Back in the Saddle Again (for a while anyway)

I have taken a long hiatus from blogging......again.  Maybe with cooler weather and less mowing, I can get back in the groove.

We have had some nice rains, but not as heavy as others in the near area.  We are still nice and green and ponds are full and pastures are green.

I recently bought a bushel of Jonathon apples from a local orchard.  They were beauties.  I finished the last of them this morning. I saved all the peels and cores and added just enough water to the pan to get them started.  I cooked them until soft and then strained  the juice for jelly.  I ran the pulp through the Victoria Food Strainer and made applesauce.  I did the jelly this morning the old-fashioned way with no pectin.

It was a small batch so just got a quart of pink sauce and the little jars of apple jelly.  I tested a half slice with butter on some 8-grain whole wheat bread.  It was very tasty.  I got a good jelly consistency using the sheet of the spoon test.  It took about 20 minutes.

It seems I took another little break.....

New Start:  September 23, 10:50 AM

The news is I am another year older.

I won't try to back track because it was just mundane daily things...which is what my life is, but I love it that way.

We are still mowing.  Trying to beat the predicted heavy rain of Sunday.  Not too much left to do.  We are really looking forward to the 60° next week.  Enough of this 90° + stuff!

The chickens have let up laying by about half.  Max did find a 4-foot long blacksnake in the hen house and  few days  ago and released it in the nearby barn lot!  He knew better.  I suspect the snake is back snacking on eggs.

I have plans to attack the cellar wild zone and the garden with DH's help next week and clear-cut and mow!  It will be a first if we get it done in the fall.

Cooking

I made a new recipe  this morning.  Once again  from Thibault's Table blog.

Oatmeal Scones with Maple Syrup Glaze

 

Scones

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tbsp. cold butter
1 cup heavy cream  (Option: Substitute Buttermilk and add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda)
3/4 cup frozen raspberries (blueberries, blackberries, red currants, etc..)
extra cream and sugar

Glaze (Optional)

2 teaspoons softened or melted butter

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

few tablespoons cream or milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients together.  Thin with additional cream or milk if necessary.


Preheat oven to 425°F. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse meal.  Stir cream in to flour mixture. Mix quickly with fork just until dough starts to come together. 

Tip out on to lightly floured surface. (Will look shaggy)   Using hands gently pat mixture to flatten. Now fold dough like an envelop. Turn and fold again.  Do this at least three to four times. Before the last turn, push frozen fruit (Raspberries, Blueberries, Red Currants, etc.. ) into dough. 

Finish with final fold and turn and roll or pat dough into round.  Cut into six or eight triangles. Dough can also be cut in half and rolled into two smaller rounds.  Cut each round into 6 to 8 smaller scones. Or use a biscuit cutter to cut round scones.  This whole step should only take 30 to 45 seconds.   

Do not over-handle.  (Tip:  I  may have over handled a tad so go gently here)

(Folding forms layers which makes for a very flaky scone).

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.

Option:  Drizzle with glaze.

I made a glaze with some powdered sugar, some Maple Syrup (real), and a bit of milk.  worked beautifully.

 We decided this was a keeper and a nice change from biscuits for a late breakfast.

Next project was making oatmeal bread using extra gluten since oatmeal doesn't have any.  I thought it might make a lighter bread.  I will save that for another day.
It was interesting but I have another recipe I want to try first before deciding to add or not to add.  All this keeps me out of the hot sun but in a hot kitchen!


Yard 

Salvia farinacea always gets a more vibrant blue in the fall

I have been away so long, I am having to relearn lots of blogger things....how to add picture for one!  So, enough for now.

A Slower Sunday Morning

DH talked me into a much slower, relaxing day today......he can't understand why I can't just sit and do nothing....after all these years (54).

So, I just trimmed  the path by the garden fence where I removed the peach trees and saw the sorry little cucumber vine was still trying to grow and needed watering.....did that and then watered the two roses left in the driveway bed that is no more.

And I know I shouldn't because it is rampant enough, but watered that gigantic squash plant for an hour.  I am pinching tips hoping that several of the squashes will ripen before frost.

Then I trimmed  some on the cellar bed and saw some young saplings  I had missed...red bud and elm (of course).

All total time not over an hour.

