June 27, 2021- So then it rained

 We certainly have had our weather patterns this year.

First it is dry for three weeks. That was right after I planted the lettuce, which was about April 10.

Then it rained for a month.

We just finished another 3 weeks without rain.

So this past week it rained at least 4 times.

Yesterday alone it rained about 3 times. I am not complaining.

In between the rains yesterday I got some gardening done, with a little help from two neighborhood volunteers. 

Actually the weather was just about perfect this past week for doing about whatever you wanted to do in the garden.

Yesterday I/we pulled weeds, and dug and potted some hosta for the back driveway sale for the food banks. I even started planting some of the almost 3 flats of impatiens  I have made from cuttings. 

Speaking of cuttings I am ready to answer the question everyone has wanted to know for weeks.

Can you grow cuttings from petunias?  You can.

Julia was given a nice petunia when Christopher and company were here just a few weeks ago. A piece off at the time, so I stuck it in water. It finally grew some roots and I planted it yesterday.

This week did mark the start of daylily season.

Ruby Spider started to bloom.

With its 25 stems it should bloom for at least two weeks. These first pictures were taken on Wednesday, June 23.

The other daylilies are coming, at least those that have not become deer food. At least if the deer  eat the daylilies they will leave the hosta alone at this point. They did like the toad lilies. It will be interesting to see if those plants which have been "topped" act like chrysanthemums. If you pinch them back they grow bushier which is what is wanted.

There are still a few Shirley poppies. Most have finished leaving me the task of collecting seeds. Who knows I could have many many seeds.

Look at this wonderful picture:

I really will have to try to give that picture an all black background.

Here are a few other daylilies.

I have been obtaining coneflowers over the last several years. They are getting bigger. I can see a time when I lose a few daylilies and have a bed of almost all coneflowers.

The lilium are blooming. 

Don't you just love spots?

This is Knight Rider. I now have it in 3 places in the garden. I think that is about enough.

This is Fiamma.

We finally got all the cactus outside. Right on cue this one made some buds.

I think there were 5 buds. Maybe in 2 weeks?

Julia's recipe

ricotta cake/pie

I found this recipe in a recent issue of Cook's Illustrated. They called it Neapolitan Semolina Cake. I think it is more like a cross between cheesecake and cake. So why not think of it as cake/pie? And I leave out the word "semolina" because I did not use semolina, which I do not keep on hand, but rather cream of wheat, the suggested alternative to semolina, which I do keep on hand. This is an unusual confection, sweet but not too sweet, creamy but with some texture, citrusy and also  cardamom-y. Not difficult to make, although a bit more complicated than cookies. 

The ingredients: 

4 tablespoons plus a bit of butter;

3/4 cup plus a bit of white sugar;

4 eggs;

1-1/2 cups of whole milk ricotta;

2 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate (or cointreau if you have it);

2 teaspoons vanilla;

3/4 cup regular (not instant) cream of wheat (or semolina if you have it);

2 tablespoons lemon zest (probably 3 lemons worth)

2 tablespoons orange zest (probably 1 big orange);

3 cups whole milk;

1 tablespoon ground cardamom;

1/2 teaspoon of regular salt if you use unsalted butter or 1/4 teaspoon                                                    of regular salt if you use salted.

Warning: you'll need a springform pan (9" - the usual size). Start by turning the oven on to 375 degrees and prepping the pan, by smearing it all over with butter and then sprinkling it all over with white sugar. Knock out the extra sugar. 

After pan prep, I started by beating the eggs in my stand mixer. After about 1 minute, I added the ricotta, orange juice concentrate, and vanilla. 

I mixed the stuff for 3 or 4 minutes. 

While it was mixing, I started zesting the lemons and the orange. It is a lot of zest, but worth it. 

When the mixture was all combined (as shown), I turned the mixer off and kept zesting. 

Then I mixed the cream of wheat with 3/4 cup of sugar in a little bowl and stirred it up. 

When I was done zesting, I poured the milk into a saucier (a slope-sided saucepan - no corners) and added both zests, the cardamom, salt and the butter (4 tablespoons not used for pan prep). 

I heated the mixture over medium-low heat until it hit 180 degrees - scalded but not boiling. 

Then I started pouring the cream of wheat/sugar mixture into the milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking away. 

I whisked for a while and then switched to a wooden spoon as the mixture began to thicken. It was turning into cream of wheat. I turned the heat to low and cooked the mixture until it made big blurpy bubbles and then cooked for a minute more. 

For those of you who have been to Yellowstone National Part, the big blurpy bubbles effect is like the boiling paint pots along the Yellowstone River. 

When the cream of wheat mixture was done (that is, thick and creamy), I scooped it into the ricotta mixture that had been patiently waiting in the mixer, in big scoops, beating after each addition. 

I set the springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet and poured the batter into the pan. 

I baked it for about 50 minutes, checking after 45 minutes. Your oven is probably different than mine. You are looking for golden brown, the cake pulling away from the sides of the pan and slightly jiggly in the center. 

 Here it is - out of the oven as described above. 

Next I let it cool for 10 minutes and then ran a knife around the edge to loosen the cake and unhinged the spring. Next cooling for another couple of hours and then closing the spring again and cooling the cake for a while (overnight works) in the refrigerator. 

I am not sure that such a long period of refrigeration is necessary. I did it because who knows what will turn out to be crucial?  

Next day, I took the springform ring off and slid the cake carefully (using a long spatula to make sure it would not stick) onto a serving plate. Then I sprinkled it with powdered sugar. 

 On the plate. It is great as is, but one could add strawberry slices or other slightly sweetened berries. 

The texture is somewhere between cheesecake and a moist non-cheesecake. It is slightly sweet and tastes of orange and cardamom. I liked it a lot, for all of its being unusual in ingredients and technique. I will make it again. 

 

Odds and Ends

My skeletal difficulties continue.  I am see the chiropractor 2 times a week, am taking some pain meds, and am icing a whole lot. Maybe I am getting a little better.

I find that I can hardly feel any impairment when I am out in the garden.

I expect tomorrow will be a test. How will I feel when I go to get out of bed. (not so bad)

The rain coming helped. So did the fact it has been about ten degrees cooler this past week. That meant it was tolerable to be in the garden with volunteers from 4-5 in the afternoon.

The back yard sale for the food bank continues.

We passed the $5000 mark for this year. We potted up another dozen hosta yesterday. This adventure in low budget good work continues.

Be safe.

Philip