Friday photos and fun! 8 June 2007 9:14 pm
Posted by Tracy in : baking, dessert, friends, garden, people, pictures, salad, school , trackbackSummary: the end of spring term at the Urban Farm, a really big bottle of wine, and an invitation! With pictures! For everybody (like me) who’s less visually and more verbally inclined, I was going to post a big list of fun things I’ve been reading lately as well, but that little project will have to wait until Monkey Monday because I am all tired from playing in the garden for hours (take that, rosemary bush!) and filling up on delicious dinner (soft corn tacos with garlicky greens and refried beans, from Jack Bishop’s A Year In a Vegetarian Kitchen). The weekend is certainly off to a good start. But I digress.
Yesterday was the last meeting of my Urban Farm class, so we had a big potluck dinner to celebrate. I brought two loaves of no-knead bread, one whole-wheat and one with a mix of cornmeal and polenta, and they were a rousing success. Yay! Also because I was baking two loaves at once, I couldn’t do both in the usual cast iron pan, but I’m happy to report I found a replacement that makes an arguably even more beautiful, taller and rounder loaf (unfortunately I was in a hurry and did not get pictures). Anyway. I did take one last set of pictures as I was reluctantly leaving the farm after the party, and here they are. I spent most of the party with my hands full (more on that in a bit) but I got one picture that really summarizes the awesomeness:
Yes, that is a wheelbarrow full of salad. (Oh, and for the record, these slightly blurry and off-kilter pictures are freaking fantastic considering I broke our camera’s viewscreen so we have to take photos half-blind. But I digress.)
After the Urban Farm party (including what felt like hours of fava bean preparation for a pasta dish that turned out well worth the effort), it was time to hurry home, laden down with still more favas, for games night with friends. We had such a good turnout that we were able to finish a freaking huge bottle of wine, shown here with a pint glass and regular-size bottle of wine for scale:
The big bottle was a special at Trader Joe’s a while back, and we could not resist its power (you’d better believe I’m planning to use the empty as a sunflower vase). How big is it?
3 liters, according to the back of the bottle. I believe the wine snob term is “double magnum.”
Anyway, over games last night Peter and our friend Victor got to talking about baking, and perhaps in part due to the influence of said double magnum, one thing led to another, and the next thing we knew people (mostly me) were chanting, “Cake-off! Cake-off!” and so next Wednesday night around 7 PM people are meeting at our house to share and compare delicious baked goods. If you’re reading this, you’re invited, but drop me an email if you’re coming (it’s on my resumé) so I can make sure we have enough plates and forks. Cake contributions are admired but not required; I might make the lemon Bundt cake from the first Cook’s Illustrated I ever got in the mail (so exciting! and the cake’s not bad, either!)
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Correction:
CAKE-OFF 2007 will be held on THURSDAY June 14th at Chez Victor. (Email me for directions).
Thanks Victor! I was going to make a sheepish emergency update post about it eventually.