Wonderful Scenery

Oklahoma sunset

Growing up in New England and spending over 30 years of my life there, the landscape was comforting, inviting. In landscape architecture we call the view from a particular vantage point a "view shed" and, in New England, the view shed is quite limited. Being a temperate climate, the year round rains bring a flush of vegetation. I can only imagine early settlers trying to tame that land for farming. Without the luxury of modern equipment to clear the land, it was all manual labor. Left unattended, the woods quickly creep back in. The lush landscape combined with the rolling terrain create a cozy sense of enclosure. Yet along the coast, the views open and there is a peace that accompanies the power of the sea creating a contrast for the senses.  

I was amazed when I moved to California that the view shed was so expansive. California has a Mediterranean climate and, as such, there are no rains to speak of (except for a rare sprinkle) from May to October. People talk of the golden hills of California. Golden? They're more like brown as everything is so parched. After visits back to Southern New England, I would show photos to friends and coworkers in California who were amazed to see how "green" it is back in New England. 

Trail through RI woodland

New England garden

I learned to love the landscapes in CA, dry as they might be, and to appreciate the extensive views. I never took for granted the view, on a clear winters day, of the snow covered Sierra Nevada Mountains (encircling the Tahoe Basin) from the Central Valley floor some 90 miles away. Talk about a view shed. Southern New England does not have any mountains to speak of -- no vantage point from which to take in those kinds of views. 

Red sunset

And that brings me to Oklahoma, the Southern Plains, with lots of open prairie offering views that go on for miles. The winters can be bone-chilling cold and the summers blazing hot. No matter what time of year, the wind sure can blow through this open landscape. A friend told me there's a saying in Texas that "there's nothing between Alaska and Texas except for a barbed-wire fence in Oklahoma and it's usually down." That might give you an idea of just how windy it is in these here parts. I'm finding it challenging to garden as the plants struggle to stand up against the wind.

   

Like California, the open landscape in Oklahoma provides some spectacular views. Unless it's cloudy, the sunsets are amazing almost every day. I don't think I'll ever tire of these sunsets.

 

Prairie sunset

In all the places I've lived, I've found such wonderful scenery; they're different but all beautiful in their own way and I am thankful for the opportunities to have experienced them.

Sunset

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Blueberry coffee cake without nuts

Growing up on the edge of town, where it almost seemed country, we were blessed with woods and fields and even a swamp to explore. We climbed trees, wandered through trails in the woods, picked pussy willows and made tee pees and forts. Wild berries grew nearby including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and even some strawberries -- although I have to wonder if any of those were planted by others who might have lived in the area long before my family did. Wild blueberries are plentiful in New England but these berries were bigger than the small wild ones.

I remember summer morns where us kids would pick berries while mom prepared pancake batter and we would have fresh blueberry pancakes. When we picked lots of berries, mom would make blueberry dumplings for dessert. I'll have to make some soon so I can take a photo of blueberry dumplings.

Quite simply you simmer blueberries with some sugar until a liquid forms and the mixture is bubbling. You don't want to over boil it or the blueberries will lose their texture. Mix a little water and corn starch, add to the blueberries and continue simmering until the mixture thickens some. Any simple dumpling recipe will do. I'll add a complete recipe with photos soon. Once mixed, drop spoonfuls of dumpling dough into the simmering berries until the dumplings are cooked, about ten minutes. Dumplings are great warm or chilled and are great with vanilla ice cream. I've digressed here but couldn't help but think about this childhood dessert. Now to the blueberry coffee cake as I had intended.

I would like to take the credit for this recipe but it comes from the August 1989 issue of Yankee Magazine where Yankee did a section on recipes using blueberries. Yankee calls this recipe Blueberry Pecan Kuchen.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Pecan Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup chopped pecans

Blueberry Cake:
2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk (I've used sour cream)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups blueberries

For Topping:
Blend sugar, flour, and cinnamon in medium blow. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix in chopped pecans.

For Cake:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Grease 9" x 13" non-active baking dish or pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. 
3. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar using electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in yogurt or buttermilk (or sour cream), lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients mixing only until batter is completely moistened. Fold in 1 cup of blueberries. 
4. Smooth batter into prepared pan. Top with 2 cups of blueberries, sprinkle with pecan mixture. Bake 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 10 servings. 

Not everyone in our house is a nut lover so instead of mixing the pecans in with the topping mixture, I only used 1/2 cup chopped pecans and sprinkled them on half of the cake pan.                                  

Blueberry coffee cake with nuts

Blueberry Picking

                     

I made the trek to Broken Arrow to pick blueberries at Thunderbird Berry Farm today. It was sunny and in the 80s with a slight breeze. The bushes were so full of ripe berries that it took just over an hour to pick six pounds of berries. The farm was well-staffed and even offered rides to customers to get to the bushes that were furthest away from the parking area. My only wish was that I had gone to Thunderbird earlier in the day as I would like to pick raspberries too. I'm sure I'll get back there soon and I'll post an update on the raspberry crop. Now to bake with these scrumptious berries. 

