This is my all time fave outdoor kitchen. We call it the Cabana Kitchen.

It is steps away from the Pacific Ocean. Steps. Maybe 25 steps. I have seen the Pacific Ocean wash into this kitchen during one particularly high tide and storm. Yes, I was scared spitless.

It was built as an outdoor cooking spot for some friends who used to park their motor home a few feet away. Over the years, we have made several, um, improvements. For instance: party lights. We always have a string of party lights ’round the roof. A few weeks ago, we put a new string up, all white. I can tell you now, this is NOT going to work. All white is NOwhere near as festive as the multicolored Christmas lights we have come to adore. (Note to self, take several strings of multicolored party lights to beach next time you go.)

There’s plenty of hot water. Yes, Virginia, HOT water and running water. There is a hot water tank under the sink. We have a sink. It drains into the shrubs. So, of course, we use biodegradable dishsoap. We have a two burner camp stove and propane tanks to keep the fire going. We have a campfire ring because we accept no substitutes when it comes to making ’smores. We have power so you can fire up the blender or cook under the lights or sizzle up an electric frypan. We have pots and pans and dishes. No Wolf or Viking or Aga here. No Subzero. Ever.

At the right time of year, you can catch Dungeness crabs in the surf and cook them in the pot on the stove. Campfire grilled oysters and clam chowder, anyone?

I share this kitchen with you because I love outdoor cooking. I have seen a lot of outdoor kitchens the last few years, and yet I know of none better used or loved than this one. You need a roof to keep you safe from the elements, rain or too much sun (this cook can be a delicate little flower), some running water (garden hose will do), a big ol’ dishpan/washtub for cleaning up, a place to chop, fire and power. Oh, and people to feed.

For my pal Cindy, in smokin’ hot Katy, Texas: girl, you need this to cool yourself down!

I am not even gonna lie about it, this recipe is straight from page 69 of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life. Thank you for sharing, JO.

Rhubarb bellini
makes 6

300 g rhubarb, trimmed and finely sliced (this is equal to about 1 and a half cups)
75 g sugar (equals 1/3 cup sugar)
a bottle of bubbly, such as Champagne or Prosecco

Get yourself a small pan and throw in the rhubarb, sugar and a couple tablespoons of water. Put a lid on top, bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally, until you get a thick compote consistency. Whiz up with a hand blender or regular blender until you have a lovely smooth puree. Leave to cool, then stire again and divide the puree between six glasses. Pour over your Prosecco or Champagne, stirring as you pour, with a long spoon or something similar, until the glass is three-quarters full. Top it up with bubbles and you’re done/ Cheers!

I know, I know! How boring is that post title? It is SO NOT me.

When I went to Amazon.com in search of the best vegetable garden cookbooks, I could pull up more than 200 and sometimes 600 matches. There’s a new one for sale about every other day. I should know, I own a few dozen cookbooks in this category ALONE. I decided to look no further than my own cookbook shelf. Here’s are my absolute faves:

“The Mother of all Vegetable Garden Cookbooks!” Hubba Hubba Bubba, now we are cooking. I am talking about the original Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash, published in 1982. Take a look:

If you wanna know how loved that book is, try picking up my copy. Use both hands, please. The cover is no longer attached, it just has to go along with the book. The binding glue is cracking and falling all over the place. The book itself is trying to break into two or three booklets.

The Victory Garden Cookbook was a companion piece to the television program, the original Crockett’s Victory Garden, produced by Russell Morash. Turns out, Russ’s wife, author Marian Morash was executive chef on the Julia Child and More Company show. Russ is credited with discovering Julia Child in the 60’s and putting her on the tube. A star is born. So, having been clever enough to link together the Victory Garden Cookbook and Julia Child just days before the movie, Julie and Julia makes its nationwide debut, I best be sharing with the reasons I love this book.

It covers 37 vegetables. Anytime you have a pile of fresh zukes, eggplants, kohlrabi or leeks, open this book. The simplest of preparations are laid out for you, as well as a dozen or more straight forward delicious recipes for each veg. Under “Finishing Touches for Hot Snap Beans” is our all time favorite …”With Warm Salad Dressing.”

