Blinded by the light

At long last, the sun has appeared multiple days in a row.  I'm wondering if February went down as the grayest month in history this year.  Tomorrow the rains come, and that should be the end of the heaps of gray snow.  Margaret Roach at A Way to Garden said something about planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, but the ground has to thaw first.  Doesn't it?

Margaret also urged patience re seed starting, but obviously her warning came too late for me.  I'm about ready to transplant the basil into larger containers - they will make nice gifts, don't you think? - and I planted Italian parsley and yellow zinnias last weekend.

The zinnia seed was several years old.  I did not hold out much hope for its germination rate, so dropped 5-6 seeds in each compartment.  And of course, almost every seed has germinated.  Now I have to thin, thin, thin.  I should have performed a germination test, another suggestion from Margaret.  She is wise.

The Year of Bread has reached limbo, thanks to its delicious goodness and my bathroom scale.  Last weekend I did make some cornbread, using my favorite cornbread recipe from The Vegetarian Epicure.  Except I ran out of unbleached flour and substituted some whole wheat instead.  The result was even better!

Despite the not-quite-springlike weather, I did clean off the flower bed on the south side of the house.  If I weren't feeling so lazy today, I would hack down the ornamental grasses, too.  Much dog poop has been picked up in the meantime.

Spring can't come soon enough

February feels like the longest month of the year.  There is snow on the ground (unusual for us), but the cardinals have started their summer song.  Maybe we will have an early spring.  I took a tour of the yard yesterday, looking for swelling buds.  I think the Japanese maple will make it, but I'm not so sure about the smoke bush.  It's my first smoke bush, so maybe it is normal for it to look kind of peaked this time of year, just as it is normal for the Rose of Sharon to leaf last.  Fingers crossed.

Inside, things are growing.

Cilantro...

and basil...

... still going strong.  I have been feeding them with liquid from the worm composter, heavily diluted.  I thinned some of the basil last week, and chopped it for spaghetti sauce.  The aroma was overwhelmingly anise.  The variety is Genovese and it is recommended for pesto.  When these babies grow up, there should be plenty for pesto.

Since it is an indoor kind of day, I decided to replenish the dog biscuit supply.

This recipe from MacPherson's K-9 Cookbook is called Flea Fighter Fingers, because of the brewer's yeast and powdered garlic.  They are in the oven right now, and the garlic aroma is giving me a headache, it is that strong.  And I put in only about half the recommended amount, because that is all I had.

One nice thing about making dog biscuits, as opposed to people biscuits, is you can fudge the ingredients and the dog won't care.  Most of the recipes in the book make use of bouillon, but I have been omitting it.  Betsy will eat almost anything, and does not need the extra salt.  I limit her to two a day, so this batch will last about two months.

I am also cooking up the remaining Gold Rush apples that have been sitting in the garage all winter.  They looked a bit wizened, but when I quartered them, the insides were fine.  The fact they remained intact proves there are no critters living in my garage, which is a relief after hearing of my neighbor's problem with shrews.  I like wildlife, as long as it stays outside.

We went to the Home and Garden show this past week.  My SO needs a new roof, so he signed up to get estimates while I chatted up several vendors.  My bathrooms need some work as does my kitchen, and I'd like some kind of solution to the sun beating down on my patio in the afternoon.  It seems like each thing I discussed cost $3000.  That is enough to give me pause.  One task I am definitely going to take care of this year is two new exterior doors.  As for the rest, I will have to meditate on that a while.

Finishing touches, one by one

Slowly but surely, I am putting the finishing touches on the new construction.

My daughter helps me.  We picked out this rug and another at Pier 1, both on clearance.  The second will go under my desk in the family room, once I clean the floor.  While out and about, we also found a small-tall table and chairs at Oat Express for the West Wing.  I've been wanting to have a place to breakfast with the birds.  They had to back order the set, plus I am waiting on a cabinet for the family room from Furniture Crafts.  I'm too old to wait!

The ground is still snow covered, but somehow the sage knows spring is coming.

The potatoes and onions in the cupboards and carrots in the refrigerator are all trying to grow as well.  The sage blossoms I can explain with light levels, but all the others, especially the carrots, are in the dark.  How do they know spring is coming?  The tilt of the earth on its axis?

