Hello Winter Salsa

Fall is so beautiful in Southern Oregon. Our own country road, about to take a sharp left to follow the blackberry fence. 

Fall tantalized us for a long time with summerish temps. That was then. It is now winter, just in time for Thanksgiving, which seems an odd time to be slicing and dicing the season's final pico de gallo with tomatoes harvested just last week. That is so late. We haven't had a hard frost yet, which is so unusual. But I'll take the tomatoes, even if they are mottled and wimpy.

Late late season tomatoes, a surprise harvest from plants we didn't have time to pull before our wonderful Blues Cruise earlier this month. Late tomatoes are pretty much limited to Roma types.

Pico de gallo. Definitely the year's last, and blurry!
Off season, I use canned tomatoes. It's not fresh salsa, but still good! 

We still have jalapenos and a few sweet peppers to add to salsas and stir fries.

Winter Salsa

1 large can (one size up from soup cans) whole tomatoes, preferably Roma type. A quart of home-canned tomatoes will do

1/3 cup diced onion. Use green onions or a sweet onion, if possible

2-5 sliced, diced jalapeno peppers. Seed and remove white membranes unless you want a lot of heat

Pepper flakes to taste

Juice of a half lemon (depending upon size)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp sweetener, if desired

1/2 to 1 cup cleaned and dried cilantro leaves

salt to taste

Note: In the absence of fresh peppers, I use pepper sauces or flakes to add heat. 

DIRECTIONS

Use a food processor. Place onions and peppers into the work bowl and process briefly. Drain the canned tomatoes and save juice for another use. (How about a bloody Mary?) Add whole tomatoes, lemon juice, cumin, sweetener, if using, and cumin. Process until tomatoes are how you like them. I prefer chunky. Add the cilantro and a pinch of salt, if using. Let salsa mellow for a few minutes. Then taste and adjust. 

Fall photos below. 

Post Blues Cruise Stress Syndrome (PBCSS)

Hoisting a mojito on a Puerto Rican beach. The Blues Cruise began and ended in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There's a wonderful Old Town there, and also a World Heritage site.
 And we saw some amazing Flamenco dancers.

I overheard a dejected fellow Blues Cruiser complain that she was suffering from this painful syndrome (PBCSS) a week ago. We (all 2,500) Blues Cruisers were disembarking at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m. from the Celebrity Summit cruise ship after seven raucous, rock n' rollin, bluesin' n bumpin', grindin' n growlin' days at sea with a boatload of blues musicians. And also some bluegrass, honky tonk, boogie woogie, jazzy, funky musicians, on the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise. Well, it was just great.

• Live music from late afternoon til early morning, except on "sail days" when it began around 11 a..m.. Some jams lasted until nearly 9 a.m. Or so I heard.

Susan Tedeschi (in the middle} was one of several musicians who stepped up for the North Mississippi All-Stars when their main guy's arrival was delayed by Hurricane Sandy. 

• Cruise fare. Sumptuous, over-the-top, and it seems "free" even though we paid in advance.

Some type of fancy carbohydrate with happy server.

Shrimp chilling in one of many ice sculptures.

• Invisible beings constantly cleaning our "room." (We're not at the "suite" level of accommodation, but felt like privileged beings nonetheless.) 
• Fun like-minded cruisers all wrapped up in the music.
• License to stay up all night partying. Well, not all night, but I made it past 4 a.m. a few times.
• Wonderful islands to explore, however briefly.
• Riding the elevator with Derek Trucks, Taj Mahal, Susan Tedeschi, Ana Popavic, Victor Wainwright and other luminaries.  Excuse me for name dropping, but .....

This was a vacation in the best sense of the word. It was loaded with surprises, delights, and star-studded moments, and was a complete departure from my ordinary life. For one thing, no cooking for 10 days!
More photos:

But....there's something called Cruise Guilt.  I experienced my usual dilemma when faced with the reality of being one of the luckiest people on earth. Lucky by accidents of birth and marriage. Lucky because an "invisible" person who works umpteen hours a day cleaned up after me. Lucky because I had at my disposal enough food to feed a small nation. Lucky because, unlike so many people on the streets of the four tropical islands we visited, I have all my teeth.