You will find page 111 all puckered with dashes of olive oil, red wine vinegar and the no doubt the juice of fresh tomatoes. This is the page for our beloved Caponata, a cold eggplant salad that is also fantastic over hot pasta. Fresh cold tomato basil sauce for pasta is a 15 minute wonder. The page with “Tabbouleh with Tomatoes” is also dog-eared. Corn? If you find yourself with a bushel of corn, this is the book for you. Dressings for raw celeriac? Right here. I discovered I loved fresh celeriac salad 15 years ago, in Los Angeles. I could get celeriac in Boise, but how to make it into a salad? This was before Google was a household word. I turned to Marian.

Second on my list, or the brother from another motha, is Jamie at Home, Cook Your Way to the Good Life. Yes, I have the DVD as well and probably the last season or two spooled up on TIVO. I like to drink and watch him cook mushrooms on a bed of straw in the forest. As many times as I have seen this episode, I am – every time – convinced he is going to set the woods on fire. I covet his handmade stone oven and his gardener Brian. At least he confessed to having a gardener. And that little garden hut, where he cooks up a storm? I want one of those, too. A blob, a mash, a nob, some lashings and gobsmack me right on over to the dinner table.

I am taking the fixin’s for Jamie’s (we are on a first name basis whether he knows it or not) Rhubarb Bellinis to a party tomorrow. Rhubarb juice, champagne, sugar and mint. Regular readers know my passion for rhubarb, and I have a nice batch of rhubarb juice all made up and resting in the freezer. If any rhubarb survives my penchant for reducing it to juice for cocktails, I might try making rhubarb and sticky stem ginger crumble. Someday. Maybe.

This cookbook is all about the seasons. It includes recipes for fresh spring lamb, chickens raised at home (or elsewhere if you must), preparations of fresh fruit and pickles. Make the Ultimate Mushroom Bruschetta, Amazing pickled and marinated veg, and someday, if it ever cools down, Italian bread and cabbage soup with sage butter. Promise me you’ll try the bread and cabbage soup. Its all about the good life.

Start with these two books. You’ll be glad you did.

ps, the idea for this blog template was borrowed from Jamie Oliver’s TV show. I love the notebook paper background he uses for his handwritten recipes.

Not to be left out of the big doin’s, here’s my little upload for Bloom Day, July 2009-a small selection of what is blooming in the garden at Ranch du Bois. It is blazing hot and hard to photograph all the lovelies right now. Heck, its hard to even LIKE the lovelies when it is 100 degrees in the shade.

Old fashioned petunias and Profusion series zinnias

Globemallow + winecups

My little golden darlings. Apricots. Sweeter than sweet

Echinacea purple and white + rosa chinensis mutabilis

Liatris Kobold

Grosso lavender covered with honey bees, rudbeckia, verbena b, and apple espaliers

Here and there you will also find: Veronica ‘Royal Candles’, persicaria ‘Firetail’, miscellaneous salvia greggiis, a brown turkey fig, delosperma ‘Table Mountain’, hesperaloe, eryngium, penstemons, agastaches, and tomatoes.

Bountiful Week Seven from the Taft/Tamarack CSA

*Magic Garlic!!! Yes, this garlic is magic. It makes dreams come true, and has for the past 5 years. The pulling of the garlic bulbs is one of the most aromatic, amazing tasks on the farm…it’s worth putting a few cloves in the ground for yourselves, so you can experience this sensual pleasure, too! Casey sells Magic Garlic Coloring Books for $4 each; if you’d like a copy of the enchanting story of how the farm got started as well as why the garlic is magic, please request a copy from her!

*Volunteer Lettuce Head from Casey’s yard…I don’t know what variety these giant green leaf lettuces are, but they’re not too bad, eh? You can use them for sandwiches, or just add them to your salad mix

*Salad Mix A handful of pirat and forellenschluss lettuces and nasturtium leaves/flowers

*Red Rib Dandelion we got mixed reviews from the last round of red rib from y’all, but it’s ready to harvest again, so hopefully you’re ready for it again. You can put it in your salad mix, or eat it raw for a liver cleanser…you could dry it and use it in teas, too!

*Kale Bouquet! A mix of red Russian, redbor, and dino/lacinato…the trio makes a great slaw, especially when combined with cabbage. I’ve been cooking soba noodles and combining my finely chopped leaves with them and an asian dressing, then topping with toasted sesame seeds and almonds—it’s DAMN good!!!!!

