Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Dec. 23

Happy Run-up to Christmas, everyone! Are your yard decorations holding up? Have you retreated indoors? Above, a lovely arrangement, accompanied by a wonderful sentiment:

Dear KT

Thanks as always for the gardening thread.

No flowers for Christmas but I hadn't sent Mrs. R a bouquet in a while so ordered these from the Green Griffin. She's been taking care of her Mom with COPD (a full time job) and deserves so much more than flowers.

Merry Christmas!

Rodent

The note is a perfect. Take heed, guys.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

We have recipes using lemons and eggs this week, after receiving some input on lemons (including Meyer lemons) and earlier about members of The Horde who keep chickens:

The lemon tree is so heavy with fruit that it is leaning eastward. Nan in AZ

The lemons look great!

We also had some comments last week (see link below) about what to do with the sudden over-abundance of Meyer lemons for those who have a tree. Their season generally starts in December.

Preseved lemons were one interesting suggesting that fits into the "Putting Things By" category.

They are not as tart as "regulation" lemons, so some recipes are made specifically for them. Here are a couple of recipes for lemon curd using Meyer Lemons. One is richer than the other. One has directions for cold pack canning.

Eggs from your own chickens are superior. Raising chickens involves some learning. Have you been successful in raising chickens and getting them to lay eggs?

Had these chickens for about 2 years and never got any eggs. I think they are upset because all they do is fight with each other. What am I doing wrong, and why are my chickens so unhappy?

JB

Not our JB

Lemon Snow Pudding

Our family use to make Lemon Snow Pudding with regular lemons.

I'm not sure which recipe my family used when I was growing up, but I found several online versions, and decided to adapt and comment on some of them. If you don't have a "White Christmas", maybe you could at least have a "white dessert".

Lemon Snow Pudding

I adapted the directions below from this website. It uses regular lemons, but I think it could also work with Meyer lemons. It uses more combined lemon juice and zest than some of the other variations. You could probably cut down on the amount of sugar.

I didn't use the custard sauce recipe because it's too sweet for me, and I don't think it makes enough to go with the fluffy part of the dessert. See below for notes on custard sauce.

1/4 OZ (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin (like Knox)
1/4 cup cold water
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup very hot water
1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 large egg whites Room temperature, If you are concerned about salmonella, use pasteurized egg whites or powdered egg whites

Pour 1/4 cup cold water into a large bowl and sprinkle with gelatin, let stand 5 minutes.

Add the hot water, then the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Stir until sugar dissolves.

Set bowl in a larger bowl full of ice and cold water. Allow mixture to cool for 45-60 minutes or until it resembles the consistency of egg whites. Refrigerate for 20 minutes if needed to get it to set up.

Beat gelatin mixture with an electric mixer until frothy, 1-2 minutes.
In another bowl beat egg whites (with clean beaters) until they form soft peaks.

Add egg whites to gelatin mixture and then beat at high speed until it has tripled in volume. When you lift the beaters out a wide ribbon should form.

Pour mixture into a large serving bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Here's a variation with less lemon juice and zest, more custard.

And here's one from a caterer in Phoenix with less egg white and slightly simplified directions. The custard sauce is flavored with lemon zest instead of vanilla. Compare to this one, which uses part cream and has a Meyer Lemon variation.

I like this:

Classic light custard sauce

Mix 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch (Julia Child's trick for reducing the chance of curdling) or arrowroot, a dash of salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Stir in two cups whole milk and heat, while stirring, in the top of a double boiler, until the milk is scalded. Gradually beat some of the milk mixture into 4 beaten egg yolks. Return to the top of the double boiler and cook just until the mixture thickens and coats a spoon. Remove from heat and continue stirring while placing the pan with the custard in cold water. Stir occasionally to release steam, add 3/4 teaspoon vanilla and serve warm or chilled. Similar to this.

I recommend a double batch to go with Snow Pudding.

Did you know this about Julia Child?

"My first big recipe was shark repellant that I mixed in a bathtub for the Navy, for the men who might get caught in the water."

Before she mastered the art of French cooking, Julia Child cooked up shark repellent while working for the precursor to the CIA as a covert operative… pic.twitter.com/HxdKAH3iOU

— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) December 19, 2023

Another Custard

Easy, Light Custard Sauce

May be cooked over direct heat, as it has less tendency to curdle than classic custard sauce. Recipe is suitable for doubling, quadrupling or even really big batches if you have a means of even heating. A little thicker than classic custard after chilling.

Mix a tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch with 1/4 cup sugar, a dash of salt, two cups milk, two egg yolks or one whole egg, beaten. Cook, stirring constantly, reducing heat as mixture starts to steam. Remove from heat, place pan in water to cool and stir in 3/4 teaspoon vanilla. Serve warm or chilled. Avoid too much stirring once custard is cold if you used arrowroot.

Compare to this recipe. It also makes a lot of custard without a lot of eggs. It uses flour instead of cornstarch or arrowroot.

You're on your own if you want to try these recipes with artificial sweetener, but you can add sweeteners to the liquids after cooling (before gelling) if they are heat sensitive.

Did you make fruitcake this year?

My mother used to make Boiled Raisin Cake with seeded Muscat raisins and spiced tiny gumdrops instead of candied fruit. No licorice. Seemed to turn out better than this:

Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake

(There's a little surprise for dancers at the end.)

Art

A little refugee from summer

this is an image taken quite some time ago at Country Gardens Nursery in Cordova, TN when I lived there. This ravenous little grasshopper was livin' quite the high life - as you can tell by the condition of the petals he's munching on. Later, he probably became a meal for a bird or some other hungry critter who found him (?) quite the appealing little morsel.

Dr_No

Puttering

Word to the wise:

Outdoor Decorations

Gardens of The Horde

Hi KT, if you aren't done with your Christmas blogging yet. Portrait or landscape pictures. Thanks. Gene

These poinsettias used to line our long driveway, interspersed with ~40 year old non-flowering bougainvillea on a chain-link fence. Spring project was pulling out bougainvillea and fence, replacing that with a 3-rail fence, and transplanting the poinsettias. Only lost one poinsettia, and my will to live (did I mention a loooong driveway lined on both sides with 40-year old bougainvillea enmeshed in a chain-link fence?).

Wow! What a job! They look great already!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Dec. 16

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:21 PM

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