November 20, 2022- it is almost picture contest time

 November is over half gone. The last of the plants is out of the garage. The amaryllis are hopefully all asleep in the cooler part of the basement. And it is cold out there. 

This weekend it seemed like January.  We  had a dusting of snow for most of the days this week. It looked cold. It even sounded  cold. The kale is really being put to the test. 

The City leaf crews are suppose to come through the nieghborhood for the last time. Not many people are still raking leaves.

Here at the Mears garden it is almost winter picture contest time. You might remember that. The contests started in 2005. We missed one year. So many pictures. So much fun. It is our way to get through the great big cold time in Iowa.

There has been a lot of history since 2005. Remember this picture. It was from February 6, 2008.

My job at this time of year is to go through all the pictures from 2022 and select the pictures for the contest. There will be 13 weeks, with 5 pictures each week. I need to find the 65 best pictures for you to choose from. At the moment I have selected 70 pictures. I have another 90 pictures in the "contest extras" category. How to choose? Sometimes it is like going to the eye doctor. A or B. Which do I like better? What is 'better?"

Of course after the pictures are narrowed to about 70, I have to think about which pictures to feature each week. I look to balance the field, spreading out the Shirley poppies. I try to balance each week, mostly by the time of year. After so many contests, I do give a slight preference to new flowers. 

All this picture review does trigger the reflections on the past and hopes for the future. What worked this year and what didn't? It was not a great year for the pond. The lack of rain did not help the second half of the season. Neither did the fact we traveled more this year than in the last 3 years. 

I think about martagon lilies, which should be bigger and better this year.  I think about the number of amaryllis I am storing for the winter, which just doubled with a last season contribution.

I need to update my "more list." Larkspur for example is something on that list.

For this week let me just give you random pictures from the year. These will not be in the contest. You can begin to see a little of the year in reflection. These should be in order by date with the oldest first.

I decided to give you a real treat this week. I hope it works. Enjoy this slideshow and try not to get too hungry. All these dishes have been on the blog this year.

Here is the link to the other blog with all of Julia's recipes

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Julia's recipe

Chicken and delicata squash 

I continue to be drawn to and impressed by dinners baked altogether on a sheet pan or in a 9"x13" pan. Not only are such dinners easier to clean up, the ingredients flavor one another in a way that can't happen when the parts of the meal are cooked separately. Why did it take so long to figure this out? I knew that soups and stews were, well, synergistic, but I had not contemplated synergy on a sheet pan. This is by way of introduction to a chicken and squash recipe that is really tasty and not too time-consuming. It is from the NYT, with tweaks.

The ingredients:

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs;

1 (or better 2) small delicata squash;

1 small lemon;

2 tablespoons olive oil;

1-1/2 teaspoons cumin seed;

1-1/2 teaspoons coriander seed;

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt;

1 teaspoon black pepper;

1/2 cup maple syrup;

3 tablespoons butter;

1/2 teaspoon hot paprika; and

1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion.

 

I started by cutting the lemon in half lengthwise and then slicing it into thin slices. I threw away the slices that were all (or almost all) rind.

I cooked the lemon slices into a little pan of boiling water (with a big pinch of salt) and boiled the lemon for 2 minutes. Then I drained it. 

I don't know why this was a step. Maybe to keep the lemon from burning later on in the oven? Unclear, but not really inconvenient. 

Next, I put the chicken thighs in a bowl and added the lemon slices and spices and some of the oil and stirred it up. (Lemon slices, cumin seed, coriander seed, 1 teaspoon of salt, the black pepper and 1 tablespoon of the oil, to be exact).

I let the chicken sit on the counter in the spice mix for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I heated the oven to 425 degrees and went to work on the squash. 

I washed the squash (the skin is thin and edible) and I cut the ends off. I threw away the ends that were solid (it took me 4 slices to get the ends off and to get to the hollow part).

Then I used a serrated spoon (meant to be a grapefruit spoon but actually a multitasker) to scoop out the seeds and the stringy bits, working from both ends toward the center. 

I cut the squash into 1/2" rounds and put them in another bowl. 

Next I made the sauce, stirring together the maple syrup, butter, 1/2 teaspoon of salt  and 1/2 teaspoon of hot paprika. 

I brought it to a boil and simmered it for 3 minutes.

The recipe called for chile (not chili) powder, which I do not have so I used hot paprika.

If you don't have either chile powder or hot paprika, a slightly heaping 1/4 teaspoon of sweet paprika and a slighly scant 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne would work. 

I poured the maple syrup concoction over the delicata squash slices and tossed them around.  

I poured the squash mixture into a 9" x 13" pan and spread the squash out into a single layer. 

Next I put the chicken thighs on top of the squash, making sure there was some of the spice mixture and some of the lemon slices on all 4 of the pieces of chicken. 

Here's the dish at the end of cooking.

On the way to the end, I baked the dish for 15 minutes, then I flipped the chicken pieces over and baked for another 15 minutes, then I flipped the peices over again and sprinkled the chicken with the sliced scallions which I had mixed with the other tablespoon of oil.

So I baked the dish for a total of 45 minutes. I like my chicken thoroughly cooked. See if you like the looks of it starting at about 35 or 40 minutes. 

My tweaks were using more lemon slices, cumin seed instead of chopped fresh sage leaves and hot paprika for chile powder. 

Next time, I will use 2 small delicate squash. The squash slices were delicious and we would have been happy to have more. Use small delicata squash to facilitate cleaning them of seeds. Maggie came to dinner, and we had one piece of chicken left (no squash) which was good cold, as you would expect. We had broccoli and salad and berries with yogurt to round out the meal.  

Here is another view of this great dish, just out of the oven.

Odds and Ends

I am between mystery novels at the moment. I have taken to reading TImber Press books about certain types of plants. I am pushing through a book at the moment that is all about amaryllis. It starts by explaing that what we think of as "Amaryllis" should really be called "Hippeastrum." Both are genus names. What is sold in the grocery store this time of year is Hippeastrum. What is in the genus Amaryllis is mostly what gets called "surprise lilies." 

The book is written by an English writer, about twenty years ago. It has a section on the history of the plant. In a classic understatement it explained  that British developement of Hippeastrum suffered during the two world wars. Duh.

But it is a good book for putting me to sleep at the end of the day.

The indoor garden does not provide many pictures this time of year. But Croton flowers? Crotons are not known for their flowers. Some plants do bloom for me. They are much like this one, taken this week in the living room. The variety of Croton is unknown. But it is the size of Petra but even more coloful. Petra was in the random pictures in the main section.

Here were those buds yesterday, actually starting to  open.

A hosta catalog arrived through the internet this week. I think there may be a few I cannot resist. 

I bought my first seeds yesterday.

I do plan to have the first contest pictures for you next Sunday. Now I will need to work on the narratives. 

This coming week will be Thanksgiving. So many traditions. So many memories. 

We have much to be thankful for. We are privileged to have hot running water for a shower every day. We have plenty of food. The house is warm. I have the ability to spend time gardening. We even have this technology that allows us to share some of those things.

There are many who do not have those things. 

Remember that.

Remember them. 

Philip