What a beautiful spring day! We are finally getting some consistently warm and sunny days which means ideal growing conditions for our organic garden. Added this month is a second Square Foot Garden. Marcel thought he could outdo my SFG with a bigger and better set-up. His SFG frame is 8″ high compared to my 6″ frame and a sunnier location. While tomatoes are my favorite, Marcel likes peppers – with 12 varities and growing. In my SFG, the top performers this month are romaine lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, and watermelon. Basil and tomato plants are doing well in Marcel’s.  Although they are growing fast, the only harvest available right now are herbs and spinach. Soon, some romaine  lettuce will be ready, as well as some broccoli.

In case you are wondering, here is a complete list of our plants:

Cannon Beach is one of my favorites on the Oregon Coast. It is clean, still mostly wild, and the town has an old world charm. It could get crowded at times but yesterday was a very nice day. Although a bit hazy, it was sunny and the temperature was 70 degrees. Mulder had a great time too. There were dogs everywhere and for the first time, he played in the water. Most of all, this fun day trip only cost us a quarter tank of gas

A cluster of sealife on a rock

Mulder incripts his name on the sand

Mussel

Monoliths

Mulder goes swimming

Downtown

The low tide allowed us to walk up to Haystack Rock

My blog turned 1 on May 2nd without me realizing it until now! I had 53 posts which worked out to an average of 1 per week. A great accomplishment in my view

Marbled French Toast

A friend of mine Andes introduced me to this lovely Japanese (?) bread from Uwajimaya. She said it makes great bread for French Toast. I used Alton Brown’s recipe and I thought it was quite tasty The baking at the end sealed the deal. Here’s my simplified version for 2-4 people:

1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon honey, warmed in microwave for 20 seconds 
dash sea salt
4 (1/2-inch) slices day-old marbled bread (left out)
2 tablespoons butter

In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, honey, and salt. Pour into a shallow bowl with a flat bottom. I warmed up the honey and milk (no eggs yet) together for 30 seconds to soften the honey.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side, and then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting in a sheet pan, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.

Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a 10-inch nonstick saute pan. Place 2 slices of bread at a time into the pan and cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Bake all slices together for 5 minutes in the oven. Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream or fruit.