The Living Room Part Two

Ian and I went hiking last week to The Living Room, but we ran out of steam before the summit.  Yesterday we went back to try it again and this time we were victorious!

We saw lots of these lovely flowers.  I'm still trying to figure out what they are. I've been consulting my native plant books, but I haven't found them yet.

It was somewhat overcast so it wasn't too hot.  This is the view facing the U of U campus.

This is facing the south of the valley.  We could see all the way from the point of the mountain to the Great Salt Lake.

We were encouraged on how much better we did this week.  We went much further before we had to take a break and it seemed easier.

The view was beautiful; very stunning.  We could faintly hear music from Red Butte Garden below where someone had a wedding reception.  The sounds of traffic were very distant and it was peaceful up there.

It is called the Living Room because someone built all these great armchairs and couches out of slabs of sandstone.  We were very happy to have made it this time, and we lounged and enjoyed the sunset with the other hikers.

Ian likes to wear my favorite hat so I took my gardening hat.  It's great to keep the sun off me, but Melinda thinks I looks silly in it (she's probably right, like always).

I think that this flower is a thread-leafed daisy.  It's hard to be sure, but I think it's probably Erigeron filifolius. There were many of these growing in the cracks of the rocks.

We felt great after a little rest and we had a very pleasant walk down the mountain.  The valley was very pretty with the sun low in the sky.

We're trying to decide about next weeks hike.  I'm thinking we should check out Millcreek Canyon.

Thai Cooking Class

Saturday I took a class on Thai Cooking at Orson Gygi's.  It was great fun!  There were about 12 of us in the test kitchen.  It had 5 professional stoves, granite countertops and about every kitchen gadget you could imagine.  Our instructor gave us a list of the recipes we were going to do and then went around and did a presentation on how to make them.  We then split up into small groups of 2 or 3 and started cooking.

My group made this shrimp salad with cilantro lime dressing.

These are the green curry puffs.  They were tasty (but isn't everything deep-fried tasty)?

This is the fresh basil beef.  The Thai basil in this dish is just wonderful. 

 For dessert we had coconut mango rice pudding.

We also had chicken satay with peanut sauce, but I forgot to take a picture.  After we were all done, we all sat down and ate our food together. Everyone was really friendly and it was satisfying to be in a group of strangers and create a temporary cohesive unit.

I did have a slight hesitation about eating the meat, but vegetarianism isn't my religion, so I ate it anyway, it seemed churlish not to.  Yes, it was delicious (especially the basil beef), but going veggie has been good for me, so I'll try not to defect to the dark side altogether.

Today I went to the the Southeast Asian Market on 9th South and got some supplies: Thai sticky rice, coconut milk, bean noodles, fish sauce, oyster sauce, green curry paste and massaman curry paste.  Melinda brought home some mangoes from Costco, so I think we'll have Thai sticky rice with mangoes tonight.  Yum.

Werewolf, Shape Shifter, or the Man I Married

 

When I first met Eric he was clean shaven. He was in the National Guard, so he had to be. However just before we got married, he separated from the Army (or whatever you call it). So then he was free to experiment with growing a beard.

No beard for our wedding in December, but by my graduation in May, he was bearded.

Then for our summer trip to Nauvoo, he was shaven.

Back to a beard for Lisette’s birth that winter.

Then shaven again for the summer of 1997. (He’s feeding Lisette squid. Don’t worry she didn’t eat it.)

Then back to a beard the next winter.

He kept going back and forth until after Miles was born. Things got so hectic after Miles’s birth (1998) that Eric quit shaving again.

I thought that it was after Miles was born that he quit shaving for a good long time, but doing research for this blog post, I found this shaven Eric in a picture from Miles’s one-year-old birthday party 1999. But somewhere around 1999 he quit shaving for 10 years.

However Halloween 2000  he did have to shave to be Steve with Blue and Magenta.

2006 with Saffron on his back. 2008 in Alaska with the silver salmon.

September 2007 Eric was in a bushy beard phase.

Right after the bushy beard phase, he decided to try to wax his mustache. That was interesting.

For years, this was Eric. Then, December 2009, after about 10 years of constant beard, he shaved it off and kept shaving.  This is a picture right after he shaved. I thought I’d be okay with it, but I cried for two weeks every time I saw him. I didn’t recognize him as my husband.

But eventually I got used to his new look, and I loved him only slightly less than I used to (a Morrissey song lyric that Eric quotes). Every now and then (Conference weekends for example) he’d go a couple weeks without shaving and look fairly scruffy. But mostly he shaved at least once a week for 3 1/2 years.

Then finally, this April, 2012, he grew the beard back. Oddly, I’ve felt conflicted about it. Which of these men is my husband?

Last weekend, after two months of beard he shaved it again. Here’s a photo he just took for me with his phone.

So what’s your vote? Lisette and Miles think he should grow back the beard and keep it forever. Ian leans toward the beard. Saffron thinks he should keep shaving.

Ian and Dad's Hiking Club

Ian and I are starting a hiking club.  It's pretty exclusive, but if you ask politely we might consider your application.We are going to hike a new trail every Thursday.This Thursday Melinda and I had a wedding reception to go to, but we couldn't wait another week so we started yesterday, on Wednesday.  For our first hike we decided to try The Living Room above the Shoreline Trail, not too far south of Red Butte.

