Guess the dish

Saturday there was some serious cooking going on at mi casa, not by me mind you, I was just sous-chef. Let's see if you can figure out the main course. The Pan. Don't jump to conclusions. Just a few ingredients. The chorizo is just showing at the bottom left hand corner of the photo and the rice is not yet measured out. There are clams under the mussels at the back of the photo and a few other items out of frame. Sorry, no hints yet. Brown some chicken. Stir some sofrito. (anyone alliteration averse?) Drop in some seafood. I know, this is a hard dish to figure out. and in minutes it's. Paella for 2. Actually it would serve more than 2, but we couldn't wait to christen the dish and we were also hoping my favorite daughter who will be attending UMASS at Amherst next semester would show up. It took about 2 hours total to prepare, but it was excellent and well worth it. On my own this weekend, I started some bacon, started a batch of pastis(French anise liqueur), baked an Irish Tea Brick* and sautéd some sauerkraut for my lunches this week. Irish Tea Brick - Soak 1 cup raisins, 1 cup cranberries, 1 cup dark brown sugar in 1/2 cup of hot tea overnight. (Lapsang souchong or holiday tea) For this batch I used Republic of Tea's "Comfort and Joy Tea". The next day Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking power and 1 teaspoon pumpkin spices or any spice mix you might want. Then add 3 beaten eggs into the fruit mix and slowly add the flour mix, dump into a loaf pan. Bake for 90 minutes at 325 degrees F or until a tooth pick comes out super clean. The sauerkraut has been cooked with dark beer, maple syrup, caraway seeds, butter and olive oil in a proprietary manner. On a non-food related topic, I dug some of the potted alpines into the ground for the winter to keep them warm. Also cut and edged the grass for the last time this year, I hope and raked some leaves. Oh and I think I might have done some laundry. * - Real name Irish Tea Brack. I like my Brack dry and dense hence Brick. All arm modeling by my best friend.

October 2010 Flowers

Don't quite have as many blooms as I might like in the yard, but it just means I have to buy more plants.

 

Fall Blooming Crocus

 

Something Cool Rose

 

Coral Bell foliage, this one has very pale pink almost white flowers, but the foliage is more interesting.

 

Latest Coral Bell addition, it is supposed to have dark red flowers.

 

Latest trough planted up, just waiting for the soil to settle before adding gravel mulch. Probably will use small black aquarium gravel. The next trough I have planned will be more square, not exactly square, but less natural than this one.

 

Saxifrage, Paniculata minutifolia "red backed spider'

 

Another Saxifrage, this one is also in the same trough. It is either cotyledon 'Pyramidalis' or paniculata 'cockscomb'. I dropped the tags and can't tell the difference now. The other is the third Saxifrage in the trough. Neither looks like the tag anymore. Cyclamen leaves are all up now and I expect the flowers soon.

EZ Stone Troughs

1. Buy Stone 2. Cut top off of stone 3. Drill big holes around perimeter 4. Chistle out what's left First Attempt The Tools of the trade. The stone (pumice) is lightweight and easy to work with, but is very sharp.

Wavehill Gardens

Wavehill, www.wavehill.org, a New York Public Garden. Just a bit north of the Cloisters, exit 21 off the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Switched to an iMac and have not yet found a blog tool I like yet, so here are photos without my blathering.

Wavehill is not as large as NY Botanical Garden or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but is more of a local park. There was yoga going on and family events, so if you live nearby, it would be ideal.

The alpine house was small and the trough garden area was smaller than I had expected it to be. The troughs don't look much different than my troughs, just bigger.

