Rodeo Season Yeehaw!

As usual I am running behind on my posts. Perhaps I will start to consider anything within a two week span as being 'on time' and anything in two day span as being more of 'early'. About a week and a half ago now I made another new recipe from my magic book (still testing out names). Since my previous experiment was a huge dinner feast, this time it was a very simple recipe, an all in one pot chicken and pasta dish.

First you cook the chicken in the pot. 

Then add in your vegetables and continue cooking until onions are golden brown.

Next (after switching to a larger pot because you started out in one too small - so much for less dishes) you add the uncooked pasta and water (or something other than water, I use chicken broth a lot because I've found that it makes the overall meal more flavorful for the pasta to be cooked in a flavor). Then cover and let simmer until the pasta is cooked.

Drain any excess water, add a little tomato based pasta sauce. I'm not a big fan of tomato based sauces, so I just put enough for there to be some red sauce on everything in the pot, roughly 2/3 of a jar. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and cover just until the cheese it melted, then serve.

I made a huge pot of this and it only took about 45 minutes, with 15-20 of it waiting for the pasta to cook. Very easy and good. Obviously not a gourmet meal, but I will definitely make this again when I'm crunched for time.

Garden:

Once again just after planting new plants we have had weeks of rain and very little sun. I'm not sure that the newcomers, my little strawberries, are going to survive it, they are after all a full sun plant and have seen little to no sun since their planting. Unfortunately, unlike watering, there is nothing I can do to make the sun come out from behind those clouds. My larger plants on the other hand seem to be enjoying the nutrient rich rains (as opposed to the hose water lacking in natural elements they typically receive). My pomegranate tree for example has sprouted countless leaves, where just a few weeks ago there were only a few green buds. Also, my lime tree had a few budding flowers before, but is now covered in them!


Those of you who aren't southern may not understand this, but it is currently one of my favorite times of year. I considered giving you hints and making you guess, but with hints like cowboys, bulls, beer, and music I didn't think there would be much of a game in it. It's rodeo season! Yeehaw! Are there rodeos north of the mason-Dixon? Maybe some of my more northern friends can fill me in. Tonight I have the privilege of getting to hear Alan Jackson's rodeo performance, and I am thrilled. Not so thrilling is remembering that I have to be at work by 7:45 tomorrow morning. Oh well, we can sleep when we're dead right? After all, it is the rodeo, and it only comes around once a year!

Spring Fever Has Struck

Since Houston weather is nothing like what normal seasons should be, we are already experiencing the "spring" most other places won't have for at least a month. Of course with spring comes spring fever. Mine started over the weekend when I decided that I couldn't stand to let my plants go any longer without the necessary adjustments.
Some simply had the debris in the top o their pots cleared and a little fresh soil added. My pomegranate tree is now over over six feet tall (approximately the same as my lime and mandarin trees) so it needed to be moved into a larger pot, which opened up its old pot for the Meyer lemon tree. I also bought... Drum roll please... Strawberries! My experiment for the year. Last year my experimental fruit was watermelon which sadly never blossomed, hopefully there will be better luck this year with my strawberries.

Of course I have already forgotten which is which, 

but here are two of my pretty trees, one with blossoms, hooray!

This is my pomegranate tree, I have learned that during winter they look like they have died, 

but you can now see (if you look very closely) that small buds are springing it back to life!

And last but certainly not least are my baby strawberries. I'm so excited, I hope they work out!

 

Also I happily get to say that since planting these we have had a pretty good week for plants. The days have been alternating with rain and sun and will hopefully give them all the little boost they need. I hope that one day soon I can plant some bigger things like apple and pear trees, unfortunately those really need to be put in the ground and I wouldn't want to have to get new ones every time I moved rental houses. On a last note, I happily accept all gardening tips and tricks since I'm only a year into the game!

More Food, Weeks 1-6

In a continuation of Week 1/2:

I made two additional new recipes: pumpkin pound cake with buttermilk glaze, and lemon knot cookies. Can I just say mmmmmm. Well at least for the lemon knot cookies. It is a rare day indeed that I enjoy my own baking, mostly I love to bake things and share them with others, but these little tangy, sweet, soft lemon cookies are scrumptious! The pumpkin pound cake was also good, however not my favorite.

Pumpkin pound cake with buttermilk glaze

Lemon knots - The ingredients were very simple (like sugar cookies with a lot of lemon juice and rind added) then you split the dough into six pieces and roll each one out fairly thin. You cut the rolled out dough into 5" pieces and tie the knot (some looked better than others).

You only bake them for about 10 minutes, enough time that the bottoms are golden brown but the tops still look pale yellow. Last you make the glaze which is lemon juice and powdered sugar to lightly glaze the top of each cookie with.

 I found them to be quite scrumptious, especially when enjoyed along side a cup of tea. I finished making them just in time to watch Downton Abbey with tea and cookies, it felt appropriate.

Week 3/4:

My roommate and I had a friend over for dinner on a Saturday night, he grilled some chicken that she used to make chicken bryan Texas (which was delicious). The new recipe from my book that I made were cheese puffs, which are small bread puffs with cheese in them. I also made a champagne risotto with asparagus, that I've made before, and my famous apple pie for dessert.

The cheese puffs were very good and I could easily see them becoming addicting. I ate at least 4 while waiting for the chicken to be ready. I made them with shredded gruyere, but I'm sure they could be made with any number of cheeses. First you heat the wet ingredients in a small pot, then add the flour, baking powder, and cheese. Last you scoop out tablespoon size balls and sprinkle a little more cheese on top then bake.

Very simple and very good!

Current Week 5/6:

I wanted to try something big, so I found in my book a standing rib roast recipe, then I invited 7 people over for a dinner party and had a marvelous time. The rib roast was paired with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts from me, my guests brought bread and salad, and I made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Everything was delicious, but the roast was the star of the meal! I rubbed it with salt, pepper, dijon mustard, garlic, green onions, thyme, and rosemary - and I have to say I don't think I would ever prepare it another way now.

I sadly didn't get a chance to take an after picture of the roast before it was devoured by my guests, but this is what it looked like going into the oven, and on the right is the roasted brussel sprouts.

Chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels. Yum.