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By feral, on January 17th, 2012
 Here’s a new format I’d like to try out: a week’s worth of ferally noteworthy finds, forwards, shares, and recommendations, all dumped into one random post. Let’s see if I can keep up with it…
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First of all, I created a Facebook page for this blog! Please click here to like it! All the future FG updates will be linked there from now on, instead of my personal FB page. Hooray!
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Recipe of the year, so far: Cara Cara Orange Prosecco Sabayon. Made it in El Granada with Murzik, having successfully conquered our shared fear of double boilers. We literally licked everything it touched. Instant enlightenment. We’re both still raving about it.
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The next recipe I haven’t tried yet but would really love to. Doesn’t it look like an amazing idea for a dinner party? Momofuku Bo Ssam – “a slow-roasted shoulder of pig, a meal that can be picked apart by a table of friends armed only with chopsticks and lettuce. A tight and salty caramel crust sits on top of the moist, . . . CONTINUE READING → Monday digest
By feral, on January 16th, 2012
From a recent aprés-ski conversation in Aspen with a lady from Iowa who thought I looked like Edward Scissorhands:
– Are you from a different country? – Yes, I’m Russian. – Oh, really? I’m drinking a “White Russian.” – I’m actually from Belarus, which means “White Russia,” but the cocktail has nothing to do with the country… – [blank] [pause] Do you own a private jet? – No, not yet. – But are you working on it? Because if so, I’d like to be friends with you!
Aspen might be the only place in America where if you say you’re Russian, people assume you rake in the dough. Sadly, I had to disappoint the gregarious Iowa lady — the only kind of dough I’m good at making involves flour and yeast. And that’s what this post is about.
This dough recipe happens to be the answer to the last photo quiz. If you ever want to bake a Russian-style pie (пирог = pirog) — like these two I made with cabbage filling for the Russian “Old” New Year party 2 days ago — it is simple, quick, easy, and really, really tasty.
![]( "Russian-Cabbage-Pies - <span style=") . . . CONTINUE READING → How to make Russian dough
By feral, on January 13th, 2012
What am I up to?
 And why?
By feral, on January 10th, 2012
Just a crazy photo I took with my phone today while shopping for dinner in Half Moon Bay’s Princeton Harbor.  Between the fishermen’s loot (the crab season apparently just started), the seagulls and the pelicans, there is a lot of instagram material there… (Do you follow feralgardener on instagram?)
The birds are constantly on alert for a fresh load of fish processing refuse that comes regularly. Here, I even took a short video of one such fascinating fish waste feast:
Pelicans feast on fish waste at Princeton Harbor
By feral, on January 5th, 2012
Two months ago Murzik emailed me this recipe for sardine rillettes with the following comment: “made these a few times, total hit with everybody, especially served on some bread with a side of salad – perfect lunch! or makes pretty good little appetizers.” Even though I had no clue what the word rillettes meant, the recipe looked so appetizing that I bought a can of sardines, a pack of cream cheese and all other ingredients — but never got to mash them together.
Yesterday Murzik made them for lunch. The preparation took about 3 minutes, and I immediately regretted my procrastination. It was a love at first bite and an instant addition to my impress-in-5-minutes-or-less recipe list.
 Snooping around Murzik & Husband’s kitchen (and its garage extension) in El Granada, always results in new inspirations and useful culinary discoveries. To demonstrate, here’s the first thing I saw upon arrival:
 This is probably only about a quarter of their home-canned bounty and certainly puts my own feeble canning attempts to shame. These shelves deserve their own reality TV show: “Extreme Canning . . . CONTINUE READING → Sardine Rillettes and 5 more tips from El Granada
By feral, on January 3rd, 2012
Happy New Year, my dear feral reader!
2011′s celebratory cabbage pie
May it bring you, your loved ones and your garden (if applicable) many happy, healthy, and delicious things.
My 2012 began in Colorado and is about to continue in California (i.e. I’m writing this at Aspen airport). It’s been happy, super fun, and, miraculously, hangover-free. Here’s a glimpse of our NYE dinner — because I know that’s all that you really would like to know about and all that my better judgment permits me to share.
 The menu was a collective effort and included a salad, brussels sprouts, pilaf, salmon-fennel pie, and a 7-pound roasted leg of lamb.
 I’m particularly proud of our black caviar station complete with miniature potato latkes, crème fraiche and, of course, vodka shots. It was a masterpiece and I insist that it becomes a fixture of any New Year’s celebration. Unfortunately, I failed to take any photos of it because I was too . . . CONTINUE READING → Happy 2012!
By feral, on December 27th, 2011
 Just as Christmas socializing is unthinkable without the help of Personal Digital Assistants (see my previous post) nowadays, modern-day Yuletide is incomplete without a Yule Log channel that fills the living room with cozy crackling, courtesy of your friendly cable company.
That’s why tonight feralgardener.com, understanding its responsibility as an infant media empire, is introducing its own Yule Log video. It is pretty short for now but at least you know it this fire was made with love and real, all-natural wood! By the way, did you know that you can burn your yule log and eat it too? I did. When I was a little kid, I saw pictures of something that looked like the most magically delicious thing in the world in my mom’s French magazines. It was called Bûche de Noël and the chocolate-laden recipes that accompanied those pictures were, alas, so hopelessly unadaptable to the Soviet spectrum of ingredients… Of course, I since forgot all about those childhood yearnings for the exotic French Bûche and never got a chance to taste it. But this Saturday we went to have breakfast with our neighbors Peter and . . . CONTINUE READING → feral yule (b)log
By feral, on December 25th, 2011
Gold, Frankincense and Apple products.
 A Christmas Day face-off: Steve Jobs vs. Baby Jesus.
By feral, on December 24th, 2011
Obviously, I still need to work on a few things, e.g. smiling and speaking. But I do believe this new and exciting medium has a bright feral future. Please enjoy this video tour of my garden and keep in mind that it was really freezing this morning — normally, it looks much bigger. Although I didn’t harvest anything from the garden other than the above footage, today was overall a terrific day for me. I slept until 10, then located and successfully disposed of a little dead mouse that had been filling the house with anti-holiday spirit, and finally cooked a trio of Russian/Hanukkah comfort foods for dinner: borscht, roasted apricot chicken and, my absolute favorite, potato latkes.
I was very happy with myself about this dinner. Especially because I managed to eat somewhere between 10 and 15 latkes. For the record, these potato pancakes are my most favorite food in the world. Ever since I was very little, they never failed to make me happy. Needless to say, back in Belarus they were a regular food, not a once-a-year Hanukkah treat — but nonetheless, always a . . . CONTINUE READING → For the first time ever, a video tour of the garden
By feral, on November 3rd, 2011
Yes, that is indeed the name of these blue climbers. I wasn’t sure when asked before but just reconfirmed. Ipomoea purpurea or something close.
For some reason they waited until the fall to unfold their big blue blossoms. Perhaps didn’t want to compete with the summer skies?
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