Who thought this was a good idea?

This sample arrived with last Sunday's newspaper.

Chocolate Cheerios sounds just plain gross to me.

And when did Cheerios become a corn and oat cereal product?  From what I have read about corn, it is not that good for human health.  Any benefits one may (see the disclaimer on the front of the box) derive from the oats are probably offset by the corn.

Last Sunday we tried another soup from Love Soup - Black Bean and Squash.  This soup went through the blender, again making me wish for an immersion blender, but I opted for something low tech and purchased a potato masher.  I really don't care if my soups are creamy and perfectly blended, as long as they taste good.  Anyway, the soup was great, especially with corn muffins from the Tasajara Bread Book.

On Monday we took a hike at McNabb Nature Preserve, one of many protected by Acres Land Trust.  My SO had stumbled upon this preserve once before and assured me he knew how to get there.  Many wrong turns and reversals later, we found it.  Lucky for us, someone had been through on snow shoes, which helped provide better footing for us.  I still managed to overwork a groin muscle.  Coming home we made wrong turns again.  I wish I had a dollar for every time my SO said, "Now I know where we are!"  At least it was a nice day for a drive in the country.

More snow fell on Tuesday, just enough to justify shoveling the driveway, but since then it has been almost springlike.  In February it is hard not to get one's hopes up for an early spring.  Maybe I will start some parsley and zinnias inside, to keep the basil and cilantro company.

Scene of the crime

Nature is not cruel.  It is just nature.

Apparently, a rabbit became a meal right under one of the bird feeders.  Besides the trampled, blood-stained snow, there were tufts of fur all about.  I'm not a naturalist, but I wonder if the snow cover is helping the predators spot prey this winter.  That might also explain the dearth of squirrels at the feeders.  It seems like there are fewer birds as well.

While we usually get some snow every year, it ordinarily does not stick around.  At least the snow cover keeps me from getting too anxious to start gardening, despite the arrival of seeds, seeds, and more seeds.

I forgot to mention that, when I repotted the chives, I got to use my new root knife from Lee Valley.  Nice tool!  I am looking forward to dividing hostas with it this spring.

Powdered sugar

That's what the snowfall looks like as it sifts from the sky.  I'm guessing we have received about 6 inches so far.  Knowing we would be hit with a lot of white stuff, I primed one of my neighbors to help out with his blower, and he did.  Or the guy across the street did.  I can't tell.  There was still enough for me to shove around when I arrived home from work, which is very therapeutic after sitting in a cubicle all day.  Tonight and tomorrow there will be more snow, and there will be blowing and drifting.  I may work from home in the AM.

Between cutting down all the silver maples in my backyard and losing the clothesline posts to old age, I did not have enough places to hang all my bird feeders this year.  I had been trying to locate more shepherd's hooks off-season, without luck, when it occurred to me to use the Topsy Turvy frame.  Poifect!  Not only are there four arms for feeders, the feeders are higher off the ground, which the birds prefer.  I don't know why I did not think of that sooner.

I've been destashing the refrigerator lately, which has led to some odd meals.  Sunday I ate a big bowl of beets, flavored with fresh dill and sour cream.  Very good, but also very disconcerting later on when I went to the bathroom.

What else is new?  I had to repot the chives because someone knocked them over and broke the pot.  I'm guessing that someone was a certain feline because I also had to clean up some funky looking puke.  Damn cat.

And I added a third level to the worm composter.  By spring, there should be plenty of worm castings for the garden.  Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

February is the longest month of the year

At least it seems that way.  We received a couple of inches of snow Friday night, most of which drifted right in front of the garage door.  It was crusty, too, so shoveling amounted to toting snowbergs.  My neighbors are a little too helpful with their snowblowers sometimes, so I felt like I had to get out early if I wanted the snow to myself.  But both of said neighbors had places to go and I was able to get my exercise in peace.

I did plant the cilantro and today we have germination.  The basil seedlings have their secondary leaves now.

I am using these self-watering systems from Gardeners Supply, but the wick on the one I let dry out is resisting its purpose in life.  Maybe it needs a good soaking to get primed again.

