He poked his handsome head between the railings and prepared to lunge at the frolicking squirrels. Stanford has a propensity to run with reckless abandon toward anything that catches his fancy. You should see him in the park when he chases after his ball or in his walks when he spots pigeons on the street. Never belittle those short corgi legs for he can run like the wind. That morning, he was determined to run after our beguiling little neighbors. I rushed outside, grabbed the little guy, and calmed him down. Nobody wants a squirrel scuffle. Nobody wants anyone to get hurt.

Soon the morning ruckus quieted down. All I could hear were the ducks quacking in our neighbor’s yard. The ducks, mind you, aren’t a bad thing. They are actually a hoot! They don’t quack incessantly, thank heavens, but when they do they’re hilarious.

I sank back into my Adirondack while Stanford retreated to his favorite spot next to our Early Girls. A gentle morning breeze blew from the south and I caught a whiff of the fragrant calamansi blossoms. We had lost all hope that they would bloom again but after we read about and tried starving the tree of water until its leaves roll up then adequately watering it, we saw a full flush of blossoms within a month. The tree looked magnificent with a flurry of white citrus flowers.

I leaned back and marveled at how much our edible garden has grown. We started with pots of basil, mint, parsley, rosemary, and thyme over a year ago and we’ve expanded our repertoire to fill every possible square footage of space in our yard that gets ample sun. Dennis has done a remarkable job putting it together.

Why care for an edible garden? We don’t fit the bill of hippie-urban-farmer-types, you know. I seriously doubt we can reduce our carbon footprint by caring for a garden as tiny as ours, even if every little bit helps. I also doubt we can save a real, big chunk of change by eating food sourced at home. But gardening is something both our moms did when we were little. It reminds us of home. Papaya and guava trees in Manila. Tomatoes and zucchinis in Ohio.

And it’s the sheer delight of seeing things grow. The delight of seeing tomatoes ripen and pea shoots curl up. The delight of seeing fragile dill leaves form and ruby-red beet stems grow.

Plus it’s the unquantifiable sense of pride that the radishes pickling in vinegar and the tomatoes simmering in butter in our kitchen didn’t come from far, far away. They were homegrown and hand-picked from our own edible garden.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can grow even in tiny, cramped spaces. There’s so much information out there both in print and online that you should give an edible garden, however small, a try. Here’s a list of books and links that we’ve found most useful.

Sugar Snaps and Strawberries
Heavy Petal
A Veggie Venture
Growing Herbs on Pots
Make Your Own Potting Mixes
Would You Pay $150+ for Year-Round Fresh Herbs?
Growing Dwarf Citrus
Calamondin – The Most Versatile Citrus

By the way, we wouldn’t have the impetus to start growing tomatoes and radishes if it weren’t for Annapet and Melissa. Thank you for the inspiration.

Care to share your own gardening story?

Pickled Radish Recipe
Recipe by Thomas Keller from Ad Hoc at Home

1/2 cup champagne vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup red radishes, washed, trimmed, thinly sliced or quartered

Combine vinegar, sugar, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator.

Put the radishes in a canning jar or other storage container and pour the pickling liquid over them. Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes, then cover and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

Tomato Sauce Recipe
Recipe by Marcella Hazan from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described below, or 2 cups canned imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
5 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
salt to taste

Plunge the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them and, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them, and cut them into coarse pieces.

Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until it is thickened to your liking and the fat floats free from the tomato.

Stir from time to time, mashing up any large pieces of tomato with the back of a wooden spoon.

Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta. Serve with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese for the table.

He laid on his back while I dried him off.  Corgis get insanely wet in the rain.  As they strut down the street from one puddle to the next, their bellies scoop up all the rainwater from the ground because of their short legs.  And so even with his waterproof, fleece-lined raincoat on, poor Stanford gets terribly wet even in just a drizzle.

But it wasn’t a mere drizzle.  It was a storm!  It had been raining nonstop all week.  Sure, there were breaks from time to time when the sun tried its very best to peek out of the thick, grim clouds but those only lasted for only a fleeting moment.  I know we badly need the rain but don’t we need the sun, too?  What happened to sunny California? My calamansi tree and the tomatoes and peppers Dennis planted in our tiny vegetable garden barely a week ago need the glorious sun. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the rain.  I grew up where it rains practically half the time, all the time. Monsoons are part and parcel of life. Images of basins and buckets full of rainwater that dripped from cracked ceilings flash through my mind. So do paper boats, deftly folded from old newspapers, floating dreamily along curbside streams. I love the mist. I love the rain. But cold, miserable rain for days is a totally different story.

The rain continued to pour and I knew our weekend plans would have to be ditched. I also knew I had to stop whining about the weather because there was simply nothing I could do. And things could be worse. I rolled up my sleeves and worked on a few things around the loft, which I had been putting off, then retreated to my kitchen to make stew for dinner. It was, after all, a stew kind of day. I made caldereta [kal-dih-ret-uh], beef stewed in a rich tomato sauce. I marinated the beef in vinegar for a couple of hours before I simmered it slowly in tomato sauce until it was fork-tender. I stirred in some liver pâté to thicken the stew and add another layer of flavor, then baked flaky drop biscuits right on top.

