It’s my favorite time of the year when I get to tout my favorite cards! There are certain products that I love to rave about each year: First, the people and products of Fair Trade USA (I love and support their mission, and I make it a point to buy as many holiday gifts that are Fair Trade as possible) and Tiny Prints (who I’ve been a customer of since my kids were born and I used Tiny Prints for the birth announcements).

I don’t understand people who skip out on sending Holiday Cards. I truly find it to be one of the more enjoyable activities during the holidays. The whole process of looking through cards, discussing favorites with the family, getting dolled up for pictures and picking just the right one. Some years we go funny (when we only had one child we did a hear no evil/speak no evil/see no evil card) and other years we get the opportunity to show off a new family portrait (like the ones we did with TM Fotography a few years ago). Mental note: need to get family pictures taken again!

The image above (Tiny Prints Iconic Year Theme) is the card we’ve chosen this year (HEY! You might be getting one!). I love this card because I always *sigh* at the fact that I never have a chance to do a “year in review” holiday newsletter.

Just. No. Time.

But this card makes it easy and gives me an opportunity to share a little bit of what my family has been up to with our loved ones.

Are you ready to order your holiday cards? Better get on it! Here’s a good place to start:

1) Enter my giveaway below. This is the world’s quickest giveaway, to help one lucky winner get a coupon code for $50 off their total Tiny Prints order.

2) On a budget? Check out Tiny Prints Special Offers page.

GIVEAWAY!

Quick like a bunny! We need you to leave a comment by 5PM PT Monday, November 19 telling me which Tiny Prints holiday card YOU love! Giveaway prize: $50 off your total Tiny Prints order (expire 12/14/2012 – no extensions).  Winner was #2, Lisa. Thanks to all who commented!

Please note: I am totally sincere in my love for Tiny Prints. But I am also being sponsored for this post, and will get a discount on my holiday cards! Which makes me happy.

More on Tiny Prints:

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This post is sponsored by Pony Royale. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

A bit of background, here…when I was a wee little grammar school girl, I vividly remember my insecurity over the fact that I didn’t really care for horses. Or ponies. I didn’t get it. Instead of just allowing that realization to be a passing thought, I tried to over-exaggerate the fact that I really did like ponies. Really!

One day I remember we had to pass in our Scholastic book order form. I was forced to lie to my mom the night before, when I insisted she let me order this 250 page book about a horse. She threw out plenty of valid reasons why I should not get this book, but she probably assumed, in the end, that I was merely going through a pony phase. Little did she know I was plotting to assure that no one would ever know my true apathy for the subject. When the book arrived at school, I made sure to pass it around and at least ensure that every child saw me with the book. I would hold it against my stomach for the rest of the day, with my hands folded strategically around it, so as not to cover the picture of the horse.

Flash forward 30ish years and I have a daughter who is WILD about horses. So wild, in fact that she has had a favorite horse (Black Horsie) since she was two. For over a year she would arrive at daycare each morning, pick Black Horsie off of the entry table and proceed to carry him around with her the entire day. At lunch, when he was not allowed at the table, she would set him on the counter and stare at him the entire time she ate. At the end of the day, she would walk over to the entry table, place Black Horsie in the same spot she finds him in each morning, and together we would leave. After a year, her daycare provider let her take Black Horsie home, and for the six months she has slept with that 6 inch, hard plastic horse each night, never forsaking him for a cuddlier replacement. Her dedication is amazing.

Who could help but to develop an appreciation for horses, when faced with such an example of pure love and adoration? And so 30ish years after I first feigned interest, I can now say I have developed a full-fledged pony habit! So, when I had the opportunity to be able to throw a PONY PARTY, how could I refuse? I am merely human after all!

The very first thing I did was call my friend Val, who has three little girls, one who in particular has a love for horses. Could she help me plan a pony party? BUT OF COURSE! She was just as excited as I was. We discussed the guest list, our friend Mari, who blogs for Gemini Crickets, also had pony loving girls, so of course she would be invited.  Val offered up her pony cookie cutters. The girls could decorate them. How fun.

