Banana bread

It's taken forever but we finally found a banana bread recipe that we're all happy with.  It's soft, airy, chewy and has a great banana flavor.

The oldest wanted to make something for lunch "with flour".  We ended up making sandwiches with the promise that we'd bake banana bread when we were done eating.  It's amazing how careful and good at following directions little people can be when they want to. 

It's from the Gold Medal flour website. 

We made one loaf and lots of mini-muffins.

Sunset

Spring flowers

Flowers are everywhere and thank goodness.  It's been a long, cold, wet time.

The April rains have come.  They're the best.  A beautiful rain with warm temperatures.

Here's the Cleveland Pear we planted when we first bought the house.  It's as tall as the power lines now.

Violets.

I have no idea what this flower is.  I remember planting it years ago and then being disappointed by how tiny the plant was when it bloomed.

The orange primrose was a gift when we bought the house.

One of the landscaping shrubs.  Bees love it. 

Some of the "clearance" bulbs planted last fall.

Here's another one.  It's lovely.

Grape hyacinth.  This week marks 4 years since my mother died.  I'm thinking of moving some of these up to the cemetery along with snow drops,  crocus, forget-me-nots and daffodils. The long-term goal being a perennial planting that would bloom from spring through fall.  Gardening was her passion and joy.  It seems neglectful, or worse, indifferent that I haven't planted around the headstone but honestly this is the first year I could even tolerate the thought of doing so without weeping. 

A sprig of rhododendron.

Trout cakes with dandelion & turkey egg noodles

Well, here it is.  The best part of trout season : a great meal that celebrates the start of spring.  

I cleaned my two trout, stuffed them with lime and baked them in the oven or half an hour.  Flaked the meat off and mixed it with egg, panko, flour, old bay and lime zest for the trout cakes.

What else said "spring"? My father's friend had been given a dozen turkey eggs that she passed on to me.   There were spring bunching onions growing in the garden, along with handfuls of dandelion in the yard. Garlic from the fall.

 

I sauteed some bacon, cooked the greens, onions and garlic in the fat. Made an alfredo type sauce with half n half, butter, cream cheese and a little whole grain mustard to cut the richness and brighten it.

Turkey egg turned into spaghetti noodles.

Here it is plated. The trout cakes were a bit bland, add herbs next time.  The pasta with dandelion was fantastic, we'll make this again soon.

Goodbye Nigel

I had to put Nigel down this morning.  He had been hanging on for a couple of days now. I really, really wish someone else could have done it for me so I didn't have to.

My sweet, sweet buddy.

He was loved by the ladies. 

Gentle with babies. 

And very handsome.  I really adored that guy.

He's buried out in the chicken yard. What a crummy morning.

It feels really lonely out there right now. I used to talk to him every day, twice a day. One sided conversations about the food, the weather, his plans for the day ("Nigel! Tell your ladies to lay some damn eggs!")  He would cock his head and watch me.

Farewell, friend. You are missed.

Opening day of trout season.

This is not a trout.

Saturday was the fist day of trout season, the un-official start to Spring around these parts. The day was just stunningly beautiful.  Warm weather, blue skies, fluffy clouds.  I was able to spend the morning fishing with my dad, his friend, my uncle and a very good friend of mine who was free that day.  I came home with two trout.  I also caught two of these grotesque things called red horse suckers.  I threw them back because they were hideous.  Then came home, googled them and found that they only live in very pure water and the general consensus is "ugly as hell but delicious and sweet, tastes like walleye."  Ugh! Live and learn.

The farm we fished at had about 30 other people fishing there that morning.  This little muskrat swam down the stream, walked along the shore, plopped himself down in the sun and just watched everyone as he ate grass.  I haven't seen a muskrat up close since I was little so this was a treat.  You could get within 10 feet of the thing.  There was also a mama Canada goose on a nest.

I came home as spent some time outside with the oldest who, surprised me with a bouquet of flowers he had picked all on his own.  My sweet little guy.

