We got married and I graduated from graduate school in the same weekend!

We had a lovely wedding with our parents as witnesses at Discovery Park. It was perfect and the best part was NO STRESS! Of course Indigo and Ari were there to celebrate with us and stayed during the ceremony with no leashes. The ceremony only took 5 minutes and my Mom read a poem that really seemed to fit Ben and I by Walt Whitman. We had 3 bouquets of flowers picked out by Frances from the Pike Place Market displayed in mason jars on the railing of the overlook. The clothes that Ben and I wore were picked out 2 days before the wedding and were not even close to traditional . It was nice to only have our 4 guests for the ceremony, but we are very excited to celebrate with everyone in August 2009!

Our Wedding Poem.....


We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd

---

We two, how long we were fool'd,
Now transmuted, we swiftly escape as Nature escapes,
We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return,
We become plants, trunks, foliage, roots, bark,
We are bedded in the ground, we are rocks,
We are oaks, we grow in the openings side by side,
We browse, we are two among the wild herds spontaneous as any,
We are two fishes swimming in the sea together,
We are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings
and evenings,
We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals,
We are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down,
We are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic
and stellar, we are as two comets,
We prowl fang'd and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey,
We are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving overhead,
We are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling
over each other and interwetting each other,
We are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious,
We are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence
of the globe,
We have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we two,
We have voided all but freedom and all but our own joy.

Here our some photos that my Dad took....

We went to Golden Gardens park in Ballard to have portrait photos, which will be available in 20 days. For dinner we went to Ray's Boathouse, an amazing seafood restaurant on the water. They have lots of sustainable fish and pasture raised meat options. More about that meal in my next post.

The less important things that have been going on....
We traded Kuro for another of Diane's puppies - Kael. What a sweet dog! Of course Indy decided that he was a suitable replacement playmate and showed him how to race around the yard like maniacs. We dropped him off on on Wednesday and had a great herding lesson. Indigo is getting over her "plateau", which I am happy about because she has been doing pretty badly lately. It has been as if she never saw sheep before. In order to get her excited again I was instructed to run after the sheep and growl at them. That was weird, but I went with it and it worked!

Ben had his first herding lesson with Tess (Diane's dog). He practiced moving the sheep around the round pen and using the right flanks (come bye and away to me). He did great and I have a feeling he'll be back for more lessons with Tess until he gets his own little border collie. We talked to Diane about starting to get our dog meat (sheep) and beef and eggs for us for us. It would be great to support her farm and get our meat from someone we know.

Kael and Indigo looking adorable

Ben working with Tess

Me looking like a serious shepherd

We have been eating out a lot with family in town this past week. We went to the Steelhead Diner and had their fish and chips - the best in Seattle as far as we are concerned!

The best fish and chips in Seattle!

We went out to Carmelita, a gourmet vegetarian restaurant with dishes that sound like strange combinations, but end up being heavenly. We were celebrating this amazing meal with Ashley and Mike and Ashley's mom (Jill) and the Shryocks. The highlights were Ben's pizza with a sunny side up egg, grapes, rosemary and goat cheese, a surprisingly good combination...and then there was the 3 desserts split between the table - homemade mint and berry sorbets, chocolate muck muck and a coconut panna cotta. I highly recommend this restaurant for artfully created vegetarian dishes that are as good as any fancy restaurant can do.






And somehow during all of this craziness, I did not allow my sourdough starter to be forgotten. I stirred it everyday for 7 days and then made a simple white bread with it. It came out well, despite being a little too dense and not as sour as I would have liked. I think it was good for a first try and I'm sure it will get better with practice.

my first loaf of sourdough

the starter looking nice and bubbly

Finding a wedding spot, spring harvest, grass fed beef

We decided to get married on June 21st......about 2 weeks ago! I have never done anything this last minute in my life! Don't worry though, I'm already planning for a party next year. My parents were already visiting that weekend for graduation, so we figured if the Shryocks could come too it would be a perfect, small ceremony with just the 6 of us. Almost everything has worked out for planning how to spend the day. We originally wanted to have it at the Washington Arboretum, but it turns out that Seattle only allows one wedding per day per park. And of course considering it was 2 weeks away, that spot was taken. Surprisingly Discovery Park wasn't taken, so we decided that would work and hoped for the best before we went to check it out. At 534 acres , it is Seattle's biggest park with amazing views of the Puget Sound, the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. Maybe it will be sunny so we can see these spectacular views.

Now that school is pretty much over I had some time to work in the garden today. We planted two types of fava beans this year, one for shelling and one for eating fresh. Unfortunately we lost our garden journal and can't remember which side is which. I just decided to harvest what seemed like the smaller, more delicate beans and see how it goes. Last year I used our one meal worth of fava harvest to make a gnocchi dish with fava beans and roasted peppers. This year we will be able to do more experimenting because I dedicated a whole bed to them. They are so easy to grow and help the soil by fixing nitrogen.

Fava bean recipe # 2 (2008). I'm going to make this for dinner tonight.