I have never visited a developing or Third World country—or impoverished areas in the USA— without the contrast between lucky me and seemingly unlucky "them" creating grey clouds that cast shadows on my usually sunny disposition. It's compassion, but it doesn't go far enough. I've beat myself up about the disparity of being on the "have" side of the haves and have-nots since I was a child. Sure, I give to charities, and I don't try to barter with street vendors. Just give 'em what they ask, or more than they ask. During one especially odd time in my adult life, when I was thinking about What would Jesus do?, I toyed with giving everything away and living an ascetic life. This was, of course, impossible because I was married with children, and I did not want to give the husband or the children away.

We left the alternative-reality-bubble-of-excess of the cruise ship four times to make quick swipes around tropical islands: Dominica (my favorite), Barbados, St. Lucia, and Martinique. Reentry into ordinary life was rugged. Harsh, as my friend Laurie noted as we spent nearly 18 butt-numbing hours traveling from Puerto Rico back to Oregon. Traveling away from powdery white sand, azure bathtub ocean water and round-the-clock world-class entertainment. Back to......well, what is it we have here? The first few days were unseasonably warm and sunny and we harvested some surprise tomatoes. But now reality has descended and it is definitely dreary fall/winter. I will hang onto that great moment drifting in the swimming-pool colored Caribbean trying to keep my rum drink from taking the sea.

Yes, that's the Caribbean, not a swimming pool, and my rum drink remained saltwater-free.

I will also cherish moments such as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPZWOigBmG0, when the female musicians on board absolutely kicked it. That was one of the best spontaneous performances I have ever seen.

And now. Back to every day. What's up here in Ordinary Life? This afternoon I played Skip Bo with my 96-year-old mom and other ancients at her assisted-living place,where I visit almost daily. Rotary projects include boosting membership. Women's Crisis Support Team Circle of Friends online newsletter writing is in my immediate future. Fall/winter gardening continues. Thanksgiving plans are coming together.

Ahhhh, Thanksgiving. A cherished time with friends and family and an opportunity to  officially thank the Universe for blessings great and small. Going on the Blues Cruise? Definitely on the "worthy of  gratitude" list.

Sweet on Sauerkraut—Low-carb and delish.

Mouth-watering braised spareribs with homemade sauerkraut, cauliflower "mashed potatoes" AKA cauliflower faux potatoes, and one of the season's last dense, sweet, and colorful San Marzano tomatoes.

 I'm not sure you could buy this combo anywhere for any price. See below for faux potatoes recipe and how to braise spareribs with sauerkraut.

Who grows up eating sauerkraut these days? I did. Ya. Back der in Nor' Dakotah, den.

I remember dark, cold winter days with dankness seeping up from the cellar, where laundry (washed in a wringer/washer) took three days to dry. Pork and sauerkraut simmering on the stove made everything right. As a child, I wasn't shy about sucking the marrow noisily from pork ribs and lapping up the sauerkraut juice when eagle-eyed mom wasn't hovering. I didn't know sauerkraut was good for you. I only knew that when cooked for hours with pork and served with richly buttered mashed potatoes, it was heavenly. But then I grew up with German/Scandavian heritage in the deep midwest where meat, potatoes, and kraut were winter staples. My parents didn't make their own kraut, but they sure loved whatever they bought. I have no idea if it was teeming with lovely bacteria. I only know that when it was on the table, words were not spoken and slurping was acceptable.

When PK and I first grew a garden back in the 1970s, cabbage was one of our first crops, and making kraut, one of our first projects. Somehow with kids, jobs, etc. etc. kraut-from-scratch disappeared from our to-do list.  This year, however, it made a comeback, spurred, in part, by the fact that fresh kraut resides in small jars with huge prices in the millionaires-only section of supermarkets. Like $6-8 bucks for a pint? Canned kraut is cheap, but canning zaps the fermentation benefits.

Sauerkraut, and other  fermented veggies, are rich sources of bacteria advantageous to our guts and other parts. You can look it up. Fermented grapes make wine, which everyone knows is a magic elixir, fermented milk/cream, makes yogurt, a gut boon if there ever was one, and fermented cabbage makes sauerkraut, a delectable tangy treat that will have you thumping your chest. You should see PK's chest from all that thumping. Bruised and swollen!

Sauerkraut is a low-carb treat with only 6 carbs per cup. That makes for a hearty meal of kraut, pork ribs and faux mashed cauliflower potatoes at only around 12-15 carbs per heaping plate.

