A June Boon

Our first wave of cool-season crops (peas, lettuce, and radishes) finally fizzled out, so I removed the spent plants and replaced them with tomatoes, chives, and dill.  However, I left a few of the radish plants out, even though they'd "bolted"(threw up a stalk, rendering them basically inedible).  I left them up for two reasons.  First...aren't they beautiful?

Second...they can still provide pollen for the bees, and I want to help them out as much as I can! 

And, of course, the radishes will eventually form seed pods in place of the flowers, and I will gather the seeds for next year's planting.

While working in the beds, I noticed a praying mantis nymph in the dirt.

Minutes later, I spotted another one on the side of one of the container gardens.  They must have recently hatched, but for the life of me I couldn't find a single ootheca this year. 

Happily, there are lots of insects in the garden now.  Grasshoppers...

Hoverflies...

Long-legged flies (Diptera: Dolichopodidae)...

 Your garden-variety flies...

...and lots of mystery insects that I can never seem to identify.

 Of course, the bees are very active in the flowers.

He's been busy...check out that pollen packet on his hind legs!

As you can see from the above picture, the larkspur is flourishing.

The snapdragons that I've been babying since seed-hood are finally coming into flower, too.  I planted the tall kind (2 - 3 feet) and a wide variety of colors.  The very first snapdragon plant to open has amazing, rich colors that remind me of a sunset.

Lovely!

My ruffled daylilies are opening up, too.  I have a confession:  I never used to like daylilies. But I've since learned that you can buy a succession of daylilies in any color you'd like that will bloom from spring 'til fall.  They are beautiful bright spots in the garden.

And I love those ruffles!

I always grab a few daylilies when I make my weekly trip to the yard to gather plants for my bouquets.

I split them up between several small vases...

...and scatter them all over the house.  The real secret to a great bouquet, just like to a great garden, is the green you choose to set off your flowers.  For these bouquets, I use parsley.  The leafy foliage and airy umbels are the perfect neutral background.

I didn't plant parsley this year, but I had a large crop last year, and one plant re-seeded in a cement crack between our container gardens.  That one seed grew a plant almost as tall as I am, and now I have enough parsley for weekly bouquets all summer long.  I will never again make the mistake of not planting parsley.

Here's one of the stars of the show...

It only takes one to really brighten things up!

I cut pretty heavily from my Russian Sage plant, but it can take it.  Russian Sage makes a fabulous bouquet, with its tiny purple flowers and its heady scent.  It lasts forever in a vase, too.

Speaking of "heady scent"...I recently made what may be my favorite cupcakes ever.  Everyone in my gym classes knows about them...and my friends...the clerks at our local post office...and maybe the grocery store, too!  I just can't stop talking about how good they are.  Are you ready for this?  They're brown sugar chocolate chip cupcakes, stuffed with (eggless) chocolate chip cookie dough, topped with a brown sugar buttercream frosting.

Can you say RICH and DELICIOUS? 

They're fairly quick to put together, but be sure to plan a jog around the block afterwards...they're a teeny, tiny bit calorie-laden.  ;) 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough-Stuffed Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Annie's Eats
Makes 20 - 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting: 
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions
First, make your cupcakes!  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease two cupcake pans.  With your mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar for three minutes, until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly add this to your wet mixture, alternating with the milk, until just combined.  Blend in vanilla and fold in chocolate chips. 

Fill cupcake tins and bake for about 18 minutes, until golden brown.

While your cupcakes are baking, make your cookie dough.  Cream your butter and sugar for two minutes, and then beat in your flour, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla.  Stir in chocolate chips, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour.

Now, just as your cupcakes are cool, your cookie dough will be ready!

Take a knife and cut a "cone" out of the center of your cupcake.

Spoon in some cookie dough...

Cut the bottom part of the cone off and place the top of the cone 'lid' back on the cupcake.

You'll have a pile of leftover cones, but I daresay you'll find a way to dispose of them.  Ahem.

To make your frosting, beat together the sugar and butter and then mix in the powdered sugar.  Beat in your flour and salt, and then the milk and vanilla.  Combine until smooth.  Pipe onto your cupcakes.

Just to see what you did, cut a cupcake in half and marvel at the cookie dough perfection.

Then eat.  Repeat as desired.

I hope you'll give them a try this week...doesn't everyone need some cookie dough goodness sometimes?

Enjoy!

A Bloom Boon

This is one of my favorite times of year...when everything is just starting to pop in the garden. My amaryllis plant is experiencing unprecedented growth...six beautiful, long-lasting blooms so far this year.

