So you can spend more time gardening

Try this in your slow cooker:

Chicken Paprikash, known in our house as
Lulu's Chicken Dumpling Soup

1 4lb. chicken
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 tsp. paprika
chicken bouillon cubes to taste
pepper to taste
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2 eggs
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. all-purpose flour
(3 C. cooked chicken from the original 4 lb. chicken)
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4 T. unsalted butter

2 C. onions, chopped

1 T. roasted garlic, minced

1/2 C. all-purpose flour
3 C. cooked chicken (I use Trader Joe's frozen boneless seasoned chicken strips)
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1 T. Smoked Tabasco (chipotle sauce)


1.  Place the chicken, salt, red pepper flakes and paprika in your slow cooker.  Fill the stoneware 3/4 of the way full with water.  Cover; cook on low for 9 hours or high for 3-4 hours.


(While the chicken cooks, how about pulling some of those early "weeds"?  Cardamine, or Bittercress, can be harvested for fresh salad greens, as can Miner's Lettuce.  Cardamine has a peppery flavor, and a unique bitterness that is best enjoyed in very small amounts.  Miner's Lettuce has a sweet flavor and juiciness that makes for great fresh eating.  Keep an eye out for them.)

2.  Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and turn the temperature to high.  Add water as needed to bring the volume back up to 2/3 -  3/4 full.  Add bouillon cubes to taste.  This is your chicken broth.

3.  As the chicken cools slightly, put a skillet on the burner and add the 4 T. butter, chopped onions, and garlic.  Cook until the onion is translucent.  Stir in 1/2 C. flour until fully incorporated.  Pour in 1 Qt. of your chicken broth, stirring constantly, and add your additional 3 C. chicken to the broth.  Cover.  Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

4.  While your skillet simmers, separate the meat from the whole chicken and discard the skin and bones.  Cut the chicken meat into bite-size pieces.  You should get 3 C. cooked chicken from your 4 lb. bird.

5.  In a blender or food processor, combine the 3 C. cooked chicken from your whole bird, 2 eggs, 3/4 C. chicken broth from your slow cooker, 1 C. flour, and 1-1/2 tsp. salt.  Process until smooth.  This is your dumpling mixture.

6.  When slow cooker broth is boiling, add the contents of your small skillet to it and stir to incorporate mixture.  Let cook for 2-3 minutes.

7.  Drop dumpling mixture by rounded spoonfuls into boiling broth.  Simmer uncovered 5-8 minutes until well-formed and slightly browned.

8.  Add smoked tabasco to the slow cooker, and soup is ready to serve hot!

Raising Rhubarb

Did you ever eat the raw stems of rhubarb dipped in sugar?  I planted these for my husband, whose memories of the tangy sweet treat are fond.

This sweet little darling, Victoria, is reaching for sunlight to green and grow its ancient-looking leaves.  We have several planted in our little landscape, between ornamental perennials and container plants.  Last year was all patience, getting our tubers settled in.  But this, this will be a light harvest year if all goes well.  And 2012 will bring the bounty.

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/varieties

Rhubarb provides a magnificent prehistoric look to the landscape, similar to Gunnera but of much smaller stature.  If its rugged charm doesn't disarm you, and you're not content to allow edible plants idle in your landscape, tempt your friends and family with a rhubarb-strawberry crumble (recipe from Cooking Light, 2004).  And if the weather's right, make it an easy dutch oven dessert on your next trip to the mountain or the coast.


Ingredients
1/2  cup  all-purpose flour
1/2  cup  quick-cooking oats
1/3  cup  flaked sweetened coconut
1/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/4  cup  packed brown sugar
1/4  cup  chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
6  cups  (1/2-inch-thick) slices rhubarb (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2/3  cup  granulated sugar
2  tablespoons  cornstarch
Cooking spray
1/4  cup  strawberry spread (such as Polaner All Fruit)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (flour through brown sugar) in a medium bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Combine rhubarb, 2/3 cup granulated sugar, and cornstarch in a large bowl, tossing to coat. Spoon rhubarb mixture into an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Drop strawberry spread by spoonfuls over rhubarb mixture; sprinkle with oats mixture. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Hellebore Hosanna

Cinnamon Snow, with seductive, dusky blooms glows in our woodland semi-shade.  Fully awake, leaves spreading dark green, she holds a small but significant foundation in our garden.  Who are first to greet us in the new year, delivering richness with a strength unfettered by recent frost, but our noble Hellebores, with passion and scent exuding.

Fresh from the Garden Pesto

It's not too late to make use of that fresh Basil still popping out of your garden.  If you've had all the fresh basil you could ever want from our short summer, consider cutting and freezing the rest in the form of pesto.  The secret to the favorite pizza in our house is a basil pesto sauce base.  Learning from the master pie makers at American Dream, we top it with red sauce, artichoke hearts, feta, salami or pepperoni, and sundried tomatoes.  The other secret is to brush the edge of your crust with garlic butter.  Soooo good....   