 

 



Last August Weekend

Last Saturday I was cooking in the backyard and saw a beautiful spider web on the Clematis trellis. My photo does not do it justice, but at least I captured it and it just wasn’t a passing moment gone forever. The web was perfectly symmetrical and was reflecting the colors of the rainbow. I was tempted to mist it to give it the early morning effect, but did not want to prevent the spider the chance of a meal.It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, the smell of dead cow wafting on the breeze. I had just seared both sides of the steaks, moved them from directly above the hot coals and was finishing them off when I had noticed the web. It was my favourite youngest daughter’s last meal. The next day was back for the start of College 2.0. Hard to believe it is the end of the Summer, didn’t get much done around the house and garden and didn’t get out and do much of anything. Spent a lot of time working which is better than not having a job, but the work/fun balance was not optimal. New Phlox planted this year. 5 came in the set, in the end only 2 are blooming, one never took off and is MIA with another of it’s brethren. These were listed as Tall Phlox, so I planted them next to our other tall Phlox, which as it turns out must be extremely super tall Amazon Phlox. The buds in the second photo remind me of strawberry soft-serve ice cream cones.

Four O'clocksGreen leaved Hosta Butterfly bush (Buddleia) – from a fellow Gardener. It should look better next year when it gets more established.

The 15 Cent Zucchini

Our Zucchini crop is starting to slow, the stems are getting long and cracked and not supporting the zucchini making end of the plant, they are just getting old. It was a good year for Zucchini at our house, we had about 20 if not more this year and each was about a pound and a half. We try to pluck them before they turn monster size, but it seems to happen overnight. We gave some away, some was made into cake, and others were grilled, sautéed, or shredded and dressed up like coleslaw. Bought the plants in pop-ups for $2.99, stuck them in the ground, did a bit of weeding and watering and that was it. No need to fertilize, we have good soil.  We compose kitchen scraps and grass and garden clippings over the summer, then in the fall we move all the compost to the vegetable beds.The tomatoes did not do as well this year, the regular tomatoes were attacked by Tomato Hornworms. (Photo from Texas A&M Agro Dept.) Nearly denuded the top of all 4 of the regular tomato plants. I plucked off all I could find and the plants eventually came back. They were also a bit shaded by the zucchini plants for awhile. Only have had about 10 tomatoes from these plants, though there are currently many green tomatoes on the plants, which I hope will ripen.The Plum tomatoes did OK, they were a bit shaded by the zucchini also, but missed being chomped on my Hornworms. Have had about 5 or 6 dry quart containers of them from the 3 plumb tomato plants.Last fall we planted garlic, from a fellow gardener. In the spring we pulled it up and had garlic, very easy. We dried it and are saving some to plant this fall. It looks like leg bones stored in a crypt.All the herbs are growing like weeds, it smells so good when I water them. Rosemary, Thyme, oregano, mints, tarragon, comfrey. The comfrey is from an original plant we took from the Farmhouse back before everyone moved out. The Farm house was where several friends of ours lived in over a period of years, there was a pool and a large yard and a lot of parties. Not to be confused with the main house on the old family farm which was referred to as the Big House.

Samuel Smith’s Fruit Ales

I have had the Samuel Smith Cherry fruit ale in the fridge for over 2 months and finally opened it Sunday. Oh it is horrid!! Tastes like a cross between someone adulterating my ale with Maraschino Cherry juice and someone ruining my Shirley Temple with some bad beer. I was very disappointed, even the Dalek looks dejected. I opened it yesterday and finished it today. The Dalek was guarding it for me, though I doubt anyone would have stole it. I have had Their Raspberry and their Strawberry Fruit ales, both were very good. The Raspberry I had in April 2010 and I though it very good, not too sweet with a definite raspberry flavour.

The Strawberry I thought was not too sweet, nor artificial tasting and good for a change. I had that back in February 2010. I wrote my thoughts on the ales on the back of the labels, I never would have remembered otherwise. Oh what a vocabulary I have for describing beer. Ug beer good. I liked the raspberry ale more than the strawberry. Sam Smith makes a pretty good fruit ale, though I have had better Belgium Fruit ales.

Perhaps the Cherry Fruit ale would be good for cooking or baking or catching flies?