12/21/2023 flan

A perfect round egg-colored flan with an apple-tinted syrup in a white bowl with black stripe around the edge
Paula brought back eggs from her family’s chickens (very free range!) and the Chef decided to make flan. I’ve never had it before. I’m scheduling this to post after we visit home so Judy doesn’t guess we’re bringing her some of these eggs, haha!
A spoon slice of flan scooped away so you can see the silky interior
It was delicious! He topped it with a sauce made from the crabapple syrup (the less-jellied jars of jelly).

10/05/2023 three chef meal

Credit for fancy salad to Paula. The Chef made the bacon cheese chicken rounds and sautéed veggies. All of us and our guest rolled out potato gnocchi. The potato gnocchi is topped with pesto made with garden basil. the sunflowers are the ones from the garden from two days ago.

12/15/2022 luxury yogurt dessert shrikhand with garden saffron

Saffron soaked in warmed yogurt liquid begins the shrikhand. I read about this dessert online, but a friend also says his mom makes it for certain holidays.
Freshly ground cardamom added
Whisking!
So smooth! It tastes best after sitting for a few days. The flavors soak into the yogurt more. It tastes like luxury.
The next day you can see the saffron dissolving into the yogurt.
The recipe amount was just enough to fill two small jars and leave enough to sample.

06/11/2022

The Chef made no bake lemon curd/ cheesecake layered parfaits with homemade whipped cream, farm share blueberries, and homemade granola for a garden tour.
Prepared the night before in the fridge.
Perfect for the tropically humid day.
A wasp carrying a caterpillar
Spittlebug
Hello Tuqu
This young man.
Two Texas dandelions from home! White specks are elderberry petals.
Bee fly
Possibly a baby Grindelia leaf??
A second Coryphantha sulcata seedling came up!!!!!
Lace bug (Tineidae) on giant ragweed leaf.
Nobody home…
…except for this crab spider!
My keeled treehoppers have a big family!!
Soooo manyyyyyy
Shackleton and Briar disagree about social distancing.
A nice jumping spider.
It’s on a houseplant that is outside for the summer.

05/06/2022 emergency strawberry eating party

Fruit processing is a social endeavor among vaccinated friends.
The Chef’s magic strawberry sauce recipe… Strawberries and powdered sugar!
The angel food cake meringue.
Angel food cake must be cooled upside down for fluffiness.
Since they’re tiny angel food cakes I call them cherub cakes.
The Chef made everything look pretty.
Dog awaits her guests. She likes guests.
Paula had the excellent idea to use our garden cart stools as more seating. Farm to table eating!

Crabapple pastilas

I got the idea to make this fluffy pastry from an Atlas Obscura article.

Before the 10 minutes of whisking.
Just started.
Getting fluffy.
Sure glad we have a machine!
Essentially applesauce meringue!!
Paula smoothed them out with a pastry cutter (see top pan) and then we put them in the oven.
We did 6+ hours at 180°F. The two in deeper pans took longer even though I tried to make them about the same depth.
All baked!
Cut up. One had its crust flake off.
I forgot to keep some aside to paste together layers, so we get single layers.
It’s very nice! Like sweet tart astronaut food!