemons and half limes. Just like Sprite! And I reduced the amount of sugar. But I'm still going to call it Ed's limoncello because Ed is cool. Recipe as follows:

Ed's limoncello (kind of)

12 - 15 backyard lemons, scrubbed clean of squirrel feet
750 ml bottle Everclear(tm) grain alcohol

4 cups water (filtered)
3 cups sugar

Zest lemons with microplane zester*. Add lemon zest and the booze into 1 quart mason jar. (Wide mouth jars make it easier.) Shake everyday for 10 days.

Day 10, over medium heat, dissolve sugar into 4 cups water. Remove sugar water from heat and let cool to room temperature. Extinguish cigarettes. Move all the tools and ingredients into a work area that's away from the stove and any open flames. Pour lemon zesty mixture through a fine mesh sieve** into the sugar water. (Molotov cocktail alert! Fwoosh!) Mix well. Compost the spent lemon zest. Pour limoncello mixture into sealable container.

Allow to "ferment" for 20 days, shaking the containers once every day.

After 20 days, pour into bottles or flasks. Serve ice cold. Keep in freezer and imbibe freely and often.

* Microplane zester makes this incredibly fast and easy
** Cheap Chinatown sieve works best- mesh needs to be fine enough to catch the teeny zest

Baby foo(d)(t)

Hannah came to visit. Yay!



Baby toes.



Baby holding baby carrot grown by baby uncle.



Preston wants to eat baby carrot. Or baby. Unclear which one.



Baby eats boiled mush for lunch. Including baby carrot grown by baby uncle.



Uncle eats the torteloni.



And oven poached salmon.

Little hats

Making torteloni. But half of them came out won ton. Just like Davy. Davy's top half is Chinese and bottom half is Italian.



The cutest itty bitty quarter inch long preying mantis guarding the tomatillos.

Farm inventory

Preston looks tiny in the reorganized patio. The empty space is for future outdoor seating and lounging area. Far far far in the financial future. By popular request, here's an inventory of Marred Vista Farm.



Purple Kohlrabi. Purple cauliflower. Romanesco broccoli. Fennel bulbs. And a volunteer tomato.



Purple beans. Yellow beans. Green beans. Japanese eggplant. Brown bell pepper. White bell pepper. Green bell pepper. Orange bell pepper. Poblano pepper. Ancho pepper. And assorted unlabeled peppers. And some more volunteer growth tomatos. And a baby thornless mexican key lime tree.



Lemon boy tomato. Purple cherokee tomato. Shallots. Garlic. Garlic chives. Cardoons. Yellow raspberry. Japanese cucumbers. Italian white eggplant. Underneath the hachiya persimmon and what is probably a eureka lemon. Baby beets.



Sugar cane. Pineapple tops from Costco. More beets. Uncooperative okra. Tomatillos. Cavandish bananas. A frankenstein plum tree with 3 varieties and a loquat tree that I will try to keep as a shrub. This is also the nursery area for Davy's coast redwood, giant sequoia tree, and assorted cedars and pines from camping trip. I will need to bequeath these trees when I die.



Fuyu persimmon. Manzano and orinoco bananas. Passionfruit vines. And more Costco pineapple tops from delicious $1.99 costa rican pineapples. And some pimento peppers.



Ice cream banana. Mysore banana. And an entire field of purple and green tomatillos. Golden kiwi seedlings. The tangerine tree is being fattened up for more stability in the winds. And lemon and strawberry guavas. (No you really can't hybridize guavas and strawberries or lemons. It's just the color. Damn marketing.) Some asparagus along the fence that I can't harvest until next year. Watermelon will be planted next to the guest house when the seedlings are large enough to survive a squirrel and slug assault.



Golden sage. Lemongrass. Silver thyme. Summer and winter savory. Borage. Lemon balm. Rau rum Vietnamese cilantro thing. Yellow pear tomato. Mr Stripey tomato. Green zebra tomato. Meiwa kumquat. Babacao and solo papayas. Leanord Meyer lemon tree. Kaffir lime. Green kiwi. Strawberry bushes. And I get delicious tart prickley pear fruits each fall.



Red banana. Rosa bianca eggplant. Lemon and lime thyme. Chervil. Marjoram. Oregano. Varigated thyme. Thai basil. San Marzano tomatos. German green tomatos. Black krim tomatos. Frederick variety of passion fruit. And some japanese varieties of tomatos. They had no English labels, but I wanted to know what they tasted like.



Strawberry rhubarb. Rainbow chard. Lovage. Big thyme. Varegated oregano. French sorrel. More beets. Rapini. Minneola tangerine. Mexican oregano. Epazote. And shade grown coffee arabica shrub. Mint, spearmint, peppermint, pineapple mint, India mint.



Under the cherimoya tree grows green onions. Spanish and French tarragon. Mustard greens. Bronze and green fennel. Purple and green globe artichokes. Chives. Sage, pineapple sage, purple sage, and Transylvania sage. Garlic. (No vampires in Davy's backyard.) Trying to grow ginseng under the persian lime tree, but they havn't sprouted yet. And assorted varieties of lavendar too numerous to list.



The vineyard grows concord, perlette, thompson, and muscat grapes. There's some more swiss chard, and an Italian squash that looks like a baseball bat. Frankenstein 3 in 1 cherry tree.



Apricot. Blackberries. Olive. Purple carrots. Pepperoncino and Italian marconi peppers. Tons more varieties of lavendar and tri-colored sage. There's a dead squirrel in the compost bin.



Pompeii includes horseradish. Red flame grapes. Honey tangerine. White and yellow radishes. Baby round carrots. Artichokes. 2 varieties of natal plum. Red raspberries. And frankenstein 4 in 1 apple tree. Which included fuji, braeburn, matsu, and gala varieties. Swan lake melon. Bowl and bottle gourds for making birdhouses this winter.



Spaghetti squash. Random chili peppers and tomatos that I didn't label and have since forgotten their varieties. Some pole beans. Genovese and Sinnaminna basil. Super dwarf nectarine tree. Asian pears. And a kyoshu grapevine that my Dad gave me.



Buddha's hand citron. White pattypan squash. Mizuna. Thai, jalepeno, serrano, habanero, and other forgotten varieties of peppers. Early elberta peach. Donut peach. And assorted pear tree which will produce pears of the Harry and David variety. A lot of tomatos. A lot of chile peppers. Lemon cucumbers, and alien bumpy melons. Soybeans.

Honeydew melons, yellow muskmelons, bay leaf tree, red rubin basil, lime basil, brown turkey and kadota figs not pictured.



The beginnings of the cactus garden.



Bucatini with arrabiata sauce.