Spring green up is coming fast - Country Cousin

Lawns and fields everywhere are absolutely glowing. Birds are singing, trees are budding, and a few shrubs are even showing hints of flowers. Guess we should have planted those peas on Good Friday. Now it’s probably too warm for them to thrive. 

TAX TIME

The annual United States income tax filing deadline arrived on Monday, April 15. Back when, before the politicians figured out that if they withhold more than they’re entitled to and give “refunds” for benefits in dollars that were never paid in, people would pretty much quit worrying about taxes. Everybody loves getting refunds.

A very wise lady who had closely followed local, state and national news for all of her 80-plus years always maintained that legislators should be required to take one old law off the books for every old law they pass. Said if they had to do that they’d be so busy finding old laws to get rid of that they wouldn’t have time to think up new ones.

Speaking of old laws, in Wyoming you cannot take a picture of a rabbit from January through April without a permit, so photos of kids with the Easter Bunny appear to be mostly prohibited.

There seems to be something about bathtubs. In Arizona it’s illegal to allow a donkey to sleep in a bathtub, and in South Carolina horses cannot be kept in them.

At least until quite recently, retail customers in New Jersey and more populated parts of Oregon were prohibited from pumping their own gas, so there were no fully self-serve filling stations.

Now there’s a law I could love! How I would like to find a “service station” today like the ones we used to enjoy, where you could pull up to the pump and when the attendant came to your window tell him to “Fill the gas, wash the windows, check the oil and air the tires,” and he did. Gas was 23 cents a gallon for a while in those days, and the attendant, who often was also the owner, didn’t even expect a tip!

GROWIN’ THINGS

KEEP YOUR EASTER LILY

By now, all the blooms from your regal Easter Lily have most likely withered and been removed. It can be tricky to keep the plant alive to bloom another year, but it can be done. For now, until all danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed a bit, keep it indoors, watered and in indirect sunlight.

At planting time, find a sunny, well-drained spot in your garden. Add some organic matter or fertilizer if needed. Soil pH should be a neutral 6.5 to 7.0.

Then plant the Easter lily bulb to the same depth it was in the pot. Around the plant, but not touching the stem, put about a 2-inch layer of organic mulch. Wood chips or mulched grass material will do nicely to keep the roots cool while the plant enjoys full sun.

When the original leaves and stem start to turn brown, cut the plant down to a healthy, green leaf. New growth should soon emerge from the base of the plant. Let the plant grow foliage the first year.

When the new growth turns yellow in fall, cut the plant back to soil level. Top dress the soil with bulb fertilizer or blood meal and cover with several inches of mulch, hay or straw to protect it through the winter. As soon as possible in spring, remove as much of the mulch as you can. Apply a balanced fertilizer as soon as new growth appears in spring and monthly until the lily blooms. It may not bloom the first year. Lilies generally bloom in June or July, so don’t expect it to bloom for Easter again, unless you’re prepared to force it indoors as the commercial growers do. Just keep your lily well watered the first year as it establishes itself and be patient and then treat it as you would any other lily.

Read that 95% of all the Easter lilies sold in this country are grown in an area along the Oregon/California coastal border.

Easter lilies (proper name, Lilium longiflorum) are native to the southern islands of Japan. A World War I soldier, Louis Houghton, is credited with starting Easter Lily production in the United States when he brought a suitcase full of bulbs with him to the southern coast of Oregon in 1919. He gave them away to friends, and when the supply of bulbs from Japan was cut off as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the rising price of the bulbs suddenly made the lily business a viable industry for these hobby growers and earned their bulbs the nickname “White Gold”.

COOKIN ‘ TIME

On wonderful spring days our tastebuds tingle for light, fruity flavors, but berry season is still a few months off. Lemon is the ideal answer, and today’s featured Lemon Bundt Cake is an easy treat for afternoon guests, after dinner or after school. So is the luscious and ridiculously easy Peach Cobbler Cake.

THICK ‘N CREAMY MUSHROOM SOUP

Morrell and other mushrooms will be sprouting up their delicious heads soon, if they aren’t there already. This soup can be made with whatever kinds of mushrooms you want, or are fortunate enough to find. The recipe makes five servings. It tastes wonderfully rich, but is quite a bargain, diet wise, and pocket book wise too, if you collect your own mushrooms. Each serving has 89 calories, no saturated fat, 14 grams of carbs, and costs 1 carbohydrate on the Diabetic Exchange. Quite a bargain!

1 pound fresh sliced mushrooms

2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) ready to use reduced sodium chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup low fat milk

5 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon browning and seasoning sauce

Coat a soup pot with nonstick cooking spray. Add the mushrooms and sauté over high heat for 4 to 5 minutes, or until soft, stirring frequently. Add the chicken broth, onion powder, and pepper; bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low. In a small bowl, mix the milk and flour until smooth. Gradually add to the soup, stirring constantly. Stir in the browning and seasoning sauce and simmer for 5 more minutes, or until thickened.

LEMON BUNDT CAKE

Butter flavored non-stick baking spray

3 cups flour

2 lemons, zest and juice

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup milk, approximately

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Grate the lemons to get the needed zest, and then juice them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the freshly squeezed lemon juice for the glaze and put the remaining juice into a one-cup measuring cup. If there isn’t a least a tablespoon, add vinegar to make a tablespoon. If there is more than a tablespoon, that’s okay. Add milk to make a full cup and set aside. (The milk/lemon juice mixture needs to sit for about 10 minutes, but unless you’re really fast, it should be turned to buttermilk consistency by the time you need it.) Spray bundt pan and sprinkle interior with flour. Dust out the excess. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, lemon zest, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the 2 sticks of butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Turn the mixer to low speed and alternately add the flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Shake the pan gently and knock it once or twice firmly on the counter to settle any bubbles. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted midway between the edge and the center tube comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then unmold onto cake plate to cool completely. Make the lemon glaze by sifting the powdered sugar into a medium bowl and then whisking in enough lemon juice to make a soft glaze that drips in a wide ribbon off the whisk. Drizzle this over the cake and let the cake sit until the glaze hardens, and then cover.  Keep at room temperature for up to a day. To store leftover cake, wrap it tightly in plastic or foil and refrigerate or freeze.

EASY PEACH COBBLER PUDDING CAKE

Yellow cake mix and peaches canned in heavy syrup are the primary components in this unbelievably easy dessert. Had almost forgotten about it, but Mom used to make just about the same cake with fruit cocktail on the bottom instead of peaches. Either variety is best served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but it’s also quite incredible by itself, or with a bit of plain old half half and half poured over it. Definitely not low carb or gluten free!

2 (16 ounce) cans peaches in heavy syrup

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Empty peaches into the bottom of one 9x13 inch pan. Cover with the dry cake mix and press down firmly. Cut butter into small pieces and scatter on top of cake mix. (Mom used to melt her butter and drizzle it around over the cake mix.) Sprinkle top with cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Thought for the week: Read somewhere that humans are set apart from the rest of the animal kingdom by the glow we get from doing good, and that has been recognized from ancient times to the present. This doesn’t mean our governments need to be doling out charity. That privilege should be reserved for us as individuals. As Bob Hope once said: “If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” An old Hindu proverb declares, “Help thy brother’s boat across, and lo! thine own has also reached the shore.” Wouldn’t this be a great world if we’d all heed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice:  “You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late”?

(This column is written by Shirley Prudhomme of Crivitz. Views expressed are her own and are in no way intended to be an official statement of the opinions of Peshtigo Times editors and publishers. She may be contacted by phone at 715-291-9002 or by e-mail to shirleyprudhommechickadee@yahoo.com.)