Author: alisahuntsman

tagging monarchs to track them

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on a recent cold and rainy saturday morning, i participated in a a few events for a green apple day of service at lipscomb elementary school.  actually, i was there with my husband so that i could help him give a demonstration on square food gardening.  when he isn’t busy at the university-he is the catering chef, he works with the kindergarten classes in their garden beds.  he has been working with one of the teacher for the last two years and the program has been very successful.
the teacher he works with is also heavily involved with monarch watch.  give becky five minutes and she will tell you all she can about monarchs.  she even manages to work them into every lesson plan she has for her students.  along side of the driveway just outside her classroom is long and narrow garden full butterfly plants.  some are host plants for the caterpillars, like the milkweed for instance, while others, such as coneflowers, herbs and asters are valuable nectar plants for the butterflies.
monarchs like many other creatures are very sensitive to changes within their environment.  the large amount of construction in many areas has meant a drastic reduction in host plants for monarchs and sadly, their numbers are declining quickly.  i can remember seeing so many fluttering about during the summer when i was young but now, i can hardly remember seeing one this summer.  but construction isn’t the only problem that monarchs are facing.  herbicides and genetically modified crops also have a hand in their decline and the bring back the monarch campaign is hoping to prevent further decline.  you can help by planting any of the 15 native(to tennessee) milkweed plants in your yard or garden.  for a complete list of the varieties native to tennessee, follow this link and to find sources for seeds and plants, check this list.
becky watches the plants closely with hope of finding caterpillars or a chrysalis.  when she finds them, she carefully moves them to a secure environment in the building so that she can be sure they will have the chance to become butterflies.   

on this day, one monarch decided to join the festivities by coming out of the chrysalis shell.  it was a complete surprise to everyone-especially the children in attendance.  while the wings unfurl and dry, butterflies are extremely vulnerable to predators.  this one was lucky that miss becky took it inside-the cool temperatures would have made it even harder for it to fly away.

sorry for the blurry shot-plastic containers are not the best thing to take photos through.

one of the things becky does is to tag each butterfly before setting it free.  she keeps careful records of each and every one so that it can be tracked.  she explained that all of the monarchs in this part of the country will actually fly to a small santuary in mexico for the winter.

the tag is placed on the wing and each one has a number specific to that butterfly.  the native people who live in and around the santuary will actually comb the ground looking for tags.  for some, that is a large part of their income and they take the task seriously.

becky will tell you that every so often, they get an email listing a number from one of the tags that she and the children have used.  that means one of the butterflies made it to mexico and for this group, it is news to dance and shout about.

it takes a minute or two for the butterfly to become accustomed to the tag on its wing but once they are, they can fly just fine.

did you know that it is very easy to determine the sex of a monarch butterfly?  well, it really is, by gently splaying the wings open, a five year old was quick to tell me that this was a male.  how did he know that?  by the single large black spot on each of the wings.  this guy went back into the aquarium until it warmed up and then they were going to let him fly off.  and with any luck, he will make it to the santuary in mexico.

cross this off my list; x cookies, a tuesdays with dorie post

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a glimpse at my week; a full time job, classes three nights a week, a house to keep, a garden to tend to at home and another for the master gardeners and a list of things to do as long as my arm.  can you tell i am a little stressed?  needless to say, this probably was not the best recipe for me to work on today, my only real day off.

to sum it all up in one word; tedious.  irritating is another word that comes to mind.  while the end results were reasonably good (more on that in a moment), this is one recipe that i probably will not make again.

the dough is easy to make.  it is definitely a recipe to keep in mind when you are making tarts and bars with a crust.

the filling was the tricky part.  now, it wasn’t all the recipe; some of it was my pantry or perhaps i should say my poorly stocked pantry.  i only had half the figs needed so i substituted the only other fruit i had, a bag of prunes.  now wait-prunes get a bad rap.  i have always liked prunes and this sounded like a reasonable solution.  to make sure all was soft, i plumped it all in hot water; figs, prunes and currants-i didn’t have raisins.  i also did not have candied orange peel-it isn’t quite fruit cake season so it is hard to find.  did i mention that i am not an orange fan?  i added lemon zest instead.  there wasn’t any apricot jam in the pantry either, i used fig jam in the hope of punching up the fig flavor.  my filling just ended up being a sticky mess that was a pain the *** to work with.

