the garden: flowers blooming

So it appears we got exactly two days of spring. It's been cold and wintery for months, and then we had a beautiful spring weekend, but this work week has been hot! And the forecast for today ... 94?!

Jessi is not so pleased with Mother Nature. But Jessi's flowers? They're loving it.

Last fall, I planted some pansies in the front yard. In our climate, they're supposed to be beautiful during the fall, die back a bit in the winter, then bounce back to life with the warm spring temps. And they've done just that in the past few days.

In the tree lawn in front of our house, this was my plan:

• Crocus would come up first. (Check. They were here by mid-February.)
• Daffodils would come up next. (Well ... they came up. But I messed them up somehow because no flowers came out of the greenery. I'll have to ask my mom what I can feed them in the fall to give them some extra energy over the winter.)
• Then tulips would come up. (And they're here! The warm weather has prodded them along nicely. Those flowers should bloom any day now. And my medicated foot powder technique appears to have successfully warded off squirrel enemies.)
• And finally, five giant hostas would emerge from the ground, covering all of the decaying bulb leaves and filling up the garden bed with beautiful greenery all summer and fall. (All five hostas, which my parents divided from their own plants, are coming up, doing just fine, and seem to be loving the warm weather, too.)

Here's a shot from yesterday evening that shows an about-to-bloom tulip in the foreground with a hosta sprouting behind it. And lots of daffodil and crocus greenery all around.

The only other flower I have at my house so far is this sweet alyssum, which I bought over Easter weekend at Frager's. It smells awesome. I put it in a big pot by the front door, so hopefully it'll grow to fill the pot and smell great every time we walk past it. Here's a picture of the alyssum, which includes a bonus cameo of Francois, who came over to visit last night while Tony and I were working in the front yard:

Actually, Tony was doing the work, and I was taking photos. He sprinked some Holly-tone plant food around the evergreen plans in the front yard. I don't know what, exactly, Holly-tone is or does. I just know that my dad delivered a bag of it to us last fall with instructions to feed the evergreen plants twice a year. Yes, sir.

And I've been seeing all of these beautiful photos from the Tidal Basin of all the cherry blossoms. Seems our tree is a little cherry tree is a liiiiitle slow in blooming this year.

My herbs also have made a big resurgence in the past week or so.

Thyme and tarragon with my celery in the middle:

More tarragon and oregano with some strawberries in the background.

I thought the chives were dead all winter, but they're baaack!

I also have a great big rosemary plant, but that didn't die back at all during the winter.

And now that the garden bed is in the backyard, I've finally been able to plant my cool-season crops. Last night I spied some turnips, radishes, spinach, romaine and arugula coming up! Hopefully the hot weather backs off a bit, so the cool-season crops survive for at least a little while! And tonight I looked at the notes I made to myself when I planted my garden last spring and realized that I already had my tomatoes and peppers in the ground by mid-April ... so I gotta get on that. Maybe this weekend?

the garden: romaine

I'm pretty sure I've made a great new discovery: It looks like you can grow a brand new head of lettuce from the butt of a head that you buy at the grocery store. The technique is identical to what I used in my attempt to grow a new celery stalk from kitchen scraps.

I bought a head of lettuce recently, and I cut the bottom off. I let it sit in water for about a week until new leaves started growing from the middle, like so:

And then I planted the whole thing in a pot, leaving only the new growth exposed.

And it's looking good so far!

And last night, my friend Lily and her boyfriend Zach stayed with us for the night, and we took advantage of the nice weather by grilling out. With a salad on the side. And guess what I did with that lettuce butt? I'm trying to get another one going.

I'll keep you posted on how this experiment goes.

As for the celery, I'm happy to report that it's still alive. I brought it inside for most of the winter and set it in a sunny window. And it was actually thriving, growing shoots like gangbusters. But then I was reasonably sure I saw bugs on the plant, which really freaked me out, so the thing went outside immediately. The cold didn't do it any favors, and a lot of the growth turned brown. But things have turned around in the past few days with the beautiful weather. Here's a shot of the plant yesterday evening, and all of that dark green stuff is brand new. So hopefully things keep going in the right direction.

I also have a bonus celery growing, which I planted earlier this year. It's not thriving yet, but I have not given up hope.

life: easter snapshots

Over the weekend, Tony and I hosted my family at our house for Easter weekend. Having holidays at our house -- how's that for being a real grownup? The family also came last year for Easter, so Easter in D.C. is becoming a real tradition. My parents came down from Ohio with my Grandma Mary, and my Uncle Mike drove down from Pittsburgh. When Tony and I told friends of ours about the weekend plans, they seemed really shocked that we'd want to spend so much time in such close quarters with our family. But I'm lucky to have a great family that I actually want to spend time with. Close quarters = cozy in situations like that.

In preparation for their visit, Tony and I gave our house a thorough cleaning. I'd say there are five levels of tidiness in our house:

1. Just Tony and me, day-to-day.
2. Guests come over for dinner.
3. Guests spend the night.
4. New York Times comes to photograph your house for the Sunday magazine.
5. Grandma Mary comes to visit.

Actually, Grandma coming to visit was a good excuse to give the whole house a good spring cleaning. I estimate Tony and I could reconstitute approximately 2.5 cats from all of the cat hair that we cleaned up from Victor's hiding places, particularly under the bed.

Tony and my dad spent about a day and a half working in the backyard on the next phase of our backyard makeover project, building a raised garden bed. I still have to take more photos of the finished product, so stay tuned for a separate post on that.

