{"id":1794,"date":"2004-12-13T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-13T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2004\/12\/13\/il-faut-cultiver-notre-jardin"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:35","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:35","slug":"il-faut-cultiver-notre-jardin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2004\/12\/il-faut-cultiver-notre-jardin\/","title":{"rendered":"Il faut cultiver notre jardin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPangloss disait quelquefois \u00e0 Candide: \u2018Tous les \u00e9v\u00e9nements sont encha\u00een\u00e9s dans le meilleur des mondes possibles; car enfin, si vous n\u2019aviez pas \u00e9t\u00e9 chass\u00e9 d\u2019un beau ch\u00e2teau \u00e0 grands coups de pied dans le derri\u00e8re pour l\u2019amour de Mlle Cun\u00e9gonde, si vous n\u2019aviez pas \u00e9t\u00e9 mis \u00e0 l\u2019Inquisition, si vous n\u2019aviez pas couru l\u2019Am\u00e9rique \u00e0 pied, si vous n\u2019aviez pas donn\u00e9 un bon coup d\u2019\u00e9p\u00e9e au baron, si vous n\u2019aviez pas perdu tous vos moutons du bon pays d\u2019Eldorado, vous ne mangeriez pas ici des c\u00e9drats confits et des pistaches.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Cela est bien dit,\u2019 r\u00e9pondit Candide, \u2018mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.\u2019\u201d<\/em>
\u2014Voltaire, Candide
<\/a><\/em>
Like Voltaire\u2019s Candide\u2014who slogged his way to the good life through a haphazard and mind-boggling maze of hardships, mistakes, traps, and lost loves\u2014I often wonder at the strange, seemingly slapdash chain of events that delivers us into each second of our lives<\/strong>. Take, for instance, the following: if I hadn\u2019t gone to my dear Northern California college, I might not have gone to Paris in 1999<\/a>; if I hadn\u2019t gone to Paris, I wouldn\u2019t have befriended Keaton; if I hadn\u2019t befriended Keaton, I wouldn\u2019t have felt so happily inclined to come to Seattle in 2002; if I hadn\u2019t befriended Keaton and come to Seattle, I wouldn\u2019t have met Kate; if I hadn\u2019t met Kate, I wouldn\u2019t have met Nicho<\/a>; if I hadn\u2019t met Nicho, I wouldn\u2019t have been given bags and coolers full of his homegrown vegetables<\/strong>; and if I hadn\u2019t been given those homegrown vegetables, I might not be here today, typing these words. I might well have starved to death, martyring myself in the name of rent payments and meager monthly contributions to NPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But as fate would have it, all but the last did miraculously occur. And today, I feel infinitely lucky to cultivate this Seattle garden, both human and vegetable<\/strong>. After all, we know it could<\/em> have turned out otherwise.<\/p>\n

As befits the season, I\u2019ve recently been showered with Swiss chard and pumpkins, the garden’s bounty. For Halloween, Nicho bestowed upon me a generous-sized pumpkin with a picture-perfect curly stem<\/strong>, cut from his yard that very afternoon. Then, a week or so ago, he called to ask if he could bring over “raw materials” and cook dinner with me<\/strong>. This, dear reader, ranks among the greatest questions in the history of mankind. You can well imagine my answer.<\/p>\n

Nicho arrived twenty-four hours later with a bagful of Swiss chard, stubby dirt-flecked carrots, two enormous acorn squashes, and a bunch of mystery greens (which his mother claims is spinach, but it looked more like leafy geranium stems, minus the flowers). He also selected three varieties of sausage at Whole Foods, as well as a couple Belgian beers in tall glass bottles. He knows how I feel about sausage<\/a>, and he delivers. That <\/em>is friendship.<\/p>\n

I need not tell you how delicious it was; that much is clear. But even better, later in the evening, after I saw him to the door, I discovered that the bag of Swiss chard remained, nearly full<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I slept very, very well.<\/p>\n