As the cold rain fell heavily outside, Stanford watched the world go by through the glass door. By the time the biscuits were done, he ran straight to the kitchen, nosed around, and followed me intently as I dished the stew and biscuits into plates for dinner. All of a sudden, the rain didn’t matter anymore.

Beef Caldereta Recipe
Recipe adapted from Gerry Gelle’s Filipino Cuisine

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
6 whole peppercorns, crushed
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-1/2 pounds beef for stew, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped, about 1/2 cup
12 marble or fingerling potatoes
1/2 cup tomato sauce
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup liver pâté
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup green olives, optional
1 to 2 small cayenne peppers, optional
salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine vinegar, peppercorns, garlic, and beef in a container large enough to hold everything together. Marinate for 1 to 2 hours.

Remove the beef and discard the marinade. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat Add the oil, then the beef, and brown on all sides. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside.

Add the onions and cook until they are translucent. Add the beef, potatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, salt, sugar and water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the beef is tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

Add the liver pâté and stir well. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper as needed. Add the red bell pepper and peas and simmer over low heat for 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile, make the drop biscuits.

Drop Biscuits Recipe, makes fifteen 1-1/2-inch biscuits
Recipe from the Joy of Cooking

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter or shortening
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the chilled butter using a pastry blender or two knives, until the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center. Add all the milk at once. Stir just until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Scoop the dough with a tablespoon and lay it gingerly on the stew until the stew is practically covered with biscuits. Leave a half-inch space between biscuits. Bake with the dutch oven uncovered until the biscuits are lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes.

Alternatively, the biscuits can be baked separately in a baking sheet and served along with the stew. Drop the dough from the spoon onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes.

Cooking Notes

1. Caldereta is traditionally cooked with goat meat, in the northern part of the Philippines. Pitted green olives and slices chorizo are typically added as well as shredded cheddar cheese, which thickens the sauce.

2. Cut the meat and potatoes evenly to make sure they cook uniformly. I like using marble or fingerling potatoes that have roughly the same size as the beef cubes. Roast the potatoes separately in olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper and add them in the stew when it is ready to be served.

3. Caldereta is typically ladled over a heap of steamed rice but I like how the drop biscuits soak up the rich, savory sauce.

4. Like most stews and soups, caldereta is better a day or two after it is made. Bake the drop biscuits fresh right before serving the stew.

“Is it something serious? Something we need to be concerned about?” I worriedly asked.

“There is absolutely nothing to be worried about for now,” she assured me. “It’s normal for dogs to develop cataracts as they age but it’s a good idea to start paying close attention to his eyes.”

“Would these cataracts mean that Stanford’s a little older than we think he is?”

“Not necessarily,” she replied while she handed him treats, which he obligingly wolfed down. “It’s difficult to tell exactly how old he is. Some dogs develop cataracts early when they’re still young while for some they come later in life.”

We’ve always wondered how old Stanford is. We think he is either six or seven, and now that he’s started to develop cataracts he may even be older. It’s one of those things, I guess, that we’ll never really figure out — like why he has that nick in his right ear and that tiny scar near his left eye. Dennis believes he wrestled with a bear when he was out in the woods in Utah before he got rescued, which makes me actually proud to think that my little boy can stand up and defend himself. But it seriously breaks my heart whenever I picture Stanford out in the cold, in the dead of winter, prowling for food and searching for a warm place to sleep.

It’s been three years since we adopted Stanford and since we’re not sure when his real birthday is, we pegged his adoption day as his birthday. I fondly remember the flight to Salt Lake City, the overnight stop in Winnemucca, and the long drive back to San Francisco. I remember driving across the Bay Bridge with a rescued corgi in the backseat. Stanford has this uncanny ability to lift my spirits up, even with a broken camera on the floor. His handsome face never fails to light up a room. Many say Stanford’s one lucky pooch but I think it’s the other way around. Dennis and I are the lucky ones to have found him — nicks, scars, cataracts, and all.

To celebrate his birthday and our three years together I made Stanford blueberry pupcakes. Yes, judge all you want. I made my little boy cupcakes. Liz Palika’s The Ultimate Dog Treat Cookbook: Homemade Goodies for Man’s Best Friend has a great recipe for blueberry cupcakes, which she calls pupcakes. She combines ground kibble with Jiffy blueberry muffin mix, which I replaced with whole wheat flour, baking powder, and honey. The pupcakes contain blueberries, which are an excellent source of antioxidants for your dogs.

Here is a link to a recipe for another tasty dog treat, peanut butter oatmeal dog treats.

Making Blueberry Birthday Pupcakes Recipe
Recipe adapted from Liz Palika’s The Ultimate Dog Treat Cookbook: Homemade Goodies for Man’s Best Friend, makes 12 pupcakes

1/2 cup ground dry dog food kibble, use a mortar and pestle or a food processor to grind the kibble
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
1 cup low-fat milk
1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen ones that have been thawed, washed, and drained

6 ounces light cream cheese
1/3 cup fresh blueberries or frozen ones that have been thawed, washed, and drained

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the ground dog food kibble, flour, baking powder in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Add honey, eggs, milk and a cup of blueberries and mix until well combined. The batter should be slightly grainy.

