Nobody's Mad

This is a simple dessert made with pantry ingredients and the fruit of your backyard rhubarb plant.

Filling:

• 4 cups rhubarb pieces (1/2 inch slices)
• 1 1/3 cups white sugar
• 6 T flour
• 1 T butter

Topping:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter

Place the rhubarb in a large bowl.  Measure the other ingredients for the filling into a separate bowl and rub or cut in the butter.  Stir into the rhubarb until well mixed and place in a 10-inch pie dish. In a separate bowl measure and cut in the topping ingredients.  Pat the topping down over the filling.  Bake the crumble at 375 dregrees f. until golden and bubbly.

Expected rooting: Unknown

8 cuttings

08/21/09: Planted 1 per cell in 8 cells, using rooting compound.

–MJH

A favorite vegetable is white-stemmed Swiss chard.  Coarsely chop the mature leaves, dice the stems, and cook till tender in boiling, salted water.  The result is mellow-tasting and delectable.  Try adding a splash of vinegar just before serving.  You can substitute Swiss chard for spinach in cooked dishes, with the advantage that you can use the chard stems.  In “The Green Thumb Book of Fruit and Vegetable Gardening” (George Abraham, 1970) you will find the ultimate chard-stem recipe:  “Chicken Chard.”  The recipe calls for dipping pre-cooked stem pieces in batter and frying them in one inch of cooking oil.  “Delicious– just like fried chicken!” says the author.

Being in Seattle means a favorite savory treat, injera, the native bread of Ethiopia, which can best be described as a huge, stretchy, grayish, slightly sour-tasting pancake that somehow becomes irresistible when served with vegetables, or a sauce made with red pepper.

It is an acquired taste not acquired by my better half, who refers to it as “auto upholstery,” conjuring images of the rusted hulks you see in wrecking yards, with the stuffing popping out of torn bucket seats.

I forge ahead undeterred.

This week I visited one of many Ethiopian stores in our part of the city.  The market sells packages of fresh injera at $3 for five or $5 for ten.  Believe me, a five-pack  of the thirteen-and-one-half-inch pancakes is sufficient for us, since obviously I am the only resident of House of Blues who likes auto upholstery for lunch.

A half pancake, covered with sauce and rolled up, accompanied by cooked Swiss chard and a boiled egg, makes a meal.  Injera also becomes a great appetizer or snack when cut in strips, spread with sauce, and rolled up.

Ethiopian cooks make a luscious sauce that I understand takes all day to cook and requires huge amounts of onions.  I’ll never forget my visit to Tsegge’s kitchen, and the mouthwatering, spicy sauce she produced.

I use a quick alternative that is no match for the real thing but suffices for the amateur injera connoisseur.   For it you need Berbere spice, made with ground red peppers, available in varying, and not necessarily predictable, intensity at Ethiopian markets.   Combine it with a good-quality marinara sauce that you purchase by the jar at your supermarket.  Because the spice is HOT and varies in strength, you will need to experiment a little with method and proportion.  Here is how I make the sauce with the Berbere I buy at the local Ethiopian market:

For about a cup of sauce, heat about two tablespoons of water to boiling, in a small saucepan.  Turn down the heat and add about two teaspoons of Berbere powder and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth.  Add one cup of the marinara sauce.  Continue stirring while you bring the sauce to temperature over a moderate flame.

"The ambiance remained..."

It was our first “garden party,” and we served seven different offerings from the vegetable patch and two herbs, as we enjoyed a get-together with the “Other M and M’s.”  It was wonderful to see these dear people and to enjoy an afternoon in the back garden.  On the menu: garden peas, turnips, radishes, lettuce, mesclun, Swiss chard, snap peas, mint, and rosemary.  Also: mashed potatoes, Ann’s Essential Meatloaf, “gnarly” carrots,  homemade biscuits, and a lovely fruit plate– the latter contributed by the OMM’s.  We thought the day and the table setting vaguely suggested the terrace of some pub in the Cotswolds– but it would be some pub indeed that served such healthy foods, as was pointed out.  It was great fun “catching up” and exchanging opinions on the mad state of the world with our dear ones.  After they left, the ambience remained, and for a few minutes the table and the garden seemed to register their presence and hold the memory of a very happy first “garden party.”

Mariposa lawn chemical soil test results:

We’ll use 29-3-4 but rate it only 22-3-4 as 7-0-0 is slow release.

For the small middle patch of lawn we’ll use 7ozs for 100 sq ft.  For the lower triangle of lawn we’ll use 14ozs for 220 sq ft.

The lawn was fertilized according to the foregoing instructions on August 22.  Subsequently the lawn was reported to be “looking good.”   About five weeks after the fertilizing, on September 29, we asked for a report and learned that the fertilizer seemed  to have a beneficial effect.  The lawn was still “looking good” and some former brown spots had filled in and were doing well.

Ed Hume Glorious Gleam trailing mixed colors

Expected germination: 10 days

18 seeds

07/29-30: Planted 1 per cell in 18 cells.  2A: Untreated.  2B: Soaked.  2C: Scarred.

–MJH

Ed Hume, Magic Carpet

Expected germination: 10 to 20 days

Approximately 12 seeds

07/29: Planted 2 per cell in 12 cells.

–MJH

Ed Hume, Autumn Beauty mix

Expected germination: 10 to 15 days

12 seeds

07/29: Planted 1 per cell in 12 cells.
08/01: Noted first seedling. –MJH
08/07: 7 of 12 (58%) have shoots 3/4″ to 2-1/2″ tall.
08/15: Planted out.
08/15: 4″ to 9″ tall.
08/23: 8″ to 13″ tall, with foliage diameter approx 6″.
08/30: 12″ to 20″ tall. Heavily shaded by original sunflowers.