The Beauty of Sweet Peas and 10 fun facts.

  I am not much on growing flowers but I have a few favorites.  One is the Sweet Pea due to its beauty and aroma.  Although it looks a lot like green peas you grow in the garden, its seeds are poisonous.

Sweet peas come in dwarf which grow between 8 and 24 inches tall while the regular varieties can reach between 6 and 10 feet tall.

It is strongly suggested that sweet peas be rotated every year and never grown in the same spot twice in a row.  It is best to give 4 years before planting in a previous area.  It is recommended you do not grow sweet peas in any area in which you've grown legumes.

 1. If you eat the seeds, you will develop a disease called Odoratism whose symptoms could be mistaken for scurvy.

2. Up until the mid 1800's there were only 6 colors of the sweet pea available.  More became available as people worked on hybridizing the plant.  One gentleman created so many new colors that 23 are still available today.

3. In the 1930's growers in California shipped railroad cars full of sweet peas east because they were so popular.

4. In 1901, a sweet pea mutation was found which was named Spencer after the Earl of Spencer.  It became quite popular due to its ruffled upper petals and long lower petals.

5. The first recorded appearance of sweet peas was in 1695 but no one is sure whether it was from the wild or found in a garden.

6.  One of the earliest named varieties, the "Cupani" named after Francisco Cupani, can be found in seed catalogues today.

7. Varieties come with or without tendrils.  The taller varieties tend to have tendrils but the dwarf ones do not always have tendrils.  California growers worked on breading sweet peas without tendrils.

8.  The older varieties from the Eckfort line are reputed to be the most fragrant.

9.The name sweet pea is attributed to Keats as having first coined it.

10. Small compact sweet peas referred to as the 'Cupid' type were extremely popular around the early 1900's.

I enjoy the old fashioned ones with the beautiful scent.  They remind me of my grandmother.

Mug Cakes

  I've seen recipe books for mug cakes but couldn't figure out what they were until I checked on line.  My goodness, they are small cakes microwaved in a cup till done.  No more making a cake for one or two people and hoping you'd get it eaten before it went bad.

I checked out a few recipes and they don't look hard to make.  Just the standard flour, sugar, butter or oil, baking powder, and an egg.  The only difference is that the amount for each ingredient is cut down to just enough to cook in a coffee mug.

In general its between 1/4 and  1/3 cup flour, 1/2 an egg or 1 egg depending,  up to 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 to 2 tbsp of oil or butter,  1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt.  Some recipes have you add chocolate powder (3 tbsp) for a chocolate flavor, perhaps apple sauce or mashed bananas, depending on the flavoring.  I've even seen coffee cake recipes which follow the same basic form but add a crumbly top made of flour, butter, and sugar. 

I've seen recipes that ask you to mix the ingredients in a bowl and then add to the cup while others have you mix it in the cup before baking.  No matter, once its mixed and in the cup, microwave it for 2 min at high.  Keep an eye on it so its not over cooked.  Let set for 15 minutes before eating.

If you want a more specific recipe, do a quick search on the internet where you'll find mouthwatering ones like Nutella mug cake, chocolate orange, chocolate peanut butter, apple cinnamon or even a S'mores mug cake. 

Just imagine having a do it yourself dessert bar with all the ingredients available so people can make their own mug cakes.  Include some gluten free flour for those who need it or have flax, chia, or egg substitute for strict vegans.  You could use small disposable cups if you didn't want to wash all those cups afterwards.

I'm going to have to try a carrot mug cake.  I always have pulp left over after making fresh juice and I could make small mug cakes on demand.  I love adding a bit of pumpkin pie spice to my carrot cake recipe and I top them with a wonderful cream cheese frosting.  The best way is to let the cream cheese soften before adding powdered sugar and a smidgen of vanilla.

Do you have a favorite mug cake you'd like to share?  Please let me know.

The Top 10 Most Fragrent Roses.

  I love planting roses around the house.  Where I live in Alaska, we have tons of wild roses with beautiful scents but most people end up planting roses.  Some choose what ever roses can be found at the local gardening center, some can be ordered in from an on-line place or you might get it at your local grocery store.

The problem is simply that not all roses smell alike.  Some have a great scent that sends you back to your childhood while others are sort of neutral.  If you want the flowers with the best smell, which varieties should you look for?

These 10 roses are considered the flowers with the most intense fragrances in the world.

1.  Memorial Day rose is a beautiful pink hybrid tea rose with a double bloom reaching 5 to 6 inches across.  It is said that one flower can scent a room.  This rose blooms by Memorial Day if you'd like something aromatic by then.

2. Sunsprite is a gorgeous deep yellow rose reaching 2.5 feet tall so it can be grown in a container if desired but the scent is wonderful.  The blossoms are single blooms with 25 to 30 petals per blossom. It is classified as a Florabunda who blooms from late spring to early frost.

3. Secret is a hybrid tea rose whose pink tinged white petals are beautiful.  The blossoms reach 4. 75 inches across and have an intense scent to provide the wonderful rose smell around the house.  Although the plant has mostly single blossoms, they occur in clusters of two to three.

4. Mr Lincoln is a hybrid tea rose whose classic rose scent strikes chords of remembrance.  It is considered the most fragrant rose in the world.  Its deep red, almost violet color comes through on its double 5 to 6 inch across blossoms.