Grease or line muffin cups with paper baking cups. Avoid using foil baking cups. Paper ones are digestible in case your dog wolfs down the pupcakes before you take the paper cups off. Bake until a cake tester or wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the pupcakes cool on a cooling rack.

Whip cream cheese with 1/3 cup blueberries. Frost the pupcakes with a thin layer of whipped cream cheese and top with a few blueberries. Remove the paper baking cups before serving the pupcakes.

As we continue our countdown to Jun-Blog’s first anniversary, I made peanut butter oatmeal dog treats for the corgi who has captured our hearts since that fateful winter day in Salt Lake City.  His handsome face and ears that perk up and greet us every morning are constant reminders of how lucky we are for finding each other.

Thank you to the lovely blog, Shared Sugar, for the wonderful dog treat recipe.  And as I was photographing the treats for the blog, Mr. Stanford was busy sniffing and prancing back and forth, waiting for me to finish the shoot, waiting for me to give him his reward for being the good boy he has always been.

Here is a link where you can read more about how we rescued Stanford back in 2008.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Treats Recipe
Recipe by Shared Sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together peanut butter, honey, oil and chicken broth. In a separate bowl, combine the flours and oatmeal. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Place the dough on a clean surface lightly dusted with flour and then roll the dough out to about 3/8” inch thick.  Add more flour if the dough is a bit moist and sticky.  Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Roll out leftover scraps and cut out as many treats as possible.  Place the cut-out cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

May the joy of the Holiday season fill your homes today and throughout the New Year.

And so, I have been spending a lot of time lately making the rounds of the coffee houses in the city to come up with my list of the coolest cafés.

Let me start with the one closest to home, Farley’s at 18th Street in Potrero Hill.

Farley’s is truly a cool neighborhood coffee shop with lots of community events and activities like the Annual Pet Fest they host every Halloween and their evenings of live jazz and standards played by local artists.

Another cool thing about Farley’s is their wall where they display the work of local artists and photographers. For November, they are showcasing the charming photographs of the pets and kids in costumes at the Pet Fest taken by “Photo Booth” photographer Christopher Irion. Stanford actually made it to the wall! Can you spot the red corgi?

Farley’s beans are hand roasted by a local coffee company in the East Bay.  My favorite Farley’s sweet treat is their rich and yummy brownie.

Other notes: a cup of coffee is $1.75; wi-fi is free; there is outdoor seating; cookies and pastries are available and you can grab a sandwich next door at Hazel’s Kitchen and enjoy it at Farley’s.

I am so crazy about my little boy.

Dennis and I adopted Stanford in 2008.  We wanted a Pembroke Welsh Corgi so badly and were having no luck in finding one in the Bay Area until we came across Stanford’s profile at Petfinder, the on-line database of adoptable pets.  Stanford was a stray rescued by Shannon and Kim of 4 Paws Rescue in Ogden, a suburb of Salt Lake City.  We instantly fell in love with Stanford’s handsome photos and even though it meant either flying or driving to Utah in the middle of winter, we were determined to take the chance and hopefully take him home to San Francisco.

We flew to Salt Lake City the weekend after our application for adoption was approved. We rented a car and drove to a local pet store just outside Salt Lake City where we would meet Stanford for the first time.  I can remember very clearly how Dennis and I were very anxious as we entered the store.  We were so worried that we wouldn’t be a good match but as soon as we saw Stanford’s smiling “please-take-me-home” look on his face inside his crate, we knew for certain that he was ours.

After going through the paperwork, we got him a dog tag, bought supplies for the long drive home and said our farewells to Kim and Shannon.  Off to the city we went.  Luckily, the drive through the Sierras was not at all bad.  We stayed the night in Winnemucca, Nevada and then continued the drive back to California the morning after.

Stanford has been enjoying life in the city.  He loves to eat.  He loves to run and chase balls in the park.   He loves anything that squeaks.  He doesn’t care too much for window blinds, vacuum cleaners and paper shredders.  We actually have been through quite a lot in terms of vet visits in the past year and a half, from scratched eyelids to tummy aches.  When we first got him, Stanford would limp after too much running.  We later found out that his limping was caused by being a little bit overweight.  Did I say he loves to eat?  But he is now slim and trim at 30 pounds and, overall, he is in excellent shape.

Whenever Stanford greets me with his handsome face every morning and each time I come home from work, I can’t help but be thankful that we found each other.  It breaks my heart when I picture Stanford as a stray looking for something to eat out in the cold.  But it warms my heart that Stanford is now safe and enjoying a happy life with us.

I think all dogs (and cats, too!) deserve a second chance.  A second chance to a happy life of belly rubs and squeaky toys.  The San Francisco SPCA is a great resource for anyone looking to adopt homeless cats and dogs in the city.  And for anyone looking to rescue corgis in particular, the Golden Gate Pembroke Welsh Corgi Fanciers is a great place to start your search.