My tiger lilies are doing well, too. I bought one limp lily clearanced to .99 several years ago and planted it. The second year, a few small lilies came up, but each year, they grow and spread nicely.

The ditch lilies are up, too! Ditch lilies, or Hemerocallis fulva, are great for poor-soil areas. You may have seen great patches of them along the highway, hence their nickname. They thrive without attention in dry soil and full sun, so are perfect for areas of your yard that other things won't grow in. Be cautious, though. They don't play well with others and will quickly choke out competing plants in their vicinity.

My yellow yarrow had its first blush of color recently.

My favorite, though, is the hot pink. Each year the patches grow and spread. I can't imagine my garden without these colorful plants.

The feverfew bush is blooming...

...and I've gotten the first bloom on my "Endless Summer" hydrangea.

I love seeing all the individual petals unfurling.

The small dill patch from last year came back and spread with a vengeance. Dill seeds insinuated themselves into the cracks in our concrete driveway and grew rapidly. They smell delicious when you back over them! :) Thankfully, we have dill all along the fence line, too.

The first zinnia bud has appeared...

...as has the first cosmos bud.

My mallows have grown nicely and are just starting to go to seed. I planted cosmos around the mallows to provide a nice leafy 'cover' for the ground, and so that I'd patches of tall orange flowers to cover up the stalks when they go to seed.

Like every year...a surprise! I've got 6 or 7 larkspur plants growing in various parts of the garden. How did they get there? I don't know, but I'm really enjoying them while they last! An interesting fact: giving someone a specific type of flower denotes a particular meaning...i.e., a carnation means friendship, etc. Be careful who you give a larkspur to, though...larkspurs signify fickleness!

Insects have had quite a time with my flowers this year. I don't recall it ever being so bad before. The leaves on most of my zinnias have been eaten down.

My oriental lilies have fallen prey to another invasive insect, which has swarmed all over the leaves and buds, causing them to shrivel.

I don't use pesticides on my plants. Thankfully - I think - I've got more praying mantises than ever before. Another ootheca has hatched recently. These tiny mantis nymphs are still swarming all over the area near where they hatched from. They'll eat many, many garden pests.

In another part of the garden, this young praying mantis, from a different ootheca, looks alert on a leaf.

A lightning bug rests up for his nighttime performance. I've always loved lightning bugs and miss seeing them...there are so few of them in the city, compared to what I am used to in the country. I've read that lightning bugs are fast disappearing. Human encroachment on their habitats - woods and meadows - have decreased their numbers, but they also suffer from something called 'light pollution'. Lightning bugs communicate with each other with the flashing light of their abdomens. They can get confused with all the lights they see - headlights, lights from houses, street lights - and become unable to signal properly for a mate. That's why I love having big, messy gardens with pesticide-free insect control like (shudder) praying mantises...not only it is beautiful to me, but it can provide a safe haven for all types of insects.

Spiders are another great form of insect control. I found a large funnel web spider web behind my phlox. I know that like praying mantises, spiders are good to have in a garden. I'm still a little afraid of them, though, especially aggressive ground spiders like wolf spiders.

I seem to be obsessed with hover flies lately. I've bee photographing them on the yarrow...

...the feverfew...

...and on random leaves and stems. I can't help it...I think they're quite beautiful, with their tidy proportions, nicely lined wings, and evenly patterned abdomens.

Being on vacation recently gave me a chance to start a new knitting project. I wanted to make a slouchy hat in one of my favorite colors, mustard. This hat was designed by a Scottish woman who was born in the Shetland Islands and who recently released a book of patterns inspired by her life there. This particular hat uses a traditional lace pattern called 'cat's paw'. It didn't look like much after I finished it, but therein lies the magic of blocking.

One supper plate later...

...and voila! It's a perfect fit, and comfortably slouchy. I can see grabbing this hat in the fall, just before a long, brisk walk.

Another knitter sent me a surprise package this week, of vintage buttons. I love buttons of all kind, and these were beauties...pearly pinks, silvery bell-like circles, faux diamonds, some that looked like burnished steel, deep reds, pale greens, and calming blues...and a whole hodgepodge of whites, creams, browns, blacks, and bronzes.

I was glad to have a little surprise, because I needed a pick-me-up. Todd is out of town again, and I absolutely feel miserable when he's gone. He'll be home soon, though, and meanwhile I have lots to keep me busy...

Enjoy your week!