Tomatoes, and such

Making any version of this...

means my favorite time of year has arrived.

Heat, humidity, sunlight, and all the growth of this sort of produce that those three things enable. Mamma mia, y'all should see my own tomato, okra, eggplant and herb plants. They are going gang-busters outside, and the beautiful yellow, white and purple flowers are any accurate indicators, we'll have a delicious assortment of goodies in the near'ish future. 

For dinner tonight I also made some fava bean, mint and pecorino puree, as well as some wonderfully seasoned sautéed shrimp with dipping sauce. 

Thank you for all of the warm responses to yesterday's post. Your support means a lot to me, and I hope you all know that none of us need feel alone, even when we think we are. Reach out, ask someone what you can do, tell someone what he or she means to you; you never know how much that might be needed, welcome, desired.

Please continue to spread the word about the classes I'm offering this summer. The first, Canning 101, is in just a couple weeks. I'm very excited and hope to see many familiar and new faces!

Y'all, how much do I love this guy? So much!

He does NOT fit in that box. 

Begin again

“Drink from the well of yourself and begin again." - Charles Bukowski

Isn't that a marvelous bit of advice? It popped into my email today, courtesy of the Quiet Revolution newsletter I receive, and I saw it after working in my yard for a hot, humid hour.

This has been a very difficult week for me, and I have felt myself turning inward with anxiety, self-doubt, and overwhelm. It has been hard to fall and stay asleep, and harder still to tap into the confidence and self-respect I usually carry. I've felt like a solitary being caught in torrential downpour and tasked with catching every drop with nothing more than my hands. 

Head back, eyes wide, hands outstretched, it seems futile. Intimidating. Not worth trying.

I'm not sure what precipitated this inner maelstrom. I had such a happy birthday, flew high for a good bit and then started coasting downward on a steep slope. Most of my friends have felt awfully frazzled since the beginning of May; the end of school is shockingly busy and everyone is tired.

Just when your kids run out of matching socks and pants with intact knees, you start the race to the finish, and it's chock-a-block full of transitional meetings, final conferences with teachers about what may or may not need to be done over the summer, the coordination of gifts and last play dates before kids scatter on the winds of June. 

But this last-lap sprint can't explain everything, or at least it doesn't seem like it can. I have felt like an empty well and doubt I'd have thought to drink from myself anyway.

After writing about the situation in a tremendously wonderful class I just finished up, a friend responded: 
I believe mothering was never ever meant to be done in isolation. It's a construct we've created as society and it has been intensified in the last 30 years as we become separated (sometimes a good thing, grant you) from extended family and what were our natural tribes/villages. Now one woman is supposed to be all things to all her children but she can't be. It's a physical, emotional and mental impossibility. She cannot be good at *everything*.

Beautiful and true. Even the best of friends, and I am lucky to have so many, don't wholly approximate the community that other times and other cultures have and do have. The weight of that loss feels leaden at times.

Mom came the morning after a very low point, and I continue to be incredibly grateful for her presence. She has allowed, reminded and enabled me to slow down. She has helped with the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, the yard. She has picked the boys up from school, helped me fix odds and ends, taken some of the heaviness from my shoulders.

Slowly, I am righting my listing ship. My vision is clearing, and I am able to remember that although I do not have a career and don't bring home the bacon, I am good at many things.

Today, as I plucked weeds and put down fresh mulch, a gentle breeze blew, and I felt calm. My mind wasn't racing, my jaw wasn't clenched. I wasn't worried about all I needed to do, I heard the birds singing and watched the ants march.

My thirst felt slaked for the first time in too long.  

Easy summer grilling

As the end of school draws near, everyone I know feels frazzled and rushed. Mealtimes, even for an avid and enthused cook like me, feel like little more than yet another to do. As such, my love affair with our grill has rekindled to a mighty degree, as it does each May, and I am reminded that grilling is really a tremendously simply, tasty way to enjoy dinner and reclaim a heck of a lot of time from its prep.

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking to Andrea Donsky, nutritionist and part of the impressive Naturally Savvy team, a website dedicated to more natural, organic eating. She's also written the book, Unjunk Your Junk Food: Healthy Alternatives to Conventional Snacks, and is an enthusiastic spokesperson for Applegate Natural and Organic Meats. 

I wanted to talk to her about hot dogs, a food my children and husband love but which I hold at arm's length. I don't recall ever enjoying hot dogs, although corn dogs smothered in mustard were a youthful favorite. I happen to only buy Applegate's Great Organic Beef Hot Dog's for my family because they're antibiotic- and hormone-free and made with 100% grassfed beef which is important to me from both an animal welfare (cows were meant to eat grass, not corn and grain) and human health standpoint. Antibiotic overuse is rampant in the States and is responsible for a huge degree of the scary antibiotic-resistant bacteria that make so many folks sick. 

But, is any hot dog healthy? It seemed a good question to ask as summertime kicks in and our grill will be fired up on the regular. 

Not only are Applegate's dogs antibiotic- and hormone-free, they are also lower in fat than most brands (8 grams per dog compared to an average of 15 grams per link found in most brands), contain no fillers and are lower in sodium than other brands. Applegate also offers tasty chicken and turkey hot dogs if you want variety, prefer those flavors, or want to avoid red meat all together. 

I serve my boys' hot dogs on whole grain buns which, not surprisingly, Andrea endorses, and I use organic, low-sugar ketchup which is devoid of the high-fructose corn syrup found in most ketchup brands on the market. Andrea suggests wrapping your dogs in cabbage or lettuce leaves if you want to avoid carbs, but we are a carb-loving family so plan to stick with whole grain buns.

All in all, I do feel better about the health aspects of the dogs I'll be grilling my boys this summer. Slice a few steam vents in the top before grilling, and don't let the dogs burn as char can contain carcinogenic material. Grilling a hot dog takes about three minutes, and with some fresh watermelon or berries, and boiled corn on the cob, tossed salad, or steamed edamame (also about three minutes each to prep), you've got a healthy summer dinner lickety-split.

Other favorite grill-based meals include pizza loaded up with summer veggies; 
grilled hamburgers (regular beef, turkey, these delicious chicken ones, or my kofta variety);
salmon burgers which are easy and sublime;
and grilled vegetables of all stripes - eggplant, zucchini, sweet onions, yellow squash...