What to do with Collards??

Collards came in the CSA share yesterday.

I've never made them. In searching the internet I found an article by Melissa Clark called Southern Comfort. Not only does this recipe use collards...but beans, too. And we got dried beans in the share also.
Research tell me these are cranberry beans. They came in their pods and when I shelled them I got about 1 1/2 cups. After shelling, they need to be sorted and washed.

The recipe doesn't call for soaking them, but I will soak them overnight and cook up a pot of collards tomorrow.

fancy dessert

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm now a very young 61!

It was a good day.

Tomorrow Sarah and Eric are coming for dinner and I'm making a fancy dessert with Seckle Pears from the CSA. I started it today, but it hasn't been easy. I wish there was a picture accompanying the Epicurious recipe!

Small Pear and Almond Cakes

It started well:

Peeling those little babies and removing the core from the bottom.

I found my melon baller was too big....so I used the 1/8 teaspoon measure.

Then I poached them in Muscat wine and lemon juice. So far so good. It said 10 -20 minutes, but I thought that was too long, so stopped at 10 minutes.

Then the trouble began.....I had to reduce the poaching liquid to a syrup...all of a sudden it looked like this. I thought I had burned it. Luckily I cooled it a bit and tasted. Just like a raisin syrup. So, I guess it's OK. Don't know what its supposed to look like.

When the syrup cooled, I poured it over the pears and let them cool. I think they should have been cooked even less. Tomorrow each one gets baked into the top of a little almond cake. Stay tuned. Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting could be a good back up.

Home 3 weeks...

and just now posting??

What a negligent blogger. What have I been doing for 3 weeks?

Making soap? Unpacking, laundry?

Well it's definitely FALL now. But here is one last taste of summer.

Goat cheese from my CSA with a tomato from my favorite farm stand on a Wasa Rye cracker.

The best lunch!

Almost Home!

It’s almost over. We’re leaving Sicily as I write.
On our way back to Rome…then flying home Wednesday.

What a wonderful respite and trip.

In addition to visiting some amazing places…..I read 3 books.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo : Loved it!!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Also loved it.

And a paperback mystery I picked up in the ship’s library.

Now…back to work.
Shipping molds, cutters and soap dishes.
Making soap. Shipping it out to stores.

And….back to my regular Mah Jongg game!

Ephesus, Turkey

Some of the best ruins we’ve seen! This post has lots of photos…..Pentti took so many good ones I didn’t know where to stop!

First of all, we booked a private driver and English speaking guide.
We were picked up at the ship at 7:30 AM and got to Ephesus before the other tourist busses. That’s why these photos don’t have any people at the ruins. It was a beautiful thing and still cool morning air!

Here we are at the start in silhouette: Pentti (with the camera) me and our guide.

More ruins...

A beautiful arch....


Marble street leading down to the library.


The Celsus Library. Incredible.



The Amphitheater where St. Paul spoke to the Ephesians



After the tour of the ruins we visited Sirince Villiage. Lovely!





Finally we stopped for lunch in an olive grove with Ollie our driver and Ilker our guide.



But not before I had an encounter with a Turkish rug salesman…..



He won!
But this was one of our best days in a string of wonderful days!

Mamma Mia! Santorini!

It looks like snow caps on top of mountains…..

then you see it’s the lovely towns of Fira and Oia on Santorini.

What an exquisite island paradise…if you don’t mind heights.

No cars in the town centers....so you have this kind of Taxi!

This was a couple traveling with TWINS and strollers on their backs.
They were on our tour bus from the ship.


Getting down requires a cable car...or walking down the donkey path...with or without donkey!


We were in Turkey today and had a spectacular visit to Ephesus. Can’t get the photos to download yet, but I will tell you we were the first visitors to Ephesus this morning and most of the photos are ‘without toursists’…..amazing. And it was still cool…..

More later! Oh...and a surprise from Turkey! Details later.

Lovely Corfu!

A 30 minute walk to the city from the pier….and then a climb to the top of the fortress left us exhausted from Corfu.

The Fortress:
















The city from the top of the Fortress: