bluemoon

I think this is very moving
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cpUnUUQF3o

Dragon

bluemoon that brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for sharing it.

Lizzi

Thank you to all my TD friends for the beautiful birthday cards, and the encouraging birthday greetings! I am blessed. This is a great community.

Baldur

I'm sorry I missed your birthday Lizzi, Ihope it was a good day for you.

Baldur

My afternoon was spent in assembling the retro molded gelatin salad for the holiday repast. A large fluted mold was used. The first layer was orange gelatin with a suspension of white grapes.

Once that had set a layer of orange gelatin with copious amounts of well drained canned crushed pineapple was added. So far so good.

Then I added the third and final layer of orange gelatin with finely grated raw carrot.

That's when all hell broke loose.

There must have been too much carrot. After returning from dinner an attempt was made to unmold the assembly onto a plate.My concern being the acid from the pineapple might etch into the metal of the fluted mold (which was actually an Austrian bundt cake pan) and cause discoloration.

Everything seemed quite firm.

Upon unmolding, the orange gelatine - grated carrot layer proved unstable and started squooching out in every direction from under the other two layers. I was forced to quickly cap everything with the mold again and flip it back upside down. returning it to the safety of the bundt pan.

Using a narrow spatula, I removed every trace of the flawed layer to a waiting saucepan.

This required drastic measures to salvage everything.

I retrieved my jar of agar-agar flakes from the pantry and softened 3 teaspoons of them in 4oz of tepid water. Then I brought this to a low simmer. It takes a good 10 minutes to liquify agar agar at a low boil. Meanwhile I gently heated the mucky gelatin to just about body temperature.

Agar agar sets up instantly if anything cold is added to it, hence the gelatine needed to be heated.

Both liquids were quickly whisked together and a small sample was transferred to a bowl and refrigerated. It set up nicely, and yet not quite as firm as to put it at the jujube or hockey puck stage.

I let the contents of the pan cool down enough so it wouldn't melt the other layers on contact and then returned it to the mold.

Already it seems well set up, cooking is such an adventure.

lynnspotter

We love hearing about your adventures! Missed you~the station just isn't the same without you!

Dragon

I agree with lynnspotter. Also nice save on the gelatin! If it happened in my kitchen (unlikely as I am not ambitious enough to attempt a multi-layered Jello/fruit salad) it would have ended up with the set layers simply sitting atop a squooched layer.

sheftali52

Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm missing Boughbreak moments--gardening adventures, style tidbits, culinary masterpieces, and assorted goodies sure to entertain. Baldur--you are missed!

indigo

That's exactly what I told him on his last pic. *J*

mdawrcn

I agree. I miss Baldur's stories also and I hope he is doing well, and just busy with all his happenings.

sheftali52

Sigh...Baldur--see, you have fans!

Baldur

Baldur is glad to report that despite the many demands on his time that the gardens here at Boughbreak have never looked better.
The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, brussels sprouts, are in. The beets, kale, cucumbers, parsley, nasturtiums and marigolds have sprouted.
The main bean trellis is up and we are anxiously awaiting the first bean sprout to poke it's head through the soil.

Baldur

All of the perennial vegetables have been moved from the old garden, which has become a bit too shady, to the new bed.
The migration included Rhubarb, Asparagus, Aegyptian Onions, Chives and Horseradish. The old location has been reseeded as lawn.

Baldur

One challenge has been the temporary settling of lots of garden ornaments into the Boughbreak beds.
Friends have been forced to downsize from a sizeable apartment with a wide porch and lovely garden to a tiny in-law apartment with no usuable outdoor space. This left them with the possibility of having to lose their huge cast cement lions, urns, fountains and such.
Baldur, really prefers less fussiness in his own garden but is sheltering all of this stuff until such time that it can be repatriated.
There are a pair of cast metal candle lanterns that hang from wrought metal brackets. They were a faux verdigris colour , I had Robert respray them 'oil rubbed bronze' and have since hung them from the trunk of an old oak on the hillside overlooking the vegetable garden. A lion-head fountain that once spit into a large scallop shell basin, had been converted by the previous owners into a hanging planter. We resprayed it a darker colour (oil rubbed bronze again), hung it on a wall and planted it with trailing nasturtiums. Things are looking up.

Baldur

Prickly pear cactus was moved from a footed urn into an arid bit of soil by the road, in it's place I planted picotee tuberous begonias. The assemblage is now under my dogwood tree, engulfed in a sea of blue-green hosta leaves.

Baldur

I am of course forgetting the snow peas. The vines have quickly risen to about 18" tall and are climbing he row of sticks provided for them.
Generally the sticks, a motley collection of small saplings, are cut from the hillside. They are stuck into the ground in a brambly type of row, the overall effect is of a peas-hedge.
This year I intend to start a second peas-hedge to extend the harvest time.

Baldur

I can not seem to grow radishes. Aren't they the seeds that are usually given to toddlers for their first gardens? .....a foolproof crop.
Not for Baldur.
Radish seeds sprout nicely and then bolt to flowerstalks before they ever form spherical roots.
I have tried growing them in cool weather, warm weather, hot weather. It makes no difference, they simply refuse to behave.

sheftali52

Radishes a problem? Sheftali has a problem with any root veges she plants--cutworms and other little critters always seem to eat them. But, she can see Baldur has been extremely busy outside--good on you, and great to hear of your doings.

Baldur

I can grow beets well enough, just not radishes.

Happy Birthday Noor!

Baldur

Horseradish also grows extremely well here.

Currently the peonies are exploding into bloom, soon the roses will start.