Cooking for the Phosie Gertic Picnic

 

It's that time of year again, Labor Day weekend, and time for our annual family gathering at the family compound on Whidbey Island. Yep, it's the Phosie Gertie Picnic, honoring the two grandmothers of the Reeder-Foster-Fuller Clan.

Family members are already gathering on the island. We have word that the California Reeders have arrived. I'll get to see my granddaughter after her summer adventure, as well as my grandson, his girl friend, and my two "kids". 

There will be lots of cooking going on there, which is why I do my cooking here at home and then we go up just for the day.

I happened to have a giant zucchini squash this year, so I made a Chocolate Zucchini cake to take. The two loaves of zucchini bread will go into the freezer.

And I made a macaroni salad to take,  because I like it and it can be made ahead and easily transported. 

Now, after all of that cooking, and thanks, Tom for the help with the clean up, we are tired and we're going out for supper. 

Happy Labor Day everyone. Celebrate your way, whatever that is. 

Harvesting

Tom harvested some of his crops Thursday, which meant I had to process his harvest.

There was a small basket full of poblano peppers, a second picking,  a basket full of Roma tomatoes, and a nice crop of slicing tomatoes. He grows two plants of peppers in the vented greenhouse. The tomatoes are planted on the west wall of the house, where they get lots of heat. 

The Roma tomatoes are for sauce. I halve them and roast them with oregano from the garden. The peppers are roasted and diced to freeze, to be added to things like shrimp and grits later in the year. 

First pan of Romas ready for the oven.

Dicing the roasted poblano peppers. 

As the tomatoes cool the skins pucker and can be easily lifted off of the flesh of the tomatoes. 

The tomato pulp goes into a cooking pot, where I reduce it down and use an immersion blender to puree it. All of those tomatoes don't make a lot of sauce, but the sauce has a garden fresh flavor on pasta in the winter time. There will be more pickings and more sauce. 

Then there are these lovely vine ripened beauties to eat fresh. Today I had a tomato sandwich for lunch, Many days there will be cottage cheese with tomatoes. Every so often we'll have caprese salad - sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, olive oil, and sea salt from the Oregon coast. Yum.

By the time I got the sauce ready for the freezer, I was tired. I read and dozed in my chair. Dinner was hamburgers, with cheese, lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes, of course. 

More Flowers, Inside and Out.

 It's another warm one here today, now 80 degrees as we approach 1:00, heading for 85 or more. That means it's lunch time and I have managed to fritter away the last hour. I'll get back to you. 

Well, I'm back, it's 2:15 and I'm completely distracted from flowers. Lunch time is when I read the Seattle Times newspaper, concentrating on national news from sources like the New York Times, the United  Press, and the Washington Post. Today was one of those days when I was shaking my head constantly. Trump is:

-attacking vote by mail to discredit elections,

-leveling tariffs that hurt board game sales

-gutting FEMA disaster response (hurricane season)

-fighting efforts to close Aligator Alcatraz

-threatened South Korea, so the SK president visited the white House and flattered Trump

-ordered the end of cashless bail(hurts poor people)

-moves to ban and punnish flag burning (is this really a big problem?)

-fires Fed board member

-directs Military to expand policing of US cities

And that was just on Tuesday! Is it any wonder I concentrate on flowers?

So this morning we had our weekly Zoom meet up, then I finished my PT, and ran a load of sheets in the laundry, (Tom made the bed, yay) watered house plants, and did a 30 minute workout on my stationary bike in the garage, which I had vented to cool it down. Then it was 11:00 and I went outside to read on the patio in the shade and cool down, but got distracted and picked up my phone and walked around the yard, mostly in the shade, taking pictures. 

So now I am back to the flowers.

In the house, picked yesterday:

My all pink zinnias

And outside:

Spoon and fork flower :-)

We still have a few roses

I don't remember what I did Sunday. It was hot. But in the late afternoon Jill and Tom went to the Sounders game and I stayed home.

And I was quite comfortable watching in my chair.

And that's all, folks. Bet you're glad. 

Another Saturday in August

More flowers were picked.

That's Charlie the Borrowed Cat's dish for when he comes to visit, but with his fur coat, it is apparently too hot for much visiting. 

I just spent about 45 minutes on the patio, under the shade umbrella, but then by 3:00 it was getting too hot for me, 89 degrees.

This morning we went to our friend Jan's Yard Sale, and relieved her of a couple of things she's trying to unload. Then we went again to the Farmer's Market at the Des Moines (Washington) Marina. 

The sky was blue, the breeze off the Sound was keeping it cool, and we bought a couple of ears of corn, some small cucumbers, and more baked goods.

Then we settled in at the Quarterdack for coffee and one of our baked goods treats. 

Parking was full, which caused us to park farther down the marina. That gave us reason to stroll along the dock and enjoy the sun and the sea and the scene. 

Since getting home we have done a few little chores, Tom checked pots for water, and I checked in on the Seahawks preseason game while having lunch. With no starting team players playing, it was dull and I turned it off. I'll try some baseball this evening.

Now I'm going to settle into my chair and get back to my book. 

As someone commented on a recent post, taking it easy is what August days are for. 

 

Garden Field Trip

 Our garden club is affiliated with the Northwest Perennial Alliance and was formed about 20 years ago. Members have come and gone, with a few of us from the original club still hanging on.

Some of us live in the city, some in developments, some in more rural areas. A few of us are intensive gardeners, some of us keep a small home garden, some of us just putter a bit outside. Some of us just want to go on garden field trips and out to lunch. 

We've gone just about everywhere and seen every public and some private gardens in the area. This month's organizer decided on staying in the city. We visited the Center for Urban Horticulture, affiliated with the University of Washington, then went to University Village, an upscale shopping center near the university, for lunch and touring of the plantings in the people friendly center. 

Late summer brings blousy borders and seed heads glowing in the sun against deep blue skies. 

Yes, I sat here. Be assured that I take advantage of places to sit and rest while others stand to chat away. 

Seed heads of oat grass glowing in the sun. 

In the Fragrance Garden there were scented late blooming Daphne, Gardenias. and lilies. 

The Courtyard

Blooming border out back. 

And then it was lunch time in a nice Italian retaurant in University Village.

Afterward, Gretchen, our organizer, had suppiled us with maps of the plantings. I was tired but I decided I could enjoy the surroundings while finding the Starbucks and treating ourselves to the ultimate summer beverage, a Mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream and caramel drip! It's not something we have often, but, hey, we were looking at plants. See?

A favorite garden store we hadn't visited for a long time. 

It was a delightful long morning into the afternoon, we saw beautiful things, visited with friends, had good food, got lots of walking, and came home to our garden in the sun and no reason to do any work at all.