Tomatoes

Late blight has hit this area pretty hard.  Thanks to Sue’s heads-up, Jay cut off diseased leaves and sprayed our tomatoes several times before it showed up in force here, which enabled some of the fruit to ripen.  I have canned two loads (seven quarts per load) of Sungolds, taken large bowls of them to several gatherings, eaten many out of hand and as salad, given quite a few away, and this morning Isabelle picked the last from the  eastern plants before Jay cut them down to dispose of.

I picked all the red tomatoes fit to eat yesterday before the rain.  We got half an inch overnight.  They amounted to about 3/4 of a bushel.  Most years I get at least eight bushels.  Also picked most of the Sungolds, about 1.5 gallon’s worth.

This morning the less than perfect red tomatoes and Sungolds went either into  Suzanne’s Meju Maja to produce five quarts of tomato broth and a half gallon or so of sauce with herbs or into a double batch of tomato soup concentrate with onion, garlic and herbs to freeze.  It will be frozen in to use as Sunday meals during the winter.  Salt and chicken broth or half and half are added when used.

Thanks to my mother, we are not dependent upon just this year’s harvest for out tomato needs.  She has built up quite a canning backlog over the years which we are helping eat through.

Isabelle will have a nice bowl full to take to a meeting tonight.

Birds of Different Feathers

Yesterday  morning early Jay and Daren went goose hunting.  There is an early season here intended to knock down the resident Canada Goose population.  If you can find them on legally huntable land.   They are in lots of research fields, but…

Anyway, Jay came home with one goose and stories involving misses, misfires and double pumps to explain why he had only one and Daren had none.  But one goose is good, much better than no goose at all.

Jay has been listening to me and actually encouraged Hawthorne’s interest in the goose as he has hopes we might be able to train him to retrieve downed birds.  Jay kept a wing and the head and neck with a small cape for H. to play with.  The dog is in heaven when we bring them out.  Today he actually was carrying it around and flinging it.  Good dog. He might figure out what to do.

Then this morning I got a call from Sue’s husband; another chicken had just been hit in the road.  (Jay and I had prepared a lovely rooster for her after it insisted on being hit–I got feathers, she got the meat).  I drove up and retrieved a light-colored banty hen.  Hawthorne was very interested in the whole dry plucking, gutting procedure.  He also got trimmings and a foot to carry around for awhile.

We had some excitement when I decided it was too breezy to singe the fine hair feathers off the carcass outside and for some now inexplicable reason filled the bottom third of my white enamel sink with crumpled Wall Street Journal pages and lit them.

Newspapers burn high, hot and fast. It was a conflagration, though small and contained.  We opened windows and doors, and turned on the oven fan.  I think Isabelle will stay away from matches for awhile.  But the bird was singed really well.

So yesterday I had goose liver and heart for lunch and today chicken liver and heart.  Fried in butter, eaten with bread and butter pickle slices.  Yum.

And tonight: chicken cacciatore .

Next-to Last Supper

for Isaac at home was Wednesday night.  John , Audrey, and Heather came bringing the wonderful little plum cakes and their attendant chocolate cram sauce from Baking with Julia.

Audrey, Suzanne and I went to see Julia and Julia a week or so ago.  I read My Life in France in the weeks before–and not the movie tie-in version either!  It is a wonderful biography.  Cooking was what Julia found to “have something to do“  since they were unable to have children and her husband did not wish to adopt.  Her infertility makes me feel quite simpatico towards her and her work.  That and her love for butter.

In addition to cakes we ate

-Sungold tomatoes, both whole and cut in half for salad which could be dressed with Balsamic/Rice vinegar Good Seasons Italian home mix

-a finely sliced large Romanian striped cucumber with Balsamic vinegar

-sweet corn too large to eat off the cob, so it was cooked, cut off the cobs, and then mixed with chopped onion and tomato and cooked in butter.

-finely sliced garlic and kale cooked in olive oil and butter

-venison flank steaks cut about 1/3 inch thick and mixed with sesame oil, ginger, white pepper, salt and brown sugar then allowed to sit all day in the fridge before coming out an hour or so before being quickly pan sauteed.

Tonight I think we will have hot dogs for the first time this summer.

Almost Plum Tuckered Out

The plums just keep coming.  We have given plums away to over a dozen neighbors.  Some took a quart, some took a gallon, many took a quantity in between.  Jay takes them to work to give away.  I have been picking a gallon or more each day since Friday.

I have made plum conserve, canned plum halves, and this morning, canned plum sauce.  It is wonderfully tart and colorful and will be great with meat.

Lemon Garlic Dilly Rice

I needed something to take to a garden get-together tonight.  The early blight has us hoarding what tomatoes we have; the cukes are not yet ready, ditto the squash.  Can you believe Jay had summer squash failure?  Terrible.

Cook 2 cups Three elephant brand Thai Jasmine rice in 3 cups water with several cloves fresh garlic grated in.

Cut about 1 cup fresh dill–small flowering heads and fronds.  Chop fine.

Make two batches on mayonaisse:

1)Garlic mayo: one egg, some salt, several sliced cloves of newly harvested garlic, oil, lemon juice.

2)Dill mayo: one egg, some salt, oil, lemon juice and then–last–the chopped dill.

