Lise Stryker Stoessel - Making the Best of It!
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Living Happily Ever After – Separately >
      • Excerpts >
        • Table of Contents
        • Preface
        • What Had Become of Me?
        • Susanah's Story
      • Reviews
      • Readers' comments
      • Order a copy
  • Speaking
  • Events
  • About me
    • and my co-authors...
  • contact me
  • Links

C.O.W. "Chicken" Salad!

5/13/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
COW= Chicken of the Woods, aka Laetiporus Cinncinatus, (Or L. Sulphureus) It's a very choice edible wild mushroom. As with all wild mushrooms, ensure that it's well cooked. If it's your first time eating COW, eat a little and wait an hour before eating more; some (not many) people get digestive issues with COW.

(Photo of a freshly foraged prime COW)


Ingredients (general, use your judgment for proportions) feel free to leave things out and substitute according to dietary needs and preferences.  

Makes enough for 3 chubby pita sandwiches.

For the marinade:
10.5 oz-ish COW, cleaned of any debris, and cubed 
3 T soy sauce 
¼ t ginger
¼ t curry
¼ t garlic granules

For the Salad
1-22 stalks celery, chopped
1 large radish, chopped
2T chopped capers
1t dill weed
2T mayo
½ T mustard 
Black pepper to taste

To serve as a sandwich
Half a pita bread
Mayo
Thin slice of red onion
Thin slice of tomato
Lettuce leaves

Picture
Instructions
Clean the COW, separate the thick parts from the tender ones, if you want. I like using the thick parts for this. Cut into small diced pieces

​

Picture
Picture
Picture
Take a large bowl or baking dish (I use a rectangular 2.75 Qt Pyrex rectangle baking dish that fits in my toaster oven) and add soy sauce to coat the bottom
Add the spices and mix well

​

Picture
Add the diced COW. Mix well and let it sit for at least half an hour, turning and mixing occasionally. If it doesn’t seem that all the bits are getting marinated, add more soy sauce.All of the marinade should be soaked up when it’s done.

Picture
When everything looks well marinated, put it in the toaster oven on 375º. Bake for 20 minutes. Take it out, mix it up and put it back in for 20 more minutes. Keep doing this until it all looks uniformly cooked. I like it to be pretty dried out, no longer very squishy. Let it cool down. ​

Picture
Roasted COW is done. You can refrigerate it now or make the salad by adding the ingredients listed above.


​

Picture
Enjoy!
0 Comments

Selling Plants, Planting Connections

5/12/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
I love my garden.

​My plants are my little green, growing, children. They're all squished together in a long narrow strip of a plot in front of my townhouse. It used to be a lawn, but soon after moving in, I lasagna-ed the lawn and planted perennials: black-eyed susans, comfrey, lemondrop primroses, bee balm, echinacea, multi-colored lilies, the list goes on. Silver lining to living at the bottom of a hill: the runoff from the road (and all those nice petrochemicals!) finds its way into my garden, fertilizing and moistening the soil (note: I don't plant edibles there!). So the plants have become very contented in their little portions, and are happy to be propagated year after year, squishing their neighbors on all sides.

Picture
Thus my annual perennial plant sale (yearly sale of perennials, not annuals)! Come mid-March you'll find me searching for the early-risers -- plants that emerge from their winter's slumber the soonest. Then starts the process of dividing them, and potting up the offspring. This year, by early April, I had potted over 450 little plantlets, ready for my annual perennial sale. 


Picture
I set a date, decide on a nonprofit with which to share my earnings, craft some posters, and the ads get posted (Facebook, Nextdoor, Craigslist) and off we go! The sale happens in 4 phases. Phase 1 happens on a Saturday, early in April. The plants are all nicely set out on my driveway. I put out towers of the boxes I've been saving all year. People come that morning, gather up their favorites, and pay for their booty. This year, I've allocated 25% of sales to Doctors Without Borders. Sharing with a service organization, makes us all happy. It brings in people who might otherwise not be bothered, and it makes us all feel like we're doing more than loving plants. 

Phase 2 starts the day after. The posters are modified: Perennial Plant Sale - Extended! This time I don't include the address; people have to message me to set a time to come shop. The nice thing about this phase is that I have more time to spend with each customer, asking what they're looking for, making suggestions of plants that might work with their particular landscape. I am by nature a friendly, inquisitive person, so these sorts of connections make me feel sparkly. 

After about a week, we go to Phase 3 - Serve Yourself and Pay What You Want. Posters and ads are adjusted accordingly. This phase can be less personal because people can come whenever they want (even if I'm not there), but the option to pay whatever you want is always enticing! I find that people are usually quite generous, knowing that a portion of their payment is going to a good cause.  This phase lasts about a week and by the end, there's not much left. 

Phase 4 is the final phase: come and get it for free! Free stuff always makes people happy! And having the free things growing in your garden, showing up after winter's bleakness year after year is a gift that keeps on giving!  
Picture
When it's all over, I experience so much satisfaction. Not only have I enjoyed getting my hands dirty getting up close and personal with my plants, I have revitalized my garden by giving them all some breathing room. And I've shared the gift of green growing things with my neighbors. I've created opportunities for meaningful connections among strangers. Unlike the impersonal experience of buying things from a store staffed by busy salespeople, the act of inviting people to my home to share the bounty of my lovingly tended garden, while learning about the ways they each tend theirs, opens a path of connection and sharing that I believe is crucial in these challenging times. All of the conversations over the course of these 3 weeks engendered so much goodwill and gratitude, moments to enjoy some of the fundamental gifts of being human. Yay for Spring and coming out of hibernation! Making the $200 donation to Doctors Without Borders was the icing on the cake!

0 Comments

Lotsa Love on Valentine's Day!

2/13/2012

0 Comments

 
Hey everyone!  Aside from the beautiful bouquet Emil bought me for the occasion, I have been given 2 other great holiday gifts!  Meryl Ann Butler has written a review of my book for OpEd News.  Check it out here.  While you're there, leave a comment!

And, I will be interviewed on Michael Dresser's Dresser After Dark, Tuesday, Feb 14 at 7:30 pm EST.  You can listen in here!
0 Comments

Books R us!

10/22/2011

2 Comments

 
I got my first shipment of books yesterday.  It was like opening a treasure chest.  Books are in at the publisher too, so if you don't want to wait for Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, go ahead and order from Brandylane Publishers, Inc!  Yahoo!
2 Comments

Coming soon to a bookstore near you...

9/30/2011

0 Comments

 
We're in the home stretch!  Check out my book's page on the publisher's website: Brandylane.
0 Comments

Join the fun!

8/12/2011

2 Comments

 
Welcome to my Living Happily blog!  I'm eager to hear your impressions from the book, or any related events you've attended.  Or, if you have a Living Happily (married) story to share, bring it on!
2 Comments
    Picture

    Archives

    May 2025
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    Life In The Garden
    Living Happily
    Recipes

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.