Last September, my husband attended a board meeting in Vail, Colorado. Naturally I tagged along! If you haven’t been to Vail Village, you are transported to a quaint, charming European hamlet. Loaded with Scandinavian decor everywhere you go, the experience is a magical one right here in the United States.

We stayed at the Sonnenalp Resort, a boutique lodge and our room made me feel like yodeling. A cozy fireplace, cuckoo clocks, window boxes spilling with colorful flowers were some of the treats we enjoyed during our stay.

One of the highlights of the trip, for me, was exploring Axel’s of Vail, a European clothing store in Vail Village. Decorated in old Scandinavian decor, the architecture of the store, as well as its contents far exceeded my expectations.

Most retail stores do not go to the expense to make their exteriors so exquisite. The wood carvings, the iron hardware and the abundant flowers transport you from Vail to Norway in seconds.

At one of the board meeting dinners, I had the pleasure of sitting next to the owners of Axel’s, Axel and Janie Wilhelmsen. What a warm and engaging couple! The conversation was lively and as a result, a visit to their spectacular home was arranged.

Some people are enamored with Hollywood celebrities. I am not. But I do get very excited when I am invited to see someone’s unique and spectacular home. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of seeing the same design styles over and over again.

The next day, my friend, Missy and I traveled to this treasure of a home. Yes, they have a living roof (also called a green or garden roof). The plants grow each year on top of a waterproof membrane. Living roofs provide good insulation, are long lasting and often seen in Norwegian homes.

The Wilhelmsens, being such gracious hosts, provided a full tour of the guest house and main home, which they built and designed themselves.

Below is their guest cottage. What a delight for their friends and family to stay here!

Each room is more breathtaking that the next. The kitchen in the main house, which is part of an open plan with the living room, did not feel like a kitchen at all. The cabinets are beautifully hand painted and even the refrigerator was covered with a decorative panel, making the kitchen feel as furnished as the dining and living room.

And look at this stove/oven! Even the pedestal on which it sits, is beautifully painted!

I did not take many pictures, because after all, this is their home and I wanted to respect their privacy. But it was hard not to capture every single luscious detail! The wood carvings alone were spectacular. Touches such as matching handmade chandeliers made this a one-of-a-kind home.

Even the television is hidden behind a gorgeous hand painted cabinet. This Scandinavian type of folk art painting is called rosemaling. What is the difference between rosemaling and tole? Rosemaling is painting on wood, whereas tole is painting on tin. I now have a desire to learn how to do this!

Clearly, having logs and chinking walls add enough Scandinavian character, but look at that carved headboard and those comfortable linens.

So you are probably asking, what is Mary sharing this with us today? Well, quite honestly I have not stopped thinking about this house since I saw it last September. The Wilhelmsens’ home is so warm, welcoming and appropriate in the mountains of Colorado.

I would love for our cabin to have this European/Scandinavian charm and decor. However, I would imagine all that wood carving would be a bit cost prohibitive, though Janie was kind enough to share her resource.

While at our cabin, I started to notice that I already have a few Scandinavian pieces that I have acquired over time. I never really thought of a strategy to decorate the cabin this way, but I would love to try.

In a future blog post, I will share some thoughts and hopefully you can help me along the way to add enough, affordable touches to make our cabin unique and charming. It’s a stretch, but I am hopeful!

As a side note, I want to thank my friend, Missy who acquired the invitation to Axel and Janie’s home. Also, if you are ever in Vail Village, you must visit their store (and you can order online). Their philosophy is: Romance is the very thread that weaves our collections together, from Italian handmade sartorial clothing to the rugged leathers that imbue the spirit of the west.” Their “modest” objective is to be the best store in the world. This is a family run business. Their lovely children, Candice and Axel, Jr. model all their clothing. I can honestly say I am very impressed with their collection of goods, but more importantly, their sincerity, passion, elegance and commitment to family is genuine.

You know how much I love gardening, and I am far from complaining. But everything is reaching its prime at the same time. The peaches, apricots, tomatoes, figs, artichokes, fennel, sorrel and soon to be apples are being harvested now.

Tomatoes

But unlike store bought produce, my homegrown fruits and vegetables don’t last days on end. They need to be utilized immediately or they decay. The windowsills are full of tomatoes and there are bowls and bowls of apricots….coupled with a recent grocery store run where someone purchased several pounds of fresh strawberries!

I don’t like wasting anything so I have been making and baking all week. I prefer to space out my food blog posts because not everyone likes to bake or cook, but this task of produce management is dominating my week. It is food triage~~the items that spoil first get the attention.

Keeping up on the picking of the cherry tomatoes is nearly impossible. The neighbors are getting bowls of them but there are still so many of these ruby gems on the plants!

We just made a huge cookie sheet of roasted cherry tomatoes with mint and garlic. It is hard to describe what the mint does to the roasted tomatoes, but it tastes nothing like mint. I did post this recipe quite some time ago and it is still one of my favorite easy appetizer recipes using cherry tomatoes.

Spread a crostini with goat cheese and top with these warm (or cold) roasted tomatoes, and it is heaven! To get the recipe and see the original post, click here. Truly, if you have cherry tomatoes, you will love this!

Apricots

The best way to consume fresh apricots is eating them right from the tree, still warm from the sun. With the others, I made an Almond Apricot Tart with Whipped Cream last night. To see this Martha Stewart recipe, click here.

The crust is made with ground almonds and the custard layer has Amaretto as one of the ingredients. I love the combination of flavors coupled with the sweet, juicy apricots.

Though the recipe does call for whipped cream, we enjoyed it sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Today I will need to research more apricot recipes as we still have another whole tree to pick!

Strawberries

Now onto the strawberries! So far the recipes include Strawberry Rhubarb crisp and Strawberry Rhubarb pie! I like to experiment with different pie crusts, but my latest find is the All Butter pie crust from the book, Bravetart. If your kitchen is 74 degrees or more, the pie crust becomes more challenging and is difficult to manipulate. My basketweave pattern is a little wonky because the dough became so soft. But it is delicious anyway!

If anyone has another rhubarb recipe, please share as there is still several stalks in my refrigerator.

Peaches

The peaches are winding down and as I breathe a peach sigh of relief, I want to share another recipe that I previously posted. I hadn’t made this salad in quite sometime and forgot how good it is (and easy to make). It is a combination of the wonderful flavors of peaches, tomatoes, fresh corn, feta cheese, cilantro and a honey vinaigrette. Just perfect for the summer months.

Today, I hope to make tomato sauce and pico de Gallo. I can now see why farmers need to rest over the winter.

If you are visiting from the Charming Homes & Gardens link party, welcome! There are so many talented people sharing their lovely homes, gardens and inspirational ideas. I am so happy to be a part of it!

I hope you have a day filled with hope and promise! Just a reminder, if you are not following me on Instagram, please check me out @lifeatbellaterra. I am finally learning how to do Instagram Stories! Wonders never cease!

This post shared with Pretty Things and Thursday Favorite Things

The garden is literally bursting at the seams. With the heat, the ripening has exponentially increased. But it’s a good thing, as being in the garden is calming for me, especially in today’s chaotic world. To see my post on Gardening 101, please click here.

It is that time of year again when the fig tree is producing fruit. The fig tree is part of the mulberry family (I had no idea). They are low in calories and have no fat. A large fig has approximately 47 calories making it a great healthy snack. Our fig tree produces twice a year, but this latest crop is producing figs on steroids. The fruit is HUGE and fleshy and sweet.

I have many books on making preserves, jams and jellies to reference.

But the easiest recipe and one I had not tried before, is from the Williams Sonoma, The Art of Preserving book.

Really, this recipe is so easy. First trim the figs.

Since I am using a combination of our gargantuan figs and a few smaller ones from my friend and neighbor, Anne, I cut the figs to more or less the the same size.

The figs will cook in a combination of orange and lemon juice. We still have some remaining oranges on one of our trees but you can also use store-bought fresh juice.

Add sugar to the orange/lemon juice combo. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Add the figs, reduce the heat to medium, cook and stir gently for 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the figs to a bowl. Add orange zest to the syrup and cook, uncovered until reduced by one-third, 2-3 minutes. I inadvertently added the zest when I added the sugar, but I don’t think it affected the taste of the syrup.

Return the figs to the pan and cook for one minute to heat through.

The oven is my choice for sterilizing the jars and lids. After washing them in hot soapy water, I put the jars in the oven on a cookie sheet for at least 30 minutes at 250 degrees. I then fill them with the hot figs, leaving 1/4″ at the top. Any sticky syrup on the rim is wiped away before I add the lid.

After being severely burned using the hot-bath canning method, I now do all my fruit processing in the oven. (Note: please research this if you are canning meats or other foods that require different sterilization). After the jars are filled and the lid snugly secured, I replace the jars in the oven for 15 minutes or so to ensure that are completely sterilized.

I let the jars cool overnight to set. They will seal as they cool.

Once the jar is opened and the seal is broken, the figs will last for 30 days in the refrigerator. The fig preserves can be used on chicken or pork. Or spread on warm bread or toast. Or just eaten with a spoon!

One of my favorite uses is a crostini appetizer with goat cheese and figs.

The syrup on this recipe isn’t as thick as a jam or preserve, but is very flavorful. All in all, a quick and easy recipe to make. And a way to enjoy figs until the next production cycle!

On a separate note, I know these are troubling times. I want my blog to be a place where you are welcomed, perhaps learn something along the way, and to celebrate the simple beauty in everyday life. Nearly a year and a half ago, I wrote a post on Kindness. It was difficult to share some personal moments with you, but the message remains the same. Kindness is free and the rewards are tremendous. And it is something we all can practice. If you would like to read this post again, click here. More than ever, we need each other.

Sending all my loving energy your way.

I am always curious as to why there are times in life where “things” happen in multiples. And not good things. Well, I seem to be in one of those downpours lately. As I mentioned in Saturday’s blog post, the 75 gallon water tank in the basement split and flooded two rooms. A plumber, two helpers and $1200 later, the problem is fixed. But my nice, neat organized basement spaces are in a state of disarray as everything needs to be put back in its place.

Yesterday, I stepped into another flood of water coming from our dishwasher. Yep! All over the hardwood floor in the kitchen. This appliance didn’t drain and I removed a few gallons of standing water with a turkey baster. Sigh.

Last night, my daughter came home from a week at our mountain cabin and let us know the clothes dryer stopped working. The burnt rubber smell part of the story is concerning. Sigh again.

For me, I guess I am a believer of things happening in threes. So hopefully this will be the end of all things breaking down for awhile. But this is the nature of owning an old home, or living in a home for a long time. My guess is that our dishwasher finally needs replacing as does the belt to the clothes dryer at the cabin. Just wish it all didn’t happen at the same time. Cha-ching.

Does this happen to you, too? Do you believe in things happening in threes?

Onto Other Things

On a brighter note, as I am the eternal optimist, it is 62 degrees outside this morning! Whaaat?? A few days ago it was over 100 degrees, however, the forecast for the next few days is perfect Spring weather with highs in the 70s. Crystal clear blue skies, sunny and very cool evenings. Lovely.

We are supposed to head up to the mountains for Memorial Day but I almost don’t want to leave this gorgeous weather. Do you have plans for Memorial Day weekend? I’ve been so distracted with this pandemic it’s hard to believe it is the holiday weekend already.

Update on the Back Staircase Project

We are slowly removing the gross glue and old paint from the stairs. There are some disappointing surprises. One of the treads is broken and one of the risers has been poorly patched. A few setbacks but there are four more steps to uncover so who knows what we will find. Lately, nothing seems to be going as planned.

All Things Peaches

We are still picking peaches off the trees. The peach pie I made is truly one of the first ones that wasn’t swimming in juice with a soggy bottom crust. I blended two recipes~~the all butter crust is from Stella Parks New York Times Bestseller, Bravetart. The filling is from the Country Peach Pie recipe from the Food Network Kitchen. By far, one of the best peach pies yet!

Elisabeth is on a homemade ice cream kick. Last week it was fresh strawberry ice cream.

This week, fresh peach ice cream. With the leftover peach puree from the peach ice cream recipe (yes, we are getting fat over here!), we are enjoying peach margaritas!

Front Porch is Finished!

The new welcome mat from Wayfair arrived yesterday. The mat is 24″ x 36″, substantially larger than the previous one. It is non-slip, made from coconut fibers and is an elegant addition to the spruced up front entry. All for $43.99. This project is finally DONE.

Vegetable Consumption

We are eating so many good things from the garden. This is the first year I planted shishito peppers. Flash frying in hot olive oil, served with salt and a squeeze of lemon, these peppers are just delicious. If you haven’t had these peppers before, check to see if your grocery store carries them. I know Safeway does and this is a very quick, yummy appetizer. Occasionally you may get a hot one, but the all the ones from our garden have a mild flavor.

Artichokes are ready to harvest too. We typically par-boil them, cut them in half and basted them on the grill with olive oil and garlic. The Houston’s Restaurant recipe with remoulade sauce is a family favorite.

Hoping your Wednesday is filled with joy and beautiful weather! Pray that no more appliances break this week!

I have never made homemade crackers in my life. Over the last few days, I’ve been experimenting with discarded sourdough starter. When I feed my sourdough starter every week, I keep a small amount and toss the rest. Seems so wasteful, so I’ve been searching for recipes utilizing this discard.

One way to use discarded sourdough starter is to make crackers. My first attempt at creating crackers occurred a few days ago. Here is the online recipe from King Arthur. I was able to get the dough only so thin with a rolling pin. They are tasty, though, with seasonings of garlic powder, rosemary and sea salt. Just a tad bit too thick. But a worthy recipe to try again.

The very next day, I saw a post on Instagram demonstrating cracker making using a pasta machine! How brilliant is that! And timely, as my sweet in-laws just sent me their hand-cranked pasta machine and all the attachments. Thank you, Bruce and Janiece!

This may be my new weekly addiction as the newly made batch of flatbread was E.X.C.E.L.L.E.N.T! The person responsible for the pasta machine/cracker making idea is Aimee from Twigg Studio. Her Instagram feed is @twiggstudios.

Aimee is a food and photography lover based in Devon, UK and I have made a few of her recipes. Visiting her website is a mini-vacation for me as I love her style and photos. And so does the rest of the world as she has 119,000 followers! In a previous post I shared one of her cakes and it was truly delicious. Click here for her vegan pineapple, lime and ginger cake.

Here is another photo of her potato and leek pie using edible flowers in the crust. Not something I would have ever considered!

Her flatbread recipe suggests using edible flowers and herbs and her crackers are truly a work of art. Feeling ambitious, my daughter Elisabeth and I thought we would try this flatbread recipe.

The ingredients are so simple~~sourdough starter, water, olive oil, flour, salt and fresh herbs/flowers.

Combine the starter, water, and oil in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the flour and salt and bring together into a soft dough.

Knead the dough for a few minutes and then let it rest for 1 hour.

While the dough is resting, I search the yard for edible flowers. I was unaware how many flowers can be eaten~~from snapdragons to sunflowers. There is an extensive list of flowers on Aimee’s website. Click here for the list. Naturally, be careful not to include flowers that may be toxic or ones treated with pesticides.

My bounty consists of fresh basil, sage, nasturtium, pansy, primrose, chamomile and chive flowers and roses. After some research, I discovered an additional list of edible flowers online~~I had no idea hollyhocks are edible or I would have added them.

After the resting period, the dough is now ready for the pasta machine.

The dough is soft and pliable. Using more flour during handling prevents sticking. Starting with the widest setting, the dough is fed through the machine.

With each pass through the pasta machine, the setting is lowered. Roll the dough until very thin. Add the flowers and herbs to one half of the length and fold it over to cover it.

Turn the machine back up a few notches and roll the dough through again until it is as thin as possible.

Isn’t this dough beautiful??!!!

Take the second half of the dough and repeat. Cut the dough into 4 long crackers.

Place the dough on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil.

You can use any salt, but I sprinkled smoked Maldon flaked sea salt on the dough, with some more fresh herbs, dried rosemary and additional flowers.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden and crispy.

Naturally, trying something new is a bit challenging. But in retrospect, I would make these flatbreads every week. They are delicious and think of all the seasoning possibilities~~parmesan, garlic, gruyere.

The pasta machine is the perfect solution to getting the dough nice and thin vs. hand rolling (at least for me).

In addition to learning how to use the pasta machine, it was helpful having Elisabeth assist on this. The dough is long when it comes out of the machine so extra hands were needed. If you have a pasta attachment to your KitchenAid mixer, I am sure that would work well too. If not, just try to roll the dough as thin as possible with a rolling pin.

Here is the second piece of dough and you can see where the flowers have been stretched throughout. It will take some practice to get this as picture perfect as Twigg Studios, but the flavor was so good regardless.

It is fun to be challenged by a recipe and then have good results! Now that I have the hang of it, the process will not be so daunting.

Aimee’s flatbreads are so inspirational as well as beautiful.

I tend to get into a baking rut, so I love trying a new recipe that forces me out of my comfort zone. If you have a challenging recipe, send it my way. I am always excited to try something new!

Hope you are having a terrific Tuesday. Can you believe Memorial Day is this coming weekend?

Happy baking!

It has been an interesting week. What started with a lovely, relaxing Mother’s Day and ended with a flooded basement. The good news is the governor’s quarantine is over and life in Arizona is slowly getting back to the new normal.

Garden Update

The garden is abundant with artichokes, eggplant, fennel, cherry tomatoes, shishito peppers and fresh herbs ready to harvest. However, I have a garden mystery and hope someone can help me solve it.

Kale usually does very well here, even during the warmer months. We enjoyed one green and two purple healthy and producing kale plants over the last several months. But last month, my gorgeous kale plants went from this….

To this, literally overnight.

What kind of creature would have done this amount of damage? None of the other plants have been touched, just the kale.

This week, my husband created a fortress around the green kale plant, in hopes it may produce again.

Another, very big and disappointing discovery this week occurred in the bulb garden. You may recall that last fall, I planted hundreds of bulbs and rhizomes. This spring we enjoyed the fruits of my efforts.

During my walkabout, I was shocked and stunned to see that someTHING has stolen/eaten? all my tulip and hyacinth bulbs! There are hundreds of little holes with nothing in them. The bulbs have vanished!

I’ve have never seen anything like this! The irises have not been attacked, I hope, but maybe this critter is eating everything from below ground? Help.

New Projects

Well, this one is not so new, but we are finally making some progress on the back staircase. I posted about this last August (click here), but the project obviously stalled. The sisal carpeting is past its prime and what a dirty and smelly job it is to remove the rug and the excessive amounts of dried glue underneath. Not to mention, possibly old lead paint too.

Using a heat gun to get rid of the glue is nasty business, but the most time consuming part is taking out hundreds of carpet staples. Since I never want to glue down a rug here again, I’m debating what to do. Perhaps just staining and finishing the treads and painting the risers? We still have the final 6 steps to go. Ugh.

So excited about receiving this gorgeous green tile from Home Depot. We will use it as a backsplash behind the outdoor barbecue. It is 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ porcelain Monteca Encaustic tile. Quite surprising, but Home Depot has many beautiful tile selections online. Click here for link. It also comes in blue.

It was easy to order online and then curbside pickup at the store. My favorite tile man, Rick, will be doing this project in June for us.

After a rather significant meeting at City Hall yesterday morning, I had hoped to spend Friday afternoon relaxing or painting or just having “me” time. Well, that didn’t last long. While washing the lunch dishes, we suddenly ran out of hot water. Taking my daughter to the basement to show her how to re-light the water heater, we discovered a flood in progress. One of the 75 gallon water heaters split. What a mess!

I am SOOOO happy I cleaned the basement last year (click here to read that post) or this would have been much worse. Fortunately the Christmas room items were off the floor and on shelves so we did avoid a bigger disaster. To see our Christmas room, click here.

We will be spending the weekend cleaning up and replacing the water heater. These are the moments when living in an apartment sounds attractive. Sigh.

Wishing you a stress-less weekend.