One good reason for a backyard garden: bunny food.
Bunny likes parsley!
Another good reason for a backyard garden: spinach. Add to salads, omelets, and just about anything.
Spinach! Iron-rich leafy green!
I didn’t have a lot of spinach this season. Who knows – maybe the cold stretch ahead of us will trick the spinach into growing a second crop. I’m hoping the lettuce will do that, too. Salads at the O.K. Chorale! What could be more delicious?
When shopping for a friend who is also a reading teacher, it’s fun to go to a bookstore.
Shopping Bag
A shopping bag plus a gift card to help fill the bag – and then fun with wrapping.
A Little Fun Repurposing
As the Cat said, “It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how.”
Going to the downtown farmers’ market must be good for my blood pressure. Just by walking onto the main street and seeing the vendors and hearing the peaceful crowd and the musicians…just setting foot into this wonderful market makes me relax and smile. We came home with this.
Delicious Collection!
It’s fun to watch the seasonal foods shift through the summer markets. Very few vendors had strawberries today. I think I bought the last peas I’m going to get. I picked up honey, Michigan blueberries (from the U.P.; I don’t consider that imported), beans in green and yellow, asparagus (the last, I’m sure), and more.
On Monday, I started the charcoal grill with a goal of making burgers for supper – bacon cheeseburgers, if you want details. Don’t judge me; I served them on whole wheat buns, okay?
But back to the charcoal grill. If you’re like me and you prefer the charcoal grill to gas, you know that when the meat is done, the coals are still hot. In my kitchen, that’s the golden opportunity for planned leftovers, or planned-overs. On Monday night, the burgers shared the coals with chorizo (Mexican style sausage) and a Polska Kielbasa ring sausage.
Tuesday I made spaghetti and meat sauce – lots of both. The remaining spaghetti might become part of a side dish with the kielbasa or a batch or spaghetti carbonara. The meat sauce, with a little chili powder and jalapeno pepper, could be the base for a crock pot full of chili. If I decide to make that chili in true Wisconsin chili mac style, diced leftover spaghetti is right there in the refrigerator waiting for me.
Potatoes make great planned-overs. When I jump start a batch of baked potatoes on the grill, it takes hardly any time at all to finish them in the oven or microwave. If I make the planned-over potatoes into twice baked, complete with good Wisconsin cheese and green onions and chives from the garden, they’re not only delicious, but they carry a little of that charcoal flavor into another meal.
In conclusion (did you think I’d say “The moral of the story”?), planning ahead and cooking ahead meant that I only needed to light the grill once this week, and we had the potential for at least three meals from one charcoal fire. Like it? I did.
Side dishes, if you’re curious, included fresh asparagus and a mixed fruit salad, also fresh. Gotta love the farmers’ markets. We eat well in the summertime!
This mug has been with us since the mid 1980s. I bought it for Chuck because he likes to turn a phrase upside down. I think I use it more often, though. I’m the coffee drinker. He is an occasional tea or hot cocoa drinker, so he’ll pull this one out of the cupboard now and then. Readers, do you have a favorite mug? I’m sharing mine. I’d love to hear about yours.
Today’s Haul
Left to Right: red potatoes, sweet corn (from Georgia), lettuces, spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, blueberries (Michigan), sweet Bing cherries, peas, strawberries, carrots. I plan to spend my day shelling peas and prepping strawberries. Hulling strawberries? Why don’t I know that? No, don’t answer that second question.
I may have mentioned – oh, I know I’ve mentioned that coffee mugs make great souvenirs. A good mug will get a lot of use and bring back many memories. This one is from Nova Scotia. The still life around it is courtesy of Chuck’s creativity.
The quote says it all, doesn’t it? There aren’t enough hours in the day or days in the year to read everything I’d like to read. So why am I wasting time on Facebook and Twitter? I’m going to log off and read!
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This mug usually sits on my desk at school. Every time I sip from it or just read it, the mug reminds me of how important my job can be. That’s a lot to ask of one simple coffee mug. Bring on the coffeepot; a strong blend would be appropriate!