THE MORNING STAR B & B, LLC

 

617 Houston Street � Manhattan, KS 66502

www.morningstarbandb.com[email protected]  

House and Garden
Welcome to the Morning Star B&B Newsletter
Greetings!

    Apart from the national debt crisis, the big thing in the news this summer has been the weather. Like many other parts of the country, Kansas has been baking. In July, Manhattan officially
had 14 days over 100 degrees, topped off by 111 degree heat on July 27th. (The record for that date is 115 degrees in 1936, right in the middle of the Dust Bowl.) That's real temperatures, not heat indices which with our humidity levels were even hotter. Phew! I'm so glad to live in the age of air conditioning. The Morning Star has three central air conditioning units and they've been running non-stop. So what have I been doing in all of this heat? Baking, literally. I've been baking cookies and the like both to test the recipes and to photograph them for my new cookbook Confectionately Yours: Cookies, Candies and Yummy Confections. It's a good thing I can stand the heat, because I've hardly been out of the kitchen since ... well, a long time.
Grilled Watermelon
Grilled Watermelon & Pineapple with Minted Tequila Sauce
    With all of this heat, a lot of people have turned to cooking outdoors if they are cooking at all. (One of our neighbors has been even been grilling in the morning to get it out of the way.)  Watermelon, of course, is a perfect cookout companion and lately, I've been reading about grilled watermelon in various places. Since I love grilled pineapple, I decided to give the pairing a try. Here are the instructions. If you are cooking out anyway, grilled fruit is very simple to prepare.

    Cut watermelon and pineapple into slices about 1" thick. Remove rind and pineapple core. Cut watermelon slices into wedges. Lightly spoon Minted Tequila Sauce over one side of fruit. Place fruit slices, sauce side down, on a low-medium heated clean grill. (You don't really want hamburger sticking to your fruit.) Cook for about 5 minutes or until lightly caramelized. Meanwhile, spoon sauce over the top side of fruit. Turn and cook fruit on the other side. To serve as a dessert, plate fruit and drizzle with honey or agave syrup and serve right away. To serve in a side dish, cut into chunks, toss with spinach and goat cheese. Drizzle with honey or agave syrup and balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately. The fruit is best right off the grill.

Minted Tequila Sauce


1/4 c. agave syrup or honey
1/4 c. fresh mint leaves  (stems removed)  
1 1/2 oz. reposado tequila
1 1/2 oz. lime juice
2 t. lime zest
dash of salt 

   Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the mint leaves are finely chopped and the ingredients are well blended.  (Makes enough for about half of a large watermelon and 1 pineapple.)  

Let me know how yours turns out.
97 Orchard
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement

    Recommended by Mary from Kansas - many months ago I am embarrassed to say - 97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman is an insightful book about the culinary traditions brought to New York City by its immigrants in the mid-1800's to early 1900's and how they forever changed that city and contributed to American cuisine at large. Using five families, one a focal point of each section of the book, Ziegelman discusses the types of foods immigrant families would have eaten, where they would have bought the foods, how they would have prepared them, how they fit into family life, how the immigrants would have been affected by the prevailing culture at the time they arrived, and how their traditions in turn affected that culture. At the same time, the book offers an a history of the lower East side of New York city during that period and of the disparaging attitudes brought to bear upon its immigrants. The immigrant groups Ziegelman focuses on through looking at these five families are German Gentiles, German Jews, Russian-Lithuanian Jews, Irish and Italians. This is a perfect book for anyone interested in American culinary history or the history of immigrant life in America during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Pass along your book recommendations. 

 

Rudbeckia
Heat Tolerant Plants

    While July's high temperatures were still on my mind, I thought to reflect on which of my plants endured the wave with the most aplomb. That award would have to go to Rudbeckia also known as Black-eyed Susans. (I believe that the variety that I have is 'Goldsturm', but since the labels that I so carefully made for my garden a decade ago have long since disappeared, I can't quite be certain of the specific variety.) I took the photo on the right on July 28th, the day after our near to record high of 111 degrees.

