June 16, 2024- on the road

 

Greetings from Chincoteague, Virginia. We arrived yesterday, after a long day of traveling.  It is someplace else. After almost ten hours of sleep Christopher and Maisie are up and playing quietly. Actually Christopher is quietly playing the piano, which has been silent for most of the last twenty years.

Today we go to the beach along with lots of other people.

You know you are someplace else when the sea gulls are the early morning birds.

We left Iowa yesterday at a rediculourly early hour. There are echos of drought years.

The last measurable rain was June 2. No rain appears in the forecast on the phone. The heat is coming.

However at least for the first few times, watering is a pleasure. You can water and think about that part of the garden, in a rather quiet way.

Let me put in some pictures.

It is Asiatic lily time.

The display is rather muted as the deer primarily ate those buds. Now their attention may be turning to daylily scapes.

This is Ruby Spider, which always gets an extra dose of deer spray. It is covered with buds.

Speaking of critters, with Scott's help I put up the first fence in the garden, that I can remember. Inside the fence there are the uneaten poppies along with several ounces of new Shirley poppy seeds. That would be several thousand seeds. I do not know if they will grow in the heat. They at least at this point are on the watering schedule.

Speaking of seeds, I got and we will be planting 125 ornamental kale seed. Those will go to a greenhouse to grow for 6 weeks. Then I will have to think about how to protect them from cabbage worms.

Still no cicadas in Iowa City.

The pink orchid cactus was blooming all week.

The other big one will have yellow flowers.  It has quite an number of buds. Scott moved it to the front yard, under the walnut tree, for better viewing.

Other pictures from this week

This lantana was brought inside last fall. The question will be how big will it get by September.

Sometime you just like patterns. This is Hosta Inniswood.

 

 

Julia's recipe

Another Egg dish

This is another recipe from the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Michael Knock, the food guy, is a Lutheran English teacher transplanted to the big city from a small town in western Iowa. Some of his recipes, including this one, are informed by his having been a Lutheran in a small town. His church youth groups ate versions of this egg dish. Casseroles with egg and milk and bread are common in this part of the world. Homey. Comforting. Adaptable. Can be thrifty. 

The ingredients:

2 cups sliced andouille sausage;

1/2 cup diced onion;

1/2 to 1 cup diced green or red pepper;

6 eggs;

1-1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon creole or cajun seasoning;

1/4 teaspoon black pepper;

1/2 teaspoon salt;

4 slices nice sandwich bread which somehow did not make it into the picture;

1 14 oz. can drained diced tomatoes; and

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.

Also no-stick spray for the baking dish.

I had some leftover asparagus, which amounted to about 1/2 cup. I think 1/2 cup of green or red pepper is important. But feel free to add 1/2 cup of something else that is sitting in your refrigerator. 1/2 cup of asparagus? corn? a handful of spinach or arugala? I don't eat peas. Ever. But if you do, 1/2 cup of peas would work. Or 1 cup of diced pepper.

The recipe called for creole seasoning. I had cajun. Same part of the world. I used andouille, but you could use other kinds of sausage and then experiment with seasoning. 

First I cut stuff up. I sliced the andouille.

And diced the green pepper and cut the asparagus spears into bite-sized pieces. And diced the onion.

I lubed up a 9" x 13" pan and turned the oven on to 350 degrees.

I put the sausage and the onions and the peppers into a non-stick skillet. The sausage meant I didn't need any oil or butter in the pan. I cooked these things over medium-low until the vegetables were softened. 

While the skillet was working, I cut up the bread. I had bread from the Co-op. Not crunchy but not wonder bread. 

I cut the bread into cubes. 

I added the asparagus pieces  part way through the cooking. The asparagus was already cooked so it did not need as much cooking. 

I scattered the bread cubes around the bottom of the pan.

I drained the tomatoes and added them to the skillet. 

While the skillet was still on the stove, I cracked the eggs into a big old measuring cup with a spout. 

I added the milk to the eggs, and also added the creole/cajun seasoning, salt and pepper.  And whisked all of that together.

Not sure what the aura is in this picture over the skillet. What was actually happening: I was using a slotted spoon to sprinkle the mixture from the skillet over the bread.

Somewhere in here I grated the cheese. Big slivers are fine. They'll melt. I scattered them over the top of the vegetable/sausage mixture.

The casserole ready for the last layer.

I gave the egg mixture another quick whisk and then poured it as evenly as I could over the whole casserole. 

And here it is out of the oven after baking for about 40 minutes. It's done with the eggs are set and it's starting to brown around the edges.

It was good, with green salad and berries to round out the meal. It was easy to heat up in a skillet on top of the stove for lunch the next day.

The sausage was spicy, the eggs and bread sort of soft plus the cheese and the vegetables. One dish meal. 

Odds and Ends

Technology mostly defeated us this last week. Our email at the office mostly did not work. We are working on the problem.

Then there are those automated customer service numbers. We rented a car this week but never did get to speak to a person. I entered the credit card number into my profile, only to be told that the expiration date of 2026 needed to be fixed to be a date in the future. Over and over and over again.

The world is just really sad.

Climate change is more like climate deterioration. I worry about the next 2 months, in the heat. We were really spoiled with the rain for several months.

Pray for peace.

Be kind.

Find some cool.

We may get our feet wet in the ocean.

Pictures will be coming.

Philip