From Books to Batches: A Taste of My Summer

First, I just want to remind everyone that my two novels in eBook format: Betty & Clark and The Zumba Class are on sale for three more days at the low price of $2.99 on Amazon until July 28. Then the prices will return to $5.99 each, so act now and get both novels for the price of one!

Now, let me move on to a bit more about my personal life as we are starting to think about the end of summer at least as August is nearing, which means around here that school will start again soon. I have managed to do some canning and cooking.

We were given a large amount of cucumbers recently and with the grape tomatoes from the garden, I decided to make some dill pickles. I got bigger jars but realized that the stock pot that I have right now is not big enough for those, so I had to use smaller jars. I ended up with ten of those. Most likely I am going to have to buy some more of these smaller size jars for all the blueberry jam I plan on making after we come back from Michigan next week. The second picture is a dish that I made with chicken thighs, with acini de pepe pasta in olive oil with grape tomatoes, basil, garlic, Greek Oregano, and French tarragon all from the garden/yard. The third picture is a small jar of a very small batch of jam I made with some apricots we had that weren't very sweet, lemon, and peach pieces. It turned out delightful and I really enjoy the brightness of its flavor. I really enjoy cooking, canning, baking, and preparing delicious things to eat and to share with others!

I am actually reading a book right now titled Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman who is a "historical gastronomist." She talks about how eight flavors came into American cuisine and it includes recipes like "Black Pepper Brown Sugar Cookies," which sound intriguing that I might actually try to make soon. I find the topic of food history; what people grew and ate throughout history very interesting because I think it gives us a lot of insight into society as a whole.

As far as the garden, the two tomato plants that were gifted to us in June are heavy producers. The one with the grape tomatoes has been a pleasant surprise as the tomatoes are a bit sour if you just pick them as they turn red, but if you wait until they are soft and almost to the point of being overripe, are very sweet. The tomato plants that I started from seed are still very small and I might get a few tomatoes from them, except for one that I stuck in a pot because I didn't have room in the garden, is actually growing very nicely. (The plants that I think are not going to do well and not care about them as much, end up doing the best!) I also have two cabbage plants that are still doing well and I just have to make sure that I check them daily and pick off caterpillars that eat their leaves. I have had about ten volunteer ground cherry plants pop up and I hope that they have time to grow enough so that I can get at least one or two ground cherries to get seed from that I can use next year. Ideally, they should have been started from seed inside and then planted outside in May. It would be great to get enough for a pie or even to make a jam with, but we will have to see.

This is about as much as there is to share right now, but I hope you, my readers are doing well!