September 29, 2019 It is cooler this week

Finally we have had some seasonable weather. It was jacket weather for a number of days this week. It is cooler, but the rains are coming.
Cool and damp.
It makes you look forward to cool and crisp.
As I finish writing this on Saturday evening, I can here it beginning to rain, again.


Unfortunately just as several nights in the 40's appeared in the forecast, there was a 38.
Wait a minute.
It turns out that was the forecast for the entire TV viewing area, which includes northern Iowa.
Iowa City should only get down to 45.


But this does sound the trumpet for the great plant migration.
Which includes the annual question (pardon the plant pun): which plants will join the migration and which will move on to a different plane.

I will start taking a few plants to the office. All the window sills there usually get the cactus collection.





In the garden this week the air plant tillandsia completed its bloom cycle. It turned bright red and then sent little blue spikes out with these yellow/white things on the end.




Here you have the globe, which I think is about to go inside for the third time.




Last year the globe bloomed on September 7.





In 2017 this picture was taken on September 20. I think we begin to understand the timing.



In the winter the globe hangs over the sink in the kitchen. It gets sprayed every so often.

Here is a little video about growing tillandsias
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ccrwl1n1M0


The single white Japanese Anemone is in full bloom.
The center of the flower could be a piece of modern art.





Here is the flower, in with some of its friends.










This is the pink double anemone. It is more raggedy in appearance.





The zinnias continue to thrive. I am particularly impressed by how they can withstand wind and rain and stay upright.





Here is a quite different zinnia.









Several of the Night Blooming Cereus plants still are in bud. Several actually have quite a few buds.
I did notice that the bottom of some of the pots don't look so good. The thought of trying to repot them scares me.















Toad lilies abound.

Julia's recipe

Flourless Peanut butter cookies II

Here is the link to all Julia's recipes that have appeared on the blog. Really- all of them since she started posting several years ago.
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

I posted a recipe for peanut butter cookies a while back, in two versions: one with regular flour and one with gluten-free flour. I recently came across a recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies: 4 ingredients, resulting in cookies that look and taste great. Did I mention 4 ingredients?



Here are the players: 2 cups of grocery store peanut butter (actually a little bit less as grocery store peanut butter jars that look like they hold 2 cups are a little short); 2 cups of regular sugar; 2 eggs; 2 teaspoons baking soda.









Sugar and peanut butter into the bowl.














Followed by eggs and baking soda.

I used an electric hand mixer to combine the ingredients. No need to beat for very long; what you are looking for is thoroughly combined.











Here is the dough, looking very dough-like despite the absence of flour.

I turned the oven on to 350 degrees.












Note the little disher next to the cookie sheet. Those of you who make cookies on occasion should invest in a disher or two. It used to be one had to go to a restaurant supply store to find them but no longer. I have seen oxo good grips versions at the grocery store and hardware store. I recommend a 1 tablespoon size and a 2 tablespoon size. The disher shown is 1 tablespoon and makes
what I think of as normal sized cookies.






I dished up cookie dough, 12 to a cookie sheet. In the interests of science and the community of fellow bakers, I baked some on sheets lined with parchment (as directed) and some not. Conclusion: parchment not necessary. In fact it was a bit of a nuisance since the parchment itself slid a bit on the cookie sheet, threatening disaster when I flipped the sheets (more on this below) and took them out of the oven.

I also (again for the sake of the community) made some cookies by rolling the scooped out portions into tidy balls in my hands and leaving some as they came out of the scoop. Conclusion: rolling not necessary.

I did do the fork thing. I put a bit of sugar on a small flat plate. I used a dinner fork to cross-hatch the cookies, dipping the fork into the sugar frequently as the dough is a bit sticky.




I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes, 2 cookie sheets at a time, switching the sheets top to bottom and turning them around halfway (after 4 minutes).

The cookies should be set and maybe a little bit golden around the edges. I let them cool on the sheets for 4 or 5 minutes, and then I transferred them with a pancake flipper type spatula to cooling racks. I received these clever stacking ones from my sister. We got 3 dozen cookies plus a few.

I can report that they are well-received by one and all and that they ship well in little plastic containers (we have a bunch of 1 pint containers that come from the grocery store with feta cheese), if the little plastic container is then placed in a suitable box with some padding.

Odds and Ends

It was a little damp and cool yesterday. I engaged in some gardener's water play on the back driveway.

I had dug up several clumps of nice daylilies, that had not been touched in years. They had the evil weed all mixed in. The evil weed around here is campanula rapunculoises. I do my best but it is a constant fight to contain it.

This is one of the daylily clumps after having been sprayed.
Many of the white roots are the campanula. They can grow as big as your finger over the years.













Here were several of those bad weeds.
The wikipedia article about the weed does point out that the plant can grow from any piece of the root.
It really is like the broom in the Sorcerer's Apprentiss.
I have always loved that sequence, finding many cases where it speaks to me.






Here is the link to the particular campanula
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=36509434911388799#editor/target=post;postID=6598954557164519663;onPublishedMenu=template;onClosedMenu=template;postNum=1;src=postname



It is a little dreary as daylight begins to fade away.
Here are just a few spring pictures to help you remember what this will all be like in 6 months.

At some point the days will get longer and there will be better times.
Philip