because the filling was so sticky, i could only shape one log at a time and it required that i wash my hands twice in the process.  this irritated me quickly.

after shaping 4 logs, i quit!  the rest of the dough was divided in two.  one half was pressed into a pan, the filling was spread over it and i rolled out the rest of the dough to cover the filling.  i made holes with a fork, egg washed it and gave it a sprinkle of sanding sugar.  forty minutes later, voila!

now, this i might make again-but first, i will go to the grocery store for the figs and the apricot jam.  and if i do make these, i think i will also add a little sugar to the filling.  oh, remind me to hoard some candied lemon rind or citron, they would be nice in this too!  to see what the rest of the bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

tiny tomato cakes keep them guessing

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sometimes, i like to have fun with desserts.  my favorite game is to make people guess what the secret ingredient is.  once, for thanksgiving, i made a pie with white beans; it was fun to watch as our guests ate the pie while trying to guess what type of squash i used.  there have been many such desserts coming out of my kitchen.  a favorite of mine is tomato cake because it always keeps them guessing.
a recent outing with the nashville food bloggers included a pot luck lunch.  as a pastry chef, dessert is always my contribution to a pot luck meal.  naturally, i decided to have a little fun and make them guess the flavor.  to see the complete recipe, click here.

 my skinny muffin pan from ikea.  it is a little tricky to use.  even though it is nonstick, you really need to grease and flour the cups to ensure the cakes come out intact.

 the best way to present them, wrapped individually and dusted with powdered sugar.

in my search for bakers twine, the kind i remember from childhood, red and white and hanging from the bakery ceiling in a metal stringholder, i came across some cotton yarn.  it works very nicely and is so much cheaper!

thematic photography, week 2: life or death

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for our second week of class, we were given the theme of life or death.  not a very happy theme at first glance but surprisingly, an easy one to find images of.  since we were allowed to interpret the theme as we wanted, the choices for shooting were plentiful.  the trick was to find images that were interesting and eye catching.  
for my photos, i decided to visit a cemetary.  luckily for me, the nashville city cemetery was giving the annual living history tour.  not only were there lots of interesting scenes to shoot, there were live actors portraying the dead and buried.  if you haven’t gone on a living history tour, you should.  the history of nashville is colorful, to say the least!
 an actor portraying moses wetmore, an early developer of east nashville
 my husband was fascinated with the mausoleums
 vine on iron fencing
 row of crypts
 flower bed 
 this quote seems to sum it all up nicely
 reflection on a crypt
 the mausoleum reflecting the gravestones across from it
then of course, i headed to the garden.  this is a great time of year to find life and death in the garden.
 lichen on dead wood
 same subject, monochrome
 cicada wings
 and in color-completely different results

and one that somehow did not make it onto my flash drive for class-sustaining life means certain death.

and our next theme is our choice-we have a list and i have yet to make my choice.  stay tuned, i will post the photos.

linzer cookies with fig jam

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the whole repurposing craze has caught me.  i just love it-the idea of turning useless stuff into a money maker; i’m all about that.  honestly, i do like the idea of using things in a new or unusual way.  we hung a wire window planter box up on our kitchen wall.  ok, not exciting.  except we hung it upside down and use hooks to hang pots from it.  fascinating stuff, i know!  what does it have to do with cookies?  nothing.  it was the repurposing thing, i went off track here…
so, back to the story, as a tuesdays with dorie baker, i often make things i would not generally make for just the two of us.  it is often way more than we can eat.  sometimes i cut the recipe in half or freeze half.  for a recent baking challenge, we made a crostata.  it called for a rich, short crust that was loaded with almonds and sesame seeds.  since i wanted to make a smaller tart, i had a big ball of dough leftover and i froze it for another day.  a recent get together of local food bloggers seemed like a good time to use it since it would make wonderful bite sized linzer cookies.  read all about the tart and see the recipes by clicking here.

cookie cutters are something i collect; i have hundreds of them.  literally, hundreds.  this is an inexpensive set that i found while wandering through a local tjmaxx/homegoods store.  they are double sided so you can use the straight side or the fluted side-10 cutters for the price of 5!

