Delightful Daylily Delicacies

The kiddies are at Camp, so I decided to have some fun in foodie foraging.  Today I didn't go very far - in fact, I stepped out the kitchen door, snapped off some daylily buds and flowers, and stepped right back inside.  I wanted something that reminded me of Crab Rangoon, which I cannot have due to the gluten (sigh).  So for each flower, I mixed 1 T neufchatel cheese (only because I was out of cream cheese), 1T plain Greek yogurt (leftover from breakfast), and 1/2 t honey.  After stuffing this into the flowers, I rolled the flowers in 1 beaten egg with 1 T orange juice mixed in.  Then I rolled the flowers in crushed cornflakes and dropped the flowers into a small frying pan with 1/4" sunflower oil hot but not smoking.  After a minute, I rolled the flowers over, and after another minute I removed them, let them cool slightly, and ate them.  I will now have to save all those daylilies later this summer when we have to remove all the dirt the previous owners idiotically piled against the house past the siding because daylily flowers are delicious!

So I had to try the buds, too.  Easiest recipe in the world - wash buds, dry buds, saute in butter and salt and since I had a garlic scape I threw it in there, too.  Oh my!  I love asparagus.  This tastes like asparagus to me.  Now I have to decide if I should even let the flowers bloom at all, or just eat them all as buds.  If there are any left when the kids get home, I'll be amazed.  Or maybe I'll just have them pick the ones that grow wild up near the pine woods...

Long Live the Queen(s)!

I hived the bees last Friday afternoon, and checked them today to be sure the queens had been released from their cages.  They were both out.  Hive One had eggs.  I didn't find any in Hive Two, but only looked in the top deep (yes, they each have two deeps, because I had that much built comb and honey left from the hives that died this winter.  I left them only the smallest entry, so they could defend themselves.  There has been no evidence of robbing - I think every hive in a two mile radius is probably dead.  I don't hold out much hope of catching any swarms this year, but hope springs eternal...I'll check Hive Two again on Monday for eggs.  If there are none, I'll give them a frame of eggs from Hive One and they can make themselves a queen.

The blueberries are planted.  The highbush cranberries MUST go in tomorrow, because I have sea berries and kiwi and passion flowers and I forget what else that also must go in this weekend (they arrived on Wednesday).  I will pick up more peas to plant when I get duck feed tomorrow, too, since either nothing came up, or it got eaten immediately.  I'll slap row covers on everything this time, and hope that takes care of it - it's getting mighty late to be planting peas here, and I want enough to freeze for the winter, too.

I wish I could find my Five Year Line-A-Day Journal.  I would like to have entered the sand cherries blooming last weekend, and the dates when the daffs and tulips bloomed (I can't even remember when they started).

We've had asparagus for supper three times now (Yum!), and the rhubarb in the hoop house is about ready to become rhubarb crumble.  I wish I had gotten around to moving the five plants the previous owner put in the middle of the yard (?!)

The garlic is doing well so far.  I am debating ordering some types we haven't tried yet.  It's going to be a pain tilling more space for it, though.  At least I don't have to think about that til Labor Day.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

I have a house with issues (leaking roof, lake under the living room floor, blah, blah, blah).  The issue of the moment is WHERE TO START MY SEEDS??? (One must have priorities, yes?)  In a moment of (subjective) brilliance, I realized that the bathroom-that-will-not-have-ducklings-in-it would be a great place to start my veggies.  In fact, it is the only place in the house I have room to start the veggies, but we won't get into that.  The laundry room/other bathroom is a no-go due to the ducklings which will be arriving in two weeks.  Yes, I know I said they would be outside, but we didn't get around to moving the little coop (formerly known as Chicken Ghetto) down to the Big Coop, and it's been too darn cold here (-18 yesterday morning).  Anyway, back to the seed-starting... The kitchen table won't work because we need to eat there.  The homeschool room has no room.  My sewing area would require carrying water up the stairs and that isn't going to happen.  My bedroom isn't heated and I can often see my breath in there, which is too cold for my tender little plants.  The leaks in the kitchen have resulted in multiple buckets on the floor, and me standing on the countertops every two hours or so to change the towels on the already-ruined cabinets.  So the countertops are out, even if I didn't need them for prepping meals.  So the bathroom it is.  It's an excruciatingly UGLY bathroom, but there is space between the toilet and the sink... a few inches longer than my jiffy trays.  Also a few inches longer than my one grow light.  So I went looking for a set of shelves today that would fit there, on which I could set heating pads and Jiffy trays, and from which I could suspend grow lamps.  No joy.  Someone had donated to Goodwill lots of expensive leather furniture, and a solid wood chest-of-drawers that I was just drooling over, but I had to confine myself to a few books, since we need to find out how much the NEW STEEL ROOF is going to cost, before I spend any great piles of cash.  Hence the Goodwill and Habitat Restore search for cheap shelves.  Maybe I'll try Craigs List while I'm at it.  Since the seeds began arriving today, and I'd like to start some of them Monday, this needs to get done in a hurry.  I hope this works... and doesn't turn out to be one of those things I end up saying "It seemed like a good idea at the time..." about. 

Vinnie

This is Vinnie.  He is the newest addition to our menagerie.  He is not "new" however, being nine years old.  I actually had this all written out and ready to post just after Christmas when he arrived, but Blogger was being a Booger and not saving or publishing anything for me.  So I re-write.  Vinnie came to us because his original family rented a home from a relative of theirs for many years while it was on the market.  The home finally sold, and the family had to move very quickly.  It proved impossible for them to find an affordable rental home for a family of eight plus a Bull Mastiff.  So we have been blessed with Vinnie.  I also refer to him as The Wall of Zen, because he is the calmest dog ever.  Sunny is neurotic about strangers in any form (human or animal) and took exception to Vinnie in the kitchen the morning after we got him.  (I should point out here that Sunny weighs 25#, while Vinnie tops out at 130#).  Anyway, Sunny charged Vinnie, then realized halfway there how stupid that was and tried to stop.  That didn't work so well on the vinyl floor, and Sunny slid right into Vinny... who ignored the entire event, and Sunny, utterly.  I hope Vinnie's calm is contagious, and Sunny catches it...

Into the second week, Sunny seems to be adjusting.  He is down to about three mad barking and growling spells a day now, from uncountable barking snits and continual grumbling under his breath at the beginning.