From Ocean Shores to Lake Quinault

We went on a weekend retreat to Ocean Shores, WA, and took a day trip out to Lake Quinault Lodge and the Quinault Rainforest.  It was unusually sunny and mild for the rainiest spot in Washington, so we were blessed.  We checked out the razor clams at Ocean Shores but resisted the urge to take them home (tho' I'll definitely be back someday when it's open razor clam season!).

We saw a flock of brown pelicans at Damon Point hunting for their lunches.  It was fun to watch them soaring and swooping gracefully above the ocean only to end with a rather awkward ker-plunk drop and splash into the water.

The Lake Quinault Lodge where Teddy Roosevelt visited back in 1937 had a really lovely rain gauge--the record level of rain recorded in one year was 15 feet!  13 feet was recorded in 2011.  I guess we really shouldn't complain about rain over here in Seattle.

We finished the day with a pleasant 4 mile loop walk around the lake, seeing the various native flora and fauna.  My personal favorites were the ferns (sans spores, of course!)--lovely green fiddleheads just unfurling--and forget-me-nots as well as a visit to the world's largest Sitka Spruce.  Almost a thousand years old, it had a circumference of almost 59 feet that we could only hug but not encircle with our arms.  Lunch on the lawn of the Lake Quinault Lodge afterwards is de rigueur!

 

A Big Ol' Goose Egg

The other day, my student Matthew asked me if I like eggs.  When I replied that I did, he told me he'd bring me some goose eggs since his neighbor had a goose and would give him more eggs than Matthew knew what to do with.  (Some people have all the luck!)  The next day he gave me four goose eggs.  I had never seen one before; pickled duck eggs and canned quail eggs are about as exotic an egg as I've ever had.  When I took it out of the bag, I was amazed by its size.

It's funny how little it takes to throw our sense of perspective out of whack.  One goose egg is about the equivalent of 2-3 chicken eggs and though I eat chicken eggs all the time, I didn't know quite what to do with these guys so I asked around and the most common answer was to scramble them, so that's what I did.  I added a little milk, some salt and pepper, and scrambled them up, then put them in tortillas with some sauteed mushrooms and greens.  The flavor was mild and tasty and surprisingly, not so different than chicken eggs.  I did do a little more sleuthing about on the Internet to see what other things people did with goose eggs and came across this British site called Clarence Court that sold goose, duck, turkey, rhea, and ostrich eggs to name just a few.  They also have a really great recipe index with such interesting sounding dishes such as "Deep fried turkey egg with Asian herbs" or "A bloody good egg nog."  Maybe next time around.

To end, I thought I'd share another Billy Collins poem, this time about perspective and how one thing can change our whole point of view:

Bonsai

All it takes is one to throw a room
completely out of whack.

Over by the window
it looks hundred of yards away.

a lone stark gesture of wood
on the distant cliff of a table.

Up close, it draws you in,
cuts everything down to its size.

Look at it from the doorway,
and the world dilates and bloats.

The button lying next to it
is now a pearl wheel,

the book of matches is a raft,
and the coffee cup a cistern

to catch the same rain
that moistens its small plot of dark, mossy earth.

For it even carries its own weather,
leaning away from a fierce wind

that somehow blows
through the calm tropics of this room.

The way it bends inland at the elbow
makes me want to inch my way

to the very top of its spiky greenery,
hold onto for dear life

and watch the sea storm rage,
hoping for a tiny whale to appear.

I want to see her plunging forward
through the troughs,

tunneling under the foam and spindrift
on her annual, thousand-mile journey.

--Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightning

Fresh From the Farm This Week!

It's asparagus season out at the farm with these lovely green spears growing skyward.  Each time I go out there, I get to gather a handful or so.  Two of my favorite ways to cook asparagus is sauteed with garlic and lemon butter and most recently, simply roasted with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Due to all the rain and cool weather, the lettuces and Swiss chard have also been doing well.  I cut two heads of lettuce this week, leaving the roots so that they'll grow back again.  The rhubarb is also still flourishing.

The kale and collards that wintered over seem to be bolting already, so perhaps it's not such a good idea to try to keep them going another season.  I harvest what leaves are left, cutting down the flower stalks as well, and have been pulling up the plants that have gotten too spindly and replacing them with seedlings that I planted earlier in another bed that were getting too crowded.  So fun to have fresh, homegrown veg again! 

Asparagus with garlic and lemon butter

1 1/2 pounds asparagus,with any tough parts snapped off
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper

Put enough water in a saucepan and add salt and bring to a boil.  Place asparagus in boiling water and cook until tender.  Drain and in the meanwhile, put butter or olive oil in a pan on medium high and briefly sautee garlic until fragrant.  Add the asparagus to the pan and add the lemon zest and juice.  Season with salt and pepper.

Roast asparagus

asparagus, with tough parts snapped off
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  (I use my toaster oven when I just have about a half pound or so to cook.)  Clean and snap off tough ends of asparagus and dress with the olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 15 minutes or check when you begin to smell the fragrance of roast asparagus.  It doesn't get any simpler than this!

Miracle Fair

 

Miracle Fair

Commonplace miracle:
that so many commonplace miracles happen.

An ordinary miracle:
in the dead of night
the barking of invisible dogs.

One miracle out of many:
a small, airy cloud
yet it can block a large and heavy moon.
Several miracles in one:
an alder tree reflected in the water,
and that it's backwards left to right
and that it grows there, crown down
and never reaches the bottom,
even though the water is shallow.

An everyday miracle:
winds weak to moderate
turning gusty in storms.

First among equal miracles:
cows are cows.

Second to none:
just this orchard
from just that seed.

A miracle without a cape and top hat:
scattering white doves.

A miracle, for what else could you call it:
today the sun rose at three-fourteen
and will set at eight-o-one.

A miracle, less surprising than it should be:
even though the hand has fewer than six fingers,
it still has more than four.

A miracle, just take a look around:
the world is everywhere.

An additional miracle, as everything is additional:
the unthinkable
is thinkable. 

by Wislawa Szymborska
translated by Janna Trzeciak

Happy Friday--have a miraculous weekend!