Impresssive Impasto Painting

The boys had a great time creating a few 3-D paintings with a palette knife this week at a 4-H workshop. They get to keep one painting that they made and then the other one will be donated to a local organization as a community service project. It was fun to see all the different designs and patterns that the kids came up with.

Planting and Planning Tomatoes and herbs

I have finally planted the heriloom Tomatoes, lots of different Basil zinnias varieties, fennel and Cade's peppers in the sunny vegetable/herb box. I am planning on trying to make a round herb garden using this plan I found.

These cute little herb markers were a gift from Julie. Her husband found them at a garage sale for me. They are so Cool. Thanks!

Baking: Cream-filled Chocolate Sandwiches :Oreo- like cookies

Quinn and I made these cookies last night. They really tasted like Oreos- the cookies and the filling. The recipe comes from Martha Stewarts new Cookies book.

Cream-filled Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Cookie dough

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetended Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup sugar
10 Tbs unsalted room temperature butter
1 large egg, room temperature

Filling

1 stick unsalted room temperature butter
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 T pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cupsConfectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl - whisk together.
3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, beat to combine. with mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; continue beating just until the dough is well combined.
4. Using a 1 1/4 -inch icecream scoop, drop dough onto prepared baking sheetd. Space them 2" apart. Pour about 1/2 cup sugar into a small bowl. Dip the bottom of a drinking glass into the sugar, and press the glass onto a ball of dough to flatten to 1/8th of an inch. Repeat with the remaining dough, dipping the glass into the sugar each time. Bake till firm - 1o to 12mins.
5. Remove the sheet from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
6. Spread 1 TBS of the filling over the flat side of half the cookies. Place the remaining cookies on top, flat side down, gently pressing down on them to squeeze the filling out.

Filling directions

Place butter, shortening, vanilla and salt in a small bowl and mix with a fork until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar and mix until well blended and smooth. This may take a couple minutes. Cover the bowl and set aside at room temperature until ready to use.

Baking: Long-on-Strawberries shortcake

Scot made this fun version of strawberry shortcake the other night during the thunderstorm He doesn't usually bake but this recipe was in his Smoke and Spice Cookbook. Quinn helped out by slicing all the strawberrries He used a tip that we got from some friends and he sliced all the strawberries with this new egg slicer. It worked great and made perfect slices.


Cake:

2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon poppyseeds
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs, seperated
1/4 cups fresh ripe strawberries
1 tsp almond extract

Topping:

1 cup Whipping Cream
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2 pints strawberries, sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. Cut waxed paper or parchment circles to fit the pans, place in the pans, and grease and flour them again.

2. sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in the bowl. Stir in the poppy seeds.

3. With an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and the butter. Add the egg yolks, beating well after each addition. Combine 3/4 cups of the water with the crushed strawberries and the almond extract. Add the fruit and liquid to the mixture in thirds, alternating with the dry ingredients. Continue beating the batter until all ingredients are well incorporated.

4. With the mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the batter.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes, or until a tooth-pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the layers for about 5 minutes before removing them from the pans. Cool the layers on the cake racks.

6. Prepare the fruit topping while the cake cools. Whip the cream and 1 Tablespoon of the sugar. Refrigerate until ready to use. Combine the sliced strawberries with the remaining sugar, a Tablespoon or two at a time, to desired sweetness.

7. To assemble the cake, transfer one layer to a serving plate. Top with half of the berries and spread half the whipped cream over them. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.

Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy'

I finally have some beautiful foxgloves growing and blooming this year. I tried them this year in the backyard. I started these from seed last spring and now they are blooming. Foxglove is native to S.W. and W. Central Europe. Digitalis purpurea 'Foxy' is a biennial and sometimes a perennial. Foxglove grows in a rosette form with large green leaves, sending a large 1-2 foot tall flower spike through the middle of the rosette Mid-Spring. 'Foxy' is generally used as an annual and will get up to 3 feet in height and should be spaced every 18" when planting. The individual flowers are white with purple to maroon spotting on the inside of the flower. Foxglove is a great plant to add height into the garden with its tall flower spikes.

Hardiness: USDA Zones 4-8
Plant Use: Flowering Perennial
Exposure: Part Sun
Water Requirements: Medium

Clematis 'Dr. Ruppels'

A moderately fast growing climber with bicolor flowers: deep pink with a carmine bar and pale brown stamens. Blooms in May and again in July-September.
Excellent for growing over fences, walls, arbors, pergolas, trellises and wooden supports. It can clamber over natural supports e.g. deciduous and coniferous bushes and dwarf shrubs. I bought a sad looking clearance bare-root clematis in a small box a few years ago for a dollar from Walmart and this is what it grew up to be.