baby toes

Cactus and succulents are usually always looking nice - always clean, never wilting or dropping leaves but when you get a nice big flower out of one it's all the more satisfying - eventhough the blooms usually only last a day. A friend on the west coast just sent me this picture of this Baby Toes cactus.

Raubsville Inn

This is the coolest vacant waterfront property I've ever seen. It's called the Raubsville Inn located right on the Delaware River on the PA side. I had drinks there once when it was still open, sippin some beers, listening to the crickets as the water goes by - it is really amazing AND it's for sale. I found a price for $699,000 but I'd bet it's negotiable since the place has been flooded twice in the last 3 years and I think its been on the market for over a year. In my dream world I would like someone (i know) to buy this and turn it into an amazing restaurant and inn similar to the Depuy Canal house upstate http://www.depuycanalhouse.net/

Any takers?

This weeks garden Q&A in the NYT

Moss added to Times atrium

I thought after I saw the windows facing the birch tree's in the NYT building had been blocked from the street that something really bad had happened inside the atrium. But I was wrong, you can walk inside the main lobby and see that they added the 2 toned moss to the birch field. It actually doesnt look soooo bad. The moss is mostly dead but I kind of like this cartoon style landscape around the dead birches. Clearer photo's coming soon...

Michael Pollan knows best

Gawker and community service!

Plumeria and Parsley: this weeks NYT garden Q & A

brownstoners

Some people lost their minds the other day on Brownstoner about this before and after landscape job in brooklyn. It's a nice clean design with some gravel, birches and boxwoods - with a center wooden walkway and what looks to be a water feature running on the left. The initial comments about the space were pure aesthetic and then all of a sudden it becomes a "is it safe for my kid to play in that?" war!! It's entertaining and devastating evidence that many young white home-owning professionals in brooklyn have lost all sense reality. http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/12/third_bond_week_1.php

ice is nice but snow is better

yesterdays storm was disappointing but at least some of us were brave enough to enter its fury: http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142007/news/regionalnews/star_mom_weathers_ny_storm_886957.htm

a store for "hydro herb" growing

So if you're in NY check out NYC HYDRO at 495 9th ave @ 38th st. for all your lamps, vermiculite and fertilizers with psychedelic labels. The dude that works there and is a part owner says it's for people who want to grow "herbs". Check it out while it lasts http://nychydro.com/

HOYA

This Hoya thats been in a greenhouse at work and its been producing some really awesome pink and burgundy foliage either because it's really happy or completely stressed. I know every Hoya lover waits for a flower...this might be the lucky one for us.

Jim Harrison video clip

things to ward off winter depression: Episode 1, Meatballs

I already love cooking and eating but Jim Harrison makes me want to do it more. In his non-fiction, "The Raw and the Cooked" he supplies us with one recipe at the end of the book. I haven't made it yet, but I bet my cats life on it that it's good.

"certain Gucci-Pucci-Armani Italians have told me that they have never eaten spaghetti and meatballs. Tuscans look down on the Calabrese and the Neopolitans in the same way New Yorkers regards poor white southerners. These Cerruti aristocrats tell me that the dish is an American perversion of Italian cuisine, to which I always reply, "I don't give a shit." Their tiny, pointy shoes cause them life long discomfort and you can't eat a largish meatball with pursed, dry lips. I should also mention that I make a bollito misto, and that I have often shaved Italian white truffles onto my morning oatmeal. But then let's not be nasty. It's better to meditate on the dark freight of power and grace that spaghetti and meatballs can offer your life.


Sauce:

Pour a liberal amount of good olive oil in the bottom of the baking pan. Halve a dozen or so tomatoes and place them in the pan. Sprinkle them liberally with chopped garlic, fresh basil, and thyme. Cook for about an hour at 325 F. Chop this roughly and you have your sauce.


Meatballs:

1 pound ground chuck or veal
2 beaten eggs
5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup parsley
3 or 4 anchovy fillets, preferably salt-packed
Ample extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup to 1 cup freshly made bread crumbs

Saute the garlic, finely chopped, in olive oil until translucent. Add the anchovies and let melt, then add the parsely and wilt; let cool. Mix the meat with the eggs. Add the cooked garlic, anchovies, parsley, salt and pepper, and bread crumbs. Form your meatballs, but not too large or they will crack. Brown in olive oil, then cook slowly. Mix in your roasted tomato sauce."

"i want to live on an abstract plane"

It's not abstract but it is a pretty amazing photo that I stole from the bbc. This might be obvious, but those are not shadow marks but snow on the ground. pretty sweet!

It's a few days old...but here's the Times review of the Times building!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/arts/design/20time.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/O/Ouroussoff,%20Nicolai&oref=slogin

list of things to look forward to in the spring (#1: Morels and Wild Leeks)

Now, this is all new and amazing to me; I've been reading alot of Jim Harrison over the past year or so and have completely lost my mind over him and he has definitely become a favorite. Many of his stories are based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Harrison (being the raging gourmand that he is) will often reference food ideas and recipes, such as quail stuffed with leeks and sweetbreads (one of his favorites), or the one that I most recently noticed in The Summer He Didn't Die, the hunting and picking of morels and wild leeks for a dinner. I did a little research and found that the wild leeks are especially spicy and are found in early spring April/May from Appalachia to Canada (I'm guessing zones 1-8) and are probably amazing in so many dinners...pasta, game birds, lamb, yum! The leek seem fairly easy to locate and hunt, but the morel involves a guide book or person before you randomly hunt. I am also beginning to think that Michigan might be a special place for this, but if you're local and feeling inspired, this link has some useful connects of mycological/fungi clubs in the general tri-state area: http://thegreatmorel.com/info.html