Let it Grow

Behind our garage, which is not visible from the street, there exists a wondrous vegetable garden.  Actually, it's not all that wondrous and that's why I'm delighted it's in such an inconspicuous location. My gardening skills hover somewhere between out of control weed infestation and dumb luck.  This background information will explain a lot about my next confession.

In front of a small building that sits directly behind our house there is a plot of ground that I've designated as a perennial bed.  That should mean that the bed will be alive with flowers and other plantings that are a delight to the senses.  Dare to dream.  Before I was able to say Miracle Grow three times fast my plantings got leggy and ragged and were surrounded by numerous areas of bare ground.  And then nature, and my vegetarian lifestyle, intervened.

You see, as a vegetarian, I generate a lot of peels and seeds.  Not personally, but as a result of my meal preparations.  And as a striving earth and tree huger, I work to waste not want not.  Therefore, all of the peelings and seeds that are generated from my culinary explorations get buried in my garden where they turn into rich soil, an avocado tree or two, and various mystery plants.

Well, that's what happened in my intended perennial bed.  A rogue vine started to grow, obviously a result of my composting efforts, spreading it's happy arms in all directions and singing "Born Free" at the top of it voice.  At least, it looked as if it would sing "Born Free" if it could choose a song and have the wherewithal to accomplish such a feat.  Immediately I began to wax poetic about my admiration for the tenacity of this vine and how I must let it grow and thrive.  Truthfully, the vine was covering all the bare spots in the flower bed.

Yes, I admire tenacity.  In plants and in people.  So while I might not have a full-fledged perennial bed this year, there's always next year.  This year?  We might have some watermelons.  There are six green orbs that look promising.

Puffy Paint

When you finish making shaving cream prints (see July 20th) you end up with a lot of shaving cream mixed with paint.  It's easy enough to rinse down the sink but it's also easy to turn this mixture into Puff the Magic Paint.

The recipe for Puffy Paint is:
1/2cup of shaving cream
2 T of white glue
2 T of acrylic paint

Note that these measurements are approximations.  More shaving cream will give you a foamy texture when it dries, and more glue will give it a smoother texture.  Extra paint creates deeper colors.

We had the residents mix the colors with forks on small paper plates and then apply the paints to pieces of cardboard that had circles drawn on them.  Circles were drawn using jar lids of various sizes, overlapping some of the circles to make a more interesting design.

True confession - Week one we mixed up the puffy paint and had the residents apply it to simple drawings of flowers or butterflies using cotton swabs.  This did not work.  The impulse was to try to paint with the cotton swabs and the paint needs to be piled onto the picture.

Week two we gave out the circle designs, hid the cotton swabs, and passed out plastic spoons for the residents to use.  Every resident who participated (9 of them) was adept at getting paint to paper, thick enough, and with some semblance of order.  We do not advocate staying inside the lines, but their proficiency was outstanding.

Week three, which has not happened, will be a new piece of cardboard cut to fit inside a picture frame so they can create something suitable for framing, frame it, and have an original art piece to give as a gift or for their room.  It's a great way to use up all the picture frames from storage.  There were excited conversations about ideas for their final pieces.  Practice pieces are a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.  Everyone is looking forward to next week's gathering.

Above is Lillian with her practice piece and activity staff person, Delores.

Watermelon Salad

Stumbled upon this recipe and made a few tweaks to it so I didn't have to go out and purchase parsley and fresh mint.  No, I don't have them on hand but when I do I'll add them to the mix and amaze my taste buds.  What I did learn from this recipe was how to bring down the bite in red onions.  It's simply a matter of soaking the thin slices of red onion in lime juice, which in my case was whole (minus the peel) limes, pulverized in my VitaMix.  A lovely, gentle onion taste results.  You all probably knew that already and are wondering what planet I've been living on, or on which planet I've been living, for those of you who don't like to end a sentence with a preposition.

Ingredients:
  Small red onion
  2 - 4 limes, depending on their juiciness
  1/2 medium sized watermelon cut into cubes
  1 cup feta cheese, cubed
  3 - 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  1/2 cup sliced black olives, more or less to suit your taste
  Black pepper
  Something green

Peel and halve the red onion and cut them into thin slices.  Juice or peel and pulverize the limes and add to the onion slices in a small bowl where they can rest together while you continue.

Cube the watermelon.  Cube the feta.  Gently toss the watermelon and feta in a bowl.  Add onions, oil, olives and something green and gently toss one more time.  Top with a good grind of black pepper.

Disclaimers:
1.  So what exactly is a medium sized watermelon?  Depends what part of the country you're from or how good you are at lying.  "We don't grow any watermelon under forty pounds around here!"  Get a grip.  You want 6 to 8 cups of watermelon unless you're feeding a family gathering.
2.  The salad needed something green so I went to my garden where my Swiss chard has taken over the neighborhood.  I chose a few smaller leaves and rolled and sliced them as thin as possible.  The green added a nice touch.  You can use parsley.
3.  Is it obvious that the salad in the picture does not have lovely cubes of feta?  Our local grocer only had the "all broken up in pieces" feta.  It worked well and tastes great.
4.  There are green beans on the plate with the watermelon salad.  The picture was just crying for a little contrasting color.

Enjoy!

Paul and Me

I recently read a biographical account by A.E. Hotchner entitled "Paul and Me," about his decades long friendship with Paul Newman.  Hotchner was there for the first batch of salad dressing, mixing the concoction with a canoe paddle while Newman poured in the ingredients, as well as a number of other schemes and dreams.

The book not only brought out the wonderful human qualities of Paul Newman, but also his tenacity.  The incident that sticks in my mind happened when Newman decided to build his Hole in the Wall camp for special needs kids.  He decided he wanted to open it the following summer.  All of the experts, architects and contractors, said it couldn't be done.  They gave a more realistic completion date involving a couple of years for this massive project.  Newman said it would be done.

When construction workers were unable to work in the severe winter that descended on the work site, Newman hired Canadian construction worker who were acclimated to severe weather.  Of course, the facility opened the following summer as Newman intended.

There are other such accounts of accomplishments in the face of seemingly, insurmountable odds.  Reading these had me thinking about the times I've taken the more logical path, lining up my good reasons why something can or cannot be accomplished.  Or as my good friend, Linda, says, giving away my power.

"Paul and Me" is a fun and inspiring read.  It's probably sitting on the library shelf right now just waiting for someone who could use a little inspiration.