Plant of the Week: Gladiolus

Name: Gladiolus (click to see a whole array of glads)
Latin Name: Gladiolus sp.
Origin: Sub-Saharan Africa, esp. South Africa

Gladiolus are definitely one of my all-time favorite flowers, but only when they are fresh out of the garden...or in pictures in the catalogs. I have to be honest that gladiolus from florists tend to leave me a little bit cold. Anyway, I'm sure that my love affair with "glads" is due to winning a big ribbon at the county fair when I was a tender 5 or 6 years old. I believe those were 'Priscilla' variety glads, white petals with a pale yellow throat and pink edges. They are still my favorites, although there are lots of other cool ones as well.

Gladiolus are actually a number of florets on a stalk, and what most people probably don't realize is that the florets only have 3 petals. The other 3 petal-like structures are actually sepals, even though they look virtually identical to the petals. In recent years, there have been several newer kinds of gladiolus released to the general public that are smaller and more orchid-like that the typical tall, standard-types.

In most cooler climates, gladiolus corms (you might call them bulbs) should be planted in the spring and then dug up in the fall. They can be replanted for several years before getting too small to support a nice flower stalk.

P.S. And yes, gladiolus are edible...the petals can be eaten and taste kind of like lettuce with a tinge of sugar.

Things for Today

Outside my window... it is sunny and about 80 degrees. Yay Washington! There are some trees, and I can see the back of the casino that is near my hotel.

I am thinking... half en espanol y parte in English. Silly Spanish class.

I am thankful... that it is almost time for dinner. I'm hungry!

I am reading... Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. I just started it, so I don't know if it's any good yet.

I am hoping... that dinner is tasty. (Can you tell I'm hungry?) And that I find something interesting to read/watch/do after dinner.

I am hearing... an episode of TLC's What Not To Wear.

One of my favorite things... is talking to Steven before I go to bed every night when I'm away from home.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Continue going to Spanish class every day for 8 hours, eating dinner, exercising, etc, etc. Perhaps there will be another blog post. Flying home on Saturday!

Sunday Sandwich

So apparently I totally forgot to post some sandwiches into this post and schedule it for posting. Silly me. I misread "draft" to mean "finished and scheduled to post." And here I thought I was doing so well to have all of my posts pre-written for the time I would be gone. Again, silly me.

So here you go, a day late. (Oh, and this is just a random recipe I found, not from The Book at all.)

Sushi Sandwich

• 1 (6 ounce) can salmon or tuna (albacore)
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1 avocado
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons wasabi powder
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 4 rice cakes
• pickled ginger (optional)
  

Directions:
1. Flake salmon or tuna with lemon juice in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Add cream cheese and stir until the mixture becomes paste-like.
3. Stir in wasabi powder and soy sauce (measurements are estimates so if you're concerned about it being too hot or salty, begin with smaller amounts and then adjust seasonings according to taste).
4. Stir until well combined.
5. Spread a generous heaping of mixture on each rice cake.
6. Slice avocados on top.
7. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
8. Drizzle with rice vinegar and a touch of extra soy sauce.
9. If you have it, a little pickled ginger with each bite gives the total sushi effect!

2 Days Down...

In case you were wondering, we successfully made it to Portland and then to Longview, WA. The flights were relatively uneventful, except for the large numbers of small children on the second leg of the flight. I have never seen that many kids on an airplane at one time. Even more annoying, was the number of poor parents accompanying said children. Yikes. I'm sure dealing with a 5 year old boy and an 11 year old boy on a 3 hour flight is not easy...but some things should go without saying. Such as the fact that alternately ignoring and then slapping kids for certain behaviors is not effective discipline. Yeah, I know I'm not a parent yet, but some things don't take a rocket scientist (hi honey!) or an advanced parenting degree.

Anyway, we got to Longview by about 1 p.m. (PDT) Of course, the hotel was not ready for us to check in yet, so we decided to go exploring. We drove west on Hwy. 30 and stopped in a really cute small town called Astoria and wandered around their Sunday market. We bought some Ranier cherries, blueberries, and raspberries to snack on. Then we continued driving. We drove to Seaside, which incidentally, is right on the Pacific Ocean. We visited the beach, and the ocean. Seaside is also the end of the Lewis & Clark trail, so there is a monument there too. This is interesting because the Lewis & Clark trail also goes through Kansas City, and I recall seeing signs for it when Steven and I were up in KC for me to catch my flight. Luckily, it didn't take us as long to get all the way from Kansas to the Pacific Ocean as it did Lewis & Clark!

