A Canopy of Hearts

So one day I was walking the dog, just going along minding my own business, when suddenly I realized I was walking under a canopy of hearts! I was utterly enchanted to look up and see a tree filled with dangling green three dimensional hearts! So I picked up a couple that were on the ground and brought them home to show Gryph.

A couple weeks later we were walking the doglet together and I pointed out the tree--still a thing of mystery and enchantment to me!--and the owner was in her yard, gave me permission to have some hearts right off the tree! But she didn't know what it was called.

Still enchanted and now on a mission, I had Gryph take some pics and then I looked it up online. Arbor Day Identification Guide It's called a Goldenrain Tree and that canopy of dangling hearts is, as far *I* know, totally unique to this tree. My hearts are drying on the fridge in a brown paper bag, and when they are dry, I will pop the sections apart and discard the seeds (curious cats and doglet, yanno? don't want them to get sick), then use the papery hearts in my crafts.

This world is so full of amazing treasures!! *big grin*

This particular treasure is my Gram's noodle recipe. My mom has cherished it since my Gram died forty years ago, and it's always had pride of place in her recipe box. After Mom's trailer flooded out four years ago, we rescued the box--but it had been too many days waiting for the water to recede, and her recipes had mildewed. I made Mom keep the box anyway, but I never got around to copying the recipes.

A disaster like that really undoes people, yanno? And neither of us could cope with the mildew; that smell really triggered our PTSD for a long time. Plus of course there was the reminder of everything we lost--two entire households of furniture and belongings!!--we were lucky to escape with as much as we did, and my mom was injured as well. If the power hadn't gone out right before the flood hit, we'd have both been electrocuted in the shin deep water. My Ladybug was only safe because she had jumped onto the highest piece of furniture she could reach, a recliner that was already trying to float out the back door in fast-moving knee-deep water by the time I got to her.

It was just a very bad time, and going through those mildewed recipes brings the nightmare back.

BUT a roommate threw away my sister's recipes while she was hospitalized last month (the person thought she wasn't coming back, I guess), and she needed all the recipes again... so I got out the box and started copying. I am throwing away the originals as I go--some of them are just black with mildew!--and it's still really hard to deal with the smell so I invented something.

Ta-daaa!!! Cathie's Patented High-Tech Foolproof Guaranteed Never-Fail Demildewizer!!!

Yes indeedy, folks, you saw it here first! A gallon zipper bag filled with baking soda. *cheeky grin*

It doesn't take away the black spots, but as long as Gram's noodle recipe stays dry, five days in the Demildewizer means it won't smell anymore! And now my mom can have her treasure back.

A new batch of recipes is in the Demildewizer now. I anticipate getting through the whole thing in oh, say, six months or a year... yeah, I know, long slow process. She had a lifetime's worth of saved recipes... and I REALLY can't handle that mildew. *sigh* BUT at least I have a start on it now!

I leave you with another treasure, a pic of the hawk which has been teasing the heck out of Gryph. This is a Cooper's Hawk, also know around here as a chicken hawk (I think for its size). A family of them has moved into our neighborhood. We think they came from along the Arkansas River downtown, and we're very happy to have them! But every time Gryph gets close with the camera, the hawks fly juuusssssssst out of range. It was amazing that this one stayed put for a moment! One of these days we'll get a good non-blurry pic, lol... but in the meantime, tis certainly a challenge and keeps life interesting!

Kitchen Magic: Milk Chocolate

I'm a chocolate lover.... sometimes a chocolate craver. Last month I discovered something about chocolate that surprised me!

You see, I was in that space where I was desperate for something chocolate and had nothing easy to fix... no quick choccy snacks available, no chocolate chips to be stolen from the baking cupboard, nothing but unsweetened baking chocolate in those squares that are impossible to break apart.

Well, when desperate, read the box, right? Soooo, I opened the box and read the recipes on the inside. The quickest one was for hot fudge sauce, and amazingly enough, I happened to have all the ingredients! What I didn't have? The camera. It was still in Arizona, where it had fallen out of my purse and into my brother's car.

