Happy Easter weekend! We are back in town with our new little (well, not so little) puppy. Next week I will share our cross country adventures and introduce you to the handsome fella. With Easter being so early this year, the weatherman is predicting chilly temperatures and rain. So much for eating outside and enjoying the spring weather on Sunday. It’s that time again and welcome to Saturday Meanderings, where we chat about all good things these past 2 weeks, as I missed last week.

Daughter’s Birthday dinner party

Luckily, our daughter is home for her birthday and we had a casual dinner party celebrating both her birthday and St. Patrick’s Day.

With 12 guests, I make 2 of my Guinness pot pies, a large salad and two desserts~Baileys Irish cream cheesecake and a London Fog cake (Julianna’s request). These tried and true recipes are always a hit.

Annual Shamrock Run

Fortunately, after indulging in so many good calories, my daughter and I get up early the following morning to participate in the annual Shamrock Run. It is chilly and rainy, but we felt blessed to see a rainbow before the race started.

Julianna ran the 10K with both her dogs (just amazing!) and I thought I would just walk the 5K. However, at the starting line everyone around me started running and in order to keep up, I, too, started running. Please note that after 3 knee surgeries my doctor advises me not to run anymore. I don’t know what came over me but I ran about 60% of the race and placed 5th in my age category. Not without consequences, though.

I could hardly walk later that day and of course, my knee ballooned up a bit. What was I thinking?!? Nonetheless, it is a fun run with all sorts of outrageous St. Patrick’s Day attire. Plus I never want to miss out of an opportunity to do something with my children. I am trying to turn off the voice in my head that is saying, “Mary, you are too old for this”.

Fruit picking

It’s that time of year where we need to glean all the citrus trees. Sweet smelling blossoms are now opening on most of the trees. Removing this year’s crop of fruit will help the production of next year’s crop.

In our orchard we have 12 citrus trees ranging from oranges to kumquats to grapefruits. With our abundance of fruit, we ship boxes of fruit to family and friends and donate the rest.

Picking fruit equals many arm scratches, so I finally put on my Farmers Defense sleeves, which are a must for any gardener. They come in various designs and you can find them here. Really love this product!

Our Yard this Time of Year

Easter and Spring is when our yard looks its best~mostly around mid-to-late April. A few trees are still bare and will bud later, but the flowers and the lawn are at their prime.

Rose Garden and New Book

The rose bushes in the garden look so healthy and vibrant. A few buds are appearing and I am trying to keep an eye out for aphids, which generally are in abundance this time of year.

I have always wanted to truly learn about roses, but I’m a bit of a weekend gardener. Do you follow Grace Rose Farm on Instagram @gracerosefarm? The photos are always so gorgeous and you can order both cut flowers and rose plants directly from them. I recently received her book, Garden Roses and it is a complete guide to growing and arranging roses.

Currently reading this book to up my roses game. Note: I thought the book would be coffee table book size but it is smaller, which I like. The photos are just stunning and it’s written is a way that is easy to understand.

Making Easter Baskets

A quick trip to Target this week results in some great finds for Easter and Easter baskets. How cute are these fabric, bottom weighted chickens with spectacles?!? At $3.00 a piece, you can find them in their dollar section at the store entrance. I cannot find these online so they must be an in-store special.

I love making Easter baskets and like to find a container that serves a purpose afterwards. These coil rope baskets with leather (pleather?) handles by Brightroom are wonderful storage containers. They come in various sizes but I have the 11″ one here and they are currently on sale for $8.00.

In the basket, there is a bottle of rosé Prosecco, chocolate bunnies, various toiletries-deodorant, facial masks, favorite candies and a wonderful smelling candle. Another Target find at the Threshold section (Studio McGee’s line), this 3 wick candle comes in a matte ceramic container and the scent (Citron and Sands) is fabulous. A bargain for such a large candle at $17.00.

Flower Pressing

Do you remember the post about making your own framed botanical artwork? If not, here it is. In order to press the flowers, I use all of our big books, which is cumbersome.

But Rachel, from The Ponds Farmhouse is very creative with a super handy husband. I love this flower press they make from scrap materials.

