Garden Update

 This is just a little update from the Kerr apartment garden. We transplanted most of our morning glories into their own larger containers this morning.

The lettuce is growing like crazy.

The spinach is actually starting to look like spinach.

And this guy is just growing and growing! Here's what it looked like when we planted it just two weeks ago:

Sunday

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King’s triumph!

Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let allcorners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness.

Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice, arrayed with the lighting of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

It is truly right and just, with ardent love of mind and heart, and with devoted service of our voice, to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten. Who for our sake paid Adam’s debt to the eternal Father, and pouring out his own dear Blood wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.

These then are the feasts of Passover, in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb, whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.

This is the night, when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.

This is the night that with a pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin.

This is the night that even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, lending them to grace, and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death, and rose victorious from the underworld. Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night of which it is written: The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night dispels all wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.

O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human.

(from the Exsultet)

Sweet and Sour Pork

Our fifth new recipe was from a cooking class I took at COS a number of years ago. It was Sweet and Sour Pork and we both thought it was great.

Sweet and Sour Pork (Makes 4 servings)

1 lb. pork tenderloin

2 cans (8 oz. each) pineapple tidbits

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup water

2 T soy sauce

2 T vinegar

2 T brown sugar

2 T corn starch

3/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

2 T oil

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

Hot cooked rice

Cut the pork into small pieces and set aside. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Set pineapple aside. Add ketchup, water, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, and pepper to the pineapple juice. Stir until smooth. Heat oil in a large skillet on high. Stir fry pork and onion about 5-7 minutes or until pork is no longer pink. Stir pineapple juice mixture and add to skillet. Cook and stir until bubbly. Add pineapple and bell pepper. Reduce heat, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Serve immediately over rice.

Besides being delicious, this recipe was easy to make. The most difficult part for me was getting the corn starch out of the back of our overly full baking cabinet. I didn't see 8 oz cans of pineapple at the store, so I just used a 20 oz can and that worked out fine. 

Friday

The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer’s art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease
If we obey the dying nurse
Whose constant care is not to please
But to remind of our, and Adam’s curse,
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,
Wherein, if we do well, we shall
Die of the absolute paternal care
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed, then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood
Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.

(T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets)

Chicken Dinner

We tried two new recipes tonight; Honey Lime Chicken and Makeover Spinach Salad Dressing, both from my most recent edition of Taste of Home. 

Honey Lime Chicken (Serves 4)

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup honey

2 T lime juice

1/4 t ground ginger

1/4 t garlic powder

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Hot cooked couscous, optional

1. Place chicken in a large resealable bag. In a small bowl, whisk wine, honey, lime juice, and ginger; add to chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate 2 hour, turning once.

2. Drain chicken, discarding marinade. Sprinkle chicken with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

3. Moisten a paper towel with cooking oil; using long-handled tongs, rub on grill rack to coat lightly. Place chicken on grill rack and grill, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from heat 5-6 minutes on each side or until a thermometer read 165. If desired, serve with couscous.

You'll notice that the recipe says to discard the marinade when you take the chicken out, but I thought if I had a great mixture of wine, honey, and lime juice (I didn't notice I was supposed to put the ginger in during step one, so I sprinkled that on the chicken with the other spices before cooking) I should make a glaze. So I did, I added a little flour dissolved in water to the marinade and reduced it in the pan after I cooked the chicken. Which brings me to the second way I intentionally didn't follow the recipe; we aren't allowed to BBQ at our apartment, so I cooked the chicken like we cook most things, in our cast iron skillet. That worked quite well. The chicken was good, although nothing spectacular, but I was glad I had made the glaze. We had ours with couscous and it was nice to have extra sauce and flavor.

Makeover Spinach Salad Dressing (Makes 10 Servings)

1/2 cup sugar
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 T water
2 T canola oil
4 t prepared mustard
1 t salt
1/2 t coarsely ground pepper
Fresh spinach leaves

Combine the first nine ingredients in a blender or food processor; cover and process until smooth. Serve over fresh spinach. Store leftover dressing in the refrigerator.


How do you know how big a small onion is? I got one that was smaller than the others at the grocery store and then used part of it in the stir fry last night and it still seemed like a lot so I didn't put all of it in the dressing. Even so, the onion taste was pretty strong and almost too much for me. Joshua thought the mustard taste was too strong. Needless to say, this wasn't a big hit, but I would probably like it with half or a quarter of the amount of onion.

Wok On

Recipe number two was inspired by the wok one of my co-workers gave me this week. She had two and this one had been sitting in her garage, so she was ready to pass it on. We were happy to help. I found a recipe for Orange Ginger Shrimp Stir-Fry and gave it a try. First of all, cooking in the wok was so fun! The stir fry turned out great. I used different vegetables than the recipe called for and added stir fry noodles. I think we ended up with more bulk than the original recipe, so the orange ginger flavor didn't come across as strongly as I had hoped. Still, it was fresh and delicious.

Recipe One

My first new recipe was for our St. Patrick's Day potluck, Chocolate Beer Cupcakes with Whiskey Filling and Irish Cream Icing. You can find the recipe here. 

My expectations weren't particularly high; I expected them to be good, but more a fun holiday novelty than a recipe worth making again. But they were delicious. Rich, moist, and chocolaty. The balance between the cupcake, filling, and frosting was great and none of the flavors overpowered the others. I think this might become a tradition.

Birthday Week

My birthday started last Friday with a birthday dinner of fish and chips with artichokes and salad followed by berry pie with Joshua's family. The next morning, Grandad took us out for birthday breakfast. 

The partying continued back in Visalia where we had birthday dinner with my family on Sunday evening; stick steaks, macaroni salad, coffee can bread, and chocolate orange cheesecake.

My actual birthday was Tuesday and Mom, Michelle, and Emery brought me flowers at work. The screeners gave me a triple chocolate cupcake and I received many birthday greetings from my coworkers. After work, Joshua and I went out to Thai food and I got my first ever free birthday dessert.

Then on Thursday we took a trip up to Calvin Crest, visited with lots of friends, and had dinner with the Starbucks. The next morning we went on a hike before heading home. All together, it was a great way to celebrate turning thirty! 

I decided I wanted to do something fun to continue celebrating being 30, so my goal for the year is to make 30 new recipes every 3 months.

Spinach

Our spinach seeds are starting to sprout!

Blackberry Wine

We opened the first bottle of the blackberry wine we bottled in May. We were nervous to try it, but it tasted quite good. Still a little rough around the edges though, so we will let it age for a few more months before opening another bottle.