How to Grow Watermelon

1. Go to a garden nursery in May. Buy a 4-pack of watermelon plants.
2. Put plants in the ground.
3. Neglect. Allow the weeds to infest and tower.
4. Come back in September. Watermelons will be plentiful, enormous and sweet.

Tomayto, Tomahto

Once again with more tomatoes to use, I came to the decision that we'd have spaghetti with homemade sauce for dinner tonight. I always have an abundance of ground beef in the freezer. I HOPED I'd have everything onhand for spaghetti sauce from scratch.

Whenever I want to make a basic "something" and don't have a recipe to which I am faithful, it is becoming my habit to turn to The Basics and More, a cookbook that BFF Rebecca gave me. It has recipes that everybody should have, basic bread, pound cake, buttercream frosting, cinnamon rolls, and, thankfully, spaghetti sauce.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with this recipe! It's sweet and spicy. My family thought it was a bit too spicy, and I even left out some of the called for spicy ingredients. I'm all too pleased to pass this on. Here's the basic recipe, though it makes a ton - it's meant for canning - so I reduced it tonight and left out the Tabasco and hot peppers. (And it was STILL too hot. Can you imagine!?)

Spaghetti Sauce II
11 qts. thick tomato juice
6 cloves of garlic
6 medium onions
1 c. parsley, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. salt
3 T oregano
A few bay leaves, optional
2 T basil
1 t. red pepper
2 t. chili powder
1/2 to 1 T Tabasco
1/4 c. olive oil, optional
A few hot peppers, optional
1/2 clear jell (I found I didn't need this. It cooked down to be thick enough on its own. - DBC)

"Put juice in big heavy saucepan. Save some to put in blender with onions, cloves and parsley to shop. When chopped, add to juice and add spices and simmer 4 hours or until thick. Put into jars and process" - Rachel Ramer, Goshen, IN

Observe and Learn

Dear Friends, I've been happily preserving the fruits of my gardening labor, but in the last day or two, it has taken a hellacious turn. I was on Day 3 of making tomato juice. I couldn't imagine eating that much chili in my lifetime, but it was the simplest thing to think of making at the time. At my last trip to the garden, I also picked a few jalapenos, so with the last of the tomatoes I had on hand, I threw together some salsa to can.

Long story short, one jar exploded out of its spot and landed, broken, on top of the other jars in the canner, just as you see here. It could have been so much worse, but a few spatters did land on my arm and there are couple of tiny blisters which I am not enjoying this morning.


The canner is really gross now and I need to get it cleaned out because....

...there will be more tomatoes to pick next week.

Gazpacho

With the tomatoes ripening like gangbusters, and the heat and humidity making us all miserable, I sought out a recipe for a nice, cool summer meal: gazpacho. Though it has many intraregional variations, it's basically a Mediterranian cold soup made of tomatoes and all manner of late summer garden bounty. While I was researching a bit of history on the dish, I was surprised that it traditionally has bread ground up and blended into the soup. I don't think I've ever had it that way and the recipe I tried didn't call for that ingredient. Glad I am, because Soppy Bread never sounds appealing to me. I much prefer the liquid salad idea that I know gazpacho to be.

Here's the recipe:

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 sweet pepper, seeded and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1-2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 T chopped fresh chives
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
2 T freshly sqeezed lemon juice
2 T sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco to taste
1 t. Worchestershire sauce (omit for vegetarian)
4 c. tomato juice

Combine all ingredients, blend slightly to desired consistency. Place in non-metal, non-reactive storage contatiner. Cover and chill. Serve cold.

I realized that of all the produce in the recipe, I only DIDN'T have celery in my garden. In fact, I left it out of my soup altogether, since I don't enter the produce aisle in the summertime. It sure hit the spot for me.

Camping Out

We had the pleasure of camping this weekend with a bunch of friends of all ages. Well, it was a pleasure for me. For the son, Lover of Technology and Hater of Mosquitoes and Humidity, not so much. It's OK. It won't kill him to take his likes and dislikes a bit less seriously.

We had a smallish tent that was supposed to sleep four to six. I suppose the five of us could lie down shoulder to shoulder in it, but last year we opted to borrow another smallish tent and we used one for boys, one for girls. I was looking to do just that this year. I put out a plea on Facebook for a borrowed tent. One acquaintance was pushing hard for us to borrow her "Party Tent." ("It has three rooms!" "It's 18x18!" "It's orange!") We went the party tent route so we were all able to sleep roomily under one nylon roof for the weekend.


