Beautiful Weather Makes it Fun to Garden

I have been busy trying to get a Few more Master Garden Hours in. I have enjoyed the Beautiful weather the last couple of days!!

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Enjoyed the Omaha Chocolate Festival with a booth for Art Chicks

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Apple Raisin Bars

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Recipe from Family Circle
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups diced Golden Delicious apple
3/4 cup raisins
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally coat a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, blend together sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla for 3 minutes or until smooth.
4. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix for 2 minutes or until just incorporated. Stir in diced apples and raisins and spread into prepared pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting into bars and serving.

Making sushi at home

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This was so fun to try.

1 1/4 pounds of sushi rice (23/4 cups)
3 cups water
1/2 cup Mirin, plus additional for moistening nori
5 sheets nori (1 pkg)
4 tsp wasabi powder mixed with 2 tsp water to make a paste
1/2 cup red onion small diced
1 carrot, julienned
1 scallion, julienned - green part only
1 hothouse cucumber, seeded and julienned
1 10-ounce jar pickled ginger
we also made a few rolls with Cream cheese and smoked salmon,
Shushi dipping sauce ( recipe follows)


Place rice in a strainer and rinse under cold water until fairly clear, about 5 minutes. Shake out excess water and let rice dry in strainer about 15 minutes.

Put rice in a pot with exactly 3 cups of water and cook covered on high heat until it starts to foam, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Turn heat off and sprinkle with 1/4 cup mirin. Replace lid and allow the rice to steam for 15 minutes. Place in a bowl and cool to room temperature.

To prepare Sushi, place a bamboo sushi roller flat on a table with the bamboo reeds horizontal to you. Sprinkle lightly with water. place one nori sheet on top, smooth side down, and moisten lightly with mirin. With damp hands, press 1 1/4 cup rice flat on top of nori, leaving 1 1/2 inch edges on the top and bottom, but pressing all the way to the sides. Make sure the rice is pressed even and smooth.

Spread 1/4 teaspoon wasabi paste in a horizontal stripe along the lower edge of the rice. Over the wasabi, lightly sprinkle the onions in a horizontal stripe. Place strips of carrots in a horizontal stripe, on top of wasabi and onions, and follow by piling the red and yellow peppers, scallions, and cucumbers on top, making straight bundles of vegetables. Place 1 layer of pickled ginger slices on top.

To roll sushi, pick up the near edge of the bamboo roller and hold it with the nori, then pull them up and over the vegetable bundle until the nori reaches the rice on the other side. Press the roller to make a round bundle. - The nori should totally enclose the rice and vegetables in a round tube, but the ends will have rice and vegetables sticking out. Repeat the process with the other ingredients.

Keep the rolls under a damp towel and refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, slice off the ends with a very sharp knife and slice each roll into 8 equal pieces. Place on a platter and serve with more pickled ginger, wasabi, and Sushi Dipping sauce.

Sushi Dipping Sauce

1/2 tsp wasabi powder
1/4 tsp water
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp minced pickled ginger
1 tsp minced scallion ( green part only)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3 T good soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Combine wasabi powder and water to make a paste. mix in the red pepper flakes, ginger, scallions, vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Serve as a dip with the sushi.

Baking : Cowboy Cookies- An old-fashioned Cookie Recipe

Great Cookies. Recipe is from that old Lutheran church cookbook again- along with this poem.

THE COOKIE JAR

A house should have a cookie jar,
For When it's half past three,
And children hurry home from school,
As hungry as can be.

There's nothing quite so splendid,
In filling children up,
As spicy, fluffy ginger cakes,
And sweet milk in a cup.

A house should have a Mother,
waiting with a hug,
No matter what a boy brings home,
A puppy or a bug.

For children only loiter,
When the bell rings to dismiss,
If no one's home to greet them,
With a cookie and a Kiss.

COWBOY COOKIES

1 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in sifted dry ingredients. Then add oatmeal, coconut and chocolate chips. Drop by Tablespoons on cookie Sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

Baking : Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Roll

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Fall weather has arrived. We woke to chilly air this morning and it is expected to get up to just 60 degrees this afternoon. Perfect Fall Dessert: Pumpkin Roll

The Boys all loved this. This recipe comes from that old church cookbook I have been enjoying lately.


