Butterfly Sighting: The Red Admiral

I see them every time I go to our backyard – black wings with orange band and white spots. They almost look like monarchs from afar but a little smaller.

Today, I was able to take a photo of one feeding on the nectar-rich flowers of our butterfly bush.

Binomial name: Vanessa atalanta

Pink Icebergs

The icebergs are in full bloom! Pretty, aren’t they? Our gardener planted them in December – three pink and twelve white icebergs.

Butterflies! Monarch and Camberwell Beauty

Aside from the two white butterflies that live in our backyard, which we call “our resident butterflies,” I saw two flying around this afternoon – a monarch and a nymphalis antiopa, the state butterfly of Montana.  

They danced like there’s a waltz music playing in the background before hovering and landing on our purple butterfly bush.

Chicken & Chard Sandwich

Lunch today while working from home.  The chicken salad was made last night... chicken thighs, mayo, sour cream, sweet relish, celery cut into small pieces, rock salt and black pepper. 

The chard was a last minute idea. I just picked a bunch of young leaves from the garden.

Bird Sighting -- Black Phoebe

It's either I have not seen them before or thought they were sparrows.

This morning I saw a different looking bird, a little larger than sparrows, dark brown plumage and grayish white on the belly. It is a black phoebe.

Photo below was taken on my iPhone.  I hope to get a better shot with DLSR next time.

Salmon En Papillote

I raved the first time I had bass en papillote at a cozy French bistro, Bistro Provence, on North Pass in Burbank.  That place, though highly rated, has closed its doors a couple of years ago.
  
En papillote is French for “in paper.” It is a method of cooking where food is put into a folded pouch of parchment paper and then baked. I have made this dish a number of times.  I have used salmon, cod, branzino and halibut. 

Tonight I used salmon, placed on a bed of couscous, then topped with sliced onion, cherry tomatoes and lemon.

For the wrap, I used aluminum foil because the parchment paper I bought was apparently not meant for the oven. Aluminum or parchment?? … I prefer parchment.

Here's another blog entry for Salmon El Papillote

Sunday Night

It was quite a busy day of gardening.  Spent a couple of hours watering the plants before church. Then after church we headed to the nursery to buy more vegetables.

First, I uprooted some tropical flowers on our side yard.  Not sure what they are called... palm-like wide leaves with bright red flowers.  They are very invasive. Then, I planted some zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and moringa. Transplanted the mint and hibiscus and watered them generously.  I hope they survive (fingers crossed)... especially the hibiscus.

We squeezed in a nap on the grass then as soon as the sun disappeared on the horizon, we fired up the grill.

Dinner was a repeat of last night... chicken and beef kabob.  The ikra on the side was new.  The wine, red and white, were left-over from the other day.

Cheers to a wonderful week ahead!

Watermelon Picnic

Nothing says summer like a refreshing thirst-quenching watermelon. Let me back track a bit. Two months ago, I saw a huge box filled with watermelon at the grocery store where we shop. I grabbed one, but then, while walking out the door, I noticed on the receipt that it was $12+… 12 bucks for a watermelon, holy cow!  I walked back and returned it. When we got home, the Little Guy headed  to the backyard with a picnic blanket.  I asked, “are we having a picnic?” He said, yes, mommy, we got watermelon.” For him, watermelon equates to picnic.  So I told him that it was too expensive so I returned it. We did end up having a picnic that day, but we had yogurt instead.

Fast forward to today, watermelons are on sale everywhere.  Photo below shows the Little Guy enjoying a watermelon picnic.

                                                                                            

Nathan’s Hotdogs

A few years ago, we went to visit a colleague friend in Nuremberg, Germany.  We hopped on a train at Munich Hauptbahnhof then met her at Nuremberg train station.  We walked around old town, passing a bridge, a market and a church on our way to Schöner Brunnen to turn a ring and wish for a baby (that’s for another blog). 

From there, we walked up on the hill to the castle, then walked down to this lovely bratwurst place to have Nürnberger bratwurst, a small thin sausage grilled over a beechwood fire and eaten with sauerkraut.