In the evening I went to a ladies night at one of the local social clubs with a new friend. I made my dad be our designated driver.  There was a little of this:

And a whole lotta this:

Leaving me feeling like this today:

Seriously. I woke up on the sofa fully dressed with a raging hangover and a cheese puff stuck to my shirt.

Guess what's fun to do hungover?  Filing taxes.  Cleaning fish.  I did have a fantastic time though.  Today we spent some time outside, I made homemade pasta to go with the trout.  It was a really good weekend overall.  

Good luck fishing charm

This Saturday is the opening day of trout season.  I made a good luck charm out of some of my Grandpa's old fishing spinners that were just too far gone to be usable.

Here's what I started with.

Here is how the necklace looks on.  I love it. 

Viewing the world...

... is a funny thing.

This mural was painted downtown in 2011:

I'm sure we've driven past it at least 4 times a week, every week, since then. Minimum.

4 times a week x 52 weeks x 7 years = 1,456

I just recently noticed that the buck's one antler is growing out of... The side of his head? His ear? 

What else do I not notice?

Garden weekend

Spring is here! Time to plant lettuce and peas!

But.... the garden is a hot mess because last year I was growing this little guy and was too huge to do anything.

Luckily, the weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend.  The oldest and I got into the spring side of the garden, totally cleaned it up, turned over some ground and started planting.

Before.

During.

We removed the fence, squared up the plot and hoed the weeds out.  Delivered wheelbarrows of them to ecstatic geese.  He fed every worm we found to the peeps. We strung string and marked off a row on the left for herbs, lettuce and potatoes.  A row in the center for peas and a row on the right for the permanent rhubarb and asparagus beds.  I'm not even going to attempt weeding this year, rather we left wide enough spaces in between the planted rows that my husband or I can just run a push mower through it.  

Cutting sumac for the pea trellis.  This is such a wonderful age.  He's old enough to help for real now (Please carry this stick to the pile. How many do we have now? Can you help carry them to the garden?) and he loves it.  When we came inside for a drink break he asked, totally unprompted, "Mom, am I a farmer?" "Well honey, you take care of the chickens and raise food for our family to eat so yes."  

This little guy was hiding under a brick.  I think it's a Redback Salamander? 

After.

So I still need to pick some things up in this picture but I'm thrilled and somewhat amazed at the amount of work we got done.  In addition to cleaning up the place we planted a new variety of rhubarb (Red Canadian) transplanted the goji bush, built and planted a pea trellis, planted greens (a mix of lettuces, kale and chard seeds that he measured out and stirred)  This week I'd like to plant potatoes, shallots and parsley out there.  We also need to start seeds in the house. 

Fish hatchery day!

What a fun time we had on Saturday. There is a fish hatchery near us, one of the few left in the state, and yesterday they had an open house! Of course we had to go. The last time I went to this was with my dad and grandpa... I was maybe 5 years old? I remember being excited to see all the fish and in my memory there were maybe 2 dozen other people there. My, how this event has grown.  On this Saturday there were hundreds of visitors, at least.

Some of the fish were obviously like "What the crap?"about all of the sudden visitors.

Here is the 2 story, 10,000 gallon viewing tank of native fish. It was awesome.

There were tons of fun activities; a live snake meet and greet, fish printed t-shirts and these tiny animation wheels that, when spun, made a frog croak.  The oldest was most excited about the dowel rod that made it spin.

This is one of the breeding areas with milt and egg tanks (yuck) and HUGE breeding fish.

There were also stations for kids to practice casting and a big fish-fry buffet.

Really, it was a stunner of a day.  Blue skies, fluffy clouds, beautiful lake. 

I picked up a handful of these conservation posters for $1 each.  I remember these posters from the little local nature center when I was little and HAD to have some of them.  Three of them are going in the boys bedroom. 

These two - Snakes of Pennsylvania and Forage Fish are going in the camper. 

Best day ever.  We'll have to remember to mark it on the calendar to go again next year - it was the Saturday before the opening day of Trout season.