nothing to see here, move along...

boy, i really went on a posting rampage the past couple of weeks. that wasn't too bright, because now i've really set myself up for certain failure. the posts will dwindle back off to nothing, and my vast readership (read: 1.5 people in the central ohio region) will not be terribly surprised.

but i haven't done much of note. the plantlings are moving along nicely, getting bigger. i still keep forgetting to call the vet (dammit, i need to do that!). same shit, different day.

although! i invented a new recipe last night, and i was quite pleased. i will share it with you, because that's the kind of friend i am. it all approximations, because i don't measure when i cook. i just cook. i was inspired at the grocery store because i saw fresh blackberries in kind of closer proximity to the fresh sage, and i recalled a lotion i had once called "blackberry sage." it was quite nice.

Roast Chicken with Spicy Blackberry Stuffing
(if spicy isn't your thing, i'm sure it would be fine w/o the peppers)

1 whole chicken, appropriate for roasting
red onion, cut into smallish chunks
whole wheat bread (hot dog buns, stale french bread, whatever), torn into big pieces
fresh jalapeño peppers, cut into small chunks
sage (i used dried, powdered because that's what i had; fresh would be good, just use less)
olive oil
water
salt and pepper, to taste
whole, frozen or fresh, blackberries
flour

preheat oven to 400. find a heavy, metal pan for roasting. don't use glass or ceramic, because gravy making will become a pain in the ass and won't turn out very good.

Stuffing:
- put bread, peppers and onions in a large bowl. i used about 2 cups of bread, 1 cup of onion, 1/4 cup chopped jalapeño for a pretty small chicken. keep a similar ratio based on the size of your chicken, or just do amounts to taste. rough-chop some extra jalapeño and keep off to the side.
- add salt, pepper and sage to taste.
- sprinkle with olive oil and a little water, until moist enough to clump together a little bit.
- mix in a handful of blackberries - don't go overboard, just enough to have one in every bite or so of stuffing...

Chicken:
- remove bag o' innards from the chicken. keep for making stock (yeah, right), feed to the cat, or throw it away.
- jam as much stuffing as you can into the cavity of the chicken. and i mean, JAM it in there good.
- put a little olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pan and place the chicken breast side down into the pan. drizzle with a teensy bit of oil, salt and pepper. i try to cut off as much of the extra skin and chunks of fat as possible, leaving just some skin on the top of the breast and on the tops of the legs.
- roast for a while at 400 degrees, until it starts to look brown.
- flip the chicken breast side up and add the reserved jalapeños to the bottom of the pan with the drippings.
- roast until it is nice and golden-ly dark on top, and when you poke a knife into the leg joint the juice runs clear.
- remove chicken from the pan and place on a cutting board to rest.

Gravy time:
- a healthy person would let the drippings cool, then remove the hardened fat. i usually am pressed for time, so i just buy a nice lean-looking chicken and cut off some skin and fat at the beginning...
- so! put the roasting pan right onto one of your burners, over medium heat. sprinkle in a few tablespoons of flour, and keep stirring while the drippings bubble and cook the flour. (the amount of flour you add will depend on how much drippings you end up with. start with 1 and move up from there.)
- once the flour/drippings mixture looks darker and bubbly, splash in a little water or maybe some white wine if you have it. start scraping all the sticky bits off the bottom of the pan.
- keep adding liquid a little splash at a time, until the gravy is the consistency that you like.
- add a handful of blackberries, and turn down to low heat and simmer for a while.
- taste, and add salt and pepper if it needs it.

Serve:

- slice the breast, carve off the legs and wings, and scrape out the stuffing. don't be alarmed a the sight of dark purple-y wet blackberry chunks in the stuffing. i temporarily forgot that i had put berries in the stuffing, and thought that those were pieces of bloody guts. then i remembered and felt silly. the gross part is (shhh, don't tell) that i actually considered eating it anyway. just for a minute.