Rachel puts her beautiful touches on it using a flower motif. I certainly could have used this when making my botanical artwork. What a wonderful way to preserve the beauty of your garden and yard. You can see Rachel’s blog post here. I think I may ask my husband to make this….

What Am I Reading?

My friend, Andrea recommends listening to this book . However, I read it instead and it is SO good. I imagine it is excellent whether you read or listen to it. It has over 10,000 reviews with 4.6 stars and is a best seller on Amazon. I highly recommend The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. So well done. Now I need to read her other novels, Code Name Hélèna and I Was Anastasia. Is anyone familiar with this author?

Mary’s Must Haves

As you can see in some of the photos above, I really love this lightweight polyester vest from 32 Degrees. Originally, I bought mine at Costco, but inventory there is certainly hit or miss. Amazon sells this same brand in 6 colors and it has a 4.6 rating.

Also Amazon has a similar looking one for less money and in 12 colors (currently 50% off), but I cannot verify the quality. However, with over 13,000 reviews and a 4.4 rating, it may be a good product. I actually might purchase one and try it out as I like some of the color choices.

What I love about this vest is that it is very light, packable, and washable. During these Spring days when it is warm one minute and cold the next, it is perfect for me, especially in our drafty old home.

I own a blue and olive green one and depending on the weather, it works well with long or short sleeves. I’m 5’4″ and am wearing a Small. This yellow one is particularly cute, isn’t it?

Great Rubber Shoes

These Sloggers are my go-to shoes when it’s wet or muddy outside. They are perfect for gardening too. My very first pair was a gift from my friend, Janie and not only are they cute, but oh so comfortable. Now I own two pairs and one set of boots.

With 24 designs to choose from, you can be slogging through the mud in style. I typically wear a 7.5 woman’s shoe size so the size 8 works out well.

I could go on and on today, but there are hot cross buns and babka bread to be made for Easter Sunday. Wishing you a blessed holiday weekend. Please look for my post next week where I will share all the details of this handsome guy!

With quite the rain, thunder and lightning storms this week (hail in some areas), March is definitely in like a lion. We need and love the rain and I can hear all my plants making gulping noises as they absorb nature’s shower. Happy Saturday and weekend, my friends! It’s a chilly morning here at Bella Terra, but enjoying the quiet with a nice cup of coffee. Let’s get started and check out all the good things that happened this week.

Early Signs of Spring

Isn’t it interesting that year after year, the seasons come and go, whether we are ready or not? Even though several of our trees are still in winter mode and bare, there are many plants that shout that Spring is on its way.

So sad that we lost our apple tree to the extreme heat last summer as I already miss it’s pretty pink blooms.

The peach and apricot trees are blooming, and our newly planted Santa Rosa plum tree is filled with flowers.

Lady Banks roses run the entire width of the front of the property along the street. These dense climbing vines provide privacy and reduce the traffic noise. But this time of year the long and tall hedge fills with delicate pale yellow roses.

Though the sweet yellow roses only last a few weeks, and watching them come to life is a reminder of Spring’s beauty. Poppies and hollyhocks are growing but not blooming yet, but there are signs of new life everywhere.

Garden Update

Finally, this weekend, I am planning to work on the vegetable garden. This week I picked all the tomatoes on my winter crop. What I noticed is that the tomato plants from last fall, look healthy and are actually producing flowers.

Typically, I pull the old plants and put in new ones. But after doing a bit of research, apparently some tomatoes are annuals and others perennials. They are called determinant (annuals) and indeterminant (perennials) plants. Since many of my plants are heirloom varieties, it appears they are indeterminant and continue to produce fruit until the plant is killed by frost.

Does anyone grow tomatoes that you would consider perennial? I did trim the plants back to newer growth areas and will fertilize this weekend. Hoping for an abundant healthy crop from them.

My 5 Days in Florida

Last weekend I was in Celebration, Florida at my dear friend, Chloe’s home (Celebrate and Decorate). What an absolute treat to be in her lovely home with 5 other blogging friends. We try and meet twice a year because we enjoy each other’s company and learn so much from each other.