The Making of a Garden

Garden Centerpiece

Sweet Corn Patch

With this being my first spring here, I am quite late in getting a garden going but it is getting going. We've actually got two garden areas. One is a corn patch out by the wheat field that we just harvested.

It's got some green beans, squash, cantaloupe and watermelon out there along with some sunflowers. Trying to do a little bit of the "Three Sisters" there. The main garden area, in the yard and closer to the house, has a more formal design with a raised central area.

Garden area with chicken coop

Limestone raised planter

Laying out the garden

Limestone is plentiful not too far below the soil surface, which can be a problem as it limits the amount of available topsoil, but the rock also provides material for making walls, walkways and patio areas. Believe me, I've got plenty of rock to work with. I used some of the smaller pieces to create a raised, circular center planter for the garden and placed an urn-shaped pot above it.

Urn-shaped pot for centerpiece with cut wildflowers below

My goal was to have a productive vegetable and herb garden that is ornamental as well. The garden is slowly taking shape. The center planting bed will consist of flowers and herbs. I'll post more photos once I have more plantings in there.

Eggshells for plant pots

The squash and cucumber plants
have done quite well

Lots of tomato plants including
seeds from my friend Michelle's tomatoes

I've got lots of seedlings started in the house. Some are already in the garden and others are still too tender to risk transplanting just yet. It's been way too hot for them to make it. I learned that the hard way as some of the early squash and melon seedlings did not make it.

Spring Storms

Buzzards waiting along the river

Verdigris River with some of the bank eroded

Early May brought some severe storms with flooding rains, tornado warnings and high winds along one storm front reaching 75-80 mph. We spent a good week repairing a water line (the faucet was taken out by storm debris skipping across the yard) and cleaning up storm debris. Some local roads were flooded making local travel a challenge. 

 

                    

                     Highway 10 looking east

     

  

                    

Highway 10 flooded

Flooded field south of Highway 10

The Verdigris River overflowed its banks scouring the banks, taking earth and trees with it and deposited trees and fish elsewhere along the adjacent fields and woodlands. A main water line serving this area crosses the river and was taken out of commission by trees rushing down the river.  I would like to have taken a picture of all the carp and gar deposited on what should be dry land but, by the time I went back with a camera, the stench was so strong inside the truck that I didn't have the stomach to get out to take photos. 

River bank washed out

Roadway collapsed into river

Small corn plants mark the old edge of the field
with half of the roadway washed away

Driving into the corn field as half of the roadway is gone

This area did not collapse until a couple of days after
the storm and after the river had crested. 

Corn fields were flooded.
With water levels so high, some of the wheat
was flooded and left with a coating of mud on the plants

Buzzards waiting . . . they feasted on the fish
that were washed over the river banks

Imagine how high the river got, and the force
of the water required, to move all of these trees up
onto the adjacent roadway

We've cleaned up, repaired damage, replanted corn that did not make it. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks after having flooding rains, it's now dry here and the corn needs rain. Wheat harvest is fast approaching as is soybean planting. Hoping for a good growing season.

Tall Grass Prairie

We made the trek out to Turtle Rock Farm in Red Rock, OK for their Earth Day celebration that included, among other things, alpaca shearing, Cherokee basket weaving, and spinning. The ride there took us through expansive open prairie land and on our way back, we detoured north of Pawhuska, OK to the Nature Conservancy's Tall Grass Prairie Preserve. The preserve seemed to go on and on offering breathtaking views. As part of the restoration project, the Nature Conservancy reintroduced 300 bison to the preserve where they have about 25,000 acres to roam. Read more about what the Nature Conservancy is doing to preserve the largest tract of native tall grass prairie left on earth in the link above.

               

                  

       
       

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

I combined two recipes to make this dish. The meatball recipe came from an old Betty Crocker cookbook published in 1980 by Golden Press. That cookbook has a recipe for Sweet and Sour Meatballs but I actually like the sauce recipe for Sweet and Sour Pork in Betty Crocker's International Cookbook published by Random House in 1980 better. In that recipe, carrots are included and they are simmered in the liquid before thickening it. That brings a nice pickled flavor to the carrots. I've modified the recipe some to my family's liking, and we really like pineapple juice so this recipe includes more juice.

My daughter likes anything panda, and I found these adorable panda chopstick rests on Ebay for her.

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg

Mix ingredients; shape into small meatballs (about 3/4 inch diameter for bite size meatballs). Cook over medium heat in a skillet, turning occasionally, until brown, about 15 minutes. Set aside. 

Sweet and Sour

• 1 can (about 20 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained (reserve syrup/juice)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 carrots, cut diagonally into thin slices
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 green pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

The original recipes calls for adding enough water to the reserved pineapple juice to measure one cup. I use one full cup of pineapple juice and added 1/2 cup of water. Heat the syrup-water mixture, brown sugar, vinegar, carrots, soy sauce, salt and garlic to boiling in dutch oven; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until carrots are crisp-tender, about 6 minutes. 

In a separate pan, saute green pepper and onion slightly, about 5 minutes. Mix corn starch and water in small bowl and stir into sauce. Add meatballs, green pepper, onion and pineapple. Boil and stir 1 minutes until somewhat thickened. Serve with rice.