A little Deja Vu on Friday

Last week you saw this picture of Amigo enjoying a metal sculpture before we wandered into the restaurant for our Fun Day Friday experience.

Performance Art?

Performance Art?

Last week we ended up in the Milwaukee suburbs to visit La Petite. She recommend a nearby Mexican restaurant, and look what we found at the entrance.

"Let's go in, Mom, I'm hungry."

“Let’s go in, Mom, I’m hungry.”

Inside, we nibbled on the freshest guacamole I’ve ever tasted.

Crock of Guac - amole.

Crock of Guac – amole.

I sense a theme here. We didn’t set out to eat Mexican this summer, but June Fridays happened that way. Now what? I’ll let you know, readers.

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Market Monday

I’m not posting a Harvest Monday because, well, I haven’t harvested much of anything in the past week. I picked a bit of rhubarb to complete a batch of rhubarb-strawberry butter, but otherwise, it’s been a maintenance week for the gardens. In case you’re wondering, here’s the “harvest” from Saturday’s farm market.

This barely fit on the counter.

This barely fit on the counter.

Some of the goodies are for eating now, and some are for putting up – storing for later. From left to right: blueberries, now; strawberries, now and later; grapeseed oil and smoky sea salt, now and later; carrots, now; tomatoes, now; mushrooms, now; lettuces, now; peas, later; more lettuces, now; asparagus, later. Oh, I forgot the cheeses. Block of cheddar, for eating now. Cheese curds, for sharing with La Petite. We sampled a few to make sure they were tasty.

The Facebook comments on this picture got interesting. I joked (sort of) that I was prepping for the Walker Apocalypse. Many teachers I know are in a Cautiously Paranoid condition; we know the future of public education in our state is shaky, at best. We’re looking to provide for our families one way or another. My method consists (in part) of filling the freezer and the pantry with decent food, mostly organic, much locally grown.

If you want to see harvests that will make you hungry, visit Daphne’s Dandelions. If you want to see more of what’s happening in Daisy’ pantry and freezer, stay tuned. I’m simmering a batch of strawberry-rhubarb butter right now, as I type. The house smells wonderful.

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Fun with Cookie Cutters

I found these at a rummage sale. Naturally, I bought them. Chuck enjoys model trains and finds railroads fascinating, so it was an easy decision.

Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug

Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug

Then I made cookie dough. I added a little cocoa so I wouldn’t have to frost them and decorate with all kinds of sprinkles and other delicious but messy garbage.

I baked the cookies.

Cookies! All Aboard for cookies!

Cookies! All Aboard for cookies!

And while you Ooh and Aah over the adorable little engine, coal car, and caboose, let me tell the the rest of the story. I usually bake this recipe in winter, most often at Christmas. The next picture will show you why I tend to avoid this recipe in the humid days of summertime.

Oh, dear. Project derailed.

Oh, dear. Project derailed.

They tasted okay with coffee, at least. Maybe I’ll attempt to make them again in December.

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Fun Day Friday – outside the restaurant

Amigo and I have a tradition that goes back several years. Whenever we’re able, we go out to lunch on Friday. We choose locally owned places whenever we can, and we try restaurants that are new to us as often as possible. Last week we went downtown in our fair city and sampled a Mexican restaurant. Before we went in, we explored a junk-metal sculpture outside on the sidewalk.

Performance Art?

Performance Art?

The food and beverages were awesome, too. This one is a winner. I’m sure we’ll be back.

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Love Is – a Rain Barrel or two

This year’s rain barrel set-up is complicated. First we didn’t have a garage. Then we had a garage with no gutter or downspout. After that, we had a gutter and downspout, but we didn’t have the right support to get the barrels up high enough to be convenient and easy to use.

We now have the cinder blocks and bricks (Thanks, Home Depot and Habitat ReStore). When we can summon the energy, we’ll pile up the cinder blocks and set the rain barrels on top of them. In the meantime, I give you an encore featuring Chuck’s model train layout. Enjoy.

Chuck, dear husband of mine, models trains in HO scale. For the uninitiated, HO translates as small. Tiny. Put-on-your-glasses and look very closely for details. Itty bitty.

The building below is part of a granary in his layout. The rain barrel is about the size of my pinkie fingernail, if not smaller. Yes, dear readers; he made a rain barrel in his train layout in tribute to his wife’s green philosophies.


