fortress, summer

This here is Fort Augusta, though the very next day it was sacked by the army next door and briefly became Fort Ruby & Zella, before it was abandoned in the twilight and once again became Fort dinner table.

And I know I've already gone into my amazement with the trombetta squah, but is this not out of control?

It was really good, once I could finally bear to cut it up, grilled and tossed with chives, mint, summer savory, parsley, shallots, lemon, olive oil. More about the peaches soon, maybe tomorrow.

treats

J. very obligingly made me graham crackers a couple of nights ago, to go with the peach ice cream he also very obligingly made me. I actually was going to make the grahams myself, from the recipe in that new book I was telling you about, but when I suggested replacing about 5 ingredients and at least one technique I was scoffed at and asked to step aside, probably for the best, but who knows, mine could have been genius. It's not that I didn't like the recipe, it's just that we didn't have all the exact ingredients and I didn't want to wait. You know, one dairy product is as good as another right? Apparently not, so he pulled out his very precise little digital scale and went to work. Results? Excellent.

These are the cookies he made during our informal bake-off the other day:

For the record, here are things I added and removed from my bake-off recipe:

added:

Strawberry jam, whole oats, buttermilk, extra flour, extra baking powder, extra egg

removed:

white sugar, candied ginger, whole milk

and it came out just fine, thank you very much, no scale required.

so close

we had a late, weekend, dinner

Let's see, boasting first, I grew the cucumbers and the sesame leaf. The sesame leaf I transplanted from J.'s father's garden for the second year in a row, wrapped in paper towels in my carry-on. I'm hoping it will establish itself and self-sow this year.

J. made dinner, of course, I propped up my bicycle, headlight on, next to the grill, good enough in a pinch.

It was delicious, if you aren't jealous, you really should be.

busy day of recreation lunch

strata:

old bread, eggs, buttermilk, kale, white beans, herbs ( a lot), hot pepper, parmesan, pesto, breadcrumbs, oh and bacon, smoky cheek bacon, from here. I added the bacon because it is delicious, but also to entice J. to eat it. Guess what? He still wants to eat it with a pork chop. And actually, I'd put that on a menu: brined ham shoulder steak with savory white bean and kale bread pudding, pesto, chive blossoms, what do you think? Would you order it?

J. and I also had a bake-off this morning. I made oat flour, ginger, and peach muffins. He made chocolate nut cookies. The muffins are gone but maybe I'll take some photos of the cookies later. I don't know who won, I'd have to say we both did and the neighbors made out pretty well too. But I've decided to revise my position on muffins, from total rejection to partial acceptance. I like my muffins, fresh, moist, small, not especially sweet, plenty of fruit. I'm really excited about this new cookbook, more on that later, of course I couldn't just follow a dang recipe, had to make changes, luckily no disasters, this time, though I almost did forget to add the eggs.

is it enough? yes!