The Vernal Pools of Phoenix Park

There are so many things I love about living in California, but one thing I really enjoy doing each spring is visiting some of the vernal pools in our area. I've shared a visit to different vernal pools here that were in their dry stage. This is the stage where the wildflowers are abundant. We recently visited some vernal pools at a local park that we haven't been to in a number of years. Truth be told, we couldn't quite remember where the pools were and the area surrounding the pools has changed so much including the land where the pools are located. What a difference a few years make...

Now the vernal pools are part of a park, Phoenix Park, and rather than the large vernal pool that we remember, there are a number of smaller vernal pools. Although the neighborhood is probably very happy that the park has a baseball diamond and other park amenities, you can't help but wonder what the impact of this development has been on these natural wonders.

The day that we visited was sunny and windy and the pools were in the wet or aquatic stage which means that they are teeming with life and the wildflowers are not yet prevalent. Teeny, tiny frogs no larger than your fingertip can be seen. Fairy shrimp no more than an inch long, itsy bitsy flies and bees, and other flying insects whose sole purpose is to pollinate some of the wildflowers that only grow in and long the vernal pools.

We were bending over this pool looking at a teeny frog when all of a sudden we heard a loud ruckus and saw...

These guys running as fast as they could away from...

...this guy...He was scared off though and luckily the wild turkeys were given a reprieve. 

We saw a few water fowl that day.

And quite a few wildflowers, although they weren't blooming en masse like they are during the dry stage.

Over 200 species of plants are found in vernal pools and about half of these are exclusive to this habitat.

What's so fascinating about vernal pools is that no two are alike. There are different species of animals that inhabit a shallower pool than a deeper one.

Each plant and animal species is dependent on how long the pools are flooded. It has rained longer than I can remember any spring since I have lived here and I wonder how this has affected them.

If you'd like to learn more about these pools, visit the Fair Oaks Recreation District Web site. They have a brochure you can download and beautiful photos of the pools.

French Friday with Dorie: Cardamom Rice Pilaf

I made this week's recipe along with black beans, sliced zucchini with shredded Parmesan cheese, and tri-tip steaks. John was a little surprised when he scooped up a forkful of rice along with some beans and tasted something different from the white rice that I usually make. He prefers to eat rice with beans and salsa, lots of salsa. It probably didn't help that I made the hottest salsa I have ever made the night I served this rice pilaf. You know the kind of salsa that is so hot it clears your sinuses.

I wish I could say that he liked the rice pilaf, but he didn't. The cardamom is a flavor unfamiliar to him (even though I have used it sparingly in some of my other FFwD recipes) and he didn't like the ground pepper or the lemon zest in the rice. My daughter, on the other hand, loved this dish and was surprised that I used some of the basmati rice that she gave me a few weeks ago. When she handed the bag to me in the kitchen, asking, "You like basmati rice, don't you?" I knew that what she really meant was that she had tried the rice and didn't like it.

 

I have a feeling that she'll be taking her bag of basmati rice back when she returns to her apartment, along with some cardamom seeds and a copy of this recipe.

What did I think about it, you ask? Well, I had to agree with John. I didn't care for the pepper and cardamom in the rice, but I did like the fresh taste of the lemon zest. I do like basmati rice though and will try making this again, but without the ground pepper and less cardamom. Seven seeds was just too much for us when it is a spice that we are still getting acquainted with.

I am looking forward to reading what the other Doristas did with this recipe over at French Fridays with Dorie and I know I will be inspired as I am every week by their creativity.

You can find this recipe on p. 378 of Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

Next French Friday: Warm-Weather Vegetable Pot-au-feu

BAKED Sunday Morning: Cowboy Cookies

When I e-mailed my friend and fellow BAKED member, Mike, and asked him if he had made these cookies yet and if he had, did he think the thin, salty pretzels were necessary, he e-mailed back and said "Yes!" And, he said that he had made them a couple times already and that he thought they were really good if you put all the pretzels in the batter rather than just 1/2 cup the recipe says and then put the remaining 1/4 cup on top. So, I did just that.

