Well, here we are. The last day of August, nearly over. It was a strange month, but it still went by too quickly.

-- I had leftover take-out fried rice for dinner, much improved with kale and broccoli from the garden. I always resent having to go back to buying produce after my garden stops growing, but it'll be particularly difficult to buy kale. Nothing in the store can compare to what's in my garden right now.

-- I finished priming the basement, hooray! Well, the half I'm working on. It's divided in two by the staircase, and one half is fairly uncomplicated, while the other has pipes and fuseboxes to contend with. Obviously, I'm working on the easy half. It's partly wood-paneled and partly cinder block. Like how I hung up that picture frame in the first photo? For added hominess. I feel like it's actually starting to look pretty good -- much better than the photos make it seem (it's hard to project my mind's eye into the photos, see). I still haven't decided what to do about the floors. Painting seems like the cheapest route, but even that will require some money-saving in preparation.

-- I'd been wanting a little table in the living room for a while, one that I can sit at and eat or draw or write. Every room in my house has a very different feel from the next one, in my opinion, so I wanted a space for when I was in a 'living room mood'. This was our kitchen table when I was growing up -- now I just need a proper tablecloth (this is a spare curtain panel, just to see if I liked the look) and, ideally, a piece of bevel-edged glass to put on top. Beany approves of the new horizontal surface.

-- Speaking of rooms having different moods, I had a strange thought earlier today. In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker talks about how, since we have some indescribable essence or soul, we ascribe that same essence to things that clearly don't have it (this is more than just anthropomorphizing, but you'll have to read the book to get the real explanation). So I was lying on the daybed in the guest room today (proof-reading), but thinking about the living room, and I suddenly thought, 'How sad that the two rooms can never meet each other.' (They're on opposite corners of the house.) I'm guessing the rooms don't feel as bad about it.

-- I've still shown you neither my travel bag nor the zine. But look, I do remember that I've forgotten. Next time.

Well, this is it -- the last week of the One Local Summer challenge! It's scary how quickly time slips by, no? Here's my meal for this week:

I made eggy-hashbrowns (chopped potatoes with eggs scrambled in -- a Torborg family classic) with red bell pepper and onion, served on top of wilted chard and topped with two tiny tomatoes. Everything came from my garden, apart from the eggs.

And the tomatoes, well, get this:

Move over cherry- and grape-tomatoes, make room for pea-tomatoes! This is the very tiny fruit from one of my volunteer plants. The other tomatoes aren't this small, although they definitely aren't as big as the original (hybrid cherry) fruit they came from. And I think they actually taste a lot nicer than the hybrid, as well. Interesting!

Mo and I were talking about the OLS challenge when she was here last weekend, and she asked if I'll do it again. I'm not sure. I feel like it's done its job of opening my eyes to all the local products that are available -- lots of grains and beans up here, in particular. At the moment, most of my meals are easily 75% local, and I'm not sure how valuable it is to me to make an extra effort to have one meal a week be 90+% local, you know?

It will be interesting to see how local I can remain as we move into Autumn and Winter. Things like those grains and beans will remain in the stores year round, and I've managed to freeze a certain amount of green produce, but we'll see. There's always the Dark Days challenge!

I like this thing where my posts are just a string of unrelated items. It takes the imaginary pressure off and means I wind up having more to say. And the pictures don't really need to have much to do with the words:

-- A good remedy for work-related frustration is home-demolition. I used a hammer to knock down most of the ceiling tiles in my basement today, and it was partly invigorating and partly gross. There was a looot of mouse poo up there, and three neatly pressed mouse suits. When I came upstairs (to have a hot shower), the cats were huddled together, their eyes wide. What on earth was I doing to their basement?

-- Speaking of the cats, they don't get much in the way of table scraps, but Beany likes to lick out the bowl after I've had yogurt or ice cream. She's very patient, and she knows that when she hears the spoon scraping the bottom of the bowl, it's nearly her turn. She waits politely until I put it in front of her. Booty seems to have picked up on her trick, but he's less polite. Last time he heard the spoon, he started shouting 'dibs'.

-- I haven't had a big garden update recently, but I continue to be amazed by the side yard. The fruit/veggies love it, and I put it down to loads of sunshine and mulch. You can see in that first link how the cantaloupe vines have taken up nearly the entire width of the yard, ignoring my need for a path. The black-eyed susans seem to be doing well, despite the cantaloupe's enthusiasm. And look how big this Brandywine tomato plant is. I finally propped it up (a bit haphazardly, I admit), and I can't believe it used to be a tiny, spindly thing. And, of course, the Striped Cavern remains ridiculously prolific. A cluster of six tomatoes! I've never seen that except on cherries. Amazing.

-- We're getting some much-needed rain right now. It's funny how different this summer has been for different parts of the country. We've had a few hot weeks, but on the whole, it was very tolerable (although VERY dry), which is unusual. The season was late in really warming up, and if the extended forecast is anything to go by, it looks like we're already starting to cool down again. I wore a sweatshirt in my (unairconditioned) house yesterday and slept with TWO quilts.

-- I have two things to show you, if I can get my act together. I've printed up copies of my new gardening zine, and I made what's possibly the most fabulous travel bag ever (that I've made). I'm very excited to take it to Duluth! So look for those things. . . soon. . . ish.

Next Monday is the first of September, and soon after that it will be Autumn, and then Winter, and then we'll lie lethargically in bed all day long until we lose the will to prop ourselves up even for breakfast or afternoon tea and we'll wither away into nothingness and that'll be the end of it. This concerns me.

-- I don't think I've ever been so, you know, melodramatic about the winding down of summer. I have to keep thinking of nice things on the horizon to keep my spirits up. Going to Duluth in a couple of weeks' time. Traveling to Frankfurt in October (for the book fair, which I'm less keen about than the trip over-all). Um. Well, that's all.

-- I walked by a house in the Seward neighbourhood yesterday that had a nice chicken coop and enclosed 'run'. I'm thinking of going to a community ed 'class' on Chickens in the City in October. I don't have any grand chicken plans, really, but I'm very interested to know how one keeps a small number of feathery friends outdoors during Minnesota winters.

-- Not surprisingly, working from home has left me with very few articles of clothing appropriate for the Frankfurt book fair, so I used $100 of garage sale earnings to buy a few things the other day. I found some nice things, but $100 doesn't go very far in regular shops. I could easily spend multiple hundreds in H&M alone.

-- I made grape jelly and rhubarb jam on Sunday. The grapes came from my mom's yard (supplemented with a few wild ones), but their juice was only enough for half the box of Sure-Jell. I made up the entire thing and stirred the rest into rhubarb compote I had frozen. Both set up perfectly, and they taste great. I used the reduced sugar version of Sure-Jell, meaning I dissolved it with 2.5 cups of sugar instead of, like, five. I can't imagine having to use that much more sugar! The grape jelly is plenty sweet just as it is (and I didn't add any sugar to the juice beforehand).

-- Here's something not very nice. Ignore all the schmutz on the porch floor and try instead to find the spider in this picture. You can just see its legs sticking out of the dark hole in the middle of the image. It seems to live in there. I've only seen it out and about once, and when I got up to, uh, take care of it, it scrambled back and forth quicker than any spider has ever moved before disappearing into the hole. Now when I eat my breakfast, I see it poke its legs out, and if I move, it sees me and pops back inside. Since there's nothing I can do about it, I've decided to have an uneasy truce with him. I was going to call him Bert, but since 'Bertie' is already reserved on my 'real pets' name list, I'll have to come up with something else. Hank.

-- I went to Ikea to get Super Cheap white sheets for the basement ceiling (I thought this was a common practice, but in case you've never seen it, I'm planning to staple the sheets to the beams to clean it up without having to finish it off with plasterboard.). I also came home with a 59 cent spatula, a silverware caddy for my dish drainer (it's already revolutionized my life!), and three of their 29 cent mugs, shown above. The lack of a handle isn't really much of a problem, and they're the perfect size. I continue to have suspicions as to how anything can possibly be that cheap, but still. Wow!

I'm still reeling about it being the 20th of August. Particularly about the State Fair. I knew it started today, but I hadn't realized that it's this weekend that I'm going. I haven't been fasting properly! How am I going to fit all that fried food in without the necessary preparation?

Okay, I don't really fast before the State Fair. But I have been feeling very 'meh' about food lately. Nothing I would usually like seems that appealing -- and usually everything seems appealing to me! I actually had to go out for lunch today, because I couldn't bear the thought of making something for myself at home. Bonus: a muffin came with my meal, and I brought most of it home to have with my afternoon tea. On the restaurant napkin.

Can you believe that Johnny Jump-up is still growing? It's going through a big growth stage at the moment; it just put out a bunch of new leaves and has a couple of blooms on it. From a stem in water! I think it's been in there for two months now.

In the back is a cutting from my mom's lipstick plant. She made a bunch of cuttings (maybe it was dying? I can't remember now.) and gave me a few, but none of hers and all but one of mine failed to put out roots. But this one is picking up some speed now, growing roots and looking good -- as is the piece of jade plant I cut off a while back. I've obviously got a magical, life-imbuing window sill.

Speaking of surprising stories of success and growth, I continue to be amazed at the vegetable plants I've got in my side yard. To think that it was a wasteland of dead grass and weeds earlier this year! I spotted two new cantaloupes that have set on the vine, and one of the original two is starting to get its rough cantaloupe skin -- I hope that means it's close to being ripe!

The Striped Cavern tomato plant continues to be a monster, and I've also been really impressed with the growth of the Brandywine plant I stuck out there. I had three seedlings that survived to be planted outside -- one in the main veggie patch, one in a pot, and the smallest in the side yard. That small one is now the largest of the three, sprawling (I never got around to caging it -- didn't think it would survive!), and loaded with still-small tomatoes. Amazing!

Can you believe it's already the twelfth week of One Local Summer? Only -- wait, WHAT?

Is it really the 20th of August? I'm not even pretending to be surprised about this -- is it really the 20th? As in going to the State Fair on Saturday, Mo back in town for the weekend, two-thirds-of-the-month-gone 20th of August? Whoa. I'm going to have to have a little sit down and think about this, but I'll be right back with you.

Oh dear. Everything's a bit wobbly around the edges, so let's just get on with the meal:

If it weren't for the mozzarella in my sandwich, practically everything here would have started its 'life' on my property. I baked the bread (from local flours), grew the basil in the pesto, and harvested the tomato, green beans, and broccoli from my own back yard. Well done, me.

I ate the first Brandywine off the plants I grew from seed. Most heirlooms seem pretty good as far as meat-to-seed ratios, but Brandywines are particularly excellent, if you ask me. The slices in my sandwich (cooked in a panini press) absolutely melted when warm. Perfect.

And here's my favourite part of the bread I make:

Those seeds add so much flavour, even just around the edges. Yum!

Ah. I've just had a very nice dinner of tomato soup (made with garden tomatoes) and popcorn (kernels bought at the farmers market last weekend), and I have that slightly buoyant, all-is-right-with-the-world feeling that comes from the perfect combination of foods. Tomato soup and popcorn -- who'd have guessed? How about some unrelated thoughts and images to round out your Tuesday.

-- My mom recently asked if I had ever planted the two cuttings she gave me a while ago. I have, and don't they look happy? I'm really appreciating the enthusiasm of the houseplants these days; everything outside looks a bit fed up with the heat.

-- I'm writing this post on my laptop, because I hate sitting at my desk whilst trying to think of how to say things. I've only got two hours and 47 minutes of battery life remaining, however, so I'm having to ration laptop use. SOME beany cat chewed right through the power cable the other day. Why? I'm hoping my dad will be able to repair it on Thursday -- he sounds confident, but it seems to all come down to being able to find a butt splice. I'm not sure if it's really necessary, or whether the repair is simply less funny without one.

-- I got through phases of enthusiasm for home renovation. There are quite a few projects on my 'some day' list, but the basement has been eating away at my attention lately. It's quite a tricky space to tackle with limited resources, as it ideally requires rather a lot of framing and sheetrocking. I found two cans of Kilz primer that the last owner left, and it appears to still be good, so I'm going to have a go at painting the wood-paneled and some of the cinderblock walls. Then it's just a skip and a jump to turn this into this. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Cheap, too!

-- No, but really, even getting white paint on some of the walls will make a huge difference in bouncing the light around down there. It's not quite as dire as it looks in that spectacular photo I took. I had to move all the boxes around today to go through for garage salable items, which is why they're so front and center. I think the lamp being askew like that really sets everything off nicely, too.

-- My latest loaf used two local flours (white bread flour and rye), and the seeds on the outside are local too! I used a different pan this time, one that's shallower but longer, and I've decided I like it. The slices are still big enough for breakfast toast, and I'll get more of them from a single loaf. This looks much more like whole wheat bread than usual -- it was a new white flour I used, and the bulk bin said something about it still having the bran in, so perhaps it's down to that. I also feel like there's more rye flavour, although that's probably just my imagination.

