I made

spaghetti sauce. It didn't turn out quite as good as the one I made last summer. Could have something to do with the fact that I lost the original recipe. (which promptly motivated me to 'organize' my recipes, which I just had to shove off the keyboard of the computer to get here)

I'm out of onions. Crisis, I know. So that means I can't correct my mistake until I get shopping. Something else I realized I'd forgotten was the green pepper, and I have absolutely no excuse. There are three exquisite looking peppers out in the garden. I also omitted carrots and celery for no other reason than sheer laziness (by the way, I made the sauce LAST week, and sheer laziness has pre-empted blogging...) and misplaced recipe card. Oh, see, the card says I also forgot the thyme and lemon juice.

It could have been the red wine I was taste testing (read: drinking) while I was cooking the sauce. (no pun intended, but suddenly humorous)

~Dreamy sigh~ Ahh, but the fresh tomatoes off the vine have been glorious. Today I had for lunch my favorite (one of 10,000) foods; sliced tomato, mozzarella and basil. A little salt. Lunch is served.

I suppose one could get fancy and break out the freshly ground black pepper and the aged balsamic vinegar and a spot of evoo, but I was (again) lazy. And hungry.

Thank you Annie, for introducing me to that delicious 'any-time' food. And thank you dirt, sun, and rain, for giving me my tomatoes.

Because they are so prolific, I have plenty of tomatoes to make sauce again, if I don't suddenly experience a rush of blog-energy.

Until then,

Hope Farms Tomato Contessa

I did

something spectacular yesterday. (no, I still have not fixed the letter "e" on the keyboard, it slows me down, keeps my humble in regards to my typing skills) I made pesto. Basil, garlic, pine nuts, (okay, so I substituted almonds because I had no pine nuts, but still) EVOO, and a squeeze of lemon juice (so I forgot the lemon juice, so what. just keepin' it real) and it tasted awesome. So I put it in a can/freeze pint jar and stuck it in the freezer for a day when the fresh basil right outside the door is no longer readily available (read: 16 degrees in January).

Life IS good.

Today I really MUST make some tomato sauce with the 20 odd pounds of tomatoes sitting on my kitchen table.

I am

up to my hips in weeds this morning. And while I've been weeding (read: pulling the occasional weed and then happily becoming distracted elsewhere) I've been thinking. Here are some random musings, conclusions, and questions that have been field-mousing-it in the brain;



don't leave a load of laundry that is done, in the washer for ANY length of time when it's August, and 98*F and 80% humidity. Just trust me.



toddlers can and will, get mud in every orifice of their body if you leave them to it long enough



the letter "e" button is missing from the keyboard of my laptop. Does anyone have any idea how often one types the letter "e" when blogging? (I've got to get this fixed) And as an aside, see above about toddler - in this instance, a toddler can and will remove keys from laptop keyboard when left to it long enough.....



good things come to those who dig in the trash. Well, not really dig. Hubby saw an a/c sitting next to a dumpster on his rounds for the county a couple days in a row. On the third day he stopped and asked his co-worker to help him lift it into the truck. Co-worker made snide remarks the rest of the day about how it wouldn't work, and why would it be in the trash if it did, etc... So, hubby brings it home, plugs it in and voila! we have a 24,600 BTU air conditioner sitting in our bedroom window. For free. The knob that turns it from low/med/high fan and a/c low/med/high was broken. Imagine that. He stuck a little hook in there and it works beautifully. Plus side: we are now cool in our 1890 'oven'. Down side: we are now watching our electric meter spin furiously around the box. But. Life is good.



while we're on "free" stuff - there is a sod farm about 8 miles NW of us, and periodically part of a pallet/skid of sod will fall off the truck, which is exactly what happened last week. Hubby picked up just over half a load of sod off the side of the road and we turned the least used portion of our driveway between the house and the well-house into a garden area, lined by this beautiful sod! I got out there this morning and kicked some tail. We had already spread pinestraw in between so I transplanted some sweet basil, cinnamon basil, two rosemary plants, some chives, and a few parsley and dill too. In the front corner I put a red salvia plant - beauty. I've decided it will be the herb garden as it is close and convenient to the kitchen. Again, life IS really good.

I'm back from a short but welcomed interruption by Betty and her niece Jenny from PA. Betty and her five brothers and sisters were born in this house, and she often stops by to visit, which we love. Eddie really enjoyed showing them his toys (read: trucks) and then a trip out to the barn to show them 'his' chickens, pigs and goats. We came back in (because it's just too HOT out there) and ate lunch. Now, guess what I get to do? Convince said toddler it's a great time for a nap. Anyone out there want to 'fill in' for an hour??????????????

Ninety at noon

Not a whole lot of productivity going on here at Hope Farms. When I'm doing dishes (from the night before, no less) in the morning, and by noon it is ninety degrees, it's hibernation time. I DID manage to put away the laundry (from the last week, no less) in my air-conditioned bedroom.

In light of my laziness, I was touched deeply by abc world news tonight (am I supposed to capitalize all that?). At the end of their broadcast, they had their "person of the week" and highlighted this kid "Greene" from Atlanta, GA who has spent his summer in Iowa volunteering to help out the flood-ravaged neighborhoods. From sun-up to sun-down he cleans out houses and helps homeowners salvage what belongings haven't been ruined by the water.

I want to be like him. He's16 years old, and gave up his entire summer to do hot, nasty, smelly and heartbreaking, let alone backbreaking work. I'm impressed. And inspired. I'm going to do some research in my community and find out what I can do around here. I'm sure it will have something to do with the elderly, which is fine by me. I've got a garden full of produce that might find itself in some graceful and aged hands.

I'm off to find someone who might need some of my time.