I also made these Texas-sized cookies because, after all, these are Cowboy Cookies and to me, cowboys are larger than life and warrant an ice cream-size scoop.

The verdict? Three thumbs up at our house. The oatmeal, chocolate chunks, and the little surprise of thin, salty pretzels, along with the hint of espresso coffee made these a delicious chewy cookie on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside. The only thing difficult about making these was letting the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before baking them off.

Visit BAKED Sunday Mornings to see how other members made these cookies and to get this wonderful recipe.

Next BAKED Sunday: June 5 - Orange Creamsicle Tart

French Friday with Dorie: Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad

Inspired by all the fresh produce at the market, I have been looking at so many recipes lately trying to lighter ones to serve during warmer weather. Just like last week's Spinach and Bacon Quiche, this week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is a perfect salad to serve for lunch or as the main course for dinner on those days when it is just too hot to be in the kitchen for very long.

A bed of mixed greens, drizzled with a vinaigrette of Dijon mustard, champagne vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, walnut oil, and salt and pepper to taste is the back drop to this dish. The greens are topped with asparagus that has been trimmed and peeled and boiled in salted water for 4 minutes until perfectly tender. Another drizzle of vinaigrette to coat the asparagus. Next comes the crispy bacon crumbled over the asparagus and then the pièce de résistance - a soft boiled egg that has been softly cooked in bacon fat just to give it some color - is gently nestled in the salad. I then sprinkled with some roasted sunflower chips to give it some extra crunch (only because I had no toasted walnuts or hazelnuts on hand).

The luscious, runny egg yolk mixes with the tanginess of the vinaigrette and the crunchiness of the bacon and sunflower chips to create an explosion of flavor in your mouth which is tempered only by the smooth, silky asparagus and greens.

Really. What's not to love? 

Visit French Fridays with Dorie to see how the other members interpreted this dish. 

Next French Friday: Cardamom Rice Pilaf

May Blooms

I plant Ranunculus bulbs every Fall and can't wait until their fuzzy little buds appear each Spring. I am so glad I took pictures of this year's blooms before Sunday's storm.

Sunday Morning with Dorie: Crustless Spinach and Bacon Quiche

I didn't have a chance to make the quiche on Friday, but it turned out this morning was the perfect time to make this week's French Friday with Dorie recipe as the weather outside was frightful. While I was prepping, the sky darkened and then it started pouring - I mean POURING - rain. Then, it started hailing in just minutes.

It was so incredible watching the weather change so quickly. We don't get rain often in May, and it has never hailed this late in Spring that we can remember. I was praying that the electricity wouldn't go off because I was right in the middle of putting the quiches together.

I made three 4-inch crustless quiches. The grocery store only had 6 ounce bags of spinach, so I didn't have the 10 ounces that the recipe called for. I still used 4 slices of bacon, one small onion, and a large clove of garlic. It smelled so good when everything was mixed together and spread into the small quiche pans. I whisked together the eggs and the heavy cream and poured over the spinach mixture and topped with finely grated Parmesan cheese.

Since I was baking the smaller quiches, I kept an eye on them in the oven. It took about 25 minutes for them to evenly puff and turn a golden brown. I let them cool for 5 minutes and you could hear them softly crackling while they were cooling on the rack. My husband thought this recipe was so good and ate two of them. I am not a quiche lover, particularly quiche with crust, but I thought this was so delicious. What is wonderful about this recipe is that you can taste each individual ingredient, but none of the ingredients overwhelms the other. There is no 'star' in this recipe, but rather each component works together to make the whole quiche the star. We both really liked that this wasn't 'eggy' like other quiches. I will definitely be adding this to my repertoire. 

Visit French Friday with Dorie to see what the other members did with this week's recipe.

Next French Friday with Dorie: Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad