20 Thursday Aug 2015
Posted in Edible Flowers & Weeds, Foraging
Weeds are occupying my hanging planter that used to house cilantro. The consequence of neglecting a planter.
But this one right here looks almost edible. What is it?
This next one I know. Stinging Nettles. At least now I know. It stung me. Ouch, ouch…
It’s edible. Should I try it?
22 Wednesday Apr 2015
Posted in Edible Flowers & Weeds, Foraging, Gardening
My peach tree is in bloom. I have yet to taste a single ripened fruit from this tree, even though this scene recurs every year for the last five years.
This is a Flat Wonderful Peach and it suffers from brown rot. Before the fruits reach a decent size, they usually start rotting. Anybody has suggestions what to do? Organically?
The flowers are supposedly edible in small quantities (according to Green Deane of Eat The Weeds), but I’m not taking chances. I’m only using them to decorate my Thai Beef Salad.
Oh, and Happy Earth Day!!
06 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Baking, Blogging, Edible Flowers & Weeds, Food Photography & Styling
Tags
blogiversary, cakes, crystallized flowers, dessert, edible flowers, momofuku-style cake, tiered cake
It seems only yesterday that I started blogging and in what feels like a heartbeat, a blink of an eye, a flash, two shakes of a lamb’s tail, a New York minute, it’s now roughly, just about, approximately, one year later, and I’m still alive. Time flies when you’re having fun, ain’t that the truth?
So what is this supposed to mean? Am I now no longer considered a beginner, a learner, a novice, a newbie? Wait, go back, go back, to that “novice” part. Therein lies the problem. My blog name is The Novice Gardener. I’m forever a novice. I will never be a master. Might as well. I don’t even know what CSS, RSS, or ASS stands for. Oh, wait, I do know about the ASS part. Acute Silliness Syndrome, isn’t it?
The Novice Gardener – Acutely Silly DenFooDenDo Blog. You’ll have to read Part I to find out what that stands for. It has nothing to do with being cute, I’m afraid. Get it? Acutely? A…Cute…Ly? Oh, never mind!
In that Part I, I mentioned having a hard time completing Blogging 201 assignments. All stemming from the fact, I believe, that I have an accidental blog, and not a purposeful one. It’d be so much easier if I had a purposeful blog. Then I can envision what it is that I want this blog to grow up to be.
Sadly, however, that wouldn’t solve all my branding problems. At the root of my problems lies a fickle mind. I can never stick to a course of action. That’s why it’s a DenFooDenDo blog.
It is somewhat a surprise to me that I’m able to stick with this blogging thing for this long. I attribute my doggedness solely to the friendships I’ve forged through the blog. Only because I’ve found a blogging community, made easy by WordPress, I’ve been able to continue. (I wonder how it is at Blogger? Should I find out?)
Some may pooh-pooh the idea of virtual friendship. A non-virtual friend happened to deride the value of virtual friendship openly recently. In an attempt to be snarky, I’m sure. I’ve just got a question for those espousing this viewpoint. Ever heard of pen pals?
So, we’ve established the fact that this is a blog without a purpose. Judging from the response from you, that doesn’t seem to matter all that much. The more important question, rather, is what will I do with it?
I can tell you now that this blog will continue to be a jumble of thoughts and ideas, and although I’ve been accused of this, it will never be one of those blogs that aspires to inspire. Of course, if any of my posts happens to inspire you, that’s an added bonus, the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, as well as music to my ears. See, I can’t even stick to one phrase. Do you see a pattern?
As a matter of fact, everything seems to work in reverse with me and this blog. This blog, started accidentally, has inspired me to write better, cook better, garden better, photograph better, decorate better, and so on. This blog, started accidentally, has taught me so much about what motivates and moves me, what I like and don’t like to do, and most importantly, what I can and cannot do.
This blog, started accidentally, more or less a year ago, has taught me so much about myself, in the most unimaginably fun way. This has been a year filled with excitement, fun, laughter, and most of all, discoveries.
Who knew when I started, accidentally, that I could make pretty things like these:
Who knew when I started, accidentally, that I had stories like these inside of me, waiting to be told:
A Pomegranate Tree Inside Of Me
Peacemaker
Lamb Shank Curry Quest
Who knew when I started, accidentally, that I harbored so many opinions about so many different things:
Bruno Mars WAS the right choice
The art of being interesting (Scandalous Sandwich)
Quayles and Potatoes
And the most meaningful discovery of all, who knew when I started, accidentally, that I would meet wonderful online friends, such as all of you.
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That is just a partial list, consisting of my Fiesta Friday and Fiesta Friday Challenge co-hosts. I’ve met many more friends than this list shows, of course. Many, many more. Wonderfully talented and incredibly creative blogging friends, who are caring, supportive, kind, and gracious. Virtual friends for now, but you’ll never know.
To celebrate all these discoveries, and my belated 1st Blogiversary, whether it’s in March or in April (both went unnoticed), I made this cake, not accidentally, but inspired quite entirely, by Momofuku’s naked cakes. My fickle mind couldn’t decide on crystallized or fresh flowers for decoration, so I present to you both.
This post is long enough, so recipes will have to wait, maybe in Part III. Nah…there’s no Part III, just teasing. But there will be Fiesta Friday #15.
02 Friday May 2014
Posted in Baking, Cooking, Edible Flowers & Weeds, Fiesta Friday, Flowers in the house
This unpurposeful blog keeps chugging along, if nothing else, for Fiesta Friday. That, ladies and gentlemen, will stay for at least another year. I’ve already paid for the link tool for the entire year! I want all of us to take full advantage of it. You are having fun, aren’t you?
If you have any suggestions on how to make this event even more fun and meaningful, by all means let me know. Fiesta Friday belongs to all of us, you hear? We can make it what we want it to be.
For instance, Catherine@Catherine Cuisine came up with the idea of a monthly Fiesta Friday Challenge. Remember when we talked about Fiesta Friday Part Deux aka Fiesta Friday 2nd Degree? Well, it’s finally time to reveal our First Fiesta Friday Challenge. The challenge for the month of May is to make something that uses yeast and herbs, both, together, in a single recipe. Remember, this is just a friendly challenge just to get us more comfortable working with yeast.
I will create a separate post and link-up for this challenge, put up a badge on the sidebar, and talk about it in detail, if it’s well-received. Right now, I just want to see a show of hands of how many are interested in entering the challenge.
Several of you have also suggested ideas for “Special Edition” Fiesta Friday, sort of like a “kick-it-up-a-notch” Fiesta Friday if you will, such as cooking up Featured Recipes, cooking a buddy’s recipe, or themed Fiesta Friday, etc. Thank you for all these great suggestions. I will try to incorporate them in future Fiesta Fridays. How ’bout we start with a Luau Fiesta Friday? How does that sound to you? I’d go to Hawaii with you anytime. Lemme know.
The Novice Gardener 