Sometimes I buy way too much fruit. I know I’ll eat it, but occasionally I wonder if I want to eat it in its natural state or take it beyond, to a more decadent and delicious place. Rainier cherries rarely need any assistance, their light yellow flesh and red-yellow skin a perfect treat on their own. The same with watermelon – I recently bought a 14-pounder, and while eating its cool watery pinkness I kept thinking about sorbet. But watermelon is so close to sorbet to me there’s no need to do more with it.

However, this week’s fruit tricked me a bit. I got two pounds of local apricots (from Goldbar, WA, if you want to know). After eating about two of them, I thought about ways to make them even more glorious. The dessert that kept popping into my head was an apricot tart.

Do you know what? Before yesterday, I never had an apricot tart! I took a look at some of my favorite food blogs and promptly found an appetizing recipe from Orangette (her recipe is based on a tart recipe from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook as well as a crust recipe from a friend). The original crust recipe called for using vinegar, but I cut it out and things turned out wonderfully.

For crust (adapted from Orangette’s favorite crust recipe):
4 Tbsp. ice water
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
9 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter

For filling:
1 lb. apricots, pitted and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
3 pinches of salt

For crust, add the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Cut the butter into 1-Tbsp chunks, and drop each chunk into the flour mixture one at a time, pulsing a few times in between to incorporate. Once you have a sandy-looking mixture with a few pea-sized pieces, add the ice water one tablespoon at a time. Pulse in between tablespoons of water. At this point the mixture will look like slightly moist sand. Pour contents onto a flat surface, and push together (it will actually start sticking together!) Make a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate a couple of hours.

After the dough has cooled in the fridge, take it out and let it warm up a few minutes. Turn the oven on to 375. Roll out dough and place into a tart pan with a removable bottom.

While dough is chilling, slice apricots and mix with sugar/salt in bowl. Arrange apricots in tart pan.

Bake tart 45 minutes.

Once your tart has cooked and cooled, serve with real vanilla ice cream.

The Hummingbird Cupcake

The Statue of Liberty carries her torch for freedom, and today I carry mine for a satisfied sweet tooth.

I didn’t have watermelon or corn on the cob this 4th of July. I did have a burger from Atlas Foods, because although we can grill at home, let’s face it – if you want fries with a burger, who’s going make them at home on a hot day?

Afterwards, my sugar craving took my mind captive and encouraged me to find some dessert. Plus let’s not deny it, the 4th is a time for summer treats.

This was my first time enjoying a cupcake from Trophy Cupcakes, and I was amazed at the quality. Then again, it was a $3 cupcake, and when little cakes cost that much, they better be above average! The Hummingbird, a "Banana Pineapple Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting" was a really good choice for a hot Seattle day. OK, I’ll admit that I chose the Red Velvet but it was a little heavy compared to the tropical flavors of Mike’s Hummingbird selection. Yum.

I fell in love with Ladytron when their Witching Hour album came out a few years ago. Visually, I’m currently in love with their video for Tomorrow. It’s like a series of softly lit polaroids.

Along somewhat similar lines, Barbara Cole was recently called in for work on an Anthropologie catalog. Barbara specializes in underwater photography, and you can see a bit of insight into her process here. The light in her photographs is distorted, played with, discovered. The colors are definitely intense, which pleases me greatly.

So, I’m just curious if anyone has an opinion on the following.

Here is the first, an original of some poppies in front of my house on a partly cloudy day.

Here is the same photo, “polaroided” by myself in under 5 minutes. I tried to add more yellows and softness to achieve the effect, which was actually a little tough because of the intense red of the flowers.

Here in Seattle we’re going on just about a month without any rain. It’s kind of unusual for this time of year. Usually the drier weather starts in July. My garden is suffering a bit, even with nightly waterings that Mike administers with great concern (will the beets make it? should the swiss chard look like that?). But two things are flourishing: our grapevines, and our lavender.

I did a little research on how to harvest lavender. The most important element of harvesting the little purple spears appears to be the following: cut just before the blooms open. You’re too late if you see the bees doing their own share of harvesting.

Megan at Not Martha had an even more useful guide to harvesting lavender, a little experiment. She actually harvested the blooms at one week intervals and then did a sniff test to see which bunches held the best scent.

Above: the line of lavender plants along the southern border of my house.

Too keep myself from going nuts and just clipping all the lavender, I came up with a limit: 5 bunches that can I can hold in one hand.

My office is in a room of the house that faces north, so it’s a cool and dark room to dry the bunches. The smell in here right now is incredible—clean, slightly floral—and the other bonus is that the color is so pretty.

Here’s the story of the rock.

About 4 years ago, I decided to take a cross-country trip on my own. On my own, because at 25 my friends were all working and unable to take a month off from work, or they were trying to save money for one reason or another.  I was searching for direction, ideas, and more than anything I wanted to get out of my NJ hometown that I had started living in again in spite my best intentions to move on. I told Mike to meet me when I was in Washington State for camping and exploring.

Two weeks later, when Mike arrived in Seattle, we decided on a trip around the Olympic Peninsula on our way to Portland. One of our stops was at Ruby Beach, where Mike found a rock. It was a peculiar rock—one with little button at the top (later simply called “the nub”)—which fit perfectly into his hand.

The rock was magical. So says Mike. It was his talisman while we lived in Florida. On some late nights I could see Mike holding the rock while thinking, and it worked better than a stress ball. He believes it helped him make some good and important decisions.

Recently, our friends Shannon and Jay came for a visit. This thrilled us terribly and made us want to show them some of the most beautiful places in our region. Mike and I decided to take them to Ruby Beach – and Mike brought the rock with him. His intention? To put the rock back where he found it.

So the rock was laid on top of a pile of other rocks that Jay assembled, and we walked away.

Jay and Mike are now convinced that because Jay was the last one to touch the rock, its magical powers were transferred to him. Jay has found a total of 5 $1 bills on the ground since the events at Ruby Beach.

If you come across the rock, and take it home, beware. But also, please send me a photo of yourself with the rock! We’re curious.

Also, remember to take it back.

—-

My birthday dinner took place the night before the rock-replacing ceremonial trip. Mike told me that I’m the first person he’s known that actually wanted to cook on their birthday. What can I say, I wanted to have some Copper River Salmon for 4 without all of us spending a fortune.

My Birthday Menu:

• Copper River Salmon
• Baby Red Potatoes
• Spinach and Radish Greens Salad

I tend to cook simply. I started dinner by putting the potatoes in a covered iron put and roasting them at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes in olive oil and salt. Meanwhile, Jay made the salad – diced peppers, radishes, and spinach. He asked about the radish tops, which looked very plump and fresh, and asked if we should put in the salad. I said why not? and in they went! The salmon, the last thing to get taken care of, was simply pan-fried in olive oil and butter, with some salt. Dill and lemon were sprinkled on the fish after plating.