Fourth of July Food

Gropius and I tried out a new place for lunch yesterday while we were out running errands. Boudin's SF, a bakery/chain from San Francisco, opened a branch in Sacramento last year (months ago actually), and we finally got around to giving it a try yesterday because we were in the area and I was feeling peckish. Gropius had their roast beef sandwich with chips while I had their 1/2 and 1/2 special: 1/2 a cheese pizza and soup.

I have to say that I was quite pleased with the food and atmosphere--think more upscale Panera's. The outdoor seating was nice yesterday, too. I surprised Gropius with a quick snapshot:


Last night for dinner, we had Niman Ranch pork chops with an onion, pepper, bacon relish, fresh corn-on-the-cob, and green beans (including a few from our garden).



Gropius had a couple of tomatoes from our backyard garden, too:

And to make it up to him, here's a better picture of Gropius that wasn't taken by surprise:

Garden Photos

The garden is growing bigger every day! Our tomatoes are starting to ripen, especially the yellow pear and "black prince" cherry varieties:



And the chile peppers are growing in size:
Anaheim

Poblano


We also have some tiny cayenne and humongous Hungarian wax/banana peppers, but so far only blooms on the habanero plants (yes, we have THREE--Lord help us all!)

And our Tomatillo plants are growing and blooming like crazy. We even have some tomatillos starting to form--there's something inside there, but it's not full-grown yet.


And our squashes and cucumbers are growing like mad, too:
Japanese Cucumber (still tiny)

French Heirloom Zucchini


And even our trees are being productive:
Asian Pear

Olive

Any help identifying the olive species?


Last, but not least, here is the tea rose my parents bought for our holiday table decorations for Christmas 2006 (hope it's still blooming when Mom and Nanny get here on Monday!):

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).