5. Louise Odier is a beautiful bourbon rose.  Its deep pink, double blossom provides a deep intense scent.  You won't see its 3 inch wide blossoms till the beginning of June.

6. The Royal Highness exhibition quality hybrid tea roses produces a 5 to 6 inch soft pink colored blossom. This particular rose grows best in a sunny climate, producing a large pointed buds are seen first before they open into its high centered shape.

7. The grandflora type Fragrant Plum has a lavender colored center deepening to a plum at the edges of the flowers.  The 4 inch double blossoms bloom in June.

8. Heritage, an english rose, is a classic heritage rose.  Its light pink, double blossoms with a perfect cup shape are a delight to have in the garden. In addition, the 3.5 inch blossoms carry a light lemon scent.

9. The florabunda Honey Perfume rose with its apricot yellow double blossoms bloom from spring to autumn releasing a beautiful honey perfume scent to waft across the yard.

10. Finally, Double Delight, a hybrid tea rose whose white center and red edges provides a striking double blossom. This 4 to 6 inch rose is noted for its intense spicy scent.  It is good for both exhitition and cut arrangements.

So if you wish to plant a rose garden for its fragrance rather than only for color, check some of these out because they provide both.

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Most everyone uses BBQ sauce at some point in their life, even me!  I choose to skip the meat but that does not mean I avoid BBQ sauce.  I've used it on my tofu when I want to grill it to create a meal I can eat at friends houses.  So what is most BBQ sauce made of?  Tomatoes often in the form of ketchup and spices with something sweet or tangy.

Most recipes start with ketchup, vinegar, sugar - usually brown sugar, and thinned with water.  Its the added ingredients that make the difference.

Personalize it with onions, garlic, chipotle peppers, mustard,  pineapple  juice etc but not all BBQ sauces are made with ketchup.  I found one on the Food Network that is quite different.  Its a Peach - Mustard BBQ sauce with no ketchup.  Its only made with butter, onions, garlic, vinegar, mustard, peach jam, Bourbon, and salt. 

On another site, I found a Teriyaki - Peach BBQ sauce which took the basic ketchup based sauce and added a pureed mixture of peaches, peach juice, teriyaki sauce and powdered ginger to create a unique version.  On the other hand, the Cherry - Chipotle BBQ sauce used a base of ketchup with butter, green onions, garlic, cherries, apple juice, chipotle powder, vinegar, and a bunch of spices all blended in a blender. 

Of course you can make the Dr Pepper BBQ sauce out of ketchup, Dr. Pepper, garlic, onion, brown sugar, vinegar, chili powder, and Worcestershire sauce.  This Mango BBQ sauce has you grilling tomatoes, mangoes, chili peppers, and onion slices before blending them into a liquid mixture and adding a variety of spices.

How about a Strawberry Habanero BBQ sauce made of strawberry jam, limes, soy sauce, habanero hot sauce, ginger, and mint all blended and allowed to rest for 24 hours before using.  If that does not appeal to you, why not try an Apricot Habanero BBQ sauce composed of onion, garlics, yellow sweet pepper, dried apricots, water, habanero hot sauce, vinegar, and mustard.

You might want to give these a try or look for something else that appeals to you.  A quick search on the internet will result in thousands of recipes for you to try.  Enjoy, have fun.

Dump Cakes

  I've noticed there are more and more cookbooks being produced on making dump cakes.  I had my first one a couple years ago when someone brought it for dessert at a pot luck.  I really didn't care for it because it had a bit of an after taste .  I suspect the recipe was one with a cake mix and can of lemon lime flavored soda. 

The general description of a dump cake is you dump a box of cake mix, fruit, and liquid, stir, and bake.  I hate using cake mixes because the final product is too fluffy.  I prefer my cake to be a bit heavier with fruit and nuts.  something that sticks to my bones.

I think my mother did something similar but it was more like she made a yellow cake mix up and poured it into a cake pan with brown sugar, and butter on top of slices of pineapple for an upside down cake mix.  She never did anything like that.

I admit some of the recipes I've seen look quite good. What about one made with 1 box chocolate cake, 1 box of chocolate pudding, 8 oz of Reece's mini peanut butter cups and  1 3/4 cup milk.  Bake at 350 till done.

Just a quick search reveals tons of recipes for dump cakes from caramel apple to pineapple coconut to a variety of chocolate cakes but according to an article Epicurious.com not all recipes result in a consistent product.  Furthermore, they don't always taste that great.  One combination she mentioned involved a white cake mix with orange soda.  That one holds no appeal at all.  I've never liked orange soda.

The author gave herself a challenge to create a better than average dump cake made from scratch that was just as easy as using the prepackaged ingredients.  She did it.  She created a quick "cake" base, uses butter, fresh or frozen fruit, gives it a shake before baking.  There is a link for making your own yellow cake mix base.  To add some texture to the cake, she suggests using nuts.

After reading her recipe, I'm willing to consider making my own "dump cake" because this is home made and made from reasonably healthy ingredients.  It doesn't use over sweetened fruit, soda pop, or other ingredients I find unhealthy. 

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Soul Food

My Kind of Cake