Dead Head

I wish this was a posting about that stinking Nutria! He is still around and after my lettuce!
This isn't a posting about the Grateful Dead, although Jerry did make a few stops in Eugene back in the day. This is about Rhododendrons.
Now if you are like me a few months ago you will be like...Rhodowhat? They are a VERY popular flowering bush that grow in just about every yard in Eugene. We have at least 6 in our yard alone.
When we bought the house they were just plain green bushes and this summer I was delightfully surprised to see flowers all over them. Pink, white, purple. Oh, they were so pretty! Then the weather got slightly warm and the flowers dried up and began to fall off.
My super helpful neighbor explained to me that it was time to "dead head" them. I think I looked at him sideways for at least a few minutes before he walked into his yard and gave me a demonstration. You pluck off the top "dead head." However, you must wear gloves and bring a bucket to fill. When you pick them they are sticky like sap and will cling all over you.
Today I ventured out to the front yard and managed to "dead head" three of the bushes.
Now, why would we do such a thing? Why not wait for a heavy rain or wind to knock them off? Well, for one they look kinda depressing once they are dead. Second, and more important...they won't flower anymore if you don't! Every year that you don't take the heads off they produce less and less flowers. If you do take the heads off then you get EVEN MORE gorgeous blooms the next spring. We will see next spring if it was time well spent today.
My gloves are sappy and it's time to listen to some dancing teddy bear music... or not.

EVOO what the?

So, I am mostly a non-tv watcher and my house doesn't get a million channels. (I would prefer not get any but the cable company insist it cost the same for internet with or without the tv.) I don't get Food Network. Maybe I am out of the Rachael Ray loop but for this should I suffer when trying to find a good recipe. Should my family suffer when I force them to eat this dried out thing once called a zucchini?
I had a recipe swap with some friends a couple years back and after flipping through the book we had created together I saw a recipe for baked veggies. One in particular for Zucchini. Looking at the recipe pretty much everything was a spice except one I didn't recognize called EVOO. I figured it must be a spice as well so I spiced up the zucchini and stuck it in the oven. What I got was a very dried out, flavorful, but odd textured thing that my kids refused to eat. (oddly enough my children actually like zucchini.)
Today I decided to make it again, only this time I was going to google search EVOO and figure out where to buy such a spice. Well, for non-food network watchers like myself. It stands for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Rachel Ray said it one day and apparently it's all the rage among the cooks to say EVOO instead of the longer version. I don't have anything against Rachel. She seems nice enough, I saw her live on a taping of the Tonight Show when we lived in LA. I'm sure she didn't mean to ruin my dinner.
Come to think of it, I hate acronyms in general. My husband used them a lot when we were first chatting online (yes folks, we met online) and it just made me crazy! I finally told him about my hatred of acronyms and now he uses them even more. Nice guy eh?
Anyway, back to the Zucchini problem. Cooking the new improved recipe as we speak. Baking in the oven. La la la... this is what we do while we wait. We shall see how the recipe ends up with my new knowledge.
Here is the recipe for those of you wondering, and everyone who could care less too.

Oven Roasted Zucchini
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Preheat oven to 400
cut your zucchini into inch thick rounds
mix in a bowl with Extra Virgin Olive Oil (that wasn't so bad to type out really)
sea salt, ground black pepper, rosemary, and garlic seasonings.
lay zucchini out on a baking sheet
bake, uncovered for 25-35 minutes
check often for your desired tenderness.

Swamp Rat

If you have ever watched Aladdin you may remember him being called a street rat. Well, I sometimes call Ted a swamp rat since he was born in Louisiana. It was a joke, he claims to be a Texan and I like to remind him that officially he is not. I thought I had made up the term "swamp rat" being the clever lady that I am.
Now the point of this post isn't to OUT him as a non-texan or prove that I am a mean horrible wife who makes fun of her husband's origins. The point is, that I met an official SWAMP RAT! It's living in our backyard, it may have friends, and despite the fact that we have given it a name it will be relocated soon.
Her name is Peggy the Lawnmower and she is also known as Nutria. Looks like a groundhog with the tail of a rat. She enjoys munching on grass, taking long dips in the pond, and living under our shed. Her habits have led to making my koi pond look more like a potty and everyone tells me that she will be tearing apart the garden next.
Now, these critters were brought into the USA (Louisiana to be exact) for the fur. Apparently they make a fantastic hat! The rule here in Oregon is that you can't catch and release, you can't shoot in city limits. So grab a cage, drag it to the country and fire away!!!! yee haw!
I plan on breaking the law and releasing it into the wetlands area. If you see me on the 6 o'clock news please come bail me out of jail. I don't like killing things, even if they are pests. I even catch mice and release them far away. I do kill spiders though, so WATCH OUT nasty little spiders!!! I will smush you in a second.