Lettuce Eat Local: Finding the sweetness in Plan B
Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
“Well that lasted about five minutes.”
I don’t think I’m the only mom of young children who finds herself repeating this phrase, turning it into a daily refrain. We have a great idea, hype it up in our minds and in our kids’, do all the things to get it ready and into action, and then…it ends up being anticlimactic, to say the least.
Sometimes it’s just a total fail, hard to find any salvageable or redeemable aspects. Technically, time spent connecting with our kids is always a win, whether the project succeeded or not; the amount of cleanup, however, at times can unfortunately rival or surpass the actual activity. Some days are just like that, and I have to remind myself it’s okay.
Fortunately, occasionally when Plan A fails, Plan B shows up and saves the day, if we have the flexibility to let it.
A few weeks ago we had all that snow, beautiful inches and inches of it, but it came with a windchill much too cold for not only this wimp mama to go out in but also my snow-adoring son. Since we couldn’t go outside, I had the bright idea to bring the snow inside. We’d done that a few times before already, just scooping some powdery snow into a tupperware for him to tromp his animal figures around in. That seemed to have run its course, so I decided to up the ante a bit and bring “paint” into the picture; I mixed up some colorful drink mix packets really strong, and gave Benson eye droppers to drop the dyed water onto the snow.
It worked great! For about five minutes. The thing about super-concentrated bright blue and pink liquid is that it’s super-concentrated bright blue and pink liquid. I’m not a complete novice, so I had already put an old towel under the snow container, yet for some reason it didn’t register that he was wearing a white shirt until some electric blue polka dots got added. Sometime around there my son figured out that a spoon transferred the “paint” a lot faster than the eye dropper, and we escalated quickly from tranquilly adding beautiful drops of color to our canvas of snow to sloshing and dumping it (“to feed the bear in the cave,” he said). I mentioned before how much my son loves to eat plain snow, but the stakes suddenly got much higher when he realized there was sweet flavored snow available — and he was in charge of how sweet and flavored it got.
Like I said, things escalated. Clearly we were onto Plan B, which I decided was hydration. My child has not peed even close to so much since watermelon went out of season. Success!
Another notable alternate success recently was our caramel apples. Benson had been adoringly admiring the decorated caramel apples displayed at the grocery over Christmas, but since I wasn’t going to buy him one, I figured we should make our own. So fun, right? I even had sprinkles and toppings ready to go.
Most recipes called for corn syrup; I don’t buy that either, but no biggie. Um yes biggie. It smelled amazing while the sauce was caramelizing, but then it barely wanted to stick to the apples. Which was actually a good thing since it cooled harder than a rock, and the only way to eat the apple was to completely remove the caramel (at least if you wanted any teeth left).
In my annoyance I dumped some milk into the is-this-even-possible-to-ever-get-clean pot of hardened caramel and heated it. Voila! the most amazing caramel drink ever. In this case Plan B was way better than Plan A would have been.
And if you sip slowly, it lasts longer than five minutes.
Plan B Caramel Milk
This takes a smidge of time and attention to cook the caramel, but the concentrate keeps well in the fridge for a week or two — ready to create a perfect glass or mug of caramel milk in seconds. Try to keep the kids distracted with a different project (good luck) while you’re making this, as the hot sauce is very hot. The drink is great served alongside sliced apples….
Prep tips: I can’t decide if this was better hot or cold, so make sure and try it both ways. A candy thermometer or similar tool is important to get the sauce caramelized.
1 cup cream
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups milk, plus more
Whisk cream, sugars, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium, whisking often, until caramel thickens and reaches 245°. Let it cool for a bit, then carefully pour in milk. Heat over medium heat again, stirring until caramel all melts into the milk. When serving, add milk to taste to achieve your preferred sweetness. Store leftovers in the fridge, shaking well before using.
Spider Plants
When we refer to houseplants in Kansas we typically mean plants that are tropical and can’t survive outside in the winter. Spider Plant is one of these. The botanical name for Spider Plant is Chlorophytum comosum. Popular, durable, exotic—Spider Plant is an easy houseplant to grow and enjoy. Spider or Airplane Plants have either one of three leaf color patterns: solid green leaves, green edges with a white variegated stripe down the center of the leaf blade or leaves with white edges and a green stripe down the center.