*Rainbow Chard It’s a rainbow of fun—in your mouth! Hee-hee…try it in pasta dishes or in enchiladas…mmm…

*Basil! Genovese and Thai basil in your li’l handful this week…consider making a pesto pizza with the pesto, your summer squash, garlic, and any other fixins you’ve got around the house…we made one last night with Beth Rasgorshek’s whole wheat flour (available at the Saturday market downtown), pesto with pecans, zucchini, summer apples from our backyard, sun-dried tomatoes from last year’s harvest, and feta and raw cheddar cheeses…pretty swanky, and pretty tasty!

*Mint This is without a doubt the best mint we’ve ever eaten, and I’m not just saying that because we grow it! It really is! You can use it in teas, juleps, or other drinks (check out the mojito recipe below), or even in salads and the like. My friend Sarah put some in a quinoa salad, along with parsley, cherry tomatoes, and zucchini, and it was pretty danged tasty! If you don’t want to use it right away, tie it in a bunch and hang it upside down in a shady place (like your kitchen) to dry it. You can then store the dried leaves in a jar, and pull it out whenever you want a tasty treat! It makes great tea fresh or dried

*SUMMER SQUASH!!!!! Yellow crookneck and/or zucchini—FIRST of the SEASON!!! YIPPEE!!! SUMMER IS OFFICIALLY HERE!!!!!!! Don’t worry if you didn’t get a zucchini this week—you’ll have PLENTY of opportunity to get your fill of squash. You can eat the summer squashes raw or cooked…share your favorite squash recipes with us, and we’ll share ours with you as the season goes along. You can always just sauté them and eat plain or in pasta, egg scramblers, lasagnas, tacos, or whatever. I like to chop mine small and put it in salad.

*CARROTS!!!! Yippee!!!!!! We hope you’re as happy about these as we are! Enjoy!!!! (some of them look weird, but they taste GREAT!

*TATERS!!! Pontiac Reds, the first (tiny) harvest from the land on Taft Street! It’s coming along so beautifully there, and the bounty will only get better and better as it heats up…

and a couple of recipes:

Cuban Mojito recipe

the original authentic recipe from Havana Cuba

1 teaspoon powdered sugar (or simple syrup—sugar and water mixed 1:1 (casey’s note))
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves

1 sprig of mint
white Rum (2 ounces)
2 ounces club soda

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a “collins” glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. You’ll want about two ounces of lime juice, so it may not require all of the juice from a single lime. Add the sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden device, or you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if one isn’t available). Add ice (preferably crushed) then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda (you can also stir the club soda in as per your taste). Garnish with a mint sprig.

I stole that recipe off the internet (you probably guessed, since my own recipes are never that precise…). I got it from www.tasteofcuba.com

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To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain, worse for the heart.”–wendell berry

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Tater, Squash, & Egg Scrambler

This recipe uses most of what’s in your share this week, aside from your salad fixins…it’s a lovely, hearty meal for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

1. Chop your taters into small chunks and cook on the stovetop in olive oil and a little bit of water and salt, covering with a lid to steam the potatoes a bit and shorten the cooking time on them. The smaller you cut the potatoes, the faster they’ll cook.
2. Once they’re cooked until tender, remove the lid, add some chopped garlic and squash, and fry the whole shebang on medium or medium-high until the taters and squash are crisp on some of their edges. Make sure to add salt to taste during this stage.
3. Now that they’re all cooked, push the veggies to one side of the pan and crack in some eggs into the open space (you can scramble them in a bowl with salt and pepper beforehand, if you like). Season with salt and pepper and let them cook before mixing them with the rest of the veggies.
4. Add chopped greens once the eggs have cooked through, and mix the veggies, eggs, and greens together in the pan, cooking until the greens are softened to taste.
5. You can also add in fresh herbs at this time. Basil, oregano, or French Tarragon are my favorites in this dish. Be sure to sample here for salt and pepper, too.

I could write out the recipe and take credit, but that would not be fair to the good folks who shared this nectar of the gods and goddesses with me. So, a little link love for him, and a shout out to them, you can go get yerself some rhubarb and get to enjoying life………as it should be.

To see the photo and the whole story here, at David Perry Photography…a photographer’s garden blog.

David tells me the recipe came to him from the director of a writing workshop with Orion Magazine. Don’t be chintzy with the rhubarb juice. Remember, it’s called a rhubarbtini! and for a good reason. You can substitute a lemon flavored vodka for just plain ol’ plain ol.

