Garden tour and some Molto Love....

The first tomato has appeared! Yay!! I always get way too excited about the first tomato.



Rest of the tomato plants are looking good. I swear, with the rain we've had the past week, they've grown a foot.



Other happy plants. That white pot is my chocolate mint. It's just gone crazy since I planted it, it's at least triple the size.



Happy herbs. Well, mostly happy herbs. My chives aren't digging it over there in the planter on the left side. I moved them right after I took the picture. They haven't died, but they just haven't flourished. Hopefully they'll be happier in the new spot.



So sorry, little Tarragon 2. I don't know why you went south. Your sister, Tarragon 1, is thriving in the next pot over. I'm hoping I might still be able to save it... as long as the roots are happy, I might get it to sprout again.


Yesterday I went to Half-Priced Books to trade in a couple of cookbooks. I did plan on also walking out with the copy of the Babbo cookbook (Mario Batali) that I saw on my last visit. I did. And I also picked up Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. Fun.

This little cookbook buying excursion was slightly different than normal, though. My dad is who I got my love of cooking (and cookbooks) and food from. In the years before he passed in 2004, his birthday and Father's Day became days where I'd usually get him some new cookbook. I enjoyed shopping for them as much as I enjoyed getting cookbooks for me, so after he died, I just decided that for those holidays, I'd go out and get the cookbook I'd likely have gotten him. And I know he'd have been crazy-stupid in love with the Babbo cookbook.

Now I just gotta work up the nerve to try the octopus recipe.....

I planned to make a steak for the hubby for dinner tonight, and some salmon for me. Color me somewhat surprised at the Babbo cookbook for Salmon with Favetta, Radishes and Lemon Celery Citronette. Basically, peel fava beans processed with some olive oil and thyme, and little lemon-olive oil-dijon vinaigrette.

Here is the favetta - fava beans processed with a little thyme and oil. Puuuurrrrty.....



The "favetta" was good on its own, the vinaigrette was good on its own, but with the salmon and some thinly sliced radishes (and I totally forgot to get celery on my run to the grocery store, oops) it was wonderful. Always good when the first thing you try out of a cookbook works out well.

I should probably do some laundry tonight, but why do laundry that can be put off until tomorrow.

Cooking for the week... um, yeah, had a plan but I'm not recalling much now. I know lunches, at least... gonna buttermilk-brine (I have a couple cups of buttermilk left from last week's chicken disaster) some bone-in chicken breasts and throw those in the crockpot tomorrow so I can morph them in to some wraps for the week, and tonight I wanted t mix up some tuna salad (ala my favorite, the recipe outta the Bouchon cookbook). Apparently the hot, humid and stormy weather we've had the past few days ain't going anywhere, so I do plan on relying on the grill for some cooking this week. Burgers, pork chops, and other things I can't recall right now but I was at least smart enough to jot down on my Palm (but I'm too lazy to go dig it outta my purse right now).

And the neighbors continue to be annoying... for some reason, someone that we can only assume was a cranky neighbor with a stick up their butt about something came knocking on our door at 11:30 last night. Yeah, we didn't answer. If it was a relative, they'd have called first, and if it's not the authoritative knock of a fireman, we're not bothing to answer the door that late. Complaints are only taken during normal business hours.

Our front door has a little half-circle window type thing at the top, but whoever was out there didn't bother (or wasn't tall enough) to peek thru that, and we don't have a peephole in the door so we could't see who was out there, and frankly didn't care.

But, today I went out trying to see if I could find some sheer curtains or something for it, with no luck. I guess we've been lucky for two years that people around here seemed to respect your personal space, but not so much anymore. I am eyeing some wood blinds that we could attach to the door to totally close people out. People don't need to be able to see lights to think it's alright to bother us at all hours (even if we are up all hours). Waiting for some wood color samples from Blinds.com to see if they have a color that already matches the door. I like getting the light that comes thru the window, but it just felt like a serious intrusion on our personal space to have someone knocking on the door at that hour and I gotta do something.