The scenery is awesome, which was pretty much expected. The weather is also great. No 99 degree temperatures here! We could see Mt. St. Helens as we were driving up to Longview, although while we are in the town (in the valley) we can't actually see it because of the hills/mountains. I am definitely planning to go up to one of the observatories while I'm here.

Oh, the Spanish classes, you say? Yeah, well, we've had 2 days so far and it has been almost entirely review for me. I've picked up a few things here and there. It's also nice to be able to freely practice speaking with other people who are not concerned about mistakes. I don't think I've improved much yet, but I'm sure I'll be somewhat improved by the end of the class. Looking at the syllabus, I don't think we are going to cover anything that is really new to me, although some of the topics I probably didn't learn thoroughly in the past. We shall see. But I'm definitely not having a problem keeping up so far, which is nice.

Other than that, I don't have much news. The only other things I could tell about are not necessarily "bloggable." We shall see.

Plant of the Week: Buffalograss

Common Name: Buffalograss (Click for picture)
Latin Name: Buchloe dactyloides
Origin: Great Plains


I know this is something of a switch in the Plant of the Week, but I thought it would be a fun change. Buffalograss is native to the Great Plains, and is one of the warm season grasses that can be used for lawn or turf grasses in southern Kansas, and points farther south. It is particularly well adapted to soils that are heavy clay and to climates that are not extremely cold in the winter but have hot, dry summers. It is a very fine-leaved grass with a blue-gray-green color. It spreads by aboveground stolons.

Buffalograss is not particularly invasive, especially compared to Bermudagrass. It also requires little or no irrigation or fertilization, which makes it the grass of choice for those looking for a low maintenance or "earth friendly" lawn. The downside is that it is dormant (brown) during the cool early spring and late fall, which apparently people can't handle.

Buffalograss, being native to the prairie, is not perfect for a monoculture lawn either. It will tend to allow a few weeds to compete and live side-by-side.

Sunday Sandwich

Okay, so far I'm just re-posting sandwiches from my old blog. Eventually I will probably break out the sandwich book and post some new sandwiches. That will be after I remember to retrieve the book from my shelf and perch it next to Steven's computer.

Oyster Loaf Sandwich
Cut Vienna rolls into halves and spread lightly with butter; on one half lay four fried oysters, cover with the other half of roll, and serve with a pickle.

Oyster and Caviare Sandwich
Butter thin slices of brown bread, cover one slice thinly with caviare and on this lay two raw whole oysters; cover with another slice of bread and garnish with slice of lemon.

Grill Room Oyster Sandwich
Toast three slices of white bread and lightly butter. Place fried oysters between the slices and dust lightly with pepper and salt. Cut in strips and serve on a lettuce leaf. Remove contents of half an orange peel and fill with chili sauce. Serve on the plate with the sandwich.

Remove the contents of half an orange peel? Uh...are they trying to say "peel an orange"?

Voy a Washington!

Voy a la ciudad de Longview en el estado de Washington para dos semanas. Estoy asistado un instituto de inmersion de espanol. (Lo siento...a esta compuadora no puedo usar acentos.)

Mini Web Safari and Sweet Corn

It's been quite awhile since I've done anything remotely resembling a Web Safari, but I only have a few links that I'm intending to share, so I'm combining this with a short thought on proper selection of sweet corn varieties.

First up - I found this article interesting, partly because it goes against what lots of churches like to promote: Unchurched People Prefer Traditional Churches This is actually referring to architecture and such, but an interesting article, nonetheless. (Is nonetheless really a word? The spell checker didn't highlight it for me, so it would seem to be somewhat acceptable. Kind of a strange word though - very German in the way of crunching words together to make a new word.)

The New York Times has a really interesting, and surprisingly, quite warm article about Rush Limbaugh.

Just in case you've never seen this county-by-county map of the Generic Term for Pop/Soda/Coke.