Otherwise, not much happening around here.  How's it going with you?

A quick note

The Caramelized Cabbage Soup is GOOD, especially with a dollop of sour cream.  The original recipe is vegetarian, but I used chicken stock for the broth.  I think it could use some bacon, too.  What can I say?  I'm an omnivore!  Now to finish off that apple pie.

Did the pioneers eat sunflower seeds?

This week's bread is Pioneer Bread, from The Bread Book.

The loaves look a little lopsided because, per usual, I did not know what I was doing.  You bake these in cake or pie pans, and there is a certain skill to making the dough pear-shaped, then plopping it into the pan pointy end down in such a way as to produce a uniformly round loaf.  I have not quite mastered it yet.  The odd shape does not affect the flavor, which is wonderful.  And there are sunflower seeds in it as well.

I also made soup today, Caramelized Cabbage Soup, from Love Soup.  I have never caramelized cabbage before.  Like many things, it was not difficult, just time consuming.  I can't tell you if it made the soup any better because I did not realized two things:  1) the soup requires milk to finish it, and 2) the milk in my refrigerator has a distinctive odor that matches its sell-by date.  I will finish the soup tomorrow night and report back.

Friday I was home sick.  One problem with cooking from scratch using primarily fresh ingredients is that sometimes you want something quick and tasty but there is no such thing in your kitchen other than scrambled eggs.  Pie is not quick but it sure is tasty.

This is French apple pie, courtesy of Betty Crocker.  The crust got a little overdone, but it was great nonetheless.  I like the crumb topping better than crust.

While not cooking, I keep an eye out on the avian visitors in my backyard.  Yesterday I saw a rather large bird fly past the patio door.  Thinking it was a mourning dove, I tiptoed into the West Wing to get a better look.  Mourning doves are ground feeders but there was no mourning dove under the feeders.  Probably because there was a HAWK on top of the shepherd's hook the feeders are suspended from.  I didn't notice it until it flew away.  Hoping it had landed in a nearby tree, I crept up to the window to peek out.  Again, I did not see it, until it took off from the neighbor's swing set.  I think it was a Cooper's hawk.  Exciting stuff!

(FYI - The Bread Book is out of print.  If you are looking for a copy, don't stop with Amazon because their resellers are asking a small fortune.  I bought mine through a reseller at Barnes and Noble, and there are other online used book retailers to try as well.)

 

Used books

I don't know if this is a misconception, but we seem to have a plethora of used bookstores in this town.  Some cater to college students, buying and selling primarily text books, but the rest have a wide variety of just about anything you might be interested in.  My SO and I spent a lazy afternoon perusing the offerings (do we know how to have fun or what?)  Here are my purchases:

I have the Tassajara Bread Book, the pages of which stick together (a sure sign of a successful cookbook), so I was willing to give the Tassajara Recipe Book a chance.  Haven't tried any of the recipes yet, though.



I'm always looking for cheap and easy garden improvements.  That Newspapers, Pennies, Cardboard and Eggs for Growing a Better Garden is published by Rodale (think Organic Gardening) is a plus, too.



My son expressed an interest in woodworking.  I thought he could explore his interest by building bird houses, so I bought The Bird House Book for him.



The Solar Food Dryer Book is the final book I picked up.  It describes how to build your own solar food dryer and how to use it to dry just about anything, almost year round.  Stella Andrassy designed the device and experimented with it in New Jersey, which is about the same latitude as Indiana, so I'm anxious to give her dryer a try.  Once I find someone to help me build it.  Like maybe that son of mine who is interested in woodworking.

In other news, I tried assembling the cupboard that goes over the toilet in the laundry room, but the floor slants up a bit near the wall, threatening to topple said cupboard.  The legs need to be shimmed and the top fastened to the wall before it will be safe.

We had our January thaw last week, which melted all the snow and revealed this maze:

Something had been tunneling beneath the snow.  I'm guessing shrews or mice.  Which would dig this burrow?

On the indoor front, I finally put up the grow lights for the basil plants.