- pour the gravy over it all or serve on the side in a fancy little pitcher. ta dum!

Food hangover and hatching plan(t)s.

is it possible to have a food hangover? i believe so. and i think that i am suffering from one this morning. it can't possibly be a *real* hangover, as in from drinking to excess, because i didn't. !! i did have a drink before dinner - something called a "london sour" - but i think it was negated by the 2 tons of chinese food that i consumed shortly after.

melissa and alfredo are here from NM and we let them pick dinner. after being secluded in the wilds of new mexico, they were drooling at the prospect of all the different foods to be had. add to that the fact that they used to live here for years and years, and have been missing their old favorite restaurants... well, i'll just say there was no problem of them choosing a place. so we went for victuals and drinks at City Lights of China, in/around dupont circle. it's kind of an old-fashioned-fancy chinese place - good standards, nice booths. we each ordered something and all shared. i suppose i'm not used to all the salty oily goodness, because i feel bloated and ill this morning. and my innards have that wobbly, uncertain feeling that can only mean bad things to come this afternoon.

i am supposed to be writing a grant proposal today. i have an outline ready to go. i've run it by my boss, and got some good ideas to add. but i just can't start it yet. it's too sunny, and i was too busy yesterday to allow for starting it just yet. i need to fool around for a minute first.

i am writing out a list of questions to ask eric during his assessment tomorrow... i am going to take pictures, too. man o man, i can't wait! i love to rearrange furniture (shout out to jessie, in remembrance of our bedroom rearranging at home), and i have rearranged the hell out of my own furniture. i have nearly exhausted all possibilies. i think. so the thought of a blank - and by blank, i guess i mean cluttered and meaningless, canvass thrills me to no end. i hope eric doesn't freak out and give me a bunch of conditions. i want to have carte blanche. (note: i just looked up "carte blanche," to make sure i spelled it correctly - and affirmed its definition to be - "open-ended or vague, and therefore subject to abuse." which is perfect! i want his needs to be vague, so that i can abuse them and do whatever i want.) [insert evil villianess laughter here]

this world is perfect sometimes. blogger just underlined "villianess" to notify me that it doesn't believe that is a real word. blogger suggests that i use the following instead: vaudevillian or, brilliantness. both of which are perfect, too!! this is a perfect word day. i could cry.

in addition to plans, i am also hatching plants! my onions are still alive, which is surprising and good. i moved a tray of lettuce into the cold frame and they are just bustin' loose. the gale-force winds yesterday didn't kill my peas, which is also surprising and good. everything inside is still growing and alive - except for the rest of my gol-darned peppers. !!! they are really pissing me off. i think i am going to start another tray of them, if i don't see progress by sunday. i will try a few different methods of encouraging germination - soak, bleach rinse, shallow planting... all sorts of options. jerky seeds.

the windy plains

holy jeebus, is it windy today or what? i thought the roof was going to blow off last night. then, this morning as i got into my car, the stinkin' wind slammed the door on my left leg. yowch. i am sitting here at the reference desk facing the big windows that overlook the circle, and the flags are crisp and fluttering at full attention. i have a feeling that it might be kinda cold as well, but i won't find out until i leave at 5:00.

we have houseguests again this weekend - some film friends of scott's, in from new mexico. scott is helping them with a weekend shoot for a Large Corporation in town - he's even getting paid! holy smokes. that absolutely never happens. these guys all work in trade, it seems. "you helped me on that last project i had, so i'll help you out on this one, buddy!" scott just had about 7 billion dollars of work done on his car today, so the extra ca$h won't go unnoticed.

my crafty plans for the weekend (why, oh why, am i acting like it is friday? planning my weekend? that's just asking for trouble.):

- finish secret knitting (not sure why it's secret - it's not like maddie uses the computer yet...)
- buy more yarn for sweater/jacket
- obsess over garden plans
- go to eric's place to give him an assessment for his Apartment Fantabulization(c).

re: that last bit: eric has been a'bitchin-and-a'moanin about the state of his apartment. it's kind of a mess, in the way that scott's house was kind of a mess. loads and stacks of crap everywhere, no apparent order to anything, piles and piles of movies, crooked half-broken shelving, pictures hung in weird places. you get the picture. he always says how much he loves our house, and keeps saying that i should come over and help him... but we're finally going to do it! i'm trying to get ashby to help, but i am willing to do it solo. i'm excited! i love rearranging furniture, and messing with other people's stuff - this will be dandy.

gah, it's only thursday.

