Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: The Book!

PWBYJ Full Cover REFONLY1

Dear readers, it gives me incredible joy to announce to you that my book, Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden is now ready for publication! The official publication date is August 1, 2010. An event will be held on that date at the Nickel Creek Nursery in Mendocino County to honor the occasion. I have created a site where all information about Plant Whatever Brings You Joy can be learned. Please visit:

www.estrellacatarina.com

Thank you!

Love and reader blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

The Best Carrot Cake in the World!

cake

Mother’s Day arrived and I got inspired to Be the Mother, which included baking a salmon, steaming asparagus and, lucky everyone, baking a carrot cake. I could not for the life of me find a recipe in my recipe box. (Did I ever have one?) So I googled Carrot Cake and found a recipe that looked interesting. As I am wont to do, as I began assembling I began tweaking the recipe and am very glad I did! I now have what it undoubtedly the best carrot cake recipe I’ve ever found and I am inspired to pass it along straightaway to you. Maybe you need to bake a cake! So here goes.

The Best Carrot Cake in the World

*Set the oven at 350 F.

*Coat the inside of a bundt pan with a mixture of soft butter and a bit of olive oil, and then sprinkle some white flour inside and shake the pan around so the flour is more or less distributed. Don’t worry. It will be fine.

*Beat four eggs in a big bowl.

*Add two teaspoons of vanilla.

*Add two cups of sugar and beat that in.

This is how it will look.
batter

Now. This is going to sound outrageous, but just pretend you are Julia Child and go with the flow.

Melt a lot of unsweetened butter in a heavy skillet very very slowly. Do not let it get in the least bit brown, OK? You are going to want to end up with 1 1/4 cups of melted butter. (I know. I know. But I have to tell you–otherwise how will you follow the recipe?) Like this:
butter

Add the melted butter to the egg mixture. Set aside.

Now, get out a bunch of organic carrots, peel them lightly, cut off the ends and voila.
4carrots

Chop up the carrots into maybe two inch pieces, and put in Cuisinart. If you don’t have one, borrow one or invest in one. Otherwise this is going to be way too much work and we don’t want that, and besides, you won’t have this consistency.
carrots

And you are going to need it, because this recipe requires three cups of grated carrots! Yes, it does. Yummy.

Add to the egg mixture 1 3/4 cups of unbleached white flour and then 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour. Then add a pinch of salt, two teaspoons of baking powder, two teaspoons of baking soda, two teaspoons of cinnamon and then grate at least one teaspoon of nutmeg into the batter. After these are mixed up, hand stir in the three cups of carrots. Just stir a reasonable amount of time.

When this is complete, I opted to throw in a small handful of golden raisins and a sprinkling of currants. Then you will have this:
carrotbatter

Then, my dears, fold in a cup of chopped nuts. I’d suggest walnuts or pecans. Now, isn’t this final batter amazing??
finalbatter

Pour the batter into the bundt pan. Pop in the oven for 50 minutes and then check to see if it’s done with a toothpick or small fork. I’ve made it twice now and both times I needed an hour.

Remove the cake from the oven.
cake2

Critical point. You must be patient. This cake should cool at least one hour before you try to remove from the pan. I slid a knife around the edges probably after half an hour and ever so gently lifted it underneath, but did not attempt to remove. After an hour I flipped the pan and the cake effortlessly slipped onto my plate. Then I waited another hour before I frosted with cream cheese frosting, which is ridiculously easy.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 C. butter, softened
8 oz. creamcheese, softened
1 teaspoon of vanilla (only use the real stuff)
4 cups of confectioner’s sugar

Done.

This cake is so unbelieveably delicious I can’t wait until you try it and then let me know. This will become one of your best recipes and your family and friends will love you for making it. Enjoy, dearest readers.

Love and kitchen blessings,
Kathryn xoxox

Small is Beautiful

prayerflags
tiny prayer flags recently gifted to me by a new friend

Oh, my goodness, dear readers, this is One of Those Weeks. I bet it is for you as well. Am I right? It began with the news that a beloved aunt had very quickly turned herself toward heaven’s door and that event, like a rogue wave rushing to my shore was accompanied with news, events and responsibilities from such a wide and pressing variety of venues, all swirling about me, demanding good wise choices that I truly thought my head might explode. OK, slightly dramatic. But I told myself, get bigger, you can hold the space for all of this. Just take one thing at a time. And then one would have thought I’d have sat down at my desk and begun the process, one by one. Right? Wouldn’t you? But no. I went out and mowed the lawn. Yes, I did. And then I grabbed my camera and headed out back because I knew in my heart of hearts if I was going to make good sound heartful and wise decisions I needed to sustain myself first. And so I did. I am a bumblebee, and I gathered the nectar from my immediate environment and came back to my desk with a broader perspective, all perfumed up with spirit and I am going to share it first with you before I Get On With It, while my heart is full and tears are filling my clearer eyes (probably why I see better now). 🙂

I have these lavenders to comfort me, as I ponder why they are the most vibrant purple flowers I recall seeing on this plant. Could it be all the rain?
lavender

Close by is my trusty and much loved oregano, always at the ready to enhance something cooking in the kitchen. Hi, oregano. I love you.
oregano

First tomatoes finally in the ground! Hurray! Hurray! This makes me so happy. I love to grow tomatoes. They are so generous and I’m so grateful.
tomato

“What am I growing??” I tweeted recently! I thought these were lettuces, but my posse of tweeties helped me figure out these are actually curly endives. I have a dozen and have no recollection whatsoever of planting them and they have reseeded themselves into abundance, wherever they came from. Thank you.
endive

A book I recently reviewed reminded me that marigolds are good companion plants so I have several now living among my veges. So cheerful and pretty!
marigold1
Into the broader garden, who would not be uplifted by this wonderful basket of petunias I found recently and brought home? Happy, happy, happy!
petunia

And, sweet, sweet, sweet tiny precious orange buds about to open. The anticipation of the beauty of their scent is exciting and beyond that there will be oranges this year! How lovely!
orange

Now these pretties are seldom seen as they are part of a long ago garden, do not even grow in the sun, but persist, hidden among too tall purple and white lilacs. They are rather a secret, but I show you today.
backroses

Close by is a large rambling bush of small red roses which I opted to keep rather than listen to a gardening consultant who opined that they were “just old stock” and that I should pull them up. No, thank you. 🙂
backred

I am being filled up in this gathering process. Here the happy pansy.
purplepansy

I take great delight in the 4th of July roses I bought for myself and another for dear friend Conny last year for Mother’s Day!
4thofJuly

And I breathe in the sublime and perfect and glorious old roses, one of my favorites in this garden. Yes, they are as big as they look! And their fragrance is as rich as one can imagine.
oldroses

This morning I find the first blue geranium!
geranium

And, oh, this precious hosta. I love it!
hosta

Am I getting full? I am, indeed. Exiting the garden, I look back over my shoulder at the space I have prepared for Antonia’s Mother’s Day visit. I know my girl. I know she will come into the early morning garden and meditate among the California poppies cheerily threatening to overpopulate this part of the garden. We love that.
poppy

Counterintuitive as it might seem, entering the garden, taking a hike on the beach or in a forest can prepare us well for the gnarliest of tasks and responsibilities. I know as gardeners you know what peace and beauty there is in the garden upon which we can draw nurturance at any time. I feel better now.

And I send you love and warmest garden blessings,
Kathryn xoxo

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