This easy to grow plant is more tolerant of extreme conditions than other houseplants, but it still has its climate preferences. Spider Plant thrives in cool to average home temperatures and partially dry to dry soil. Bright indirect light is best. Direct sunlight may cause leaf tip burn. Fertilizer may be applied monthly from March through September. A professional potting media containing sphagnum peat moss and little to no perlite is best.
Spider Plants store food reserves in adapted structures on the plants roots. These “swollen roots can actually push the plant up and out or even break the pot. Avoid over fertilizing to minimize this growth characteristic.
Spider Plants are easy to propagate. Simply cut off one of the “spiders” or plantlets and place in a pot. You may need to pin it down to the surface of the potting media to hold it in place until the roots grow and anchor it. A paper clip bent into an elongated U shape does the trick.
Spider Plants are photoperiodic, that is they respond to long uninterrupted periods of darkness (short day, long nights) by initiating flowering. Production of “spiders” follows flowering. This daylength occurs naturally in the fall of each year. However, if you place your plant in a room where you have the lights on each evening, and artificially create a longer day, then they may not flower and you will have fewer
Seafood Chowder
OK, the new pound cake recipe is not ready yet!!! I keep changing my mind on specific adaptions on the dish. Let’s hope in the next 7 days I get my mind squared on what I’m doing.
I’m bringing out an easy seafood chowder this week, why? Because I made some tonight and in this cold weather it really hit the spot. I went to Walmart to pick up more groceries, before the ice starts around midnight. When I came out of the store you could feel the dampness in the air, I got chilled and soup was born.
Here are a few angles to consider when you’re preparing a seafood chowder of any sort. Tonight, I used shrimp and crab in my soup. Before starting the recipe, I placed my shrimp in the dairy, which I had warmed in the microwave. The shrimp thawed and the milk took on more seafood flavor in the process. If you choose to just thaw the shrimp naturally save all the aujus that comes away from the shrimp, definitely do not discard, more flavor.
The Super Bowl game is going to be here in a heartbeat. Start planning the dishes for the big game. Instead of the usual meatballs why not make Swedish meatballs, and make them in advance, even regular meatballs that are homemade are so much better! There’s also the decision as to whether you do a meal or all appetizers. Personally; I like to reach for a nice Italian dish for game nights. One word of advice is the fact that it takes a great deal less time to do a meal over 6-7 varied dishes. It’s the cost and time element that we have to look at more closely.
A pre-made lasagna, bread & salad sounds mighty good to me. Of course, if it’s
-10 degrees I might pull out the chili soup!
This is a great time of year to take a closer look inside the kitchen. I’ve been doing just that on my home front. I’m re-examining the change out of a few things in order to find more space. One thing that is pretty inexpensive to purchase are dining buffets and used armoires. We can make some pretty awesome storage with these purchases from a local marketplace. This past fall l found a high-end serving buffet to the tune of $85.00. Not only have I gained storage space, I now have a large serving bar for our dinner parties.
Are you making any tomato soup and serving up grilled cheese sandwiches? I LOVE the simplicity of this age-old sammie. One thing I do now which I never did before, is to use quality mayo instead of butter on the outside of the bread. I also put a real small layer on the inside of one slice. Good breads will make a divine Grilled Cheese. Bacon is also good on one of these sammie’s, or some thinly sliced tomato.
Check me out on LewisCountyScoop.com for additional recipes each month.
Have a fantastic week. Simply Yours, The Covered Dish. Back to that pound cake!!!!
