November 11, 2018- a time for winter coats

Welcome to winter in Iowa.

We might as well call it what it is.
A week ago I worked in the garden over the weekend. I planted some bulbs. I got a load of compost for spring time. We picked up leaves. It was just the ordinary late fall time.
Then...
It snowed on Thursday night. It was not a lot of snow. There was maybe an inch on the ground when we got up. The high temperature ever since has been 30 degrees. The low was 15 degrees. With a little wind it was that biting cold that one remembers.
I got out not only my winter coat, but also my winter hat.
Gardening this weekend consisted of moving plants around inside. The pumpkin, frozen solid, kind of says it all.

So it begins. The long slow march to Spring. Such a long way to go.

But you know...
As I walked around the back yard Friday over the noon house, it was just about 30 degrees but the sun was out. In the fading snow I caught myself looking for snowdrops and aconite. Now of course it is way too early for those things. But the feeling was a good one. I hold onto that feeling.


I am working on the winter picture contest. I still am getting the poll function up and working.
It is almost done. I have help.

I have been reviewing pictures of this last garden year, starting to pick out contestants for the contest. This did have me reflect on this past garden season. There was of course the beginning. Remember? Here was April 7

Yes it was a late spring.
And there were some show stoppers, which you will see in the next few months.


In the meantime maybe you can warm up with these pictures from a walk in the woods from last April 28, 2018.

This is the dutchman's breeches, which appears by the 1000's in Ryerson's Woods, just south of Iowa City.

This is the bloodroot.

I really like the emerging May apples.

This last picture was just about my favorite. This little fragile dog tooth violet captured for me something of the promise of spring.

Well that is what we need to remember as the big cold descends.

I will share this little cattleya, that blooms regularly this time of year. It lights up the living room, where it shares space with many of the crotons.
This picture is from yesterday.

Julia's Recipe

Arroz con Pollo

For those of you who did not take Spanish in high school, arroz con pollo means rice with chicken. This recipe comes from a cookbook that got to me via the farm, the collective Philip and I lived in in the 1970's. The cookbook is called The Spice Cook Book by Ivanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey. I have never seen it or heard tell of it anywhere else, so I don't know much about it. It is full of color and black-and-white drawings, some of which are punny references to nearby recipes. It has some recipes that we have gone to frequently over the years, like squash pudding and also arroz con pollo. I have made a few changes to the cookbook's version, to simplify and shorten the time to the table.

Here are the players: 2 cups uncooked American (not basmati) rice, 3 cups cooked chicken (in 2"x 2" pieces, or so), 1-1/2 cup cooked pork (in little pieces, say 3/4" cubes), 1/2 cup raw bacon (chopped up), 1 cup chopped green pepper, 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, 3-4 cups chicken stock, 1/4 cup pitted green olives (mine were pre-sliced, with pimento) plus capers, garlic, dried onion bits, oregano, salt, black pepper and any kind of vinegar.

A lot of ingredients, but nothing exotic, at least in my kitchen. I made this dish because I had leftover cooked chicken and pork and a cup of frozen cut up green pepper and frozen chicken stock. So it was a kind of clean-out-the-fridge-and-freezer recipe. I often made it after Thanksgiving substituting leftover turkey for leftover chicken.

I started by slicing the raw bacon into bits and measuring the spices/herbs etc. into a little bowl. I smushed a couple of garlic cloves to make 1 teaspoon. I added 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

I cooked the bacon in a big skillet. When the bacon was nearly done, I added the herbage from the little bowl. When the garlic was fragrant, I added 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar.

The vinegar sizzled for a few seconds. Then I added the chicken and pork and cooked it over medium heat until the meat was coated with the spice mixture.

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

After 2-3 minutes, I added the can of diced tomatoes, 1 cup of coarsely chopped green pepper, 1 heaping tablespoon of capers, 1/4 cup of sliced green olives and 2 tablespoons of dried onion flakes. I stirred it up and then let everything simmer for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I lubed up a 9" x 13" pan and poured 2 cups of raw rice into the bottom in a more or less even layer.

I poured the skillet contents over the rice, spreading those things around to have an even layer on top of the rice.

Then I poured about 3-1/2 cups of chicken stock over the whole business. If I had been in possession of 4 cups of chicken stock, I would have used it all. This is, however, a forgiving recipe and a bit more or less of any ingredient is not a big deal.

I covered the pan with aluminum foil and put it in the oven. It took about 1 hour to bake. You test by fishing out a bit of rice from the center. When rice in the center of the casserole is done, you're ready to eat. You might let it cool down for 5 or 10 minutes. Fresh out of the oven it's really hot.

We served it with broccoli and a salad and some yogurt and applesauce as a chaser.

If you want to make this with raw chicken, that would be fine. It will probably take a bit longer to bake. I would suggest whole skinless boneless chicken thighs (the skin will be unpalatable and who wants to deal with bones?) or halves of skinless boneless chicken breast, one piece of meat per diner with one or two for good measure, and following the recipe as above, except it may take a bit longer for the chicken pieces to pick up the spice mix. This casserole easily serves 6.

If you don't have dried onion, use 1/3 cup of fresh onion, diced small and added with the herbs to the bacon. If you don't have capers or green olives, go buy some. Katie sends me a quart of capers once a year from Kalustyan's Spice Shop on Lexington in NYC. It is good to have a generous supply of capers on hand at all times. If you can't get to Kalustyan's, then buy one of those little bottles in the grocery store. Philip finds that little caper bottles are good for rooting things like coleus, but that is a different part of the blog. 


Odds and Ends

It is a busy time.
But not so much in the garden.
The plants have now been inside for several weeks. I am figuring out a schedule for watering. I am figuring out which things should go where.
I have one of these high intensity lights in the basement. That provides the best light in the house for plants. Three of the more sensitive crotons are staying there now. We go right by them 3-4 times a day, when we go to the garage. I have a spray bottle right there and mist them probably 2-3 times a day. They are happy with that much attention.
So much of gardening is paying attention. So much of gardening is finding time to pay attention.
It is the forgotten corners that where problems grow.

Maybe I should make a list.
Maybe I should make an end to this short post.
Be warm.
Philip