Berries!!!!!

I always have a list. What follows is a list within a list (from the item "try all edible berries before dying"):

-Bearberry: An evergreen shrub with white flowers and red berries.
-Hackberries: Small and orange-yellow, hackberries can be eaten when they are ripe enough to fall from the tree.
-Wild Rose: Also known as rosehips, these berries are red and oval. They are an excellent source of Vitamin C.
-Sea Buckthorn: Orange yellow berries that may be in season throughout the winter. As their name suggests, sea buckthorn can be found along the coast.
-Thimbleberries: Also known as salmonberries, thimbleberries are shaped like thimbles. Their plant has white flowers and large green leaves. Sometimes the leaves are made into tea.
Barberry
Crowberry
Elderberry
Nannyberry
Honeyberries
Mayapple
Strawberry tree
Gurbir
Seagrape
Wintergreen
Sugarberry
Bilberry
Whortleberry
Cowberry
Foxberry
Juniper Berries
Mountain Cranberry
Red, Black or Purple Chokeberry
Dewberry
Salmonberry
Boysenberry
Cloudberry
Chehalem berry
Loganberry (I think I actually tried this before)
Thimbleberry
Wineberry
Youngberry
Juneberries
Saskaton berries
Shade berry
Marionberry (a cross between olallieberries and chealem berries)

OH MY GOODNESS! WHO KNEW THERE WERE SO MANY BERRIES!
I can see I have my work cut out for me...the hunt is on.

Berries I've Managed to Get My Hands On (oh the excitement):
-Ollalieberry (a cross between loganberries and youngberries
-Service berry
-Tayberries (a cross between blackberries and raspberries)
-Gooseberries
-Huckleberries
-Teaberries
-Mulberries
-And of course, your run of the mill strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and black raspberries! Phew!

Oh So Many Cooking Plans!

1) Spearmint, lemon verbena and basil simple syrups
2) Pesto
3) Pizzas
4) Blueberry pie!
5) Root bear floats
6) Morrocan mint tea
7) Ice cream
8) Lavender sorbet

Wyoming/Montana and Surprise Visit with Talia!

Tetons
Huckeberry ice cream!
View from Beartooth Pass


Wildflowers!


the date was lost amongst plumes of geyser smoke, indian paintbrushes and forget-me-nots, mountains, crystal clear lakes, the green, lonely bison (oh so shaggy). like a slowly lumbering bear. like how long it takes a peach to drip.

In the Tetons!

On The Way To...

the Tetons!!
11 cucumbers
a book binding job??? (i hope!)
a finished manuscript...
camping by Jenny Lake
campfire smores!

The Antlers - Two/Beautiful New Song and Video I Just Discovered!

Yay For Summer!

An eensy-weensy cucumber!

Tasting:

Ripe apricots

Gooseberries!

Seeing:

A pony coming down the sidewalk!

Perfect peas in their pod

"Karate Kid Puts Himself in Danger," says Keith

The other day Keith was supposed to go riding with Andy, one of his fellow interns. Andy was going to take him on a trail he'd never been on. Well, it turned out Andy couldn't go and so Keith took it upon himself to try and find the way himself, ending up on the wrong path and ultimately falling off his bike (almost down the side of a mountain). He ended up seriously gouging his knee and limping in the back gate all bloodied up. I almost had to take him to the hospital for stitches.

Then today Keith told me he really needed to get himself in shape and so was going on a more than thirty mile long mountain bike ride up "Puke Mountain" or some other such nonsense (because it's such a hard climb you want to puke) with some guys from work. He said he'd be home by six.

Well, 9:30 rolls around and still no Keith. "Maybe he got hurt?" I fleetingly thought to myself, then, "Nah."

No sooner had I thought that, then Keith staggered into the kitchen looking like Homer Simpson with a five o'clock shadow. "Geeze, how did you grow that beard in just one afternoon!" I exclaimed (it turned out to be dirt)!