You are sooooo welcome.

Finally! Here’s my Bloom Day post, for Carol over at May Dreams Gardens.

Since everyone was getting fancy w/you tube videos and background music, I put mine in a collage. So there.

left to right: top row: wisteria & Boise; wisteria; ad euphorbia
2nd row: snowball viburnum with purple and white lilacs in the background; snow in summer + geum; and rosemary w/bees
3rd row: allium Purple Sensation in front of Baileyii redtwig dogwood (shrub); unknown tulip variety, ajuga Black Scallop w/Ivory Prince hellebore in the back.

Hey all! I want to send you over to see what ELSE is going on the wild world of Idaho gardening. Here are some kindred spirits. Stop by and say hey!:

Seasonal Wisdom
Small Goat Garden

and if you know of other folks, out there, writing and planting, let me know and we will add them to the list. I am trying to pull a comprehensive list together for all of us….

In honor of Earth Day, the true Mother’s Day (Mother Nature, silly!), I recommend taking in as many plant sales as possible. Here’s the short list:

Friday and Saturday, April 24th & 25th, Annual Plant Sale at the Idaho Botanical Garden. Friday night is member’s only, you get first dibbs on all the good stuff. Gates open at 4 pm. and you will want to be there early. Wine, cheese, and crackers are served free of charge. The Friday MEMBERS ONLY sale has become a harbinger of Spring for Boise gardeners. Get caught up with your fellow Felco-wielding pals, load up your cart, and get ready to garden.

Psst: A little bird told me there is a shipment of really nice stuff coming in from Mountain States Wholesale + look for heirloom tomatoes from the Boise State University horticulture program.

Idaho Native Plant Society sale, held at the MK Nature Center, 10-2 on Saturday, April 25th. 600 South Walnut Street, adjacent to Municipal Park, just off Warm Springs Avenue.

Idaho Earth Institute plant sale at Lucy’s Coffee and Espresso, 1079 Broadway Avenue, click here for a map.
The sale is from 10-2.

I’ll be working Friday night at the Member’s Only sale at the Garden. Stop by and say hi.

You can hear my latest podcast/visit to the 94.9, The River, by clicking here: River Interactive, Morning Features.

From Fulcrum publishing

This may be the book of the year for Rocky Mountain garden lovers. The Plant Select organization has showcased all 74 of their tried and true outstanding plants in one concise, beautiful volume.

This wonderful handbook includes:

* multiple color photos of each plant in various seasons
* plant characteristics and detailed descriptions
* background on why each plant was chosen
* recommended landscape use
* native range of each species
* exposure, soil, and elevation range recommendations
* advantages and disadvantages of each plant

I thought I was pretty well versed in plants available in our area. I have to admit, after reading this book front to back, in a single sitting, I have discovered at least three incredible new plants for my garden.

The delightfully named Moon carrot is a chubby looking version of Queen Anne’s lace. Seseli gummiferum will find itself showcased in my garden straight away.

I don’t believe I’ve ever come across the gorgeous Kintzley’s Ghost honeysuckle until reading this book. The flowers open pale yellow, with silver dollar size bracts, fade to pale orange, followed by orange to red berries.

I can’t get over this shrub: Mock bearberry manzanita. “Extremely tolerant of dry conditions,” and “low-growing glossy-leaved groundcover shrub” positively sets my hair on fire. Glossy-leaved? Do you know how hard that is to come by in the desert? Hard, I tell you.

Just when you think you can’t ask more of a garden book, several other great features should be noted: the inclusion of the drawing of a person, next to the plant, showing the relative size of each plant. Brilliant. Easy. Helpful. Included are lovely botanical illustrations for each plant, created by students at the Denver Botanical Gardens. A section on Design Considerations will help every gardener. Last but not least, the reference Table of Plant Characteristics detailing, name, seasons, height, water requirements, and exposure.

One last kudo: the authors repeat, over and over phrases like this: “too much water will cause the plant to be straggly; extremely tolerant of drought; very tolerant of drought; dry, not too wet”. This is music to my ears……and to any gardener in the sagebrush steppe of the American West. Ohhhhh, you are going to love this book.

Find this masterpiece at www.amazon.com for $16.47 plus shipping.