March 27, 2022- Week #18- We have a winner in the contest

It is Week 18 of the Winter Picture Contest. We are at the end. Spring is mostly here.

We have a winner. 

Here is that Picture of the year, 2021. 

Here is the final tally from a close vote.

Today's narrative from the garden:

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend was sunny with temperatures around 70. Spring was sprinting to the starting line. (That is kind of an interesting thought.) I think I even suggested that it would be good if it slowed down a little.

Well it did.  Temperatures dropped 20-30 degrees. It was grey most of the time. It seemed like it rained a lot, which we needed. 

This weekend the sun came out which was be appreciated. However, there will be a big wind with temperatures getting to maybe 40 degrees for the high. 

I still have yard work to do. I suppose we shall just see how that goes.

Right Now

I started my poppies inside right after New Years. It is a tradition. Well, for the second year in a row they started to bloom in the pots. I really should change planting by at least a month.  I probably cannot put them in the ground for a month. I should have nice sized plants when it is time to put them in the ground.

This is the little iris pot I brought inside about a month ago. It had been in the back garage being dormant. I think its name is Dark Vader. I guess you can sort of force little iris. 

I cannot think of any other plant I enjoy seeing  in the spring than the lupine. The flowers are so special.

I have an entire crop of seedlings waiting to join this one.

We may have more sun by the street this year. I really should make an entire bed of lupines.

You get points if you can identify this emerging clump.

It is the shooting star.

It seems like clumps of crocuses are everywhere.

This is one of the three types of corydalis we have in the garden.

They really are rather hardy.

There are always on the 'more list.'

 This is one of many hellebores that are growing even while it has been chilly.

They are surrounded by the aconite.

Some pictures just need to be full sized. I was a little late in raking off the bed by the pond. Here are some crocuses that managed to get through the leaves and sticks.

This is the early trillium.

One can not have too many trillium.

One can have not enough trillium.

I like how the sedum grows in the cracks.

The crocuses were just starting to open up yesterday afternoon.

It managed to get all the way up to 38 degrees.

But it was sunny.

I did garden work in my winter coat and hat.

Julia's recipe

udon noodles with mushrooms

The link to the website with all of Julia's recipes is

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Readers of this blog may recall that I posted a recipe for pasta with cabbage and walnuts and parmesan. An unlikely set of ingredients, I thought, and yet the resulting dish was remarkably good. Well, here we are again with a recipe with noddles and cabbage. Mushrooms this time and no walnuts, but if anything, this dish is tastier than the pasta and cabbage dish. And it's vegetarian. Painlessly deliciously vegetarian. By substituting margarine for butter, it becomes vegan. Also from the NYT and also fast and easy.

The ingredients:

1 package wide udon noodles;

1 lb. cremini mushroom, sliced;

about 1 tablespoon smushed garlic;

3 tablespoons honey;

4 tablespoons salted butter;

about 2 cups finely sliced cabbage;

2 tablespoons vegetable oil;

2 finely sliced scallions;

3 tablespoons soy sauce;

salt and pepper;

some sesame seeds.

I started a pot of water for the noodles and then sliced the scallions, smushed the garlic and thinly sliced the cabbage.

Next I washed and sliced the mushrooms. I ended up with about 5 cups of mushroom slices. This was the most time-consuming part of the whole meal.

I heated the oil in a big skillet until it shimmered and then dumped in the mushrooms. I turned the heat to medium high and let them cook, stirring now and then for about 6 or 7 minutes. I think I stirred the mushrooms 5 or 6 times. 

After the cooking period, the mushrooms had reduced in volume and had began to brown around the edges. 

I added the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Less pepper than salt. 

The udon noodles cooked for 7 minutes (package instructions); then I drained them and put them in cold water to stop them from getting overcooked. 

When I could smell the garlic, I added 2 tablespoons of the honey and 3 tablespoons of the butter.

Addition of honey!

I stirred the butter and honey in and then added...

the cabbage followed immediately by....

the noodles (which I had drained again) and all of the soy sauce.

I stirred and cooked the whole mixture for about 2 or 3 minutes.

Then I took it off the stove and stirred in the last tablespoon of honey and the last tablespoon of butter.

I plopped it into a serving bowl and sprinkled it with the scallions and the sesame seeds. 

By the way, if you are a vegan's vegan, you can use maple syrup instead of honey.

This is so pretty that it deserves a full screen picture. We had it as a main course with salad and berries and yogurt. There were leftovers, although they went fast. 

Odds and ends

I had the opportunity and real pleasure to visit a garden north of Iowa City last Sunday. The gardener has 3-4 acres of fenced in woods, with an incredible collection of special plants. Last weekend was the right time for his snowdrops. Snowdrop enthusiasts have been collecting rare varieties for a long time. Maybe this enthusiasm will spread to this country.

These varieties caught my attention because of the unique color. As you can tell from the label the name of the first one is Green Tear. 

This next one is called  Llo n' Green.

One source for these special plants in this country is Far Reaches Farm. (They sell Green Tear but have none in stock.)

https://www.farreachesfarm.com/Galanthus-s/1993.htm

I will not say how much they cost. You can look it up if you wish. If you were to spend that much money for a single snowdrop you would really have to be certain about the location. 

I can tell you that you would have something special, and that would be a real attraction.

We come to the end of the contest.

The blog, including Julia's recipes, continues.

Maybe I will come up with some special contest just for the occasional week.

I hope you will follow along, replying as you can. It really helps to know you are following.

Sometime visit the archive. We have been doing this for a long time.

Pray for peace.

Philip