Secret Garden

WOOT! The Obamas are planting a garden at the White House!!! Well, they are, their staff and some local school kids, but yippee!!!!

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"...this commitment by Ms. Obama to local and freshly grown product is a progressive move forward that will raise the profile and awareness of local and sustainable food both at the White House and nationally to an unprecedented level."

--former White House executive chef Walter Scheib

Perhaps the Obamas read Michael Pollans' open letter to the future president back in October 2008. If you haven't read it, please do so. It's wonderful.



Read the full Washington Post article here:
Obamas to Plant Garden on White House Lawn



...and I planted my asparagus and some garlic this weekend...herbs will go out in a few weeks when the weather stops being so flighty.

Gardening in 2009

Asparagus officinalis Jersey Knight Hybrid

Woot! I bought two pots of Asparagus plants yesterday. Next weekend they will go in the yard. No veggies this season, but next season we will get to harvest about half the crop. The following season, we will have a full bumper crop...as long as things work out for us and the squirrels aren't interested!

Asparagus, I can't wait to introduce you to my friend Hollandaise!

Sesame Chicken

This weekend we did some things around the house. Including shut down the garden for the season. We didn't have a very successful summer. We tried. And that's ok. No tomatoes as the squirrels ate them all. We had a few radishes and 2 okra. Here's the remainder of our summer harvest!

Sad! The carrot was super good, we but it in half and each had a small taste. The radishes were radishy. The pepper...squishy.

Oh well. Next year I think we're going to focus on flowers and herbs and continue to get our summer veg from the Community Market.

Saturday night I made another quick recipe that I received in my email from Everyday Food. A "lighter" version of Sesame Chicken. It was good, but I realized while I was making it that I had an extra dark version of the soy sauce, so my final dish was really dark and rich, with a flavor almost of molasses.

Sesame Chicken from Everyday Food

The sauce of honey, soy, sesame seeds.


I don't like broccoli, so I used carrots. Use a veg you like.


Seriously...one of the most used kitchen gadgets I have. Outside of the toaster and the coffee pot, this is used more than the mixer or food processor. Takes all the guess work out making perfect rice. And funny...today the Washington Post has an article about Rice Cookers.


The final dish. Tasty, but like a side, a darker, heavier flavor than I expected.

Lighter Sesame Chicken
¾ cup brown rice
3 TB honey
2 TB sesame seeds
2 TB soy sauce
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or crushed with a garlic press
2 large egg whites
¼ cup cornstarch
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 2-inch chunks
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 TB vegetable oil, such as safflower
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 ½ pounds broccoli, cut into large florets, stems peeled and thinly sliced

Directions
1. Place a steamer basket in a large saucepan, and fill with 1 inch water; set aside for broccoli. Cook rice according to package instructions.

2. Meanwhile, make sauce: In a small bowl, combine honey, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and garlic; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together egg whites and cornstarch*. Add chicken; season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

3. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add half the chicken; cook, turning occasionally, until golden and opaque throughout, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate; repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and chicken. Return all the chicken to skillet; add reserved sauce and scallions, and toss to coat.

4. Meanwhile, place saucepan with steamer basket over high heat; bring water to a boil. Add broccoli, and cook until crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Serve sesame chicken with broccoli and rice.

*As I noted in the two previous recipes I made using this method (here & here), for one pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 egg white and 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch create enough of a batter for the chicken.

Longwood Gardens

Hola. J-lo and I took the train up to see The Duchess in Philly last Saturday morning, spent the night, brunched and came home on Sunday. What a fun little trip. We went to Longwood Gardens, and they are really worth the trip. And bring a camera. Make sure to visit the fountain shows, especially the one with music. The Idea Garden and the Conservatory! I took well over 200 photos. Here is a small sampling...

(all photos can be clicked to embiggen.)

Shapes. Shapes. Shapes...I felt like I was in Super Mario Land.





This is the bigger fountain show, but not the show with music. The music show is smaller, but still really a lot of fun! A Sousa March is always fun.


A Cotton Flower!

Mmmm, beer! HOPS.