Chloe arranges for a lovely boat ride around Winter Park and Lake Osceola, with a delicious lunch following.

In addition to exploring, we work collectively on blogging issues. It is fun to take photographs of Chloe’s Easter decor and tablescape. To see more about this seasonal table for two, click here.

Another photo opportunity is Chloe’s large chocolate Easter bunny in this basket of hydrangeas.

Check out these cute bunnies on pedestals on Chloe’s living room mantel? They are $5.98 each and you can find them here.

Of course, darling Lily spent the entire time with the girls. I swear she is a person reincarnated…maybe even a princess in a previous life.

Bread Making Week

I am in the bread making mood this week and finished 3 loaves. This is my second attempt at a Honey Lavender sourdough bread, a recipe adapted from @barefoot.mimosas. Surprisingly, this bread is delicious. Sometimes rose or lavender can be a bit too perfume-y or soapy, but the subtle herbal flavor is just fantastic. It is especially tasty out of the toaster with honey butter.

Another favorite is my cheese, garlic and rosemary sourdough bread which I mix up after dinner, let it rise overnight and bake the following day. So simple and easy, but delicious especially when experimenting with cheeses from gruyerè to cheddar.

I am also thinking about having a Bread class here at Bella Terra~a general one about sourdough, yeast and quick breads. What do you think?

From the Internet:

Lemons, Lemons, and More Lemons

As you know, I recently hosted the All Things Lemon class (see that post here). Also in this post are some kitchen tools I recommend for working with lemons.

My sweet friend, Wendy from WM Design House has a marvelous post on several way to use lemons from making a household cleaner to creating a lemon scrub.

Now is the time to take advantage of the lemon season, before the prices go up over the summer.

Spring Cleaning

Each Spring, my mother would open up all the windows in our Connecticut home and start her spring cleaning. Often times she would change out the linens, replace the rugs and lighten the winter look to the new season.

There is no easier way to refresh your house for the Spring with a good deep cleaning. If you change out your rugs for lighter weights and colors, then you need to read my friend, Andrea’s post on Rug Buying Guide: An Essential Part of Decor.

Not sure of what size rug to use? Andrea has all the answers in her post. There are so many attractive, affordable rugs on the market and this is another simple way to update your home for spring and summer.

Bulb Gardening

Here in Phoenix, now is the time to garden for Spring. Each year I look forward to my bulb garden, however, this year it is underwhelming. I am learning that bulbs last for only a few years here and need re-planting.

Kim from Shiplap and Shells has a very informative post on Growing Tulips from Bulbs: Tulip Care and Maintenance 101. So if you are interested in planting bulbs in the fall and enjoying their beauty next year, check out her post here.

Wishing you a terrific weekend! We have a friend’s birthday event tonight and hope to get the garden cleaned up and planted.

Saturday’s All Things Lemon class, with 10 eager participants, is a resounding success. It is the perfect time to celebrate citrus season here in Phoenix, Arizona. You cannot beat the quality and freshness of picking a lemon, orange, grapefruit, tangelo or tangerine right from the tree. This class is an opportunity to gather and learn, meet new friends, and taste fresh recipes.

Making and Baking

We start in the kitchen, with our first recipe, an easy Meyer lemon tart. We learn how to blind bake a sweet pastry crust and whirl all the filling ingredients in a blender.

Adding a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, thin lemon slices, fresh berries and mint sprigs dresses up this dessert for company.

Typically, I make most of our cakes from scratch, but I realize that store-bought cake mixes makes life easier. The next recipe (thank you, Chloe!), Limoncello Bundt cake is made with both a white cake mix and an instant lemon pudding. With only 15 minutes to prepare, this recipe is a stunner.

While things are baking in the oven, we head out to the back porch. It is a beautiful, moderate day and we use the outdoor table to make preserved lemons.

The preserved lemon recipe I have shared before and you can find it in detail in this previous post. We have fun smushing the lemons into a jar, adding fresh lemon juice and spices.

