Our regular program won't be seen today...

...because I am ridiculously uninspired and the ice cream in the freezer has been calling my name since it got home this evening. In the place of actually writing something, I give you the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. If you need to, you can click on the picture and it will pop up in a bigger, less squint-inducing size. Study it. Live it. I'm going to spend the weekend attacking the list of half-finished projects that's been following me around for weeks (months, really) and celebrate by eating something delicious. Deeelicious.

Homemade Coconut Milk

 Before

After

It was a dark and stormy night. Seriously--it was supposed to snow, if I recall correctly. I opened the cabinet to grab a can of coconut milk and my poor cupboard was bare (of coconut milk, anyway). Woe is me! It wasn't the type of night where a challenge was an exciting adventure. Noooo...it was the type of night that had me totally losing my mind in the kitchen while the Biggest Girl ran around, wailing and shrieking and very obviously feeding off my completely frazzled vibes. Mr. Mallard, meanwhile, wondered how both his ladies could spill all their marbles at the same time and assured us both we were not only pretty, but also very capable women. Using his superhero-like powers of being awesome, he managed to save us all from perishing of fits.

In the process of restoring calm, we discovered we can make our own coconut milk. Silver lining to the freakout! woohoo!

You will need:

1 to 1-1/2 cups hot water

1 cup unsweetened dried coconut, preferably organic and sulfite free

Heat the water, but do not let it boil. Pour the water over the coconut and let it steep for about 30 minutes. After steeping, use a blender or hand mixer to pulse a few times before blending for a minute or so. Slowly pour the resulting coconut mess through a fine mesh strainer, stopping from time to time to squeeze the moisture out of the coconut that ends up in the strainer. 

That's it. You're done. Less water will give you a creamier milk, while more water will, obviously, give you a thinner milk that's well-suited for soups, curries and the like. 

And here are four reasons you should give this a whirl:

1. The coconut milk you make will be soooo much tastier, thereby rendering whatever you're making that much tastier. 

2. No can to recycle. Buy the coconut in bulk and you eliminate the need for packaging. Use a reusable container when you get your bulk coconut and you'll be rockin' a zero-waste coconut milk.

3. No preservatives to help stabilize the milk while it sits in the can for a couple years means no preservatives in your culinary masterpiece. Plus, you won't have to worry about what might be seeping into the milk as the lining on the can degrades over time. BPA--it's in there!

4. It's incredibly inexpensive--about fifty cents per batch. Each batch makes roughly a can and the good ones go for about $2.45 here. That means I've got $1.95 to blow on a fancy scone the next time I'm near the bakery case and feel the need to reward myself for simply making it out into the world. Perfecto. 

Picture of Peas

I wanted to write something today, but my ability to concentrate is completely nonexistent. It's almost storming outside and it's got me all giddy, hoping it turns into a gnarly rain/ice storm that paralyzes the town, but doesn't knock the power out. I'm talkin' snow day, people. Snow day! Come on, Universe...we could all use a break. I've even got a chicken to roast...

So, I'm going to go stare longingly out the window and attempt to will the weather to do my bidding. 

In the place of having something to say, I give you one of the best pictures I've ever taken:

Do have a lovely day.

The Very Best Cornbread

Adapted from The Sunset Cookbook
Makes 9-12 servings
Printable recipe here: click

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter an 8- or 9-inch baking dish and make sure you use real butter to do it. Don't cheat and use cooking spray because it's just that important you use real butter.

Mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the buttermilk and melted, cooled butter. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then scrape it all into your well-buttered baking dish.

Bake for 20-25 minutes--until the bread starts to pull away from the sides just a bit. Let it cool slightly, slather it with more butter and scarf it down.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two days.

----------

Not at all dry, totally rich, fabulously dense little hunks of delight, this cornbread. I've tried a lot (a loooot) of cornbread recipes and this is the one. This is it. This is the Mother of All Cornbreads. I dare you to find something better. I dare you!

Note: simply adding bacon to this recipe does not constitute victory.

And it stays delicious for two days. Two days!

Ikea Hack Bookshelves

The books. We have so many stinkin' books. Big books, little books, daytime books, bedtime books, books we've read a thousand times and books that are queued up for the days that lie ahead. In the meantime, I've been losing my mind just a little, trying to find a way to store all these books in a neat and orderly fashion. 

Problem area: Biggest Girl's room. This corner by the rocking chair was just sad. At only 22", the little wall just wasn't big enough for a bookshelf. 

No es bueno. 

 That's more like it!

 Two Ikea spice racks--painted in a shade called Totally Cool--make the most awesome bedtime book bookshelf ever. 

Pretty great, eh?

Seal of approval.

I wish I could claim the idea as my own, but the inspiration came from a post on Ohdeedoh. I do love these little shelves, though, and I keep looking around the house to find more places to put them to use. I'm not only thrilled the books are off the floor, but also impressed we managed to accomplish the task without adding another piece of furniture to our lives. woohoo! 

Total cost: About $13 for the shelves and the sample quart of paint. This total does not include the gas it took to get to Ikea or the piles of hot wings it took to soothe our battered souls after navigating Ikea. At noon. On a Saturday. 