Lemon-Basil Risotto With Greens and Fava Beans (adapted from a NY times recipe)

1½ pounds fava beans in their pods
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
5 tablespoons butter or oil or a combination
3 shoots spring garlic or 3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
4 shoots spring shallots or 4 shallots, minced
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 bunch greens (chard, kale, collards)
½ cup grated shepherd's basket or pecorino cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
25 basil leaves, shredded
1 tablespoon minced lemon balm leaves or 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

1. Remove fava beans from pods. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and submerge beans for 1 minute, then drain and chill in cold water. Slit translucent skin of each bean and discard. Test a bean for tenderness: if hard, simmer for 2 to 8 minutes, until tender. Cover and refrigerate until needed, up to 2 days.

2. Pour broth into a saucepan, bring to a simmer and keep warm. Place a heavy-bottomed pot on stove. Divide butter or oil, garlic and shallots between the two pans.

3. Place Dutch oven over medium heat and sauté garlic and shallots until translucent. Add rice and stir for 2 minutes. Add wine and lemon zest and continue stirring until all the wine is absorbed. Begin stirring in the broth, one ladleful at a time, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. Meanwhile (after about the second ladleful of broth), place skillet over medium-high heat. Stir until garlic is light gold. Add greens and sauté 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. When most of the broth is incorporated, taste rice; it should be creamy with a slightly firm center. Remove from heat and mix in cheese. Cover and allow to rest for 1 minute. Meanwhile, return greens mixture to medium heat. Add favas and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir just until mixture is warm, then remove from heat.

5. Add half the basil to greens and mix gently. Stir remaining basil and lemon balm or lemon juice into risotto. Place a portion of each on plates and serve immediately.

Todays harvest

Our first artichokes! Hopefully we get to them before the aphids.

I really wanted to grow fennel bulb this year, so I' m hoping it keeps getting bigger...it needs to be at least tennis ball size at the base. Seattle gardeners seem to have mixed results with getting the bulb to get big enough, depending on the amount of sun we get.

Gooseberries
Feverfew is a medicinal plant from Europe that is used for treating a headache, fever and arthritis.

I finally learned to plant peas at the end ofMarch and despite the 40 degree weather we're having we are going to have a decent crop of snow peas!

Since we started eating a little bit of meat, our favorite has been grass fed beef burgers. We decided to eat meat for many reasons and I feel very strongly about only eating meat from animals that lived healthy lives and were treated humanely. Cows are designed to eat grass, not corn or other grains....it makes them sick and wastes the resources it takes to grow the grains. Also grass fed beef is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, which are also found in fatty fish. The problem with eating this fish is that we are depleting our oceans and the problem is getting worse. The best place to find 100% grass fed meat is the farmers market or from a local farm.

Now that we are animal eaters we have been on a search to find all of the restaurants that serve this type of meat. The Lunch Box Laboratory in Ballard opened recently and serves upscale fast food. There are many choices of cheeses, sauces, and meat for the burgers. They also have a choice of onion rings, tator tots, thin fries, thick fries and sweet potato fries. They have a vegan falafel option that looked really good, but today for lunch we shared a beef burger with no cheese or sauces ( I wasn't feeling adventurous) and I had sweet potato fries and Ben was in heaven with his tator tots. It was good, but a little bit too greasy.

Ari had a few bites and was impressed

Our Bathrooms are Finished! (almost)

Our friend Robin has done all of the work to make 2 of our bathrooms just the way I wanted. They were original in the house and were both very offensive. The master bath was the worst not just because of the pink toilet and sink, but because shower with permanent black stains on the base and pink swirled walls that resembled mold. We have lived in our house for over 2 years and have not had the pleasure of taking a shower in the master bathroom until very recently. Robin had to completely demolish the room down to the studs. He spent endless hours working to make them look better than I could have imagined, while I dedicated my time to studying bathroom design books to help with creating the look I wanted. We make efforts to use water saving products and patronize local business and not Home Depot as much as possible.

Here are some before and after photos of the master bath.

Notice the oak toilet seat and the general ugliness?

For the new bathroom I wanted to go with a classic look with some modern touches. I decided on white hex tile for the floor and subway tile for the walls, both of which are seen in bathrooms from the early 1900s. Also classic is the pedestal sink and style of the fixtures. To make it look modern and fit in with the rest of the house, I wanted to add the blue accent tile and glass shower door. Our favorite part of this bathroom is the bench in the shower!





As soon as the master bath was mostly finished, Robin got to work on the main (guest) bath. It was at least functional before, but not much better looking that the master. We had turquoise toilet, sink and tub. The shower and vanity counter was lined with fake marble and the whole room was really dark and dated looking.


For this one, I wanted a little bit more of an organic, modern, earthy look. First Robin put in a sky light to bring in more light. He also added lights in the shower and in the display cabinet. I went with slate tile on the floor and shower walls and maple cabinets and trim. The counter is a reddish colored quartz to match the rust in the slate. The back splash is a combination of small slate and glass tiles. My goals was to make it look modern, but hopefully not dated in a few years.

