Saturday, June 1, 2013

Heat Wave

I don't know if Boston hit at last 90 for three days in a row, but I certainly have. The last two days were 97F. Hot hot hot. This morning I went out the door to go for a hike (very early to beat the heat) and I was struck by the most wonderful smell.

My roses were blooming. The yellow on is a Knockout rose, but the pink climbing rose is an old fashioned rose, Zephirne Drouhin. I'm hoping in a couple of years it will make it over the arch. But I'm really impressed by its blooms. Right now it is escaping more to the side than over the arch. To the side are my electric and gas meters and it is draping over them looking beautiful. My mint pots are in front of it and it makes a good background. I really wanted to make some rose jelly to see what it was like, but I couldn't bear to pick the petals. It is just too pretty and the scent is heavenly.

I've been thinking about how to save some of my Chinese cabbage for the winter. I thought some vegetable potstickers would be perfect. I changed up the recipe a bit. I doubled the cabbage and used Chinese cabbage. I used bunching onions instead of red onion. Is red onion something the Chinese even use? Bunching onions seemed more apropos not to mention that I'm picking them now and the red onions are tiny. I used less white pepper. My carrots were from last fall's frozen carrots so I sliced them into sticks instead of shredding them. It is actually a pretty good spring dish to make as I could get so much from the garden.

I put them in the freezer and will vacuum seal them once they are solid. Sadly this only took up two cups of cabbage. I have so much more. I ought to make a lot of batches, but I'd need more dumpling wrappers. They take a long time to form, but I was getting faster at them. I did it in front of the TV so it wouldn't be so boring. Oh they smelled so good. I love the smell of garlic chives but a whole cup is a lot and the house still smells of it. If I can get a few packages of wrappers I'll make more and make some pork ones too.

Except for my hike I hid in my air conditioning. But still such a hot day deserves a frozen drink and since the strawberries are coming in I made a frozen strawberry margarita. Yum.

Tomorrow is destined to be another hot one. I have a garden chore list made out and I'll try to get as much done as possible before I hide inside again. I need to plant my beans under that trellis I made earlier. Harvest and dry some herbs - either mint or thyme. Spread the salt marsh hay under the fruit trees and asparagus. Clean my husband's car that was used to bring home the hay - it made such a mess. Water the planters and seeds that were planted this week. Circle the tree trunks with tanglefoot so the ants quit farming aphids in them. On Monday the heat is supposed to break and It will be nice to be outside again. Hopefully it will rain again for us too.

15 comments:

  1. I love the smell of roses and yours are beautiful! We will be getting some cooler weather so maybe it will head your way. Would like it to be 75 degrees all summer! Still getting quite a lot of rain here. Nancy

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  2. Isn't this heat crazy?!? We hit 90s today and that is quite rare for us this time of year. I love dumplings! I haven't had them for a long time. I made them once but not with home grown ingredients. Yours look so good.

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  3. Weather! If only it would be predictable - and "temperate"...

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  4. Frozen strawberry margarita - too delicious sounding for words! The pot stickers don't sound half bad either!

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  5. I love the idea of making potstickers to save your cabbage. Yum.

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  6. The pink roses will look beautiful over that archway - can't wait to see a picture of that. Great idea about the pot stickers too, I'll have to try that next year.

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  7. Your weather has been hot and ours has been cool and rainy. The weather is crazy any more! I'm in no hurry for hot weather though. I'm sure we will get our share this summer. I love pot stickers but haven't made them in years. I bet I have forgotten how to form them too, not that I was ever good at it. Yours are way prettier than mine ever were!.

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  8. This heat wave is just awful! Our weather is supposed to break late today or early tomorrow!!! Those pot stickers look perfect and so does that frozen strawberry margarita! That's a great way to use some of our fresh strawberries! Thanks for the idea :)

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  9. Wow that is awful hot for so early in the summer season! That strawberry margarita looks absolutely delicious. Yum! Our strawberries are flowering and fruiting but nothing is near ripe yet - probably because we have been overcast and cool for over a week now. The weather is turning this weekend, though and it is warming up and getting beautiful today and forecasted for the week ahead. Maybe the strawberries will start ripening now that the weather is warming up.

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  10. 97! Yikes! Beautiful roses, wish I could smell them.
    45 and raining right now in Montana.

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  11. How about a recipe for that strawberry margarita?

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    1. 2 c fresh strawberries, 1 c ice, 1/4 c lime juice, 1/4c tequilla, 2 T Gran Gala (or other orange liquor), 2 T sugar. Put in a blender and blend. It isn't very frozen at that point unless you used frozen strawberries, which I didn't have. But if you put it in the freezer for an hour in a container it will start to freeze to the sides and you can mix it up at that point to make it slushy.

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  12. My best friend is Chinese and yes she does use red onions in her dumplings. She is coming to stay later this month to help me harvest the daikon, pak choy and radishes I inherited from her parent's garden. I found you through Mrs Pickle s Garden.

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    1. Thanks. I've never been to China, but I've never seen them in a restaurant. China is so huge with so many different cuisines. I'd love a book on Chinese cuisine that isn't a recipe book. More an overview of the history and different regions and how the food had changed when it hits our shores.

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  13. Those potstickers look good, out local market dropped my favorite brand of wrappers and I don't like what they have now, if I want dumplings I'll have to make my own wrappers :(

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