to roll out little bite sized sandwich cookies, i used a pair of thin wooden dowels.  that is my secret for a consistent thickness and by choosing different sized dowels, i get the dough rolled out to the necessary thickness every time.

to cut the window of the top cookie in the sandwich, i pulled out a different set of cutters.  this is a larger set of straight circles made of metal.

 a quick sprinkle of sanding sugar gave the cookies a nice sparkle.

a small dollop of homemade fig jam was the perfect choice of filling for a dough studded with almonds and sesame seeds.

 finishing the sandwiches with the top cookie

all ready to go on my fancy vintage pressed aluminum serving tray-a treat fit for serving to food bloggers!  and by the way, i came home with an empty tray…

fall arrives; time to head back to class

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for the last year, i have been taking classes at a local art college.  it is all part of my effort to learn better techniques for taking photos of my work and of the garden.  this last week, i headed back to class for a four week workshop on thematic photography.  while it sounds a bit complicated, it isn’t.  any professional photographer will tell you that most paid assignments have a theme.  the object is to produce photos that define the theme without needing explanation.  for our first assignment, we were given the theme of “americana” and i made an attempt to define it and capture it.  

many of you know that i live in nashville.  obviously, a fiddle and a bottle of kentucky bourbon should relay americana.  unless you are a musician (or my daughter) and you know that is a viola…work with me people!

 toll painted cake tin and a bundt cake slice
 split rail fence
 farm equipment
 grandma’s garden at ellington ag center
 corn
 zinnias on a ladderback chair
 zinnias on a hand hewn table
 zinnias, a log bench and a split rail fence
 the grand champion has dinner
 you lookin at me?
 blue ribbon dreams
russell and his apple pie
 waiting our turn to dance
appalachaian precision cloggers-they wear tap shoes?

the little fig tree that could; fresh fig jam

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we planted two fig trees in our yard.  the older of the two is a brown turkey fig.  this year was a good year for figs-we picked 10 pounds!

did you know that figs are not actually a fruit?  they are a scion or an infructescence and almost all of the trees need a tiny wasp to pollinate the flowers.  that wasp does not live in tennessee and for that reason, only two varieties of figs can be grown here; the brown turkey and the celeste varieties do not need pollination.

so, what does one do with 10 pounds of fresh figs?  having made one tart and stuff myself silly with them, i made jam.  now i can have figs for the winter while i dream of summer, and the next harvest.

simmering the figs with cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans.  a little lemon juice and zest helped round out the flavors.

canned and cooling

until next year, this will have to do!  to make some fig jam, just use the basic jam recipe of 2 to 1 fruit to sugar  and add flavors as you like(citrus zest, spices, alcohol and so on) or try this recipe.  happy canning!

change of season in the garden

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hard to believe but fall is creeping in.  the fact that it is still 90+ outside and humid does not help to convince me.  spring came so late this year that the garden is still in full production mode but there are some signs…
goldfinches are making quick work of the sunflower seed harvest
peppers are turning from green to red-these are ghost peppers
cucumber vines are dying off 
fall veggies planted in the garden

carrots planted in late winter are ready to be harvested.  summer lingers, thunderstorms pop up and the garden goes on.  when i see how late the sun comes up and how early it goes down, i know the change of season is upon us.  as hot as it is in nashville, i do not look forward to winter.  if we skipped it altogether, i would not be the least bit offended.  

pimento cheese; it’s a southern thing

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having lived in the south for a while, i have come to appreciate many “southern” foods.  sorghum has to be pretty close to the top spot on the list.  how can you not love hummingbird cake or homemade chess pie?  didn’t think i could but when they are homemade using a good, handed down from generation to generation recipe, both are hard to pass up.  never mind the stuff that is mass produced and sold in the grocery store; we won’t even talk about what they sell in the mini mart at the gas station…
where am i going with this?  pimento cheese, that’s where.  for years, i would see the tubs of bright yellow/orange goo in the cheese section of the grocery store and wonder who could eat that-why would they eat that?  then i had my first taste of good homemade pimento cheese.  those of you who have lived in nashville longer than i have will most likely remember a little shop in green hills, clayton blackmon.  two ladies owned the shop, it grew out of their successful catering business, and if you ask me, they made the best pimento cheese, ever.  by using a blend of freshly grated cheeses, possibly mild cheddar or colby and monterey jack, and mixing it with pimentos and mayonnaise, it was amazing.  and until recently, i didn’t think i could ever find something close to it.  
when my coworkers and i went to the beard house in february, we served the guests at the event pimento cheese made from a family recipe of one of our team members that had been handed down several generations.  that started me on a quest to find the recipe to make pimento cheese like the one that lives in my memory…