Now if only I can stop him from buying the shopping bag that says, “I carry this bag because my wife cares about the environment”!

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The Downtown Market is Back!

The haul - week one

The haul – week one

In case you missed it on Facebook, here’s the counter full of goodies gotten while the gettin’ was good, real good, at the first downtown market of the year.

How’s that for an amazing run-on sentence? I’m almost proud.

I did not buy rhubarb, for obvious reasons. There’s a recipe for rhubarb bread pudding sitting on the table and calling my name. I’ll freeze whatever’s left over.

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Depression Cake with Rhubarb

Ah, the rhubarb. We’re having a bumper crop already. I used up a little in a strawberry rhubarb ice cream. For my next trick, I modified a classic cake that I usually make with applesauce. In place of the applesauce, I used rhubarb sauce (you guessed that, didn’t you?) and then baked them as cupcakes instead of in the 13 by 9 pan

In case you don’t like to click on links, here’s the updated version.

Depression Cake (named for a historical time period, not the illness)

2 cups strong coffee
2 cups raisins or chopped dates or other dried fruit
½ cup rhubarb sauce
2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, my favorite)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. each ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds (optional)
Powdered sugar for garnish (or serve with whipped topping)

Preheat oven to 350.
In large saucepan, combine granulated sugar, coffee, raisins, and applesauce. Simmer 10 minutes. In large bowl, blend remaining ingredients, except powdered sugar. Stir raisin mixture into flour mixture. Pour batter into well-greased and floured cupcake pans. Bake at least 20-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with whipped topping.

The original was adapted from a recipe in a California Raisin cookbook put out at least twenty years ago.

 

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How much coffee?

Actual conversation in car on interstate highway —

Chuck: Is that a tanker that says “Coffee?”

Daisy: I thought it might be a mirage.

Chuck: Wow. Pull up next to it with your mug, turn a spigot, and refill in motion.

Daisy: I have an empty travel mug. It’s at your feet.

We approached the tanker. Here’s what it looked like up close.

"Best Coffee on the Interstate"

“Best Coffee on the Interstate”

Is that a “flammable liquids” sign on the lower left? That’s some strong coffee there, driver. Better add cream and sugar.

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On grid – the garden grid

It’s a variation on Square Foot Gardening techniques. I say variation because I follow the philosophy of planting in squares instead of rows, but I don’t use a permanent grid. I make my grid with masking tape.

The Grid in living color

The Grid in living color

The grid is more colorful than usual because I ran out of regular masking tape and had to use painter’s tape instead. It doesn’t matter; I picked up the grid as soon as I was done planting.

It may not look like much now, but this part of the grid will fill up with many shades of green. I planted beans and two kinds of lettuce. The outer border might be marigolds. I say “might” because I salvaged the seeds from dried marigolds on La Petite’s apartment porch. If they come up, I’ll have marigolds to attract pollinators and repel pests like wild rabbits.

Jalapeno peppers

Jalapeno peppers to be

Here’s a close-up of one row (column?) in the grid: pepper plants. These are jalapeno peppers. I have a batch of yellow banana pepper plants started, too. I just need to figure out where they’ll go.

So, readers, do you use square foot gardening or traditional rows? Or do you use something entirely different?

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A Rainy Day

It was a rainy day; the kind of rain that made environmentalists smile, knowing that their rain barrels were more than half full.

It was the kind of rain that was steady; it replenished the groundwater and soaked the lawn and garden without destroying newly planted seedlings.

It was the kind of rainy day that meant open windows because in the absence of wind, the rain came straight down and didn’t invade the screens.

It was a nice rainy day, the kind that Californians crave and Texans might prefer because they could have a little moisture without getting out the rescue boats.

I was a little disappointed to wake up and see this steady precipitation and realize it was going to last all day. I wanted to be outside shoveling topsoil from the Big Pile to the raised bed garden, but shoveling heavy mud mixed with soaked sod is not a good plan. Instead, I’m taking care of indoor chores. Blogging about the rain helps me remember that life is precious and rain is good.

And when I think of all the seeds I put in yesterday, I can smile and remember that a good, steady, soaking rain is exactly when we need to get my garden off to a good start.

 

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