I added all the dill mayo and just a bit of the garlic mayo to the cooked rice.

Yum.

Home Again, Home Again: Notes

and boy am I tired. It was a blessing to be able to be with my brother, sister-in-law and their daughter through a difficult time: Jay went back into hospital and had yet another surgery–this one to put in a lumbar-peritoneal shunt to drain off spinal fluid from gathering near the site of his second surgery–after enduring way too much pain and going downhill neurologically.  He seems fine for now. Before that we went to a small farmer’s market, the mall , “UP”, the Texas Roadhouse restaurant, walks, rainstorms, thunders and lightenings galore, lots of wildlife, In and Out Burger, and a Vietnamese eatery.

And then a quick visit to Texas with Jeni and family.  Wonderful, wonderful!  Pork, poblano pesto and peaches, chimichurro sauce, chips and cherries, salsa and special ice cream dessert, dogs, a great Lutheran church service, and plants and the HP movie and seeing kids who have grown so much since I last visited.

An old housemate and her family stayed at our home last night and I made waffles for breakfast.  Jay picked blueberries to have with them.

There was a get-together for them at another home last night.

Laundry.  Started weeding.  Lack of sleep.

But wonderful to be back where everything is all colors of green, the humidity is high and the temperature is quite moderate.

Sugar snap peas, broccoli, the first Sungold tomatoes, speckled lettuce, the first potatoes, ground venison and garlic mayo made with the new garlic and eggs grown down the road for supper tonight.  Those eggs are from chickens that eat lots of greenstuff so the mayo is vibrant yellow.

While travelling I read Dune by Frank Herbert for the third time–but the last time was years ago, and Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl by ND Wilson for the first time–but it will not be the last; books that are opposite of each other in many ways.  One is a fantastic made-up story about a made-up world in the far future, the other a collection of fantastic real stories and essays about the real world now.  The first is a materialists’  explaination of faith and fate, the second is by a faith-full man explaining what some might think of as fate in the material world.  Dune is ultimately serious, cynical and without hope, Notes is full of hope,  jovial, and optimistic– in a fun way.  Both books share great writing, though.  Herbert was obviously brilliant, thoughtful, lucid.  Wilson is thoughtful, meandering and I look forward to more of his writing.

Isaac is now a high school graduate.

The first three and a half hours of Friday began thusly:  I was up at 5.30 AM.  I read a few chapters,  then took the dog and cat out to poo,  brought them in and dried them off.  Wrote some on scent and smell.  Woke husband.  Cut lettuce, chard, spinach and the incidental dill in the sprinkles and rain.  Cleaned the sink and filled it with cold water.  Rearranged the fridge contents to accommodate lettuce. Washed, trimmed, sorted, spun dry and bagged lettuce.  Got kids up and going. Cut up and cooked a cup of bacon ends. Thinly sliced 4 onions and cooked them in bacon grease.  Sorted chicken quarters and counted out enough to keep dog full and quiet while company is here (2 days and Sunday).  Freezed the rest.  Picked up the Scarlet Tanager feathers and their container that falls out of the freezer when I opened the door.  Planned how many cups water are needed for jello jigglers.  Wrote this.

_________

My parents, aunts and niece came down Friday afternoon.  We had supper: smoked salmon-cream cheese-dill  spread on bread squares;  spinach, swiss chard, onion, bacon, cheese, thyme and rosemary quiche; green salad; brownies.  Hot, freshly brewed coffee and cream.  The fresh broccoli and garlic scapes sat forgotten on the stove.

The graduation itself was held indoors in a gym overflowing with people and heat.  The thunder, rain and overcast skies that had been the weather of the day disappeared as soon as the program started; sunlight poured through the high windows, adding to the steamy heat of hundreds of bodies.

Jay’s mom and sister D returned to mom’s home, the rest of us came to our house and Isaac received a camera from Aunt Janice and his quilt from us.  And we ate chrries, brownies and drank more coffee.  Then the visiting adults left for Mom M’s to stay the night.  We got Janine.

Friday night my left hip and knee hurt terribly when I went to bed.  Too much just standing, I think.  I got up and made potato salad around 11.30PM  Then at 1AM I went for a walk, hiding, as usual, behind telephone poles, behind or in  shrubbery, and down in ditches when cars would come zooming by.  Then fell asleep for a few hours.

Saturday neighbor L came with the two batches of cupcakes she had made for the reception: peanut butter and molasses. Prior to her coming I got out the venison and chicken which had been marinating for three days, picked chives and stirred them into the potato salad, made dressing, etc.   I made seven-minute cream cheese frosting and L and I started frosting cupcakes and decorating them with sprinkles.  Janine  and Isabelle took my place eventually so I could make chocolate buttercream frosting.  L made a small batch of vanilla buttercream for the last partial dozen. There were 10.5 dozen cupcakes in all!

Later, Isaac cut bread, Janine spread smoked salmon spread on the bread and Isabelle to cut dill to ornament same.  There was some time spent on emotional outbursts by the youngest child. Isaac and Jay were busy with tables and chairs.

At noon family came for lunch.  At two friends came.  At 9PM or so the last friend left. What a wonderful time!

Sunday most of the day was spent recovering from the wonderful time.