Dido in summer

Dido's life in the summer is not very different from her life during the school year. Since we got the new couch, she has spent the better part of her day showing us her preference for the old one...



Sleepy kitty....

Breakfast!

What's the best meal of the day? What makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning? That's right--breakfast!


This morning, Gropius and I had peanut butter scones. Mmmmmmmm.....peanut butter!

We currently have a plethora of PB in the house, due to Whole Paycheck's dubious stocking habits. See, my personal fave is the Maranatha brand creamy peanut butter: peanuts & salt with the oil floating on the top. (this makes it easier to pour off and save for cooking stir-fries or Indian food later) And for a while, WF had stopped stocking the Maranatha creamy altogether until one day is magically appeared. But, when it re-appeared, it didn't have the oil floating on top. After we got it home and more closely examined it, we discovered that WHOLE foods (ha!) had substituted my PB with a "no-stir" variety that has PALM oil incorporated in it. WTF?

Luckily, Safeway has MY pb, so I don't have to go without, but we're still left with the PALM oil PB and it won't bait the backyard rat trap because it's not solid enough (apparently the rats can lick it off w/o setting off the trap).

When life hands you crappy PB, make PB scones w/toasted almonds, eh?

Garden Update

The tomatoes are growing HUGE! If you don't believe me, check this out!
notice that the tomatoes are as tall as Gropius?

another view of the monster tomatoes

some "black prince" heirloom tomatoes

some "yellow pear" tomatoes (sorry for the blurry focus)

Gropius harvesting his fennel

Our lettuce is coming along nicely, too

Food Round-Up

A few of our recent meals:

Broccoli & Fennel Risotto, Zucchini Fritters, and steamed Sugar Snap Peas

Posole & Three Mesa Stir-Fry

Schnitzel w/Marsala-Mustard Sauce, New Potatoes, & Roasted Beets

including striped beets (chiogga?) and a white beet (neither of us had ever tried a white beet before)


And this is a meal I didn't share. Aren't the colors pretty?


YUM!

Final Harvest

Well, it was time for the final harvest of broccoli from our garden and I think think the peas are almost done, too. We still have one more harvest of peas, but I think they are quickly reaching their end, too. We could probably push them to last a little longer, but we have pole beans that we want to get in sooner rather than later.



Gropius is still hopeful about the brussel sprouts (I'm not). I think we just waited too late to plant them this year. Unfortunately, our warm winter meant we should've planted them back in January or February. So, I think we'll have to wait until later this summer and hope for a fall harvest instead.

I'm ready to plant the watermelons that I started from seed--an heirloom variety called Moon & Stars.

Because we were gone last weekend, we played catch-up in the garden yesterday. I did some pruning of my herbs to keep them from getting leggy.

We almost have enough dried chamomile for a cup of tea...but not for me at the moment (one of those herbs I'm supposed to keep away from).

Red Velvet Cake--take 2

So, in my second attempt at red velvet cake, I wisely avoided the "natural" food coloring of Whole Paycheck to get the proper blood red look a traditional RV cake demands.


Otherwise, I think it turned out pretty well. There certainly wasn't much left after the students and faculty got a hold of it at the ODE reception yesterday afternoon:

Pictorial Update

So, this week is our last week of classes and I have been busy attending senior economics majors' presentations, coordinating the Econ Club picnic, arranging the ODE inductee reception, in addition to wrapping up the semester in my classes, doing last minute grading, and writing final exams. Whew.

So, here are a few random pictures from the past week or so that I wanted to share:
the Sacramento Farmers Market






a stir fry dinner that I was anxiously loathing but actually turned out quite tasty (including turnips, spinach, AND broccoli!)




a few pictures of our garden (one of the few benefits of living someplace where the current temperature is over 100 degrees)