Participants are given instructions on shaking the jar for the next 2 to 3 weeks until the lemons are preserved. Additional recipes for using preserved lemons is also provided, including my favorite pasta one.

Making Limoncello

Next up is making limoncello from scratch. Since this recipe takes a few weeks of macerating the lemon rinds in Everclear, I make it ahead of time to maximize our time in class. Providing each attendee with their own simple syrup, they can adjust the sweetness according to their own tastes.

Is limoncello better with Everclear or vodka? Everclear is a good choice because when mixed with simple sugar, it dilutes to the correct alcohol ratio of 28-32%. Vodka is a bad choice because it will lower the alcohol ratio to about 14-18% which is less than the traditional Limoncello.

In addition to traditional limoncello, I make Meyer lemon Limoncello, again a few weeks ahead of time. Providing some sips, some participants prefer it to the original limoncello.

The class concludes with taste testing the lemon tart, limoncello bundt cake and of course, limoncello. New friendships are made and everyone goes home with their bag of goodies.

Recommended Supplies

Recommendations are made regarding supplies: lemon squeezer, zester, bundt and tart pans.

The bundt pan I use for the limoncello cake I find at a local thrift store for $6.00. However, you can also find many sizes and styles online. Here’s one made by Wilton and is carbon steel now 25% off for $13.99 with 4.8 rating with over 15,000 reviews.

The best pan for the easy lemon tart is one with a removable base and a fluted edge. I made this tart in both a removable base pan and a springform pan. Clearly, the removable base tart pan works best.

As I conduct classes here at Bella Terra, I am learning so much. In researching different varieties of lemons, I discover that most store bought lemons are treated with a wax coating to protect them while shipping and to make them more visually appealing (shiny).

The wax is either beeswax (which isn’t too bad) but another is petroleum-based. So if you are using the rinds of store bought lemons, soak the lemons first in hot water and watch the wax rise to the surface. The thought of zesting wax in your recipes is a bit yucky.

I want to thank all those who donated freshly picked lemons to this class ~Sandy, Anne, Tevia, Dawn, and Steve. You are very generous! I am also very grateful to those who signed up for this class. We did have fun!

With apple season just around the corner, let’s talk about apples and my favorite apple pie recipe. After being raised on a wide variety of Connecticut apples, it’s hard not to be an apple snob.  But we do have a few varietals that grow well here in Arizona, depending on the USDA Hardiness Zone.  At Bella Terra, we grow Anna apples that I harvest in June, which seems completely counter-intuitive to me.  I try to cold store them in the refrigerator, but unless I use them quickly, they tend to shrivel and get soft.

At our cabin in the White Mountains, we have a Winter Banana apple tree which is ready for picking in October.  Our tree produces fruit approximately every other year. These apples are good for eating and making applesauce, but are not the best apple for making pies, because they are soft and sweet.

Types of Apples for Baking

For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. These apples are called “baking apples” and they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, and Newtown Pippin.

A Favorite Apple Pie Memory

When my daughter, Elisabeth was in 4th grade, I was her Girl Scout troop leader.  I thought it would be a great idea to teach 36 nine-year olds how to make a pie from scratch during February’s Great American Pie month. 

Our meetings were 1.5 hours long, not long enough to bake a pie, but long enough to understand a recipe and assemble the ingredients.  I envisioned each girl bringing home a freshly made 9″ pie to bake at home.  What the heck was I thinking?  First of all, trying to get 36 nine-year old girls to pay attention was a feat in itself.  But with rolling pins, sugar and flour?

One hundred pounds of apples, 50 lbs of flour, and 15 lbs of sugar later….well, you get the picture.  Fortunately, I “pre-made” most of the dough and “pre-cut” most of the apples.  We broke into 6 teams of 6 girls, with lots of parent helpers. Each girl left the meeting, covered in flour but with a full size pie to take home and bake. As you can imagine, it was a bit of an exhausting experience, but hopefully a meeting they will remember.

