Author Archives: Samantha

Growing Out Violas–a past foray into plant selection

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Back in 2007-2010, I was intrigued by violas, those smaller cousins of the pansy. They come in such a variety of colors and patterns (though not quite as many colors as pansies), and their flowers, though smaller than pansies, are more numerous and less liable to flop over.

They have the additional feature that in this climate, one can plant them in fall and they often survive the winter and bloom again beautifully in spring. (They don’t survive the summer–whether due to heat or the natural limits of their lifespan I’m still not sure.)

If you don’t deadhead them, many will form seedpods after blooming, and for some reason I decided to save seeds with the idea of selecting for interesting flowers in the next generation. I didn’t actually try to cross flowers with each other–that would have required a much greater level of effort. I just picked interesting plants and saved seeds from them in small labeled envelopes.

Trays of viola seedlings just starting to bloom.

Then I planted them out. In 2010 I planted quite a lot of them. (Were all these saved seeds? Did I really get some flowers that were so dark?)

It was fun seeing what colors showed up. The yellow ones, as I recall, tended to produce just yellow offspring, and the one called “Peach Frost” also seemed to produce more like itself.

“Peach Frost”, I think.

Unfortunately, as I look back at what passes for a Garden Log, I discover that I kept terrible notes. No system. What did “5b” mean? Did I just pick some viola, whether something I bought or a random volunteer (I got quite a few volunteers) and give it a number? Or was “5” its parent? Was I just trying to label the picture for the next year’s seed?

The mysterious “5b”.

The other problem was that I really didn’t have anything to aim for. No special color that isn’t already easily available, and as for patterns… as far as I can tell, blue-and-cream combinations depend greatly on time, temperature, or both. A viola that looks fabulous at first can have very boring flowers later in the season and vice versa. A nice-looking bloom can change as it ages, getting more or less interesting as it does. So while I picked flowers that I liked, I had no basis for selecting among their offspring.

An interesting purple-and-white combination–for now.

I did try, briefly, to evaluate the scent of the violas, since I like fragrant flowers. I bought varieties that were supposed to have some fragrance, and checked to see if I liked them. But even when violas have a fragrance, it’s pretty mild. And it’s hard to smell a flower that’s so close to the ground.

To top it off, perceived fragrance varies with the temperature and maybe some other conditions as well. I know this is the case because I choose roses as much by fragrance as by appearance, and I have to keep in mind that some days I can hardly smell anything from even moderately fragrant roses, while other days the scents are much more pronounced. (I think individuals also vary in how well they perceive specific scents. No wonder catalog descriptions are so useless when it comes to fragrance.)

Looking back on my foray into viola selection, I rather miss the excitement of seeing that first flower and comparing it to its parent (the known parent). Maybe I should plant violas from saved seed again, even if I’m only doing it from idle curiosity. But first, I’ll need to save some seeds.

I guess that’s as good a reason as any to buy more plants this fall.

Till next post.

The Dangers of “Updating” Your Décor

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In the newspaper awhile ago, I saw an article titled: “Seven Ways to Update Your Décor”. And I said to myself, “Why on earth would I want to ‘update’ my décor?”
It makes sense to update things like computers and cell phones and smoke detectors—newer models are likely to have improved functioning. The same can’t generally be said for the latest thing in flooring or countertops or furniture. Mushroom-colored walls work about as well as walls that are off-white or hyacinth blue. So why “update” your interior?
The implied contrast is a “dated” look. Think of a room with wood paneling, a burnt-orange shag carpet, macrame plant hangers, … do I need to say more? Dated. But why is it “dated”?  Because at one time—I think it was in the seventies?–everyone had wood paneling and orange shag. This also explains why “dated” is a negative word. Like a song that gets played too many times on the radio (ooh—a dated simile, too!), the sheer overexposure burned people out on it.
Therein lies the problem. If you “update” your old flooring and counters to something that is currently popular, then in ten years (or less), your current choices will look “dated.” They will be “so terribly 2017”. So you’ll feel a need to “update” yet again.
Your décor should please you, the person who has to live with it. Admittedly, as a person living at a certain point in history, what pleases you is likely to have some similarity to what pleases other people at that point in history. Maybe your group is all madly into Dr. Who, or Game of Thrones, or a certain rustic look, or whatever.  Okay, take advantage of the availability of blue time-box prints and heraldic signs if you want. Understand that some of your tastes will change over time, and so will some of the things you surround yourself with. Maybe you really like light gray paint, or ice blue. If so, this may be a good year to get out the brushes.
But don’t change your décor simply because it’s fallen out of fashion. If you’re planning to sell your house in the very near future, that’s another story. Then you aren’t doing it for yourself at all. But otherwise, why step onto the “update” treadmill in the first place?