The poor little seedlings have not been doing well.  For one thing, I let the self-waterer dry out, which kind of defeats its purpose.  For another, the plants were sitting next to the patio door.  I was thinking they would get more light, but it is also very cold there.  Now they are off the floor and under the lights and the water problem has been remedied.  Maybe I will start the cilantro next.

(An aside:  if you live in a house long enough, especially one with a garage and/or basement, over the years you will accumulate enough stuff that when faced with a problem, like needing a grow light, you will find you have a light fixture, S hooks, pliers, a timer, and a grounded surge protector, all of which will be employed in the creation of a perfect environment for plants.  No duct tape required.  This time.)

Green soup, no ham

They say one is more likely to cut oneself with a dull knife than a sharp one, but you can't prove it by me.

If one bleeds into a vegetarian soup, is it no longer vegetarian?  That's just a rhetorical question.  Really.  And besides, I used chicken stock instead of vegetable broth, so it wasn't vegetarian anyway.

Today's soup is Green Soup with Sweet Potato and Sage, from Love Soup.  Instead of waiting until late in the day to start cooking, I decided to get it all over with this morning.  And since I needed to eat lunch anyway, I sampled the soup.  Tres bien!  Except for the grit.  Apparently, I did not wash the kale well enough.

This recipe raised some interesting questions.  Ingredients include "one bunch of Russian kale (8 oz.)" and "one bunch of green chard (8 oz.)" and the instructions said to remove the woody stems.  Question number one is, is that 8 oz. before or after removing the stems?

I don't think my kale was Russian, but once the stems were removed, it did weigh around 8 oz.  I didn't weight the chard, but there was a lot less of it in its bunch.  Its stems were not woody.  In fact, they are like celery and I munched on them while I cooked.  So, should I have left them in?

The directions said to saute the onions for 30-40 minutes.  Sure this was a misprint, I searched the Web for errata, but could not find any, nor could I find anyone who questioned this instruction.  So, yes, I sauted the onions for 30 minutes.  This was step 3.  By the time I started step 3, steps 1 and 2 were complete and the soup was waiting for the onions, so shouldn't the onions have been step 1?

This is one of those soups that is pureed in a blender.  After I pureed soup all over the kitchen wall, I decided I need one of those immersion blenders Anna Thomas keeps mentioning as an alternative to a regular blender.  Anyone ever use one?

The soup is finished with lemon juice, which REALLY HURTS WHEN IT GETS IN A CUT, and a swirl of "fruity green olive oil".  I have searched high and low for this FGOO and cannot find any.  While in Fresh Market, I did identify a brand (California Olive Ranch Arbequina) that described itself as "a fruity and fragrant varietal", so that is what I went with.  Does anyone know what this FGOO is?

Somewhat exhausted by now, I decided against a yeast bread, and made the corn bread recipe from The Bread Book.  Also very good, but.  It has caraway seeds in it, which give it an odd flavor.  Not a bad flavor, just different from what one expects when one bites into a hunk of corn bread.

And now my tummy is full and I feel a nap coming on.  I think I deserve one, don't you?

P.S.  The owl was back last night, and it occurred to me that maybe my neighbor with the new puppy should be made aware of said owl, and the daytime hawks as well, just in case that dog looks too much like a meal to avian eyes.

Quickie

Last weekend I assembled the bookcase and put it in the West Wing.  Most of the stability is provided by the cardboard backing, so I anchored it with knitting books.

The clock was an xmas gift from my son.

And I did bake dog biscuits, but forgot to take good pictures of them.

These are Plaque Busting ones - extremely crunchy - and should last at least a month.

Tonight we went to Lowe's and I bought a cupboard thingy for over the toilet in the laundry.  More furniture to assemble - yay.  I also bought grow light bulbs.  Still looking for a retractable clothesline.

And I ordered some seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds.

Mysterious visitors

I'm not an animal tracker of any sort, but I enjoy creating stories to go with the tracks left in the snow by unidentified creatures.

This snow stitchery must be a bird, but what kind and what was it doing?

The marks in the middle look like tail-dragging, the side marks wing-dragging.  A snow dance?

Then this mark in the snow occurred all by its lonesome.

Did something (a hawk?  I've seen a couple hanging around) swoop down and snatch dinner right here?