Another family in our party borrowed this beast. Refurbished from an old school bus and used for NASCAR viewing, perfect strangers stopped by and took pictures or asked for tours. Are you noticing that deck on top? It folds down for driving down the road. Ingenious!

It was a nice group campout. We had beautiful weather to enjoy...


A lake to float in...


Pleasant company...

And campfire cooking.

There's a breakfast I prepare when we go camping that is a staple of our outdoorsy menu. I don't know why. The ingredients aren't particularly outdoorsy. In fact, I usually make it for our Christmas morning meal. I suppose I just trust that it'll turn out well in a cast iron skillet, which is what I cook in over the campfire.

When I started making this breakfast, called Shepherder's Breakfast, last weekend, Ron, our campsite neighbor followed his nose over to my cook station to chat and admire the hearty breakfast in the works. I got to visiting, fussing over my breakfast and handing out coffee and forgot to take any picture of the process. I took one lame picture of the finished product scooped into my bowl, but I don't think it looks particularly appetizing.

Anyway, I made it again at home today so that I could add some photos. I really need a better camera. Sorry.

So, you start out with shredded hash browns in a hot, buttery skillet. For camping, I definitely save some trouble and just use frozen. I like to add water as they cook. I think there's less sticking to the pan, and more of the dense texture that I like in the finished product. Once the hash browns begin to brown, level off the pile and crack an egg into as many divots in the hash browns as you like.

I salt and pepper it a bit at this point and then put a lid on. I think the eggs cook faster this way, since there's a buffer of potatoes between them and the actual heat source.


When they're nearly done, sprinkle over all some bacon crumbles and shredded cheese. Cover again until it's melty. Eat immediately.

In Which We Eat at the County Fair

The ferris wheel is torn down, the fairgrounds are empty. I saw a lone "carny" in a truck pulling a canival game trailer heading out of town this morning. Most people around here look forward to the fair each summer. It's such a social event. The parents are thrilled to see people they haven't seen in years. The kids are thrilled to ride the rides. We all have food we only eat at the fairgrounds and can't find any other time of the year. Here is a record of how my family indulged over the last ten days.


At mealtime, our family usually takes a "divide and conquer" approach. On this evening, several members of the family ate pork burgers or pork chop sandwiches from the pork tent. Mike and the girls purchased them and saved a table for us while Brooks got our beverages and I looked for something more exotic.


I decided to try something new. I originally was headed for the Chinese food cart, because I'd heard so many people say that the eggrolls were what they looked forward to. Well, too many people had the same idea and I wasn't willing to stand in a line that stretched to the.... hey, look at that! There's a Cajun food cart. From the Cajun food cart I ordered red beans and rice, and "shrimp on a stick." I washed it all down with my favorite find from this year's fair, a frozen Pepsi from the Goat Shack.


At the Cajun cart, I was tempted by someething else on the menu: Bourbon Chicken on a Stick. Before I ordered, I saw a gentleman recieve his kabob and before he walked away, I asked if that was the Chicken on a Stick. "No, ma'am," he said. "It's Gator on a Stick." I simply had to record that menu item, even though I certainly wasn't going to order it myself. He was kind enough to let me take his picture.


When I was a kid, my parents rarely sprang for a meal at the fair. Too expensive. But we always stopped at the Dairy Bar and got soft serve ice cream on our way out of the fair to the parking lot. Our family has the same tradition.


The day we rode rides was a hot one. Ava chose to beat the heat with a Sno-Cone.


Others recommend the taco salad and I got one for the first time. It was good, but nothing I couldn't recreate at home.


Ok, we love these things. Sometimes called Saratoga Chips, sometimes called Spiral Spuds, they affix a potato to some kind of drill-looking thing and run it through a slicer. It turns a potato into a long, curly spiral, which they plop into hot fat and fry. Here they are topped with cheese, bacon and chives. While Brooks and his buddy were riding rides, there was a brief thunderstorm. They each grabbed an order of Saratoga Chips and ducked into a pavillion for their snack. After another couple of rides, they agreed that those things should be shared with several people, never as a snack for one person. They had a bit of Spiral Spud remorse.