As the week of the pony party approached, it was all the buzz with the little girls on our block. And once the packages of ponies arrived on my doorstep, well, it was ON. The girls practically punked me into opening the boxes. I did. A few saw the ponies early! I admit it! You should have heard the squeals and the oohing and aaahing, one after another. My son quickly pulled out a map of Pony Royale World and announced that Sky and Brooke were certainly the most important ponies because Sky has her own Star Observatory and Brooke has a brook (but of course). My daughter kept asking me repeatedly if she could have a pink pony and a purple pony (see picture at top!) which goes to show you the difference between boys and girls. Boys want powerful ponies, girls want cute ponies.

I quickly stuffed them all back into the box and we waited for a few more days and many more friends to join us for a grand pony celebration!

When the day arrived it was not as chaotic as I expected…at first. The girls filed in, most of them had been briefed, and they were surprisingly well behaved for girls who were about to get ponies! Mari’s girls had just been at Toys R Us that day, in fact, and had no idea what kind of toy they were getting at the party later in the afternoon. But they saw the Pony Royale ponies at the store and had gone gaga (all the while, Mari secretly delighting in knowing what was to come later!). When they saw the ponies they actually let out a gasp! We had a Pony Royale video up and ready to share, to tell them the story of the ponies they were about the see. They waited quietly as we played the video – which they loved.

Here’s a the 1 minute video that was all the rage at our party:

 And here are the girls watching the video intently:

Intently learning about Pony Royale

After we watched the intro, we let each girl walk into the pony room, in groups (by age, of course). I was so impressed with how good the girls were with picking their ponies. No tears. No drama. Just excitement. The real drama came in trying to release the ponies from their packaging. Oh my. Why oh why must packaging be so complex? We all complain about it, but I admit if we saw ponies sitting on the shelves, all disheveled from being shipped to the store, picked up and dropped by little hands…we probably wouldn’t want them. But still…packaging. Oy vey.

Eventually the ponies were released and the girls spent the rest of the day playing, dressing up and comparing each pony. I even had one mommy ask me on the way out if I had an extra Rosie…because that was her favorite.

After everything had died down, the guests had left, my daughter lined her two ponies up, went into her room, grabbed her faithful black horsie, and introduced him to the new ponies in town. I feel like I can finally, honestly, say that I’ve officially gone through my pony phase. And my daughter and I are enjoying every moment of it.

Visit the Pony Royale website for more information. The Pony Royale collection will be available at Toys R Us in late July and in select Target stores in August. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Pony Royale’s Facebook page and follow them on Twitter!

Anyone who’s ever thought it might be fun to throw a popcorn kernel (or a 87) into the ground to see IF IT REALLY GROWS (!!!) knows…it does, in fact, grow.

And while you might have thought it quaint to grow your own corn, you should be warned that many a corn kernel leads to many, many, many a corn cob.

I learned this lesson as a little girl.

And while it seems like, well, great, we’ll just have corn every night – it’s actually not that easy. What is easy, though, is freezing corn! Totally easy! And what a great thing to have corn cobs for barbecuing and niblets for steaming at your beckon call!

How to freeze the whole corn cob:

The easiest method to freeze corn requires a slightly longer blanching time. As with most preserves, start with quality corn that is fully ripened and ready to eat.

Remove husks and trim stalks from the ears. Remove silk strings and wash the corn.

Prepare boiling water for blanching (what is water blanching?). This process will preserve the flavor of the vegetable when frozen.

Water blanch ears of corn based on their size: small ears will remain in the boiling water for 7 minutes, medium ears 9 minutes, and large ears 11 minutes.

Move ears into a bowl of ice water until they’ve cooled completely. Drain and package the corn cobs

Use either a vacuum sealing system like FoodSaver or simply put them in a gallon size freezer bag, removing as much air as possible. Pop them in the freezer and use within a year!

How to freeze corn kernels:

Similar to the above process, except you need to remove the kernels from the cob, first.

Stand the cob on it’s end, using a sharp knife, slice down, removing the kernels form the cob.

Water blanch kernels for 4 minutes, cool and drain.

Package the kernels using 1/2 to 1 inch headspace (kernels will expand when freezing). Seal and freeze.

California Grown wants your help. Please consider taking their survey.

