Hello again, world!

Dear Blogosphere,

I MISS YOU!

I have been so blessed to be away and busy with lovely summer things, that I have not had time to write.  Sometimes, not even time to get near my computer.  It's nice-- traveling, riding bikes, chalk, gardening, parks, pools, grilling,.... children going to bed at least an hour after they should every night.  :-) But it's sad, too, because I miss writing!

Okay, I will try to bring you up to date on everything that's been going on.

Here are some pictures, as they are worth so much more!

Cute boys in the garden!

20 lbs. of blueberries!  I acquired for $35!

The first ripe tomato.  Good thing I got this picture, because later that day, Chris let Ben eat it!

Cutest baby E.V.E.R.  Enjoying summer.

Flowers I planted by the front door.  To make it look pretty.  :-)

Blueberry pie.  Note the two plates, and the pie that's still out, so Chris and I could have another piece after we cleaned up for the night.  It was delicious.  And the kids got to have the rest of it for breakfast.  

 

Garden Update:

• We have had to stake up our tomatoes multiple times so far this year, as they keep falling over.  They are like a jungle.  :-) Not complaining.   
• We cut a bunch of lettuce this evening that was getting pretty big.  I guess we'll have a salad tomorrow! 
• I think we will be picking our first zucchini in the next day or two.  Our zucchini plants have gotten HUGE, and we haven't seen any squash bugs yet.  We are still braced for their return, as they wreaked havoc on our squash last year and we didn't know what they were until it was too late.  But this year we are prepared.  
• The pumpkins are still not doing great, but I am planning to plant two more in the next few days, so hopefully we'll get some good ones.  
• I think we are going to be digging our garlic soon, and I have been thinking what to put in place of it.  I'm leaning towards bush beans and beets.  The first batch of beets did not do well this year.  I picked one which we ate, but the rest have been slow growing. 

Update on other food fronts:

• Tonight we had millet pizza crust pizzas, with a twist.  The dough was NOT working for me, so I got out cookie cutters and made mini pizzas.  Then I baked them on a well oiled cookie sheet for about a half hour, added the toppings (sauce, zucchini slice, cheddar cheese), back in for about 10 minutes.  They were so good.  The crust was so much better than a big sheet, as it got crispy and delicious.  
• I also recently made an Indian dinner.  When I make Indian, I like to go all-out.  I made buttery spinach and potatoes (always delicious), and I tried two new dishes.  The first was not really Indian, but had cumin and complemented the flavors-- Cumin Socca.  It was good (a little salty), and the first time I really got it to set nicely.  Then I made deep fried cauliflower tossed in an Indian barbeque-type sauce.  They were really good.  mmmm. 
• With the twenty pounds of blueberries, I made some delicious blueberry jam today.  It made nine cups!  I am super excited to have jam that is low-sugar and I can keep it all year long.  I am looking forward to making other types of jam throughout the summer. 

Well, I feel that I have rambled enough.  Hopefully I will write again soon, but this whole summer thing has thrown off all schedules and normalcy in the Good household.