May 5, 2023 A little out of control

Greetings

Our machines stopped working this week. On Monday morning the ten year old desktop just would not wake up.

It took a couple of days for the replacement to be identified and ordered. Now it is being assembled in some workshop someplace. It will get shipped in 6-8 business days. 

We still have this ten year old pc laptop which Julia has used for years for her recipes.

I am learning but it is slow. How do you do a screenshot in windows?

Then the washing machine stopped again. Now that has been diagnosed with the rather expensive part being put together in perhaps that same workshop. Proabably not, but it will come in 4-6 business days,

Last week I put up a poll for the best dwarf iris.

Here was the winner.

The winner's name is Blissfull. This picture shows how individual flowers can have 3 parts or four.

I would show you the final vote but that gets back to that screenshot issue. You should be able to see the results to the top right of the blog, where the poll appears.

It is tree peony time.

The white ones along the street are blooming.

I continue to find seedlings. I even put some out on the sale table this weekend. They sold quickly, illustrating the principle that plants will sell if you can show the finished product.

The jack in the pulpits have arrived. They grow from a bulbs called a corm. At the moment they a partially hidden by all the bluebell and silla foliage, which I have begun to weed away. 

The orchids are blooming. I will get some better pictures of the large clump. This little one in the front yard is growing in a clump of bloodroot. I like the combination.

This is iris cristata. It is a wildflower found in this country, When you make a list of things to bloom when the bluebells are finished, this should be on the list.

This is the now somewhat overlooked older tree peony. It would like more sun. I would like to try to give it some new life. Paying it more attention would probably help.

This is a nice established clump of trillium luteum.

This is a late entry in the wonderful short iris contest.

It is cammassia time in the garden. This wonderful established spring bulb was an native american food source for a long time. It grows tubors that are edible.

This blooms in May and then will disappear, with most of the spring bulbs. You do have to remember where they are. You would not want to plant some perennial right on top of them,

Julia's Recipe

One pot spaghetti with broccoli

I have made several recipes in the recent past in which everything is cooked together in a big skillet. Clearly such recipes save on clean up. And they're pretty fast. And of course good to eat or I wouldn't bother. Here's another recipe from the NYT, which would be vegetarian without the anchovies. I used anchovies, but I have come to view them as optional. It would be vegan using margarine instead of butter. A nice quick, light weeknight dinner. 

The ingredients:

3+ teaspoons sliced garlic;

4 cups chopped broccoli florets;

1/2 cup peeled, sliced broccoli stems;

1/4 cup butter;

4 anchovy fillets (I used a tiny jar);

12 oz. pasta (I used linguine);

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 

5 cups or so of plain old water; and 

some salt. 

We served the dish with parmesan, not shown. 

First I prepped the vegetables. I had 6 decent-sized garlic cloves, which I peeled and sliced thinly. I ended up with 3 or 3-1/2 teaspoons of garlic slices. 

I put the garlic and the anchovies in the big skillet. Next I cut the broccoli stems off the tops. I peeled the stems and sliced the stems about 1/2" thick.

After that, I cut the broccoli tops into florets and then cut the florets into pieces between 1/2" and 1". 

In this picture, I am slicing broccoli stems and putting them into a measuring cup. 

I added the butter and the sliced broccoli stems to the skillet and put the skillet on medium high heat. 

I mushed the anchovy pieces to get them to sort of melt into the butter. I stirred the skillet more or less constantly for about 3 minutes until the vegetables were soft and maybe a little tan. 

Next I added the pasta, the chopped-up broccoli florets, the red pepper flakes and 2 teaspoons of salt to the skillet, followed by the 5 cups of water.

I brought the whole thing to a boil. 

I used tongs (on the right side of the picture) to move the pasta around so it wouldn't get clumpy. 

Then I let it cook for about 10 minutes, which was the cooking time on the pasta box. At the end of that time, I fished out and tasted a piece of linguine. It was done, but really, the only way to know if pasta is done is to taste it. 

I think this is a video of the contents in the skillet, cooking away. The recipe advised that if the skillet got dry, one could add more water (in small increments). The skillet did not get dry. But your results may vary. I did use my tongs to keep the ingredients moving. 

Here it is in a nice serving piece. As I said, we ate this as a main course with salad and berries and yogurt. 

We had parmesan on the table for sprinkling. The vegans among you know, I assume, what the options are for vegan parmesan. 

I think that a recipe for 12 oz. of pasta is weird. Next time, I will either use 8 oz. or 16 oz., to make it easier to manage the pantry. 

If I use 8 oz., I will use the same amount of broccoli as I did the first time. If I use 16 oz., I will double the broccoli. I found the recipe a little light on broccoli. Of course, one variable that is hard to predict is how usable the stems are. 

The leftovers were easily reheated in a little water, as usual with a pasta recipe.

Odds and Ends

 It was an ideal day in the garden yesterday. We had several nice rains during the week. That continues a trend for the last 60 days. It was a little cool. There was certainly plenty to do.

My garden paths need weeding. 

The lupines are everywhere. Seveal plants have put up spikes which are starting to show color.

My hands are a mess. I really should wear gloves for so much of what I do in the garden.

I wish the state/ country/ world were a better place. Wishing  does not do much good. May 4 passed with little notice to the Kent State anniversary. Somehow it seemed rather relevant.

I am throwing indoor plants outside. Many are on the front porch.

The caladium are being slow.

Deer remain a contant. They always nip the tops off some lilium. When that happens there is no recovery for the season. I bought a big supply of the deer repellant. Barn doors and all that.

Pray for peace. It is hard to imagine how places in this world have been at war for so long. 

I will have to get used to this old laptop for at least another week. Early in the morning, sitting at the dining room table seems to help.

Today I am going to go dig some iris at a friends house.

We will pass the frost free date soon. 

We are thinking about eggplant, bell peppers and at least a few ochre. Then I have to plant my amaryllis. This year they might be joined by some tree peony seedlings in pots. I am interested in seeing the difference 4 months of full sun makes.

It is 6am and time to rap this up.

Hearing from you is always good. 

Come by and say hello if you have a chance.

Philip