TUTORIAL: Build your own cold frame - cheap, quick and easy

condensed from an earlier post: http://joyandjubilee.blogspot.com/2008/03/im-wearing-green-thumb-for-st-patricks.html

Materials:
Bricks (I think I used about 100 bricks... give or take)
window frame with glass intact
weed cloth
gravel or rocks
fill dirt
topsoil

Hints:
- I got the window from freecycle, and it came with a matching screen which will come in handy to keep squirrels and other rodents away from the vulnerable plants once the top comes off.

- The fill dirt came from my own yard, as did the rocks/gravel

- This kind of installation is perfect for decks and patios, as it can be disassembled easily - or simply used as a planter later in the season.

How-to:
Step 1: Choose your location. You'll want a mostly-sunny spot, but try to find a place that gets at least some shade during the day - otherwise, you run the risk of cooking your plants. If you are constructing this on a deck or raised surface, pick a spot with adequate support and planon making a smaller cold frame. You don't want your deck to collapse!

Step 2: Measure your window, and lay out one layer of bricks in a shape that matches the size and shape of your window. After the first layer is down, place the window on top to check the layout. Make sure that all edges of the window are centered over a brick edge - you don't want the window to overhang the brick edges.

Step 3: Start layering up your bricks. I planned for a smaller cold frame - about 30" x 30", and only about 14" of dirt. Since my area was to be small and shallow, I did not bother mortaring the bricks or supporting the walls in any way. If you are planning a large cold frame, you might considering staggering the bricks for stability (this requires cutting some bricks in half) or using rods to shore things up.

Step 4: Install the liner. After you get to a good depth (at least 12", I'd say), stop laying bricks and get your weed cloth. Most cloth comes on rolls about 36" wide. Cut strips of cloth to cover the entire bottom and sides of the coldframe. If you have to use more than one strip, make sure the strips of cloth overlap a few inches. Let the extra material hang over the sides of your frame for now...

Step 5: Rocks or gravel. Add a layer of rocks or gravel to cover the bottom of the cloth-lined frame. You could also use busted up old flower pots, broken chunks of brick, seashells. Anything to provide a drainage layer at the bottom.

Step 6: Fill dirt. Get fill dirt from somewhere - many people give it away (check freecycle or craigslist) or just dig some out of your own yard. Fill about halfway up with plain fill dirt. If you are feeling fancy, you could skip this step and just fill the whole thing with potting soil.

Step 7 : Potting soil. Dump in a thin layer of potting soil, and work it into the top of the fill dirt. Dump in the rest of your potting soil, up to your desired depth. Tamp down lightly.

Step 8: Finish the bricks. Trim the overhanging weed cloth so that it only overlaps to the middle of the top brick. Place at least another 2 layers of bricks along the entire frame, so that your seedlings and plants will have enough headroom to grow.

Step 9: Place the window flat on top of the frame... and you're done! Simply tilt the window up or remove and place to the side when you need to get into the frame. On sunny days, slide the window so that a crack of fresh air can get in, or just remove one of the corner bricks to let in some air - otherwise you might overheat the interior. Just put the brick back in place at night.

You can see photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniejeanbrown/sets/72157623934475859/

Have fun! You can take this basic idea and fancy it up a multitude of ways...

