ArcaMax

We’ve been Robbed!

It started with the mantid pods. I bought four of them. I placed two in the garden on the roof and two in the garden above the garage. I followed all directions as usual. They tell you to tie the sticks,(to which the pods are attached), to a large plant or a tree. This keeps them safe from low-lying critters. Some bugs will eat other bugs. Then you just expose them to a few days of 70-plus degree weather and they’ll “hatch”. You can have up to 400 teeny baby mantid coming from a pod. Not all of them live. It depends most on how large your garden is. Mine isn’t big enough to support a lot of mantid because we live in the big city. I love them though. The ones that grow large even come out of hiding at cocktail parties and I’ve had guests with cameras take some amazing photos of them. They seem to pose for the camera. It’s quite a fun time.

One day I went to check to see if the pods had hatched on the garage deck.

They were gone!

I blame it on the squirrels. All I can think of is a squirrel decided they look like nuts and ran off to “squirrel them away”. I was disappointed.

Next day I went up to the roof deck to check on the ones up there. Surely no squirrel wanted to climb up four stories to bother my pods.

They were now gone too!

Blasted squirrels!

That wasn’t the end either!

It was time to put the fish out on the garage deck.

The cats had been entertained by this large pot of fish that we had been keeping in the kitchen all winter. If we had left them outside the water would have frozen solid, so we brought them into the kitchen. Ironically, perhaps, we set the pot right next to where the cats eat from their food bowls. Only time would tell how the cats would react to the fish. Would they eat them?

Nope. The cats and the fish made friends; at least as well as the two species could do. They tolerated each other. The fish swam happily in circles. The cats used the fish pot for a water dish. They came to prefer the “fish water” to the stuff from the tap that was in their bowl. It was quite fun to watch the cats stretch up over the edge of the pot and drink from the fish bowl.

But, alas it was time for them to go outside and become part of a larger planting with a fountain in it. It’s not an elaborate set up, but it does have some charm and the sound of the water burbling is calming as you read a book, a newspaper or a magazine on the deck. People are always fascinated when they lean over the fountain and realize there are live fish swimming below. Sort of fits with the garden theme and the usually elusive mantid. (Mantid is the plural for praying mantis, in case you didn’t catch that when I’ve written about them before).

In any case. I put the fish in the planter and set about my other duties. I didn’t get a chance to set up the fountain right away but I knew they’d be just fine for a day or two until I could get back to it.

I did come back; only to find the fish...GONE!

Now I was stomping my feet! Squirrels don’t eat fish! What happened to my fish!

The garage deck is on the second story. What climbed up? And how did it climb up? Ferrell cat maybe? In the city you never know. I hadn’t seen any cats in the neighborhood since we moved in six months ago but much of that time was winter, so maybe.

I was not to be deterred. The next day my husband and I went out and we bought more fish.

Lest we blow the budget, we decided the 26-cent feeder fish were going to be our purchase. We didn’t know what was lurking...waiting to pounce on our fish...making fresh sushi out of them, so we decided to keep the investment low. Two dollars and sixty cents later, we had our bag of 10 fish.

This time I figured if I set up the fountain, the motion of the water and the burbling noise would scare of the predator.

Two days later I go to feed the fish...and two are missing. Hmm...did they die after transport? Maybe they did and my husband fished out the dead bodies and just didn’t tell me. I didn’t know for sure.

Later, my husband claimed he had only removed on dead fish. That didn’t add up.

Two more days pass. I go to feed the fish again...this time...ZERO fish! Not only that, but the pond was a mess. Whatever had gotten in there was not a sophisticated fisherman. Not delicate like a cat. This beast had moved rocks! Sizeable rocks. He had also dismantled the fountain; ripped it right out of the filtering system. This thing had to be large!

I began to clean up the mess; holding back my tears. I know they were only $2.60 cents and they were meant to be fed to lizards anyway, but my attitude was I had saved these feeders from death’s door so they could live happily for years in my fountain and in my house over the winter. Now they were gone. Gobbled up no less, by some selfish beast from the alley.

What could this dastardly creature be?

Then I stepped back as I washed down the mud around the fountain area. As clear as day, I could look along the side of the large fountain pot and there they were. Raccoon prints! Large raccoon prints. Unmistakable, large, very large, raccoon prints! These things were almost 3-inch in diameter!

So, what to do now? I don’t think I can build anything formidable enough to keep this major raccoon out of my pond. It’s just not that big. And he’s come back twice to feast on my poor, defenseless fish! My guess is, each night now, he scrambles up the phone pole next to our garage to see if we’ve laid out another fish course for his evening snack. That seems to be his only way up onto our garage and I don’t think Ma Bell would like it very much if I cut down a phone pole.

We’ve been robbed! We’ve been robbed four times in a month!

Marsala Mushroom Chicken

I “invented” this dish the other night. It’s not the same as chicken marsala. It has a unique flavor. My husband complimented me three times while he ate this dish, so I am confident it’s a winner. Serve to family or even special dinner guests for a Country French dinner.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz of sliced button mushrooms
1 Tbl of butter/divided
1 Tbl of olive oil 1, 8 oz can of mushroom soup (I use Amy’s Organic mushroom soup which is semi-condensed)
1/4 cup of diced shallots
1/2 cup of sweet marsala wine
1 tsp of smoked paprika
Pinch of cayenne (optional)

In a sauté pan brown the mushrooms in one tablespoon of the butter. You can stop cooking them when the liquid subsides and the edges of mushrooms are just slightly browned. Put them across the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch oven proof pan.

In a large zip lock bag place one of the chicken breasts inside. Now, use a meat mallet to pound the chicken down to a thickness of about 1/3 to 1/2 inch. Do this with all four pieces of chicken.

In a large sauté pan add the other butter and the olive oil. Saute the chicken pieces until they are lightly browned on one side. Medium high will do it. You might have to use two pans or do this in two batches if they won’t all fit in the pan. As you get the one side browned, take them out and place them browned-side-up on top of the mushrooms.

In a medium bowl pour in the soup, the marsala, the shallots, paprika and the pinch of cayenne. Stir. Pour this sauce over the chicken. Bake the chicken at 350 degrees 30 to 40 minutes or until no pink shows in the middle of the chicken. I always cut one piece at the thickest point to make sure.

I serve with mashed Yukon gold potatoes and sautéed green beans. Feels very French country.

Cheers!
Enjoy,
Zola