An Affordable tool for peeling lots of apples

I wouldn’t have survived cutting all those apples without one of these:

It’s a heavy duty, durable apple peeler and corer that I highly recommend. I don’t know what genius invented it but I marvel every time I use it.  You can find one on Amazon for under $20.00 here.  This gadget seems to get a great deal of use at our house, especially in the fall when I need to peel larger quantities of apples (can be used for potatoes, too.)

Just by manually turning the handle, this device peels, cores and slices the apples.

The base has a suction cup to stabilize the peeler on your work surface. I have used this for apples in all sizes and it works brilliantly! 

Homemade Crust or Store Bought?

After making and tasting several pie dough recipes, I select one from King Arthur Baking for my Girl Scout troop pie making extravaganza.  Making a pie crust from scratch is super easy. Using a food processor to combine ingredients is a terrific shortcut vs mixing by hand.

Just add all the ingredients and pulse away, adding more ice water as you go to get the proper consistency of dough.

The key to making this dough so flaky is the combination of both vegetable shortening and butter.  Leaving large chunks of it in the dough makes for pockets of flakiness. 

If you are unable or unwilling to make your own pie crust dough, you cannot go wrong with Trader Joe’s pie crust  as a substitute. Each packet contains 2 crusts and it’s slightly sweet flavor and flakiness is a winner.. You just have to plan ahead to defrost it properly or it’s difficult to lay open.

Tried and True Apple Pie Recipe

Often I will whip up a pie without a recipe. I squeeze fresh lemon juice over the sliced apples to prevent browning and then coat the apples with a mixture of flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. However, it’s a bit of a crap shoot. Depending on the water content of the apple, the final result might be a too juicy or dry pie. A juicy, wet pie can make the bottom crust soggy.

After experimenting with various apple pie recipes, I have had the most luck with Serious Eats Perfect Apple Pie recipe. You par-cook the apples before adding them to the crust and so far, every time I make this recipe my pie (and apples) cook perfectly.

Pretty decorative Pie Crusts

There is a plethora of pictures on Pinterest showing beautifully decorated pie crusts. When I have time and I’m not rushing to throw a pie together, it is fun to play with designs.

Happy Baking

You cannot beat the smell of an apple pie baking~~seems so appropriate for this time of year.  I hope this inspires you to bake a pie from scratch!

It is always important to cool your fruit pie before cutting into it. However, it is VERY tempting to dive into it right away, as the freshly baked apple pie aroma is intoxicating.

Do you have a favorite apple recipe? Take advantage of the fall apple season and enjoy your pie baking!

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I recently purchased a new book, Simply Living Well by Julia Watkins. This hard cover book is a guide to creating a natural, low-waste home. The book is filled with great ideas and recipes on how to reduce what you consume and throw away. But it got me thinking about how we live. What are we currently doing that is living efficiently and reduce what we take in and what we discard?

Composting

About 30% of our kitchen waste is recycled through composting. I have written about this before (see post here) and we put every single peel, pit, skin, eggshell and other non-cooked fruits, vegetables and flowers into the composting garbage can.

Grass clippings, tree branches and other brown material is also composted here on the property. This significantly reduces our waste that goes to the City’s landfill and dump.

All the luscious rich fertilized soil goes back into the yard~the garden, the orchard and all the bedding areas. Giving back to the land is very rewarding.

If you do not compost, please consider doing so. There are many containers on the market that make composting a breeze.

Recycling

The City of Phoenix has a recycling program so we separate our garbage into separate bins for pick up once a week. Cardboard boxes, paper, plastic, glass and cans are separated from the trash. In our kitchen we have 3 cabinets with pull out garbage cans~one for composting, one for trash and the other for recyclables. Does your community have a recycling program?

Gardening and Chickens

Growing our own fruits and vegetables reduces the number of trips we take to the grocery store and farmers market. With the exception of summer, our garden is in production.

What we don’t eat, or what has grown past its prime, goes to the chickens or into the compost bin. Growing your own vegetables and fruit is immensely satisfying too.

Our chickens provide us with the most delicious eggs. In order to increase egg production, we will soon need to get some more chicks as our flock is aging out. It is joyful to have these feathered friends and they, too, help reduce our food scrap waste.