We hiked through maple trees.

We hiked through oak trees.

We saw a lot of native plants.  There were lots of Rocky Mountain Penstemons, or Penstemon strictus, on the side of the trail.

Also quite a few Crazy Peas, Oxytropis lambertii, as well.

Here is Ian standing next to a nice specimen of Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany, or Cercocarpus ledifolius.  We have one of these growing in our front yard, but it is hanging over the street and our neighbor doesn't like it so it's days may be numbered (I still love it, though).

We had a great view and could see most of the valley, all the way from Draper to the Great Salt Lake.  Our guidebook said it was an "easy" hike, but it was very vertical and unfortunately, I ran out of steam before we reached the top.  I have learned (sometimes the hard way) that it is best to know your limits and when it feels like you can "go just a little more" it's best to go back.  So we'll have to try this one again, maybe later in the season, when we've toughened up a bit.

Any suggestions for our next hike?

Back to the Butte

For many years we maintained a family membership to Red Butte Garden.  We haven't had one for the last two or three years, but Monday night we joined up again.

We read that the Salt Lake Scots Pipe Band were playing for family night, so we thought we'd check it out.

They were great!  We enjoyed the stirring rendition of Amazing Grace.  They talked about the history of bagpipes and tartans and they took audience questions.  They were very personable.

Melinda saw one of her home school friends there.  Their family makes kettle corn for events.  It was excellent, salty, sweet and very tasty!

Saffy and Nigel had fun marching in the fountain to the sound of bagpipes.

The kids loved playing on these lizards when they were small.  It's funny how things don't seem as big as they once did as you grow up.

We had forgotten how much we loved to walk the paths and enjoy the foliage and flowers.  Nigel discovered the children's garden and was in heaven running around among the plants. Saffy and Nigel had fun hiding under this tree.

We enjoyed seeing how much the garden has grown since we started going many years ago.  The trees are more mature, there is more plant diversity, and they have developed new areas.  We will definitely be going back again soon.  

Here is the schedule for their family nights in July:

MONDAY, JULY 9 - Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian martial art)

MONDAY, JULY 16 - Bien Flamenco

MONDAY, JULY 23 - Kenshin Taiko

Beautiful Garden Thugs

In one of my favorite gardening books,The Undaunted Garden, Lauren Springer refers to Epilobium angustifolium, or fireweed, as a “beautiful rose-purple thug.”  Fireweed is known to be invasive, but I’ve put it in rather difficult little spot in the back, and so far it hasn’t proven too bad.  It is such a beautiful flower, and I have such great memories of seeing it all over in Yellowstone, Alaska, and in the Utah mountains.  My garden seems to be rather Darwinian anyway, so at least for now it stays. My mom even made jelly out of the flowers while my parents were still living in Alaska, and it was quite delicious. 



Below is a picture of a type of pincushion flower named Knautia macedonica.  I have had to pull these out in massive clumps because their prodigious reproductive behavior.  These flowers would truly take over everything if I let them.  But they are so beautiful that I put up with prolific ways. The original ones I planted were the deep purple-magenta color, but they have also spawned some lovely pink-melon colored flowers as well.



Here they are all together in my back yard, fighting it out for garden supremacy.

Mock Orange Juice

Does anyone remember the mock turtle from Alice in Wonderland?  Well, this is the same pun reversed.

Several years ago we bought a mock orange shrub, Philadelphus lewisii, and planted it next to the fence in the backyard.  I must admit the main reason for planting it was for a little more privacy from the neighbors.  If you are in the market for a shrubbery, you might want to consider a mock orange.  It has a wonderful, gentle citrus fragrance and it is breathtaking when in bloom.  It sadly doesn’t bloom for very long, but it’s pretty amazing when it does.  It is also native to this region so it does really well.  Just ask the Idahoans, it's their state flower.

This picture was taken just after the peak bloom time.



Here is a close-up of the blooms.



Here is a scratch n’ sniff so you can smell it.



Remember, if you have a old CRT tube monitor you need to scratch it, but if you have an LCD monitor you need to rub it in a circular motion to release the scent.



















Just kidding.  I always wanted to do that.

Ebelskivers

Ebelskivers are a classic treat that is made in Denmark.  They are light, round pancakes that sometimes have a filling in them.  I remember my mom and my grandma making them when I was a kid.  I have a lot of Danish roots on my mom’s side of the family, and this was a tradition they passed down.

A couple of years ago Melinda and I saw an ebelskiver pan in Williams-Sonoma.  We’ve seen it a few times since then, but last week Melinda got it for me as an early father’s day gift.

Miles helped me make them, and they turned out great.  They are delicious with real maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar.  We also tried a few with different fillings.  We tried Jarlsberg cheese, blueberries and strawberry jam. 

They take a while to make, but as a once-in-a-while treat they are definitely worth it.  They definitely brought back some sweet childhood memories.

Here’s the recipe (of course you’ll need a pan for it as well).

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Ebelskivers

A classic treat in Denmark, ebelskivers, are light round pancakes filled with jam, curd, fruit or cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups milk
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt.

In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg yolks, milk and melted butter. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.

Put 1/8 tsp. butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 Tbs. batter into each well and cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Put filling in the center of each pancake and top with 1 Tbs. batter. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more.

Dust the pancakes with confectioners' sugar and serve warm with maple syrup.