The next evening, I cut the Swiss chard into a rough chiffonade and saut\u00e9ed it with thinly sliced onion, stirred it into eggs beaten with salty grated cheese, and cooked it gently on the stovetop, a Swiss chard version of a zucchini-and-Pecorino frittata<\/a>. It was barely golden, full of sweet onions and bitter greens. Delicious that night, it was even better as room-temperature leftovers<\/strong>, eaten on a couch in the art school caf\u00e9 while talking applied anthropology and local scandal with Robert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Nicho\u2019s pumpkin remained. It was aging well, although it took up acres of counter-space in my small kitchen. I knew it was a sugar pumpkin and thus ideal for baking, but I was indecisive: cheesecake? Pie? Bread? Then, one night shortly before Thanksgiving, Keaton arrived for cocktails with a pumpkin in her shirt, pregnancy-style; now there were two<\/em>. The situation was dire<\/strong>. Not being a huge proponent of pumpkin pies and mousses, I set my sights on pumpkin bread, which offered the added benefit of perfuming my apartment with spice and toasted nuts.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A dusty orange color, spotted with crunchy hazelnuts and translucent golden raisins<\/strong>, the bread was tender and moist with a very delicate crumb. It\u2019s sweet and spicy, with an earthy pumpkin flavor and a warm note of ginger. And it would make a lovely gift.<\/p>\n

Go cultivate that garden.<\/p>\n

Pumpkin Bread with Hazelnuts and Golden Raisins
<\/strong>Adapted from The New Joy of Cooking<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

1 \u00bd cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 \u00bd tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
\u00bd tsp ground nutmeg
\u00bc tsp ground cloves
\u00bc tsp baking powder
1\/3 cup water
\u00bd tsp pure vanilla extract
6 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1\/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin pur\u00e9e (or cooked, pur\u00e9ed\u2014until very<\/em> smooth\u2014winter squash, yams, or sweet potatoes), at room temperature
\u00bd cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts
1\/3 cup golden raisins<\/p>\n

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease (with butter or cooking spray) a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan.<\/p>\n

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and baking powder until thoroughly blended. In another bowl, mix water and vanilla extract. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, and beat on medium speed until lightened in color and texture, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add pumpkin pur\u00e9e, and beat on low speed until just blended. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the water-vanilla mixture in two parts, beating on low until smooth and just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Fold in hazelnuts and raisins. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly across the top.<\/p>\n

Bake about one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for five or ten minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em> You\u2019re not obligated to use a loaf pan, of course. You could make muffins, for example; for a standard-sized muffin, bake 18-20 minutes. And this bread freezes beautifully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPangloss disait quelquefois \u00e0 Candide: \u2018Tous les \u00e9v\u00e9nements sont encha\u00een\u00e9s dans le meilleur des mondes possibles; car enfin, si vous n\u2019aviez pas \u00e9t\u00e9 chass\u00e9 d\u2019un beau ch\u00e2teau \u00e0 grands coups de pied dans le derri\u00e8re pour l\u2019amour de Mlle Cun\u00e9gonde, si vous n\u2019aviez pas \u00e9t\u00e9 mis \u00e0 l\u2019Inquisition, si vous n\u2019aviez pas couru l\u2019Am\u00e9rique \u00e0 pied, si vous n\u2019aviez pas donn\u00e9 un bon coup d\u2019\u00e9p\u00e9e au baron, si vous n\u2019aviez pas perdu tous vos moutons du bon pays d\u2019Eldorado, vous ne mangeriez pas ici des c\u00e9drats confits et des pistaches.\u2019 \u2018Cela est bien dit,\u2019 r\u00e9pondit Candide, \u2018mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.\u2019\u201d\u2014Voltaire, CandideLike Voltaire\u2019s Candide\u2014who slogged his way to the good life through a haphazard and mind-boggling maze of hardships,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIl faut cultiver notre jardin | Orangette<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/2004\/12\/il-faut-cultiver-notre-jardin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Il faut cultiver notre jardin | Orangette\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cPangloss disait quelquefois \u00e0 Candide: \u2018Tous les \u00e9v\u00e9nements sont encha\u00een\u00e9s dans le meilleur des mondes possibles; 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