It all starts with volleyball-sized cabbages, which we started from seed in the spring and harvested in July.

We weighed the cabbages and sliced them into thin rounds with a super-sharp knife.
A Mercer. Thank you, Lanny. Then we salted the shredded cabbage with non iodized salt.
How-to link for making sauerkraut follows. 

Nearly four months later, I'm removing fermented kraut into cold-storage jars.

It's perfect sauerkraut. Crunchy and tart. 

A half gallon on top, and a gallon on the bottom in our garage refrigerator.

Here's some gross stinky stuff, including mold, that was skimmed off the top.
Don't worry. Stinky moldy stuff is part of fermentation. Skim as much as possible.
With this batch, I also scooped out any kraut that had turned soft, which was on top and around the perimeter.
Despite our efforts to keep everything submerged, the edges were somehow exposed to air.  

Our outside "kitchen" for messy and/or super-heated projects. Here PK slices  cabbage for  fermenting in a crock while our Four Wheel camper glowers in the background wondering when the hell we'll go camping!

Want to make your own kraut? It helps to have homegrown fresh cabbage, but sauerkraut can be made from any fresh cabbage. See this for directions.

Braised spareribs and sauerkraut
1 rack of spareribs
half of a large onion
one medium-sized apple
1 quart (or more) fresh kraut

Directions
Cover the spareribs with foil and bake at 275 for an hour. Drain the fat and juices and set aside. Cut the ribs apart and brown in a large skillet. When browned, add half of a large chopped onion and a cored apple cut into pieces. Cook and stir for a few minutes, then dump the kraut into the pan and cover. (Add the juice back from the fat and juice drained after roasting the ribs.)
Cook covered over low/medium heat until the rib meat is falling-apart tender. Remove the cover if liquid is too much.
Serve with mashed potatoes or, if you're a low carber, cauliflower faux mashed potatoes.

Cauliflower faux mashed potatoes
1 head cauliflower cut into flowerets
water
salt
pepper
butter
half and half or whipping cream

Directions
Cut the cauliflower into pieces. Place into a pot and cover with lightly salted water. Boil until tender.
Remove from heat and drain thoroughly. Apply butter in the quantity that pleases you. Ditto salt.
Drizzle with half and half or whipping cream. Smash with a fork or an immersion blender. Add cream to desired consistency.
To ramp it up a notch, scoop into an oven-proof pan, mix in a dollop of sour cream, and bake at 350 for a half hour. Remove from oven, cover with grated cheese, and return to oven for five minutes.

Love that kraut!

Life is But a Dream

As sometimes happens, I write posts and they languish in the "drafts" file. I ran across this tonight. Although it's dated, I kinda like it. Especially now that summer is but a dream.

Noah, 2, works on his water-front construction project at our Labor Day camp.

I was lounging in my REI camp chair at Juniper Lake in Lassen National Volcanic Park on Labor Day weekend, book in hand, grandson Noah engaged in construction not far away. The pristine lake was calm, blue and clear. Lassen's peak jutted on the horizon. Along the shore, a smattering of happy campers shared our experience of near solitude. We were off the grid for Internet and cell phone service and outside airline flight patterns. Quiet, quiet, quiet.

On Labor Day weekend. Near solitude. Peace. Only 18 tent-camping sites and a couple of group camps. No potable water. Pit toilets. A rough gravel road not recommended for trailers or RVs. Perfect.

Sun-seeking friend, Laurie, soaking in early-morning warmth. For her, perpetual life in the sun is but a dream.
She's almost got it nailed, though, now that she's become a rainbird, not the sprinkler, but the person who escapes Oregon's winter rain for southwestern sunshine.

A canoe or two sliced the still waters. Far from shore, a raft of exuberant kids sang "Row, row, row your boat, gently ......." Their singing and laughter skittered across the lake like a skipping stone imprinted with Be Here Now. One day they'll remember how it was on this gilded day in the American West. How lucky we are to have wilderness and these moments. For millions of people across the globe, a day like this is an unattainable dream. So many can't imagine the luxury of an entire lake of clean clear water and several days of leisure time with family and friends with ample fresh food and the added bonus of nobody trying to kill or rape them or steal their children.

The family here and now: PK, MK, Heather, Noah, and Quinn. Photo credit : Laurie Gerloff.
Son Chris is off in the Arctic doing backflips off of glaciers. 

Back to Juniper Lake and the raft of children singing/shouting Row, row, row......from perhaps a half mile across the lake. The kids on the lake helped. But the real deal was the grandson's chirruping in the morning and his parents—our eldest son and his wife—lovingly tending to him and to one another. Their little family reminds me of our little family years ago, when PK and I were the harried parents and our sons were the heavy construction toy guys. The long weekend was a series of full-circle moments. I'm still smiling. Row row your boat......Life is but a dream—if you're really lucky. I am grateful for good fortune, good family, good friends, good (yet entirely detached ) universe.

How do you act when your life is good? I'm not taking my extraordinary fortune for granted. I've lived long enough to know that a split second can alter lives and create a vortex of misery. I am recognizing that I, and my family, have been spared a lot of grief so far and blessed with so much. I will grab the bliss for as long as I can. And enjoy "life is but a dream" until, and if, a slide into another reality becomes inevitable.

Which it will. Shit happens. People get sick, fall upon misfortune, die. Things change.

Thinking again about blue beautiful Juniper Lake. It hasn't changed in hundreds of years. It was the same when my father, now dead and buried, and my 96-year-old mom, now losing her memory, eyesight, hearing and dignity, were born. And it was the same when their parents were on the earth and their parents before them. Long after I'm gone, it will be there sparkling in the sun, and I hope the park service doesn't put in dump stations and pave the road for RVs. It will be the same when grandson, Noah, is an old man and  his grandchildren pipe across the clear waters, "row row row.....life is but a dream."

And it is. And a fleeting one at that. Enjoy it now.

Watermelon enthusiasm. Talk about enjoying the moment! 

Taking a break from taking a break at Juniper Lake.

Mt. Lassen as seen from Juniper Lake. 

Hair Dye. the Fall Garden, and the Cruel March of Time

Note to readers: Many of you contacted me earlier today to say several photos on this post were blacked out. Maybe Blogger thinks it obscene to publish photos of a young person alongside her older self? Whatever. I hope the photos are there this time around. Thanks for letting me know. Mary K.

The corn is dead, rattling in the breeze. That sunflower on the left doesn't look too chipper either.
The birds have about finished it off.

Fall is a tough. I spend so much time in the garden that I identify with its cycles—not so different from human cycles, except the garden is on fast forward. You plant the seeds and get all excited when they emerge from the warming soil. You water and coax and soon they burst forth with flowers, roots, fruits, vegetables. They're good for a few months, but then senescence—natural aging and decline—takes over and it's quickly downhill. You can prop em up, water, fertilize and admire. But nothing stops the process. Before long, they'll form an involuntary vegetative-state support group and that'll be the end of it. 

Here's an Italia zucchini plant, ravaged by squash bugs but STILL producing fruit.
It'll cling to life until the first frost. But its huge-leafed youthful magnificence? Gone.

The perennials, such as the glorious rose bush, the faithful asparagus, the young berries and the aginig but reliable apple trees, will rest for the winter and surge forth in spring. They're amazing. I don't identify with them, however. I only feel kinship with those poor annual bastards facing imminent demise and they don't even know it. Maybe that's a good thing. Without knowing, there's no threat of being in denial or, heaven forbid, trying to hide the fact that you're approaching the inevitable. And that you aren't quite as fabulous looking as you once were. 

Which brings us to hair dye. I colored my hair for decades. (To younger readers: You reach a point when decades is the appropriate word when quantifying your past. You will not believe how quickly this happens.) I started in high school, took a few years off for being a hippie, and went back on the bottle in my 30s. In recent years, I've struggled with whether to continue my relationship with Clairol. I'll go without for a few months and then can't stand the grey and do another treatment. PK says, No, no no! Get over it! But I'm not quite there yet.

The juicy July garden bursting with life.

More July juiciness. It is difficult to go out there without being overcome. It isn't just the colors and the vitality, it's the birds and insects and the wonderful promise of so much botanical exuberance. And it smells so great.

Me in the summer of my life, high school grad on the left, college grad on the right. Bottle blonde and proud of it.
Juicy! Let it be known that my hair for the college photo is the best it ever looked in my entire life.

Here we come to fall with the crone look, uncombed(but colored!) hair.
Almost 50 years since high school graduation. 

