Harvest time!

Some of those beans are ready for harvest today. and my Anaheim finally had a single blossom burst open. The others should follow suit soon.

I made a blueberry crumble the other day. I was going to make a cobbler but I didn't feel like messing with pie pastry, so I just whipped up a crumble topping with a cup of flour, 6 tablespoons of butter, half a cup of brown sugar, and a few handfuls of granola and rolled oats. Tossed the thawed blueberries with some flour and more brown sugar and into the buttered baking dish they went, followed by the topping. I don't remember how long I had to bake it, I just checked it after a while and it was bubbling. Turned out to be quite delicious. I think I need to work on my pie pastry, so maybe tomorrow that's what I'll do since Saturday we'll be busy.

I'm off today, so we might go see Harry Potter sometime after Trev gets home from work. I think I'm going to make vegetable soup tonight, so I'll need to get a bag of my beef stock out of the freezer (I usually make this soup totally vegetarian by using vegetable stock, but there was none at the store. Only chicken and beef.) and should probably go throw together a loaf of bread and get it proofing. I don't think we have any block cheese, which is unfortunate because I always serve soup or stew with crusty bread and cheese for dipping. Blah, maybe we'll just have Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes with the green beans on the side, and I can whip up a bowl of salad. We'll see. :)

A garden update and the Moosecat

Before anything else I'd like to spare a word for my dearly departed kitty, who passed away a year ago yesterday from renal failure. Moose, you are and always will be missed. Hope there's always a patch of warm sunlight up there for you to roll in.

That said, I've got an update on the garden, and this time there are better pics. Those beans are even bigger now (I had no time to upload everything the day I took these and have been lazy since), as a matter of fact the biggest is already longer than my middle finger (which is my longest finger). Amazing how those things can develop in just one week. Bunch of ripe tomatoes on the vine too, and the basket strawberries have put out a runner. I'll probably go ahead and keep it to replace the one that died. Here are some pictures:

Zoo Pictures!

We don't know what's up with the sticker in the last pic, but we sure did laugh at it.

Well that was fast.

I just went outside to look at the plants, I try to go out once or twice a day and pick off aphids and see if any of them need water just yet. Also a good opportunity to see if any progress has been made as far as produce goes. Today is a productive day! My bean blossoms have already dropped, revealing a tiny half-inch bean pod within each. My dad said it'd only be maybe 2 or 3 weeks and I'd have me some 9 inch Kentucky Wonder beans to eat. Victory!

Speaking of eating. Right this very moment I have toast spread with butter and strawberry preserves on my plate. We went to the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison this past Saturday and I cannot begin to tell you how good the haul was. We came back with carrots, potatoes, some 6 year white cheddar, 16 ounce jars of strawberry and peach preserves, a quart of strawberries,2 sirloin steaks, and a 23 ounce jar of raw honey (ought to fuel my addiction for a while, eh?) plus some more that my dad took to my mom. The potatoes, half the carrots and strawberries, and the steaks are already gone and I'm hoping the strawberry preserves and honey lasts me until September, when my dad and I are planning another trip to stock back up and get a bunch of apples to can. It was really enjoyable having my dad up for a visit. He likes to do a lot of the stuff I like to do. We went to Half-Price Books on Sunday before Trevor got home and both of us found books to buy. I was especially happy to find a book detailing how to make delicious and intricately decorated pie crusts, not to mention a nice recipe binder. He found an old book on the Honeymooners and picked up a gardening book for my mom. He's back home now, having left yesterday morning.

Today is going to have to be a cleaning sort of day since we're having company tomorrow after we come home from the zoo. I have a sink full of dishes to do as well as several loads of laundry, and I also need to vacuum. I probably ought to get my butt up early tomorrow and bake some scones or something too, since putting these preserves on store-bought bread isn't as good and I'd almost consider it a waste considering how amazing the preserves are. The last batch of scones I baked (plain ones) didn't even last a day between me, my dad, Trevor, and the mounds of preserves and honey we smeared them with. We feasted like kings Sunday, let me tell you.

Well, chores are calling, so I'm out. :)

Bean blossoms!

My bean plants have a ton of little purple flowers popping up all over. Also, my anaheim has shot up a good 3 or 4 inches past the stake I tied it to and the chili plant is growing some fresh new leaves to replace all the wilty ones. It might make a comeback yet if it starts growing like the anaheim is. Still waiting on the flower buds on the anaheim to pop open. Tomatoes are doing well and the strawberries are looking good too, save for the little wilty runner. It died. :( I probably didn't let the roots go deep enough before I snipped it off the parent plant. Ah well, live and learn.

We're going to the Milwaukee Zoo on Wednesday. I'll post a trip report with pictures soon as we get back.

Scones!

