Monthly Archives: October 2013

6th Week of my Garden

Garden

DSC00712   Garden at end of 6th week

DSC00702  Baby radishes

I am still observing my garden, and wondering whether or not increasing day lengths  in a couple of months are going to improve its performance.   Some of the seedlings are taller than a week ago.  Watering seems to help a little.   Fertilizer  may have helped a little.  Some seedlings are a bit greener and taller than a week ago.    I am planning to gradually improve the soil by adding potting mix, topsoil and mulch as a long term project.   In the short term I am just watching.

The sorrel, not available in stores, is nowhere, and I think that will not succeed.  Chives and onions from seeds are doing very poorly.  I am not sure about oregano and marjoram because some herbs grew very slowly last year.  Everything else is not doing what I had expected.

This attempt of mine shows that putting seeds in the lead free ground is not enough to grow a kitchen garden.  I had expected it to grow better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plantain Bread

Health, Kitchen, ,

DSC00536

 

This recipes makes two 5″ X  9″ loaves, or 4 small aluminum loaf pans about 3 1/2″ X  7 1/2″ .  It is very goo heated up in a toaster or even a microwave oven with butter.  Adapted from Shelley Albehuhn’s Banana Banana Bread on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups unbromated, unbleached bread flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, melted in the microwave for one minute
  • 2 cups (1 pound) dark brown sugar
  • 5 egs well beaten
  • 5 cups mashed yellow to black plantains
  • 2 cups chopped pecans

Procedure:

Prepare the pans you want to use by spraying with butter flavored PAM, and coating with flour.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Set aside.

In a larger bowl, mix the melted butter and brown sugar.  Stir in the eggs well.  Stir in the mashed plantains.  Stir in the dry ingredients mixture. Stir in the chopped nuts.   Distribute into two 9″ X 5″ pans or four of the smaller pans.

Bake the larger loaves for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out cleanly.  Bake the smaller loaves for one hour and 5 minutes.  Rest for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack after removing from the oven.   Run a knife around the edge of each loaf.  Turn out onto a wire rack before the loaves cool completely.  Serve warm.

After cooling completely, put any extra loaves away wrapping in parchment paper secured with a rubber band, and slipped into a 1 gallon ZipLoc for placement into the refrigerator or freezer.

 

 

 

 

 

We All Need Companionship And Acceptance

Needs (Human), ,

May 12-28, 2006 Hungary (225)Sets of companions in a tourist area

We all need our family and friends!  If we do not have social acceptance in realms of activity which are important to us, or it appears to us that we do not,  we will suffer, sometimes enormously.  This is why bullying can be so bad to anybody.  Furthermore, it is probably the reason that people who are first jailed are often put on suicide watch.  It is very likely a reason that excommunication from the church was (is) a very severe punishment,  and may be the stuff of the “furies” of ancient Greek literature.

OCT 22, 2013 scan Us Two

This is a  fun description of early childhood companionship by A. A. Milne, from his book, “Now We Are Six” ( Copyright renewed in 1955 by A. A. Milne).