Finally, Sirloin Tips. These things are delicious. They're seasoned beatifully. They're juicy and served with potatoes and chives and mushrooms, peppers and onions, if you wish. And they've been the hot item for the last several years. Whenever we'd walk past the cart, there was always a massive line. And whenever we ate them, there was much planning.... Who was willing to stand in the line? How would the kids be entertained while they waited? But the catch is: They are Very Expensive. During the first few years of their popularity, the price was mentioned when people raved about them, but everyone agreed that they were worth it for a once-a-year treat. In the next few years, more people were grumbling, fewer people were saying that they were worth it. We got the Sirloin Tips for our first meal, two little cardboard trays of the stuff, which we divided between the five of us. Mike said, "Enjoy it, because we'll never eat it again." It cost $26 for two orders. We don't often pay that kind of money to eat by candlelight, let alone with plastic forks. Michael finally declared it too high and it seemed that a lot of the community agreed. I never saw a line at the cart this year.

I don't know how that food looks to you. In mid-July, it would look and sound great to me. At the end of the fair... it looks a little gross. But I know I'll eat it all again next year. For now though, nothing but raw vegetables and lentils.

Here's What I Brought Home From the Garden Today

... or at least a sampling.

Items of note: The Butternut Squash - that's something that usually doesn't get picked until almost fall. In the garden, the color looked so rich, I imagined that they were ripe enough to take home with me. Now, on my back stoop... I dunno. They look kinda pale to me.

Purple Sweet Peppers - Dontcha love 'em?

Eggplant - I wasn't expecting them to be that shape, but all the eggplants have been long and skinny. Hunh.

Zucchini - My supply is dwindling. The plants have a blight and are collapsing onto the ground. I'm still picking a few.

One skinny cucumber.

Tomatoes Of Unusual Size - On the bottom, an ordinary slicing tomato. Yum. In the middle, slightly larger than average cherry tomatoes. On top, Tiny Bites. Can you see them? They're there, right above the cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes are a bit larger than peas and they are thick on my Tiny Bite plant. I've never grown them before and my friend who grew them last year isn't choosing to try them again this summer, so I'm interested in how I'll like them. I really like the IDEA, which is that they are excellent for salads. Instead of dicing tomatoes to add to your salad, you just toss in a handful of Tiny Bites.

Yukon Gold Potatoes - The plants are beginning to die back, which is an indicator that the potatoes are gaining their "winter coats" which will allow them to last throughout the seasons so that we can enjoy potatoes year-round. We dug some today because Brooks requested mashed potatoes for his birthday meal and my supply from last year's garden is gone.

A Sad Little Red Pepper.

A couple of jalapenos - I'm wondering what to do with them until there's enough tomatoes to do salsa. Any ideas?

Two Sweet Potatoes - Again, these are usually dug up later, but at the fair, the old codgers doing a whittling demonstration told Ava that she could start carving using a sweet potato and a vegetable peeler. Once the carving is how she likes it, she can stick it on a nail to dry in the air, where it will shink and shrivel until it is the consistency of plastic. It will keep that way, they said.

Carrots - The carrots in our garden seem to always turn out oddly shaped. See all the little tails at the end of the one? Oh well, it will still taste great in Garden Risotto.

Church Picnic/Fair Parade

One popular event which our county fair offers each year is the Sunday afternoon parade, a 2.6 mile route that runs from a downtown shopping center to the fairgrounds in the country. Our church is a block off of the parade route, so we traditionally have a church picnic after services on that Sunday so people don't have to go home to eat before viewing the parade, which starts at 1:20.

Even on my way to church at 8:00 AM, the sidewalks in the area were dotted with lawn chairs, blankets and canopies where people had staked out their preferred parade-viewing real estate. I didn't have time to nab my own spot. I had to get to the church kitchen to begin work since I was in charge of the picnic.

Fortunately, the church had done a hog roast last month for a kick-off meal for Vacation Bible School, and had frozen enough leftovers to feed the church today. This meant I didn't need to arrange for one of the men of the church to grill during the service, as is often the case for our summertime carry-ins.

After church my committee and I got to work, loading up the table of savories. Along with the pulled pork sandwiches, the people of the church brought green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, relish trays, deviled eggs, (I had sent out a reminder email about the church meal and gave a winking mention that there never seem to be enough deviled eggs. Today we had five trays of them. But STILL there were only about six eggs halves left.) and all manner of salads: macaroni, taco, fruit, cucumber, jello, lettuce.

We had a nice variety of desserts, too. Fruit cobblers, pies, cakes, cookies and more jello.
People wasted no time in filling their plates. Some of our parishoners were participating in the parade in some way, so a few ate and dashed and a few others skipped the meal altogether.

I love church potlucks.