Seriously. How often do you get the opportunity to just help out some farmers with a quick survey?

Thank you to California Grown for connecting me with California growers and encouraging California consumers to “Choose California Grown” when they can.

A post about California Grown? YES, PLEASE!

If you know me, or you read my blog even occasionally, I am a huge proponent of buying locally, whenever possible – especially food. When you live in the Valley of Heart’s Delight, why would you source your produce anywhere else, but California? (Caveat – bananas and pineapples – both of which my kids are very fond of – well, you know – not California). But for everything else…

And how lucky am I that one of the good farmers who represents California Grown, sent me asparagus? Asparagus is such a great, versatile vegetable. When it’s fresh and crisp, it’s a perfect side dish that both kids and adults enjoy (see my favorite recipe for asparagus and red onions at the bottom of this post); if you wait too long to cook it and it’s no longer crisp – no problem! Cream of asparagus soup, here I come!

Asparagus is a vegetable I covet because I’ve never grown it in my own garden. Asparagus is a commitment. Not like a tomato that you can throw into the ground and reap the immense bounty months later. No, asparagus requires years of work, but once you’ve succeeded in getting the stalks to pop up in their moderately phallic way, you’ll reap harvests for years to come. Which would be so wonderful – if I had land to commit to only one vegetable.

Sigh.

Alas! SUPER CALIFORNIA FARMER is here to save the day!!!  Swooping in with his organic produce, lovingly grown in some of the best soil on Earth! When you Choose California Grown, you choose to not only support California farmers, you:

• Support California’s economy;
• Support the environment (especially when you buy organic) – less fossil fuels needed for transport, and preservation of more farmland;
• Experience food grown for taste, diversity, and healthfulness versus durability, transportation and uniformity;
• Benefit from a more nutritional product. Locally grown food, picked and delivered to your family table, is at its nutritional peak.

But the biggest reason I love buying California Grown is to have the opportunity to feel as though I know the farmer who grows the food for my family. It’s a little bit of small town, even in the middle of Silicon Valley. When I have a connection with the farmer who grows my food, I feel better about feeding that food to my family.

CA Grown asparagus and red torpedo onion

The asparagus I received was grown by Durst Organic Growers. A little bit about them from their website, “Durst Organic Growers strongly believes in farming techniques that build soil fertility while balancing wildlife and insect ecology. We do this by planting cover crops, proper crop rotation and soil amendments.”

On the California Grown website, you can even learn about some of the families who grow food for your family! This California Farmer profile features Barbara Cecchini of Cecchini & Cecchini. Along with Durst Organic Growers, this is one of the many family operated farms growing asparagus within California and this video offers an insider’s look. Click on the video, it’s totally worth a view!

So you’re totally sold on California Grown, right? Well, good! All you have to do is look for the little license plate logo whenever you buy your produce. If you don’t see a CA Grown label on products, you can always ask your grocer to find out which products are grown in California. I do this all the time! And they are able to answer!

Now…what to do with that asparagus? Oh yes, my favorite easy asparagus side dish.

Asparagus with Balsamic and Red Onion

Thank you again to California Grown for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about all of California Grown growers. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. #CleverCAGrown #spon

I haven’t written about gardening in some time, now, and currently, that’s where my attentions are. I’m just done with marmalade at the moment (though I am sure I will make a few more before the season is over).

For now I am overwhelmed I wasn’t able to get as much work done in the garden, while the plants were still sleeping. But, they’ve awoken now, and some things will have to just wait until next year (um, pruning pretty much everything).

I thought I would share a bit of what’s going on in my backyard at the moment. I’d love to hear what’s going on with your gardens.

