Hong Kong noodle with seafood

Sometimes I'll buy a $20 bag of big Atlantic sea scallops at Costco. With this dreadful oil spill polluting the ocean for the foreseeable future, it might be a long time before we see these huge guys again, so I decided to splurge yesterday. You won't be surprised to hear that I dole them out frugally, so we have several special meals from that one bag.

On our dim sum lunch outings in the International District, I've enjoyed a simple dish called "Hong Kong noodle." The very thin noodles are fried quickly in a big, extremely hot wok. The leaping flames and well-seasoned pan (they are never washed) give the dish a distinctive taste the Chinese call "fire of the wok." This is hard to reproduce in a home kitchen, but with the right ingredients you can still throw together something tasty with these thin egg noodles.
As they say, the secret is in the sauce. I mix up dashes of soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin, and sweet Mirin wine to taste. This is a powerful brew, so also a bit of water or broth to dilute it down.
I chop some vegetables, fry them lightly, and set aside.
Then I brown the scallops and shrimp quickly.
Finally, I combine everything: seafood, cooked noodles, vegetables and sauce, and heat over high. I learned this method in the New York Times cooking supplement, where they have a way of making easy things harder than they should be. But the "separate frying" method makes a better stir-fry.

I've worn out many "woks" over the years, but finally banished Teflon from the kitchen. Now I have a plain, carbon steel one that heats up like lightening on my Viking range. It was pre-seasoned (whatever that means) but doesn't stick, even though I wash it.

Green, green, green

This time of year, our family members living in the Colorado Rockies always tell me, "our aspen trees still don't have leaves yet." This is hard to imagine, with the rampant growth here in the Northwest. I took this picture yesterday afternoon. I've never seen the roses or peonies so tall-- the horse manure and rain is working its magic. We had strong sun over the weekend, rain yesterday, and sun again today. Which translates into a deluge of tasks for the overworked gardener.

My favorite garden writer Henry Mitchell once said, "if an element of play is not present, there is no point in gardening at all." Well, as far as I'm concerned, there isn't much "play" in weeding, although it was nice to finally plop my rear down in the dirt with hot sun on my back, and do some hand-weeding. This is the time of year when I accidentally rip out, chop off, or trample many delicate things coming up. And every year, this is the time when I give up on the dahlias (they froze, they rotted) but finally, here they come again. That is, if I haven't decapitated them with my hand weeder. You would think I'd remember this; it happens every May.

And there are always, always surprises. This is what keeps us going from year to year. I wrote about buying Sea Holly last June, and convinced myself they would all die. But yesterday I noticed a healthy, strong plant that survived a year's worth of digging and weeding-- so John might get one of his favorite flowers this year, after all.

The tall, bearded iris is the movie star of the spring garden. We used to have many varieties, now we just have a few. I got tired of them because they take up space and have to be divided so often, but then decided having none in the June garden was too sad. So I started nursing back a few special clumps, like this one. The flowers don't last long (what great beauty does?) but they give a few days of supreme loveliness and then become ugly plants again for the rest of the year.

Weyerhauser display garden

We drove to Weyerhauser yesterday to see the rhododendron garden and bonsai display, which was open briefly for Mother's Day. The headquarters building is visible from the freeway, and was completed in 1971. With a green growing roof, it's a wonderful integration of landscape and function. As Architecture Week says, "it has withstood the test of time beautifully."

As you leave the freeway and enter company property, the road meanders through beautiful parkland and forest, reminding you what good stewards of the earth the Weyerhauser folks are!
The weather was magnificent-- almost 70!
And the bonsai display is like walking through a living museum. Each one a perfect work of art.
And many were blooming...
In the display garden, there are rare plants and botanical oddities to tempt the covetous gardener, like this fascinating rhododendron. Of course visitors must exit through a plant and gift store, making impulse purchases easy.
The blue Himalayan poppies were blooming by the pond. This is an unreal sky blue, and in the sunshine they were magical. John generously offered to buy me a couple of poppy plants, until I read the care sheet: requires moist woodland soil, shade, protection from freezing, does not bloom for two years, and usually dies after the first bloom. Well, I told him we'll just drive to Weyerhauser once a year to admire them :-)

And credit where credit is due-- John took all the pictures in this post, except for the first one.

A fancy cake

Have a sweet day!

Happy Mother's Day

Spring is back for the weekend, and we're looking forward to the gift of sunshine and normal 60 degree days. My plan is to spend some it on my hands and knees under our allium forest, going after weeds. The alliums bloom on their spectacular 4 foot stalks, and make a great display with the peonies and roses for a few weeks. One of my favorite times in the garden. I took this picture yesterday morning when the sun finally came out.

Tomorrow we're taking a trip to the rhododendron garden and bonsai collection at Weyerhauser company headquarters. The bonsai display has always been one of our favorite places, and we were surprised to hear it was closed to save this massive corporation a bit of money during the recession. Go figure...however, there's a one-time opening for Mother's Day. I'll have some pictures for you Monday.
And speaking of Mother's Day, best wishes to Wilda, Marge and Irene. And special, loving thoughts to the hard-working young moms in the family: Amanda, April and Julie. Enjoy your day!

Violets

Saying you "hate" violets makes you sound like an awful person. I don't mean the potted African violets you buy at the grocery store, and pure violet perfume is beautiful and rare. However, the little wild ones are considered invasive weeds, and the roots form a thick mat that has to be hacked out. They get a few tiny flowers in the spring, but that's it for all the trouble. They're also drought and herbicide resistant, although I've never been desperate enough too spray them with poison.
Having said those mean things, violets are also a beloved flower in literature and music. Obviously a different variety than the ones I have. Do you know the pretty old Frank Sinatra song "I bought you violets for your furs...?"
Or how about Liza Doolittle selling violets in front of the theater in My Fair Lady? Lots of sweet images.
And there are dozens of references to violets in Shakespeare's poetry and plays. Here's one describing Titania's sleeping bower in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania some time of the night...