The kind of tableware we choose to use is sort of controversial. Some people like to use the paper and plastic (which would have been sensible for a picnic) but there are others who scold that we are a church in financial crisis (like many small churches in pre-war, expensive-to-maintain church buildings) and need to not use disposable plates and silverware when we have cabinets full of china, stainless steel and glass. To stay out of the controversy, I'm always willing to wash dishes alongside the other worker bees. It's more environmentally responsible, too.

After the dishes were washed and put away, we walked the block to join church friends for viewing the parade. Ten minutes before the parade steps off, somewhere around 400 runners, joggers and plodders begin racing the route which ends at the fairground grandstand, with a final lap around the track which makes it an even 5K. We waved and screamed at our buddy, Dean, who waved and screamed right back.

We waved and screamed at our buddy Ron, who is leading this pack and means business about the race and isn't going to trifle with a bunch of lunatics on the sidewalk.

The girls and I stayed for about an hour of the parade, which included, reasonably:

Horses,

Marching Bands,

and Chubby Shriners.

It was a good day, even though I got sunburned on my decolletage.

A Tale of Three Zucchinis

This is hard for me to believe, but my mother, whose garden covered fully one third of our one-acre lot, didn't do that much with zucchini. I only remember having it fried. It's still my favorite way to have it and the first zucchini of the season is always ceremoniously rushed into the kitchen, thinly sliced, coated in flour and fried in hot butter until JUST crisp.



Rebecca told me about roasting zucchini last year at this time and that is a dish we really like and make often. I start by chunking up a few potatoes in generously-sized pieces. I toss them in olive oil and sea salt and pepper. Slam them into a roasting pan and pop them in a hot oven for a head start of about ten minutes. Meanwhile, chunk up the zucchini in like-sized pieces, toss in the olive oil, salt and pepper. When the potatoes' head start is over, add the zucchini to the pan and stir them in a bit with the potatoes and allow to roast for another ten minutes or so. Serve immediately. Rebecca now tells me that she has added red onion to this dish. How brilliant! I love onion and can't believe I didn't think of this myself.

But the crown jewel of zucchini season is chocolate zucchini bread. Moist and cakey, it really just tastes like chocolate cake to everyone (especially children) but you're actually getting squash into them. I just made a double batch, which produced three good-sized loaves and four mini-loaves. I took a loaf to the beach with Brooks and his friends yesterday. We're going swimming at another friend's tomorrow and I'll take a loaf then. I also took a loaf to some new neighbors this past weekend. It's nice to have on hand for these occasions and it's always well recieved.

Last year, I made about a dozen loaves of bread that I wrapped up and put in the freezer. Mainly I pulled them out for quick breakfasts for the kids on school days. It was a fine option, and I might do some of that this year, but I'm planning to mostly shred the zucchini and freeze that, so that I can make fresh bread throughout the year. The frozen stuff is good, but it's no substitute for fresh.



Here is the recipe:

DB's Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
2 c. sugar
1 T vaniila
2 c. shredded, peeled zucchini
2 - 2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. In medium bowl, mix eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. Combine dry ingredients; add to zucchini mixture and mix well. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake for one hour.

Zucchini: A Cautionary Tale

I seldom plant my zucchini, squash, melon or cucumbers from seed, preferring to buy the bedding plants and see the green leaves looking friendly from the beginning. These plants usually come in 4-packs. I knew I wanted more than four zucchini plants, so that meant a second 4-pack for a grand total of eight zucchini plants.

When I planted those eight plants in mid-May, I looked at the row of plants (Who has an entire ROW of zucchini??!) and wondered if I'd be sorry. Then we had a late frost in Northern Indiana and my dad watched the edges of my zucchini leaves turn black.

"We're going to lose 'em," he grumped. So he planted more. The sun shone, the chill faded, my black zucchini leaves grew green, broad and fuzzy.

Friends, I have ten healthy zucchini plants in my garden. Tonight a friend and I went to the garden to pick green beans. As she finished her row, I trotted over to the "zucchini row" to see what there was to pick. Dad had just picked them clean two days ago. I took a market bag with me, expecting to fill it. From the very first of the ten plants, I picked six medium- to large-sized squash. By the third plant, I was sending Sophia to the van for another bag.

I filled three bags to overflowing. Expect zucchini recipes. I'm like the Bubba Gump scene from Forrest Gump here...."zucchini bread, zucchini brownies, zucchini relish, grilled, stuffed, kabobs, fried zucchini sauteed zucchini..."

Lord help.

