May 27, 2018 Beginning to take shape

Welcome
As I reflect on this past week in the garden there are so many images.
The Siberian Iris started.
All sorts of Lupine are blooming.
The first waterlily bloomed,
The first orchid cactus flower bloomed.
The first herbaceous peony bloomed.
The caladium exodus to the heat outside is complete.
An unexpected, but much appreciated rain came Saturday morning.
Now there is Heat- quite a bit of heat.

It finally warmed up. It is actually hot. The temperatures got into the 90's for about the first time yesterday. The heat is suppose to be with us for a while.
However lots of warm weather flowers have started to bloom.
The peonies were out in full bloom all over town.
In the garden there were also first flowers of several kind as you will see.



There was no voting last week, as Blogger actually decided to discontinue their poll feature. At least at this point I know it was nothing I did. I have protested.
For now I have to find a substitute. So far the only alternative was something that gave me right wing advertisements. If there is anyone who knows about this stuff, please contact me.


So I will show you this weeks pictures.
That is where this all started.
You will need to communicate your approval and comments the old fashioned way. Send me emails or lodge "comments".


This week's pictures

#1  This beautify peony is a single. I think the name is Coralie.

Most of the peonies we think about are those big full pink ones that flop over because they are too heavy. There are also singles. They stand up better than the heavy ones.
The color in this lovely picture is actually a little off. The flower is a little pinker than this. I will try to capture that to show you next week.



#2  A Saunders peony.





This is a single white peony developed by Professor Saunders. You can read more about him here:
http://overplanted.com/profiles/peony.php
What a legacy.


#3 White lupine

It was a good spring for lupines. It was cool. That is what they like.



#4  The just about perfect Iceland poppy

#5 Gas plant

Who would suspect this pretty flower of being incendiary. It is true. The plant is called a gas plant and does give off something that can ignite, in a small way.
You can read about it here.
https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3283



#6 The pink Waterlily



The netting kept the ducks away for several weeks. The waterlilies grew. This was the first flower. It bloomed yesterday. I held my breath and took off the netting, to get this picture. I am, for the moment, going to leave the netting off. We will see.


#7 Siberian Iris Jewelled Crown

This Iris,  called Jewelled Crown, was about the first to  bloom.
I separated a clump two years ago. It did take the two years to recover and bloom.




#8Orchid Cactus

There is always a first. This plant has 4-5 more buds, that should bloom in the next few days.

There you have it. There are many flowers appearing as we move quickly towards summer.
Let me know which you like, and why.

Julia's recipe

Quiche Alsacienne

Quiche is another of the many dishes I never ate as a kid, but warmed up to as an adult. Quiche is easy (if you have a pie crust), should be made ahead of time, keeps well when made ahead of time and is best eaten at room temperature or chilled. I like the Swiss cheese family of quiches, Lorraine or Alsacienne. Quiche Lorraine and quiche Alsacaienne are related: quiche Lorraine had bacon and Swiss cheese; quiche Alsacienne has bacon, Swiss cheese and onion.

I especially like Quiche Alsacienne because it is fun to say and because my German grandmother claimed that her people were originally from Alsace before migrating to Bavaria and later to the Banat. I must add, in the interests of full disclosure, that my grandmother never made quiche, alsacienne or otherwise. 

Let me say at the outset that before I began the prep, I had a partially baked 9 " pie crust. Philip had made it, because he makes a fine pie crust. He uses a recipe from Martha Stewart that involves butter and a food processor. You could also buy a 9" pie crust from the frozen food section of your grocery store. The thing is, however you obtain your 9" pie crust, you should pre-bake it (with a piece of aluminum foil inside covered with a layer of dry beans as weights) at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, and then take out the foil with the weights and bake it for another 5 minutes. This pre-baking will keep the crust from getting soggy. If possible, do the baking early in the day or at least with enough time to let the crust cool off some. Okay now.

I started my quiche with some bacon, which believe it or not is in the skillet on the left side of the cooktop. I keep my bacon frozen, and I forgot to take it out so I used a big knife to saw off about 1/2 cup of bacon bits. You could certainly go at this step in a more conventional way. I think 2 or 3 slices of bacon cut across into little strips would be about 1/2 cup.

After the bacon was crisp, I took it out of the skillet with a slotted spoon; drained it on a paper-towel lined plate; and turned off the heat. While the bacon was cooking, I chopped 1/4 cup of onion (or scallion) in a fine dice. I added that to the bacon pan with the heat off. The onion cooked to a light brown color in the hot bacon fat, no added heat needed.

Next, I cut up some Emmanthaler cheese (or Gruyere or just regular big eye Swiss would work) so that I had 1/2 cup of little cubes of cheese.

Assembly time: I sprinkled the bacon pieces, onion bits and cheese cubes around the bottom of the pie shell.

Then I mixed 2 cups of half-n-half with 3 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper, mixing carefully so no splashing. I put the pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet, and I poured the egg/dairy mixture slowly over all.

I baked the quiche in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. A quiche is done when you can stick the blade of a dinner knife in and the knife comes out clean.

We let the quiche cool completely and then refrigerated it to serve the next day. The next day, I took it out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature on the kitchen counter.

Here it is on the table, already cut. Note how the filling holds its shape.

And here you have a light meal for a hot day - quiche alsacienne with roasted asparagus (and later a tomato/cucumber/red onion/feta/kalamata olive salad).

Quiche was born to be leftover.

Odds and Ends

Since I am up and working on this blog at 4:30 Saturday morning,  I can report that the bird shift began this morning here in Iowa City at 5. The first one started and then here came the others. It is still mostly dark, as sunrise will not be until 5:37.

My goal is to be out in the garden by 5:20. I did that yesterday. There is a real sense of accomplishment by having stuff done and it is still only 5:45.

Friday night we had a most welcome rain. It was over by 4 in the morning. It was welcome, even more so, because all week it seemed that the rain was just missing us in Iowa City.
We must have gotten almost half an inch.

Another hot weather observation.
There are places in the garden where the summer makeover continues. That means getting up the spent foliage from spring flowers and occasionally splashing around the color of annuals.
The time when I can just work where I want is over, with the heat. At least that is the case after mid morning.  This will be an insight that is not surprising. I need to work where there is shade. So in the morning I need to work the west side of the garden. In the afternoon that is when I need to work the east side.

The plant exodus outside continues. All the caladium are now outside. I am still waiting for about half of them to wake up. They should do that in a few days of these temperatures.
I still need to bring home most of  the cactus from the office.

Time? When can you get more of it?

Stay cool.
Philip