-- I'm going to listen to records now and read a book (possibly Carl Sandburg poems, since it's right here next to me) and try to ignore the heat (which is abating for the evening, thankfully). I wish I could do these things on a sofa down in the cool basement, surrounded by white walls and smart furnishings, but no. Maybe someday.

Here it is, people. Proof that you really can put a seed in dirt, grow a plant, and wind up with a tomato in a matter of months:

Look how perfect it is! It's definitely the most flawless tomato I've grown this year -- not a spot on it! I haven't sliced it yet, but I'm willing to bet it's going to taste as good as it looks.

I also picked the first Striped Cavern to ripen. What a great plant -- it's at least four and a half feet tall, growing like a monster, and has tons of tomatoes on it, but they're all pretty small. Look at this little guy:

I can't wait to cut the top off and see if it's really hollow inside (apart from the seeds, of course).

I've now picked at least one of every variety of tomato I'm growing this year (Striped Cavern, Brandywine, Purple Cherokee, and Mr Stripy). Aren't they pretty?

They're lined up in the order listed above, front to back. I guess what I just said before isn't entirely true -- I've got about four volunteer cherry tomato plants from seeds that found their way into the dirt last year. Each plant has at least one set of tomatoes growing on it, but they haven't started to ripen yet. We'll see what they're like -- I wasn't at all crazy about the cherries I grew last year, but they were a hybrid, so it's anybody's guess as to how good these will be. I think I might oven-roast them, when they're finally ready.

Tomatoes are go!

Coming just under the wire for the eleventh week of OLS! I was pretty tired all of Thursday, and by the time eight o'clock rolled around, I was ready to crawl in bed. Instead, I went out to the garden, dug up some onions and grabbed some chives and made soup.

My potato plants died off really early for some reason, so I dug up the potatoes last week (having JUST bought a basketful from the farmers market, of course). I didn't get many from my plants -- two kilos, max, I would guess -- but they're pretty good. Yukon golds. I cooked some onions in olive oil, added the sliced potatoes (about 600g worth), and then a box of vegetable stock. Once the potatoes were tender, I mashed them (still in the cooking pot, over the flame) with my potato masher and added the herbs, salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons of sour cream. I didn't add any cheese (except as a garnish in this bowl, obviously) -- the colour comes from the vegetable stock. A very simple soup, but incredibly delicious.

The corn from the farmers market was also amazing. I always feel a bit 'meh' about corn until I have a fresh cob of it at its peak. Whoa.

Oh, hello there. How good does this cantaloupe look? It's not from my garden, but it is local:

There's a seller at the farmers market right now who's got an entire stand of muskmelons and honeydews, etc, and you can smell it from half an aisle away. They were a bit too pricey for me, but I later picked up a small cantaloupe from the co-op as a treat.

I'm sure I've waxed poetic about my love for breakfast before, but it really is my favourite time of day. Partly it's the food involved -- having that first cup of tea or coffee, looking forward to toast or yogurt or cereal (I definitely go through favourite breakfast food phases); partly it's just the time of day. In the summer, it's still a little cool in the morning (or at least not as hot), and the world around me is just getting going. There are days when I wish I could go to sleep around six in the evening, just to skip right to the morning bit.

So, I have a question for you. It has nothing to do with breakfast, although you can have bonus points if you link your answer to something to do with that meal. I've noticed that there are billions of inspirational photographs of kitchens and bathrooms (does plumbing inspire design?), bedrooms and even living rooms. But do you have any favourite images of basement remodels?

I'm talking serious basements, here. Not walk-outs, nothing naturally light and air-y. I've got a Minnesota-style basement, with tiny windows way up high. It's got full-height ceilings, and I know it could be a great space someday, when I've got money to spend, but I've had a hard time finding inspiration in the meantime. I'd like to see some really impressive or creative remodels, not just dry-wall, carpet, entertainment center for the guys type jobs. So do you have any recommended links or favourite images to pass along?