Right now, the biggest show is from the apple tree. Delicate pink blooms are just appearing. The tree above is an espalier, so it is a perfect height for my toddler daughter to ooh and awww at the pretty pink blooms. Remember how I mentioned I just did not get around to pruning this winter? Yeah.

artichoke

I love this artichoke. I can no longer remember the heirloom variety I planted 4-5 years ago. I chose it because it was known for having a large heart, which everyone knows is the best part of the artichoke. My husband found it unsatisfying due to the smallish leaves. Sometimes you just don’t look great on the outside, but you’ve got a big heart. My husband didn’t find that humorous. Well, he’s lucky. After many faithful seasons, my plant has stopped producing and I’ll be cutting it down this weekend, and replacing it with a globe artichoke, more to my husband’s liking. BUT…I did plant, last week, in my community garden plot, an Italian purple artichoke, violetto, known for its tender leaves that are almost entirely edible. WOW! That’s a whole lotta commas in that sentence. The things you learn about yourself when blogging…

Blueberries: foreground and background

I’ve got two half barrels, each filled with two types of blueberries, high and low bush, planted together to elongate the producing season. I’m hoping this year will be filled with an abundance of blueberries, which should save us quite a bit of money in fruit. Blueberries are so expensive, and yet so delicious. Given they grow well in large pots, I think it’s a fine investment for anyone who’s able to grow them in their zone.

cherry tree: just starting to bloom

The poor cherry tree. It looks so bare with its barely blooming buds. And across the way, that lovely apple is just mocking it! It’s OK, soon it will be filled with lovely blossoms, itself.

black jack fig: beginning 2nd year

Lovely little Black Jack fig, just now beginning its second year. Probably at least another two years until I see a fig, dangnabbit.

perlette grapes: 4th year

This is going to be a good year for my grapes, I think. Last year was very nice though this is the year I think we should have plenty of grapes for both munching on, as well as putting up plenty quarts of grape juice.

Just finished it's first season!

This little treasure just finished her first year. Round meiwa kumquats are sweeter than their oval-shaped counterparts. I’m a big proponent of introducing children to lots of different foods when they are young, lest they get picky. My son, who has the most versatile tastes of any child I know, is not impressed with the kumquat. My daughter, on the other hand, and her little BFF (both nearly three years old) are huge fans on the little orange globes, and gladly bite into their skins, whole. This year we got about 18 kumquats. Next year I plan to make this if there’s enough production!

Tangerines just finished and lemons area ready

If you look closely, you’ll see the final remnants of tangerine season on  the right arm of the tree. The middle and left arm are filled with Lisbon and Eureka lemons, respectively. I’ve said this before, but now that Meyer lemon season is waning, I will say it again: I don’t know what the big deal is over the Meyer. Give me the bright, fresh flavor of a Lisbon or Eureka any day! I am so glad they are back in season, and I desperately need to pick some of those lemons. The tree branches are hanging quite full! Lemonade, anyone?

They just finished and are at it again!

If you have room for a little tree, I highly recommend a dwarf lime tree. Limes are incredibly unpopular as a crop in the United States (we grow very few in the U.S.) though our growing conditions are just fine. We just don’t have the demand, though that seems to be changing. But if you have a lime tree for yourself, you will always have tree-ripened limes which are YELLOW and far superior to the green limes you’ll find pretty much anywhere. And with those tree-ripened limes, you will have ingredients for limeade, margaritas, lime pie, lime curd (the best curd evah!) and my favorite roast chicken recipe: easy honey and lime roast chicken. Limes. So versatile! Who knew? Well, Mexicans, for one. That’s where we get most of our limes – as well as those tasty margaritas!!

Rows and rows of onions

Onions! Rows and rows of onions. Both sweet yellow (Walla Walla) and red (Tropeana Lunga). The red bullet-shaped onions should be ready to pick at the end of this month, and it will be another two weeks following that before the walla wallas will be ready ready. Ha! Good joke, right?

This is why everyone should grow herbs

Another thing I deeply encourage people to get into, if they are considering gardening, is herbs. So easy. You can fit them into any lifestyle or space. Many of them are quite prolific (see the parsley above) and will be ready as an additional fresh ingredient in your meals, whenever needed. It’s actually quite a money saver if you cook with fresh herbs, because those little plastic boxes of herbs are not only wasteful from the plastics perspective, you use like a touch of the herb, and eventually the remainder goes bad in your refrigerator, pushed to the back of your crisper, not to be seen for another month and a half until SURPRISE! There it is, dripping all over the place. And that gooey brown crap cost you $3.50. Nice.