Eclairs I Have Known–trying a gluten-free eclair recipe

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I judge a pastry shop by the quality of its eclairs. Supermarket bakeries and other chains tend to fill their eclairs with the same sort of stuff that they put in filled doughnuts–either some sort of pastry “creme” or processed vanilla pudding. I’ve also had eclairs that were filled with a rather glue-y sort of custard.
When my family lived in Tunis, long ago, the local patisserie had very good eclairs, although strangely enough, I don’t remember what the filling was like. I remember that I usually chose an eclair over the other pastries, and I remember that they had two kinds–one was chocolate on top and one was some other flavor. I’m not sure I ever knew what flavor it was. Memory suggests either maple or mocha, and since maple doesn’t really seem likely, I’m going with mocha. I do remember that there were lovely rosettes of something like stiff, flavored whipped cream on top.
Now I’m lucky enough to live near a co-op with a good bakery (see The Hows and Whys of My Mini-baguettes). Their eclairs aren’t nearly as elegant as those I had in Tunis. They are rather irregular in shape and smeared in chocolate (ganache, I think.) But they are generously filled with a heavenly vanilla pastry cream that goes wonderfully with the ganache on top. With eclairs like that less than ten minutes away, why make my own?
The answer is–to get a gluten-free eclair that the whole family can enjoy.

The recipe I used is from the Faithfully Gluten-free website. The same pate choux recipe is used for cream puffs and eclairs. I made the cream puffs last week and filled them with whipped cream. They turned out pretty well, though I took them out a bit early because they were golden and maybe they could have used a bit longer in the oven. They re-crisped well the next day (the unfilled ones) after ten minutes in the oven, as per instructions.
The recipe calls for white rice flour and sweet rice flour. Whole Foods usually has white rice flour. The sweet white rice flour can be hard to find. I ordered sweet rice flour over the internet for a different recipe, but I think I’ve seen it in a store since then. Xanthan gum is available now in a lot of stores, usually in the baking area.
The procedure for the gluten-free pate choux is almost exactly like that for regular pate choux. The water and butter (sometimes also sugar and salt) are brought to a boil and the flour mixture is stirred in. Be prepared–you are stirring it till it resembles playdough, which means it takes arm strength to stir. Since I am still having trouble with my right shoulder (frozen, though no longer aching), my husband did the stirring.
This recipe didn’t get quite as playdough-like as the regular flour version, and there seemed to be quite a lot of liquid butter oozing out onto the bottom of the pot. I wonder whether the recipe would work with slightly less butter? Or is it just that rice flour doesn’t hold onto butter as well as regular flour? (I have read something to that effect.)
Once you reach playdough (or something thick and well-combined), the stuff goes in the standing mixer for yet more beating. First a bit just to cool it off slightly, then with the eggs, one at a time. The recipe notes that “the dough will look like it breaks apart, but keep mixing it until it comes back together again.”
And so it does.  I like recipes that tell you what to look for.

On my last trip to Michael’s, I got a 6B piping tip and some 16″ disposable piping bags. I was think about cookies more than eclairs, and possibly I should have gotten an even larger tip. Again, I had to get my husband’s help as the dough was stiff to pipe. I would have gotten a round tip, but they didn’t have one in that size, so I ended up with interestingly ridged eclairs.
The ridges were less pronounced after baking.
Again, I think I took them out a bit early. I also did not pierce them and cool them in the oven. It didn’t seem like it made much difference with the cream puffs, where I cooled some in the oven and some on the rack, but maybe I should try that again.
For filling, I made Dangerously Easy Microwave Vanilla Custard. I may not have cooked it quite long enough, as it was a bit liquid even after I speed-cooled some of it. Or it may be that my recipe, while fine for bowls of custard, needs a more thickener in order to be used as a filling. It tasted good, anyway.
Since it was getting late and we wanted to actually eat the eclairs that day, we just smeared Nutella on top rather than mess around with chocolate ganache or some other interesting topping. I should have taken the photo before biting into mine.
Messy, but good.
Till next post.