I'm always looking for new ideas for chicken tenders. The cookbook Flavours, by Petrina Tinslay provided the following recipe.

 I’ve made this dish six times now and we've taken it to two potlucks. 

The colorful potatoes come from Trader Joes,.

The recipe called for oregano, but I used marjoram from the garden. 

The vegetables roast for 20 minutes before adding the chicken.

Moisture from the veggies steam-bakes the chicken.

Chicken Roasted with Potatoes and Garlic

2T olive oil for veggies; 1 or 2 T more for chicken
6 (or enough to layer a baking sheet) new potatoes (one kind or a mix), cut in chunks
1 large yellow onion cut in chunks
1/4 cup of fresh marjoram, or oregano
12 fat cloves of garlic
1-2 lbs. chicken tenders brushed w olive oil, sprinkled with s&p
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 400°. Toss the potatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs with olive oil and salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove vegetables from the oven, and place chicken tenders on top. Return to oven and bake another 12  to 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

The house smells so good while this dish is baking. When the chicken is done I remove it and slice it, at an angle, into chunks. Sometimes I put the potatoes back in the oven, under the broiler, for five minutes for a little browning. When the potatoes are ready, toss with the chicken and sprinkle all with paprika.

 
I usually serve a dish like this on top of salad. 

Can you stand it? Isn't she magnificent?

On a recent day trip, with my friend Mary, to the Historic Sacramento Cemetery Rose Garden, Anita Clevenger told us to be sure, before we left, to take a look at 'Lady Roberts'. It wasn't until later that afternoon that we finally made the Lady's acquaintance. Well, I couldn't get enough of her and proceeded to shoot her from every angle.

This one kills me– my ideal rose face. Isn't it interesting how different she looks, here, from the open one, three pictures up.

Here's 'Lady Roberts' in her plot at the Sacramento Cemetery. Still a young plant; the rose is not readily in commerce. Hopefully there will be seedlings available at next April's silent auction. Below is the text Jeri Jennings prepared about 'Lady Roberts' for the 2008 auction.

Lady Roberts

--  Sport of Anna Olivier; Int. England, 1902, Frank Cant)

Once highly regarded, (a multiple Gold Medal winner) this lovely amber-toned Tea seems to have disappeared from commerce in the U.S.   Her rarity may in part be attributed to the ease with which she sports back to her parent, Anna Olivier. In her day, Lady Roberts drew high praise from California rosarians.  She was recommended as a good grower and free bloomer, disease-resistant, suitable for garden or house ornamentation, or for growing under glass.   Though available in Australia, we cannot now find a commercial source for this beauty in the U.S. Lady Roberts is a vigorous, continuous-blooming rose, once mature.  Contemporary advice notes that the richest color will be obtained if the rose is planted in a south-facing position.  Treasure this rare beauty, and enjoy it!    

Japanese Maple 'Butterfly' in the back garden. 

Miscanthus senensis 'Gold Bar' with  abutilon in the yellow border.

Yellow Abutilon, and then in the . . .

. . . White Rose Garden

Molinia caerulea 'Variegata' under the rose 'Winchester Cathedral'.

Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides 'Variegated Pennywort' under 'Katherina Zeimet 'rose.

Silene 'Druett's Variegated' with same 'KZ' rose.

Iris pallida 'Variagata' near Rosa rugosa 'Alba.'

When Gardening Gone Wild posted a request for posts about variegated plants, I jumped into the archives to see what I could find.

The Japanese Maple, at the top, is in the pink stage of new spring leaves; it will soon be green and white. This is a small tree that I purchased at the wonderful Moraga Garden Center in Moraga, California.

My garden has many color themes, which I’ve found particularly inspiring– the “where shall I plant it” syndrome is rarely an issue. The miscanthus-abutilon pairing was a happy surprise.

Roses form the focus and structure in my garden, so it’s kind of fun to show a peek of the white rose section here. Green and white variegated leaves are a ‘must’ with white roses, and the molinea caerula is a workhorse clumping grass that never misbehaves– meaning there are no seedlings popping up in unwanted places.

The pennywort was sold as an aquarium plant, which I just had to try. It’s proved to be very dependable, long lasting, and doesn’t run too far a field.

The silene was good for a few years until it began weakening, and then reverting back to it’s non-variegated form. The blooms are a delight though.

The iris is in the white garden, for the foliage of course, but I tend to think of lavender as a plant the goes well in all the rose color sections, which are yellow, peach, pink, red, and white. 

Thanks GGW for the chance to show a little of my garden!