Olive Oil Cake from Good to the Grain

When I read about this cake a few weeks ago on The Wednesday Chef I knew I had to make it. Olive oil, rosemary, dark chocolate and CAKE? Yes please. I finally got around to it this weekend and was not disappointed! Next time I might cook it a tad longer, but I like my baked goods moist. When I first tasted it-- straight of the oven because I couldn't wait-- I thought I should use a less robust (read: expensive) olive oil (I used this one). But this morning it has mellowed out a lot. I will be making it again, even though R is not a huge fan and that means I will be eating the whole thing. Oh well.

Gettin' the weekend started off right!

Up early, canoeing on the Wacissa River, swimming at Blue Hole, picked two gallons of blueberries, and home by lunchtime.

summer lovin'

Oh happy day--a little bit of sewing happened this weekend. I made two linen dish towels for friends. One has already been mailed off to California, and the other one, above, is a birthday gift for a happy, summer-loving gal. I really like working with linen, and hope these girls like drying their dishes with it too!

bozia.

I got this beautiful reverse-painting-on-glass necklace at Folk Arts of Poland in Santa Fe when I was there for a conference a few years ago. I wandered into the shop and just fell in love with all the beautiful polish pottery and religious icons. I bought this particular pendant because I have a thing for St. Isidor, the patron saint of farmers....and, strangely, of dead children. (I didn't know that at the time.) There was another pendant of St. Francis that was incredible, but the girl who came in the shop ahead of me snapped it up. Drat! I wish they were available online. Actually, it's probably best that they're not. Anyways, I do love this one. It turns out that the Jesus-and-Mary side is actually my favorite, though. Those colors!

projects.

I've been working on this quilt for my dad for...oh....about two years. Not actively working the whole time, but still it's been weighing on my mind for quite a while. It's time for me to finish it.

I worked really hard on it at first, cutting out all the hundreds of rectangles and sewing them into strips. But then I realized that I'd made a large error-- I'd forgotten to add seam allowance to the pieces, so every block was a good half-inch smaller than it should have been. Suddenly my dad's queen-size quilt was more twin-size. So that took some of the wind out of my sails. Also, I bought all the fabric at JoAnn's, so it's really not good quality, and I'm noticing more and more that if I don't use good fabric, I quickly lose interest in my sewing project. So I put this one away for a long time. It wasn't until last October when I started really thinking about finishing it, and I've been working on the hand-quilting since then. I would say that I'm nearly halfway done (!).

The main thing pushing me through the tedious hand-quilting (I'm quilting an X through each block, and it is taking a really really long time) is that I have decided not to start any other project until I finish this one. Also, I really can't wait to see my dad's face when I give it to him (it's a surprise)! I love surprises.

Some of my motivation? These fun projects:

relabeling my kitchen bottles
a doily print bag
furoshiki
a camera strap for my mom
undies
something from the stylish dress book
pajama pants
for the kitchen
necklaces!

face wash and other treasures

On this fine Memorial Day I'm forgoing all the barbecues and swimming pool parties and getting some stuff done around the house-- and feeling very satisfied with myself. I made a batch of deodorant for a friend, and a batch of my favorite face wash-- the Miracle Grains in Rosemary Gladstar's book, which I do not own. It must be out of print. Luckily, my library has it. This is such a great face wash! It is the closest I've found to my favorite Dr. Hauschka face wash, and so much more affordable.

While cleaning out boxes of stuff in my sewing room, I've come across lots of little treasures. For example, a thrifted dish, a cross-stitch dollhouse pillow my mom made, and a tag for a dog named FANCY.

This week I've enjoyed reading through the archives of this new-to-me blog: Fields and Fire. The family runs a bakery in Amherst and does a grain CSA, on top of hand-washing all their clothes and dishes at home, using a work horse for farm and garden work, and growing most of their food. Amazing and inspiring. This photo really made my day! They might just be living my dream life.

scenes from Farm Friday

American Buff gosling

the squashes are in!

beach baby, beach baby there on the sand...