Here is Robin finishing up

I loved this faucet from American Standard "Green Tea"



The back splash

Both bathrooms have double flush toilets to save water

Next on our list of house projects is a new brick patio with attached dog kennel. Some time before we move we also hope to replace the fence, tile the downstairs hobby room and remodel the kitchen....

My apartment in Mass, Explorations in Fermented Foods and the Dog Bar

I finally found a place to live in Northampton! I will be living in a two bedroom townhouse with Danielle, a girl that I "met" on the UMass housing website. We seem to be a good match for roommates and the location is pretty ideal. The location is about 1 mile from downtown (25 minute walk). I am soooo relieved to have found a place to live!

This is pretty much all I know about my new home

Last night I went to Norm's, a bar in Fremont that allows dogs! I chose to bring Ari because he is so well behaved in public places, unless anything cute (puppies, kids) tries to touch him. We averted a few potential dangerous kid and puppy situations, but otherwise he did very well. The food wasn't especially exciting, but they did have a good happy hour.

This was the best of all the terrible photos I took last night

I helped make my first loaf of sourdough bread recently. Wikipedia has some interesting science and history of sourdough information.....The sour taste is from lactic acid and acetic acid produced by lactobacilli. To make sourdough a starter or "sponge" is required, which contains the yeast culture, flour and water. The yeast is wild and captured in the air rather than coming from a store-bought package. The sponge must be fed daily with flour and water and used regularly to make new batches of bread. Starters have been passed on through generations and stay alive indefinitely (unless you go on vacation and don't get a sitter). The fermentation process helps make the gluten easier to digest and provides a source of probiotics to help with gut flora. Although the bacteria are killed during baking, so the benefits might be more related to the breakdown products from the bacteria or vitamins produced (biotin). I have to do more reading about this I guess!

Sourdough likely originated in Ancient Eygpt and was likely the first form of leavening available to bakers. Sourdough remained the usual form of leavening down into the European Middle Ages. Sourdough was the main bread used during the California Gold Rush and it remains a part of the culture of San Francisco today. The bread became so common that "sourdough" became a general nickname for the gold prospectors.

The sourdough tradition was carried into Alaska and the western Canadian territories during the Klondike Gold Rush. Conventional leavenings such as yeast and baking soda were much less reliable in the conditions faced by the prospectors. The sourdough starter, however, had to be kept warm to survive. Experienced miners and other settlers frequently carried a pouch of starter either around their neck or on a belt and were often fiercely guarded. Old hands came to be called "sourdoughs", a term that is still applied to any Alaskan old-timer.

San Francisco sourdough is the most famous sourdough bread made in the US. In contrast to the majority of the country, it has remained in continuous production for nearly 150 years, with some bakeries able to trace their starters back to California's territorial period. It is a white bread, characterized by a pronounced sourness (not all varieties are as sour as the San Francisco sourdough), so much so that the dominant strain of lactobacillus in sourdough starters was named Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. (wikipedia)

I am going to attempt to make my own starter this week using the recipe below:

Day 1: mix...

2 T. whole grain flour (rye and/or wheat)
2 T. unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice
Cover and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 2: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours. At day 2 you may (or may not) start to see some small bubbles.

Day 3: add...
2 T. whole grain flour
2 T. juice
Stir well, cover and let sit at room temperature 24 hours.

Day 4:
Stir down, measure out 1/4 cup and discard the rest.
To the 1/4 cup add...
1/4 cup flour*
1/4 cup filtered or spring water

*You can feed the starter whatever type of flour you want at this point (unbleached white, whole wheat, rye). If you are new to sourdough, a white starter is probably the best choice. All-purpose flour is fine--a high protein flour is not necessary.

Repeat Day 4:
Once daily until the mixture starts to expand and smell yeasty. It is not unusual for the mixture to get very bubbly around Day 3 or 4 and then go completely flat and appear dead. If the mixture does not start to grow again by Day 6, add 1/4 tsp. apple cider vinegar with the daily feeding. This will lower the pH level a bit more and it should wake up the yeast.

If this works, I'll post more on the actual bread recipe I use. Otherwise I'll keep experimenting. Next on my list is fermenting cabbage to make my own sauerkraut.

Books I want on bread making:
Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman

Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer

Flyball Tournament Weekend

We had a really good, tiring as always weekend at a flyball tournament in BC. Ari did really well for Ben all weekend, except when he got distracted by people cheering and forgot what he was doing. It was funny to watch him at the box with no idea what he was supposed to be doing! He also got distracted by me trying to take photos, which is why I didn't get many good shots. Indigo did really well too, running perfectly except one ball drop before she crossed the finish line. She got to start in one race and got a new best time of 4.1 seconds. We are still hoping for below 4 seconds some day.

A view of the dirt floored barn and racing lanes

Ari is telling everyone there not to mess with him by barking his head off.

you can kind of see Ari coming back over the last jump

I wish this picture was bigger because there are great shots of Indigo's whole body on the box and pushing off the box after she gets the ball.

Dinner after flyball...its fun to get to know the people on our team