Waiting On Spring

Hear, O ye kings; Give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel. Judges 5:3

Last Saturday we went to an old-time Gospel singing at our church. Let me tell you, if you've never attended a gospel singing you've missed out. What a blessing. There were 3 guitarists, one of whom also played the harmonica, a lady who played the mandolin and two pianists. We enjoyed 2 hours of wonderful music praising the Lord, then had dinner and fellowship afterward. Baby Oran, 2, learned how to say "Amen." I'm still humming . . .

Out of Egypt I have traveled, thru the darkness dreary
Far over hills and valleys and across the desert sands
But I've landed safe at home where I shall not grow weary
I'm camping, I'm camping, in Canaan's happy land.

The weather has turned icy again, but I'm hoping spring is getting ready to make an appearance. All the tomatoes I planted are up along with the cabbages, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I've since planted 10 varieties of peppers, Connover's Collosal asparagus, Imperial Star artichoke, cardoon, jicama and cassabanana. I have seed potatoes sitting here in the living room floor which I hope to get planted along with peas and possibly the onion and leek transplants this weekend. This year I'm doing a fingerling potato experiment. Here in the southern plains long term raw potato storage is challenging. Waxy fingerling potatoes can so well that I decided to try several varieties:

• LaRatte fingerling
• Kipfel
• French fingerling
• Austrian Crescent
• Banana fingerling
• Ozette fingerling
• Peanut fingerling
• Purple Peruvian
• Rose Finn Apple

The last week or two I've been busy with soapmaking. I sell natural cold-process soaps on the Oklahoma Food Coop and this month was my biggest order yet. Tomorrow will be spent labeling and packaging orders and Thursday we'll take them to Oklahoma City for sorting and delivery all over the state.

I have rabbit thawing in the refrigerator to cook tomorrow. I wanted to share one of my favorite rabbit recipes, Rabbit in Coconut Cream (downloaded from allrecipes.com and amended slightly to my own cooking techniques.) Make sure you buy good coconut cream, not expensive at all in most Oriental groceries. Compare and get a brand with the least amount of ingredients, mostly coconut, water and a bit of citric acid. Or make your own. The fat in the coconut, which by the way is a good fat even though it's highly saturated, lends a luscious richness to the normally dry rabbit and the slight sweetness is nothing but yummy. This is an old Columbian recipe.

1/4 cup oil for frying
1 - 2lb rabbit cut into pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
1 red pepper, seeded and sliced into strips (my preference is a fresh paprika pepper)
1 bird's eye chile (or a small amount of any hot chile) seeded and minced
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 3/4 cups chicken stock (homemade stocks are best)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2/3 cup cream of coconut (I use at least twice this much, taste and use as much as you like)

Heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the rabbit pieces until well browned. Transfer to a plate. Add the onion, garlic, and peppers to the skillet; cook and stir until the onion is transparent. Transfer the rabbit back to the skillet. Add the tomato, stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours. Remove rabbit pieces with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Increase the heat and boil the remaining liquid until it's reduced by half. Stir in the coconut milk. Return the rabbit pieces to the pan. Cook, stirring gently, until heated through. Serve over rice. Makes 4 servings.

This is a great summertime recipe, when the garden is yielding up it's abundance.

Gotta go now. Dave tells me Oran has turned off several of the breakers in Grandma's bedroom. I'm finding out that boys are quite something. No wonder they grow up to be men.

Till next time, blessings to you and yours.

Judy