~Melanie

tumor? tuber?

okay, so three posts in one day might be a bit excessive. but i just solved a disturbing mystery - all by myself! well, my friend google helped some too - but that hardly counts.

so when i was fussing around in the backyard on saturday, i starting poking around in the flower beds to see what survived the winter. i mostly planted annuals back there, so there wasn't much to see. i noted that i forgot to protect my hibiscus and it perished. oops. and the catnip is already coming back, as well as the cup plant. all good news. i started raking up some of the garbage flotsam and jetsam that accumulated over the winter - mostly carryout containers and malt liquor cans from the drug/prostitution shack across the alley. lar de lar dee lar... rake rake. *thump* the rake hit this skull-shaped lump protruding from the ground, right at the base of the neighbor's board fence. huh? i was almost afraid to see what it was. i jabbed at it with the rake... nothing. i scraped at it, and part of it ripped away to reveal a flesh-colored stringy insides. *yeechk* i scrape some more, and it started to wobble out of its hole, like a large boulder or bowling ball might. i turned the rake around and started jabbing with the handle... and the durned thing popped out of its hole and rolled in a wobbly fashion across the yard, into the alley, and came to rest in the middle of the alley road. it was the size and approximate shape and color of a human head - only with no face. thoroughly grossed out, i just left it there in the middle of the road and returned to fooling around with bricks. much later, i heard a tussle out in the alley and looked out the window to investigate. i saw two drunk old men shoving each other around, walking down the alley drinking beers in bags. they came across the lump/tumor in the road, and halted in their tracks. through the window, i could hear them muttering about it. one of the men tentatively kicked it, and it wobbled toward him. the drunk old guy actually squealed and pawed at his friend's arm - then they skirted around it and continued on their way.

odd.

today, i was thinking about it again. i recalled that i had planted sweet potato vines there last year - the decorative, wildly green and rapidly growing kind that you find in planters and such. "i wonder..." so i called upon google, and wouldn't you know? given enough sun, those decorative plants can occasionally produce large tubers with pale flesh! they are edible, technically, but those strains are cultivated for the decorative and drought-hardy foliage, not for delicious sweet innards. ha! so it wasn't a tumorous, faceless human head in my garden. just a mutant bitter tuber. tumor, tuber. potato, po-tah-to. whatevs.

Pi Party - the aftermath

Well, i tried to take pictures. i really did try! i took a few at the beginning of the party, but then got sidetracked and distracted and forgot about the camera. oopsie. i guess a few pictures are better than none?

Pi Party!
























we ended up with the following pies: frito pie, tybee island pie (sausage, egg, cheese, etc.), key lime pie, raspberry pecan crumble pie, blueberry pie, veggie quiche, chicken pot pie, sweet potato pie, jello shot pie, oreo pie, and i can't think what else. it was a lot of pie.

i'm wearing a green thumb for st. patrick's day

i forgot to plan for st. patrick's day. i wore a really pretty green and white springy-looking shirt to jennifer's baby shower on saturday. a smarter gal would have saved it for today. oh well. i suppose most people don't care much about that. and besides, i can't be sure if i've got any irish in me (:insert dirty joke here)... but, of late, i do have a green thumb!

so i got a huge, full window set on saturday - through freecycle.dc, from a lady named arlene. the full window (top window, bottom window, and frame) was as tall as i am! and heavy heavy, to boot. i drove over there to pick it up, and it took both arlene and me several minutes to wrestle it into the back of my car. as it turns out, arlene is a fellow freecycle-addict. we compared stories of trying to fit huge heavy items into our small cars. i told her how i had to tie a bicycle to the lid of my trunk using shoelaces taken from my shoes, and how 3/4 of the bike hung out of the back as i drove all the way from upper wisconsin ave. she topped me with a story about how she used tubesocks to tie her passenger door shut, to hold in the oversized futon in her backseat. good times. i like to close freecycle transactions with a brisk handshake, and a heartfelt "long live freecycle!"

