August 5, 2018-on the road

Greetings from Chicago
We are visiting Julia' family this weekend. It will be a short post.
This week in the garden was short as well.
It is still dry. We have passed the two week mark with no rain. This weekend the heat is back. A good deal of my time has been spend watering. That can be enjoyable in the quiet of the early morning. While I quietly wander the garden with the water wand I think. You can think about anything of course. But this is the time of year not only to ,appreciate what is in the garden at the moment, but also to think about the garden next year.
What plants would appreciate being in a different place, perhaps with upgraded dirt?
Where should that new dogwood tree go?

But there were a few things happening.
That night blooming cereus bloomed.
This was the smaller variety. There were three plants with a total of four flower. It was not overwhelming but the flowers were exquisite.


Here are a few pictures.

I was watering and sprinkled this flower. The water added a dimension to the picture that I had not anticipated.

The colorful pistil is rather remarkable.

The first zinnia I grew from seed bloomed. This variety is quite different from the others we have grown in the past few years.

I guess it was a week of firsts. Here was the first morning glory. Having just one flower was not the intended result when I planted these Heavenly Blue flowers. But time will tell. I want this trellis to be covered with blue.
The pots do consume a remarkable amount of water. I give them almost a can of water every two days.

Here is the front of the house. The Red  Flash caladium are good.

Here is a late daylily called Lady Niva.

Julia's recipe

Mrs. Davis's Italian Bread

We received this recipe from Sue Davis, an old family friend in Iowa City, many years ago. It is quick, as yeast breads go, and easy, with few ingredients and no kneading. If you are inclined to have a loaf of fresh, rustic bread with dinner, this recipe will give you a loaf in about an hour and a half, including the time for the bread to cool enough to cut after it comes out of the oven.

Here are the players: all purpose flour, sugar, yeast, salt and water. Plus (unpictured) cooking spray to lube up the baker (a souffle dish is what I used) and cornmeal to sprinkle over the cooking spray.

I started by putting 1-1/2 cups of warm tap water into a 2 cup measure with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of yeast, which I stirred together gently. You can see the measuring cup with frothy yeast in the photo. It takes a few minutes for the yeast to froth up. While that was happening, I measured 3 cups of flour into a bowl, added 2 more teaspoons of sugar and 1-1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt to the flour bowl and stirred it up to mix the sugar and salt throughout.

Then I poured in the yeast mixture into the bowl and stirred it up with a big wooden spoon. I added about 1/2 cup more flour until I had a kind of stiff dough.

This stage took about 10 minutes.

During the waiting for the yeast to froth stage, I lubed up the baking dish with cooking spray, and then sprinkled corn meal all around, swirling the dish to spread the cornmeal all over. I plopped the dough in and covered the baking dish with a dish towel. I left it on the counter for about 30 minutes and turned on the oven to 375 degrees.

After 30 minutes, the dough had risen some and I baked the dough for about 25-30 minutes. You can knock on a loaf of baked bread, and it will sound hollow when it's done. Or you can take its temperature with an instant-read thermometer and it should be between 200 and 210 degrees.

I left the bread in the baking dish for 10 minutes then turned it out onto a wire rack to cool. After another 20 minutes, the bread had firmed up enough to cut into nice chunks, using a serrated knife and sawing gently to avoid squishing.

Lovely with pasta dishes or dinner salads or soup.

By the way, you can lube up the baking dish with oil or butter or shortening and cornmeal is not essential, but adds a bit of crunch.

Also you can bake your bread in whatever oven-proof container you like - loaf pans (use 2) or square baking pans (use 2) or round cake pans (use 2). The height of your loaf (loaves) and the baking time will vary. The ease of making and the tastiness will not. 




Odds and Ends
It is still early at the hotel, on Saturday morning. There is just me and the bad music in the lobby, waiting for the coffee to be ready. Imagine that a hotel does not have coffee at 6 in the  morning. What are they thinking? (The cafe does not open until 6:30.)
It is brighter  earlier here than in Iowa City. We are 200 miles further east of course. It took me a while to figure that out.
It is going to be a hot one.
Stay cool.
Philip