One bed is never enough

The strawberries are back in town! Hooray! If there’s one thing I regret it’s not planting more strawberries. So I am doing that this year! Adding another bed. Because there’s nothing like a red, ripe strawberry, sweetened on the vine and picked warm from the sun. Squish. Into my mouth you go!

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday of the year. I love love.

If you’re looking for a last minute fun project for your kids, or some goodies for their classrooms, give me an hour and I’ll give you some sweet marshmallow pops.

I got this idea from a book my mom got me for Christmas, Kids in the Holiday Kitchen. My mom loves holidays just as much as I do (probably more), and as a result she has a terrible habit of buying me holiday related items at the holiday. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever. Here I am looking at this adorable little book with all these fun cooking projects to do with the kids, and oh, wait! That holiday is TODAY. So, put that away until next year!

But! I saw the sugarplum lollies in that book, which inspired this idea for Valentine’s Day.

And look at me, just like my mom, I am throwing this at you at the last minute. But…if you have an hour to do this with your kids, even after dinner tonight, it’s a pretty quick project.

What you’ll need:

Double boiler, or two pots as a stand-in
Bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (feel free to get creative)
Pop sticks
Bag of big marshmallows
Miscellaneous holiday themed candies
Cookie sheet
Wax paper
Cellophane to wrap the pops in
Ribbon

What you’ll do:

Prep several plates of your valentine-themed candies. Plates work better than bowls, since you can hold the pop straight out, and simply roll in the candies. Set aside.

Cover your cookie sheet with wax paper. You’ll be putting your pops on the tray and then into the fridge to set, so you’ll want to make room in your refrigerator, as well. Set aside.

Add an inch of water in the bottom of the double boiler and simmer. Add chocolate chips to the top bowl and stir constantly until fully melted.

Meanwhile, prep your pops. Push the stick fully into, but not through, the marshmallow.

Dip and swirl into the chocolate. Let the chocolate drip from the marshmallow, and try to move it such that you have a relatively even coating of chocolate on the pop. Don’t over do it.

When decorating the pop you can either press only the top of the pop into the candies, so that it is primarily chocolate with like a little surprise candy hat; or you can roll the whole pop lightly in the candies, covering the whole thing. This is obviously the best role for the kids. Let them have at it!

As you finish decorating each pop, put it onto your wax-covered tray. When done, put the tray into the refrigerator in order to set. It sets pretty quickly, but give it at least 30 minutes before you take them out. If you want, you can wrap them in cellophane and tie with a decorative little ribbon.

Done!

Warning: This is the sweetest little jar of curd you ever did taste. It is highly addictive. Especially when a dollop is plopped atop a gingersnap.

SNAP! That’s some good curd! 

My good friend Valerie and I had planned a canning get together with our other good friends, Grace and Akemi. This was during the holiday season and we were planning on making gifts for teachers and friends. Valerie came up with the brilliant idea of canning cranberry curd. Now – I know what you’re thinking. IS THAT SAFE? Yes, it is. Please see explanation at bottom of post.

To begin, Valerie chose a recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson‘s How to Be a Domestic Goddess, as published in the Houston Chronicle way back in 2006.

We quickly modified the recipe based on our joint knowledge of food preservation guidelines. But the end result was so wickedly delicious I ended up making an even larger batch at home several weeks later, carefully documenting my changes to make this both delicious and safe.

A final quick note: cranberries are not local to the bay area. Gosh, I think it is one of the few things we DON’T grow! But I was able to score bags of fresh organic cranberries from Trader Joe’s for a pretty good price (I think $2.99, if my memory serves correct). Curd is rich and delicious and, therefore, I like to can it in small 4 ounce jars to ensure I don’t eat a whole cup at once. ‘Cuz I will. Besides, if you can them in 4 ounce jars, there are more to give!

If you have frozen cranberries that made it past Thanksgiving, here’s a wonderful way to get them out of the freezer and into the jar!

* If you’re making the full recipe, which is too much to can in one batch in a canner bath, you might consider using the oven for this project. In which case you need to preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. While it is pre-heating, simply put your jars into the oven, on a cookie sheet, to sterilize. They should be in there at least 20 minutes, but leaving them in the oven the entire time you are working on your recipe will be more than enough! When you’re ready to can the curd, take the cookie sheet out of the oven, fill the jars (follow regular canning instructions on filling) and put the lidded jars back into the oven for 15 minutes, more depending on altitude.

