Hungry Times Two

My preciouses Can you tell what I've been up to in my first summer in Oregon? It turns out if you put 12+ tomato plants in your garden, you best be ready for the tomatoes. Despite a historically hot and dry Summer 2018 here in Multnomah County, our Early Girls, Oregon Springs and San Marzanos thrived. Being "job free" this summer had its perks. After breakfast and feeling fully caffeinated, every other morning I'd take my best garden assistant, Loretta the pup, for a walk to the community garden at Gresham City Hall. I'd tether her to a garden stake under a tree and give her a bucket of water, and she'd turn full Goat, nibbling at the weeds along the border of the nearby garden plots. While Loretta grazed and supervised as my personal Garden Security Guard, I'd water every plant twice, filling up the "dirt collars" Scott built around each plant, which served as nice trenches for water. Then I'd pick off the ripe or nearly ripe...

64 degrees, friends.  That's the current temperature here in Gresham, Oregon, at 1:30pm PT on Monday, July 2.  This southern-born transplant is in awe. Yesterday while reading on our patio in mid-afternoon, I donned a long sleeve because of a light, cool breeze. If I was back in Charlotte right about now, I'd be removing as many layers as legally possible. It's a transition that's a welcome change. No more sweating off sunscreen or makeup, and goodbye frizzy hair that can claim it's own zip code? (Well, the hair is still kinda big.) I'm in! And Scott is no longer having summertime humidity  Nicolas Cage-style freak outs . Yet when it comes to gardening, the cooler temps and surprisingly dry weather so far are perplexing. After a bit of wrangling, we secured a large 20'x20' plot at Gresham City Hall community garden, which is walkable from our apartment. It took a full day to hack weeds out of the very rocky soil and hand-turn/till with ...

We're back with another edition of "Hey, we used to be bloggers." I am not so sure who reads blogs much anymore (hi Moms!) but hell, if e-newsletters are in again and the ' 90s "flatform" shoe is making a comeback , maybe we have a shot. As I nurse a gin and tonic made of nothing but the finest (here's to you, cheap Chek tonic cans from the Mount Pleasant, SC Bi-Lo - sometimes you just buy things to get the job done, especially when you're en route to Vacation Weekend after a slight detour to fix a flat tire on I-26...), I'm mulling over what's happening so far in our garden plots.  We went Tomato Crazy this year, planting 6+ mixed varieties in our raised beds that kinda-sorta get sufficient sunlight in our backyard, and 8 seedlings in one of our two Winterfield Community Garden plots. Hopefully we'll soon pick beautiful Red Delicious, San Marzano, Black Krim, Blue Gold Cherry, Brandywine, and a few "mystery" tomatoes,...

In my last post I shared that we hauled back lots of apples from the N.C. mountains. Since then I've eaten apples in my oatmeal, cored into slices with peanut butter, in a sheet cake, with cheddar slices, and in a celery and blue cheese salad. Our dog Loretta enjoys wrangling the cores out of her red Kong . And yet we still have SO MANY APPLES. One half of our fridge is completely stacked with apples and one crisper drawer is full. We have a bounty of  "Nature's Toothbrush." (Ew.) Chopped Apple Cake, from the 1987 edition of the Trinity United Methodist Church, Charlotte, cookbook. (My dad was the minister there in the late '80s. The ladies there could COOK.) At night they multiply in our fridge like amoebas. They're taking over. I think I may become one.

Looking for something different to snack on? Need a break from that cheese tray or chips & dip rut? C'mon, you're better than that. Check out my guest blog post on We The Eaters for a lovely Italian pickled Giardiniera. It's a simple pickle featuring carrots, cauliflower and red peppers, but with enough zing to tell your taste buds to get happy. You know you need to eat more vegetables. So get canning!

Last week I went a bit bonkers for anything a mason jar can contain. Perhaps it's my participation in Bitten Word' s Cover to Cover '13 (they're cooking the entire September issue of Bon Appetit , y'all), or because We The Eaters invited me to share a post for their canning challenges. I just decided I needed some can-therapy, and put my stash of jars to good use on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.