Another Cotton Flower....so pretty!

This isn't a cotton flower...it's an okra flower...


Inside the Conservatory.

Crotons!

Caladiums!

J-lo will be choreographing a dance in this space...

There is about 3-6 inches of water on the floor. Could be very interesting!!!

The water lilies...another site not to miss.




More caladium. This is like the one I have at home!




Random. There was a room tucked in the back filled with colored glass pumpkins. These were the only ones I saw in the gardens.

A cactus named for me!

This is my backyard...someday.

A Hobbit's House.

devils

MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE

Sure. They are a little cute. But this little devils...I'm thru with them.

They thwarted us time and time again with the bird feeder...until we finally got them. Vaseline on the pole...they can't get to it!

Then there were the roses. They ate our roses and broke two major stems of the rose bush.

And now.

NOW they have done it.

I mentioned earlier in the week we were on track to eat our first tomato. Well. Guess what. We weren't the only ones excited. Not only did they eat the ripe, red tomato, they pulled off a green tomato and ate half of it. Not even the whole thing. They picked it off the plant. Moved it at least ten feet away and ate only half it.

AND THEN...they went over and busted off two major stems of the blackberry bush and ate the berries...and they got the blueberries...

I'm done. They better watch out. This is war.

New Neighbors

Hilarious!

I can't say I'm surprised.

I brought a bucket of goodies out to the compost pile this morning and decided I needed to investigate the greenery growing in the middle of the pile. I thought one of two plants based on what I have tossed in the pile...turns out I was right.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato moved into my compost pile and were setting up a home. They seemed happy, but I took upon myself to move them into the more appropriate residential area for them in the garden. How great is that? I get potatoes without half the work.

We grew potatoes in the garden when I was a kid, so I know they are easy to grow. And who hasn't accidentally sprouted some potatoes in the pantry?! It's still a nice surprise to see them out in the dirt pile!

In other gardening news; we'll be eating our first tomato this week! One of the fruits are moving along the color scale to deep orange. We're very excited.

I do cook...

I do...really...I just haven't been blogging about it. I've been a little lazy and some what uninspired. Hopefully I'll get my groove back soon. If not, maybe a trip to Sunny San Diego will help me. But that's a few weeks away.


Tonight's dinner was Indian Butter Chicken. Great as always. And I made enough sauce to freeze for two batches of dinner at a later date! Mmmm.


And I'm proud to announce the arrival of our little darlings. So pretty! I still have no idea exactly what they are, but now that we have blossoms I can look them up and do a little taxonomical identification.

More garden excitment

Another garden update...since I haven't done much cooking in the past week...and there has some some blossoming in the back.

These are the giant 8 foot lilies growing in the back. They are about to explode open in the next few days. I can't wait. It's like a 'baby watch'...when's it going to happen!??!?!

Here are the full lilies. When they are standing up fully, they are over 8 foot tall (they need to be propped). And to think they first sprouted out of the ground in March!

This is something new as well. The plants are about 1-2 feet tall and these flowers are popping out and hanging nicely.

There are three hydrangeas in the back. One all white. One very very pale pink/purple and this one.

In the back, hiding the rear of our shed are large clumps of more lilies.

How does your garden grow

Wanted to share some updates on our gardening efforts.

On May 18 we purchased several varieties of shade loving plants at Benkes. 4 Hostas and 2 Heucheras.

We planted them on the north side of the house, getting mostly shade.

From front to back: So Sweet Hosta, Midnight Rose Heuchera, Francee Hosta, Mahogany Heuchera, Patriot Hosta and August Moon Hosta

This pale pink flowering shrub is growing in the front, along the sidewalk. No idea what it is.

Here's our little green tomatoes!

The clematis is in full bloom.

The yellow iris is on it's last round of sweet blooms

Here's a full grown shot of the crazy plant we have no idea what it is. Some type of lily. It's over 7 feet tall at this point. We tied them back to keep them from tipping over.

The giant blue/elephant ear hosta. I don't know the real name on this one, but these leaves are GIANT! I love how they filled in the whole area they had been planted in. See how they came in.