Happy 2019, may you be happy and healthy

 As we go into a new year, we are in the beginnings of another snow storm! As much as we need the moisture here in the southwest it certainly puts a crimp in travel.
So far, we have had 9 inches here at the manse and they are predicting another 7 to 9 inches. Wheeeee....

Those huge clumps of snow on the pinon trees haven't melted a whit since it came down 5 days ago!
I wonder what the breaking point will be!

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for a saner 2019!

We have snow on the mountain.....

        I do think it is going to be a loooong winter, or at least it will look that way. It has been cold enough for the snow to stay all week and is accumulating!

        I finally picked the last of the apples, yeah!

      I just had to share an apple recipe I discovered in the Cabot Cheese newsletter.
If you haven't tried it, please do. It is divine.

Here is the link:  https://www.cabotcheese.coop/cheddar-apple-crisp

      The recipe calls for cooking this in a 10 inch iron skillet, and as I don't own
one that size I opted for this casserole. I can't see that it made any difference.
This recipe is addictive! I also added more lemon juice than they called for.

               Since the oven was hot I made a couple of loaves of bread, using the no knead method and some interesting flours from King Arthur Flours.

            The back story of this pie is that I thought I'd be very clever and cut out coyotes from the pie crust and then fit them back in the pie after all had been cooked.
             Well, as you can see I had a bit of a problem when the pie crust broke and some one in the house ate two (2!) of the baked coyotes!
              All I can say, it wasn't me. The pie was very good, I had eliminated  half of the sugar the recipe called for as our apples are very sweet.

Now I'm off to make applesauce without any sugar at  all.

Fall is on the way

One of the first signs of impending winter are the daisies of Fall. This photo was taken looking west on the north forty last week. The New England Asters have started blooming and the Aspen leaves are turning on the mountains. My favorite season is now, particularly after this scorching hot summer.

Here is a close up!

The apple tree is my current challenge, tomorrow we pick and pick and pick. Will take bags of apples down to the food charities, as our refrigerators are full!
The late rains really helped as the apples are a decent size for a snack.

Apples. apples, apples

Thank goodness the monsoons came when they did as the apples had sort of stopped growing, along with everything else. We have had about 5 inches of rain in the last few weeks and the apples grew, the weeds grew (and how they grew) and now it is picking time! And weeding time, good for the waistline!!!

What does one do with many, many pounds of apples other than the usual pies, cakes and breads? Well, I decided to make cider. It is fantastic, prefer it to any I've had in years. I couldn't find many recipes on the 'net as to the how-to of making your own but I assumed that making apple juice and then letting it ferment a little might work. It did for me.
I also added some home made vinegar to taste. O, la, la, it is so good.

Did I tell you, back when there was no rain in sight, I decided that we needed to adapt to the Apache gardening system. They used waffle shapes but I don't plant that much so I used large circles around each plant. What a great plant saver, here is a shot of them just after they were formed. Keeps the water at the roots which is very necessary when there is no soil moisture at all.

Now the zucchini plant is so large that it is coming over the edge of the stones, we are eating the little guys raw, the mini eggplants are producing as many was we can eat and the tomatoes are FINALLY acknowledging the fact that they should produce tomatoes. But, it has been so hot they weren't interested.  The tomato horn worm ate the mini tomato plant before I could discover him!

No matter what I do it is neigh on impossible to improve the soil without amending it every year. Between the caliche and the dryness, it is a gardener's challenge. I've now gardened in every zone of the USA and this is the toughest. This year I've decided on ground covers come Fall, which I will have dug in in the Spring. Have the seeds for 4 different kinds, so will do a test of the best one for southwest gardens. Stay tuned.

I haven't forgotten....I'm just disorganized

THIS IS BACK WHEN....now we have a bumper crop of apples.....more tomorrow....

So, it took a little while to get to the next photo, like a month! But, I do have an excuse, I've been in and out and in our local hospital as a very unhappy patient. I'm recovering as best I can.

Here is the apple tree as of today!

Thank you, Margaret Roach, I read her newsletter this morning and found that it is not too late to thin the crop of apples.
We never had the proverbial June Drop and so the tree is loaded. It hurts me to remove as much as one of the Orange Pippins but what must be done, must be done.

Before the Universe slammed me I got a few people in to remove the pathetic lawn we had and build this sitting area under the trees. It is delightfully cool and welcoming.

Thank you all for being so patient!

Saturday is Daylight Saving day, plan ahead

It's been a weird winter around here, I think we had a total of 4.5 inches of snow since November.
We are in a drought, but things are growing and pretty much on schedule for the past three years. I spend a lot of time watering the important plants inside the garden walls. And it is paying off, see my favorites the miniature daffodils......

I should remember to photograph them in the morning when they are looking up! They are happy little devils. Thank goodness they reproduce themselves rather well.

We enjoyed the second  Christmas Stollen for Valentine's Day, it was even better than the original as it was frozen before it had even cooled. So moist and delicious.

However, I can't get away with not baking the occasional sweet bread and I had a big bunch of very ripe bananas, some coconut and always pecans. So what to do?
Found my old recipe for Banana Nut Bread and off I went. Here is a quick picture I took when it came out of the oven.

If this recipe intrigues you, do as I do, toss the coconut in a heated cast iron pan until it starts to crisp up and color to a lovely tan color. Cool immediately to a plate.  I also don't pulverize the banana to a pulp, leave some small lumps, they are a wonderful surprise and help to keep it moist longer.

Since I couldn't be outside playing in the garden (too cold) I got into sous vide cooking!
What a fun challenge. 

My first attempt was two chicken legs, I figured they were cheap enough for a possible disaster. And here they are! The top photo is of them when they came out of the sealed bag, as you can see all of the juice had jelled with the seasonings and was sitting on top of the leg on the left.

Here are the legs after they had been seared in the cast iron pan (do you see a pattern here)  that the mushrooms cooked in truffle oil had been cooked in. I have to say that they were the most tender legs I've ever eaten. I was amazed, did pork chops a couple weeks later and they too were amazingly tender.

The one thing about sous vide cooking is one has to plan ahead, as a PRIME short order cook I
find it hard to do it frequently! (As in what's in the frig, we have to eat!) This weekend I'm going to make Lamb Shanks, sous vide.
Stay tuned.