Eggplant flowers

The eggplants are doing wonderfully in the garden. Hopefully, all the happy purple flowers presage happy little eggplants down the road!

Picture of me

Since Lindsey complained that I didn't take any photos of myself at Ben & Joann's wedding, here's one:

What's the fun of having the camera if you can't manage to avoid being photographed? :)

That's a skirt I made the Thursday before the wedding and a hat I bought at Rite-Aid that morning. I was quite pleased with the combination for a summer outdoor wedding.

This picture is for my Auntie Connie

My Aunt Connie in Louisville just subscribed to my flickr photos (and possibly my blog), and mentioned how much she liked my lunches. So I photographed one in my big container for her.

I used this to carry veggies as car snacks on our trip this weekend, and it worked wonderfully. It was one of the rare times on the weekend that I had veggies (the other time was at the wedding reception - great food!).

Today's lunch was black beans and rice, a spinach salad, apples, steamed broccoli and red peppers, and some Japanese dark chocolate.

Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia

Did you know that you have to drive through three separate parts of West Virginia to get to Shepherdstown, WV? I didn't. But we did it this weekend to get to Ben & Joann's wedding.

Congratulations again to Ben and Joann. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and it was great to see everyone again!

For pictures of the trip, have a look here.

Jeff's comfort reads

So, after Lindsey posted hers, and DKM chimed in, I posted my comfort books. Then I asked Jeff what his were. Jeff's quite the reader, so here's what we narrowed it down to:

• The City Watch Discworld books* by Terry Pratchett
• Dark Knight Returns written & drawn by Frank Miller
• Transmetropolitan** written by Warren Ellis & drawn by Darick Robertson

Except for Dark Knight Returns, they're all my favorites, too.

*These include, in order, Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Hogfather, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Night Watch, and Thud! and, you know, some others.
**The link is just to the first one. There are ten or so trade paperbacks total.

So nice I packed it twice!

My new bento box holds just about the perfect amount of stuff. And as an added bonus, the dividers go all the way up the the top, unlike so many divided containers. That keeps stuff from getting into the other compartments. I love this bento box!

I didn't know what I wanted for dinner last night, but I knew what I wanted for lunch, so I made that instead. The big compartment has udon with veggies (and soy and sweet chili sauce that's not in the photo). The top small one has roasted tofu and steamed snow peas. The bottom one has a cream corn croquette, a pair of cherry tomatoes, and some edamame.

A nicely pan-Asian lunch. Yum.

New bento box!

A great friend who understands (or at least indulges :) my love of bentos of all shapes and forms. So I got a package full of all sorts of fun stuff, including a new bento box!

It's hot pink and lime green, even - one of my favorite color combinations. It comes with a fork and knife that snap onto the lid and have a cover to keep them in place. I don't know why it has both, since I nearly snapped the cutlery in half trying to get them loose. Maybe in case of a nuclear explosion, they wanted to make sure you had your plastic cutlery? :)

I've made a nice hot-weather lunch to go in it for today. It's a little random, but a very good combination of stuff.

I've got one of my recent favorite things in it: faux-chicken salad. I go through these phases every so often, and right now is one of those times. I make it with Morningstar Farms' Chick'n Strips (chopped up), celery, pepper, spring onion, dijon mustard, mayo, and Miracle Whip. Very tasty.

Comfort books

Lindsey was talking about comfort books, and DKM mentioned hers. These are mine:

• To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
• At the Sign of the Naked Waiter by Amy Herrick
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

All three count as some manner of science fiction or fantasy, but the first two only technically. If you aren't into that sort of thing, you might like them anyway. I mean, I'm guessing Lindsey won't, since we have diametrically opposed opinions on most entertainment media, but your mileage will likely be better. :)

Garden update

The garden is growing apace. I've gotten several compliments on it from random people walking down the alley, so that's nice.

The weather's been hotter than usual for this time of year, and it hasn't rained for over a week - also not usual for this time of year. I try to water no less than every three days. We might get some rain today, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

As you can see from the photos, the tomatoes and tomatillos are making their appearance a little early this year. I don't usually get these guys until the first week in July. But these are different varieties than I've grown in the past, so that probably has something to do with it, too.

I saw a ruby-throated hummingbird while I was planting the cucumbers seeds early this morning. Since I was covered with dirt, I didn't have my camera, but the little guy was beautiful! And he didn't seem to mind me at all. Just zipped around drinking from the flowers while I watched.

Ah, summertime ...

New sheets, hanging on the line.

(I think I'll get more of these and make curtains for the kitchen. :)

Kaylee and the cat

Kaylee loves cats. No, not to eat. Just to love. I knew that, but I wasn’t aware just how much she loved cats until recently.

We walk the girls early in the morning before most people are up. There’s one person who gets up before us, though: the lady down the street who feeds the neighborhood’s stray and feral cats (and, I’m sure, a few with homes cadging a free meal). Cats are usually hanging out in the vicinity of her house when we’re walking, and while the dogs are always interested, apparently cats are allowed to be there, so they don’t over-react as they do when they see cats elsewhere on our walks. The cats usually just ignore us and the dogs. After all, they’re cats.