One of the many tasks I had for yesterday was finishing the green wallet I'd started a few days ago. All I really needed to do was add a strap:

I'm really happy with the way this turned out, in the end (no pattern, sorry). When I decided to make a wallet with multiple cash pockets, I tried whipping something up and it was just a little bit too small (I didn't want it to be bulky). So when I started this one, I erred on the side of too big, and thought it was also a failure. Once I realized that my phone would fit in one of the pockets, though, I decided I could put a removable strap on it and use it more or less as a purse. I like having something to carry just the bare minimum in the summer, so I don't have to stuff things in my pockets.

This is what the inside looks like, and this is what it looks like as a purse. And slightly out of focus, whoops. The fabric is a vintage canvas upholstery sample that I thrifted -- it's a large print of trees, which I used a big piece of to cover my Going-to-Frankfurt binder. There's a surprising amount of hand stitching in this -- I'm definitely enjoying doing stuff without the machine more and more. Some things, like the basic piecing together and the top stitching, are ideal for the machine, but others (the binding and little details) are much better done by hand.

Here's something else that's green and (sort of) made by me:

I opened the curtains in my living room today (which rarely happens in the summer, but it was overcast this evening), and I could plainly see this guy sitting out on the vine. I hadn't thought that any of my cantaloupes were actually taking hold and growing, so I rushed right out to inspect, and found the other one in the photo above as well. I made chicken wire cages for both of them -- I do NOT want to share these with the wildlife! The plant itself is really sprawling, and it has tenacious tendrils that I've had to pry from the plants around it. I particularly like how they pick up bits of mulch. It's like they've got tiny spears to keep away predators.

I hope you don't mind another list-like post. I seem to have a lot of unrelated thoughts lately, none of them -- apparently -- very deep.

-- I might have to lay off the coffee for a while, since I've been getting headaches shortly after breakfast. I only ever have this one cup of cold brew with almond milk (plus one or two cups of tea during the day), but I've never had much of a tolerance for caffeine.

-- After ten days of my 365 project, I'm finding that it's not so difficult remembering to take a photo every day (usually), but I do find it a real challenge to pick just one. Today I wanted to use both the coffee photo above and the plants below. I went with the plants. It's difficult sometimes to decide which image I like best, generally, which is more '365-y', and which will look better/best with the other thumbnails in my flickr set.

-- Speaking of photography, my Olympus point-and-shoot is broken. Something with the mechanics of the auto-focus, as far as I can tell. My Nikon SLR is also playing up with slow shutter speeds. I can take the Olympus being out of service for the time being, but the Nikon better get its act together.

-- Mo was is town this weekend for the wedding of a school friend (it was a very good wedding, and, of course, I'm basing most of that judgment on the cake), so we went to the farmers market together this morning. We shared a big-as-your-head cinnamon roll, and I bought green beans for freezing, corn, focaccia, and that tiny succulent in the photo. I'd wanted to plant something in the little jars I thrifted a while back, and this is perfect. I also cut part of my jade plant, which had started to wither as a result of a Beany attack. It was already putting out roots halfway up the stem before I cut it, so let's hope for the best!

-- My chest freezer is going to be delivered tomorrow (they never called to let me know what time, so they'd better not show up at 8AM tomorrow, or I'll tell them where they can stick their freezer. . . downstairs, next to the outlet, please). In anticipation, I finally grated the zucchinis I'd been piling up over the past week or so. The result was almost eighteen cups, which I divided into three cup portions, squeezed the water out of, and bagged. Zucchini bread in the middle of winter is go.

-- In addition to tidying the house today, finishing my new wallet-purse, and mending a shirt, I also bought the colour cartridges I'd run out of. So now I can print my gardening zine! I've also got ideas for two new ones. Well, one idea and one vague 'something'. I'm like a squirrel preparing for the winter, except instead of nuts, I'm hoarding silly drawings.

See, another breakfast look-alike. It's lunch:

-- I figured out the zine/printer thing! Note to self: Overspray = least.

-- During my morning constitutional, I passed a garage sale. Fifty cents later, I've finally got a stepped platform for my spices. It works so much better than empty lightbulb boxes.

-- I'm doing my own version of a money envelopes type thing (using cash to allot a certain amount of money per week for different categories). I needed a new wallet that could keep the cash in separate pockets, so I made this. It turned out a bit larger than I intended. I can actually keep my phone in it, so I think I'll add a strap and turn it into a wallet-purse.

Happy 08-08-08, everybody! Hope it was a good one.