so i wrestled the window home (note: it had been sitting in her back yard for god-knows how long, and was covered in mud/dead bugs/leaves/cobwebs), through the house, and onto the back deck. "hmm. there has to be a way to dismantle this thing....," i thought. there was! i found about 18 kajillion little screws holding the frame together. once those were gone, the whole thing came apart. i threw the frame pieces into the wasteland under the deck, and i was left with 2 windows and one screen - each about 30"x30". perfect!

at this point, i thought briefly about stopping right there - maybe finish up on sunday... our pi party ran really late on friday night, and i had gotten up bright and early to make it to the baby shower... but i kept on going, knowing that if i stopped i would likely never finish the project. so i slapped on some sunscreen and some cruddy jeans and went to work. i had to duck-walk in a crouch, under the deck, to fish out the bricks leftover from the patio project. duck-walk in, grab a maximum load of 5 bricks, duck-walk out, stand up without smashing skull on overhanging deck, walk to deck stairs, walk up stairs... make tiny insignificant stack of 5 bricks. repeat. over and over again. not to mention the fact that the stack of bricks, in the creepy under-deck, were covered in unidentifiable schmutz - dead spiders, rotten paper from who-knows-where, hobo germs, a tuft of what i can only guess was rat hair, feral cat pee, and a layer of freshly hatched baby slugs. i had the heebie-jeebies like you wouldn't believe. at one point, i picked up a brick and a chunk of muddy rubble rolled down my bare arm. i promptly dropped all the bricks from my arms, and high speed duck-walked outta there making panicked gibberish sounds along the lines of "ghurr, ghurr, ghurr!" but i persevered, and moved a goodly number of the bricks up to the deck proper.

i measured (!) out the size of the window, and plotted out a space on the deck where i wanted to construct the cold frame. i chose a spot in a sort-of out of the way corner, closest to the strongest support beams. i then laid out the bricks to match the size of the window, and started stacking. due to the shape of the cold frame, and also my laziness, i didn't want to have to cut any bricks. thusly, i couldn't stagger the bricks. those of you who have played with legos or blocks, you know that this could be a problem. but i think that the walls are shallow enough that it shouldn't be an issue. so anyway. i stacked the walls up 4 bricks high, then lined the entire thing with weedproof cloth (also leftover from the brick patio experience), followed by a layer of gravel and smallish rocks from the "yard." now for the dirt. hmmm... dirt. i recalled that i had left a dirtpile by the deck stairs (product of often mentioned patio project), so i shoveled that into a series of buckets and empty flower pots and transported the lot up to the deck, and dumped it in. hmmm. this is going to take a lot of dirt. i was too tired to think of driving to home depot for potting soil, so i proceeded to empty all unoccupied planters and pots into the new cold frame bed. i made it! then trimmed the weed cloth to overhang the bricks a bit, and stacked up 2 more rows of bricks. just made it! i used up EXACTLY every brick that i had. how's that for perfect? the dirt ended up being about 14" deep, with about 8" of headroom to the top. capped off with one of the windows, it makes a handsome mini-greenhouse thingie for the deck. once the plants get hardy enough, i will just leave the window off and i'll have a nice raised vegetable bed right there on the deck. yay! i figure the screen will be handy for transitional times, when the plants will be vulnerable to the crazy-ass alley squirrels. anytime they see me messing around in the yard, they wait until nightfall to dig the crap out of everything looking for bulbs, edible seeds, hamburgers, DVDs, whatever it is they are after. a nice screen should keep them out for a night or two until they lose interest.

to test things out, i moved 24 little onion sproutlings out there. i hope i don't kill them. i have some really healthy tomato seedlings coming along, too! but they aren't going outside for a while. i did, however, move the sugar peas outside on saturday. they were threatening to climb all over the inside of my house, devouring us and the furniture a la the ruins. i think they'll be fine out there. it's been sunny and 50/60 during the day lately, and high 30s at night. just fine for peas and lettuce.






































For more gardening adventures, go to my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniejeanbrown/sets/72157604129426864/