Lunch at the Beach

Last summer was the moment in time when I realized that our family was done with diapers, naps, strollers and all that babyhood debris. Armed with that bit of freedom, I added outings to our summertime schedule and mainly took the kids to the beaches all along the southeastern Lake Michigan shore. Sometimes we'd take friends, sometimes Michael would take the day off of work to join us... always we enjoyed the sunshine, the water, the sand.

What do you take for lunch at the beach? I've fallen into a routine of frying up chicken pieces the morning of, and popping them, hot, into the cooler with our cold drinks. By the time we get to the beach, they are cool and still juicy. Usually, there is a seasonal fruit along, too. Right now, it's cherry season.

Lest you think too highly of me, believing all of our beach fare to fall into one of the following categories: healthful, homespun or natural - let me reassure you that plenty of junk is allowed at the beach. There's always a couple of bags of chips along for the ride, and my ever-present illicit lover, which I adoringly call Pepsi.

We've been to the shore of Lake Michigan twice so far this summer. We're planning a third trip next week. Brooks' 14th birthday is this month and I offered to arrange an all-boy trip to The Dunes on some nice day soon to come. Well, all boys save one middle-aged, slightly overweight mother.

The Chief

Every region seems to have a favorite locally-owned food shack or drive-through. In our area of Northern Indiana, it is The Chief, a homemade ice cream stand in the downtown, open for business between mid-spring and Labor Day. This year, it opened for late-afternoon/evening business on April 15th. It's run by schoolteachers, so the longer summertime hours can't begin until school is out. Once summer vacation begins, however, they open at noon and close at 9:30 PM, except for Sundays, when they open at 2:00, after they all go to church.

On opening day, my facebook news feed was filled with people bragging about how long they'd stood in line and what flavor they got. I have about fifty friends who "became a fan" of the Chief on FB also. The above picture shows what the line was like on April 15th, and while that's definitely an opening day line, you never walk right up to a window, even in mid-June, when the novelty wears off.



Last week, when the girls and I drove by and saw a line like THIS, we whipped the van into the gravel parking lot to take advantage of the short wait. My older two children were both born in late summer/early fall, so I spent many a summertime month in maternity clothes. I had a hard time resisting the Chief during those summers. I think it's safe to say that I had a dip of lemon in a waffle cone more days than I didn't. In those days, the owners' teenaged son, Josh, was one of the main employees. I'd look for his window, he'd slide it open, grin and say, "Lemon?" Today, the owner himself took a break from filling the ice machine to come over and speak to me while this year's batch of teenagers filled our order. He marveled over the size of my children, remembering the summers before they were born when I stopped in daily. I still only order lemon.

There are places I go, where I only order the same thing over and over again, because I know I'll love it. Do you do that or do you try something different every time? The rest of my family usually gets one of about three tried and true favorites. On this day, Sophia got Mint Chip...

...and Ava got Cookies and Cream.

Brooks usually gets the Peanut Butter ice cream and Michael... If he's really holding back and just getting a cone, he'll get butter pecan. But if he's getting his favorite, it's the Turtle Sundae. Also good is the Coconut Almond Crunch Sundae. They have excellent toasted coconut ice cream. In the sundae, there is some hot fudge involved and topped with an almond cookie. Oh my.

Next time you're in the "Michiana" area, pop in and find your favorite flavor. Anyone in the tri-state area will be able to give you directions.

Volunteer

We had some friends over last night to have a cookout and play some euchre. As they passed through the front patio into the house, they were all struck by some vegetation happening there - some intentional, some accidental.

Before Dad and I started our big-ass garden project, I resorted to container gardening to have some fresh produce of my own, show my children what it takes to grow vegetables, and (as Margo says) "get my fingers in the dirt." There's very little yard at our house, and what we do have has a sprinkling system in it, so a garden would not easily be done. I wanted to see what I could produce with a container garden experiment.

I've done lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, onions and herbs in containers on my patio. I don't think I planted any lettuce in pots last year, because I had about thirty feet of it in the big garden in the country. However, I did have "volunteer" lettuce come up which, in my neglect, went to seed and blew their spawn all over the patio area. THIS year, we're seeing just exactly how far and wide the seed did blow, as I have leaf lettuce ruffling about in nearly every pot in the set and even...

...in the cracks of the patio floor!

This year, my containers mostly hold herbs, but I also have the volunteer lettuce, some chili peppers and onions. I like to have onions right outside my door because I often have recipes calling for green onions and if I hadn't planned ahead, it would mean a special trip to Dad's. Here they are, leaning toward the sunshine, as we all seem to be right now.