I baked apple-cinnamon scones today. They just came out of the oven, and the apartment smells great. I did it differently than usual, instead of grating the apples and getting all that juice in the mix and having to add lots of flour to make up for all the liquid, I just diced them instead and tossed them into the Kitchenaid. Going to spread some raw honey (More on that later!) on them and try them just as soon as they cool, and if this way turns out to be better I'll take pictures of the process next time I make them. For now, here's the recipe I use, taken from Allrecipes.com and adapted for the apples:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• A few dashes of cinnamon, I'd say about a tablespoon (more if you like, though!)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled well or frozen
• 1 large cooking apple, like fuji or granny smith. If you really like apples, use 2 of them and mix the varieties.
  
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 400, or 375 if you've got an electric oven that runs hot like I do.

2. In a medium bowl (Or in the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one), mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Now, the original recipe called for freezing the stick of butter and grating it, but I just slice it into fairly thin slices and then add them in. Work the butter in with your fingers or a fork, or just set your mixer to "stir" (or the lowest setting depending on what mixer you have) and let it do all the work. The end result should be a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Now, you can go ahead and peel, core, and slice your apples. If you get one of those things with handles that cores and slices your apples all at once, so much the better! Go ahead and dice those babies up into fairly small chunks, and toss them in. After that comes the sour cream and egg. If you're doing the mixing by hand, you can beat the sour cream into the egg and mix it in at once if it's easier for you. Otherwise, just toss it into the mixer and set it on "stir". Don't overwork it, you want it to be just mixed.

4. At this point you can take the whole lot out of the bowl and slap it onto a floured surface. Form it into a round with your hands and pat it kind of flat, so it's a few inches thick. Slice it into 8 wedges with a sharp knife, and then gently transfer those wedges to a well-greased baking sheet (You can use parchment paper if you have some, but I don't.)

5. Brush milk onto the tops and sides, sprinkle with some more cinnamon and some sugar, and throw them into the oven for about 15-20 minutes. The tops will get a little browned, and when they're done they'll be slightly crumbly and a knife stuck in the middle should come out clean or with a crumb or two stuck to it. Let them cool a little while on a rack and enjoy!

Now, for a note on honey. I recommend these spread with raw honey. Not the crappy store bought kind! Get some good honey. My favorite is Gentle Breeze Honey, but you can only get it in Wisconsin since they have no online store. It's hard to describe how good this stuff tastes on scones or better yet, on cornbread. Think of how a field of the most beautiful flowers smell, and then imagine that smell as an explosion of taste in your mouth. That's raw, unfiltered honey. (I was going to put a fake disclaimer here claiming no responsibility for any addictions resulting from this advice, but you know what? I'll go ahead take full responsibility for it, because I'm doing you a favor. :P Go now. Buy some raw honey!)

Hyperfocus to the rescue!

Now that I'm not working such a crappy job I find myself much happier and much more motivated to deal with household drudgery. Before, even doing the dishes was a monumental task, but lately I've been doing them every day. I still use the dishwasher sometimes, of course (why have it if you're not going to use it after all?), especially when I've been cooking or baking since it's easier to load all the utensils, baking pans, cookie sheets, and my kitchenaid bowl into the dishwasher than it is to leave it all sprawled out on the counter while I wash it in the tiny undivided sink we have.

I digress. Wasn't meaning to go into extreme details of my dishwashing routine. Anyway, having the entire morning to myself and not stressing about the next disaster I'm about to walk into at work really has taken a load off my mind. I think the onset of warm weather has contributed to this too, it seems like sunshine and a breeze through the open windows really does a lot to get me into housecleaning mode. The only thing I don't like about the job is that since I'm gone most evenings, I rarely cook dinner any more. I suppose it's a good opportunity for Trevor to learn some cooking skills himself. He has talent, but he doesn't have the drive that I do. When he gets a bug up his butt and has to cook something, it usually turns out pretty good if not downright delicious. I'm off today though, so tonight we're going to have lemon pepper chicken and spinach wraps with italian dressing and a few handfuls of grapes on the side.

I really ought to bake some bread, and I have a cast iron pan that needs seasoning. It's cool today, so perhaps I'll go ahead and season that pan. I might bake the bread today, or I may just wait for some other cool day. I'm not sure how long this "Do lots of stuff" hyperfocus thing is going to last. I sure love them when they come along, though. I just blitzed through the bathroom, cleaning the sink and counter and decluttering the cabinets both under and over the sink. I wiped down the mirrors, then I cleaned the tub, wiped off the grungy-looking rubbermaid drawers in there, and cleaned the toilet. I should have done the floors but meh. Ran out of steam, and got distracted by the wood polish (My kitchen table is dust-free and shiny now though!) Spending an hour and a half cleaning with no getting side-tracked is a huge thing for somebody with ADD, let me tell you. When these little whims pop up I've learned not to ignore them, it really is a huge opportunity wasted.

Well, I'm hungry and we have fixin's for turkey sandwiches that are beckoning to me from the fridge. Hopefully Trev didn't eat all the potato chips.