I'm wise enough to acknowledge the inevitability of my personal "garden cycle." But I'm not strong enough  to at least try to postpone the drooping, the sagging, the furrowing, and the greying. Hence yoga, bicycling, careful eating, mirror avoidance—and hair dye.  I won't be botoxing and I am repelled by the idea of draining thousands into "having work done." But I'm still vain enough to deny grey.

So I'm back on the bottle. Not that most people would even notice.  My hair is naturally grey/white.  With coloring, it is white/blond. It's weak and silly, I know. But next time you see me, how about keep quiet if you think I look brassy, OK?  If you'd like to talk about the cruel march of time, however, I'm here for you. More garden photos and musings follow, if you like. 

Eggplant Parmesan + Low-carb notes

Revised August 23, 2015
Email subscribers, please click on the blog title to get to the website where photos look better and text is easier to read. 

Most everything you need for eggplant Parmesan is right here. Jalapenos optional.

This time of year all our dinners look the same—red and green—mostly red. That's because of tomato bounty, tomato beauty, and so many greens and eggplants and onions and garlic and basil and on and on. Truly an embarrassment of dishes/riches from kitchen bitches. Of which I am apparently one. I'm a little bossy about diet and cooking. An eggplant Parmesan recipe follows, pictures first. This year I have had to beg or buy eggplants as we had a mysterious eggplant crop failure.

I published an earlier eggplant Parmesan recipe that included this step: slice and salt the eggplant. Let drain then rinse and dry before proceeding. The next time I opined about how to make it, I said this:

Eggplant Parmesan is so much easier when you skip the salting-the-sliced-eggplant-then-rinsing-and-drying steps and also the dredging-in- flour-or-crumbs part. I omitted the flour/crumbs step because of my carb-avoidance behavior, but discovered that dipping the slices in a beaten egg and frying in olive oil is just as good, if not better, than the carb-dredging routine. Oh joy! I left out the salting part when I was in a big rush and discovered THAT doesn't matter either. So right there you lop off another 15 or 20 minutes.

I am sticking with the no-salting method. Anything that saves prep time is good, especially when you can't tell the difference with the finished product. 

Most eggplant Parmesan recipes direct you to dredge  the eggplant in a seasoned flour mixture before frying or baking. No, no, no. Not at all necessary. Some suggest you bake the eggplant after dredging in flour mix, ostensibly to save you from fat. No, no, no. No need to be saved from olive oil! The need to be saved from flour is, however, compelling.

Layered egg-batter fried eggplant. Full recipe below.

This is the deluxe eggplant Parmesan, which means I needed to use sweet onions and peppers, which are undulating toward the kitchen from our crazy pumped- up garden. A very aggressive garden indeed. Onions and peppers are optional.

More layering. Did we talk about the homemade marinara sauce?  Only if you have time and tomatoes to spare.

Eggplant Parmesan

Let's make some assumptions. You have fresh tomatoes and nice firm glossy eggplants. You have time. (The biggest assumption of all.) But listen. If you don't have time to make your own marinara from fresh tomatoes, but still want to make a fabulous eggplant Parmesan, buy a good marinara sauce and pump it up with garlic, a little pesto, some pepper flakes, and your desire to make yourself and others glow at the dinner table.

Do what you can do. Good cheese helps no matter what.

This makes enough for 6-8 servings in a 9X13 inch pan. It freezes well, and keeps for several days refrigerated.

Ingredients
2-3 medium to large fresh eggplants
1.5 to 2 quarts marinara sauce, more or less, homemade preferable
8 - 10 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
12-16 ounces shredded mozzarella, jack, cheddar cheeses, mixed
salt and pepper to taste
salt for treating eggplant slices
2-3 medium eggs
2-4 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced sweet red pepper or jalapeno pepper or combination—deluxe version  
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion—deluxe version.
   
Directions
1. Slice the eggplants into 1/2 - 3/4  inch rounds.

2. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. In the meantime, heat half the olive oil  over medium heat in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, coat the eggplant slices in beaten eggs and fry in olive oil until lightly browned on both sides. Add more oil as necessary. (May be more than 4 tablespoons.) Set aside fried eggplant slices on a grate to cool. Blot with paper towels, if you're weird about oil. If you have leftover egg, fry quickly, chop, and add to casserole. It's a sin to waste food.

3. When all eggplant slices are fried, spoon a layer of marinara on the bottom of your casserole dish. Add a layer of eggplant, sprinkle with cheeses.

