Wildlife in the Garden

Peering way down in the waterfall part of the garden.

A mama and 3 fluff ball babies!

A gosling about ready to step into the water.

Deer hiding in the trees and they never moved.
Wrought iron!

We only saw the owls because as we walked down the path there was a couple staring up into a tree.  We were not sure exactly what they were looking at and they said they thought it was a the father owl.  The woman showed us where to look for the mama and the babies.  Delightful.

The Canada Geese were hissingly protectively of their baby as they were just off the path and there were many children who either wanted to hug the geese or frighten them.

What started out as a rainy day, turned sunny and quite lovely.  We walked for two hours around Ashton Gardens.  It's a wonderful place to escape to.

QOTD

Ashton Gardens, Thanksgiving Point April 29, 2016

"It is all a question of weeding out what you yourself like best to do, so that you can live most agreeably in a world full of an increasing number of disagreeable surprises."

M. F. K. Fisher

How to Cook a Wolf

1942

Yahoo, Veg!

Picked up our first CSA share of the season.  It was cold and raining so even though there were all kinds of greens, I chose to cook up some of the beet greens so I could have a hot dinner.

There are some changes this year and instead of bothering with the bags which were not being returned in a timely fashion, everyone's share is boxed up with their name on it.  When we come to pick up, we unload the box into our own bag.  A smart change.  This week's box had beets, spring lettuce, scallions, Swiss chard, bok choy and garlic.

Chicken Lettuce Wrap Salad

Wow, this was good and a recipe for special occasions.  Reminiscent of P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps, the seasonings here are very good.  It is not too much Sriracha.  Lightly adapted from SkinnyTaste, the original is here.  Mixing the dressing and sauce for the chicken are not time consuming.  For me it is easiest to cook ground chicken in it's flattened shape right from the package.  I brown one side then flip the whole "patty",  let it brown for a couple of minutes and then start breaking it apart to cook to a crumble.

FOR THE SALAD DRESSING:
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (I used Gourmet Garden in a tube)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp kosher 
salt and black pepper
FOR THE CHICKEN:
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce

2 tablespoons less sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 pound ground chicken
8 ounce can water chestnuts, drained and diced
2 tbsp chopped cashews
2 scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish (optional) 
FOR THE SALAD:
2 romaine lettuce hearts, chopped
2 carrots, grated

For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oils, honey, ginger, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Set the dressing aside. 

For the chicken: In a medium bowl, whisk together the hoisin, vinegar, Sriracha, soy sauce, and ginger. Set aside. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray then add the chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes*. Add the water chestnuts and cashews to the pan. Pour the reserved hoisin mixture on top and cook for 1 to 2 minutes to heat through. Remove from the heat and set aside. 

For the salad: In a large salad bowl, combine the lettuce and the carrots. Toss the salad with the dressing and divide in 4 bowls. Top each with 3/4 cup chicken mixture and garnish with scallions if desired.  Serve immediately

A Spring Friday in April

Mowing today but of more note and more pain tomorrow, was the start of cleaning out the quack grass in the rocks.  As I was doing that I also was cleaning out around the daylilys, lots of dried leaves and those long dried out stems.  Underneath the leaves left from the end of fall, I found the most unusual items:

My guess is weapons fired with a sling shot over the top of the garage.  The spoon and one of the forks are actually well made utensils from Japan that could hurt someone but the other two forks are so thin as to be relatively harmless unless they hit an eyeball.

Also interesting today:

A huge semi load with moving pods and a fork lift.  I didn't get to see the fork lift get off the flatbed but when he was finished the driver raised the forks and put them in a slot then raised it to bed level and drove it on.  He left three pods alongside of the driveway of a four-plex.  Yikes, that's a lot of moving going on in one spot.

Way to go ChrisAnn!

That's and 8 foot by 8 foot painted wooden quilt block, handmade by ChrisAnn.  Fabulous!

