The boys, whole foods, the potatoes?

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In 24 hours, I will be halfway to Portland, but who's counting. Pilates was awesome today, and afterwards I went to Oliver's end-of-camp celebration. He was so proud and darling, and I was somewhat overcome by how fast he's grown and how capable he is at the tender age of 2 and change. He received the Most Helpful award which didn't surprise me as, for the most part, he really loves to clean. He has a sprayer (that doesn't work thank god) that he carries around, and when he gets ready, he asks for a clean towel, "sprays" the floor and scrubs so hard you think he's going to pull his back out. It's adorable, and I was proud that he assisted his counselors when they sang the clean-up song. Jack finishes up camp tomorrow and feels quite sad about it. He has acquired a third girlfriend this summer; in addition to the two heads-of-camp that he began courting last summer (and who still head up camp), he has fallen in love with Ms. Jamie, his super-cute counselor. Keeping up with his love-card making is getting to be some work. He continues to be Mr. Fashion/Professional Police-guy, and refuses to attend camp without his fancy belt and his shirt tucked in. I swear if I could get him a button down onesie it'd be his favorite item of clothing as it incenses him when his shirt won't stay tucked. I bought him a pair of Madras pants this week, and he is smitten with them. I love it. Part of my never-to-have-a-daughter grieving was about the clothes- no one to shop with, no one to give a stink about fashion. But damn if I didn't get the cutest little fashion-plate son ever. Thank you universe.

Check out the yumminess that summer provides. I love this fruit, this mess of veggie goodness. Delicious! Whole foods rock.

Y'all, why is Oliver still singing in his crib despite having been up since 5:10a? Last I checked, he was not bionic. Hello, child, it's naptime.

Anyway, today I think it's time to investigate what's hanging on to the forest of potato greens that have grown out of the potato bag. I learned that when the potatoes are ready, the greens get really shabby looking- wilty, brownish, etc. We're there. Here's hoping that unlike the pitiful situation with my carrots and radishes (a profusion of green tops but no bottoms), we get some potatoes out of this experiment. I'll keep you posted. Send some good vibes.

Decades-old recipe book- some good, some nasty!

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As I've mentioned, Nanny is my maternal grandmother. She had a sister 16 years her senior named Hilda though we always called her Aunt Da. Her daughter, whom I call Nanan, is closer in age to Nanny than Nanny was to Aunt Da; Nanan still lives in my hometown, and last time I visited, she let me bring back to DC on loan, one of Aunt Da's recipe files. It's an ancient ringed binder with pages and pages of handwritten recipes as well as those clipped from magazines and newspapers from the 50s and 60s. Some of the ingredients are ones I've never heard of before - Starlac (apparently a dried milk)- and some of the recipes sound absolutely appalling. For your amusement, consider the following recipes and titles from a pamphlet published by Capitol Food Stores' Cooking School.

1) Molded Salad Men Will Like For Buffet Supper: here is one that men will like because it is not sweet or fancy. Barbecue Salad with Tongue- ingredients include lemon-flavored gelatin, chopped tongue and sweet relish. I DON"T KNOW ANY MAN WHO WOULD EAT THIS.

2) Luncheon Meat Skillet Dinner- ingredients include canned luncheon meat cut into strips, raisins, and pimiento. GROSS BEYOND COMMENT.

3) Molded Tuna Lime Salad- ingredients include lime-flavored gelatin, cream cheese, pineapple, and tuna. BLECH.

4) Wiener Crown Roast- ingredients include 14 wieners, margarine, sweet pickles and baking powder. AARGH.

DO YOU WANT TO WRETCH?!

I would also like to point out that Clorox appears to have co-published this fascinating work and interspersed in their recipe suggestions are calls to clean, clean, clean with Clorox. Just what you want in your luncheon meat skillet dinner, a soupçon of bleach.

Despite all this nastiness, which I hope Aunt Da never made, there are also some real jewels like her Tea Cakes which I can still taste as if I'd just eaten one. They were dense, thick, simple cookies made from Crisco (lard), sugar, flour, sweet milk and vanilla. Apparently it took some real elbow grease to get that dough going and rolled out, but Aunt Da always had them freshly made and stored in an old aluminum tin with a pull top. I remember it so well.

She also made great hot tamales which take quite a while but are really superb. You know how some tamales are dry and sluggish in your mouth and you sort of wonder if you'll be able to choke them down? Not so with these. They are so moist, so flavorful. Yum. I might have a tamale-making party one day with some gal pals. That would be tons of fun.