This summer we are spending more time up at our mountain cabin. If we continue to do so, then it may be time to plant a garden and set up a composting system there as well.

Preserving Food and not being wasteful

Growing up in a family of 7, my mother never wasted a thing. For example, leftover stale bread was turned into bread pudding. I am sure that philosophy is a result of living through the Great Depression and also having a limited budget.

Because I was raised with a frugal mindset, it’s hard for me to throw good food away. I just made a big batch of mole chicken and after eating it a few days in a row, I will freeze the rest in individual servings for another time. Same with the big pot of chili I just made. How nice to have a meal ready, especially on those busy days where cooking for dinner is the last thing I feel like doing!

Abundant harvests from our garden or the orchard are canned and preserved for use during another season. From fruit preserves to tomato sauce, these are either canned or frozen. Though preserving food does take a bit of work, the rewards outweigh the effort. Opening up a jar of summer tomato sauce in the middle of winter, is such a treat!

Laundry

Line drying here in Phoenix, especially in the summer, is a quick and easy energy efficient task. Not only does the sun acts as a powerful disinfectant but also has natural bleaching powers. Nothing smells better than slipping into freshly washed sheets! Even my children notice when their sheets are washed and line dried.

Our local electric rates increase significantly over the summer. Not running the dryer and other large appliances is an effective money saving strategy too.

Coffee

I recall a time when daily and sometimes more, we would drive through the local Dutch Brothers and get our coffee. The staff knew us by name and their fun, upbeat vibe was a plus to our cup of Joe. Unfortunately, that coffee location closed, but fortunately for us we removed Dutch Brothers as a line item from our monthly budget.

Now we make our coffee here at home using my favorite Nespresso machine (currently 38% off a used one on Amazon!). The coffee pods get recycled through Nespresso recycling program. Making our morning coffee at home not only saves money, but we are no longer using paper cups, plastic tops, time and gas to drive to and from Dutch Brothers.

Paperwork

As I mentioned in a blog post about my kitchen, there is an industrial shredder placed sitting in our kitchen, which some people think is odd. See that post here. Daily, the excessive amounts of junk mail is shredded and added to the composting bin. The shredder keeps the paperwork stack down on the counter and it gets recycled!

Manage our Utilities

A few years ago, I was asked to give a lecture to a group of 7th and 8th grade students about the recent utility (electric) increase and how that rate hike affected our neighborhood. Of course, I didn’t even realize we had a rate hike. So in order to provide an intelligent presentation, I did a deep dive and thorough analysis of the cost of electricity.

What I discover is that we, personally, are not on the most efficient or advantageous utility plan. Once I understand that, then I start paying attention to our electric usage. By changing our behavior slightly, we save quite a bit of money. Over time, we save even more.

The moral to this story is 1) understand your utility usage; 2) investigate the best plan for you and your family; 3) by making reasonable changes you can reduce your usage and save money.

Now, during the warmer months (trust me, air-conditioning bills can be ridiculously expensive here), we monitor our large appliance and air conditioning usage from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Water consumption

Water here in Arizona is a precious resource. Rates increase especially in June, July and August. By using flood irrigation provided locally, we are able to deep water the orchard and yard at a low annual cost. The well that we re-instituted many years ago, handles additional yard watering in a cost-effective manner (see that post here).

Room for Improvement

Like with most things in life, I can certainly improve and lessen my waste. We have too many things that need to be sorted, organized and donated. My hope is to reduce the items in each room by 50%. Lofty goal, but this is an ongoing effort.

Are you familiar with Marie Kondo’s organizational tips? I believe she has (had) a Netflix show where she shares her organizational philosophy. See where I use Maria’s tip in organizing my master closet here.

Other Ways live Simply

I’d love to live in a place that doesn’t require driving everywhere. Phoenix is more car-dependent than other cities, but during the cooler weather I do try to bike and walk more. No one wants to bike or walk when it is 116 degrees.

In addition, I need to assess my use of cleansers/detergents and investigate more eco-friendly cosmetics.

So what are you doing to live more simply and efficiently? Please share any ideas so we can all get better at this!

Happy Wednesday!

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This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday #614