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Author Archives: Pamela Rentz
RIP OZZY!
Approximately 1990, Hollywood.
Can’t believe it. What a legend.
Fated Mates Podcast
If everything goes as planned I will be on today’s Fated Mates podcast. Actually Pen Name is on the podcast. I talk about my romance books and writing as a Native author.
I really love this podcast and I was so thrilled to be asked. I enjoyed talking to Sarah and Jen. But also I’m paranoid that I’m not very interesting. I did my best!
Posted in doing it wrong
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Potatoes on the Loose
I harvested my first figs yesterday. Four more today. And we’ve harvested 2 tomatoes.
Everything is delicious.
What do you think is going on here?
Bob and I went to see the new Wes Anderson movie, The Phoenician Scheme, a week or two ago and afterward had some dinner. This was outside the restaurant.
Potatoes escaping? A potato sack incident? A potato fight?
We’ll never know.
I had grand plans to write an actual post tonight but my administrivia took too long and I had a technical snafu and I need to get off the computer and off to do other things.
I did do a bunch of writing this weekend. More information when I get further in.
Posted in doing it wrong
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Summer Berry Pie with Chocolate Surprise
I had so many berries, desperate measures were needed. I made this pie twice over consecutive weekends. Once to experiment and the second time for company.
I am not a recipe developer – I just love pie and make a lot of it. This is the result of reading about 20 recipes plus my experience of things I’ve tried and liked.
I use this crust recipe.
For the filling I mixed raspberries, blueberries, and Marionberries and erred in favor of more blueberries. I have found that too many raspberries makes it too seedy.
I aimed for about 6 cups of berries for a 9 1/2 inch pie.
Mix all the berries and add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon and a good squeeze of lemon juice. 1-2 T.
The first time I added a bit of lemon zest — maybe 1/2 t. The second time I added a bit of orange zest — maybe 1/2 t. I think you could get away with a heavier hand on this depending on how you like it
Finally, I mixed with baking tapioca. The first time I used a 1/2 cup and it seemed like a lot so the second time I used 1/3 cup and it seemed better. Then I let the prepared filling sit for at least 30 minutes.
While the fruit was resting I made a bottom crust and blind baked at 375 for about 15 minutes. When I took it out, I sprinkled about 2 oz. of chopped dark chocolate in the warm crust and let it melt a little bit and then used a little spatula to spread the chocolate in a thin layer over the bottom. Resist the urge to overdo the chocolate. It’s really best as just a hint with the fruit.
When that was done I added the fruit and made the top crust. I have never added a top crust to a blind baked bottom before. I was sure how much it would “seal” so I just did my best and then made those giant slashes to give the berry juice plenty of room to bubble out so it wouldn’t come out the sides. It seems like it worked.
Also I should note that I had a timer malfunction so it was left in a tad too long. It tasted fine.
Let it cool before slicing. It’s really delicious — the chocolate is a nice surprise taste with the berries. I stored in the fridge.
The Stacks
We love Wes Anderson and loved the gift of this book. We also love Project 562 which was photography project that that photographed all federally recognized Tribes and Alaska Natives villages although when we got it, we thought our niece’s photo would be in it. I think she was in the Instagram feed and that’s how we got that idea. She’s not in the book but it’s still a really awesome collection.
Then I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the art of Oscar Howe, a Yanktonai Dakota artist from South Dakota and I loved his art. I loved it so much I went to the exhibit twice.
I normally would not buy a book from an art exhibit but I couldn’t help myself and I distinctly remember saying to my husband: I don’t want to become a household with a giant stack of coffee table books.
You can see how that’s going. No more coffee table books.
This was in the sculpture garden during our New Orleans trip. It reminded me of our book stack.
Posted in doing it wrong
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The Little Notebook, Update
First of all, I did an advanced google-search to find the post with my previous notebook update and AI gave me this:
On the website “pamrentz.com”, the word “notebook” appears in several posts, most notably in a post titled “Notebooks” from July 26, 2013. This post discusses the author’s collection of notebooks, starting from 1978, and how she uses them. The author describes how she has notebooks stashed all over her room and that they are not all full. She also mentions using them for journaling and for jotting down ideas. One post also mentions keeping a small notebook by her bed for late-night ideas or reminders. She describes using a notebook to write down favorite URLs and passwords, a practice she finds amusing in hindsight. A more recent post in June 2023 mentions seeing someone writing in a notebook in a parking garage.
I feel so famous!
Here’s to the 2013 post.
In 2021, I did a post about finally buying a new notebook to replace the pictured.
Except. I found that I’d missed a bunch of pages in the middle of the green notebook. So I kept using it and I just swapped it out in April. And also changed the date to 2025. If it takes 10 years to finish that notebook, I will be in my 70s when I’m done.
Amazing.
Posted in sleepless in Vancouver
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Berry Delicious!
Yes! I picked 1 and 1/2 pounds yesterday.
If I can, I pick every day. It’s a great way to end the day, especially after work. The other day there were two bunnies hanging out with me while I was out there and it was amazing.
It rained yesterday afternoon and today. I haven’t been out there and I’m not sure how this extra cool days are going to affect the fruit. Let’s hope very little.
Also, you can’t see but there are a few blueberries on the bottom. They are just coming in. The marionberries are also on the verge. I found one ready to eat yesterday.
At first I thought I’d skip making jam but upon inventorying the supply, we have less than I thought so I will probably do a multi-berry batch next month.
We Got the Beets!
Staging for the daily cauldron of fruit.
It’s on my list but I still haven’t replaced my trail cam so if I can’t see what’s going on out there — maybe nothing is going on out there.
Wrong.
Sadly, the deer have returned. I don’t know how many or for how long but I definitely could tell that my poor little Asian plum tree served as major snack material. There were pieces of tree on the ground. There were deep divots from those cloven hooves. No turds though!
I can see where someone snacked on the apple tree, as well, but the apple tree is more established (relatively) and the damage didn’t look as bad.
I don’t care if they eat roses like some people. Eat the roses! The rosemary is giant — try that. There’s some green weedy stuff that might be delicious if they would just try it. I guess I should be careful what I wish for. Now I know they at least one of them is still alive and roving about the neighborhood.
This weekend I picked beets that I slow roasted with shallots. Delicious! I also picked peas. The peas are insane. I’ve never had such healthy plants so I planted them way too close together. It’s a mass of pea plants and a chore to poke around in there and try to find all the peas.
We had risotto with fresh peas that came out pretty good but I need to refine my technique. I am hoping to make some pasta with fresh peas and I already threw some in the freezer.
The berries are coming on but still manageable. I’ve never had so many of the everbearing before and some healthy looking red raspberries are starting now, too.
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Garden Bounty, Part 2 Berry Edition
The brand new strawberries that looked like little dirty roots when they arrived are already making strawberries. To be honest, they aren’t that flavorful and have a slightly spongy texture, but it’s still early. Some sunshine and I bet these are terrific.
This is my berry patch. It was so dense last summer that berry picking felt dangerous. My arms always had scratches on them.
I discovered something called thornless berries and immediately ordered 2 plants. At some point, early spring?, I severely whacked back the berry patch. I cut lots of canes and I dug up lots of canes. I wish I’d take an picture but the patch looked so sad and bare.
I’m very greedy about my garden and hate discouraging anything but I wanted room for the new berries and I figured I could live one year with a light crop.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.
It’s like the berries were never happier. Look at this. It is a mass of forming berries.
And look how long the patch is. I checked on my two new plants and they are hanging in there, poor little babies amongst these tall, established vines. I expect to be begging my neighbors to take berries, too. What an amazing problem to have.
Two years ago I started pruning my blueberries as well. They love it, too. I think there’s a lesson to be learned.
Berries never go to waste. We eat a ton. We freeze a ton. Last year I made a lot of jam but we don’t eat it fast enough so not sure jam will save us this year. We’ll share these, too.
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Garden Bounty, Part 1
(Somehow I wrote the blog for New Orleans Last Day and never posted it. Oops!! That’s why there are going to be a couple posts close together.)
The garden is bursting at the seams. I’ve always wanted a magical backyard and I feel like I am starting to achieve that.
These are the peas. I felt like I was really holding back and just planting a reasonable amount. But everything came up and came up hearty and that is a pea bush. You can’t really see but there are some lettuce plants in between because it seemed like there was extra room in there.
The raised beds are magic.
Here’s some more lettuce. Lettuce is another crop that I felt I really held back and only planted a few seeds. I’m so accustomed to pitiful returns that this whole thing has been quite educational.
I am still giving away lettuce and making new friends wherever I can. There’s a neighborhood association meeting next week and I’m bringing lettuce.
I have 4 tomatoes in the raised beds and I look forward to complaining about too many tomatoes.
Apples! Last year the deer visited during apple blossom time and filled their adorable bellies with all my future apples.
I haven’t see a trace of the deer in quite some time and worry for their health and well being.
But, I am also happy for my yard. Now there are so many apples that the whole tree is going to collapse. I need to keep an eye on them and thin them out when the time comes. I also need some help propping it up.
Honey pears! I love how they grow upside down at first. The pear tree is still pretty scrawny and there are only few pears, maybe 8, but I am still going to keep a close eye on it. Last year we had only 2 or 3 and they were small pears but we enjoyed every little bite.
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