Weekly Garden Thread - October 19-25, 2019

October 19, 2019 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[Califreak]

Wow all those things are so pretty!

I haven’t sewn all summer.

Will have to get busy!

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Did I mention cows? LOL!

I envy you. About a year ago I wanted to try my luck at cheese making until I found out that because of the way they pasteurize milk in Europe you can't use even the milk from the refrigerated section to make cheese. The only alternatives are to travel about 100km to a dairy that sells raw milk (not practical) or go to a local farm for Goat's milk (not worth the bother).

[Oshkalaboomboom]

You have an incredibly beautiful view!

We love to sit out on the terrace. If we look to the left we have the mountains. If we look straight ahead we have the Castillo San Miguel, which had been used as a fortress since Roman times:

and if you look to the right, besides the Mediterranean you can see the Penon del Santo where the Moors landed but where they were also expelled from Spain 750 years later. At the base of the rock is a statue of Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman I, founder of the emirate of Cordoba and at the summit is a cross that was erected to commemorate the expulsion of the Moors in 1489. It is very large and lights up at night so it can be seen far out at sea:

Anyway, we liked the view so much that we decided to make a picture of it. Our house is decorated in an Art Deco style with an accent color of purple, my wife's favorite color. We came up with an idea of an art deco era couple sitting out on a terrace, having a drink and enjoying each other's company with a lovely view in the background. Once we hashed out a concept we had a couple of local mosaic artists translate our ideas into a picture:

It's pretty big and has a lot of purple in it as per my wife's wishes. To get an idea of the size here it is on the terrace:

If you look closely at the mosaic you can see the cross behind the lady:

and just over the man's shoulder is the castle:

Hopefully even after we are both long gone our view and our impression of it will live on.

[Liz]

A nice treat to store away in the fridge. Intense-taste, lovely texture, can overpower other flavors so keep that in mind.
The unwhipped mixture keeps refrigerated for over a week. Prepare it on Sunday and, during the week, you can
add a Caramel Cream touch to plain angel food cake topped with strawberres, or top a just-baked brownie, cake or pie.

CARAMEL WHIPPED CREAM

METHOD gently heat/melt 1/2 c br/sugar. Stir gently after it begins to melt; completely melt (becomes slightly darker).
Offheat gradually add 3/4 c 35% h/ cream (careful, it splatters). Then simmer/stir til caramel almost completely melts.
Add an extra 3/4 cup h/cream; BTB. Strain out unmelted caramel bits. Cover/chill 8-24 hours.

TOO SERVE Elec/mixer desired amount to stiff peaks.

CHEF NOTES: Needs a degree of skill when melting the sugar. Proceed til sugar melts--no longer
or else you'll have burnt sugar. Mixture separates overnight but whips up beautifully when needed.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Making cheese is on my Bucket List, too. I can get fresh local milk from the neighbor.

Glad to hear that your wife is now home, Meant to mention that sooner! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The mosaic is stunning! Thanks for sharing that. How did you end up in Spain in the first place?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

All of your projects are lovely! I love your attention to detail! Love the ribbons around the edges of the baby blanket.

Is there anything that Griddle Stitch can’t do? LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Forgot to tell you that I have one ‘volunteer’ tomato on the floor of my greenhouse. It’s in an out of the way, south-facing corner, so I’ve been letting it do its thing and have been watering and fertilizing it. It’s blooming now - so we’ll see if it can put out a tomato before the snow flies!

It’s only a foot tall - have no idea what it hopes to be when it grows up. :)

[MomwithHope]

Love the pictures, that mosaic is amazing.

[MomwithHope]

Made many kinds of cheese from our goats for 25 years. It got to be a chore for awhile. No goats for 5 years now and this summer I got the Jones to make some cheese, found a source of all A2 cows milk and have really enjoyed it this summer, mostly fresh mozzarella, herbed cream cheese and a chunk of sharp cheddar. After about 10 years of cheesemaking I found out my paternal grandmother also made cheese. I recommend cheesemaking.com for help and cultures. Rennet tablets that are veg only are called Junket. Easiest to use for cream cheese and fresh mozzarella. A plate of your own fresh mozzarella, tomato slices and basil is a plate from heaven. I used to work second shift and would take platters of it into work. It would all be gone in about 3 minutes.

[MomwithHope]

We used to watch Survivor. I would think - why doesn’t someone make a crude crochet hook, take apart a sweater and make a fishing net.

[miserare]

Beautiful work!

[MomwithHope]

Thanks, my late mom deserves all the credit. I used to say she could make something out of nothing. Creative and resourceful. She taught me to crochet when I was 10, that’s over 50 years ago. The variety of what you can do with a crochet hook is amazing. Also with sewing. She taught me how to make yoyos and I have done so much with them, including a twin size bedspread of 1800 yoyos. All from scraps.

[tubebender]

From Pumpkin patch to Pumpkin pulp in a few easy steps… (sezz he)

[Oshkalaboomboom]

How did you end up in Spain in the first place?

We were looking for warm places to retire and since my wife is a British citizen and her family is still in England we chose Spain because it offered the amenities of a first world country with a low cost of living and a good climate. Our only requirements were a sea view and access to an airport so we could fly to England for visits. We chose our particular area because it is the only part of Spain where the mountains come down to the sea so instead of having to be near the seafront and all of the crowds that go with the territory we could be further inland and still get the view we desired. As you can see from some of the pictures I post we are 600 meters from the beach but 90 meters above sea level. Here is a picture of the beginning of the street my house is on. It actually zig-zags right and left 6 more times, each time a little steeper, before it gets to our house

The houses are stacked as you go up so instead of being blocked by whatever is in front of you each level gets their own nice view. Here is how that looks from a different angle:

The third busiest airport in Spain is less than an hour away so this area met all of our requirements.

[tubebender]

My favorite cheese is seasonal at Costco...

[tubebender]

Looks like you made a great choice. I love where we live but I could use a warmer climate...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

What a dream come true! :)

[tubebender]

We dug the last of our potatoes Thursday just before our first rain of fall. This variety is called Carola...

[freemama]

Some of the last garden tomatos are now cooking into a beautiful red sauce on the stove. More of them are chopped up in a salsa in the fridge. Hubby is cleaning out the garden this afternoon. Packers are playing. Perfect fall Sunday!