Broken ankle

It's been awhile.  The big news is I broke my ankle on July 2 and have been fairly inactive (outside of work and basic activities) for several weeks.  We did manage a trip to St. Cloud to visit family in early July, however.  I'll show a photo of my psycho-looking sister as proof.

She'll love seeing this.

We also got to see G play the lead in his school's one act play.  He's just graduated, so this was the last play of his high school career.  The play was about the tragedy of memory loss, and he played an old man with Alzheimer's.  I had to fight back tears, watching and imagining my son old and ill and unhappy.  I wanted to rush the stage to comfort him.  B told me later he felt the same way.

I've continued to work while injured, hobbling around in a boot and on crutches.  Nothing exciting to report on the work front.  We've had problems with raccoons in the campground so have been doing some live trapping and relocating.

In preparation for G moving to his first college apartment, I've gotten a few things from online auctions.  Chairs, utensils, bowls, pots, pans, etc.  A big score was buying this china teapot in a lot for $11.  It sells on ebay for $180.

We moved G into his apartment a few days ago.  To mark the event on FB, Hubby put together a collage with various old photos plus one of G at his new computer desk.  G enjoys streaming games and loves the high speed internet he gets in the city.  The big TV is an old cathode ray tube, an absolute necessity when you're speed-running old console video games.  Or so I've been told.

My garden is doing well.  Lettuce and strawberries are done and we're swimming in tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, mint, basil and summer squash.  Beans are just starting and we've picked a few bell peppers.  The sunflowers, cosmos and asters are blooming madly and the carrots are looking great.  And we should be able to harvest the garlic and onions any day. 

That's all for now.  The ankle is slowly healing and I can now walk clumsily in the boot without crutches for short distances.  I'm looking forward to returning to my normal speed, and returning to my normal activities.

Good and bad things

 

Today's harvest - three romaines, three stalks of kale, three cherry tomatoes and three pints of strawberries.  Good things come in sets of three.

Another good thing - a fully weeded garden.  It took Hubby and me three hours, but the thing she is done.  Just need to thin carrots and mulch and maybe fertilize.  And figure out what to do about those nasty cucumber beetles I found out there, the first time I've seen any in all my gardening years.  Gah.  Bad things come in swarms of beetles.

Gardenfest

As part of my Master Gardener duties, I volunteered to help out with Gardenfest - the city garden tour put on by our county's MG group.  Five gardens are selected for the tour which was held last Thursday evening.  I was stationed at one of the homes, greeting visitors and signing their tickets.  On Tuesday we had a pre-tour visit at all five gardens.  Here's a few photos I took along the way.

I might get a birdbath just so I can plant moss roses in it

After seeing these immaculate, weed-free (mostly) beautiful creations I was humbled and shamed.  My own garden is full of weeds, and the wild vegetation around my house could hide Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Ugh. 

I loved the rough stone design of this garden

I have the next three days off.  I am resolved to get rid of the weeds in my raised beds.  I have asked for Hubby's help, and he has foolishly agreed.  If we get control of the raised bed situation, then we can move on to the landscaping in the yard.

Picture perfect

We haven't had any measurable rain for two weeks now, and Hubby and I have spent at least an hour watering the beds every other day.  The heat is relentless, as are the gnats.  

Sweet William flowers.  Must get some seed.

We're still picking strawberries every few days.  And my lettuce is finally ready for harvesting.  Maybe I'll broil some chicken and make a strawberry chicken salad tomorrow.  With pecans and feta cheese.  That sounds tasty.

Such beautiful brassicas

For Gardenfest, the home where I was stationed had both a flower patch and a vege patch (above).  It was owned by a cheerful couple, Denise and Mark.  Lovely people.  Denise tended the flowers and Mark tended the veges.  In the course of our pre-tour conversations I learned Mark was a big fan of radishes - he succession planted from early spring to early fall.  So on Thursday I brought a packet of Daikon radish seeds that I had saved from my 2021 garden.  I hope they grow well for him.

Berries

The strawberry harvest has begun.  Yesterday we had strawberry milkshakes to celebrate.  My favorite way of eating the berries is with cream and a little sugar sprinkled on top.  So yummy.  Maybe someday I'll make it to Wimbledon and watch the match eating strawberries and cream.  And if I do I'll toast a Pimm's drink to my parents - they both loved tennis, loved Wimbledon and loved England. 

