“…I didn’t know roses were herbs”, or

“…roses are so hard to grow”, or

“…I didn’t know roses were edible”, etc.

All of this is proof positive that the point of the IHA’s (International Herb Association) Herb of the Year program, that of Herbal Education, is working! Especially since no one goes away from a conversation with me about the herbal aspects of the rose without a better understanding of just how edible, useful, and healthful roses are, as well as, just how easy roses are to grow.

This rose bush is just another example of how easy roses are to grow. This rose, whose name I do not know (but if I had to guess -it might be “Graham Thomas”), has been growing in a dirt lot behind a liquor store and a taco shop at the corner of Warmlands & East Vista Way, in Vista, CA for almost a decade. When it rains, the area this rose is growing in puddles up but other than that there is no water nearby. The area is riddled with gophers and gopher holes and the weedy grasses and mustard growing around it hides a shocking amount of trash. The bush gets no fertilizer, never gets pruned, has no irrigation and yet it grows, it blooms and the fragrance is incredible, year after year. What can be easier than that?

In order to make these the way that i did you will need to purchase earring “findings” at a craft store ahead of time. I bought these sterling sliver stick pin style earring parts at my local Michael’s craft store. Because I have an allergy to nickel I only make jewelry for myself using sterling silver findings but if you do not have this sensitivity you can use all sorts of different metal findings. There are lots to choose from.

1. Pick 2 fresh rosebuds from your garden that you’d like to wear as earrings.
2. If they have mildew or bugs, don’t despair- it won’t hurt a thing. Just wash them with a little dish soap and buff dry with a soft cloth before proceeding.
3. Trim the stems close to the future rose hip that is forming at the base of the rosebud.
4. Poke the earring wire into and all the way through the hip.
5. Using needle-nose pliers if you have them or tweezers if you don’t, bend the wires and secure them in such a way that the rosebud dangles down nicely from the ear. The two earrings will be slightly different, no matter how hard you try to make them even and symmetrical. Just make them to be similar not the same.
6. Put the earrings on and go!

Today I posted on facebook that I was craving Ambrosia Salad.

https://www.facebook.com/KarenRichterEngland/posts/2179997784745?notif_t=feed_comment

This craving is not usual since I have had the dish all of 3 times in my life, if that.  The craving did not subside after posting which is what I hoped would happen.

Oh well.

So, what’s a girl to do? Well, run to the store of course!

What resulted was this really tasty recipe that is also really funny and/or ironic and/or sad depending on how you look at things. Why? Well, it’s not made with local produce, so that means that locavores can’t eat it.  Some parts are organic and some parts are most definitely not! For instance, nobody knows for sure what the jet- puffed marshmallows are made of – but gelatin is a great ingredient guess (I’m not reading the package ingredient list on purpose so I can eat in blissful ignorance later…), so that means that vegetarians, fruitarians and vegans can’t have any. Some parts are fresh, some are homegrown, some are dried and other parts are canned…

…It’s hilarious!

Enjoy…

Hilarious Ambrosia Salad

Serves 2 (but, you watch, my hubby won’t eat this! So, really, it serves 1)

1 – sweet mandarin orange, peeled, de-strung and sectioned. I cut the sections into smaller pieces…

1 – organic banana, peeled and cut into coins

1 – small can pineapple chunks in 100% juice, drained

1 handful each:

~ organic unsweetened coconut flakes

~ (not organic) Jet-Puffed mini marshmallows

~ dried tart cherries

¼ cup heavy whipping cream

1 heaping teaspoon sour cream

1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract (or store bought)

Fresh mint & edible flowers, optional. The herbs and flowers I used were:

~ “Kentucky Coronel” Mint

~ 1 – organic “Scentimental” rose, petals only

~ Calendula (It’s the same exact color as the mandarin. Nice.)

~ Jonny-Jump-Up’s (Heartsease)

~ “Twickle Purple” Lavender

~ German Chamomile

Put the first six ingredients in a glass bowl with a lid. Put the whipping cream in a blender jar and whiz it to a soft whip (Don’t look away, this goes fast! Don’t let it go too long or you’ll have a ¼ cup of fresh butter), add sour cream and vanilla and whiz again briefly to combine. (Note: I opted not to sweeten this dressing but if I had, I would have added some honey with the sour cream…) Pour the dressing over the fruit mixture in the glass bowl and stir.  Add most of the herbs and flowers and stir gently again to combine. Garnish with the rest of the flowers. Cover and chill before eating!

herb stamps

https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10007334&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10000003&top_category=10000003&categoryId=10000031&top=&currentPage=0&sort=&viewAll=N&rn=CategoriesDisplay&WT.ac=10007334

I haven’t bought stamps in a long while! Email, modern technology, facebook, etc. have all  changed my corresponding habits. But if I did need stamps, these would be terrific.