Thinking of that meal makes my mouth water, so I drizzled oil on the pan and put some Nathan’s hot dog – yes, from the same place that sponsors the famous hot dog eating contest. 

I fried the hot dogs, constantly turning until they are cooked through and golden brown. A squirt of ketchup, a drip of mustard, some mayo and some sweet relish… yum!

Backyard Dinner

Summer has not officially arrived, but the grilling season in our house has officially opened a day before Memorial.  This is our third for the season.

The meat is from Alameda Market on Glenoaks Boulevard and East Alameda Avenue in Burbank... organic chicken and beef kabob... juicy and almost melt in your mouth. 

On the side, we had grilled tomatoes, green bell pepper and basmati rice with saffron.

Grilled peaches for dessert and a bottle of red from Italy.

The flowers, lantana, I cut from our front yard.

Candle light flickers while we watch the planet Venus shining bright next to the half moon up in the beautiful evening sky. 

Breakfast on a Skillet

I used the left-over potatoes and golden beets from last night's supper, then added ham, pepperoni, eggs and chard from the garden.

Summer Friday

Prepared a colorful supper on my first Summer Friday off.. roasted pork marinated in mojo criollo sauce, potatoes, golden beets, red bell pepper, sauteed Swiss chard, cucumber and hard-boiled eggs.  

Ate outside while a mockingbird perched on its favorite spot serenades us from a distance. 

Swiss Chard

Our first harvest of the season – Swiss Chard.  They were planted a month ago on the same planter box we had arugula and kale in the winter.  On the other box, we have different kinds of tomatoes – San Marzano, early girl, ….  Then on the side, by the fence, we have beans and bitter melon. I water them all every morning before I get ready for work.

We have a faucet in the backyard and another one on the side yard, both are about 25 feet away from the planter boxes.  Since our hose is not long enough, I use a sprinkler. The tomatoes are watered first, then the beans, the pepper, the bitter melon, the chard, the herbs, the grapes, green onions, navel orange, calamansi and pomegranate.  I go back and forth about ten times in total which helps bump up my steps.  My daily goal is 7k. 

The pomegranate, it was planted right on the fence, so I had our gardener move it to another spot.  Right now it looks dead, no leaves have come out on the branches yet, but when I scratched the bark, it is still green, so I am not losing hope.  

Dolmas

The grapevine we planted in December is thriving. Tiny leaves started sprouting in early March and now it is fully covered with leaves.  I cut about a dozen leaves, soaked them in water for about 3 hours and then filled them with a mix of rice, ground beef, pine nuts, diced onion, salt and pepper.  Then, I arranged them on a pot, covered with water and then simmered for 45 minutes.  I put a heavy baking dish on top so they stay in place.

Voila, there goes my dolmas… my first attempt at making them.

Souvlaki & Tzatziki

In the mood for some Greek food today.  On the table..

Souvlaki: chicken and beef marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, onion and some Greek herbs and seasoning

Tzatziki: yogurt with grated cucumber, lemon, olive oil, a dash of salt, some cracking of black pepper and dill from our herb garden.

Our Fig Tree

... in late May.  I see lots of fig + cheese + wine evenings in our future and I can't wait. 

Cherries!

The month of May is the start of cherry harvest season...

Lovely Blooms

I love this time of year when flowers are in full bloom.  Some snapshots from our garden below...

BBQ Time

Kicking off the BBQ season with chicken & shish kabob on lavash, shirazi salad, basmati rice, pickled eggplant and grilled vegetables.

Butterfly Bush

We have three of them in the backyard -- two magenta and one purple.  And we have two resident butterflies too.

Peach Tree

A young peach tree in our backyard bearing three fruits this season...

Sausage, Beans and Kale Soup

... is what we're having for dinner today. Slurp, slurp!

Mockingbird

Loving the soothing serenade of this mockingbird perched on top of a tree...

Octopus and Capers Pizza

On my day off, the Little Guy and I made pizza with octopus and capers then enjoyed a leisurely lunch under the shade of a pistache tree.