Dog Days

Mornings are fine, lovely, actually. It’s been cool and a little misty, and a blanket feels pretty good when you first wake up. Then, as long as we keep doors and curtains closed, and nobody turns on a fan or cooks anything, the inside of the house stays pretty comfortable, if dark. But starting about 4 p.m., and continuing through supper, it’s awful. Really, really hot and sort of steamy feeling, which is also a good description of my mental state at that point. Clothes are limp and damp, the back of your neck is dripping, and it feels hard to just take a breath. Bleh!

There are some things that counteract these dog day afternoons. Thunderstorms are the very best, and are to be fervently hoped for. Taking a shower with Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap is very, very good. Clean, white line-dried sheets (ironed is the best). Quart jars of iced jasmine green tea. Ice cream for supper.

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Now playing: Atlanta Rhythm Section – Dog Days
via FoxyTunes

More Berries for Wine


DH has been a berry-picking fool. We’ve started a mixed berry wine in addition to the previous batch of blackberry, which yesterday I transferred to a carboy. The kitchen is redolent with the smells of fruit and fermentation.

Oh—the mixed berries are: more blackberries from the D*’s farm, the last of the blueberries from our bushes (the last of many gallons), chokecherries, and elderberries (both wild). I think this should be a good batch.

July 29, 2008 | Tags: , | Comments Closed

Okra

Bernard likes to help in the kitchen, especially when okra is on the menu.

July 26, 2008 | Tags: | Comments Closed

Today in the Kitchen



This was actually yesterday in the kitchen—I just never could get this post done last night!

DH went to the D*’s farm night before last and picked almost 30 pounds of their wonderful organic Triple Crown thornless blackberries (I know—it almost seems like cheating!) The next morning I picked through them a bit and then mashed them and covered them with boiling water. Today, now that they’ve cooled I’ll add a packet of champagne yeast, let the whole mess ferment for a few days, and then strain it onto about 7 1/2 pounds of sugar, at which point it’ll go into a glass carboy with a towel clothespinned around it (so it’ll keep its gorgeous color) and a fermentation lock on top. Then some cold day this fall or winter, DH will bottle it—a huge production that I try to avoid at all costs.

Also on the kitchen list: a batch of bread, and a summer supper of pasta with homemade pesto, a salad studded with Sungold and Sprite cherry tomatoes (all from the garden) and a blueberry and white peach cobbler.