From the house, these prints looked like they were made by a human trespasser.

But I'm guessing a squirrel was hopscotching across the yard to the bird feeders.

The past few days have been warm enough to feel springlike, but we all know that is a lie.  Yesterday seeds arrived, from Pinetree Garden Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange - that was quick!  Maybe today would be a good day to sort through leftovers and see what is still viable.

If I bake today, I am going to limit myself to dog biscuits.  Maybe.  That German Three-Grain sure was good.

And easy!

Getting spoiled

Last night's soup was Vegetarian Chili from Yoga Journal.  My SO brought Martha White's sweet corn bread (is that "sweet corn" bread or sweet "corn bread"?) and Kroger carrot cake.  The former was good, but I could not eat the latter.  The frosting was sickeningly sweet and the cake was, well, it did not taste like food to me.  Just thinking about it is making me feel queasy.  My SO wolfed his piece down and took mine home for later.  I traded him some German Three-Grain bread and banana bread for the rest of the corn bread, though.

A similar thing happened today when I ate a wrap from the cafeteria.  Turkey and cranberry sauce sounded good, and it even had broccoli sprouts on it, but I'm not used to eating deli meats - omg the SALT.  And it had a funny tang to it.  Ugh.  I think I will be bringing my own lunch tomorrow.  Like some of that chili, which while quite good, needs something.  Like chili powder and a little cheddar cheese.  How a chili recipe can omit chili powder is beyond me.

So, that is the danger of home cooking, especially from scratch and doubly especially with fresh ingredients.  Nothing else measures up.

And we have germination

Minuscule green spermatozoa (I'm sorry - that's what they look like) are rising above the planting medium.  According to my Super-Duper Garden Spreadsheet,  the germination of the basil took only eight days.  Now I need to worry about the little buggers getting enough light.

So I bought a bookcase.  The bookcase was actually for the West Wing, but I may put it behind my desk at Command Central so I can use the wire shelving that is there now for plant propagation.  But first, I need to get some bulbs for the fluorescent light fixture the building of the laundry room freed up.  See?  Everything is connected.

And speaking of the laundry room, it is getting kind of cramped in there.  Besides the previously mentioned litter box, it now contains a tall plasticky cupboard which in turn contains all the cleaning supplies that got scattered last year with the building of the West Wing and the subsequent loss of a big wooden cupboard.  Also, the vaccum, electric broom, and ironing board all have a new home.  I plan to hang a retractable clothesline over the washer/dryer so I will no longer have to drape bras over doorknobs and handwash over towel racks.  And I want one of those cupboards that fit over the toilet.  Then the room will be complete.  And completely full.

In other domestic news, the German Three-Grain bread I baked yesterday turned out WONDERFUL!  I don't know if it is the King Arthur bread flour or the flax seed or what, but I simply cannot believe how delicious it is.  To keep myself from wolfing down the entire loaf, I sliced up most of it and put it in the freezer, to be rationed out a piece or two at a time.  And I made some banana bread to help distract me.  Heh.

When the smoke detector goes off, supper is ready

Sometimes I think recipes are unnecessarily complex.  Like the recipe for the baguettes from The Bread Book.  Do you really need to make a sponge and let it rise for FIVE hours?  And heat the pan in a 450 degree oven before putting the bread on it?  And spray down the sides of the oven every 10 minutes to produce steam?  Obviously not.

I tried to follow the directions, but managed to screw up right off the bat in that I mixed too much flour into the sponge so it was rather unspongelike.  And I didn't have any Crisco, so I greased the pan with butter, which scorched in the 450 oven (thus setting off the smoke alarm at the other end of the house).  And my stove is fairly new and has a self-cleaning oven and god knows what toxic fumes might be released if I sprayed down the sides while it was hot, so I simply placed a pan of water on the lower rack, a pan that warped in the extreme heat.  But despite all my shenanigans, the bread turned out fine.

The soup, Neeps and Tatties (turnips and potatoes) from Love Soup, was not nearly so complex, but I was trying to finish it and the bread at the same time.

All the recipes in Love Soup are vegetarian, and this time I actually used (store-bought) vegetable broth, and while tasty, the soup seemed a little anemic.  Using chicken stock and maybe adding a few bacon bits would have done wonders.

