September 3, 2017 a new season

Hello again. We were in Chicago last weekend so no post. I have also had a very busy time at work. With a three day weekend I have high expectations of finding my balance.

The leaves have started to fall. So have the buckeyes, at least the ones in our backyard.
We have not had to run the air conditioner in a while. Since this next week is predicted to have temperatures heading down into the 40's, I have started looking for my long sleeved shirts.

It is September. There is football. My interest in that sport has dimmed with all the evidence about head injuries.
But there is baseball and we root for the Cubs. Things are looking positive, for the moment. Cubs fans always add that last qualifier.

It is the beginning of fall. School is back in session. Because of major renovations to the local elementary school, little kids in the neighborhood are being bussed to a different school this year. We know this because one of the bus stops is right across the street. They assemble with their parents and dogs a little after 7 in the morning.


Here in the garden I have finally gotten out the front yard hose. I really haven't used it in almost two years. It is now almost two weeks since any rain, and none is forecast.
When I water, I try to water early in the morning.  I have had to remember how best to do it. Watering has always been a part of gardening. There is the watering rotation. Front yard one day-backyard by the driveway the next. Then I water the orchids.
I also have to figure  out how far to pull the hose in which directions. If I pull the hose way out one way, I can go up and down the street. (I garden all the way down to the street.)

It can be rather soothing to water the garden. It does not take a lot of energy. Even the sound can be soothing. You water one little area. Then you move on to the next, trying to literally reach every plant.

It does take up time however. During that time you can think about work to be done later. How can I make this area better?
There is also that emergency watering for the potted plant in the far corner of the garden you hadn't noticed for a week.

Otherwise garden cleanup has begun. I continue to transplant Siberian Iris. They will probably recover and be spectacular in two years.

There are actually some nice pictures this week. But first there were pictures two weeks ago.
In the voting two weeks the picture you liked was...

The Night Blooming Cereus #2

Can there be many pictures better than that one? As I think about it there is, of course, color. Why is it that the one flower that only blooms at night does not have much color?

The full voting was
Night Blooming Cereus #2    15
Red Caladiukm     8
pink morning glory    8
orchid with some blue    6
crotons      1
NBC #1    1


This week there are some rather nice pictures.

#1  The toadlily

What remarkable gems. They will bloom at least for the next month.
I will give you a closeup in the bonus section.

They of course have a good name.

#2  Lantana pattern, Yellow and White

You saw these patters several weeks ago.

#3 Cherry tomatoes on a stick, from the Iowa State Fair.

No-but it is a good thought. This is the Jack in the pulpit, the seed head.

For those of you who do not know the Iowa State Fair, there are many foods "on a stick". My favorites (for amusement purposes only) are a hardboiled egg on a stick and lettuce on a stick.
Let your imagination go and you an amuse yourself.

#4 Orange Zinnia

We planted these zinnias on July 1. They look really good at the moment. They started to bloom about two weeks ago.
I planted them with Bright Lights Cosmos. (There are really a lot of different cosmos.)
The only zinnia seed I could find at the end of June were these smaller flowers. I will not wait that long next year. Actually I already snatched up 2 packages of the large flower zinnias for next year. I do think planting them the end of June is the best idea.

They will give a nice splash of color when the rest of the garden is shutting down.

#5 More lantana

The shapes are so nice.

Time lapse of the same flower over several weeks would be good.

#6
Pink Zinnia

Even if the flowers are small, they get big in pictures.












There you have it.
Remember during this part of the year you can vote for two.

Bonus pictures

There were two remaining flowers on the Night Blooming Cereus that bloomed this week.
They were good. I think I will take pictures with the flashlight from now on.

Here is the picture with the flash.

The crotons are all a treat this time of year. The green of the new growth has turned all sort of colors.

A closeup of the seed head. It really does look like a basket of roma tomatos.

Lantana without the cropping.

You are almost seeing double.

The ghost peppers are ripening. We had two in the chili this week. Initially it was inedible. We found the heat dissipated quickly. I tried some as a leftover yesterday and most of the heat was gone.

If anyone in the neighborhood would like a few peppers let me know. I do not think it will become featured in our cuisine.





The Japanese anemones are going strong. They would be better with some rain.

Here is the closeup of the toad lily.
There are those yellow spots way down that are pretty good.