Keith then proceeded to laughingly tell me how he was flying down the mountain at 35 mph and flew over his handlebars doing two flips and twists and flying fifteen feet down a cliff where he landed on a pile of twigs supposedly unscathed. "But I was totally fine," he protested when I fixed him with my evil eye. "No, but wait," he said. "I can't move my arm. Right after I got back on my bike I was going really slow and ran into a tree and hit my arm. Help me take my shirt off," he begged.

I then told Keith that I really don't want him going on any more crazy mountain bike rides and he said, "But the Karate Kid puts himself in danger!" You're no Karate Kid, Keith.

This Just In!

It's official--I've started work on my book! Seal Press book proposal here I come!

This Is My Summer Of...

-strawberries from the yard!
-cooking and cooking and cooking
-mandala
-brown sugar balsamic ice cream with peaches and maple glazed pecans
-homegrown herbs (of the cooking variety!): lavender, lemon verbena, rosemary, thai basil, spearmint
-library books
-jobless-ness
-blue skies
-hikes
-peace

More Views From the House, and a window

I can't stop taking window pictures!

Snowbasin--Backing Up

The "watering hole"

I read in dappled light

This One Goes Out To You Mom and Dad!/Pizza Recipe

For some reason I feel a little embarressed to post recipes here. But since we moved into the new house, and since I simply cannot find a job, I have been cooking all kinds of delicious things during my oodles of free time--with really only one major flop (i.e. the cherry cobbler in which I spent an hour pitting cherries and then proceeded to forget to add the buttermilk before baking it--i blame that night's IPhone craziness--and yes, I finally have a real cell phone!). Anyway, back to recipes...

In my mind, my parent's are both fantastic cooks--everything they make is delicious. With one exception--they can't make pizza. I haven't witnessed/tasted this for myself, but believe me, I've heard lots about all their many pizza efforts--with each one turning out to be a dud.

So I was extremely sceptical when I decided to try my hand at pizza making a few weeks ago. I mean, if Dick and Mags couldn't do it, how could I (especially since I have a similar problem as my parent's, only it involves breadmaking!)? But I came across a recipe in a cookbook by Mark Bittman (who I'd heard had really simple/easy to make recipes) from the library... And low and behold--the pizza came out wonderfully (the pcture really doesn't do it justice).

So, this one's for you mom and dad--here's the foolproof recipe:

-3 cups all-purpose or bread flour

-2 tsps instant yeast

-2 tsps coarse salt

-2 tbsp olive oil

1) Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a food processor (although I mixed it by hand as I don't have a food processor and it worked perfectly fine). Turn the machine on and add 1 cup warm water and the oil through the feed tube (feed tube?)

2)Process about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time until mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to touch. If it's dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process another 10 seconds. If for some reason the mixture is too sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time.

3)Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand a few seconds till it forms a smooth, round dough ball. Put the dough in a bowl and cover. Let rise until dough doubles (1-2 hrs). Mark Bittman says you can cut this rising time short if you're in a hurry, or you can let the dough rise slowly for 6-8 hrs in the fridge. You can then either go on to the next step or freeze for up to a month (he says to defrost in a covered bowl in the fridge or at room temp).

4)When dough is ready, form into a ball and divide into 2 or more pieces. Roll each piece into a round ball. Put each piece on a lightly floured surface, sprinkle with a little flour, and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Let rise until they puff slightly, about 20 min. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

5)Press the dough onto an olive-oiled baking sheet. Then pat out the dough as thin as you like.

6)Bake about 15 minutes until browned.

7)Don't use really wet toppings or the dough becomes soggy.

HH Penor Rinpoche!

Radiohead - Paranoid Android (on Jools Holland, 1997)

Now I remember why Radiohead used to be my favorite band!

Sparklehorse and Radiohead - Wish You Were Here

I just now discovered Sparklehorse through Ali Shaw's blog (author of The Girl With the Glass Feet which I was raving about last week)...Sparklehorse's version of this song is beautiful but the video is really heartwrenching...

July Already?

new poems, sweet slice cucumber tendrils, a tiny brown cricket munching holes in basil, lettuce that won't germinate. a lack of money!! photos and yes, a cell phone. clouds and tuck everlasting. can't find a job and books behind glass. The Disappeared, the most beautiful book ever...