PUMPKIN ROLL

Beat 3 eggs on high for 5 minutes.

Add: 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup pumpkin, 1/4 tsp vinegar

Stir in: 3/4 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder

Pour into greased, floured jelly roll pan (15x10). top with 1/2 cup crushed nuts. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel ( cover towel with powdered sugar).
Roll up towel. Let set for a few minutes. Unroll and spread with cheese filling listed below. Roll again and cool, slice and serve, or freeze or refrigerate.

Filling:

Beat 6 ounces of cream cheese and 4 Tablespoons of butter until soft. Add 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla until fluffy. fold in 1 cup of cool whip.

I gathered these acorn caps yesterday - I have some for sale on my Etsy store. I am excited to do a craft project with some of them- This crisp fall weather sets the mood for crafting.

I love how the Sweet Autumn Clematis blooms with the Morning Glory all intertwined. Beautiful!

September Garden Chores

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I picked up this garden Statue last week at a garage sale- just love him!

These are Great Gardening chores for September
Info from A way to Garden.com

THE FALL IS COMING, the fall is coming. Nothing to worry about, Chicken Little, if the garden’s been planned for enjoyment in all seasons…well, unless you slack off now and let those foxy weeds go to seed and gobble up the whole place. No, no definitive “end” to the season lies ahead, and some of us even feel happy about the coming of slightly quieter, more contemplative times where less obvious garden stars can shine. Peak planting and dividing time is coming up now; make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.
AS YOU BEGIN to wind down and clean up, take notes of what worked and didn’t. Mark areas that would have been easier to maintain with a workhorse groundcover in place, for instance, or areas where more bulbs might fit. I have already made a walkabout and identified a few shrubs whose days are numbered; just not enough bang for the buck (well, for the space they take up).
TREES & SHRUBS
BE SURE TO WATER trees and shrubs now through hard frost, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn if not well watered before the cold and winds set in.
DON’T PANIC IF EVERGREENS start to show some browning or yellowing of needles this month and next. The oldest, innermost needles typically shed after a few years on the tree.
HOPEFULLY YOU STOPPED FEEDING woody plants in July or August. Promoting more soft growth after July-ish isn’t good; time for them to start moving toward the hardening-off phase of their cycle. No more eats till earliest spring.
ALWAYS BE on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. Ditto with suckers and water sprouts. No hard pruning now, though; too late to risk encouraging regrowth.
VEGETABLE, FRUIT & HERBS
AS VEGETABLE PLANTS (and annual flowers) fade, pull them to get a start on garden cleanup. Before composting the remains, cut them up a bit with a pruning shears or shred, to speed decomposition. That said, my earliest crop of lettuce each spring comes from a ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ plant I just let flower and self-sow in a corner of the garden year after year. Untidy to some eyes, but it always makes me smile.
PARSLEY AND CHIVES can be potted up and brought indoors for offseason use, or freeze some (or give the plants some extra protection and keep harvesting from the garden). A few garlic cloves in a pot will yield a supply of chive-like (but spicier) garlic greens all winter for garnish. Sow seeds of bush basil in a pot, too, and grow on a very sunny windowsill if you are a really determined type.
IF NEXT YEAR’S GARDEN plans include a patch of strawberries or asparagus, do the tilling and soil preparation now so the bare-root plants ordered over the winter can be planted extra early come spring.
AS AREAS COME EMPTY from harvest, build vegetable-garden soil by sowing cover crops: medium red clover if you get right to it, or perhaps winter rye if you don’t do some areas till mid-fall. These “green manures” will be turned under to improve soil tilth and fertility.
IF YOU HARVESTED YOUR own garlic, save the best heads with the biggest cloves for replanting later this month or next (about a month before frost is in the ground). Otherwise, order bulbs now. Prepare a sunny spot, and plant each clove 1-2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in the row, with about 12 inches between rows. Green growth will happen this fall, which is great; don’t panic. It’s a hardy thing.
FLOWER GARDEN
DON’T DEADHEAD FADED perennials, biennials and annuals if you want to collect seed (non-hybrids only) or plan to let some self-sow. Nicotiana, annual poppies, larkspur, clary sage and many others fall into this leave-alone group. So do plants with showy or bird-friendly seedheads, like coneflowers, some sedums, clematis and grasses.
DAYLILIES can be dug and divided as they complete their bloom cycle, right into fall, if needed.
PEONIES are best divided and transplanted in late August through September, if they need it. Remember with these fussy guys that “eyes” must not be buried more than an inch or two beneath the soil surface. Want more peonies? Now’s the time to order.
MANY POPULAR ANNUALS can be overwintered as young plants if you take and root cuttings now rather than try to nurse along leggy older specimens. Geraniums, coleus, wax begonias, even impatiens (to name just a few common ones), if grown in good light indoors and kept pinched and bushy, will yield another generation of cuttings for next spring’s transplants. Probably best to expend this effort and space on things you really treasure—an unusual form of something, not the garden variety.
IF TUBEROUS BEGONIAS like ‘Bonfire’ or ‘Bellfire’ are starting to go slack, let them dry off and rest early, or they will rot. This ultra-wet season was too much for mine, which have been under cover in the garage drying for weeks now.
ORDER BULBS promptly (see Sources), and plant as they arrive (lilies most urgently). Remember our “early, middle, late” mantra when ordering, for a prolonged show. Many bulb questions answered here.
PREPARE NEW beds for fall planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put mulch on top.
RE-EDGE BEDS to make a clean line and define them. Don’t let them get overrun just because summer’s wound down. A clean edge makes a big difference.
HOUSEPLANTS
REST AMARYLLIS BULBS by putting them in a dry, dark place where they will have no water at all for a couple of months. I put mine in a little-used closet.
IF HOUSEPLANTS NEED repotting, do it before they come inside later this month (less messy than in the house!). Don’t step up more than an inch (on small pots) or a couple (on large ones). Most plants don’t like to swim in their containers.
LAWNS
MID-AUGUST TO MID-SEPTEMBER is prime lawn-renovation and planting time in the North. Have you reseeded yet?
DON’T BAG OR RAKE clippings; let them lie on the lawn to return Nitrogen to the soil, right through the last mowing in late autumn.
COMPOST HEAP & MULCH
ORDER A SUPPLY of bulk mulch, which is cheaper than the packaged kind and also eliminates the waste of all those heavyweight plastic bags. Many local nurseries deliver. Top up mulch in all garden beds as they get cleaned up gradually in fall.
DON’T LET THE HEAP dry out completely, or it will not “cook.” Turning it to aerate will also hasten decomposition, but things will rot eventually even if not turned. I extract more finished material and screen it each fall, to work into the gardens (and make more room for incoming fresh debris).
On using this list in your garden: Zone 5