A few weeks ago, however, a little black & white cat started paying attention to us. More precisely, it started paying attention to Kaylee. For about a week, it would be waiting for us when we went on our walks, either right in front of the cat lady’s house, or across the street. It would meow at Kaylee, rub up against her, and Kaylee just loved it.

And then the cat stopped showing up.

Kaylee didn’t stop looking, but the cat just wasn’t there. Now, Kaylee walks happily down to the cat lady’s house, and when she gets there, looks around for her cat. If it’s not there, no big deal – it could be across the street. So she drags us through the rest of our walk until we get to the point opposite the cat lady’s house.

And she waits.

Kaylee becomes a forty-five pound anchor when she doesn’t want to move. And if she doesn’t see her cat, she doesn’t want to move. She checks under cars, on steps, anywhere she can think to look. And the cat’s not there.

The cat’s still around. Both Jeff and I have seen it at other times … taunting us. But it has proven to be a fickle friend to Kaylee. We've explained that cats are just like that, but Kaylee just doesn't understand.

I’ve suggested to Jeff that we just need to get Kaylee a cat of her very own. He objects, just because he has major allergies to them.* I pointed out that there are now hypoallergenic cats, but Jeff says he doesn’t love Kaylee $6,000 worth (I made sure to tell Kaylee how selfish he is).

So, if anyone has a spare hypoallergenic cat they’d be willing to part with, Kaylee would be very grateful. Until then, she will faithfully wait for her friend to recommence their morning meetings.

*No, allergy shots don’t work, and even with prescription meds, he’s miserable around cats.

Lunchtime

How can I have tons of food and nothing to eat? I feel kind of guilty saying that, knowing how many people are starving, but it's still how I feel when I look in the fridge.

This is a cobbled together lunch mostly because I just couldn't decide what to pack. Doesn't really matter. I'm still eating at my desk. But I should be done with that by the end of the week. I'll be very glad when it's over, though. At least nine hours a day is getting a little old, you know?

PS: Sorry to feed readers who may have been inundated with republished posts. I was updating labels last night to make things easier to find on here. Sorry!

10 Minute Headband

I love my hair short, but sometimes I just want to do something different with it. So this weekend, I made some headbands.

Mine are a little wider than the ones I've found in the shops, and cuter, too. I've made three, which should go with just about everything I own. I usually wear solids, so a little bit of print in the hair should liven up my wardrobe a bit.

I've made up a pattern and instructions, if anyone's interested. There are several similar ones out there, but I think mine's just as easy if not easier than others. And it only takes ten minutes. You can't beat that!

It's also a great way to use up scraps. All you need is a small amount of fabric and five and a half inches of elastic.

Pattern and instructions are here.

Super-quick gazpacho

Don't let the chopping fool you. This only takes about 10 minutes to make. And since it's best made ahead, you can do it whenever you have a few spare minutes.

Ingredients
1/3 cup chopped red, yellow or orange pepper (not green)
2/3 cup sliced spring onion, white and green parts (about 3 onions)
1 cup chopped peeled & seeded cucumber
1 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
24 oz. tomato-based veggie juice (like V-8)
1-2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and let flavors blend for at least 1 hour before serving.
2. Serve plain or with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt and garnished with chives.

I like a chunky gazpacho, but if you like yours smooth, blend the veggies and cilantro in the food processor with about 1/4 cup of juice and then add to the rest of the ingredients.

If you want, you can use half cilantro and half flat-leaf parsley.

This recipe is also a great way to sneak veggies into those who won't normally eat them. :)

I like to cook

I know that will come as no surprise to many of you, but it was thrown into sharp relief for me this past week when we couldn't use our kitchen sink. Our drain pipe, you see, had rusted through, and it took a week to get it fixed.

You'd be surprised at how often on the average day you use your kitchen sink, especially if you cook. Today, every time you use the sink, just think about it. I couldn't do much cooking, let alone anything else.

I'm planning on making up for it this week. :)

Since I'd done my shopping before we discovered, the leak, I still have lots of food from last week's shopping. The photo above is the entirety of this week's market trip.

I also picked up some radishes, strawberries, and grape tomatoes at the Clintonville Farmers Market on Saturday. It's the first time I've been, though it's quite close. It was nice, but it'll be a little better in a few weeks. Lots of bakers, strangely enough. Just four or five truck farmers, but it's a little early in the season for most locally grown produce.

I'll try to blog if I make anything good this week. Maybe even put up my super-simple gazpacho recipe.

Lunchtime

I've been eating my lunch at my desk, trying to make up some time that I took off for Las Vegas - I haven't earned enough vacation yet to cover it all. So I've been trying to make my lunches particularly good to give me a happy little break while I still work.

This is tuno salad and crackers with a salad with spinach from our garden, and some fruit salad with mint from the garden. And an Almond Joy. That was probably the best part. :)

I'm a little more than halfway done with making up my hours, and then I can go back to eating my lunch at the picnic table out in the garden outside my office.