Photo from America's Test Kitchen

First, the wraps: they came from America’s Test Kitchen (free registration required) and they were amazing. Every crazy step in that recipe, from toasting rice and making powder out of it to freezing chunks of pork tenderloin to grind up in the food processor, worked perfectly.

A word of warning: do not lean in to get a whiff of the pork as it cooks in the fish sauce and chicken broth. This is not a smell you will enjoy. But once the mixture is done, with the lime juice, fresh herbs, and shallots, oh, it’s wonderful. Especially all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf.

Second: brown rice! I put a cup of brown rice in a strainer, rinsed it, then put it in the rice cooker with 2.25 cups of water and two smashed garlic cloves. Ohhhhh, yummy, especially when soaking up the juice that leaked from the lettuce leaves as we ate them.

So – if you’re looking for a fresh tasting and delicious summer dinner, have at it. SO good. Yum.

But since I have a book to write, I wanted to do something fun and easy to make my office space unique and amusing. I found some amazing wall decals on Etsy, and hung them all up in the space of an hour. It was bonehead easy, and every time I look up at the slanted ceiling above my head, I smile.

I ordered some branches, more branches, and some extra birds.

I ordered this one for my laptop, but forgot it was for my laptop and put it above the lightswitch instead. Oops. It’s still cute, with birds in… Twitter blue!

This is the first one I put up – very easy. The birdhouse is a separate piece. You peel the paper off the decal, stick the clear sticky part with the decal on it to the wall, rub it with a plastic card that’s included (Thanks!) and then peel carefully. It was supremely easy and once I got the hang of it, it went very quickly. The transformation to the wall was so amazing and made me hugely happy.

The big branch was next. This was a separate order from a different artist and I (oops) ordered a left-facing branch instead of a right one, and this one couldn’t be flipped over because of the bird’s nest in the middle.

I should have realized this one was meant to come from the left and flipped the birdhouse one, but I already put that one on the wall by the time I realized it. But no worries. I think I found a solution that works.

Halfway done (Pardon the glare in the picture. It was morning when I took these, and if I had the light on it was 9000 Celsius in my office).

Time to add birds! I have black, blue, and red.

And now, this is the view above my desk. It makes me ridiculous happy. And the total for the decals was less than $100, and 1 hour of work. Yay Etsy!

Time for the June garden update.

My garden is an alien thing. It’s freakin’ huge. We’ve already decided to expand it for next year, because between the potatoes, the ginormous tomato plants and the cucumber plant, they’re taking over the entire garden. They need a bigger place!

Here’s the overall garden shot. It’s insane, really, with everything fighting for place. And we thought an 8 x 8 garden would be too big and nothing would grow to fill the space. Ha!

Green beans!

A green pepper! (I picked it today)

Cherry tomatoes! (The cherry tomato plant is loaded. Can’t wait!)

The cucumber plant is like a vine, winding its way through the whole garden. We already have several ready for picking. Wheee!

Our two regular sized tomato bushes are already as tall as me, and full of tomatoes. Good thing we love salad. Heh.

For our first year of growing vegetables, we’re so pleased. I attribute it all to the manure. Clearly vegetables love shit.

( Note to self: NEVER engage in a garden contest with someone in (a) a much better climate and (b) who has a LOT of shit to sling around! -SW)

Monday Cashew Chicken – I love this recipe. I’m going to try to make brown rice in the rice cooker, and hopefully I won’t totally screw that up.

Tuesday I’m going to a dinner in Brooklyn (WOOT) so I won’t be home. I think Hubby is planning to order Chinese or something.

Wednesday Hubby is going to grill some fish, and I’ll probably make whole wheat/flax seed couscous on the side. I am sure the excitement is knocking you over RIGHT NOW.

Thursday We’ll be bringing the boys up to Connecticut so dinner will likely be sandwiches or road food (ew).

So: what’s your favorite travel food? When you’re on the road, what places do you look for? And if you’ve ever been to Quebec City, what do you recommend?

Thanks!

Here in front we have lettuce – green leaf and green romaine, and red romaine. Those skinny things are onions. That pot in the background has strawberry plants in it.

