I think therefore I am a rhubarb tart

From the Recipe Box

In case you haven't gathered, I am somewhat obsessed with http://smittenkitchen.com/. I really can't help myself; everything I've made from her recipes has been delicious. I was super excited last weekend, because Tres brought home a huge box of rhubarb from one of his growers and that meant I could try out a bunch of her rhubarb recipes.

I've only just started, but would like to highly recommend to my first choice, as they were both delicious and easy to make (they turned out awfully pretty, too).

The only thing I would draw to your attention before you start, is that these need to be frozen for at least an hour before you bake them. I suspect that this is so the filling doesn't soak through the crust and it was definitely successful in that respect for me. I wanted them for breakfast, so I just made them the night before and stuck them in the freezer. Good, good stuff.

I feel like we haven't been seeing enough of the cats

on here lately, so here's a little photo bomb for you

It's starboard and larboard on deck you will sprawl

Zoiks, I started this entry weeks ago and somehow haven't managed to finish and post it. It's really unfortunate, because it's such an exciting development and we've been enjoying it quite thoroughly in the interim (perhaps that's partially responsible for my lack of posting. . .?). So, as you may have gathered from my earlier preview, we have a deck! Tres's dad came up to stay with us a few weeks ago and the two of them gathered the materials and got it all up in about 3 days.

I wasn't able to get many process photos of this project (they were too speedy and I was too busy wrangling the small one), but it is quite simply a glorious thing. We've been eating outside most nights now and enjoying breakfast on the weekends out there too. 

facing west

facing south

facing east

We have grapes planted at each post, which will eventually grow up and be trellised (can I use that as a verb?) over the top for shade. At the moment, we have some garden shade cloth stapled up there (not shown in the photos above) and that's helping to cut down on the sun a bit. The finishing touch will be to construct a bench between the posts on the east and half of the north sides (that post in the middle will be cut down to the height of the bench).

Silas has been enjoying the deck too -

here he is doing so with our dear friend Matt

Serve it up nice and hot, maybe things aren't as bad as you thought

We had a lovely weekend here yesterday and Saturday, with some warm spring sun after a week of cooler-than-is-typical weather (I know, the last time I posted I was talking about how hot it was here; what can I say: the weather, she is fickle). We celebrated by picking up some rhubarb at the first farmer's market of the year (and baking a pie!) and doing some work in the garden.

I fully intended to take a photo of the lovely pie

in it's entirety, but here we are. . .

Silas made his first foray down into the garden yesterday. It was pretty fun watching him take it all in, looking around at all of the plants, watching Tres water, and feeling the dirt with his hands and feet.

He only maintained his sunny mood for about 20 minutes, before he decided he'd had enough. Still, it was a good first attempt and I was able to get a few tomato plants in the ground before we headed in. Maybe next time we'll try him riding on my back.

dirty as any respectable farmer