4. If you're using sliced sweet onions and/or peppers, spread some atop the cheeses
.
5. Add another layer of eggplant topped by more "deluxe" items, if using, then cover with marinara.

If you have leftover eggplant slices, place a piece of waxed paper between slices and freeze for later use. 

Pop uncovered into preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 35 - 45
minutes, or whenever sauce is bubbling around the edges. Remove from oven and apply the final layer of mixed cheeses plus a few fresh pepper/onions, if you like.  Return to oven and turn off the heat. Allow the cheese to melt for five to seven minutes. Remove from oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Low-carb notes
Eggplant is low-carb to the max. One medium unpeeled eggplant has about 13 grams of carbs plus 19 grams of fiber. Which, with fiber grams subtracted, is a minus-carb count.

Peppers are also very low in carbs, but onions are not, and fresh tomatoes, depending upon sugar content, may be high in carbs. However, they also have a lot of fiber, especially if you follow my directions for using the entire tomato, skins included, to make homemade marinara.

Do you know about subtracting the fiber content from carb content to figure out how many carbs you're consuming? Example: a half cup of chopped raw tomato has 4.2 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fiber. Subtract the fiber gram and you get carb 3.2 grams. (The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer)

People who are serious about losing weight with low-carb diets count every carb and most try to keep their carb consumption at 30 per day or fewer. That's roughly the equivalent of two thin slices of bread, One large baked potato with skin has about 50 carbs and just 4.8 grams fiber. You could run on that thing for two days! Except that after eating that many unbuffered-by-fiber carbs, you're likely to feel hungry a couple hours after eating.

BLT into BBT - Sandwiches without bread

I gotta admit, I seriously miss bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. No bread? No wheat? No BLTs!
Damn. I'm sacrificing here. Whoever said giving up bread/grains would be easy?

But WAIT! Here's a tasty solution—the bacon, basil, cheese and tomato salad, a variation of the popular  Caprese salad which can be tweaked in so many ways. Adding bacon? Well, you decide.

You can't pick it up, but you can relish that bacon/basil/tomato delectability. I guess you could use lettuce instead of basil, but at the expense of flavor. I'll be planting winter crops soon, and have literally hundreds of lettuce volunteers sprouting right now. I'm debating whether to save any. I much prefer spinach, chard, and kale—for BLTs as well as winter salads. For now, though, I prefer tangy basil, while it lasts, on my BBTs.

Note: I've spent a half hour trying to download a photo of the Caprese salad with crispy bacon strips atop. The computer won't do it. Perhaps my Mac is sensitive to the cringing and crying some may experience regarding BACON debauching the iconic Caprese. Whatever. Just imagine how delicious! Delicious. A word is worth a thousand pictures.

In the absence of a bacon-enhanced Caprese, here's a no-bread sandwich made with a huge chard leaf wrapped around sliced cheese, sweet onions, tomatoes, chicken and a bit of deli ham.
Caveat: Best to eat this outside to accommodate the drip factor. 

Writer's Block de-Construction Project

Writer's block. I have it, thank you very much.

Thanks to those who have inquired about the lack of recent posts. (Few, but much-appreciated, inquiries, by the way.)

Things that contribute to writer's block:
1. Starting a post and thinking it's crap. And I don't know how to fix it.
2. Worrying about kayaking son, at this moment likely pitching camp beside a wild-ride Greenland river, hundreds of miles from civilization but close, probably, to polar bears and with hypothermia hovering.
3. Obligations looming with various nonprofits.
4. Mountains of tomatoes to process. Also peppers, eggplants, onions etc. Then come apples.
5. Looking back on fifty-some blog starts that are mostly outdated.(See below)
6. Thinking my blogged words sink into a sea of too much communication. Anybody out there need more words?
7. Inability, so far, to write meaningfully about my now-ancient (almost 97--year-old) mother. She is always on my mind and in my heart. I guess I'm still processing how I feel about her and the inevitability she represents.
8. Weak character that sometimes leads me to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rather than toil over uncompleted blog posts.
9. Inability to treat blog writing like real work. I wrote for a living and stood (yes, stood) before my computer for several hours a day writing for money. I rarely stand when I write anymore, and blog only in my "spare" time, which is usually after 8 p.m.
10. Adherence to ridiculous expectations that hinder creativity. Any self-respecting list needs 10 points.