California was....awesome! It was my first visit and I kind of fell in love. I was a) surprised at how cold it was, b) in awe of the foreign (to me) plants and wildlife, and c) seriously impressed with the food and beverage selection. We went to Santa Monica first, where we stayed with a friend who works at Rawesome (a raw meat and dairy market) making raw chicken salad (I tried it! It was good!), raw coconut concoctions, raw bison burgers, and nut milks. We did lots of biking around and walking on the pier. Here I am playing on the rings at the beach:

Our friend took us to lots of gorgeous and tantalizing farmer's markets. One of them spanned about 5 blocks and had hundreds of vendors! This is so very unlike anything where I live... These herbs are from one of my favorite booths.

Ruben ate strawberries and raw avocado honey for breakfast the next day:

We also ate at the Library Ale House and though I don't remember a whole lot about the food, I had the best beer of my life (this one). Seriously, I don't even like beer, but I am STILL craving this one. Of course no one in our entire bioregion sells this. I've already checked.

Then we said our goodbyes, rented a hybrid, and headed up the coast. Here I am in an herb garden in Cambria:
We took the scenic Hwy 1 all the way up to San Francisco. It was so beautiful, and our camera broke on the first day of the drive. Torture!! So, no more pictures of the trip. We tried to burn everything into our memories, though.

We spent a night in Big Sur and ate twice at the amazing Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant. I highly recommend that you stop here should you ever find yourself in the area! I had a wood fired pizza and snacked on delicious olives while sipping wine and staring out at the green mountains. This was a PREMIER EXPERIENCE of my life...not sure if I can convey my contentedness and joy that evening. Something about the view, the food, the weather and the company. Anyway, we came back for breakfast, which was a very good decision. We had pop tarts, chocolate croissants, and a delicious banana strudel. We hiked around the state park, carved a heart into a bench, and gawked at Pfeiffer Beach.

Next, we went to Santa Cruz where I had an appointment with a homeopath, and we met up with one of my oldest friends for a snack at River Cafe, which I totally loved. This place is seriously cute, with delicious food (we had sweet peas with spicy tofu skins, and lavender sugar cookies...not at the same time) and only two kegs on tap (one beer, one kombucha)! I loved it and wish we had stayed longer so I could have eaten there again.

In San Francisco, the highlights for me were eating at Sushi Ran (actually in Sausalito) and Magnolia. There were lots of places that I wanted to eat (hello Zuni Cafe, Boulette's Larder, Tartine, Chez Panisse, Greens, and Ubuntu) but that just weren't in the cards for us this time. I may have been a bit overzealous (nice way of saying obsessive) in the planning of the food aspect of our trip. What can I say? I like to eat.

I was kind of overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the City, but our friends showed us around and we had fun walking around the parks and shops. Also, I finally get what the big deal is about the golden gate bridge!

We stayed our last couple of nights at Cavallo Point, where a childhood friend of Ruben's is a chef. It was crazy nice, and we got to do a spa treatment, and I remember saying to Ruben, "Why don't we do this ALL THE TIME?!?" We got to experience a 10 course meal with wine pairings one night, and a 3 hour brunch out on the porch that looks out over the bay the next day. Really incredible and totally not our normal style of staying/dining. Thanks Tim for hooking us up!

And, finally, the Heath Factory Store. Yes please. We have $200 worth of gorgeous ceramics heading our way. Happy Birthday/Christmas to us!

Ruben lost his wallet at the airport on the way home and we almost weren't able to get on the plane. Now I'm wondering...would that have been such a bad thing? Bye for now Cali, and thanks for the hospitality. We're already saving for vacation #2.

Whew. I just got home from a California vacation! We flew to LA and then drove up Highway 1 and flew home from San Francisco. So fun! I am so sad to go back to work in the morning...