My mom and I collaborated on Easter dinner, which turned out very well. She was in charge of the ham and kielbasa. I made some pierogies earlier in the week and cooked them for dinner. And I whipped up some of my famous scalloped potatoes, green beans, and hard boiled eggs.

Here we all are, about to dig in. Well, except for Tony, who is taking the photo.

My Easter basket from Uncle Mike included these cute little guys, who served as a nice centerpiece on a table crammed full of food.

And then Tony had fun trying to eat the bunnies with an alligator candy dispenser from his Easter basket. 

Moving on to dessert. This is a 3-D bunny cake, an edible work of art by my mom.

She found an antique mold at a thrift store and baked a lemon pound cake in it. She made the frosting textured like bunny fur, gave the little guy pink ears and a nose, put it on a bed of green coconut grass and added some flowers. Oh, and how about those eyes!

And then we devoured that guy. The aftermath:

 And after dinner was the second annual Easter egg hunt in my backyard in which Tony and I hid the eggs and let Mom, Dad, Grandma and Uncle Mike hunt for them.

If you thought watching children hunt for eggs is entertaining, you have to see four grown ass adults push each other out of the way when they've been told one of the eggs contains a Macys gift card.

See? That's my dad pushing his wife out of the way in pursuit of an Easter egg.

Mom had the height advantage over Grandma:

Oh, and one of the eggs contained a certificate for one free hug from Tony. Dad won. I have no idea why he's wearing a particle mask on his head, but it's cute otherwise.

Happy Easter!

recipe: peach sangria

This sangria recipe, which I made most recently for brunch after the marathon, is phenomenal. The recipe is simple: wine, peach schnapps, frozen lemonade concentrate and fruit. The frozen lemonade makes the drink sweet, and the schnapps gives it good fruit flavor. Your early-morning alcohol shouldn't be overwhelmingly booze-tasting, right?

I got this recipe from Camille a couple of years ago, and it's never failed to impress. It's the best sangria I've ever had, for sure.

Peach Sangria

• 1 bottle dry white wine
• 3/4 cup peach schnapps
• 6 tablespoons frozen lemonade concentrate
• peaches, apples, grapes, strawberries or other fruit of your choice

In a large pitcher, combine wine, schnapps and lemonade concentrate. Add fruit. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight to blend flavors.

decor: ikea cabinet has been found

Good news, guys! Remember that discontinued Ikea cabinet that I couldn't find at the store last month? I was able to track down one on Craigslist, and Tony and I brought it to its new home yesterday.

These Ikea PS cabinets are few and far between on Craigslist, believe me - I've been checking a couple of times a week. But as luck would have it, a woman who lives in my neighborhood was getting rid of this one, so Tony and I didn't have to travel very far to pick it up.

The cabinet is the perfect size for my entryway, between the front door and the couch, and it solves all kinds of storage problems. We're keeping the shoes that we wear most often underneath of the cabinet, and the inside shelves already are filled with things I just never found the right place for. Like the paper shredder. (The cabinet came with holes for cords to come out of the back.) The paper shredder had just been sitting beside the TV all this time. Much better now that it's hidden inside of the cabinet.

I threw my orange Ikea lamp on top of the cabinet. And on the other side I have a little wooden box with a couple of bear jars that I found in my room at my parents' house when I was in Ohio over Christmas.

Aren't they cute? I'm not sure exactly what they held originally (syrup? honey?), but the empty jars were supposed to double as banks.

I don't think I've ever posted photos on this blog of the bookshelves by the front door, so here's another shot.

My dad built them for me, and they're where Tony and I keep all of our non-fiction. (The fiction books are on shelves in our bedroom and upstairs hallway.)

And a few months ago I was experimenting with hanging different-sized frames along the edge of the bookshelf, and it didn't look right, but as I was taking the frames down, I liked the way it looked to keep just one frame. It's off-center, but it's unexpected, and I really dig it.

So, the Ikea cabinet story has a happy ending. And I no longer have to see the paper shredder out of the corner of my eye when I watch TV.

the backyard: shed update

When I look at our backyard, I see ... potential. When other people look at it, they probably see an eyesore.

The backyard has always been ugly. Part of the patio is brick -- but the bricks were installed right on top of the dirt, and it's sunken and broken in places. The other part of the patio is concrete that is cracked and missing some pieces. There was an ill-placed garden bed with overgrown plants.

Plus, this is the shed that came with the house (in a photo from last fall):

Finally, Tony and I are starting to tackle the backyard. I've come up with a plan to fix things up, and we're going to make progress in pieces as our schedules and patience permit.

First up: the metal shed.

The color is awful. And it just looks ... old. And it's all rusty.

So I went to Home Depot and started pricing new sheds. I really liked those fancy big cedar ones. But they're surprisingly expensive, and it was hard to justify spending so much money, especially because we need a fairly large shed to accommodate all of our garden stuff.

So that brought me to the paint aisle. And in the end, Tony and I decided to try to salvage the shed with some Rust-Oleum paint.

We started by using a wire brush to remove as much of the rust as we could. We gave the whole shed a coat of primer, making sure the rusty spots were covered especially well.

As for colors, I decided to paint the shed white with a big pop of color for the door. Voila!

I had considered a lot of other colors ... black, brown, gray ... but I decided against dark colors that would absorb heat since summers here tend to be, you know, hellish.

And check out that roof: no rust! Tony and I actually did the painting last fall, and we let it sit in the elements all winter before declaring the project a success.

And this project gives me a good framework as I plan the rest of the patio project. I'm now thinking about how to incorporate bright white and candy-apple red into the rest of the backyard decor to tie it all together.

The next backyard project is going to be putting in a raised garden bed. I'll post an update soon!