English muffins and Exotic plants....

Well, at least they are exotic to this neck of the woods!

Back at Christmas time of 2018, visitors brought a friend some fresh dates from California. She saved some of the pits and gave me one. By March, it had sprouted, and I grew it under lights until all danger of frost was past, then put it out to spend the summer gracing the picnic table by the back door.

It over-winters in a south-facing window now. I've had to up-size it's pot twice. I don't know how long I can keep it growing, as we don't have much room for plants indoors. (my one regret about our small log house) It's leaves are very stiff and the ends are sharp, quite the conversation piece for visitors.

October 2020

Back in October, I bought a ginger root, and it was showing a bit of a yellowish nodule, so I cut that off and planted it. Yesterday, this is what I found in it's pot!

I have grown ginger before. One needs a lot of patience as it is very slow-growing. Just brushing the grass-like foliage releases a lovely ginger aroma. I did harvest tubers from the one I grew before. 

It's been gloomy and grey, and drippy and yucky the last few days. The sun teased us this AM, but now its back to gloomy and grey. I spent a bit of time sorting through some recipe clippings I'd saved, and was struck by the whim to make English muffins. I did some looking on the internet, but followed a recipe I'd clipped. You make a sponge with all the ingredients plus 2 cups of the flour called for, stir it up and let it ferment for a couple of hours, then add the rest of the flour, knead it and let it rest another couple of hours before shaping the muffins and letting them rise again. I decided to let the second rise happen overnight in the fridge, then pinned out the dough and cut the muffins this morning. After letting them rise, I cooked them in cast iron skillets on the wood stove, and had to keep adjusting the height of the pans with trivets, as the stove was a little warm!

The muffins are very nice, all full of air pockets to hold melted butter and jam. I finished them with 6 minutes in a 350 degree oven to be sure they were cooked through.

Perhaps Eggs Benedict will be on the menu tomorrow!!