Friday, June 24, 2011

Queen Alexander

During the past two days of rain storms, Queen Alexander made her royal appearance. I think she is one of the most beautiful of the oriental poppies with her light salmon-pink blooms. I thought she arrived alone, until I peeked inside.

I do love to photograph these white spiders.

I like the combination of this smokebush and the pink/purple iris's:
After work today I spent a little time outside cutting down the  majority of my iris plants. Isn't it amazing how fast they finish blooming? Way too fast in my humble opinion.

On my trip around the Ponderosa, I found this Tango Lily bud encased in the stem interesting:


If you love Vidalia onions, as we do, you may want to get some and freeze them before they are gone.
I cooked up about 10 big onions and froze them for winter 2012 use.  I may do a few more uncooked this weekend.  I am planning a stay-at-home-get-a-lot-of-work-done weekend!  How about you?

a few people asked me why I cook them before freezing... I only cooked them because it takes at least 30 minutes to get a properly caramelized onion and sometimes I don't have that long. So I caramelized them and froze them in little packets, so they would be done when I needed them.  I also save the time of washing the frying pan and all the stove splatters every time I want a few onions. I am all about cook one--eat twice (or more!).   I will freeze more raw and chopped to use for non-caramelized uses.

8 comments:

  1. Zoey, your flowers are looking good. I'm sure you will get a lot accomplished this weekend. I'm not going far and will be in and out all weekend.

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  2. Hi Betty, It sounds like we will be having the same type of weekend. I hope we both get to relax a bit!

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  3. That Smokebush does set off the Iris. Great combination there.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  4. Those Vidalia onions used to be my son's favorite fried with butter and salt (probably not so healthy). Good reminder about buying them now and freezing a batch sliced and cooked in butter!

    I love that combination of the irises and the smoke bush.

    Eileen

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  5. Your close up flower photos are just beautiful. You need to blow them up and frame them.
    So why do you cook the onions to freeze them?

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  6. Awesome close ups! I love the poppy too.
    I went and bought more plants-hit me with a gardening glove will you! I guess I'll be outside doing some work!
    I do think you could freeze them just chopped up, but I guess cooking them first helps later on. I just keep buying them when I need them.

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  7. Your oriental poppy looks exactly like mine...mine just opened yesterday...but I don't think mine is called Queen Alexander. I'll have to go check my tag after! They sure are gorgeous, aren't they!! So cool that you got that white spider in the shot as well. I would have shrieked in horror, I'm terrified of spiders! lol Your irises are also beautiful but as you say, they don't last near long enough. It seems 2 or 3 days and that's it.

    Great idea about the onions! Having a job I guess you learn all kinds of shortcuts in the kitchen since you don't have much time:-)

    Hope you're enjoying your weekend, raining again here but supposed to get sunshine tomorrow! After 5 days of rain, I'm ready for the sun's return:-) xoxo

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