Why it’s safe: I know there are a bunch of people who are skeevy about canning a curd. And you should be! Good for you for not wanting to get botulism! If I hadn’t made it my New Year’s resolution to not swear, I’d put a little badge on this recipe that said “Don’t FU*& with this recipe!” But…I am trying not to swear. So I can’t do that. But please, don’t modify this recipe unless you know what you’re doing. You can safely halve the recipe. So…how am I confident this is safe? Here is the USDA’s recipe for safely canning lemon curd. A reminder that the biggest safety issue with a canning recipe has to do with the pH of a recipe. A recipe with a pH of 4.6 or lower can be canned safely in a canner bath. Lemons and cranberries are very acidic, and they are about the same pH (around 2.4). Very safe. In the case of a curd recipe, proteins are added (butter and egg) which will affect the pH of the end product. But you will note that in comparison to the USDA’s lemon curd recipe, I used more juice and more berries (meaning my recipe is even MORE acidic) and LESS butter and eggs, comparatively. Therefore…you have no reason to worry about the pH level being safe for canning purposes.

More pretty pictures!

squeezed orange juice

Press through a fine-meshed sieve

temper the eggs

make pretty swirls!

About this business:

For a while now I’ve been intending to dedicate some regular space on my blog to highlight local food businesses that I love. Of course it only make sense that I start with a business that focuses on preserves (right?!?). Kristen Cederquist, on of the co-owners of Serendipity Saucy Spreads, was one of the first people I befriended on Twitter. I admire her immensely as both a wonderful business person, as well as a friend. Kristen and Lynette are good people who make great jam!

From their website: “Serendipity Saucy Spreads is a collaborative effort of Kristen & Lynette Cederquist, two Santa Cruz artists with a passion for creating innovative twists on traditional family jam and preserve recipes.  Lynette began making jam with her grandmother many many years ago and can remember waking up on summer mornings to lug boxes of fruit that were delivered from family friends.  She and her grandmother and later on her mother would spend the morning preparing the fruit and then making delicious jams that they would share with their friends to enjoy for months to come.  The tradition was then passed to Kristen, whose first memories go back to picking the ripest plums for plum jam on summer mornings with her grandmother when she was about five or six years old.  For the past 15 years Kristen and Lynette have carried on the family tradition of making delicious jams, jellies, and marmalades.”

Why I love them:

I love the resurgence of local food businesses that have taken off in the Bay Area, particularly pickles and preserves. With such lovely weather and rich soil, we’re able to grow a variety of foods the rest of the world could only envy. Who needs Smuckers when you have the world at your fingertips? I do admit, though, to being annoyed by overly-clever preserves – the kinds that entail so many ingredients you get the feeling the main goal is to impress, rather than to impress upon the flavor. Serendipity gets that. They focus on bringing out the best flavors using quality ingredients and combinations resulting in a style of jam that is very fruit forward and usually very low in sugar. “Don’t screw with perfection” comes to mind! Not to say their jams are boring – on the contrary, they are anything but. My current favorite is their Comice pear and rosemary conserve. The sweetness of the rosemary brings out the best flavors in the Comice pear, giving it just enough complexity that it suddenly pairs equally well with a cheese platter as it does a atop a scone. I also use it to stuff pancakes! YUM! They have a spiced carrot jam that is reminiscent of a creamy pumpkin butter, and is wildly comforting during these cold-ish months (OK, it’s really been like spring time around here, lately. What is up with that?). My son is eagerly awaiting strawberry season again, for his favorite Serendipity flavor to reappear: strawberry preserves with balsamic.

Learn more about them:

Located in Santa Cruz, California

Visit their website to learn more about them (and check out what local flavors they currently have in-season!)

Fan them on Facebook

Follow them on Twitter

Support your favorite local small businesses! Without them, it would be a bland, bland world!

Happy New Year. May 2012 be filled with love and light.

Speaking of light…I LOVE this Rainbow Brite spiraling mason jar chandelier from BootsNGus Design on Etsy.