From the ArcaMax Publishing, Recipes by Zola Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/zola/s-561381-129626
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