Sweet Corn
I bought some sweet corn from the main sweet corn farmer at the market this morning. I have to say that I was disappointed. Granted, I was raised on certain varieties of sweet corn, and I have an affinity for them. I also found one variety out in Ohio that I really, really like. (Mirai) Unfortunately, the growers here are enamored with bicolor varieties (which is fine if that is what you like, although I think they are just silly). The variety was also a sugary enhanced variety, and I much prefer SuperSweets. They are much sweeter, have better shelf life, and have a nice crunch. I personally like my sweet corn crunchy, although I know other people don't. Their loss.

Plant of the Week: Arugula

Common Name: Arugula (Click for picture and for nutrition information)
Latin Name: Eruca sativa
Origin: Mediterranean

Arugula is an annual salad green that is becoming increasingly common in grocery stores. It is in many of the salad mixes, and can even be found individually at times. It has a quite strong peppery flavor which you either like or dislike. I, personally, am not that fond of arugula unless it is mixed in with lots of other things.

Arugula is a member of the Brassica family, like mustards, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. It does have a flavor similar to mustards and turnips, but I would say it is much stronger and sharply flavored than other Brassicas. It can be used cooked or raw.

Growing arugula is quite easy, really. You can plant the seeds and harvest baby sized greens in about 45 days.

Mwahahaha! The Return of the Sunday Sandwich!

Harlequin Sandwich
Lightly buttered slices of white and graham bread. Spread each with Neufchatel cheese and sprinkle with a few English walnut meats. Put a white and a brown slice together.

Berlin Sandwich
Chop olives fine and moisten with mayonnaise dressing; spread on buttered slices of bread. Spread other slices with Neufchatel cheese and put slices together in pairs.

Limburger Cheese Sandwich
Spread thin slices of lightly buttered rye bread with Limburger cheese, then with thin slices of bologna sausage; cover with another slice of rye bread. Garnish with a pickle.

Blog Template Tweaking in Progress

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm back to playing with my blog template. Some things aren't aligned quite correctly yet, and other things have disappeared. Hopefully it will all be fixed soon, with some new and improved elements. Please be patient!

Book Review: Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

A few weeks ago I read Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I had to read Poisonwood Bible for my freshman English class at ISU, and I enjoyed Kingsolver's prose then, although the book wasn't my favorite. This book also had quite nice prose, but overall I enjoyed it much more than Poisonwood Bible.

Both of the books use the technique of switching the narrative voice in each chapter to a different main character in the book. Prodigal Summer has 3 main narrative voices, a middle-aged woman who lives a solitary life as a Park Service/Forest Ranger/wildlife biologist in a National Forest in the mountain, an elderly farmer who's mission in life is to develop a blight-resistant American Chestnut by multiple back-crosses with resistant Chinese Chestnuts, and a young, widowed, entomologist-turned-farm wife.

The book shows an interesting intersection between modern science, rural Kentucky farm life, and the current environmental ethos. The story telling is excellent, and although I would say that Kingsolver definitely lets her perspective and opinions show through the book, she does not go to the extent of demonizing the other viewpoints, but rather portrays them sympathetically and honestly.

Overall, I would highly recommend the book, if for no other reason than the beautiful word pictures of nature and wildlife that Kingsolver weaves throughout the book.

Plant of the Week: Cuban Oregano

Common Name: Cuban Oregano (Click for picture)
Latin Name: Plectranthus amboinicus
Origin: Africa...no, it doesn't make sense...

Cuban Oregano is a tender perennial (which means annual for those of you living in Zone 7 or colder). Some people also call it Spanish Thyme. It can be variegated or plain green. It is a very succulent plant...leaves are very fleshy and juicy. The leaves also tend to be velvety and covered with hairs. It is a very spicy, strong smelling plant, and apparently is unique for culinary purposes. I've never actually tried using it in cooking, so I'm afraid I can't recommend any uses.

It is quite attractive in a hanging basket or planted in the garden. It prefers hot, humid conditions, and either partial shade or full sun. Basically, if you are in a really hot, searing location then I'd go with part shade. It is going to be a pretty slow growing plant until the heat of the summer shows up. It is very easy to propagate. You can pretty much drop a leaf on some moist soil and it will root and start growing.