Good Friends and Too Short Visits

Nothing is better than having wonderful friends come visit after a lengthy separation.  But having my wonderful sweet special friend Priscilla come in and spend Wednesday through Sunday with us here in Prescott, leaving hubby Bill in Santa Cruz to hold down the fort and get some needed chores accomplished prior to their leaving for their summer place in Silverton, BC Canada in June, was a very very special occassion.

I picked her up at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on Wednesday, and we proceeded North on I-17 to Rock Springs, where we had lunch. I was sad to see a change in menu—both in prices and in offerings--seems they are concentrating on pies these days and lots of fried and heavy food when I was looking forward to the hand dipped fried zucchini that I have often enjoyed there. But we had a leisurely lunch with more catching up and sharing, and then back on the road to Prescott.  We arrived and were greeted by Roy & Guayo, both happy to see us.

During the next few days, we played, shopped, saw the sites of Prescott, and enjoyed being together and talking, catching up on our lives since the last time we had been together.  We went out to Willow Lake and hiked around the lake, taking in the outrageous rock formations. They absolutely look alien to me!  She also helped with some gardening chores—as if they ever end whether you have company or not!  And gave me some valuable information for the garden. The biggest being, if I want a bunch of pesto in the freezer for the winter, I’d best plant more than the 7 basil plants that are in the garden. So, off to Home Depot, and 8 more plants came home with me, along with large planters to put them in. When we stopped at Mortimer earlier in the day, I finally found tarragon and purchased 3 plants, putting them into new pots also.  We sat in the garden in the warmth of the sun, talked, and just relaxed and enjoyed being together on Thursday as I was a bit under the weather.

But Friday and Saturday I was my old self, so we took off leaving Roy & Guayo to keep the home safe from marauding burglars and javelina. We scoured the nooks and crannies of the Habitat For Humanity shop, Yavapai Humane Society Thrift Shop, Edelweiss, antique shops, mini-malls downtown, walked around the beautiful shaded Courthouse Square, went to my favorite consignment shop, Under The Eaves (whoo hooo...I found an arbor that is even more spectacular than I'd been dreaming of..thanks Laura & Jean!), and of course I spent more than Priscilla!  She did purchase a gorgeous linen blouse with flower cutouts on the side in front that looked adorable on her at Sam & London’s, along with some fabric and a little glass bluebird. Did I say Priscilla and Bill and fantastic birders, loving sightings and findings of our little furry friends while treking here in there in a number of wilderness areas around the U.S.?  Well, they are!

Guayo Jane & Roy in dining room

We ate at LaBruzza’s on her last night with us, enjoying the good food and the fact that we could walk there and back with no problem, thus avoiding the ever burgeoning parking lot. But the rest of the week  meals at home.  One breakfast was an omelete with goat cheese and chives along with crispy croissants; we had a homemade Chicken Pot Pie, filled with chunks of chicken that had been marinated in Agua Negra marinade and grilled whole on the grill outside and in which I used rice flour to thicken the sauce. The addition of some Herbs de Provence and Fines Herbs gave it a richness that everyone truly enjoyed.

Using the rest of the chicken, I made Crunchy Chicken Salad on croissants from Pangaea Bakery that I had crisped up in the oven. Yum!!!   These are the best croissants. And even though the wheat gives me a bit of a stomach ache, I just HAD to have some!  Both Roy and Priscilla enjoyed the chicken dishes, so recipes are included.

Roy & Jane in front garden

But tonight she’s back home in her wonderful house with her best guy Bill, sitting in front of the fire listening to the rain on the roof; glad for the visit but happy to be home.  I miss her already, but friends forever withstand distance and the test of time, and that’s what we are and will always be. Thank you for a lovely visit my dear friend…there will be more in the future!  

Crunchy Chicken Salad on Crispy Croissants

3 cups diced cooked chicken

3 ribs Celery--diced

½  c.  Radish sprouts, chopped

½ c. Sunflower sprouts, chopped

1/3 c. chopped Walnuts

1/3 c. Dried Cranberries

1/3 c. Mayonnaise

1/3 c. Miracle whip

1/3 c. Trader Joe’s Champagne Pear Dressing

½ t. Fines Herbs

2 T. chopped Chives

Salt

Pepper

4 large croissants

Mix all ingredients together.  Bake croissants in oven until crispy. Cut in half horizontally, remove top portion and pile high with chicken salad. Put top back on.  Makes 4 large sandwiches or 8 regular sandwiches, if you cut the croissants in half vertically after filling.