Of those three loaves above, we ate one for supper and I gave one to my SO and the final one is destined to become French bread pizza, so today I am baking again, this time German Three-Grain, also from The Bread Book.  This recipe is much simpler.

While waiting on the non-sponge to rise yesterday, I place orders with Seed Savers Exchange, Pinetree Garden Seeds, and Totally Tomatoes.  I dropped the mushroom patch and the dye garden - the former felt too much like adopting another pet, the latter needs a little planning and forethought.  The basil has not yet germinated.  My house is a bit on the cool side; maybe I need to find a warm spot for the seedling tray.

Now that the laundry room is officially done (and I have already received an invoice for the final payment!), I am going to do some rearranging of cat boxes today.

The guys all say I have a nice crawl

The heating sub-contractors came today, crawled around under the house making noises that made the dog bark, and now there is a little bit more heat in the laundry room.  Each time the furnace runs, the temperature in the laundry room goes up a  fraction of a degree, so now it is 5-6 degrees colder than the family room instead of 8 or more.  Maybe by the end of the weekend, it will be closer to even.  Otherwise, I may have to get a heated toilet seat out there.

The overall contractor was supposed to visit today as well and deliver my floor tile, but he was a no-show.  No surprise there.

Meanwhile, we received more snow, about four inches, I'm guessing.  Many years ago I bought my dad a snow gauge.  I think I need one, too.  I'm a little tired of shoveling, despite help from my neighbor and his blower, but this weekend I get to go cross country skiing.  Yay!

I get stuff

My order from Lee Valley arrived today. Here is what I got:

• Corn forks - every time I cook corn on the cob, we wish we had corn forks
• Peasant chef's knife - lethal weapon!
• Root knife - for dividing hostas next spring
• Rasp and holder - for zesting
• Syringes and needles - die, Canada thistle, die!

I haven't placed my orders for seeds and plants yet.  I keep debating about the dye garden and the mushroom patch.  Am I taking on too much?  Maybe I will put them off for another year.

When I ordered the Roma sauce maker from Gardener's Supply, I ordered some other things as well, one of which I used this week.

This is a self-watering Accelerated Propagation System (APS).  I was thinking this would fit on a window sill, but - HA - conveniently forgot that most of my windows do not have sills.  In the process of transforming the old workshop into a new laundry room, though, I recovered a fluorescent light fixture.  I think the bulbs need to be replaced and I would need to figure out somewhere to hang it, but it could provide the necessary light.  Oh, BTW, what I planted here was Genovese Sweet Basil.

Speaking of the laundry room, we are still working on getting heat out there.  The snag is it is cold outside and people in need of new furnaces or furnace repair take precedent.  The mildew smell seems to be gone, though (I ran bleach through the washer), and I have not heard the toilet gurgle lately, so maybe those are non-issues.  I still need the replacement floor tile, though.

On the domestic goddess front, I made Roasted Root Vegetable Soup from Love Soup last Saturday, substituting chicken stock for the vegetable broth.  Ingredients that came from my own garden included onions and the herbs.  I've never grown turnips, fennel, sweet potatoes, or rutabaga, but maybe I should consider adding those to my crops.

Blue Moon/The Birds/Baby, it's cold outside!/Feels like Sunday

I couldn't decide what to title this post, so I used all the titles I was considering.

First up, this isn't really THE blue moon - the skies were overcast last night - but I did think to take a picture on the last clear night we had.

For some reason, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of starlings hanging around this winter.

They descended on my yard this afternoon, but my feeders are such that they can't get much of a foothold (talonhold?)  I'm glad I haven't put out the suet yet because they would clean that up in a New York minute.

The curled up leaves on my rhododendron tell me that it is a bit cold outside today. Could be - and probably will get - worse before winter is over.

And even though it is not Sunday, I baked some Corny Banana Oat Bread today. The recipe is from Whole Foods for the Whole Family. Since I was running low on honey, I substituted agave nectar. I'm not sure whether that helped cause the charring, but the bread is still perfectly edible.

And here is one of my xmas gifts from my son:

The birds already like it.