Darienne

Wow! We really need a wow emoji. Really, really, really. I am so impressed by your garden, cd. As for the pumpkin pepos...or at least that's what we always called the little emerging plants on the female hardshelled gourd flowers...which we also hand pollinated back when. What made it really special is that we grew a variety of different shaped gourds, and there, under the flower, was this darling (sorry) teeny weeny kettle gourd, or a cannonball, or a canteen gourd, or whatever it was. Then after a few years we gave up. Growing hardshelled gourds in East Central Ontario is not really a good idea....

So here's the "master non-gardener's" garden. Once upon a time we had a huge garden...no more. But I was determined to grow tomatoes this year for my Sunday Bacon and Tomato Sandwich and so this poor embarrassing table of dirt bags is the result. I had to put it inside the back yard and off the ground so that any resident male dogs would not pee on it and I could manage it easily. So pathetic as it is, the tomatoes are coming along nicely and we counted many small tomatoes on the plants this morning. The eggplant on the left is a bust and the right side with Poblanos and other bits is still up for grabs. .

However...for those of us taking in your mail and watering your plants and watching your house and property, this is a good thing. We get to eat your tomatoes which you are gone.

What is Prime Day please?

From: The Potentially Inappropriate Memebrary for Historians and Literaries

Our two sons always wanted that Whipped Cream/chocolate wafer cake for their birthdays. "Inconceivable! "

OK. I've done the two library systems searches and have access to only two of the titles: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Ruffage. I'll borrow them. Any others will be through ILL. My own two vegetable cookbooks are too old to even mention some of the above-named green bits. Added: Our nearby city library has now extended borrowing privileges to our little rural system libraries. Why I don't know. There's nothing in it for the city. And the process of accessing my borrowing privileges has not been without challenges. However, I just phoned to see if I could place a hold with my out-of-town membership and the nice librarian set it all up for me as he learned also how to do it. And now I simply await email notification. Who knew?

Actually I don't know if I can get them all. I've heard of all these. In my local village (population circa 1,400) grocery store, and indeed it's a chain, I can't even get eggplant or Brussels Sprouts. They don't carry them...because no one will buy them. They gave up years ago.

Off to the library holdings, both locally and city (which is now available) or ILL. Escarole is added. Thanks @Senior Sea Kayaker(Would love to visit Cape Breton. Son lives in Halifax, a lovely civilized city) Believe it or not, I am a very dedicated vegetable and salad eater. And always have been. I suppose it's partly that I grew up in Ontario and Quebec in the 40s and there were so few vegetables available then in grocery stores. (Was a major fight back when to get Ed to try Romaine. We were both raised on ice berg lettuce. Now he has no interest in ice berg lettuce. Don't tell him I told. )

Somewhat humiliating confession time: Here's a list of the fairly common green vegetables which we have never cooked or eaten: collard greens, fennel, kale, chard, beet greens, watercress, arugula, endive and turnip greens. No doubt I am missing some I don't even know about. (No exotic vegetables please which I can't buy in our nearby small Ontario rather provincial city.) I need help. From the get go. Where to start? How to cook them? What casserole type dishes can I include them in (possibly with the intent to hide their existence from Ed until I can get him to accept them.) Which ones can we eat raw? Which ones might Ed be willing to eat raw? Thanks for any and all help.

I've eaten Poutine a number of times...mostly it's been either ho hum or plain awful...I think canned gravy is the answer here. But one time, at a local but now defunct brewery, I had Poutine that was, as they say, to die for. The level of deliciousness was out of this world. I have no idea why. It was many years ago.

Ed and I ate breakfast together for many years after he and I retired. And once a week we went out for breakfast at a local diner. That I thought was the height of luxury. And then the restaurant closed...the owner/cook was sick of getting up so early in the morning. I don't blame her. Now we eat separately. I always eat and quite early...I feed the morning meal to the pups (or as in this case, pup). Ed eats if and when he pleases and we no longer eat the same things. However, I do get the coffee at 6:30 am every morning. But I've always been an early riser. No complaints here. I'm just glad I can still get up.

I've never even heard of either of these fruits. Off to Google I went. Wow!

Apropos Smithy's remark about being there. We weren't and we didn't. The windows in our new living room were installed 10" above where they were planned to be. (We had them at Rottie-looking-out height.) We had to have them redone at our own cost alas. Not to mention my outbursts of unacceptable language when I saw what had happened.

I couldn't survive without my old garage fridge. We ended up getting a much newer and much prettier fridge for the kitchen, only to discover that this lovely modern fridge couldn't hold a fraction of what our old fridge...now in the garage...could hold.

Made David Lebovitz' Strawberry-Sour Cream Ice Cream (The Perfect Scoop) again and was not blown away by the results. And with good reason, so to speak. First of all, the strawberries were less than top grade and this time the sour cream was only 14% butterfat instead of 18%. The recipe calls for only 1/4 cup sugar, but I added an entire extra 1/4 cup to make it palatable. And dear husband, Ed, of course complained that it wasn't creamy enough...his fault basically for buying a lesser % butter fat sour cream. Still, we'll eat it with some pleasure, if not extreme.

Been there...done that...along with many of us I am sure. Something unidentified leaked all down to the bottom of the fridge, coating everything along the way. Many rude words later...it was all gone...and all was clean again. And NO! It's never time to clean the fridge.

Thanks Elsie. Part of my problem is that I can no longer go grocery shopping which necessitates asking Ed to 'look' for things, or ask for help looking for things...not a good idea...and so I really try to limit my requests.

As you can see, I get the downloads also from the Canadian government agency. It's all very discouraging... And I thank you as always for keeping us up-to-date on the Canadian situation.

Really alarmed at the continuation of norovirus contaminated raspberries in Canada. Just today... https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/selection-du-patissier-brand-framboisier-cake-and-wow-factor-desserts-brand-berry?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

I think we just might try the Indian Chaat Potato Salad. I'd have to say that good kettle fried chips are my all-time Number One weakness. We have potato chips on hand almost all the time...and they are well hidden from me by Ed. He doles them out to me when I ask.

I'm coming.....save some for me.

We really need a "wow" icon.

Moi aussi.

What? No photos? Report: Mandy really enjoyed her treats of Spam.