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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