Special Weather Statement

The language in the following Special Weather Statement, issued by the National Weather Service in Portland, kind of made my day:

145 PM PST FRI FEB 11 2011
...A RETURN TO A MORE ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN OVER SOUTHWEST
WASHINGTON AND NORTHWEST OREGON STARTS THIS WEEKEND AND CONTINUES
THROUGH MOST OF NEXT WEEK...
AFTER A RELATIVELY BENIGN WEATHER PERIOD THAT HAS LULLED THE AREA
IN TRANQUILITY...MOTHER NATURE WILL SHAKE THINGS UP AGAIN.
THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF POTENT WEATHER SYSTEMS WILL PUSH INTO
THE REGION THIS WEEKEND. THE MAIN COLD FRONT WILL BRING RAIN TO
SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND NORTHWEST OREGON MAINLY LATE SATURDAY AND
SATURDAY NIGHT. THE FRONT WILL STALL AND THEN LIFT BACK NORTH AS A
WARM FRONT SUNDAY AND SUNDAY NIGHT FOR MORE RAIN. THIS WILL GIVE
MORE PRECIPITATION TO THE AREA THAN HAS BEEN SEEN IN A COUPLE OF
WEEKS...BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR ANY RIVER FLOODING.
SNOW LEVELS WILL DIP A BIT SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY BUT STAY
ABOVE THE PASS ELEVATIONS OF THE CASCADES...WITH SOME DECENT
ACCUMULATION EXPECTED AT SKI RESORT LEVELS...BUT THEN RISE AGAIN
BY SUNDAY NIGHT.
ANOTHER POTENT FRONT WILL APPROACH MONDAY AND MOVE THROUGH
SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND NORTHWEST OREGON MONDAY NIGHT. THIS WILL
PRODUCE MORE VALLEY RAIN AND POSSIBLY SOME WIND ALONG THE COAST...
WITH SNOW LEVELS LOWERING INTO THE COASTAL MOUNTAINS AND CASCADE
FOOTHILLS TUESDAY. THE ASSOCIATED COOL UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL
THEN BE OVER THE AREA THROUGH AT LEAST WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY FOR
MORE SHOWERS AND RATHER LOW SNOW LEVELS. THE SNOW LEVELS MAY
POSSIBLY LOWER TO AROUND 1000 FEET OR SO. ACCUMULATIONS ARE NOT
EXPECTED AT THE VALLEY FLOOR DUE TO THE LOW LEVEL WIND FLOW BEING
ONSHORE.
STAY TUNED FOR FURTHER UPDATES AND THE LATEST FORECASTS AS THE
WEATHER TURNS MORE ACTIVE...AND AS THE TIMING AND INTENSITY OF THE
EXPECTED SYSTEMS BECOMES MORE CERTAIN. THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS
OVER THE CASCADES NEXT WEEK SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR WINTRY
DRIVING CONDITIONS.

The benign weather and the lulling us into tranquility (it totally did) and Mother Nature shaking things and such--it was just good reading. The compost has been emptied, recycling taken out. Still have to put away the outside toys and I'd like to sweep. Batten the hatches, boys! There's a storm a-comin'! I keep looking for it to peek over the Peak and creep it's way into our backyard. Nothing so far. Rest assured I'm going to huck a shoe at a weatherman if the wind is whipping tomorrow.

It was a cool 60 degrees today (versus a warm 60) and I'm finding I feel irritated I don't know more about foul weather gardening. Can I plant something? Do I need a cold frame? When can I do something about the white flies I know are on the way? How early is to early for strawberries? Let me grow some peas. Spinach? Come on. Peppermint? Pleeeease.

Additional qualification for the Volunteer Personal Assistant position: Must be a walking encyclopedia of gardening knowledge and folklore (very important). Master Gardener certification preferable.

In the meantime, while the rest of the nation has been washed away and/or buried in snow, we've had a mild, barely needed my gloves type of season. The past week has been the same week we have every February--the one that tricks us into thinking spring is here before it dumps buckets for the next three months. It's different this year. It's earlier. And it's making me realize just how much gardening brings you back to the very simple things in life. Is it going to rain? Can we dig in the dirt? Just let me plant something! I want to see things grow!

For the first time in my adult life, I'm actually looking forward to summer.

I'd appreciate a good storm first, though.
I'm not done baking.
And I'm kind of in love with my sweatpants.

Great Backyard Bird Count

If you're looking for the perfect excuse to sit quietly and stare at a tree the weekend after next, I'm here to help. It's The Great Backyard Bird Count! It starts a week from Friday and you can participate as little or as much as you'd like. It's an "annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent."

Minimum time commitment is 15 minutes and you don't have to be an experienced bird watcher to participate. You don't even have to be in America--Canada is taking part, too. Even if you only know the name of a single bird, you can just count that one. Is this getting easy enough for you, yet?

Dig around their website a little: click. You'll find tons of information about past Bird Counts and step-by-step instructions on how to participate this year. 

viva la birdies!