Soooo, in the interests of science, I made it again this week and *ta daaa!!* remembered the camera, which having safely braved the perils of the US postal service once again lives on the computer desk.

It was only too happy to make a field trip--in the interests of science!--into the kitchen, so that you could share this miracle with me.

It starts with butter and chocolate. You put them in a bowl and melt them in the microwave. Choclate is funny in the micro; it holds its shape. You have to stir it to melt it completely, and it seems stupid at first--well, it was stupid at first lol, and I had to put it back in the micro for twenty more seconds--but after two minutes in the micro, it stirs down into this.

Such rich, velvety chocolate goodne.... well, yes, in the interests of science, I did remind myself that good cooks always know what each step of a recipe tastes like, and I did taste just a very little bit.

Thanks be to all that's good and holy it was ONLY a very little bit. *ewww* Unsweetened choclate is not MY idea of a gourmet delight, no matter how beautifully delicious it might look.

*sheepish look*

The recipe calls for sugar, milk, cream, and vanilla. I don't have any vanilla so, in the interests of science, I experimented and left it out. It worked fine.

I measured the milk and cream together and poured them into the chocolate. Then I started stirring. Keenly observing the process in the interests of science, I noticed that cold milk plus warm melty chocolate equals... well... a coagulated mess.

That can't be right, can it? *doubtful look*

In the interests of science, though, I kept stirring.

I am very happy to say, in the interests of science, that one can eventually stir even the coldest extra-creamy milk into the melty chocolate, coagulated or not. It does take perseverance and one does need to tell the inner panic to shut up, but once you see the process happen it seems like the stuff of magic itself----they blend perfectly, and voila! You have turned dark chocolate into milk chocolate!!!

I did know that milk chocolate is chocolate with milk in it, but yanno, it was like knowing any other piece of trivia... just a fact that had no real meaning for me. Until, that is, I actually made milk chocolate and watched the miracle happen in my very own mixing bowl! Now it is real to me in a VERY experiential way, because yes...

.... in the interests of science *and with no little trepidation* I reminded myself that a good cook always knows what each step of her recipe should taste like.... and surely that cream had mellowed it out, right? in the interests of science....

*ewww* Dump in the sugar, quick....!!

The sugar stirred in much more easily than the milk had, since it was room temperature. It left me with this.

In the interests of sci.... MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........

What? Oh, sorry, zoned out there for a moment. *sheepish look* The next step is to microwave the hot fudge sauce so that the sugar cooks into the chocolate and melds it into a creamy whole. I zapped it for a minute at a time and stirred well each time. When it was done, I had fudge sauce tha.... MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........................

*bliss*

What to do with leftover strawberries n whipped cream?

Chop the strawberries, mix in the whipped cream, and freeze those babies! MMMMMmmmmmMMMMMM!!!!! I had enough left for four luscious strawberry creamsicles. Store-bought ice cream never tasted so good!

Need to get this down before I forget...

No pics for this post, just a quickie so I don't forget what I did for this recipe...

Spinach pies

1 lb frozen spinach
1 cup raw long-grain rice
couple tablespoons each olive oil, lemon juice
1 small onion (chopped)
seasonings: pepper, basil (lots), allspice

Dough:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
seasonings: pepper, basil, parsley, onion powder, thyme, cumin (not so much)
2 Tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
flour for rolling

Make the dough while the spinach thaws in the microwave. Let the dough rest, covered. Cook the rice until almost done, just a little chewy. Chop the onion. Drain the spinach really well, squeezing out the extra juice. Combine all the filling ingredients and set aside.

Make the dough into twelve small balls and roll out one at a time. Place onto lightly greased or aluminum foil covered cookie sheet. Place one serving-spoon size dollop of filling on each round; pull edges up into triangle shape and press together, leaving opening in center for steam to escape. Bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned on edges.