Blog posts in draft include:

• life is but a dream, parts 1 and 2
• aging and death
• garden variety volunteers
• a box of baby teeth
• low carb on the road
• smiling for real
• might as well dance
• taking on hard stuff....why?
• old people doing splits
• pepper Paul picked a peck
• the 90s - decade of loss
• no matter your age, you might be old

Wow! So many uplifting topics! Let me know if you see anything of interest.

Season of Tomato-Love Casserole + Low-carb Notes

Here it is—Summer's Best Baked Tomato dish. 

It's tomato love time, and if you have the love, and are almost tired of Caprese and other raw tomato dishes, give this baked tomato casserole a whirl. I first tasted it at a potluck, where several people were drooling and swooning and smacking their lips and talking gibberish.

I think my friends Kelly and Dave brought it, made from their fresh Grants Pass, OR tomatoes. Anyway, it has become a summer highlight for PK and me. PK loves tomatoes so much that he eats them for lunch with mayo and maybe some cheese and then he's good until dinner, when tomato-something is the main dish. As of today, our first major harvest, tomatoes have taken over the kitchen and the back porch. Soon they will occupy the freezer and the pantry. And, of course, a top spot in our culinary hearts.

The morning's harvest. The tomatoes are mostly HUGE Brandywines, as large as the sizable cantaloupe on the upper left and the spaghetti squash on the lower left. A few of these giants are also split, meaning they need to be used pronto.  No problem! The basis for my fave tomato dish is right here—fresh, sweet, juicy heritage tomatoes.

Summer's BEST Tomato Casserole

Ingredients
3-4 large ripe tomatoes, more if tomatoes aren't notably large. I used 3 hyper Brandywines.
1/2 large onion
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar/jack or other cheeses
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil, plus whole leaves for topping beauty
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375
Use a 9X13 casserole dish, not aluminum. No need to grease the pan.
Trim and slice tomatoes and place in a colander to drain while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Thinly slice the onion. Use a cooking onion, not a sweet one such as Walla Walla.
Combine the cheeses with the mayo and chopped basil.

Everything but the tomatoes.....before mixing. 

Don't freak out about the fat! This is basically a low-carb dish, so you're doing all right.

Layer the tomatoes and the sliced onion.

At this stage, salt and pepper to taste. Next, add half the cheese/mayo/basil mixture. 

Ready to pop into the oven with the second layer plus the basil-for-beauty effect.
 The chopped basil-for-flavor is mixed into the cheese/mayo combo.
Those big leaves are for show, which means they're  optional.

Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees in a pre-heated oven. Casserole will be slightly browned and bubbly. It is SO good. Get out your bib!

The entire dinner, left to right: heavenly baked tomato casserole; sauteed mixed veggies and chicken  topped with chipotle sauce; fresh melon with diced spearmint; marinated cukes and onions. I love summer!!!

In the wings, the first of a 6-week tomato harvest ready for processing. 

Low Carb Notes

A fat-phobic vegetarian friend (I love her!) asked about vegetables and carbs. She said (something like) Don't all vegetables have carbs? If you're eating low carb, how can you eat so many vegetables?

Yes,  of course all veggies have carbs, but in varying proportions. Corn and potatoes explode with carbs, onions are kinda dangerous, and parsnips, turnips, beets, sweet potatoes, winter squash and others are to be consumed in moderation. But chard, broccoli, kale, zucchini, lettuces, and many other greenish veggies  are low in carbs and can be heaped on the plate with lots of butter and/or salad dressing and consumed without guilt.
This is the low-fat/low-carb divide. You can eat a thick slice of bread or a baked potato without butter or sour cream or anything  else to make it taste good. You will get a butt-load of carbs and a couple hours later, depending upon what else you ate, you'll get slammed with a blood sugar dive. And then you'll be hungry for more carbs. You may even get the shakes.
Conversely, you can load a plate with a mountain of greens, cooked or not, pile on cheese and/or meat, salad dressing, mayo, butter or other fat, and two hours later, you won't be hungry at all. In fact, it'll likely be five or six hours before you feel compelled to eat. The blood sugar highs and lows don't run the diet program, and they don't run your life.
As for tomatoes.....they seem to occupy the middle ground in carbiness. (thank you, Stephen Colbert, Mr. Truthiness)  A small tomato, according to the Atkins chart has about 4.5 carbs. I'd guess the large Brandywines have at least 15 carbs - roughly equivalent to a slice of bread, minus the fiber in the tomatoes.