For my own pesto, I use walnuts since they're more readily on hand under this roof.  These are most flavorful when lightly toasted in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 5-8 minutes (until just starting to brown).  

If you don't have a food processor, a handheld blender works just as well.  Before you freeze your pesto, put a small amount of lemon juice in the top of the jar to help prevent oxidization. 

Garlic Lovers’ Basil Pesto Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts, lightly toasted

5 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

3 tsp. lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Makes approximately 6 oz. fresh pesto

Mahonia Magic

Have you noticed the yellow winter blooms bringing attention to the Oregon Grapes that, 8 or 9 months out of the year, reside demurely in a background or hedgerow?  Winter and early fall are the times they're most likely to tempt money from the gardener's wallet.  Starting as early as January, the beautiful lemon bells have a slight, sweet fragrance that succeeds the Witch Hazels' own.  The flowers are edible and citrusy, making a nice addition to winter salads.  Following into Autumn, the blue-black berries have formed; hanging succulent temptations for urban birds and home canners who adore the sweetened jam.   

Mahonia aquifolium can reach 7-10 feet tall.  Several cultivars are grown for varying floral display.  These are sometimes found in retail nurseries.  The species pictured here, Mahonia aquifolium 'Compacta' will grow 2-3 feet tall and approx. 1 1/2 feet wide.  Width can easily be controlled by removing suckers.  Oregon Grape performs best year-round in dappled shade, but will tolerate full sun and a range of soils.  

  

Bleeding Heart Blooms

Always reminding me of Lewis Carroll's famous Queens,  Bleeding Hearts are a must for the sweetheart garden, a woodland planting, and for early spring confidence that sunshine will soon again find its way into your home and garden.  The species shown here, Dicentra spectabilis, is native to east Asia and will grow 2-3 feet in height and approx. 2 feet wide.  Bleeding Hearts grow happily in semi-shaded areas among ferns, Heucheras, and Oregon Grape.  Other species worthy of mention are the later flowering native Bleeding Heart, Dicentra formosa, and the early white-flowering cultivar Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba'.  The elegant flowers are excellent, though not long-lasting, in a vase.  

Hawaii's National Tropical Botanical Garden

   

                       

is located on peaceful Kauai, just a few miles west of Po'ipu on the island's leeward side.  As stated on their website, http://www.ntbg.org, "The importance of plants to life on earth is immeasurable. We depend upon them for the air we breathe, for the food we eat, for shelter, and for medicine.

Ninety percent of all plant and animal species on our planet exist in the tropics -- that warm moist belt that circles the earth. And it is in these regions where the extinction rate is the highest. Species are disappearing faster than anyone knows. They cannot be replaced.
The National Tropical Botanical Garden is dedicated to preserving tropical plant diversity and stemming this tide of extinction - through plant exploration, propagation, habitat restoration, scientific research, and education. NTBG's gardens and preserves are safe havens for at-risk species that otherwise might disappear forever."
This kind of work is so important, and their collections so impressive.  I was lucky enough to make a visit last month (the reason for no January post), and spent most of my time in the tropical oasis of McBryde Garden, blowing my mind, geeking out on their amazing specimens.  
As far as learning new plants goes, my time there was limited but I was able to learn a few, as well as see many I'd known only as Northwest houseplants, growing naturally more beautiful in their preferred habitat.  Ti leaf, gingers, turmeric, Indian Mulberry, Taro, Elephant Ears, Banana, Coconut Palms, Candlenut, Cacao, and sweet potato are plants all growing beautifully today; February 5th, another sunny day on the south side of Kauai. 
Rarities and immediate favorites were Hibiscus waimeae (koki'o ke'oke'o); native to Kauai, and having fragrant white flowers unlike most other hibiscus.  Also, the Spindle Palm (Hyophorbe verschaffeltii) which was flowering in January, created a seductive attraction for the local honey bees.  Other highlights were the vanilla orchid, of which there are 110 species native to tropical regions from North America to Asia.  Vanilla planifolia is the species commercially grown to produce vanilla flavoring.  
Also worthy of mention, the curious Kupang tree (Parkia timoriana), also called Tree Bean. According to http://flowersofindia.net, the kupang flowers are dense, hanging from leaf axils like old-fashioned electric bulbs, on long cable-like stalks. The flowers are white and yellow, about 1 cm long. The pods are about 3.5 cm wide, rather thick, pendulous, and black and shinning when mature, and contain from 15-20 seeds. The pods are edible, and are considered a delicacy in Manipur. Their pulp is golden yellow, with a sweetish taste and an odor like that of violets. The roasted seeds are used in certain parts of Africa to make an infusion like coffee, for which reason they have been called soudan Coffee.   
Favorites both known and unknown are pictured here.