closer to home

Oh Summer. Between the heat and the thunderstorms you make it so hard to get outside to put my purchases from Plant Delights (approx. travel: 190 miles) in the ground.

What is it that so desperately needs to stretch its toes out into a greater expanse of dirt? A fernleaf, noninvasive bamboo, Mexican Petunias, and a Voodoo Lily of delicate visual appeal, and hopefully, if it blooms, a difficult stench.

The thunderstorms come every other day, and while the mister has been working through the heat to roof in the carport, I've been resting through the heat. When the rain starts, he is ready for a break, but I head to the kitchen to watch the storm through the dusty old windows and cook up my own storm.

Already added to the rotation of meals is the Grits Soufflés with Tomato Coulis recipe from Vegetarian Times. Having never tried a soufflé before, I resisted the urge to make it vegan. Plus we had a gorgeous dozen pale blue and taupe colored fresh eggs given to us from some friends. Nearly to beautiful to use, but knowing full well the flavor of fresh eggs far exceeds the flavor of the grocery store variety (yes, even the free range ones we normally buy), in they went. And out from the oven came a delicious grits soufflé. Of course, rather than using canned tomatoes for the coulis I used garden fresh ones with a bit of fresh basil and oregano from the front garden.

And for dessert? In an effort to use our resources better, I pulled out a zucchini that was way too big to eat on its own but too beautiful to sacrifice to the compost. . .when squash get of a certain size they loose the sweetness to an unsavory bitterness that works just fine with unsweetened dark chocolate. Chocolate Zucchini bread from Scotto's Sunday Suppers. My own rendition of their recipe, sans eggs and white sugar, baked into nearly softball sized muffins.

Why am I waxing poetic about food lately? The garden is partly to blame, my taste buds have reawakened to the flavor of truly fresh foods. The rest of the blame can be attributed to Barbara Kingsolver and my newest nightly read.