Food

I found some overly ripe bananas in the fridge yesterday evening and made cupcakes.  I used the banana cake recipe in my 1960 era Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  It is an excellent recipe.  I had to sub sour cream for the buttermilk but it didn't hurt it at all.  If you can find an old  copy of this book, not the updated version, grab it up.  It is still the 'go to' cookbook for both my Sis and me.

From Food

Banana Cake BH&G Page 80 (old issue )

2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mashed ripe banana (usually two)

½ cup buttermilk or sour milk

½ cup shortening

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all dry ingredients and ½ teaspoons salt. Add bananas, buttermilk, shortening, eggs and vanilla

Beat on low until mixed then on medium for three minutes.

Pour into 2 greased and floured 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Bake 350°for 30 to 35 minutes. Test with toothpick .Cool for l0 minutes before removing from pan.

Note: I ice with cream cheese icing and freeze some in pan for later.

Flowers in the Yard

The clematis paniculata on the barn lot fence is doing what I wanted it to:  Screening that ugly lot!
I have let a few Grandpa Otts morning glories stay.  I love that color!

From Flowers September blog

The cosmos are finally in full bloom

From Flowers September blog

My old standby self-seeding annual salvia farinacea, mixed colors now!

From Flowers September blog

Fruit

I have  a Kieffer pear tree back by the barn lot.  It has lots of fruit this year but, it is not the ordinary pear tree.  It is hard as a brick and you have to pick it when it is ready (my problem is when is that?) and let it ripen in a cool place for some  time.  It is used mostly for pear honey and  cooking.  It was supposed to be resistant to fireblight.......it isn't!  I am bothered with fireblight in all pear trees every single year.  I can see where the possum has been eating a few on the ground.  Does anyone have any experience with the particular pear tree?  I have pulled a few and have them inside now but I can't see that they are ripening at all.

From Fruit Trees 2015

From Fruit Trees 2015

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Blooming Today

Yesterday was a very hot and humid day. 

I managed to do  some weeding for a  couple of hours early (not early enough).

At last a sign that the butterflies do like this plant, butterfly weed, asclepias tuberosa.

  

This is the east end of the bed, there is another orange daylily further west that I should move to this grouping.



More daylilies have opened:

This is one of my favorite colors, Prairie Blue Eyes.  It was just a happy accident that the lychnis self seeded nearby.



and this one is Blueberry something and is next to some perilla which compliments it nicely.




This is a clump of unknown daylilies that I moved from the shop wall bed to the front of the house in the dining room foundation bed:

 

It is amid a bed of self- seeding annuals.  This is the seed pod of nigella damascena or 'Love in a Mist'.  I have the white variety.  I think the pods are as interesting as the blooms but they will self-seed even in the lawn.



I believe this one is Bama Music in front of the new porch near Jackmanii clematis.  (I won't lie; that is crab grass surrounding it).  I am  working my way to that bed........slowly.



I think this one is Fairy Tale Pink.  It is in the New Bed (now several years old).



For some strange reason I keep forgetting to take pictures of the yellows.....maybe today I will do that.

Others Blooming:

This is a darker version of salvia farinacea which has self-seeded for several years in this spot.  It may be due to the soil or hybridizing with others  of various shades, including white.


These are the ones at the end of the other bed that are much pales.  See the white one in the back  to the right.


This patch of rudbeckia (Prairie Sun) is next to the salvias.  It has also been self-seeding from a few years now.  I think I have lost the darker band of gold around the green eye  but it is still very pretty.



This is a pale yellow Buck rose right behind the salvia and rudbeckia.  They are too tall but maybe it will begin to grow again.

I see the volunteer squash is creeping up  on all of them. 



This is a phlox in the bed outside the kitchen.  I noticed that the bloom is somewhat variegated.......

I am throwing this one in to prove I did do some weeding (here with the string trimmer).  That is perilla wilting in the sun.



Garden

I take no credit for this squash since it came from the volunteer from last year's yellow squash:



But I did plant the carrots in the whiskey barrel:  This is just a sample but it is very nice and sweet.



BTW, I saw a half barrel at the local hardware and it  was priced $69.95!  Egads!  I sure never paid that for this one.

The rest of the garden is pathetic  this year.