I've got three posts for you. Three! Of course, if I actually write them all in quick succession, this will be the last one you read, and you'll be all, 'Yawn. I already know about the three posts. Don't you think we can see with our eyes?' God, you people are hard to please. I know. I'll just make this one the last to publish, and then you'll see. Three new posts, I'm telling you.

This one is my OLS for this week -- the tenth week. Ten weeks. Summer is going to end soon and then we'll all have to hibernate through another winter. I can't even bear to think about it (but I am, obviously).

I think dinner has left me slightly giddy and melodramatic. More about that in one of the other of the three posts (the dinner, not the melodrama).

So, local lunch. I know it looks more like breakfast, but that's just how most of meals are -- either some form of breakfast food or a huge pile of vegetables. I do mix it up with a sandwich every now and then, I guess. My local lunch consisted of a fried egg, mushrooms, and potatoes.

Everything in the potato 'dish' was from the garden -- potatoes (a disappointing yield from the first two plants, which had decided to die, but the potatoes I did get are good!), onions, jalapeno, and green pepper. All cooked up in my cast iron skillet, as were the mushrooms. I also fried the egg in the same pan and finally thought to used an (oiled) English muffin ring to keep the egg contained until I flipped it. Not only did it keep it out of the rest of my food, but it made turning it so much easier, as it stayed smaller than the spatula.

OLS, week ten -- tick!

I've tried to take a hundred a couple dozen shots of my microwave and decided I didn't like any of them. But you know what? I do like this:

Even though you can't really tell what's going on there. I just like the focus and the light and the mood. Never mind the image. I like to put nice things on top of the microwave, because I think it's such an ugly appliance. You can see here what's actually there now. I wish I had managed a good shot from the other side -- the tea towel has little cross-stitched Scottie dogs.

Anyway, who care about microwaves? Here are some other things you may or may not care about:

-- I don't eschew rock, or anything (far from it!), but I think the first movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony is probably one of my favourite pieces of music. Listening to it very loudly in my car is pretty much as good as eating chocolate cake cheesecake. Doing both at once would cause a terrible accident, obviously. But what a way to go.

-- I started volunteering at a clothes closet, helping sort clothes. AND I went to my National Night Out get-together. I'm becoming an upstanding citizen, me.

-- I wrote and illustrated an entire zine last weekend, and now I can't remember how to get it to print properly. I've tried a million combinations of settings, and what's worse is that I wrote myself instructions last time -- and now I can't find them! The zine is about my garden and is narrated by Beany. OH, THE DEMAND, IF ONLY I HAD THE SUPPLY!

-- I'm getting a chest freezer delivered on Monday. To fill with ice cream. I'll be able to keep soup and cakes and currently-in-season produce AND still find things in my regular freezer. I really wanted an upright freezer, because a chest freezer? -- good for storing half a deer in. But the soy patties will get all mixed up with the containers of veggie chili, and how will I ever reach the loaves of homemade bread if they sink to the bottom? Still -- much freezer excitement.

-- After long deliberation, I picked The Grasmere Journal off my shelf to read before bed (by Dorothy Wordsworth -- that drawing of her! What a sad sack! I love it.). Honestly, you'd think I just sit around all day, listening to classical music and reading about the daily lives of Romantic poets' sisters, but no. Coincidence. But the book did make me really miss the Lake District. Oh, to be aimlessly wandering around Windermere on a cool morning. During the off season, obviously.

-- Quick, think of something to end with so people don't think I'm obnoxiously cultured. Did I mention the zine? Narrated by my cat?

There, I think that's restored balance.

Yes! I have been waiting to make this meal all summer. It is the culmination of my hard work, the hours or standing idly by the garden plot with a hose, etc, etc. I started with this:

Aren't eggplants pretty? I should grow more purple vegetables. Purple-sprouting broccoli, purple cabbage, purple carrots. . . purple potatoes. But then maybe the eggplants wouldn't feel special. So many things to consider -- gardening is hard!

That tomato is from my Mr Stripy plant. Note its distinct lack of stripes. Maybe it will continue to ripen and get red stripes? It went from green to bright yellow to this vivid orange, and it feels ripe to my fingertips, but I'm planning on letting it sun itself on the window sill for a few days before I eat it.

I originally thought I would make ratatouille once I had tomatoes of my own ready. But after eating that first one, I realized that that was just crazy -- tomatoes will go straight from the garden to my mouth. I suppose I might grow tired of them after a while, but I've got lots of other tomato plans (soup, sauce, ketchup). So I used local tomatoes that somebody else grew for my dish.