this batch was made from the recipe we used at the beard house.  it produces a spread that is almost like a dip.  it is dangerous-you can spread it on crackers or bread and before you know it, you’ve eaten the whole batch…to make this for yourself, visit the loveless website for the recipe.  to see pictures from the trip to new york city and the dinner, part 1, part 2.

being who i am, i had to try my own take on this recipe.  first stop was the deli counter in the grocery store; i had them hack me off a thick slab of the american cheese that they sell by the pound.  it is the american cheese i grew up with.  my mother never bought the stuff that comes wrapped by the slice.  then i grabbed a piece of smoked gouda.  first i shredded the cheese and then by using the food processor and pulsing it carefully to combine it with the buttermilk, i was able to get a chunky consistency.  while it isn’t as creamy at first, it does soften and almost liquefy as it sits because the buttermilk does that to the cheese.  it was just as deadly to my waistline and cholesterol count as the previous batch.

then i made an open face grilled cheese sandwich with it.  need to step away from the cheese!  try making the recipe by substituting the amounts ounce for ounce with your favorite blend of cheeses.  you will not regret this, trust me.

like many others, once i get started on something, i cannot stop.  when i go to the monthly pot luck dinner held by the master gardeners, i asked a fellow member for her recipe.  she frequently brings pimento cheese sandwiches to the dinners and i almost always grab one.  katherine’s recipe is rather simple.  half a pound of shredded mild cheddar cheese, a little minced raw onion, a small jar of diced pimentos with the juice and enough mayonnaise to hold it together which ends up being a few tablespoons.  mix it all up and let it sit a while.  then spread it on fresh bread for wonderful snacks or put it on crackers.  be warned, you may have to step away from the counter to prevent it from disappearing.

for my version, i went with some white cheeses; medium white cheddar and gruyere.  a jar of roasted red and yellow peppers from trader joe’s came in handy since my garden was lacking bell peppers and  i used some unsweetened mayonnaise to hold it together.  this stuff was awesome and i am no longer wondering how they made it-now i have a small arsenal of recipes and a plethora of cheeses available to try out.  this could get dangerous…

katherine’s pimento cheese 
8 ounces shredded, mild cheddar
1 (4 oz) jar diced pimentos,  not drained
1 tablespoon minced onions
1/3 cup mayonnaise
stir together just to combine.  serve with crackers or spread it on bread for sandwiches.  keep refrigerated, providing it lasts that long

tomato berry fougasse; tuesdays with dorie

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 this week for our baking with julia challenge, we were given the choice of baking blueberry muffins or a sweet berry fougasse, sigh…as a former bakery owner, trust me, i have mastered the art of blueberry muffins.  whose recipe it is just isn’t important, it’s a blueberry muffin; eat one and you’ve tasted most of them.  that left the sweet berry fougasse.  a simple description is a plain focaccia with a few berries and a handful of crumb topping.  one mention of berries in focaccia, both me and my husband immediately wrinkled our noses up-can you hear the ewwww?  either way, i was determined to bake something and while standing in the kitchen staring at the small mountain of tomatoes on the counter top, sudden epiphany; tomatoes are berries.  that small technicality was all i needed.

to bake the recipe yourself, consider buying or borrowing the book and turning to page 194 and for the muffins, page 208.  or, for those of you not able to find the book, the recipe for the fougasse and the required focaccia can be found here.

to make my bread, first i cut the focaccia recipe in half.  with just two of us in the house, more than that would be a waste.  after the required 24 hour rest in the fridge, i cut the dough in half and formed two rectangular slabs.  i gave them a liberal brush of olive oil, a sprinkle of freshly chopped herbs from the garden (rosemary, oregano and basil) and topped the loaf with thin slices of tomatoes.  into the oven they went.

nice and chewy with a tang from the fresh tomato slices.  perfect for a lazy dinner of salad and bread.  to see what the other bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.