Israeli Tahini

My mother was recently here for a three day visit. One of the treats she made us was homemade tahini. She also brought the recipe with her from her first cookbook.

I don't know why, but the recipe is entitled "Tahini Salad", although I would not classify it as a salad at all. Here is what is says:

• 100 grams tahini
• about 100 grams of water
• lemon juice to suit your taste
• garlic, lemon, parsley
• stir the tahini with the water and the lemon juice
• add as a condiment ground garlic, salt and chopped parsley
• The density of the tahini is dependent, of course, on the amount of water. It is possible to reduce or increase the amount of water, depending on the thickness you want.

My mother no longer relies on the exact directions given in her first cookbook, of course. She doesn't measure everything, and she just has a sense of how much of each ingredient is needed. We did not have parsley as one of the ingredients on hand, so no parsley was used.

The ingredients my mother  used were 2 cloves of garlic, the juice of one lemon, a sprinkling of salt and, of course, the tahini and water. Tahini is a sesame paste made from ground, hulled sesame seeds. It has a very high fat content and is good for people on a low carb diet.  Even though I never use them, it was good that I had on hand both a primitive hand powered juicer and a press for the lemons and the garlic.

My mother prepared the lemon juice and the garlic and the water and tahini in the kitchen.

Then she added the water to the tahini.

By this time, Bow, who was watching us from the pens felt a little left out, so we took everything and finished the preparation in the pens. My mother showed Bow what she was doing and also explained it.

The first batch was for an event at Orchard House. Lanie Frick spoke about the transformation of her artistic process. It was a great talk, and the refreshments afterwards included my mother's tahini, which was very well received. 

Before she left, my mother made another batch for us to enjoy at home. Here is some footage of  Bow savoring his portion.

Normally, one uses the pita bread to dip in the tahini. I explained that to Bow, and he had seen it demonstrated, too. But he preferred to do things his way. First he ate the pita bread, and afterwards he licked the tahini off the plate.

Whichever way you decide to eat it, Israeli tahini is very good. You might be tempted to lick the plate yourself, if you run out of pita bread.

Zucchini in the Salad

I have been spending a lot of time at Orchard House every chance I get. I am trying to prepare the property for either a sale or a rental, and it looks as if we may have found a good tenant. Meanwhile, as I spend time there, I notice all the beautiful flowers.

Some of the flowers are the result of meticulous and effective landscaping by the owners who preceded me. Although nobody is tending them, the flowers come out every year, each at its appointed time and station. Some were placed there by design.

Others are wild and spring up unbidden in the woods.

First I spot them as a flash of color from afar.

Then I come in closer for a better look.

If you look very closely at some flowers, you can actually see the pollen spilling out.

Pollen is a feast for insects. Eating alone at Orchard House, as it was my day off, I spread out my own  feast.

Lunch consisted of a peach, some cherry tomatoes, blackberries and fried chicken.

With it, I had club soda in a can. The food was good and better out in the open than it would have been inside.

The blackberries were fresh picked from the Orchard House grounds.

Later in the day I went to visit musician and piano and voice teacher Jill Dabney. She is helping me with the music for the Debt Collector. Before I left, she gave me some zucchini from her garden. This pretty much determined what sort of salad Bow and I would have with our supper.

First I sliced the zucchini. Then I added tomatoes, sugar snap peas and cauliflower.

Then I generously sprinkled on sesame seed oil.

When the salad was ready, I presented it to Bow.

Bow enjoyed the salad, though the zucchini was not necessarily his favorite vegetable of the bunch.

Cherries and Cherry Pits

Yesterday was my day off. I spent some of it at Orchard House, where we also have a small orchard, and the fruit is ripening.

Orchard House was a property I purchased to help house the interns who work with Bow. It has 4.6 acres and is beautifully landscaped. Here are the red roses at Orchard House. If you want to see the pink roses that bloomed there earlier, try my other blog. 

At Orchard House, there is a wooden deck where people can sit outside and survey the property from a high vantage point.

The Orchard House Orchard orchard is smaller than the one I have at my house, but it still impresses me every time I go to take a look. Nobody is tending these trees, and yet they bear fruit.

This is the Orchard House apple tree. This year it looks to be very fruitful

There are also two small pear trees.

Very small trees, but pretty large fruit.

There are amazingly two grape vines, as well.

Nobody has tended them, so they look pretty wild.

 But if you look closely enough, you can see that they are trying to bear fruit.

Back at my house, some of the cherries are ready for picking. So Teyman and I went for a walk last night and I picked them.

Sword and I had some of these cherries last night for a snack.

 This morning, Bow partook of them also. I don't like for Bow to swallow the pits, so I made a deal with him. I give him the next cherry when he gives me the last  pit.

 This system seems to work pretty well.