Behind the lettuce are sugar snap peas, on the left, and peas and green beans on the right.But, that’s about all that’s there. I have some pepper plants in, and some purple carrot seeds that are about to spout, but other than that, it’s a very minuscule garden yet. However, the flowers in Jersey are busting out all over.

I have not retouched this photo. This is the azalea that grows on the side of our house, and according to the scientific name of the plant, it is Slap Your Grandma Hot Screaming Pink.

May is also when the Chinese wisteria grow, and the patio area smells like heaven for about a week while it’s blooming.

Seriously, for a week, I could get drunk off the air.

Buzz, too. He’s enjoying spring.

Zeb, however, likes to hunt the bugs in the grass, so spring is making him just ecstatic.

Happy gardening – as more plants go in through May, I should have a lot to show for myself come June. But so far, Jaci is a-kickin’ my tail in the Garden Off.

Everything that can have gone wrong so far has, including getting in trouble with the landlord for using the hose, running out of money for potting soil, rain every weekend, a little black fly infestation and a giant wasps nest under my stairs. Yet, the plants are growing amazingly fast. Also, I think the talent (aka my dog) is on strike now, after I stuck him in that pot.

I’m still deciding which apron to buy (I really love the ones with the matryoshka doll though), I’ll probably get a half apron, since I don’t have one in my collection, but she has such fun “marketing” on her page and such whimsical apron designs, I think they have to be rewarded with a purchase, don’t you?

I was fortunate to have some pretty outstanding meals (made even better by the outstanding company) at a variety of restaurants, but there was one cocktail that outshone them all and that I’m still thinking about (and dying to make) even a week later.

On Thursday night, I went to M, which is a Cameron Mitchell restaurant. The food was divine, the service wonderful but the highlight of the meal was when I ordered and received a Black Orchid martini. Little did I know I was going to receive this…

Apologies for the poor picture quality (via my iPhone). The waiter brings a martini glass with a round ball of ice to the table. Within the ice is frozen an orchid flower. Once to the table, the waiter pours the martini over the round of ice and you now have a Black Orchid. But it wasn’t just the presentation of the martini that charmed me (though that helped) it was the taste. It was, simply put, delicious. Probably the best martini I’ve ever had, and I do like my martinis. So I asked for, and was graciously given, the recipe for the Black Orchid. Lucky, lucky us!

Black Orchid Martini recipe compliments of M, a Cameron Mitchel restaurant

1 oz Raspberry vodka (they use Belvedere…you should too better vodka makes for a better martini)

1 oz Elderflower liqueur (St. Germain)

1/2 oz simple syrup

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1 oz white cranberry juice

Shake and strain in a martini glass (props to you if you make ice balls with frozen flowers inside).

Enjoy!

It’s supposed to be stormy tomorrow so I took May 1st pictures tonight. We’ve got the one vine that started about 3 weeks before the others and has fruit all over the place, then we have the three that are almost the same height, and one straggler that we only moved to a bigger pot last weekend.

Also, the dog, Snickers, likes to chase lizards and suss out anything going on around the containers. Daily routine for me is watering all with liquid Miracle Gro.

The other dog, Takumi, has been chasing squirrels down the fence and landing in the onion containers and upending them, so we’ve given up on having an onion crop, heh.

And how’s my garden project doing? Pretty damn good, surprisingly. Here it was when we first planted on April 10th:

And here it is today (notice the mini-lake behind the garden? It rained all freakin day yesterday and into last night. We’re having a very wet spring. Good for the garden and all our plants, flower & trees so I’m not complaining, but does it have to rain EVERY freaking weekend?)

These are my magic beans! Actually they’re green beans that I planted from seed. I’m so excited to see them sprout!

And our potatoes have come up. Well, green stuff has come up. The potatoes, of course, are under the ground:

And the tomato plants (we have three different tomato plants. This is just one of them) seem to all be doing well:

Who knew that planting in rich organic soil and manure would help things grow so well? Less than a month in and so far, keeping fingers crossed, I haven’t killed anything yet. How’s your garden doing?

Coming soon : Alison Kent, and me, and anyone else who sends in pics for Garden-Off 2010!