Hermann and the Heat

It's another warm day.  Tomorrow will be warmer, into the 90s.  We may hit 100 on Sunday.

I really really don't like the hot.  It goes against my Viking blood.

We went to a grad party on Saturday at Hermann Heights.  It was a nice shindig, with friends and family and ice cream and hot dogs.  The grad party in the other gazebo had rented a taco truck for their event.  Holy moly, how much do people spend on these things?  I never had a grad party when I was finishing high school, and I'm not holding one for my kids.  They just seem like a not-so-subtle way to have people give you money.  We'll throw a party for G sometime this summer, but nobody will need to bring cash. 

I think the heat is increasing my cantankerousness.

During the shindig G and his friends climbed up the Hermann Monument and stood admiring their vast domain.  All three of them are going to the same college this fall, plus a few more of G's friends.  I'm glad he'll have folks to hang with.

I watered the garden after work in prep for the heat and wind wave tomorrow.  And found the first few ripe berries of the season, surrounded by fringes of dill.  Yum.

So after I typed this blog and decided on the title, I thought 'Hermann and the Heat' was a fairly good band name.  A mix of Herman's Hermits and Canned Heat?  Maybe not.  Anyway, I searched for the name on YouTube and found something worth listening to on a hot June day.

The beds

A garden tour commences.  It always looks fairly nice in mid-June before the heat and bugs of July make garden work miserable, and the weeds take full advantage.

Lettuce - Grandma Hadley's romaine in front and loose leaf in back.  My lettuce is really behind - I should be harvesting by now.  Our spring was very cold and wet.

One of two garlic beds.

Our bed of sunchokes, transplanted last fall.

Gita yard-long and ideal market snap beans in the back, prizm kale in the front. 

Cherokee purple tomatoes in the back, California wonder peppers in the front, plus a few marigolds.  My peppers are also behind, they should be twice as tall as they are.

Strawberries!  We've got one bed of cavendish and three beds of flavorfest.

Marketmore cucumbers in the back and Waltham's butternut squash in the front.

Picotee Cosmos in the back and China asters (UMN seed trial) in the front.  And weeds scattered throughout.

Sunburst patty pan squash.  I ran out of straw half-way through.  We'll see if mulched or un-mulched are more productive.

Dwarf sunflowers (UMN seed trial) in the back, more Waltham butternut squash in the front.

Calendula back left, basil front left, black Krim tomatoes on the right.

And finally, photos of hubby's yesterday project - transplanting some of our golden raspberries.  Our old raspberry patch has gotten out of control and filled with brush, thistle and weeds.

He's transplanted 30 young canes to a new area and surrounded them with fabric and wood chips, in hopes to make things easier.  We'll cut down the old bed soon.  I hope this works!

Not included are a bed of rutgers tomatoes and ailsa craig onions, a bed of jade cross Brussels sprouts and Burpee's golden zucchini, and various other things planted in pots near the front walkway.  I've planted a lot of summer squash this year.  Last year my zucchini plants withered in the drought and I was totally bummed.  I love grilled zucchini.  So I'm making up for it with tons of plants this year.

Next week we're getting temps in the high 80's and 90's, so we'll see how things fare.  As long as the rains are steady, I'll try to keep up with the weeds.

Failure and success

I've had the itch to make some soap recently.  I get the itch several times a year, and over the course of a few days/weeks I crank out 4-5 batches.  I make far more than we ever use, so the extras are 'gifted' to unsuspecting family members.  They say they enjoy them, but they don't really have a choice now, do they?

A large batch of coffee soap from several years ago

So on Sunday I made soap.  Or rather, I tried to make soap.  I devised a 5-lb batch using my normal recipe, and was intending to split it into 8 different colors to turn into soap dough (kinda like play-do but used for soap crafting).  However, my best laid plays went a-gley.

Soap dough gnomes from Sorcery Soap

Long story short, my lye was old and had lost its efficacy.  So the chemical reaction that turns oils and water and lye into soap didn't happen.  Of course I didn't realize this until an hour or two into the process, when despite my best efforts at mixing my soap batter it never emulsified.

Icky soap batter separation

To a soap-maker, emulsification is key - it's the point where the chemical reaction kicks into gear and all the base ingredients combine into happy soap soup.  But if you get your measurements wrong, or if your ingredients aren't up-to-snuff, then bad things happen. 

