Senior Sea Kayaker

I'll catch up on the dinners when I've got a bit more time. It's been pretty hot and humid so my main meal has tended to be breakfast. A few recent: sausage, pierogis with mushrooms and a salad. Shrimp, sugar snap peas, cremini and oyster mushrooms, green onion, garlic, ginger, Thai chilis, fish sauce, spicy globe basil, cilantro and sesame oil over shrimp roe noodles. Patty melt with caramelized onions, kosher dill slices and aged cheddar, tomatoes, coleslaw and gazpacho.

I woke up a little early this morning, made coffee, then sat out on the deck watching the sunrise and listening to the birds starting with the owl next door, the rooster about a km. away and all the others. Breakfast was an egg, blood sausage, pepper jack, shishito and green onion on multigrain rye with a salad of greens, cucumber, grape tomatoes and shaved baby chioggia beets. A shot of gazpacho and a mix of kiwi, navel and cara cara orange. French toast with blueberries and maple syrup and sausage earlier in the week.

This morning's sugar snap and snow peas. Also getting lots of lettuces, chard and beet greens. And the odd volunteer ( a collard plant from a dormant seed from last season). Tomatoes coming along but not for a few weeks (5b zone). Lots of herbs including dill, tarragon, oregano, sage, rosemary, spicy globe basil, green onions, garlic and regular chives, parsley and a lot of cilantro. I was going to toss some old oyster mushroom substrate into the compost but decided to give it a soak and come what may. Glad I did.

I went out on a chanterelle hunt but no luck (it's been a weird summer as I have not seen any mushrooms). I've been monitoring things and the blackberry, raspberry and blueberries look very promising. Blackberries. Raspberries. Wild blueberries and one of many very productive patches. Saskatoon or service berries. Mostly over and most eaten by the birds. The sour cherry tree (again mostly go to the birds). No chanterelles but some sour apples (golf ball sized), a few cherries (ones that made it home) and a few Saskatoon berries. A few flowers and something new.

I like the seafood heavy focus of those meals. Gives me a few ideas. Thanks for bringing us along.

Simple and quick dinner of a potato, mushroom, feta and dill omelet with a salad of mixed baby greens, cucumber and tomato.

Oven baked haddock with sriracha, corn and cucumber with Greek dressing.

Breakfast wrap of egg, mushroom, chorizo, potato, scapes, Thai chili, @ElainaA's roasted tomatoes, pepper jack and cilantro on a WW tortilla.

Welcome to eGullet. There are a fair number of gardeners here so feel free to post about yours.

Whenever a new post comes up I start looking at panini presses. Haven't made the leap yet but it's inevitable.

Doh. I had to read the comments to get the joke. 'Typical male'?

@haresfur What conditions constitute winter in your corner of the world? Are you just concerned with overnight frosts or do you get sub 0 C. daytime temperatures?

Canada Day dinner. I did most of the prep in the morning, spent the day out, so this was relatively quick to put together. Snow crab legs and claws, cleaned to about a cup, and made into crabcakes (very delicate as I believe crabcakes should be 95% crab). Sauteed to reheat in a bit of butter and served with a mango lime habanero salsa, coleslaw, tomatoes and cucumber. Finished with something which is very rare for me, a dessert, but it's our national holiday and strawberries are local so strawberry shortcake.

The enclosed tool is a smaller and modified (longer thin tip to fit the bottle rather than take a barrel sample) wine thief.

Again not a cookbook but one of my favorites is Jacques Pepin's 'The Apprentice'. It has a place in one of my bookcases.

I borrowed it from the library as well. Although a good read not one I would buy and use.

Tasting good is the most important. An alternate saying would be 'I'm experimenting with a more chaotic plating style'.

Some recent breakfast. Kind of obvious that's it's scape harvesting time. Breakfast wrap of egg, scapes, shishito and Thai peppers, baby chard and beet greens and pepper jack on a WW tortilla. Eggs scrambled with scapes, shishitos, green onion bottoms, cilantro and dill. Toasted focaccia. Orange and cherries on the side. Egg, sausage, pepper jack, scapes and Thai chili on WW bagel. Tomatoes and local strawberries on the side.

I've been away so I'll catch up on members' dinners when I have a bit more time. Saturday's Canada Day long weekend burger. Just manageable. From the bottom: lettuce, tomato, pickled red onion and kosher dill slices, horseradish mustard, patty, mushrooms and aged cheddar. With coleslaw and a Big Spruce oatmeal stout. Yesterday's 'Momento de Muerte' black cherry and reaper hot sauce glazed chicken wings with blue cheese dip, hasseltots, tomatos and an unshown salad. A good Canada Day to all my fellow citizens.

I wasn't quite sure where to put this as it's not really a cookbook although it does have recipes. 'Flavorama' by Arielle Johnson Ph.D. An interesting read at a level for the non technical reader or you can just skip the intro level science background.

@FauxPas Nice toms and sugar snaps. You're about 3 to 4 weeks ahead of me with respect to harvest. I work with a small garden (raised beds, pots and grow bags) with an excellent eastern and southern exposure so I do a lot of companion, succession and intermingled planting. The north bed with trellising for sugar snap (and long beans already planted to take over when the peas are done and will also support 3 indeterminate tomato plants). Garlic will be ready to harvest in about 3 weeks and will be replaced by chards, bush beans and a lettuce bed. More southerly in the bed are 4 determinate tomato plants, 4 jalapenos, 3 serranos and 2 habaneros. Also onions, sage, rosemary, tarragon and a line of Roma bush beans. It's surprising how much comes out of this relatively small space.

Geckos are present in a wide range of climatic zones including tropical rainforest Of course you'd have to introduce insects such as mosquitos to keep them happy 😇.

I've started harvesting my lettuces (I seeded eight varieties). I'll eventually seed more as the tomato plants grow and I replace the onions growing around them (providing the necessary shade in the heat of summer). Two varieties: top is Parris Island Cos (hardy and prolific) and bottom is Forellenschluss (looks great in a mixed green salad). Both are romaine type lettuces and taste pretty much the same.

Don't forget a few geckos.

Two egg omelet with a filling of creminis, thinned greens (red kale, beet and chard), green onion, dill and aged cheddar. Served with toasted focaccia, blueberries and a glass of V8.