Miri Leigh

We’ll, I’m not moving. I’m quite happy in my little cottage apartment and couldn’t dream of living anywhere else, actually.  But my blog is moving.  You see, I’m actually starting to get some paying gigs from this deal and I think it’s time I start using my own name.  I’ve gotten a few too many e-mails addressed to Laura… sigh.

So, my new URL is www.mirileigh.com.   Won’t you come over and say hello?   When you get there, be sure to update your RSS feed and sign up for my newsletter, if you haven’t already.  The new site is still very much in honor of Laura and Carmen, and I will forever maintain the page that is dedicated to them.  For that matter, everything looks very much the same for now, although I plan to do a whole site redesign this summer.  Very excited about that!

Oh – I also have a Facebook page!  So if you’d rather see my updates there, please visit my page and click “like.”  I mean, I know you like my blog already, that’s why you’re here.  But I hope you “like” seeing me on Facebook, too.

See you soon at www.mirileigh.com.

It’s 5:30 pm, it’s dreary outside, and it looks like I will be at work for much of the evening.  But I am smiling.  Why? Because I have this lovely print on my wall, from the lovely and talented British artist Heidi Burton.  Don’t know her stuff?  You’re missing out!  Check out her Etsy store here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/heidiburton

That’s all for today.  Just a little art and, hopefully, a little smile for your Tuesday evening.

I meant to post a little something on Friday to wish you all a wonderful weekend, but here we are and it’s Sunday already.  How is it that the best days of the week slip away so quickly?  The weekend is gone and in all likelihood your attention has already shifted toward the to-do list you must attack first thing tomorrow morning.

But wait. Can we not go there yet?  It is still Sunday, after all, and I’m stuck in this dreamy weekend-induced state of mind.  The weather here in San Francisco was spectacular, which drew me outdoors for all sorts of fun.  Yesterday I did a little gardening.  My dahlias are just coming up out of the ground (a new post with updated photos is coming soon, I promise!) and I decided, on a whim, to plant the rest of the garden with vegetables: Tomatoes, hot peppers, squash, cucumber, and a pumpkin.  I also started some sunflowers from seed in little four-inch pots, and tore out an old azalea that’s been good and dead for over a year.  It felt good to get the yard cleaned up and to put some healthy veggies in the ground, which is still damp and sweet-smelling from the recent rains.

Last night I went to a dinner party at the home of my former classmate, Anirban, and his beautiful wife, Bonnie.  It was a reunion of sorts with my study team from Wharton, and we had a grand ol’ time eating and laughing and dancing barefoot to Bollywood music in the living room.  You’d think we just graduated from middle school, but no… it was a Masters program.  You’ll have to take my word for it.

Today I had a book club gathering with my fabulous book club girls; We brunched on pastries and mimosas outdoors in a gorgeous sun-drenched (though characteristically breezy) San Francisco backyard.  We chatted about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, which is creepy and disturbing but utterly addicting.  I came home and didn’t do much of anything: I read the paper (that would be the New York Times, of course), read my favorite magazine, The Sun, and then went for a walk.  And that’s where I picked these lovely wildflowers: sweet pea and nasturtium that grow on a hillside near my home.

Did you have a wonderful weekend, too?  I hope you’ll tell me all about it.

Here’s some happy news to brighten your day: It’s berry season!  Raspberries, in particular, are looking plump and juicy right about now.  Which is why I love to use them as the finishing touch on this showcase dessert.  What we have here is a chocolate layer cake wrapped in a band of solid chocolate and topped with fresh raspberries.  The prep and assembly require a bit of effort, no doubt, but it’s well worth it.  And if you love the combination of chocolate and raspberries (ummm… how could you not?!), then this is the dessert for you.

Oh — and while we’re on the subject of the berries, let me just point out my own little food styling misjudgment: In the photo (if you look closely… really closely… zoom in if you have to) you can see that I dusted the berries with a bit of powdered sugar.  But… you know what?  I don’t really like that idea.  Fresh berries are beautiful just as they are.  I say, resist the temptation to dust them or drizzle them or do whatever it is you are thinking of doing to them.  Just leave them be.

Before you begin, you might want to read about making the chocolate band enclosure in “Valentine’s Chocolate Ruffle Cake.”  It’s messy but fun!  And I’m telling you, once you learn how to do this you will want to wrap everything in chocolate.

[Continue Reading Chocolate Raspberry Torte...]

I used to have a garden… a real garden… with vegetables and flowers and even a small fish pond with a gurgling waterfall.  That was when I lived in the suburbs and had a little house with a yard.  Four years ago I moved back to the Bay Area and into a rental.  I’ve moved several times since then: I rented, I bought a house, I rented that house out, and now I’m renting again, coincidentally exactly where I started — in a small apartment in Piedmont, which does indeed have a backyard.  My landlord keeps postponing a much-needed landscaping overhaul, which has left the terraced beds pretty much barren.  So I decided this year to get back into gardening.

I called up my friends at Dan’s Dahlias in Oakville, Washington.  Dan sells the best dahlia bulbs around, in the rarest and most striking varieties.  And dahlias are such fun — the tubers show up looking like pathetic, misshapen potatoes and three months later they’re transformed into lush green shrubs covered in brightly-colored blooms.  It’s nothing short of miraculous.

Dahlias don’t need much, since most of what they need they store in the tuber itself.  I planted mine 4-6″ deep in well-drained soil, about 2 feet apart and a few weeks after the last frost.  The numbers you see in these photos, by the way, correspond to the variety.  I bought Audrey Grace, Lupine Chris, and Wildwood Marie (one of my all-time favorites), among others… nine varieties in all.

Now, I’m just waiting for new growth to break through the soil.  Stay tuned!   I’ll be keeping this Dahlia Diary all through the summer, with regular updates and photos.

Well, I promised I’d be making more videos now that school’s over, and here’s the first of many more to come.  Check out the fancy details: We’ve got music and text effects!  I’m getting pretty good at this iMovie thing.  Enjoy, and have a great weekend.