Everything else, though, came straight from the garden -- eggplant, zucchini, onions, green peppers, carrots, green beans, and all the herbs. I chopped it, threw it in the skillet, and let it cook. It's funny that some people get such anxiety about cooking (although I do understand it), when the best tasting stuff pretty much does everything on its own.

Of course, best tasting doesn't necessarily mean best looking. I had some of this with some vegan mac'n'cheese I thawed (from back in June) and cauliflower. I cooked almost an entire crown of cauliflower until it was tender, and what I didn't have for dinner, I threw in the pickling brine from my refrigerator pickles (which are now gone. More cucumbers are in the works. Waiting. . . ). I love pickled cauliflower. . . and pretty much pickled-anything-else.

Ah, so now I can just sit back and let the garden go to seed (but not really). I think I'm slightly high from all the phytonutrients in my sort-of-ratatouille. From the garden to the bloodstream in under an hour -- that's potent stuff!

Oy. Not to repeat myself the whole time, but how do the days slip away? Although, I'm glad to say that I thought I had lost an entire week, seeing that my last post was on the first, but it's only been four days. Sometimes I forget that the month is listed first in American-style dates. I feel like I've got a lot to catch up on here, but let's skip right to today. It was National Night Out!

My neighbour-across-the-way organized a potluck get-together, so I made zucchini bread. I used the same-ish recipe as last time, but substituted orange zest, pecans, and cranberries (and kept the poppyseeds). It's okay -- good, even -- but I think the crystallized ginger really makes the flavour. I miss it in this batch.

So, sorry to post and run, but I've got things to do, ice cream to eat. I officially sent my television packing (to the basement), so now there's more room for colour-coordinated books. But I've been talked into watching a TV show on the computer, so it calls to me.

And away! (Like my apron? I got it from an estate sale and may or may not have a slightly morbid name for it.)

Gosh, I can't believe how quickly the weeks fly by sometimes. Or, you know, how quickly the entire month of July flew by. I think I must have missed at least a fortnight somewhere in there. After a rather lackluster One Local Summer meal last week (in my opinion), I got it together for this go 'round:

This is my Fake All-American Meal. I made bean burgers and topped one with local cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and pickles. To round out the meal, I had coleslaw and zucchini 'chips'. The coleslaw was made from local ingredients, with the exception of the vegan mayo, but the carrot and the broccoli stalk I added to the store-bought cabbage were actually from my garden -- the first carrots I pulled up!

I had made the pickle slices just the day before. I had two cucumbers on my plant outside that were ready for picking, so I made a pickling brine with dill (fresh and seed) from the garden and popped them in the fridge. Even though the original recipe says to let them sit for a week, they were definitely ready the next day -- the difference between cutting thick wedges and slim slices. I'm not so crazy about raw cucumbers, but I love pickles!

I'm kind of kicking myself about the bean burgers, because I made them in my usual slap-dash way, not bothering to write anything down as I threw stuff in the bowl. They're made from local kidney beans (yes, I finally got around to soaking and cooking some beans!), mushrooms, onion (from the garden), an egg white, local flour. And a combination of my favourite spices. And some oil and balsamic vinegar. See? I'm never going to remember how I actually made these. Luckily, I stuck the extras in the freezer for another day.

I had made some bean patties using a recipe a while back, and I was so underwhelmed by them that I didn't have high hopes for the ones I was recklessly creating. But I've realized that the thing I was most turned off by with the cookbook ones was the use of tamari -- I just don't like soy sauce in things that aren't Asian/stir-fried/tofu. A lot of vegan chefs love to use the tamari, but to me the flavour is just too dominant. So I used salt in these and was much happier!

And that's the story of my One Local Summer meal.

This is just a quick post to let you know that I'm starting a year of photos over at my flickr account.

The set is here. While the occasional photo might make its way over here too, I won't be posting them all on the blog, so if you want to follow along, that's the place to do it. A handful of friends decided to join in the project starting today, the first of August, so I thought I'd go along too. Starting with a self-portrait. With the bread I baked today.

It was a year ago today that the 35W bridge collapsed, here in my city of Minneapolis. It's amazing to think of everything that has happened since then, and daunting (and exciting) to think what will happen in the next year.