I'm not an expert, but have read a lot and done this low-carb thing for 10 years. This much I know. I will feel better and more satisfied (and weigh less) eating a huge tomato with a generous hunk of cheese or other fat  than a sandwich of nearly any sort.

Caprese Salad Deluxe (plus low-carb notes)

Low-carb notes follow this scintillating ($10 word!) recipe for embellishing a traditional summer salad.

A full meal for one. Caprese salad decked out with fresh peppers, sweet onions, and lots of cheese.

PK has been away for a few days and I lived it up, eating fresh from the garden and not cooking much. Not that he wouldn't be fine with a big salad for dinner, which we have at least once a week year around. I predict  he'll be jealous of this beefed up, so to speak, super summer salad and dang! I'll have to make it again.

INGREDIENTS - This is for one person for a satisfying meal, no other dishes. It would be sufficient for two-four as a starter for a dinner with more courses.

 One large fresh tomato, preferably a heritage type. This is a Brandywine, one of the first of the season. If your tomatoes aren't this big, use two. Or three.

One fresh large sweet green/red pepper A bell pepper would work, and so would a more picante variety.

One quarter SWEET onion, such as a Walla Walla. Don't use a regular cooking onion.

Olive oil, generously administered

Generous handful of fresh basil

One small ball of fresh mozzarella cheese

A couple ounces of feta or other cheese, crumbled. I used a goat/sheep cheese combo. Delicious.

Pepper flakes to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Smoked salt to taste

Slice the tomato and place in a colander for a few minutes to drain some of the juice. Most Caprese salad recipes call for large round slices of tomatoes, but this one is different. Bite-sized pieces are best. 

Arrange tomato pieces on a plate and sprinkle with smoked salt. Yes, smoked! In the absence of such a luxury, just use sea salt or lemon-flavored salt or something other than just plain table salt. Drizzle on a bit of balsamic vinegar. Reduced balsamic would be best, but I didn't have any. Don't overdo it with the vinegar. A tablespoon or two.

Slice the onion and pepper. Slice the fresh mozzarella and crumble the feta, if using. Tear the basil

Assemble veggies on a pretty plate. 

Add the cheeses. Add the basil.(missing from this photo. See photo of complete salad at the top.) Drizzle with olive oil, and don't worry about using too much. I'd say at least a quarter cup. 

I ate the whole thing! And after I took this photo, I drained the smoky tomato juices right into my eager upturned mouth.  A small piece of dark chocolate and a nice glass of pinotage later, I'm ready for anything.
 Which will be going to bed with a book. Sigh.

Here they are! The low-carb notes!

I'm not a scientific low-carber. I go on general principles that include:

• No bread
• No pasta

• No potatoes
• No corn or corn products
• No sugar 
• Few, if any, grains (screw the popular "healthy whole grains" theory)
• Lots of berries and green veggies and tomatoes, in season
• Meats 
• Cheeses
• Fats (the good ones, including coconut, flax, and olive oils) 
• Nuts and seeds

So. Even though I have these so-called principles, I am a human being with many flaws and weaknesses and also potatoes and corn in the garden. When I say "no potatoes, no corn" I am not necessarily thinking of what's growing within striking distance.

 A few days ago, I was forced to harvest all the corn because it was ready. 

So beautiful and innocent looking, that corn five minutes off the stalk. 

Then I had to process and freeze it. PK is out of town, remember? That entailed blanching, cooling, then cutting the kernels off the cob. In so doing, I happened to finish off the corn on many cobs. I enjoyed this very much. Smack, smack. 

 The same day, I had for dinner leftovers that included fried veggies including potatoes.

A couple days later, I stepped onto the scale. Four pounds. Unbelievable. I am, as I already knew, a carb-sensitive person. PK is not carb sensitive in that he does not gain weight when he gets a big hit in a scone or doughnut or full-sugar piece of pie. On the other hand, he gets the shakes about an hour later and feels like crap. So, in his own way, he is carb sensitive. The potatoes and corn don't seem to bother him.  I really don't want to gain weight, so I'm going to have to forego those delicious spuds and corn, for the most part. Moderation and discipline. Why do we grow corn and potatoes? Ask PK. That skinny corn-and-potato-loving bastard.