Football and Cross Country

School activities and Sports are back in Full Swing!

Harvest Zucchini

Great Side Dish- Great use for Zucchini or Summer Squash

1 1/4 pound zucchini
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. poppy seed
1 tsp. salt


Wash zucchini, remove stem and blossom ends, but do not pare.
Cut into slices.
Heat butter in a 10 inch skillet,
Cover and cook zucchini and chopped onion, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is tender.

Mix paprika, poppy seeds, and salt together.
Gently stir into cook zucchini and heat through.

Time to Pick BitterSweet

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Classic Lemon Bars

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Super Simple Classic Lemon Bar recipe from an old church cookbook

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cut butter into flour and powdered sugar mixture. bake 350 degrees 25 minutes. Top with the following mixture:

4 Tablespoon flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs slightly beaten
6 Tablespoons Lemon Juice- freshly squeezed
Zest of 2 Lemons

Mix Dry ingredients together. Beat eggs slightly, add lemon juice to dry ingredients. Bake 25 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Wild Rice and Chicken Salad

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Great Recipe from Dining Dakota Style cookbook

3 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1 T butter
1 cup long grain wild rice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 Large garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 Pound cubed cooked Chicken breast
1 red bell pepper,cut into 1/2 inch pieces
6 green onions- sliced
1/2 cups fresh basil
2 Tablespoons capers
3 cups Romaine

Bring the water, salt and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in the wild rice. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered for hour. whisk the orange juice, vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, pepper, and olive oil together in a large bowl. Add the cooked rice, chicken, bell pepper, green onions, basil, ad capers and mix well. Add the romaine and toss to combine.

Serves 4 to 6

Fun new Vintage Jewelry

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