Purple Reign

It has occurred to me, belatedly, that I've got an awful lot of purple in my garden.

My dwarf lilac bushes have bloomed and it's a pretty dazzling display, even though the bloom time of these flowers is much shorter than that of my full-size lilacs.

I love the light purple undertones on the creamy-white blossoms.

My yellow irises haven't bloomed yet, but the purple ones are up all over the yard!

The columbines are still going strong...

...and while my white phlox isn't quite ready to bloom, the purple phlox is glorious.

There are still a few purple flowers on my creeping thyme, too.

The sage has bloomed, with open-throated flowers that bees love to visit...

...and my salvia is open for business, too!

I don't mind having so much purple in the garden. To me it's a great restful color, and perfect for spring. I save the pops of color for summer!

Still, to break things up a little, I've put in a little color here and there. These geraniums brighten up the corners of our back walkway, and draw attention away from our too-long grass. Yes, we're mowing this week! :)

I am absolutely entranced by the velvety wonderful-ness of celosia. A neighbor has full-size celosia in a dramatic maroon color with a flower head as big as a dinner plate. I am in love! I spread several of these around...they look nice with purple and provide a little burst of color in unexpected places...which I love.

No vegetables this year. I'm slowly filling our containers with colorful annuals, in case we do put our house on the market soon. I'm not a big fan of these types of plants, but they'll be fine here for now.

I'm preparing to move some succulents outside. I got a big bunch of hens and chicks at church on Sunday and am scouting around for a good place to put them!

Seedlings are popping up everywhere. Zinnias, of course, are nearly guaranteed to grow...

...and I'm pleased with the sheer volume of cosmos coming up, too. I've got light pink and cream cosmos in some parts of the garden, and more dramatic orange in other parts.

I have a few more patches of seeds to plant but I'm waiting for this cold patch to pass.

This little squirrel is waiting, too...waiting for a nice meal.

He scouts around for a good location...

...and begins to dig.

Success! I love watching our backyard wildlife, even if we've just got squirrels right now.

I've been so busy in the yard and with our business that I haven't had much time for other projects. I've carved out a little time for knitting, and have completed a surprise gift for a friend...which can't yet be posted. I'm working on a new project now, which is also...a surprise. I will try to squeeze in some not-so-secretive things soon, though!

I've still been baking, but not nearly as much as before. Still, I had time to try out a new recipe recently. Chocolate cookies, with a little surprise inside! Basic, tasty, and quick...just what I needed.

Chocolate Surprise Cookies
From Sweet Pea's Kitchen

Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Filling
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. To make cookies, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together and set aside. Using your mixer, beat together brown and white sugars, butter and 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter for 1 - 2 minutes, until fluffy. Add the vanilla, beat well, and then the egg. Once well mixed, fold in flour mixture and mix until just combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together filling ingredients until well-combined.

Now you're ready to combine the two! I'll warn you...this isn't pretty. First, pull off a hunk of your chocolate dough and flatten it in your hand, like this.

Next, take a spoonful of your peanut butter mixture and add it to the middle of your cookie.

Fold it over like a taco, seal the edges, and then roll it around in your hand until a ball is formed.

Then, smash it flat and toss it on your cookie sheet. You can make these as large or as small as you'd like. I think I got about 15 fairly large cookies from this recipe.

Bake for 5 - 7 minutes, until the bottoms are barely crisped. You don't want to overcook, because that will make your cookies hard. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.

The finished cookies are never going to win a beauty contest...

...but they taste awfully good. The peanut butter filling is a nice sweet surprise.

I hope you'll give them a try this week.

Enjoy!

Mother's Day Melee

With the weather getting warmer, I've been out in the garden a lot. We've got dandelions with stems as thick as small trees, it seems, that break in two with a gleeful ~pop!~ when you tug on them. As much as I dislike trying to uproot them, dandelions have a special beauty, I think. They are so symmetrical, with their delicate, feathery seeds.

The seeds themselves remind me of arrows. They're tiny and ridged and cling loosely to their base, just waiting for a light wind to waft them away. To make more tree-sized dandelions. But we've got to take our small pleasures where we can, and I enjoy THIS part of the dandelion, at least!

I'm continually amazed that despite my bumbling ignorance in the garden, plants continue to flourish year after year. Without much thought to soil or light needs, I planted a tiny sage plant by our back walkway a few years ago. Now it's a woody shrub and provides me with fresh sage for 9 months out of the year.

I adore sage leaves. Not only do I like to roll them between my fingers for the smell, I like how they look - and feel! - exactly like cats' tongues.

My dill self-seeded with abandon.

My bronze fennel did too. I dug up all the volunteers yesterday and planted them in a row in front of a poor-soil area of fencing. I know they'll be beautiful (and caterpillar-covered!) in two months.

My obedient plant is thriving...the yarrow is throwing up stalks...the columbines are more beautiful by the day...the peonies are nearly ready to open...and the irises are up. Irises have the most delicately veined petals.

My favorite part, though, is this strip of 'fur' on each one. It looks like a sea anemone, and is a welcoming beacon to bees and butterflies.

Bosewichte stays in the window constantly, watching me work. He would like nothing more than to be outside with me, but he's going to have to wait until we move!

Tabitha, who has never been outside, is content to loll around in a sunbeam and leave the outdoor longing to her big brother.

Mother's Day was last week, and as usual, I planned a big meal for a few mothers that I know. I set up a table in our "second living room", although I was short a few chairs...so many things are in storage!

I filled the room with flowers. Geraniums and violas, because they're so bright and colorful...

...but also bunches of lilacs from my dwarf bushes that are just starting to bloom. The smell is amazing!

Everyone got a little packet of one of my favorite flowers...

...and a little stamped placecard.

I worked up a menu: 44-clove garlic soup, fresh baguettes, spinach quiche, roasted asparagus, and a shrimp and feta dish, plus salad. I wanted a special dessert and decided on an old Martha Stewart trick: dried pineapple flowers. It's ingenious, really. Remove the rind from a pineapple and cut paper-thin slices. Put the slices on a greased cookie sheet and place in an oven preheated to 225 degrees and bake for 1 hour, flipping halfway through. If the slices aren't dry enough, continue to bake until they're almost completely dry.

When you reach that stage, press the slices into muffin tins so they'll dry into a flower-like shape and leave them out overnight.

Because my pineapple came off in "slabs" rather than "slices", I had to dry mine for a really long time. But they eventually dried - for the most part.

I decided to make hummingbird cupcakes, which are made with banana, coconut, and pineapple. I went to a reputable source for the recipe, but my cupcakes were completely flat and wouldn't bake in the middle. I was in a panic. I knew I had to salvage them somehow, because people were coming in just 2 hours! I made a quick batch of mini cupcakes that I knew would bake through easily. I topped them with cream cheese frosting and a dried pineapple flower.

Then, I cup up the regular-sized cupcakes and layered them in a trifle dish with cream cheese frosting. I've got to say...it was beautiful, and they were delicious! Just in case, I whipped up a batch of my favorite can't-go-wrong lemon blackberry muffins topped with nutmeg and turbinado sugar.

I also made berry charlottes, which didn't turn out like I'd hoped. These charlottes consisted of 2 layers of homemade fruit mouse, on a ladyfinger base, surrounded by ladyfingers, topped with fresh fruit. Well, my mouse didn't taste sweet enough and my ladyfingers were floppy.

The berries looked pretty, though!

All in all, even with droopy ladyfingers, the meal was a success! I love getting together with friends for a home-cooked meal. I think it's a lost art in today's "dine out" culture. I'm looking forward to our next time together!

I hope you have a great week!