After Sunday's failure, I was a bit down in the dumps.  But I still was feeling the itch.  So on Monday I made another batch.  And not just any old soap recipe, but something I've never tried before - liquid soap.  I found a couple of tutorials on YouTube and decided to give it a go.  Our big bottle of store-bought liquid soap was empty, so I figured it was a good time to try.

A gelatinous mass of soap batter cooking on the stove

And it worked!  The liquid isn't as clear as it should be, but it's the right pH and it suds well.  And most importantly, it cleans well.  I scented it with lemon and lemongrass essential oils.  It smells heavenly.  Homemade liquid soap is thinner than store-bought, but it's fantastic stuff.  And I've got enough to last a while.  Not too much, however - sorry unsuspecting siblings, no liquid soap for you!

Enough to fill my empty bottle

Birthday supper third course

Poor man's black forest cherry cake.  Devil's food cake mix with cherry pie filling and fsssht on top.  A yummy ending to a pretty great birthday observed. 

Birthday supper second course

Prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli.  The rib roast came with our half-beef, so what would cost $18 a lb at the store only cost us $6.  We told the boys tonight's dinner would be about $60 in a nice restaurant.  They seemed impressed.

Birthday supper first course

Wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, balsamic reduction and bacon pieces.  We reduced the balsamic this afternoon.  Sooo tasty.  My hubby is a fantastic cook.

Birthday breakfast

Nothing brings me back to England faster than a grilled tomato.

What I see

 G is all like this now:

And this:

And this:

But all I can see is this:

And this:

And this:

Auction treasures

Remember my previous infatuation with an online auction? Well, it happened again about a month ago.  I found an online auction in St. Peter about 45 minutes from us.  It was an auction from the estate of Beverly Gustafson, an elderly widow who had spent a lifetime of learning, traveling, collecting, teaching and raising a family.  The auction items painted the story of a rich life shared with her husband - boxes of sheet music, instruments and textiles from around the world, sheds of furniture waiting for repair, cedar chests full of fabric and linens, paintings and pottery galore.

I was originally interested in getting basic household items for G's new apartment.  And I was successful in that regard - silverware, plates, kitchen utensils, towels, etc.  But I also spotted something that piqued my personal interest - cookbooks.  I'm a sucker for old cookbooks.  And not only were there cookbooks, there was an old recipe box stuffed full of recipe cards and clippings.  I'm astounded some child or grandchild hadn't snatch the box up as a treasured memento of family suppers.  But their loss is my gain.

It's obvious this woman loved to cook.  And she was an adventurous cook - dishes from different regions, cultures, cooking styles.  She clipped recipes from magazines, newspapers and food wrappers.  She collected cards from friends and family members.  I spent a good hour going through them all, keeping the ones that looked promising and tossing the others.  The box itself is a little beat up, but with a bit of glue and TLC it should be right as rain.

Her cookbooks are a history in themselves.  She took copious notes of the dishes she tried, and the adjustments she made to the recipes.  She was big on flavor - her main critique for a bad recipe was that it was "bland."  She wasn't afraid to make changes, adding or subtracting amounts or ingredients.  And she dated most of her trials.  I found recipe dates going back to the 1960s.

I got a kick out of this cookbook title - "All This, And Rye Bread Too."  The lady on the cover seems very ... alert. 

After reading the introduction, I learned Evelyn was the Director of Food Service at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter for many years.  She was known for her boundless energy and enthusiasm, volunteerism, sharing her Swedish heritage, and of course good cooking. She was beloved by students and staff alike.  Her rye bread recipe was apparently world famous.  I share it with you here, at the risk of copyright infringement.  I've not tried it myself, yet.  But it must be good - Beverly seems to think so.

Some of the kitchen gadgets that we got threw us for a loop.  Neither Hubby nor I had ever heard of an "Ah So" for opening wine bottles.  And we didn't think we'd have any use for an Oregon Bean Spoon.  This decorative tray was intriguing, so I looked it up on the googles. 

It's a Streamline Adler Ware meat platter.  Apparently you put your sizzling roasts on the tray and the tree indentations catch the juices.  An interesting bit of culinary weirdness, but not something I see myself using.  

Overall, it was a successful auction haul.  Especially since I've gotten to know two very interesting ladies and fellow cookbook enthusiasts, Beverly and Evelyn, along the way.