    Also doing very well have been my various sages and liriope which have shown no browning or wilting; but since they are not in bloom right now, I thought that Rudbeckia stood out as the winner. 

    With some surprise, I have to say that honorable mention for the heat tolerance award goes to my ground-cover roses. Though they suffered a little scorching on their leaves, it was really just a little; and the whole while, they kept right on blooming.   

    The key, of course, to keeping your plants going in extreme heat is plenty of water given early in the day and applied at ground level rather than sprayed over the foliage.  With heat intolerant plants such as day lilies, this at least will keep the roots alive so that the plant can regenerate once the heat has passed. With prolonged temperatures over 100 degrees, even plants that I generally don't recommend watering need to watered if there has not been much precipitation. We had under 3" of rain in July before the heat bubble broke and so with the withering temperatures, about once a week we (i.e. Travis) watered our irises, sedums and shrubs that normally get by just with precipitation. Luckily, we have fertile soil and so I rarely apply fertilizer; and I never fertilize in extreme heat because I want all of the plants' energy to go into staying alive and not into producing new growth. Pass along your gardening tips. 

   I hope that you have been staying cool and have been having a great summer. As always, thank you for reading The Morning Star Update!

 

Looking forward to hearing from and seeing you soon,

 

Laurie Pieper

 

The Morning Star B&B
In This Issue
Grilled Watermelon & Pineapple with Minted Tequila Sauce
97 Orchard
Heat Tolerant Plants
KSU Football
Local Burger Joints
Dates to Remember
Picture of a Football

KSU Football 

    With football season right around the corner, I thought some folks might appreciate knowing for what game weekends we still have reservations available. They are Eastern Kentucky (Labor Day Weekend), Kent State (Sept. 16th to 17th), Missouri (Oct. 7th  to 8th), Oklahoma (Oct. 28th to 29th), and Texas A & M ( Nov. 11th to 12th). Make your reservations. 
Cozy Inn

Local Burger Joints 

    

    In 1922, The Cozy Inn opened in Salina as a 6-seat diner serving up a version of hamburger known as a "slider" served smothered in onions. With The Cozy Inn having just opened a location in Aggieville on Moro Street, it seems time to visit the subject of local hamburgers.  The Cozy Inn sells burgers by the bag and sells only burgers, potato chips and soda. I guess they believing in doing only one thing and doing it in their own distinctive way.
     So-Long-Saloon, just up the block, has been selling gourmet burgers - beef, buffalo, turkey, and portobello each with a variety of yummy fixings and sides - since 2001. It's definitely a local hangout appreciated for the food as well as for the atmosphere which features a beautiful century-old bar bought out of a hotel in Wyoming.   

    To people having lived in Manhattan for a long time, though, Vista Drive In  - literally a Mom & Pop burger joint - is what they think of when they think of local burger places. Opened in 1964 and named for its view, Vista Burger is located atop a hill overlooking Tuttle Creek Blvd.

 So Long SaloonVista Drive-In

Prickly Gooseberry

Dates to Remember 

August 5th - September 17th: ab-stract at The Strecker Nelson Gallery
 August 6th: Brew 2 Shoe 10K, (Tall Grass Brewery to Manhattan Running Company)

August 13th: Edible Wild Plants,

Point Shelter in Tuttle Creek Cove

August 20th: Skins & Skulls (wildlife learning program), Point Shelter in Tuttle Creek Cove

August 20th: Ridiculous Days, Wamego

August 21st: Petpoolooza, CiCo Park

August 21st: R.E.A.D. with Dogs, Manhattan Public Library

August 25th: Back to Gardening, Pottorf Hall Cico Park

August 27th: Cattle Baron's Ball, Foote Ranch

August 29th: Mercy Golf Classic, Manhattan Country Club 

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