April BOM

Always fun at the Block Of The Month class.  These blocks are not in the positions they will be once all the blocks are done, of course, but once again you can see that we have done two Irish Chain blocks as well as two others.  The block in the lower right is called Becky's Star and our little kit of fabric actually had the star point pieces pre-cut. That's because the pattern, unbelievably, called for pieces cut to the 16th of an inch.  I should say that we had the off white piece rectangle cut and the Orange point rectangle also precut.
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200 to 1

Bradford Pear in the backyard 

Pre-dawn this morning, I read the following from the book Lab Girl by Hope Jahran: "Plant numbers are staggering: there are 80 billion trees just within the protected forests of the western United States.  The ratio of trees to people in America is well over two hundred."  This was just from her prologue!  I read the remaining pages in the sample and then went to the library's online card catalog and was very excited to see they already have a copy.  I am third on the list.

There was an upsetting tree "trimming" at a store in town.  I had seen trucks and workers there the other day just as they were beginning and I thought they were city trucks.  Not so.  I went in and asked.  The property owner paid someone to do this to the trees. The trees were not in the way of any power lines at all as the utilities are in the space between street and sidewalk.

My guess is that 10-15 feet of tree in full bloom was removed from each of the eight trees.  So sad and so arboristically wrong.  I wish I had a before picture.  These trees are much more rounded than my pear but also do not have any fruit.  They are all over town and looked very similar in size to the trees in front of another building.

Sigh.  The phrase, You Get What You Pay For, comes to mind.

That Comfort Zone

I'm reading a very interesting and enjoyable novel called Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo.  The chapter I read this morning brought fear of failure to my attention.  It was just what I needed to think about!  Funny how that works sometimes.

One of the local quilt shops has invited one of my all time favorite quilters to put on a 2-day seminar. I was shocked when I stumbled on the information.  Shocked I tell you.  All the way from Australia to Lehi, Utah!  Well and a few other stops, of course. I toyed with the idea of going.  I toyed with it more than once but in the end felt entirely too intimidated.  It's a large quilt guild putting on the seminar, they also intimidate me.

Until this morning.  Really, if I don't step out of my comfort zone, how will I learn anything different?  Going to the seminar is costly, it will add stress to an already stressful May but I decided I would be sad if I let a little fear make me miss this opportunity (and I can nap on the plane the next day).

Oh. No.

As we walked by early this morning, I said, to Min, "It looks empty over there."  I drove by on my way home many hours later and sure enough.  I happened to have my camera with me.

Really gone.  Now what will I do and where will I go when I need the car repaired?  For pete's sake, Mark actually made a house call when the Jeep was having problems.  I've been going there for 25 years.  No note on the door.  Maybe I will try calling and see if someone answers.  sigh.

Checking it off the List.

A drawer installed in a lower cabinet

No blind digging around to find what's in the back!

Of course it's not quite done but only because I wanted the drawer on a shelf rather than the floor of the cabinet.  This is as far as it can be pulled out, only about halfway, before it tips up because of the weight.  I just need a small piece of wood glued to the cabinet back but must be sure it is a glue that will stick to the laminate.

I will order another one for the bottom,  The drawers are very strong and fairly heavy on their own.  I was impressed with the quality and I had to order them online without ever seeing them in person as HD doesn't carry them in store.  (Knape & Vogt Multi-Use Basket)

"Oddly Delicious"

Oddly delicious is the title of the Summer Tomato blog found here, which describes a dish of eggs and cabbage.  I had to try it!  I love eggs and I love cabbage and yes, indeed, I love this very simple dish.  I always have eggs and even had cabbage.

Cabbage and Eggs
Serves one

1 tablespoon bacon grease, evoo, or butter
1 packed cup, thinly sliced cabbage
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 eggs, beaten
1 green onion, thinly sliced, optional

Heat grease at medium high and then add cabbage.  Cook for 3-5 minutes until lightly browned. Add soy sauce and stir for 30 seconds, letting it evaporate a bit.  Spread cabbage evenly along bottom of pan and reduce heat to medium.  Add eggs.  Let mixture sit for about two minutes and then begin to lift and turn the eggs until they are done to your liking.  For me that is another 2 minutes.

YUM!

(There's no picture of the real dish because I couldn't get one.  It's not a terribly attractive dish but if you have green onion or perhaps chives to sprinkle on top, that helps.)