Gardening Mania Continues

Guayo checking out the roses

shallots, Chinese cabbage red cabbage

Finally warmth!  After two weeks of temperatures fluctuating madly, going from 46 to 28 degrees at night, forecasts show a steady warming trend and none too soon.  The seedlings have about had it being indoors and outdoors, back and forth, night after night. Plus they took a beating this past weekend as we were out of town for two days and the temp dropped to 28.  The green beans, a couple tomato plants and a couple of poblano pepper plants aren't looking so great, but  hopefully with continued care and warmth, they will come back.

row of raised beds

     So now is the weekend for getting everything in the ground or in pots.  Purchased the final (hopefully) 30 cubic feet of  organic garden soil yesterday afternoon, and today will disburse it.  Roy and I (mostly Roy) built a wonderful 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 raised bed which will be filled with strawberries; plus have 12 more pots to fill and plant with various items....cucumbers being the first, edamame, chervil, tarragon, wheat grass (for smoothies), poblanos, Big Jim peppers, and Asian Greens. Also putting the jalapenos, and red, yellow, and green bell peppers into the ground, along with basil and cilantro. The tomatoes are already in buckets as are a few of the poblanos.  The rest--delicata squash, sweet pumpkin squash, more beets, etc. will be disbursed where I can find or make a place for them.  It's going to be a full and diverse garden and I hope it goes crazy so we can preserve it and use the abundance all winter.

peas and columbine in pots

     And I can't wait to start harvesting the greens for fresh crisp salads.  There's nothing like going outside, cutting some greens and herbs, picking a tomato and cucumber, and coming inside and making a wonderful salad with the bounty from your garden.  We've already been able to sample some of the upcoming deliciousness---partaking in the rich bursting flavor of cherry tomatoes a week ago, first ones to come on the bushes and ripen.  There are more there and can't wait to see them turn red.  Even have a pretty good sized yellow bell pepper on one of the plants. That's the joy of gardening.  This year it won't pay off---setting up organic soil and amendments and putting together raised beds and planters is not cheap. But now that it's in place (or almost complete) it will be a perpetual joy from season to season, and I'm sure will more than pay for itself by next year.

Come on basil!!  Pesto in the raw.

    Checking out our  new trees yesterday, found that the Red Bartlett Pear has pears all over it!  This was a huge and wonderful surprise. The nectarine had a lot of blossoms, but don't think we'll get anything off of it this year.  The plum and apple trees showed great buds, but not seeing any fruit yet, so hope the late frost didn't get them. Last year we had a bumper crop of both, but only got to take advantage of the apples (apple slices, apple sauce, apple butter, spiced apple slices, etc) as we were moving in and renovating when the plums ripened, so didn't have time to deal with them. The javelina were delighted....fresh fruit snacks each and every day for several weeks, were distributed on a daily basis all over the ground!  Hopefully this year they can be harvested and dried for prunes and made into plum jelly, plum sauce.....hmmmm, plum wine???
     The thing we have to watch is water usage.  To try to offset that cost, Roy has begun putting together our first rain barrel to be used as a catch basin for rain runoff.  Did you know (do I sound like a game show host?) that 1" of rain on a 1000 square foot roof produces 600 gallons of water?  That's a lot of free watering if it can be caught and contained. We are not so presumptuous as to think we will be catching that much, but we're shooting for 5--55 gallon barrels total before the end of summer. Hopefully before monsoons.  So 275 gallons of free water seems pretty good to us. Wish us luck is getting it set up, and in getting some rain to fill them.  It may be a dry summer...not sure how the weather patterns are going to work out. Will keep you apprised.
     In our quest for some self-sufficiency and a bit of relief from the ever rising costs at the grocery store (case in point...the protein powder I have used for 2 1/2 years just went up $10 a bag!!!!) we are still considering getting 4-5 laying hens. Spoke to 3 of our neighbors, and as long as we share any over-abundance or meals with them, they have no objections. So don't be surprised if in an upcoming blog you see us building a chicken coop!!!