Planting And Cooking

Some planting has been done up north, both in the garden and out in the wheat fields. Dennis finished pre-working the many, many acres that will be seeded (and fertilized) this summer. He's now started up the air seeder. There was a slight delay between those two operations due to the .41" of rain last Friday. He says he'll be "self-isolated" in the tractor for the next two weeks. That leaves me with plenty of time to do my thing. Of course, I get interrupted regularly: he'll need my help to refill with seed, to bring the noon meal (and a cooler with a cold supper) out to wherever he's working at that time, and for the occasional parts run. He swears things will go smoothly this year, with no breakdowns, but I'm not holding my breath on that. There's already been a need to get the Big Bud out to tow the Trac and tool bar out of the mud. (It got sucked in at the edge of a field abutting the soggy pasture.)

I did manage to get lots of seeds of my own planted in my garden right before that nice rain. I have two types of beets (one is cylindrical) as well as turnips in the ground. The pea fences were erected and three types of peas planted. Then leaf lettuces, radishes, and rainbow carrots were put in the ground. I'll put in more onion sets soon.

I don't have any potatoes planted yet. The old, large, plastic planters I plan to use for those have been put in place, upside down so they'll pull off easily, and the bottoms of the pots are cut out. I had to start an opening with a knife so I could insert the blade of the Sawsall to cut around the rest of the bottom. That plastic is tough! It would have taken a lot of time, and caused blisters to only use the knife. Upon removing that plastic disc, I found lots of packing peanuts had been used as filler so those pots didn't require as much potting soil and so they'd be lighter weighted and easier to move. I'm removing those bits of Styrofoam, which takes a while. That job also requires a fairly wind-still day to prevent those white bits from littering my yard. A few have escaped, to be collected piece by piece as I come across them.

I used my leaf blower again, on the rock garden outside my bedroom. Those piles of leaves had finally dried enough to move with air. Those leaves then needed to be picked up before the wind could redeposit them on those rocks. I mowed rather than rake. The lawn needed another going over anyway.

I'm harvesting asparagus now. The last batch was roasted in a 400° oven for 15 minutes, with one turning over of the stalks halfway through the time. They were drizzled with about a tablespoon of EVOO, then sprinkled with a teaspoon of Cajun seasoning. Six slices of hard dry Italian salami was cut into pie slices and mixed in before roasting. Delicious.

Home-made Cajun Seasoning

3 Tbl paprika

2 Tbl kosher salt

2 Tbl garlic powder

1 Tbl black pepper

1 Tbl white pepper

1 Tbl oregano

1 Tbl cayenne pepper

1/2 Tbl thyme

1 Tbl onion powder

Mix well. Store airtight, away from light.

Good thing I wasn't holding my breath! I just returned from getting to ride atop the liquid fertilizer cart (where Dennis could see me signal the chain was turning, so he'd know the pump was working). That air is cold this morning. He's been fighting the connectors on that. They kept coming apart. We hope it's fixed now. Dennis said he was very frustrated (he'd worked on that for four hours Saturday), but he wasn't frustrated enough for me to get a language lesson. (You know those lessons if you're on a farm or ranch: how to combine curse words in new and imaginative ways.) And I got thanked for helping. I guess the Mother's Day appreciation was extended, at least for one day.

So, back to cooking: I made chicken to go with the asparagus. Dennis just ate the thyme rice (I used long-grain brown rice, a chicken bouillon cube in the water, and sprinkled dried thyme on top after turning off the heat, while the cooked rice "fluffed"). The chicken recipe came out of a Taste of Home magazine many years ago. Since I'm again doing the Whole Life Challenge (Dennis is mostly following my nutrition level, and has lost over 20 pounds since the end of January), I subbed coconut palm sugar for the brown sugar. My mustard is stone ground Dijon. Of course, I used more onion than called for, as usual. The chicken was all drumsticks, skin on, bone in. It made enough for at least two meals for the both of us.

Oven BBQ Chicken

Cooking oil

3-4 pounds chicken pieces

1/3 C chopped onion

3 Tbl butter or margarine

3/4 C ketchup

1/3 C vinegar

3 Tbl brown sugar

1/2 C water

2 tsp prepared mustard

1 Tbl Worcestershire

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Heat a small amount of oil in a large skillet. Fry chicken until browned. Drain: place chicken in a 9x13" baking dish. In a saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Pour over chicken. Bake at 350° about 1 hour or until chicken is done, basting occasionally.