Julia's recipe

Gumbo

I first had gumbo when we visited Katie in New Orleans, and I liked it. Then Alton Brown made it on Good Eats, and his recipe made it possible for a Northerner with limited patience to make it. This recipe is a variation on Alton Brown's recipe. Gumbo also allows us to do something useful with okra when it is at the farmer's market looking all exotic and irresistible.

Gumbo starts with a roux that needs to cook long enough to get dark. This dark roux is the basis of the dish. I started by heating 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (not olive oil or coconut oil) in a heavy enamel-ware pot, and then I whisked in 1 cup of white flour. I do not know whether gluten-free flour would work, but I would be interested in hearing from anyone who tries it. While I was mixing and cooking the oil and flour, I turned the oven on to 350 degrees. Then I put the pot of roux in the oven and cooked it for about 2-1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so with a big whisk.

After the roux had been in the oven for about 2 hours, I cut up 1-1/2 cups of onion, 3/4 cup celery and 3/4 cup of red/green peppers. All were chopped up small - say 1/4 -1/2" squares. And I sliced about 2 cups of okra, having cut both ends off each pod.

This is what the roux looked like after its long bake. Kind of reddish brown. It is genius to cook the roux in the oven. In order to get the roux to this color on the stove, you have to stand over it and stir constantly, and it may burn anyway.

I took the roux out of the oven and put it back on the stove, on medium-high heat.

Next I added the onion, celery and green/red pepper, and I stirred it around. I cooked the vegetables for about 5-7 minutes in the pot until they began to soften. Then I added 2 quarts (that's 8 cups) of chicken stock, about 1 cup of canned diced tomatoes and some seasoning - 2 bay leaves, 1/2 dried thyme, 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. I stirred that up and added the okra.

While the soup/stew was cooking, I peeled 3/4 pound of shrimp and sliced up 2 andouille sausages. I ended up with about 1 cup of cleaned shrimp and 1-1/2 cups of sliced andouille sausage.

A word about okra: it's slimy. It exudes slimy goo when you clean and slice it. Sliminess is generally not an attractive quality in a vegetable (or any other life form for that matter) but it is good in gumbo, as the sliminess acts as a thickener for the broth. The end product is not slimy at all; just delicious.

After the okra had softened (a little after this picture was taken), I added the sausage and also 2 cups of chopped up cooked chicken and let everything simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes.  Then I added the shrimp and cooked for 5 minutes more, then turned off the heat and let the shrimp finish cooking in the heat of the soup.

While the soup was cooking, I made some rice, just regular rice, not basmati or jasmine.

And here is the final product, a little hard to appreciate in the pot and so there is a picture of a serving in a bowl below where the shrimp and the chicken and the okra and sausage are more discernible.

One could use only shrimp (and sausage, of course) or only seafood (shrimp and crab and mild fish and crawfish, in whatever proportions one likes). One could use fish stock instead of chicken stock. Alton Brown used only shrimp (and sausage) and made his stock from the shrimp shells and extra bits while the roux was cooking. One could of course use only chicken and no shrimp or other seafood. If andouille is not available, I think another hard spicy sausage like kielbasa would be fine. And if you can't abide okra, you can get the same thickening effect by adding file powder. File powder is made of sassafras leaves. Really. And you can buy it at the grocery store. Use it sparingly (say 1 tablespoon or so to a pot of gumbo) as it thickens very efficiently. But why not eat some okra during its growing season?

Odds and Ends

My own observation of gumbo: I find it particularly good as a leftover. The liquid has such a smokey taste. I even like it cold, with some rice.

When I have a hard time going to sleep I walk around the garden in my head. I try to remember the names of the hosta or the daylilies. I think about just what work needs to be done in that part of the yard.


The daylight is slipping away. It does not help when it is cloudy. I sometimes would go out and do a few tasks after dinner. Not tonight.

The Iowa City Farmer's Market is such a delight. There is live music, and people with causes. Someone today had a display about a parrot rescue group. Then there are the dogs and the baby strollers. One such stroller today had a big watermelon in it rather than a child. I assume the child was walking.

We went somewhere yesterday where they had some of the crotons for sale that I like best. The variety is called Petra. It is perhaps the most common. It was a good price. I was tempted. Then Julia reminded me that I could just start some from cuttings.

I have almost all the cuttings on the windowsill in the kitchen planted. Now they have to be mulched and watered.

That's it for this week. Enjoy and it is always good to hear back from you.
Philip