May 24, 2020 Cloudy

We were stuck in a cloudy pattern in Iowa City all week. It seems like every day it was cloudy, but dry, with temperatures between 55 and 70.
The sun was so rare, that you find yourself commenting on it.
Did you just see the sun?

But now, we are heading into a pattern where it not only is cloudy but there is to be rain.
There are all those little lightening bolts on the icons that make up the 9 day forecast. There is not even a partially sunny day until  next Friday.

Actually yesterday, Saturday was rather remarkable. As advertised it rained at 8. And again at 10:30. At noon it really rained hard. At that time we were in a line of cars waiting to pick up out preordered farmer's market order. We had the 11:45 time slot. We just go home when the rain stopped.  There was blue sky showing in the west.
Then the tornado sirens went off.
What?
Well there was a real tornado about 10 miles north of us moving away.
It appeared out of that cloud burst which is why the sirens had not gone off earlier.
But at that point the sky cleared off and was sunny most of the rest of the day. Well there was that moment when it sprinkled.
I pulled weeds.

Please see the odd and ends part of the post for the thing that put a little edge to the day.


But to get through this world wide health crisis I have given you voting opportunities as the garden rolls along.
In last week's voting the winner was the white tree peony.





Here was the full voting.








Here are some pictures from this past week for your voting pleasure.

#1 White Iceland poppy

#2 Another Iceland poppy

I took this picture early in the morning when there was a little sunlight.
I really liked it.

#3 White clematis

#4 Gas Plant

The botanical name is dictamnus.
I am working on a clump of these guys.
They really at some point emit something you can flare up with a match.
This Better Homes and Gardens article even talks about spontaneous combustion and the burning bush in the Bible.
Really?

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/perennial/gas-plant/

#5 Lupine

There are so many flowers that will be blooming this time next week.
Regular Peonies, Siberian Iris and lupine are three that come to mind without thinking.
Here is one of the early lupine spikes, in the middle of that wonderful euphornia.


There you have it for this week.

Bonus pictures

I have not had the best luck with clematis.
Sometimes you just have to wait 5 years.
I mostly forgot about this plant, but it is doing well this year.









Last week I showed you camassia. Here are a variety of hyacinth, which is another late spring bulb.
They are also called woodland hyacinth. I think of them as English hyacinths for some reason.



















The waterlilies are spreading out. I must get the tadpoles and snails in the next week. Fish too.
















The Siberian iris are literally 1-2 days away from starting their run. I have high expectations.
















I am starting to splash the coleus around the garden.

Julia's recipe

Steak and Broccoli

This is another recipe from the Joshua McFadden cookbook Six Seasons. As I have said, his recipes are just different, not updated or perfected or fussed-over versions of things we have already made or at least heard about. And relatively straightforward without much by way of exotic ingredients. We have made this dish twice, and it was great both times.



The majority of the ingredients go into the sauce, which you make first. Sauce ingredients: 1/3 cup golden raisins; 2-1/2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar; 1 tablespoon of garlic slices; 3 tablespoons capers; 1 tablespoon anchovy paste; 3/4 cup of parsley leaves; 1/3 cup of olive oil and about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

For the dish that the sauce goes on: about 1/2 lb. of steak; about 4 cups of broccoli florets; 1 tablespoon of olive oil (maybe a bit less); kosher salt and pepper.

A few notes on ingredients: brown raisins work instead of golden; wine vinegar works instead of balsamic; the recipe actually called for "2 oz. can of anchovy fillets, drained" which I don't have so I guessed at an amount of anchovy paste. I have used ribeye steak and NY strip steak. Both work fine. The steak should be boneless and tender. We used 8 oz. of steak which fed the 2 of us handsomely - increase both steak and broccoli (but not sauce) if you are feeding more people.





First a bit of soaking and waiting: I put the raisins and the vinegar in a little bowl for 30 minutes.

While the raisins were soaking, I prepped the broccoli and measured the ingredients for the sauce.

The sauce is made in a food processor. I forgot that and so I smushed the garlic. No need. Just peel and slice. I added the capers and that little brown blob of anchovy paste. The first round of zizzing was these 3 ingredients.






After maybe 10 pulses, I turned off the food processor, scraped down the sides and then added the raisins with the vinegar and the parsley. More zizzing, more scraping. Lastly (not shown), I added the olive oil and the salt and ran the food processor until everything was blended but not actually completely smooth. Slightly chunky.

I transferred the sauce to a bowl.








Next, I cooked the steak. Cooking steak presents a conundrum: small steaks cook fast and so you waste a lot of charcoal if you grill outdoors but small steaks (or any steak) makes some smoke as it cooks which can smoke up the kitchen.

We decided to go the indoor route. I trimmed the fat on the outside edge of the steak. I put about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and added the steak trimmings. I turned the heat up and browned the trimmings, not to eat but to render out the fat which would taste beefy.







I rubbed a bit of olive oil on both sides of the steak and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. I took the rendered bits out of the skillet (which had been heating on high heat) and placed the steak in the pan.

It sizzled and made some smoke. I used the spatter screen to control spattering, but there always is some spattering. I let the steak cook for 3 or 4 minutes and then used tongs to flip it. I used an instant read thermometer to tell when it was done. I picked the steak up with the tongs and stuck the thermometer in sideways. It read 138 degrees, which is on the rare side of medium rare, as we like it.

I took the skillet off the heat momentarily while I put the steak on a cutting board and covered it with a piece of foil.




Then I put the skillet back on the heat - without wiping it out - and added the broccoli and 1/2 cup of water.  I steamed the broccoli for a few minutes, then took off the lid and cooked it a bit longer. The broccoli should be done but not mushy.


When the broccoli was done, it was assembly and presentation time.










I cut the steak into bite-sized pieces. I spread the broccoli in the bottom of a platter and scattered the steak over the broccoli. Then I spooned some of the sauce over the whole thing.

Although I suppose one could have a starch side of some kind or maybe some crusty bread, we served this with green salad and raspberries with yogurt.

It was delicious. I don't know how leftovers hold up because there weren't any. We did have some leftover sauce which we had later over steamed asparagus. I can imagine the sauce on a piece of simply cooked fish or poached chicken breast or (of course) broccoli.

Odds and Ends

Earlier in the week I replanted my peppers.  That is over at the sunny garden annex.
It turned out that the two cherry tomato plants I thought had been frosted to death were, in those famous words from the Princess Bride, only "mostly dead".
They are coming back from the bottom.
We did get two replacement cherry tomato plants that will go join them when there is a 48 hour window of dry weather.

Critters were on my mind this week.
First a deer showed up. It may even have taken a bite out of the new dogwood tree. Some tips seemed to be without leaves. And there were those heavy hoof prints that looked like deer.
I sprayed the tree with the super repellant.

But there was more.
Saturday morning Ron showed up to help with the garden paths. (Ron is my garden helper.) I noticed him standing in the doorway of the back garage with a hand up suggesting that I not come back there.
Raccoons.
Damn.
With little ones.
More Damn
I called all the professionals I could find.
But it was the start of a three day weekend and no calls were returned.
I guess we will discover in the next few days whether they intend to stay in the chimney of that detached garage.

If it is not one thing....
Better times are coming.
Be safe.
Philip