I love when herbs “crop” up in unusual places!

Triscuit online planting info. available

Dill may have been Herb of the Year in 2010 but it is very much out and about in 2011. I got seeds with my box of Triscuits today, actually the seeds are part of the box! Yea Dill! Yea Herbs! Yea Triscuits!

Go to Triscuit’s facebook page and give ‘em a “like” and you can get a one time downloadable $1.00 off Triscuit coupon. I did!  Worked great -Thanks Nabisco.

My garden tools hanging out by the garage

I planted this “Pineapple” Scented Geranium/Pelargonium (a long time ago) in the hopes that it was in the “Fruit, Nut, Spice” scent class and I could cook with it. Bummer though, it is not. It is in the pungent scent class and the rule of thumb to remember is, “you do not want to cook with the pungent scented geraniums”!  This plant is also known as “Brilliant” scented geranium so I have renamed it “Brilliant Pineapple” – smart, I mean brilliant, huh?

That's Grandma Mattie in the front between my cousin Don and me

Did you know I want(ed) to be named Mattie Lisette and not Karen Lisette? Some of you who know me from “way back” may have thought I wanted to be named something other than the Lisette part and not the Karen part of my name, but that’s not correct.

My maternal grandmother who we, my parents and myself, lived with on and off during my life until she died in 1984 was named Mattie Lora McGraw Hailey. I went everywhere and did everything with her and she was my best friend. Sometime in the 70′s, in my teens, I told her I wished I was named for her and, since I wasn’t, I wanted to name one of my potential (12) children after her. It surprised me that this news upset her. She tried to get me to promise her right there and then that I wouldn’t name one of my kids for her – something I never actually promised. I kinda sorta did to keep peace. Turns out it didn’t matter because I never had kids – but if I had had children, I would’ve named one Mattie (& with a clear conscience).

What about you? What do you think of your name? Would you change it?

I know of a (dare I say? old!) high school acquaintance who changed her name legally the minute she reached the age of majority and, according to google, has gone on to write books and have a successful professional career with her “new” name. Would I have changed my name if I was in her shoes? I don’t know. I liked her birth name. Would I have changed it to what she did? Probably not. I liked her original name better. But that is probably because I liked her, SHE made her name nice.

My grandma Mattie was wonderful and even though she didn’t like her own name much apparently, SHE made her name nice too. Since I’m named Karen Lisette and not something else and since I haven’t changed it – I hope that I make my name nice as well.

(For those of you who don’t already know this; Lisette was my paternal grandmother and I am honored to be named for her. No one knows who Karen was…)

1. Forget the muffin, the hottest thing in baking, be it home or retail, is the cupcake. If you bake a muffin, for Pete’s sake, call it a cupcake to get people to look at it. Do a google search for “cupcake mania” if you don’t believe me.
2. Somebody named “Bakerella” put little cakes on candy sticks and invented “Cake Pops”. She has even written the book on the subject. Cake Pops are “popping” up everywhere –Starbucks even has a version of them now in the pastry case.
3. I bet there will be Bundt Pop Pans very soon! You watch.
4. But until then, and, in honor of Bakerella, I made Irish Soda Pops. I took my favorite ISB (Irish Soda Bread) recipe and merged it with Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery School recipe for something called “Spotted Puppies” (which are mini “Spotted Dogs” of course! Note: the only difference from the “Stripy Cat” recipe published online in the link is the chocolate. Obviously, small ones would be called “Stripy Kittens”…) and I put them on a stick.
5. Even though Irish Soda Bread is quick bread and not cake, I am in Cake love.

And to think, I would have never known any of this before discovering Bundt pans…

Discovering cake has led to this

Karen’s Irish Soda Pops recipe

makes one half sized loaf of soda bread and four Soda Pops

2 cups organic whole wheat flour

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup crannies (or craisins, which are dried cranberries)

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter, cut up

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 -2 teaspoons coriander seeds, optional

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Additionally, you will need four candy sticks or rosemary stalks minus the needles for the pops.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Mix in the butter with your hands until the texture is pebbly. Add in the dried fruit and coriander, if using.  Stir in the buttermilk and when the dough comes together divide it in half and put the first half on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, shaped into a flat round and cut a cross in the top. Cut the remaining half into quarters and put the 4 smaller dough balls onto the same baking tray and cut a cross in each.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes and remove the pops, then return the small loaf to the oven and bake approximately for another 15 -20 minutes more ’til done. Insert the pop sticks into the small “pops” while they are cooling and stand them up in the small loaf for serving.