Easy Seafood Bisque
½ onion finely diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled, chopped fine
1 bag (8-16 oz.) Frozen Salad Shrimp
6 ounces, diced imitation crabmeat
1 bottle clam juice
Water to cover, if needed
OR
½ onion finely diced
2 medium-large potatoes, peeled, chopped fine
2-3 cans crabmeat
1 bottle of clam juice
Water to cover, if needed
Salt & Pepper to taste
Could add seafood spices, chives, dill &/or garlic powder
2 tablespoons sour cream
4-6 cups milk
2-4 tablespoons butter
Cover the onion and potato with clam juice, salt & pepper and spices of choice. Boil until tender. Add sour cream, milk, and butter, stirring to keep smooth. Add the seafoods of choice, and heat over medium heat. For thickening I use 1-2 tablespoons of thickening agent to about 1/4 – 1/2 additional cold water or milk. Whisk til’ smooth and add to bisque, if it doesn’t thicken enough, repeat.
This was one of my early seafood recipes. Now days I make at least a double batch when I make seafood soups and I use quite a bit of shrimp. I have actually let go of the clam juice and use chicken stock instead. Why? Because I implement the aujus from the shrimp and crab in the recipes. Like oyster stews, this tastes better the next day. I also add chopped fine celery in many of my seafoods. Perhaps a grated carrot or dab of red pepper for a pop of color. A little cheese won’t hurt the recipe, but don’t go overboard.
During Christmas of 2023 I used shrimp and tilapia in my seafood chowder.
Snow; Love it or hate it
Show me a Midwesterner who doesn’t have some sort of love-hate relationship with snow, and I’ll show you the rock they have lived under. It seems as though a person either love it or hates it, and for some of us it depends upon the day. It’s hard to explain how something that makes the landscape suddenly seem so sparkling clean and pure can turn on you in an instant and ruin your day. I was reminded last week how much I love to watch snow fall and how beautiful it makes everything it touches, but also how much I hate removing it from my driveway. I’m kind of a purist, in that I believe God put it there and I don’t want to shovel it and take away any satisfaction He might get from taking it away himself! Yes, to the traveler, home owner, maintenance man and commuter, snow is often an unwelcome inconvenience. To the outdoorsman, however, snow opens up a whole new world of opportunities.
For the outdoors photographer or painter there is no other canvas that compares to an outdoor scene sporting a fresh snowfall. Suddenly, as if by magic, the mundane becomes majestic, the drab becomes dynamic and the everyday becomes extraordinary. Outdoor spots we pass daily with no recognition suddenly become scenes from a calendar. Like the lava lamps of days gone by, the look of the landscape slowly changes from hour to hour with the wind.
Obviously, skiers and snowboarders live for fresh snow. After an overnight snowfall, hills too steep to climb become mere carnival rides beneath their feet. Cross country skiers can, in one day, see country it would take them several days to see on foot without the snow. And let’s not forget the farmers; around one foot of snow equals one inch of rain and snow supposedly brings with it good nutrients too, so after a couple dry years like we’ve had, all this snow is more than welcome for our Kansas wheat and alfalfa.
Hunters and trappers can benefit greatly from a fresh snowfall. Tracks of deer, coyotes, bobcats and other game animals are tough to spot in our often-dry Kansas soil, so trying to learn their movement patterns can rely on being fortunate enough to see the animals themselves. Remember going to dances back-in-the-day when your hand was stamped with a mark that only showed up under a special “black light?” That mark was there the whole time but only became visible when put under the light. Just like the black light, snow suddenly shows tracks of wildlife that have been traveling those same paths for months, but leaving no visible signs.
After a significant snowfall a few years ago, I spent time scouting an area I still had yet to trap. It was a soybean stubble field along the river where my wife harvested her first deer several years before. Besides hordes of deer tracks, I followed 2 sets of bobcat tracks as they meandered back and forth across the field and between several freshly made brush piles. I tracked a coyote for several hundred yards and was able to observe exactly how it related to certain land features. I followed coyote tracks on a frozen drainage ditch and could see where it had stopped to nose around under logs and other attractions. Its tracks showed me cattle trails it had traveled along the steep banks and where it had entered and left the ditch. Closing my eyes, I could almost see these animals as they left the footprints that held my attention.
So, the next time it snows, or before this current snow all melts, after you’ve shoveled the driveway, cleaned the walks, swept the deck and cursed the weatherman, grab your camera or walking stick and head for the woods. It will definitely influence your relationship with the “white stuff” as you continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors
Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].
