Here Comes the Sun!

After many, many rain delays, (and snow!) we finally got to plant our seeds last weekend.
Here's the official list of what we planted:

Carrots: Purple Dragon and Touchon

Corn: Maple Sugar

Lettuce: Heatwave Blend (several types of lettuce that can stand up to our summer heat)

Green Beans: French Filet

Potatoes: Swedish Fingerling; Beauregard sweet potatoes

Strawberries: Eversweet

Now. About the strawberries. The poor dears had to languish in a pot under a grow light in our basement for several weeks. There was a lot of rain. And sometimes it just was too stinkin' cold to put them out.

I finally dragged them outside and started to plant them in their little strawberry tower. It has a removable bottom. Which, if you're not very careful, will come off when you try to turn it over after filling it with soil. Of course, I was very careful...but it all dumped out anyway.

It was all his fault:

After refilling the tower, I started to plug the strawberry plants into the tower. It looked like someone shoving a big ol' tobacco chaw into a little bitty mouth.

They all got planted and our cheery little tower finally looked like this:

That was a week ago. After one week, lots of threatening looking clouds, some brief but heavy downpours, it looks like this:

Yikes.

Not sure if these babies are gonna make it. Did I mention there were mushrooms in the pot from the basement? Mighta had something to do with it.

Good news on the seeds, though. 

We now have lettuce sprouts!

And little slivers of corn stalks, tiny carrot tops that look like fairy wings, and today, a bean sprout.

This is a long post, so I'll wrap it up. But I did get the potatoes planted in their containers yesterday. Photos and how-to on that next time.

Today's recipe is a sunny Baked Lemon Pasta from the Pioneer Woman herself. Made it tonight and it is delish!

Baked Lemon Pasta

1 pound thin spaghetti

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

2 cups sour cream

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste

Plenty of grated Parmesan cheese

Flat leaf parsley, chopped

Extra lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente.

In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over low heat.

When butter is melted, add minced garlic.

Squeeze lemon juice into pan. Turn off heat.

Add sour cream and stir mixture together. Add lemon zest and salt. Taste, then add more salt if necessary.

Pour  mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish.

Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for additional 7 - 10 minutes. (Don't bake too long or pasta will dry out.)

When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. 

Top generously with Parmesan cheese, then chopped parsley.

Give it a final squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

Snow and Strawberries

On March 1 I read that some cool weather crops, such as potatoes, should be in the ground by mid-to late March. 

Since we were laid up with flu and the garden-to-be looked like this:

 I doubted that this garden wisdom would be heeded.

Instead, in between nose blows and pathetic rounds of "Who Feels Worse?" I thumb through catalogs and drool over strawberries like these Ozark Beauties.

"Wave after wave of lush berries all the way through frost." Ahh...

Although, upon close inspection, the dimples in these berries 

make them look like little red butts.

Here's an easy recipe for some Strawberry Jam. Even with store bought, out of season berries you can get a yummy jam that's fantastic on toast, biscuits, scones or just the end of your fingers.

Strawberry Refrigerator Jam

from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook" pg 780.

Makes about 2 cups

1 quart strawberries, hulled & sliced thin

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Set a small bowl over a larger bowl of ice water and set aside. Simmer strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until the mixture begins to look syrupy, about 10 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and spoon 1/2 teaspoon fruit mixture into the small bowl set over ice water. Let sit for 30 seconds. Tip the bowl to one side. The jam should move only slightly. If mixture is too fluid and runs to the side of the bowl, return the skillet to heat and continue to cook until mixture looks thicker, 2 to 4 minutes. Repeat the test and continue to cook, if necessary.

Cool to room temperature before serving, about 1 hour.